2

This past Sunday our little man turned 2. I had hoped on recording life for Brian at 23 months, like I did here one month before he turned 1, but I was a little busy living and enjoying life to take this time out. For the past couple of days I've been compiling this list during Brian's nap time, so here he is at 2:

• Brian loves "rin"s (aka mandarins, specifically ones off Pop's tree). When at Pop's house, Brian asks to go outside and as soon as he's aloud out he runs to the mandarin tree, picks one and runs back inside with it. He then proceeds to wait, very impatiently, for Mummy to cut it (I cut each segment length ways, but not all the way through so I can open it out and remove any pips). The pic above is Brian enjoying probably the last of one of Pop's rins from his tree (this season anyway). Note the juice running down his chin!
• Brian's comprehension amazes us daily. Earlier this week Brian and I were watching Miffy (it's our "waiting for Playschool to start" show) and Miffy's Dad was putting some wood in the backseat of his car. Brian said "boot". I guess what amazes us most is that Brian is watching, listening and thinking and then expressing in his own words. It's fantastic to watch. Last Friday Brian and I headed out to his favourite park, which he calls "wobbly" and as we were driving there he said "baby shop". There is a baby shop near the round-a-bout on the way to the park. We have only been there once but Brian sure knows how to get there (he says it before seeing the sign). He might have to be my GPS!
• Brian's vocab is huge and really too big to list now. One big step forward he made while we were in Melbourne was that he said "yoghurt". Brian has loved yoghurt for ages now but went through phases of calling it "ga ga", "ga gi" and "ga gak". He now only calls it yoghurt and still has the proudest look on his face when he says it.
• Thomas The Tank Engine is one of Brian's favourite things right now. He has a little wooden Thomas (suitable for 18+ months) that we take everywhere. That cheeky one (Thomas) has chugged up arms, over chairs, on all kinds of floors and over tables at numerous eateries. When we accidentally left Thomas at home, Brian was content to run his hand over chair arms etc., just like Thomas was really there.
• Brian is still addicted to logos of all kinds. He surprised me the other day by saying "IGA".
• Kevin and I constantly smile at Brian's manners. We are trying to instill good behaviour and manners into his everyday. He often says "pardon me", not only to people but doors, toys and anything else he might be brushing past. He has "sorry" down pat and his version of "thank you" is becoming more regular.
• Brian can count to 10 in English (today he surprised me by going to 11), 5 in French and he knows the alphabet. There was a day or so there where his alphabet went like this: abcdefghijklmnopqrsDVDwxyz. I think our laughter made Brian realise his mistake, cute all the same.
• Brian can also spell his name, although sometimes it's B R A N or B I A N and it's always followed by a happy excited shout of "Brian".
• After waking from a nap Brian often chats happily in his cot for a while. This is when you hear the alphabet, spelling of his name, etc. coming from his room.
• Brian is also starting to have conversations. He's linking words together like "baby shop", "wobbly park", "swing", "sit Mummy". He was recounting our trip to the park where we went past the baby shop to the wobbly park. Then we went to the swing and Brian said "sit Mummy", so I sat on the swing next to him.
• Brian loves drawing, reading brochures and books, playing with all kinds of little trucks, cars and trains, pretending to wash the dishes and make tea in his kitchen (as well as cooking his turtle & BBQing Thomas), playing with Mr Potato Head (which has gone from being called "head" to "to-to head" - even though he can say "tato"). His latest game is "where are you Thomas?". He hides Thomas and then goes to find him.
• Brian will eat almost anything, although getting him to eat a peanut butter sandwich is a little harder than getting him to eat a toasted ham and cheese sandwich. He also loves to drink 3/4 of other people's milkshakes, he prefers icing to the actual cake, and lollies to the icing. Brian has also recently learnt the art of "dip, dip" (dipping a chip into tomato sauce), although he's still learning what to do after the "dip, dip" part. Right now he thinks the aim is to suck the sauce of the chip and then dip it again!
• Brian has this wonderful knack of turning his over tiredness into delirium while in public. At home he just whinges.
• Brian's routine to tuck him in before a nap is "hands in, fig up Mummy, bird please". Which, translated means: tuck my hands in, please fold up my blankie which I have just conveniently unfolded for you and please turn on my musical snow globe.