Brantley: 2 years, 4 months

Brantley,

You’re a big brother!

Barrett Wiley was born on October 27th and you suddenly you seem like such a big kid to me now.  As I hold Barrett in my lap and you run around the living room trying to get Shadow to chase you, I finally understand what they mean when everyone says “It goes by so fast.” It seems like so recently that I was holding you the same way.

When your Nana brought you to the hospital, we left Barrett in the hospital crib for a while so we could spend some much needed time just with you. Eventually he made a noise and you peeked your little head up over the side of the crib and you were so interested in him after that. I picked him up and held him in the chair and you immediately ran over to Nana to get the teddy bear you had picked out for him.

We had lots of October events this month! Your preschool hosted a Harvest Party and even though Daddy was at work, Mommy got to join you on the hayride, help you pick out your first pumpkin, and even decorate cookies! You still don’t know what sugar is yet and we’re trying to keep it that way for a while so you had one bite and then I told you I would take them home. (AKA: Mommy would eat them in the car before she even got home… they were delicious.)

The Hunt Club was our next stop. It has a special place in our heart since this is where we took our pregnancy announcement photos 3 years ago! You loved exploring, looking through the pumpkin patch, and trying to feed geese a few stems of grass. Apparently geese don’t eat grass and you were quite annoyed at them for not accepting your offerings.

You also weren’t very happy about our photo session.

“NO PICTURES!”

Our last stop on the tour of Halloween-related events was Taylor Farms. We went with Will, Christie, and Zoey and although we didn’t make it to the hayride, you loved playing on the trains, petting the horses, and painting your pumpkin. Somehow we stole Will and Christie’s pumpkins, too so between your preschool party, Hunt Club, and now Taylor Farms, our living room looks like a pumpkin patch.

With the arrival of your brother, you also got to move into your new room! Our original plan was to make this transition at least a month before he came home however, that didn’t exactly happen so instead it was the DAY BEFORE he came home. But hey, we still made it in time I like to think. Thank goodness you didn’t mind moving out of your room because we would’ve been in big trouble having to deal with a newborn and a very unhappy evicted toddler.

The day we brought Barrett home, you were so sweet. Every time he made a noise you were so concerned that he was upset or hurting. You would run over to the pack and play and stay there until one of us told you he was ok. You’re also trying to share your toys with him which is so sweet. Unfortunately that means that poor Barrett ends up with trucks, teddy bears, and loveys on his face sometimes. Thankfully he’s a good sport.

We made it home from the hospital just in time for Halloween! Now I have to admit something to you and I’m just going to go ahead and apologize now. Last year when Trump was one of the many possible candidates for the Republican Party and you had an EPIC baby comb-over, we dressed you up as Trump with your very own campaign car, black pinstripe suit, and we wore homemade campaign shirts with “Make America Great Again” hats from Amazon. We were all over it and we even won a costume contest!

This year? Well… we put your outfit together about 8 minutes before our friends were arriving to go trick-or-treating. Sorry, bud. Your Waldo outfit actually turned out pretty cute, if I do say so myself.

You LOVED trick-or-treating with your friend Aiden. We only went up and back down two blocks of our street but you thought it was so fun! Every time we walked up to another door, you were so excited to knock on the door and yelled “TRICK OR TREAT!” as loud as you possibly could. And then it was back down the steps and onto the next house. When you got back home (since you don’t know what candy is either) I looked inside your bucket and asked you if you wanted to trade your candy for a Larabar. Of course, because we’ve raised you to think that a granola bar made of dried fruits and nuts is the greatest treat in the world, you were immediately thrilled and handed all of your candy over to your Mama. One day you’ll be mad at me but hey, it was yummy. (I’m starting to see a recurring theme here.)

Fun memories from this month:

• Every time you get out of the bath, you and Daddy sing a crazy song together which involves a lot of yelling and hollering and laughing. I love listening to you two together.
• You call Uncle Cam “Umpa Tam.”
• Whenever you’re holding a cup, you want to do “cheers” with whoever else has a drink, too.
• At night or during naps, we often hear you singing Wheels on the Bus through your monitor.
• At every meal we let you pick your plate but recently you’ve been insisting on eating your meals out of the frying pan from your toy kitchen.
• Our favorite word that you say is pajamas. You say it as “Duh MAH jus”
• Whenever we’re talking on the phone with someone, you insist on pushing the button to hang up on them. So now we have to explain to you that you have to wait until we’re done talking and we’ve said “I love you” or “goodbye.”
• Everything you do, you want to do “all by self.” With your new bed, you also have a small step stool that you use to get into it and every night you climb up the ladder and you can’t quite get into the bed fully independently yet so you say “all by self with a little bit of help.”
• One day when your friend Aiden was over, he taught you the song Ring Around the Rosie. Later that evening we made tacos for dinner which was a new food for you. The next day I heard you singing “Tacos, tacos, we all fall down!”
• The terrible twos have arrived. You are REALLY testing limits this month. We’ll tell you not to hit something and instead you say “I push it.” One day I told you not to move something that was sitting on the chair and instead of moving the actual item, you said, “I move the chair” and pushed the chair across the room. Such a stinker. We often laugh at you while you’re in timeout because we just can’t keep a straight face.
• Along with all this, we’re talking about a lesson you’re learning at school and we’re trying to reiterate at home as often as we can: listen and obey. I must repeat that phrase 10 times a day.
• Another lesson you learned at school was to “hide your hands.” You and your classmates put your hands in your lap whenever the teachers are putting materials on the table in front of you and when they’re getting lunch ready. And now you like to show us your cool new skill at home, too.
• You always want to make us laugh, make anyone laugh and you’ll stop at nothing to make it happen.
• One day you got up from the floor, picked up a pumpkin, and put it in time out. We’re not sure what the pumpkin did wrong but you said, “pumpkin, time out.” So daddy set the timer for 2 minutes.
• And you love your tools.

Love, Mama