Brenna

Brenna is 2 1/2! And, I kinda stop updating with each age increment as the kids get older and stick to yearly updates. But when they are still little (like Brenna), they still change so much! I just realized that she recently "turned" 2 1/2. Actually, it was when Chuckee Cheese emailed me bonus tokens for her half birthday. Otherwise, it probably would've gone unnoticed. :P

Anyway, I've been recently thinking of doing a quick update on her personality, as she has such a BIG personality.

Ok, so.... let's see. At 2.5, Brenna is completely potty trained, day and night...and has been for several months now. Its so nice not having to buy diapers anymore! :) We are now working with her to be able to dress and undress herself so she can completely go potty on her own. She has stopped sucking her thumb, as well. I guess maybe I haven't mentioned this here yet. Hmm. Well, she was a hard core thumb sucker. We tried everything...tape around her fingers, band-aids, the yucky tasting stuff from the store. And it wasn't till a friend of mine let us borrow some stuff she ordered online to try, that she really kicked the habit. It is the most disgusting stuff on the planet (or so I've read...I wasn't tasting it!). So bad that some kids actually throw up from it! :O I was a little worried we'd have that kid and felt a little guilty doing it.... but after the first tiny tiny bit on just her nail that she got a taste of, she has not put her thumb in her mouth again since. We have still painted her nail with it every morning (again, just a TINY bit), just in case (and b/c Brad says it takes 28 days to form or get rid of a habit), but she doesn't even try to suck it anymore. Not even at bedtime! This stuff is ingenious! So hopefully we are done with the thumb forever! Whew!

Anyway, back to updating... Brenna is so full of life and personality it is so hard to write it all down! She makes everyone laugh all the time. We have been saying it from the beginning and its so true. She is a funny girl! Even her teacher at school tells me a story each day of something hilarious she did or said. She cracks us up constantly. Whether its calling Daddy "Little Britches" (as in, 'hey there, little britches!') or making her own little jokes, or laughing at our jokes (that she shouldn't be able to 'get' yet). Just the other day, she was calling Cami at bible study. Sammy thought she said, sammy. So she asked her, 'what'. Brenna looked at her and said,...."are YOU Cami?" She is a hoot!

Brenna also is very stubborn and likes to test the limits. Brooke always only had to be told 'no' once. With Brenna, we have to make her mind a lot of times. Her currency, as I like to call it, is being able to do something herself. That's what is important to her. So if she refuses to do something, we just take away her ability to do it herself. Spankings would never work with her. Timeouts do work for certain things, but most of the time, its taking away priveleges or physically making (or helping) her do what we ask of her.

Brenna is very vocal. She speaks on a level of probably a 3 or 4 year old. Definitely speaks more clearly than Brooke did I think at this age. Brooke talked a lot and early, but Brenna is a conversationalist! If not for her size, people would easily mistake her for an older kid. A lot of times, even her teacher at school, forgets and needs reminding...she's still only 2!

Along the same lines, though, she is very loud. Not in a bad way. She just talks loud, she likes to yell..not scream..yell. I think being a sibling, she thinks she has to to get her chance to talk. Here she is yelling at monsters...

Which brings me to another point. Just recently, she has started getting a little scared of monsters and witches and giants... I think the world of imagination is starting to creep up onto her. Brooke went through a phase like this, so we are hoping its just a phase of Brenna's too. Most recently, she is scared of the giant that camps out on her bed (better visible to humans as the bedpost), the witch that is on our front porch, and the tree that Rex dressed up as for Halloween.

But Brenna is also very brave and adventurous! She does soooo well in Kindermusik. She does every single dance and song, singing along and going up to the front of the class for "Ba's" and to play an instrument or whatever else. She loves to swing (on the big kid swings of course), go down slides and do the monkey bars and ride crazy rides, etc etc etc....

Because of her adventurous side, she is a little bit accident prone too. Luckily, though, she seems to have a high tolerance for pain. We first recognized that when, at 18 mos, she broke her arm and didn't even cry longer than 5 minutes. She will fall, scrape her hands up or knees and get right back up, only pausing to make sure she's not in trouble. Just the other day, while letting her sit in the booth of a restaraunt (instead of a high chair), she was playing around and fell a little bit, nearly hitting her chin on the table. She popped up, and got very stone-faced, looking at me, waiting. I paused to make sure she was ok and she looked me right in the eye and said, "See?!?" (I always do that, after they fall...say "see? you almost hit your chin..you need to be careful) She's a funny one I tell you.

She loves animals of all kind and will go up to and pet any dog or cat that's around. She is a little bit shy, but will also go up to strangers and just talk to them. Just the other day, she walked up to everyone in the Kindermusik waiting area (while we were waiting on Brooke to get out) and looked very sad-faced. She looked them right in the eye and said,...."I'm sick. I need to go to the doctor. You know, to get a drink of water." (what's funny is she is still deathly afraid of doctors and doctors offices!)

Her favorite pasttimes include dancing around the house (still loving the tap shoes!), anything Mickey Mouse or Toy Story, playing outside (and getting dirty!), dressing up, and playing with her letters and blocks. She can also be completely occupied with stickers for a long time. While she may come across as a bit of a tomboy, she is still all girl, loving pink and sparkly things, babies, and wearing dresses. She also loves to color, but gets bored easily with that. She will watch a little bit of TV, but typically won't sit still for an entire movie (with the exception of Toy Story!). The girl LOVES all things Toy Story!

She has also taken to singing. Any and everything. So I've taught her a few real songs she enjoys...like, "Jesus Loves Me", "Twinkle, Twinkle", "The B-I-B-L-E song" "Jesus Loves the Little Children", and all her Kindermusik songs...but she also makes up random songs and belts them our randomly in the car or around the house. Ms Lydia even said she put on a show for them at school one day on the playground, getting up on the deck and singing (very loudly of course!) some made up song.

Of course, when we ASK her to do it (so I can video her), she doesn't do it near as well, but hears a excerpt anyway :P....

She is super smart. Of course I'm gonna say that about my kid right? But no, really...she is! She has known all her letters and their sounds for the last few months now and has even read a few 3 letter words, with prompting of course. She can easily count to 20, maybe farther, but she doesn't try. She recognizes her shapes and all the colors. And I even feel dumb for saying that, because she knew shapes and colors back when she was 15 months old! There are lots more things we notice with her...little things that she picks up on or says or does. We are constantly saying, "she's sharp."

She is a great eater...we never have to worry about her not eating enough or trying new things. She will try new things, she doesn't always like it, but she will try it. Her favorite foods are macaroni and cheese, cheeseburgers, corn dogs, and cantaloupe (not necessarily together ;).

She is finally slowing down on her eating though, and she is starting to lose that 'baby' look. You know, the baby chunk she's had since she was born? She is slendering up (is that a word?) and while the cheeks are still there, they do not swallow her whole face anymore. Definitely turning into more of a little girl these days.

Our sweet Brenna loves to give hugs and kisses. Every day when we leave school, she has to run back because she "forgot to give Ms Lydia a hug and a kiss". Every. Single. Day. Every night before bed, she wants cuddles and hugs and kisses. She constantly asks for hugs..."I wanna give you a hug Mommy". And then we wait for it, because next comes..."I wanna give you a kiss too Mommy." She is such a sweet sweet girl.

Here's a video of her going to bed, she starts off reading "Baby Bear Baby Bear"...which has a blue heron, a mountain goat and more. :) Then she goes on to play pretend with Buzz, wanting him to give Woody a hug and a kiss. :)

Her and Brooke definitely have their moments. They fight. They don't like to share. They always want the same thing that the other has. But they love each other soo much. While we are yelling at them to quiet down at bedtime, it's also so refreshing to hear them giggling with each other late at night and early in the morning. Brenna does everything Brooke does. I mean, everything. It's almost comical, even to Brooke. She copies her word for word and does the exact same thing she does. A sign of true love I suppose. :)

Our sweet Brenna is growing up. We love her so much and enjoy her so much. She makes us smile, makes us laugh, but keeps us on our toes. She is such a joy to our whole family!