The Joys of Raising a 2 Year Old

      With Brynlee I have discovered that Two is such a fun age. This is the age when the personality really comes out and the ability to communicate is so much better. Brynlee really has such a fun and busy personality. I love getting to spend my days playing with her. And I really don't want to forget what she was like at this age. I have been jotting down several of these stories about her that I don't want to forget but somehow my paper got ripped out and drawn all over. So I am going to record what I wrote down in a better spot; right here on my blog.

      My daughter has done lots of crazy things in her day. If you have read my blog before you will know about how she has covered herself with toothpaste and permanent marker. She has covered the baby with Desitin and she poured half a box of rice cereal in Annalyn's crib. Not to mention the formula she poured on our pizza and the countless other messes she has made.

      Brynlee loves to line things up and pour water into things. She has poured hot chocolate all over a batch of cookies and she poured cinnamon all over the scrambled eggs we were going to have for breakfast one morning. She took a screwdriver and pushed it through the nipples of all Annalyn's bottles. She has poured her own milk all by herself on several occasions and recently she even got ahold of some nail polish and she painted her own fingernails without any help. One day I caught her with an oven mitt on, trying to get our food out of the oven for me. She thinks she is just so helpful. On another occasion she filled up the dishwasher with all of the clean dishes that I had just put away. She is just one busy girl.

     I love listening to my daughter talk. She says the funniest things and she talks all the time. Here are some of the words she says and the way she says them, along with some of my favorite phrases that she says all the time.


WORDS
 Mah-mu-roni and cheese (Macaroni and cheese)
Annawyn (Annalyn)
Farkles (Sparkles)
Frinkly (wrinkly)
Frinkles (Sprinkles)

PHRASES
"That's my favorite kind"
"I don't want that one. That one is not my favorite kind."
"My wants to do it"
"I do it all myself"
"Just a minute" (this one she says all the time whenever I ask her to do something)
"Oh No, It flewed away"
"Seelly mom" (silly mom)
"You seelly weelly" (You silly willy)
"You're my best friend Ever" (I love it when she says this to me)

CONVERSATIONS 
     Brynlee loves to tell me what to say. Especially when we are playing a game. She tries to tell me where to stand and everything. When we are eating she likes to hold up her food and she asks me something like this; "Is this one a horse? Say No Mom. Is this one a frog? Say no. Is this one a lion? Say yes mom." I don't really get the game but is keeps her happy.

We also have conversations like this one.
B: "Oh no, there is a hippo coming into our house. You have to say no to the hippo mom."
Me: "No"
B: "Say it louder."
M: "No"
B: "Louder"
M: "NO"
 B: "LOUDER."
 There are hippos, lions, monsters, and owls that come into our house all the time and scare Brynlee. Although, the girl ones and the baby ones are nice. Brynlee likes to pretend she is carrying them around the house in her hand and she is constantly having me "pap" (pet) her baby hippos.

      The other day Brynlee was playing with her toys on her little trampoline. She colored all over it with an orange marker a few weeks ago. She came and told me,
"Brynlee wrote all over my trampoline. I am so Upset. I am so upset with Brynlee."
 One time she also said to me,
"Look at this mess mom, look at this big mess."
" I see it," I said "who made this big mess?"
"Brynlee did, She in big trouble. She need a go to a time out."

STORIES
      It was really windy outside the other day. Brynlee stepped outside and said,
"I have an idea mom. I have an idea to stop the wind."
"Really?" I asked. "What is your idea?"
Brynlee stood there all serious, boldly stuck out her hand and yelled "STOP" as loud as she could. It was a great idea but it didn't seem to stop the wind.

      We were at my sister Heather's house the other day when Brynlee walked up to her and said, "Heather, I don't like to see you naked." No, she has never seen my sister naked so I have no idea what she was talking about. She is just obsessed with things that are naked and she talks about being naked all the time. Whenever she changes she has to make sure everyone around her has their eyes closed so they don't see her naked.

      The last time I took Annalyn in for a check up I had to take Brynlee with me. They had me take off Annalyn's clothes and Brynlee told the nurse, "I don't like to see Anna naked." The nurse just laughed and assured Brynlee that we could leave Annalyn's diaper on. As soon as the doctor walked in Brynlee told her "You need a get me a sucker." Luckily the doctor just laughed and told Brynlee she could get one when we were done. As soon as Brynlee got it she then demanded that the doctor open it for her.

      Brynlee loves the movie Cinderella. She watches that movie all the time. The other day she grabbed a washcloth, got it wet and started scrubbing my kitchen floor while she was singing; "Sing sweet night a girl, sing sweet nigh a girl, ah ah ah ah ah." (If you don't know what that is from you need to watch Cinderella)

      Brynlee likes going to Zumba with me so she can exercise. Lately I have had to hold Annalyn several times and this makes Brynlee really jealous. I try to hold Brynlee for at least part of a song but that is just not good enough for Brynlee most days. One day she was mad that I wouldn't hold her so she went up the lady (Sis. Hellewell) next to me and got her to hold her. Now every time  Sister Hellewell is there Brynlee tries to be held by her.

      One day we were at Zumba and both of the girls were playing in the gym when I looked over and saw the baby put something in her mouth. I went over and found it was some kind of a mint. I asked Brynlee where Annalyn got it from and she said "I gave it to her because I didn't like it." When I asked Brynlee where she got it from she marched over to a purse that was sitting on a chair and pulled out a tin of Altoids. She stole it from someone's purse. We had a long talk about asking before taking things.

      We went to Walmart a few weeks ago and I had both of the girls by myself. Brynlee was not that excited about sitting in the back but I promised her some gum if she would be good. Luckily she was good because Annalyn kept trying to get out of the cart. I got some sprinkles so we could make a birthday cake for my mom and I gave them to Brynlee to set in the back of the cart. It was getting kind of crowed back there because we had to buy several things. Brynlee brought her purse with her so I checked it before we left to make sure she didn't hide anything in there and then we got Brynlee some gum and headed home. The next day when we got in the car Brynlee picked up her purse, opened it, and pulled out the sprinkles that were hidden in a little side compartment. I realized right away that we didn't pay for those sprinkles. The next time we went to Walmart we bought some more sprinkles and I had the cashier scan them twice so we could pay for the ones we stole. We have got to get her away from this life of crime.

I was doing the laundry one day and hanging up my clothes when I noticed that one of my shirts had a big cut mark down the back and several little ones on it. Someone took a pair of scissors to it. I questioned Brynlee.
"Brynlee do you know what happened to my shirt?"
"Yes."(said with a huge grin)
"Did you cut my shirt?"
"Yes, I did."
I still have no idea how she found the scissors.

On Friday Brynlee got out all of my pitchers, pots, and pans and she filled several of them up with water and lined them all along the kitchen. I made her stop and put everything away and she did. Then when I went to make dinner that night I grabbed a pan out of the drawer and water went everywhere. Brynlee didn't bother to dump out the water. She just put them away with the water still in it.

My dad and my little brother, Josh, watched Brynlee for me the other day. When I went to get Brynlee from their house she was crying. Apparently she told Josh she was tired and wanted to take a nap and he believed her. He turned on a movie for her and set her up in the spare bedroom my parents use for foster kids. When Josh went to check on her she had changed into a way too big pair of pajamas and she was trying to put on some pink panties that she found in there. Josh made her change and clean up the big mess she made. This in when I got there and Brynlee was still mad that Josh wouldn't let her wear those pink panties. I reinforced the decision Josh made. Brynlee didn't need to wear those panties. The next think I knew Brynlee was in the bathroom sitting on the foor right next to the spot where she had peed. She had a huge grin on her face and she looked at me and said "I need some new pink panties mom." She didn't get them. I had some spare ones in my bag.

My dad told me he had a long day with Brynlee because he forgot how busy little kids can be. She kept getting into the pantry and playing with the spices and she covered the dog's tail in hand sanitizer.

Yeah, this girl is constantly making me laugh and I sure do love her. There are plenty more stories I could write but I will save them for another post. This one is long enough.

My 11 Month Old

Little Annalyn really has been a joy to have in our family. I couldn't imagine life without her. She is so busy these days and fun to be around. She has such a great little personality. She is fairly easygoing but she is also good at letting us know when we want something.

She plays great with Brynlee. Sometimes I think Brynlee is being too rough and Annalyn is just laughing like crazy. Annalyn loves to be held and cuddled, especially if I am holding Brynlee; but she doesn't like to stick around for long. When she is done being held she just hurls herself down. I think I am going to drop her on her head every time. She just has no fear.

Annalyn is so close to walking. She walks along everything and will go from different pieces of furniture if they are close. She can also stand on her own for several minutes. As soon as I try to get her to walk, she takes one step and then falls to the ground and crawls. When she wants to do it she will. She is a really fast crawler so for now she doesn't really need to walk. She really likes to walk while she holds onto my hand and she can walk well with only one of my hands for support.

Annalyn loves stuffed animals and baby dolls. She loves to hold and cuddle them. She also loves to be outside where she can watch the chickens. When she sees something she wants she reaches out her little hand and then opens and closes her little fist. If I don't get it right away she hollers at me and grunts until I she gets what she wants.

Annalyn can say mama and dada. She says mama all the time which makes me so happy. She can also sign "more" but only if she wants to. She wont usually do it when I tell her to. We are working on please but she would rather reach and holler until she gets what she wants. She makes all kinds of sounds all the time. I really think she says, what and look sometimes. Whenever I look at her she goes "wha." I think she is trying to say "what?" but who can really tell?

 Annalyn loves her soother, eating food, balloons, play doh (she likes to eat it), books, and playing with Brynlee. She loves to crawl into containers. She doesn't like getting her diaper changed or wearing hats, headbands, or shoes. She sometimes keeps them on for a little while but most of the time she takes them right off. She sometimes loves to take a bath but on some days she cries the whole time. I took the girls to JumpTime and Anna had a blast jumping on all of the bouncy stuff. She laughed the whole time. It was so fun. She sleeps good most of the time, I just wish she would sleep in a little more. I am not liking waking up at 5:30 or 6 am every day. She just has so much to do she can't sleep any longer I guess. I sure do love this little girl.

Brynlee's First Haircut

Brynlee got her first haircut on Tuesday. At least, she got a trim. My sister Heather evened out the back of Brynlee's hair. I did get a few pictures to document the event. Brynlee almost has enough hair for me to cut her some bangs. I was talking to my sister Heather about how she almost needed her bangs cut and she suggested that we give the back of Brynlee's hair a trim so that it would look more even and a little bit healthier. It took us a while to convince Brynlee that this was a good idea. Now that my sister Heather has a salon at her house it was quick and easy for her to sit Brynlee in the chair and trim her hair.

When Brynlee was done with her haircut she insisted that Heather put it in a pony tail. She was actually pretty good during the whole thing. Luckily it didn't take Heather that long and Brynlee had fun making funny faces in the mirror. She was also excited to get a sucker from Aunt Heather. Now she just need to grow her bangs a little bit longer so we can give them a trim too.