Brantley: 2 years, 6 months

Brantley,

This was quite a month. Christmas and potty training. Whew. Potty training was quite an experience, but with a little help from a friend we had you fully potty trained in just 3 days! It probably would’ve been even faster but you were so anxious about the whole thing that we had to find our own way of helping you through the process.

Christmas was, as always, our favorite time of the year. We always do as many Christmasy things as we can and you got to actually enjoy most of them this year since you were old enough to understand a little of what was going on.

We saw the lights at the beach…

And you made your first gingerbread house…

It snowed a few times this month and every day you asked to go out for a ride on the golf cart to look for snowmen, which you call “Frosty.” We played outside and Daddy taught you about snowball fights, which you thought was absolutely hilarious. You and Daddy must’ve spent an hour throwing snowballs at each other and falling down in the most dramatic way possible with all the grunts and wailing of an Oscar-winning actor.

With Uncle Knate in town, we took advantage of some free days to go to the Aquarium! You love to run through each exhibit and spend hardly any time actually looking at the animals, but your favorite part of the day was following Uncle Knate around. He would stand up against a wall and you would walk over and stand right next to him. A few seconds later he would move to the other wall and you immediately followed. This went on for more than 10 or 15 minutes and you thought it was just hilarious!

You crack us up with the things you say as you try to figure out this world of words. The other day you were laying in bed and we overheard you in the monitor saying “Trick or treat, trick or treat, give us something good to eat. Amen.” You’ll also sing your ABC’s and instead of “Now I said my ABC’s…” you’ll go right into “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” and just keep right on singing. The best one was “He’s making a list, checking it twice! How I wonder what you are.”

This month’s memories…

• You sing yourself to sleep every night. Sometimes we look in the monitor and you’re doing the hand motions to Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and Wheels On The Bus.
• All the girls who work at Jr. Market in our neighborhood know you from the many times you’ve come in with Daddy on his days off. One morning when you walked in with Daddy, you started running back and forth across the front of the store. The woman behind the counter asked you what you were doing and without a pause you replied, “I looking good!”
• When we took you to see Santa, we prepped you beforehand to tell Santa you wanted a drum set when he asked you. As we were waiting in line, Daddy asked you “What are you going to tell Santa when he asks you what you want for Christmas?” You replied, “Trick-or-treat!”
• Being that it’s Christmas and your Mommy and Daddy are OBSESSED with Christmas movies, we decided it was time to introduce you to Elf. And now you relive your favorite scenes. Randomly throughout the day you’ll scream “Aaahhhh! Don’t look at me!” Then run toward the wall, slam yourself against the wall and fall down flailing.
• Sometimes when I ask for hugs before you go to school you tell me no. On one of these days, you were already on your way to school and you told Daddy, “Preschool go home.” He asked you if you wanted to go home and you were just silent, which means to us that he was wrong. After a few seconds he asked you “After preschool we’re going to go home?” And you said “Yes! See Mommy.”

You’re the best, little one.

Love, Mama