Brodyism

I took Brody to school this morning. On our way to the car, both of us bundled with coats and hoods, he spots the neighbors' pumpkin across the street.

He smiles, waves and shouts "HI PUNKIN!!!!"

Things to remember

Brody requests certain songs in that when going to bed, after the stories and the milk, when the two of us are just rocking. He will say "row row row row" if he wants "Row row row your boat," and he says "baby" if he wants "Rock a bye baby." He really really loves Rock a bye baby.

He is completely attached to his blankies. When I cover him and I in it when he sits on my lap, he gets all giggly and smiley and moves his legs like he's running because he's so excited. And he protests if, when I lay him in his crib, I don't properly cover him with them. And he says it just like I did "bakie, bakie." I never knew he cared how I covered him until he started protesting one night when I did it incorrectly.

Sometimes when Brody looks at me, he'll say "No mama!" pointing at me with his pinkie finger. I can tell he's about to laugh because he purses his mouth and holds his position, pretending to scold me, until I laugh, and then he does too. He likes to pretend-scold me, as I really scold him.

Hide. Brody loves to play hide, either on our bed or anywhere his blankie is. It never fails to make me laugh. Seeing Brody, siting up, with a blanket over his head, usually because he asked me to put it over his head, and him thinking that he's actually hiding. Jeremy or I have to say "Where's Brody? Where are you Brody?" Then Brody giggles and moves because he's so excited, and then we have to whip the blanket off his head, or he whips it off his own head, and we are so very surprised to see him!!!! Then he wants to do it over and over. One day I'm going to just let him do it until he gets sick of it. So far, I think we've done it around 12 times in a row.

He has started to say mommy and daddy, instead of mama or dada. Except when he says "daddy," he does so with an English accent. It sounds like "dahhddy" and he'll say it long and searchingly, "dahhh------deeeeeeeeee."

Brody has the high score on tetris on the iphone. He beat Jeremy and I. Seriously.

I decided that if you can't laugh watching Brody (trying to) eat a piece of spaghetti or ramen noodle, you are really in a bad mood. Because even with the flu, and vomiting, etc, he still made me laugh trying to shove that noodle into his mouth.

I looked at him coloring the other day in daycare. He was with the 2-4 year old kids, since he is now TWO. Even without thumbs, he colors just the same (ok, better than) the other kids who are older, and have thumbs. Just sayin.

In the Two's room, however, things are rough. He got hit in the face Friday and Monday, fighting over a toy. Apparently a little boy wanted Brody's toy, Brody didn't want to share (shocking) and so he screamed at the other kid. So the other kid whacked him. They don't tell us who the other kids are that our kid gets into fights with, and it's a good thing too, because Jeremy and I are not pleased.

Yesterday, Brody was running at daycare, and fell. And one of his teeth was loose. So me on my death bed with the flu, I go pick him up. Mouth bloody, tooth loose - what does Brody want? A cracker. Saltine cracker. Eats it as I drive him to the dentist.

At the dentist? Running around like a crazy man while I fill out his insurance. I don't even know if we have dental insurance on him.

We see the dentist. Either the tooth will be fine, it will fall out, or it will die and have to come out. Not much to do for loose baby teeth. Brody brushed his teeth in front of the dentist just for show.

The dentist noticed his overbite and said "Is he sucking his thumb a lot?" And as he's saying his, he picked up Brody's hand, and as I'm opening my mouth to say "He doesn't have thumbs" the dentist notices this (he hadn't before) and sort of startles. I quickly fill in the details. The dentist and the nurses - who hadn't noticed - are now amazed watching Brody brush his teeth, now knowing not only does this kid have a loose tooth, but an absence of thumbs.

It's weird how pride and love and awe for your child just wants to burst out at the strangest moments.

A pony ate my sapphire

We're back from vacation in lovely Sunriver, Oregon.

A pony really did eat the center stone of my ring, which was Brody's birthstone, a sapphire.

New words that Brody has learned on this vacation:

~Hey (eg, "Dada! Dada!" (no response) "HEY Dada!!!")

~Come (eg, "Come here!")

~School (eg, This morning, when I was dressing Brody to go to school (daycare) "No school, mama, no school! Stay!") (reentry into routine after non-stop fun-filled vacation is hard)

~Guy (eg, playing with "guys" who are either army men, ninja turtles, or action figures of any kind)

~Mamadada (eg, when the 3 of us are together, and Brody can't decide quickly enough who to call, talk to, etc, we are the unified "mamadadamamadada")

Pics to follow. . .

Brodyisms

Brody's favorite part of the Olympic opening ceremonies were the drummers - in the beginning. Coincidentally, he is just becoming aware of drums, and when he sees them in books, he says "Boom boom boom."

When we watched the drummers on the opening ceremonies, which gave both Jeremy and me goosebumps with the extraordinary precision and depth and breadth of 2008 people saturated with coordination and exactness, Brody loved it too. He started mimicking the drummers with his arms, and saying "boom boom" when the drums did, and said "Whoaaaaa. . . . . " when the light show accentuated the drums.

When NBC broke for commercial, Brody looked at me, and said "More? More?"

Brodyisms

Sometimes when Brody is playing outside, sometimes even when he is in the car, he will lift his arm up, look up at the heavens, and proudly say "sky."

And then I look, and sure enough, we're both looking at the sky for a few moments. I say "You're right, sweetie, that's the sky."

He smiles proudly at me. I give him a kiss.

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Tonight I had to explain to Brody the difference between a button and butt. It's more difficult than you would think.

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I realized tonight, reading Goodnight Moon and Dinosaur Roar! that I still read the words on the page. Not just say them, but actually read them. It strikes me as ridiculous. I mean, there really is no room for interpreting the story with these books. Goodnight nobody, goodnight mush. The pictures are the only thing on the page - at one point a picture of . . . nothing. The page is blank (Goodnight nobody). So I stopped reading and just looked at the pictures with Brody while I told him the story. It was much more enjoyable.

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Nearing his second birthday, Brody is sometimes. . . well. . . willful. And sometimes when he doesn't get his way, he has tantrums. Shocking. And tonight, while he was on my lap during one of those tantrums, my person got in the way of his flailing hand, and he hit me.

Brody looked so shocked and horrified that I didn't have the heart to give him a time out. I did stifle laughter.

I said quite sternly, "You hit mommy, Brody. That's not nice." (He yells "not nice!" to the dogs when they lick him or knock him over. 'Not nice' is like a swear word to him - it's the worst condemnation he can utter at this point).

He was silent and looked away.

"Are you sorry?"

Silence.

"Brody, look at mommy." He does. "You hurt mommy. Hitting is not nice."

I swear he nodded, but that may have been my imagination. We returned to watching the dogs play. Then we cuddled.

I feel more guilty than he does, obviously.

Brodyisms

Last night our neighbors had a party, to which all 3 of us were invited. As a result, Brody stayed up until 9pm, for the first time ever.

We left when he put his head down on my shoulder and said "Nigh, nigh" which means, of course, good night.

As we were walking back to our house in the dark, Brody had this befuddled look on his face. Then he pointed up and looked at me, and said "Sky off."

He hasn't been outside in the dark for months, and not since he has been talking a lot.

Jeremy said, "Yeah, buddy, the sky is off. Time to go night night."

Brody looked at me, and asked, while pointing still to the sky, "On? On?"

I am a very powerful person, but even I couldn't turn the sky on. I said, "No, sweetie, it's night night, so sky off. Sun is night night."

Then he looked up at the sky and said, "bye bye"