Brady Love

I just wanted to do a quick update on my favorite toddler!

Brady is two and a half. He's 28.8 pounds and he's 3 feet tall. I feel like he probably grew 3-4 of those inches in just the last few months. He really seems to have stretched out a bit this summer.

He's talking SO much. He comprehends nearly everything we say and he can speak in sentences, though sometimes he needs reminding. Often times when he wants more of something he'll just say "more", but if we remind him he'll say "can I have some more, please?" I wish I had a recording because the way he says it is too cute. I can hear it in my head as I type :)

Now that he's speaking so much, he's giving us PLENTY of opportunity to laugh throughout the day by saying funny things. When he drops something, he'll often say "oh darn it" and tonight he said "oh shoot"...good thing we watch our language around him because he's a parrot! The other day we were going to Costco and he asked if he could walk instead of getting a cart. I explained that I needed to get waters and they were heavy, so we needed a cart. He thought for a minute and said "maybe I could help you". He's just the sweetest and he tries so hard to be helpful.

He's so tender and gives hugs and kisses often. The other day he and I went to In-N-Out for lunch. As we were sitting there eating, he climbed down from his stool and came to sit on my lap. I asked him if he was done eating and he said he just wanted to come hear mommy's heart beat. He climbed up onto my lap and lay his head on my chest for a minute or so listening and cuddling. I died! He's just my favorite!!!

When he gets in trouble, often times it seems like he doesn't even get it. If he's screaming or generally being a punk and I firmly tell him to stop, he just smiles at me like I'm playing with him...but if I manage to get my point across and he realizes that mommy or daddy is upset with what he's doing, he puts his hands in his mouth and licks them with kind of an ashamed look on his face. It's the strangest thing. I sure hope that passes soon!

He also has an issue with hitting. He often hits himself when he's frustrated or if he's just been told "no". He'll just kind of throw his arm down onto his leg over and over and if I'm close enough to him, he'll hit me too. Sometimes he just hits whatever surface happens to be near. We try to be firm and tell him no, we don't hit. We explain that hitting hurts and we don't want to hurt others, ourselves, or even things, but it hasn't sunk in yet. He doesn't really hit other kids, luckily, but he has pushed others who got in his space or who played with a toy that he wanted. We have a lot to teach him still, but it's all pretty natural and will come in time. For the most part, he plays with others REALLY well. He loves going to nursery at church or going to play groups with friends.

He seems pretty excited about the baby coming. He knows there is a baby in my tummy and he refers to him by a name that we're strongly considering. He asks when the baby can come play and we tell him that he'll be here by Christmas. I think it will be a hard adjustment for him. We babysat Desiree's 1.5 year old twins a few weeks ago and there was a lot of fake crying, fake owies, and other attention grabbing activity on Brady's part. 

He's ready to potty train! I've known for a while that he was ready. He'll pee on command as soon as you sit him on the potty (he won't poo though, so that will be a challenge). I've been putting it off because he always wakes up with the wettest diaper in the morning, so I knew he was still wetting himself a lot at night, but the past 2 nights he's woken up completely dry so I know he's getting better at holding it for longer periods of time. I'd love to have him trained by the time the baby comes and basically as soon as the weather cools down enough for us to stay in our non air conditioned apartment for 3 days straight, we'll start the process for real. Until then, I encourage him to go to the toilet whenever I change him and now as soon as he wakes up. We bought some training underwear today and tried them on. We call them his big boy underwear and I told him that in a few weeks he can try wearing them like a big boy. I'm going to talk about them a lot over these next few weeks to try and get/keep him excited about them.

I've thought about waiting longer because so many people say not to do it to soon. They say it'll be too hard or if he can't go to the bathroom all by himself then he's not really potty trained, BUT as long as he's making steps toward potty training now, showing interest and signs of readiness, then I want to teach him to do it. I'd hate to put it off and have him lose the desire to go on the potty and then have it be even harder in the future because I was lazy (because it WILL be a lot of work to train him and I'm not really looking forward to it).

Anyway...this is a big year for Brady. He's grown so much in just the past few months, both physically and mentally. I can't wait to see what he'll be like by the time he's 3...but then I can! Every advancement means I lose a little bit of that baby that's left in him and I hate to see my baby grow up.

I love him to bits!!