Two's aren't always Terrible

Here are a few things I have discovered from Brady over the past week or so...

• He wants a baby brother named Spider as soon as possible.
• He is not a fan of learning the ABC's. He can sing the song, but when I get out the puzzle pieces to play with or quiz him on, he pretends to be asleep. Snores and every thing!
• He wants to be Buzz Lightyear for Halloween and has requested I be Jessie and Caleb be Woody from Toy Story.
• He responds very well to punishments involving removing his movies. He has gone straight back to no accidents. Confused? See Here.
• Boy LOVES to dance. ALL. THE. TIME. (already knew this one, but has been more confirmed.)
• He is just the sweetest little big boy and I love him more and more every day!

He keeps us entertained and we are loving this stage of life. The two's have challenges, but overall I wouldn't label them terrible. Not even a little. Caleb told me the other day, he just wanted to freeze Brady right now, just like this. So sweet! We don't know what we would do with out him.

Rainy Day!

 

It was a yucky, rainy day today here. We really needed the rain so can't complain too much. We just enjoyed all being home today.

Brady kept wanting to run out in the rain, so I thought we should just let him. He grabbed his rain boots and ran around the deck in his pajamas for a little while this morning.  The pictures are a little blurry because I did not want to play in the rain.

There were several "Yaaahoooo's" and "Wooo Woooo's" while he played.

When he had enough, he came in, and I gave him a bath. 

It was so simple and he LOVED it!

 Sometimes I have to allow myself to let him be little, relax , and just let him have fun.

Happy Labor Day!

What is in your pocket?

This morning we went to the park.

Brady LOVES the park.

 He ran and played for a while, about an 1.5-2 hours.

We came home when his hair was more wet than dry, we ran out of water, and I was literally dripping sweat down my leg.

I know, Gross, but true.

I attempted a picture at the park, but Brady wanted to take a picture of me.

I let him.

This is it.

 Impressed?

Yeah didn't think so. Maybe this will impress.

We came home, had lunch, and Brady took a nap.

As soon as he woke up, he started talking about food for his animals.

He named off all his stuffed animals and said he had their food in his pocket.

Being the great mom that I am, I played along nodding and discussing how great of a care taker he is.

Until...

I realized there was actually something in his pocket.

Had I actually been a great mom, I am certain I would have noticed his pocket buldging before this point.

I felt around on the outside, because, honestly, I was a little scared of what was in there. I mean, I had no idea how long it had been in there.

Finally, I braved it and reached in the pocket.

It was hard, dirty, and rough. At first I thought it was some sort of food he stashed in his pocket.

Then I pulled it out.

Here is what I saw.

Wood chips from the park.

He and this other boy were pretending to feed the "horses" and I guess he thought his stuffed animals at home would like to be in on that action. He stuffed some in his pocket and must have forgotten until he woke from his nap.

I told ya, boy loves the park.

Can't bring your friends to the park, bring the park to your friends.

A little update

We haven't really done anything exciting this week. I am still trying to figure out this whole stay at home mom thing. I feel like I have so much time on my hands. There is always something I should  be doing like cleaning or cooking, stuff like that, but I don't want to do that ALL day. It is just going to take me a while to figure out some kind of schedule and balance. I am working on it.

I think that will all start to get better in September. I am planning on joining a Ladies Bible Study one day a week and the Story Time toddler program starts at our local Library at the end of September. I think it will help me to have some scheduled, weekly activities.

Like I said, we have had a pretty low-key week. Here are some pictures I snapped this week. I sure do love having so much time with my sweet boy.

"I rocking out!" -Brady





He loves water and fountains.

 

Being a little model! I think he is pretty cute. He corrects me and says, "I handsome".

Hands on his hips was all him. No coaching needed!

Like I said, not a lot going on this week. Maybe next week will be more exciting!

Life is better with Sprinkles...

(I didn't have my camera, so I had to use my phone. Sorry for the poor quality, but hopefully you get the idea.)

Caleb was off yesterday and had to run an errand for work, so Brady and I tagged along. We passed Krispy Kreme on the way home. Although the  Hot Now sign wasn't on, we decided to take Brady in and have a late doughnut breakfast anyway.

We let him pick his doughnut and of course he chose chocolate with sprinkles. He cheered, "Yay Yay!" when she put it in the box and again when we gave it to him to eat. Then he cheered again when he realized we were taking some home.

I don't think I can fully explain Brady's excited spirit, thoroughly. He gets so so so excited! It isn't always something you expect, either. It can be because we are reading his favorite book or because the waitress delivered his water. To him everything is so very exciting! It is infectious. It pulls you in and forces you to smile and come see what all the fuss is about.

Yesterday was no exception, Brady got the attention of every one there. After seeing his excitement, they made sure he had a balloon, hat, and doughnut. An elderly couple even came over to share in his excitement! I think the man called Brady, King Doughnut. Brady just smiled and nodded, so I guess he agreed.

I absolutely love that about him. The way he gets so incredibly excited, he literally can not sit still. The way he lights up the entire room with his smiles and cheers. Caleb and I can't help but smile and laugh with him. It is just something you have to experience to fully understand. Once you do, though, it has the power to change you.

It has changed me over and over again and I hope it continues to do so.

I am so thankful I get to see life through his sweet little eyes, a life overflowing with sprinkles.

Fuzzy Fuzzy!!!

Brady seems to really be enjoying our new arrangement. He is so funny. I could laugh with him forever!

Over the past couple days, he has started calling me fuzzy fuzzy. I have no idea why, but he will walk up to me with a tractor and say, "I got your tractor, fuzzy fuzzy!" or "follow me, fuzzy fuzzy!"  It is so funny. I asked him why he was calling me that and he said, "just because!"

Yesterday was my birthday, so Brady looked for my cake all day. He kept saying, "I need to blow out the candles and make a wish." He didn't understand why I didn't make myself a cake. It was my birthday after all. He was so so so excited when Caleb brought this home.

 

I thought I would do a little 10 question interview with him and post the answers. I have seen this done before on a few other blogs and it is always so cute. It is also something I can do at random times and look back and see how his answers change.  I just made up my questions and typed the answers exactly as he gave them.

So here it goes...

1. What is your name?                      Brady James Barrett

2. How old are you?                           2

3. Where do you live?                      In my house

4. What is your favorite color?         Blue

5. What is your favorite animal?        Zebras

6. What makes you happy?               Zebras and Giraffes

7. What makes you sad?                   Lions

8. What is your favorite toy?             Trains

9. What is your favorite food?           Pizza

10. What is your favorite song?         Uh oh, Uh oh       (Stuck Like Glue, Sugarland)

I  told him today he looked so cute. He looked right at me and said, "yep and handsome too."

Oh my! What a mess! We may need to work on being humble.

Imagination!

Monday I let Brady play with play-dough while I cleaned the house.

I rarely let him because it is messy and I, frankly, don't want to clean up the mess it makes.

But on days when we are at home all day, I try to let him do some things he doesn't regularly get to do, mess or no mess.

I took a minute to break and watch him play. It soothes the soul to watch that him. He has a great imagination and plays so well by himself.

Let me tell you what I saw and I am sure you will agree...

 He made a "turtle" out of the play-dough.

Then sat it on the floor.

He stood over it for a minute, then yelled, "RUN, RUN, RUN!!!".

He stood back and said, "Oooh, Pwetty, workfires!" 

He saw me watching and said, "stay back, it hot."(he even held his hand up to hold me back)

 Then slowly walked back to the "turtle" and picked it up with two fingers very carefully.

Then, dropped it on purpose, said "ouch", picked it up again and said, "Mommy, it's hot!"

I love that little boy more than he will ever know. I laughed all day and couldn't wait to share it with Caleb!!!

Busy DIY Saturday

We spent Saturday doing a lot of work/projects around our house.

Caleb and I both had(and still have) a pretty big list of things we needed to get done around our house.

It was really warm out so we got Brady's wading pool out for him to play in while we worked close by.

HE LOVED IT!!!

 

I promise he had on swim trunks and a swim shirt. At this point he had come inside and I had stripped him of the wet clothing. Then he decided to get back into the pool with his play clothes on and quickly stripped himself of them.

 Please, ignore my knee in the above picture. 

He wouldn't get his head or face in the water. It was quite funny!

Brady also enjoyed a looong nap, which helped us out greatly!

Caleb was able to accomplish washing a little less than half the siding on our house, cleaning out all the gutters, mowing the yard, pulled some massive weeds I couldn't get up, and helped me with a couple of my tasks.

(This is a picture of the weed I had Caleb get up. Look closely, It is HUGE!)

I made 2 strawberry pies, a pasta salad, cleaned some of the house, planted some flowers and a knock-out rose bush, sanded and painted a rocking chair for the front porch, and gave the dog a bath.

Before:

After:

It was nice to get to work on some of our projects and get some things accomplished, but we were so worn out at the end of the day!

I decided I need longer weekends! ;)

Sweet Prayers

One of my favorite moments of the day is when we put Brady to bed.

Caleb and I both put Brady to bed every night together.

It has become one of my favorite family times and I hope it will be one Brady favorite family memories.

I love it!

And I love that my sweet husband loves it, too!

One of us reads a book, then Brady and Caleb each say a prayer, then we do a few silly good nights and tuck him in for the night.

I am always anxious to hear Brady's prayers.

He often thanks God for family members and friends by name, whatever he has eaten that day, and the toys in his room.

He has even broken out in an excited version of the ABC's right smack dab in mid prayer.

And of course he always ends with Amen!

The past few nights his prayers have been the same.

I quote...

"Dear God,

Thank you for my dreams.

Thank you Jesus Christ.

(a few words not yet acknowledged by the English Language)

In Jesus Name,

Amen!"

Yep,  Brady's sweet prayers are definitely the highlight of my day!

Yucky Monday

It is a stormy, yucky day here. I got a call a little before lunch that Brady had a fever and didn't feel well, so I left at lunch to take him home.

He has looked like this the entire afternoon and he has had NO appetite.

This is definitely not the norm for this little guy. He is usually a really good eater!!! He wouldn't even eat Graham crackers with Nutella, one of his favorite snacks! He isn't wanting to drink much either, which is also unusual. I normally have to cut him off drinks.

He is coughing really bad and has a runny nose, but I am not sure what(if anything) else is going on. I am pretty sure this is the same cold that has been going around all of our friends lately.  Hopefully, it will run its course soon and Brady will be back to normal.