Brynnie

Brynn has been so fun to watch grow and change because she is just a little sponge. We have been working on letter and sound recognition and so far she has learned letters: A, B, C (sometimes), E, I, J, K, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, W, X and Y. Whenever she sees a letter she knows is in her name, she will say, "Mom, that letter is in my name!" She has been able to recognize her name written on paper for a long time (probably 2-3 months) and can point out her artwork in her classroom (when all of them look exactly the same) and tell me which one is hers b/c she sees her name on it.
She also knows some of her numbers including 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7.
Finally, she has been able to recognize some shapes (which she learned at school) including a circle, square, heart, diamond, and a triangle.

Her imagination has been running wild, which has been giving her occasional nightmares at night, such as certain animals coming to bite her in her bed, or her room is "scary" or a monster that she supposedly saw under her bed. She also is really into making faces and saying things that match her facial expression. For example, yesterday, she made this really sad face by turning out her bottom lip and said in a sad tone/voice: "Mommy I'm saaaad." And I asked her why and she said, "Because I want daddy to come home from work!" I started laughing and she was giggling too. (Dj was gone via plane over to Eastern WA for the day and then returned last night but she knew he was gone b/c he had left early in the morning.)

Our daycare director told me that the other day, she was showing other kids in her class how to make a diamond with their hands when they sang "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star." Also, she can hear a song once on the radio or if Dj is playing his iPod in the car and can remember the tune of the chorus after hearing it just that one time. It's pretty cool. Her current favorite song from dad's iPod Is "Love Love Kiss Kiss" by Akaline Trio. So funny to hear her sing along. She also likes singing along to the BEP's "Boom Boom" song, esp. the part where Fergie screams out, "People in the PLACE if you wanna get downnnn!" I would say her favorite kid's song right now is "Peanut Butter and Jelly."

Potty training is going well for the most part and she has little accidents here and there when she doesn't get to the potty fast enough. She's doing great pooping in there. I would say 50% of the time she tells us she has to go and 50% I ask her or remind her. This has been something that has changed as of late because she is afraid that Baylen will take her stuff if she gets up to leave it behind, which is common. She still wears a pull-up at night yet.

We're working on getting rid of the paci. She is on night #3 of NO Paci. It is rough! She asks for it all the time at night and cries sometimes. She also takes forever to fall asleep now. That part is the hardest. That stupid paci is like an addicting little drug for her. I know it is going to be fine once we get past this little "detox" stage, but jeez, I feel so bad for her. We have let it go on for too long and now it's time to give it up. She is old enough to get rid of it. It is hard for her to see Baylen with one, so I am trying to give it to him less and less too...like just when he sleeps. We told her if she makes it 3 whole nights without the paci, dad will put together her new baby crib. So far so good, but there are numerous times we've had to convince her that it is worth it to get rid of that paci. She was willing to give up her crib to Calleigh earlier this evening when she was starting to become tired, but I told her big girls don't have mimi's and that seemed to work for now.

She has been testing the waters a lot lately, esp. since we have been home from school. Sometimes she is so sweet, will listen so well and is this perfect little angel. Then other times, she goes crazy, doesn't listen to a thing we ask her to do and is just a little pickle!! 1, 2, 3 does not always work, so we have moved having her face the wall and putting her hands on the wall, standing in one spot until we come to get her, similar to a time out. We also have been telling her to put her nose in the corner, esp. when she has done something awful to Baylen like poke his eyes or push him, or hit him in the face. She HATES putting her nose in the corner. It's a good consequence.

DRAMA QUEEN: She can turn on the tears so quickly, esp. when Baylen takes a toy away from her or tries to take her food. Then it becomes instant waterworks. She tattles on him all the time and always says, "Mom, look at Baylen!!" or "Mom, Baylen took my toy from me." or "Mom, Baylen won't share!" It's pretty much constant. She's always telling him no or not to do something, or to do something to get him into trouble. This morning, I heard her tell him after she had flushed the toilet, "Go Baylen, put your hand in the potty and splash around!" So of course, Baylen stuck his hand right in the toilet and was getting all wet splashing in the water. So not cool. She obviously got in trouble for that.

Her current favorite books are The Kissing Hand, Little Pea and Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

She is still a great eater, but there are nights when she doesn't eat much and certain foods she will try and then say she doesn't like them, when she might have eaten it a month ago and it was fine.

She weighs around 26 pounds, wears size 2T and a couple of size 3T t-shirts.