Brantley: 2 years, 3 months

Brantley,

We had quite an exciting month! As we prepare for the arrival of your baby brother, Barrett, I’m trying to enjoy our little moments as a family of three – hold you a little longer, hug you as often as I can, read you an extra book before bed. You are growing up so fast and I’m trying to keep my little boy a little boy as long as I can.

Last month we brought out a drill toy for you and you’re still obsessed. One day while you were outside playing with your 4-wheeler you asked Daddy for your drill and started working on your car, so you said.

You’re a big help when Mommy has to go to the post office to drop off packages for the Etsy shop.

You started preschool two days a week and every day you come home exhausted. Even after a 3-hour nap you wake up cranky and fussy and we’re all miserable. They keep telling me you’ll get used to it so I’m hoping for a quick recovery REAL SOON. PLEASE.

Between Nana and Uncle Cam, you should be a piano-playing boy genius in no time.

We’ve been reading your Bible almost every night lately. We met Will, Christie, and Baby Zoey at the beach for an afternoon in the sand and when you saw Zoey you got so excited, pointed at her, and said “BABY JESUS!”

You met two new friends this month, Baby Skylar and Baby Ellie. This was our first test with you and newborns – and we’re thankful to our wonderful friends who allowed their days-old babies to be our guinea pigs for this energetic toddler. Fortunately for them, he was super sweet and gentle. 🙂

You LOVE fruit and when we were at Nana and Papa’s house for a big family breakfast, you asked for more fruit, more fruit, more fruit. Apparently your normal sized services weren’t cutting it because eventually you emphatically said, “I want the WHOLE BOWL!” You proceeded to eat the rest of the fruit out of the serving bowl with the serving spoon. Whatever, kid.

This photo cracks me up. Shadow was laying on his back getting a belly rub from Daddy and you layed down next to him and said “I be like Shadow!”

Other memories from this month:

• One day as I was picking you up from Nana and Papa’s house after work it was raining hard and being that I’m 9 months pregnant, I couldn’t carry you to the car so I held your hand and tried to hurry you across the driveway as fast as I could. We were already getting soaked and while most people would expect that this would invoke an increased motivation to reach the car and get in, you saw it more effective to stand there in the driveway and just start crying about it. I tried to pull you toward the car and hurry you along but then you got so mad at me and sat down right in the mud. Ugh.
• You talk ALL THE TIME and it’s so exciting to see your language booming!
• You’re pretty excited about your new bedroom. Daddy has been working on refinishing your new bed and painting the walls and trim in your new room. It doesn’t look like a whole lot yet but we’re getting there and hopefully it’ll be finished by the time we need to kick you out of the nursery for Barrett.
• You’re newest skill is learning how to count and every time we offer you something, you ask for “two mores.”
• At preschool, they say the Pledge of Allegiance every day and while you haven’t learned the whole thing yet, you will say the last word of each phrase and it’s really cute.
• Some days Nana takes you to the office if Papa has to do some work or run errands. One day while you were there you found a baby doll in the office playroom and wanted to feed it your snack. Insert my heart melting here.
• Our recent bedtime routine has been reading The Giving Tree. Your poor Mama is a total emotional mess though so I can only read it up until the point before the boy leaves. I prefer to keep my focus on eating apples, playing hide-and-seek, climbing up the tree’s trunk, and taking naps under it’s shade. I just can’t take the thought of the boy leaving.

Love you, buddy.

Love, Your Mama