"Obsession" Scene 1, Act 1

I go to wake Brent up this morning. Half asleep, he mutters "Shoo shoo sheen!" (which is choo choo train in laymen's terms).

In the dark, I try to pick him up and find titi (his blanket). The 'suggestion' gets a little louder that I find his shoo shoo. I try to ignore it, hoping he'll go back to sleep.

While picking titi up, I hear shoo shoo sheen fall behind the crib. Not good. And I'm not the only one who hears it. Suddenly he senses that his beloved train is in peril. I tell him not to worry, I will get it for him.

I lay him back down. Snoring commences immediately. I get a flashlight and perform surgery on the items jammed under his crib to find the train. Once rescued, I wake him up again and give it to him. "Red shoo shoo" he says thankfully, and holds it tight as he sleeps on my shoulder.

So we get to the car and I buckle him in. He starts to stir, and then looks reassured at finding red choo choo in his hand. But wait.... Oh no... I follow his gaze as he looks at his other bare hand. Black choo choo is not there. I see this register on his face, and tell him "It's okay! Look! Red choo choo is all we need this morning".

I hurry into my seat and back the car up, thinking of what a wonderful idea it was yesterday to get an additional choo choo so that I had a backup in case one couldn't be found. Two is better than one, right? Only they're a SET now. One is nothing without the other.

I am almost out of the driveway, when I hear the sirens of a firetruck coming down the road. Oh wait, that noise is coming from the back seat. "Blaaaaaaaaaaaack shoooooooooo shoooooooooo". I can practically hear the half-asleep tears hitting the back of my seat. I gauge my options:

It's only 10 minutes - I can endure this for 10 minutes. This sounds good at first. It's not that long. I'm teaching him not to get everything he wants. So what if this starts the day out on the wrong foot - and that he'll probably cry when I'm trying to leave, and that will be the last vision I have going into my day. I can't think with that NOISE in the back seat!!!

I can go back in the house and try to find other choo choo. Yeah, it's going to have to be that.

So back down the driveway I go, promising to make things better. "Brent, I'm going to go get black choo choo. You need to wait here and I will bring it out, okay?" "O-tay, Momma," he sobs, barely able to breathe.

I park the car and go back in the house. Andy just looks at me. I say "Evidently red choo choo is no good without black choo choo". He accepts this and doesn't comment. I love that my husband is so smart.

I search for black choo choo in the crib, and find him tangled in one of the quilts. Success! Back to the car we go. Brent is calm, knowing that the world is about to become perfect once again. I place the toy in his hand, and he falls asleep. "Doo doo, momma," he mutters with his last breath.

"You're welcome, baby"

It's the most wonderful time of the year...

I love Christmas! The shopping, the surprises, the traffic (okay, that one's a stretch)...

This season is going to be one of the best. I'm looking forward to decorating and making Brent's first memorable Christmas a wonderful one. I didn't really count the first two as he was still just a fussy little one. And it will be downhill from here, as next year he will have caught on enough to start requesting expensive toys before it even gets here. This year will just be a wonderful surprise for him!

I still haven't gotten him anything yet. I've bought myself some things, does that count?

Tomorrow we're going to get professional portraits done (how "professional" they will be for $10 at Walmart is yet to be seen). So we'll see if someone can get us to all look pretty at the same time. It should be interesting to say the least. I have a few good pictures locked up in my camera, but I lost the cord, so I haven't been able to download them recently. Hopefully soon I can do some catching up.

So this weekend: Pictures, more shopping, and decorating. I can't wait..... I will ask him if he's excited, and hopefully in his best Little Rascal's voice, he'll say my new-favorite Brent-ism: "Ohhh-tay, Momma".

Things to love about a two year old...

I keep getting asked if Brent is in the "terrible two's" stage, and depending on what day you ask me, the answer can vary between "Hell yes, for about a year now" and "What do you mean? This sweetheart?". So this is my list of things I love about my 'terrible' little guy.

1) The look he gives me as I'm trying to convince him to go "pee pee in the potty" from my much-worn seat on the edge of the tub, and when I'm making other varying noises when I suspect there's more than just pee-pee to be had. The one that says "Mom, I don't know WHAT you are going on and on about", even though he manages to do it just fine ALL DAY for the lady that watches him.

2) The way whenever I try to wash the dishes, he will mush himself between me and the sink and shout "UP! UP! Momma!" as if the world will end if I wash even just one more dish before picking him up.

3) The way he refuses to drink anything out of his sippy cups besides juice (and he carefully inspects the fluid for significant signs of fruit coloring before he will even take it out of your hand). Plus he will only drink when the cup is more than half full. "More Zuish, Momma!" he cries, flinging the cup from side to side so his poor idiot of a mom can see there there is simply not enough liquid sloshing around in there.

4) When he makes faces at me, alternating between my "trying to look stern" mom look with eyebrows as high and eyes as big as possible, to the angry "stop jumping on the couch" look, then breaking out in a huge grin. This also illustrates how well he takes me when put these looks in action. One day as the lady who watches him was telling me I need to be more serious during the potty training for him to do better for me. "I am serious!," I told her. "Yeah, I've seen your serious," she said.

5) The way he flops onto his belly in the bathtub, swishing around and saying "Swim, momma!" This normally occurs when I tell him it's time to go out. His favorite thing is to get as low into the tub as possible so that I have a hard time getting his slippery little butt out of there and into his pajamas. Twice this week I have put his pajamas on, only to discover I forgot to put the diaper on first.

6) The way he feels, all groggy and half asleep in the morning as I carry him to the car, with his hair still sweaty from being under the blanket, tucked tight against my shoulder, and his long legs hanging down to my thighs, lifelessly swinging around.

7) When he remarks each day on the way home about it being "Dark ow-side?" now that winter is here. And when we get home, he stretches his arms up to the sky. "Moon, momma! Up! Up!", as if I just need to lift him up a few more inches, and then he'd have it. No, baby...I can't lift you that high, but it's my job to make sure you never stop reaching for it.

Chocolate and Bumble bees

I promise I have pictures forthcoming! We only went to one house (my grandad's) for trick or treating, but he had a great time. Of course, he didn't want to sleep later after all the chocolate, but that was my lesson to learn...and I learned it well! He was quite the grumpy little bumble bee later that night!

I am committed to updating this blog more. I have been swamped at work and time has just flown by. But things are finally settling down a bit and I can pop in a couple times a week with some tidbits, I hope.

Brent is doing really well these days! He is talking up a storm and getting close to sentences. His favorite things to say are still "No Night-Night Momma" or "I'm hun-ey [hungry], eat, momma" or "No ca-ca butt!" or "No pop!". The seatbelt is called pop for some reason, and he hates the constraint in the morning.

We have discovered playdough! And it is now my best friend and worst enemy. Countless hours are spent making "baby peas" of varying colors, or rings to put on our fingers, or spaghetti through the little strainer. And then for all the free time I gain while he plays with it, I spend twice that amount picking up bits of tiny colored rocks from everywhere. And I do mean EVERYWHERE. Playdough is magic that way, it seems.

Potty training has begun, and for now I'm getting off pretty easy. The lady who watches him is taking the brunt of it, but I hear things are going smoothly. So far he is pretty consistently going ca-ca (his choice of wording) in the potty, but doesn't like to do anything else there. She keeps telling me to have him sit for about 5 minutes when I try it, but I can't get him to stay on there for more than 15 seconds. So we're trying....we'll see how it goes.

Hope everyone had a great Halloween! Happy Birthday Dad!

I can't believe I'm two!!!

Well, according to his two-year appt this morning, I am the proud Mom of a still perfectly happy and healthy boy. He's 35 1/2 inches tall, and still 28 lbs (which he's been since he turned 1, actually).

He's at or ahead of all the things they check on at this age. And in addition to all the words he knows, he also understands everything in Spanish and can speak a little here and there. The lady who watches him during the day speaks almost no english with him, and he follows all directions to a "T". He is also always perfectly behaved with her, too, which kinda infuriates me at times.

This morning Andy was riding with us to the doctor's and so the seat in front of Brent was back further than usual to accomodate a person. And I guess in our small car now it created a situation where Brent's foot actually TOUCHED the seat in front of him!!!!! I add the exclamation points to show how terrifically important that was for some reason. The tears and mess that this caused were completely real, even if I didn't understand why. I guess that's just part of being two. It can be pouring down tantrums one second, and sunny smiles the next. Never boring, I'll give it that.

But usually it's sunny these days. We have a good nighttime schedule, and he sleeps through 99% of the time (if he doesn't, there's always a good reason for it). As long as you don't attempt to undress or dress him in the morning, they always run smoothly also. So we go to daycare in his PJ's, but that's okay in my book. One less thing to worry with :)

We are fastly approaching potty training to, so stay tuned for some promising stories in the near future.