Brendan

Brendan has been a little tough to handle over the past few weeks...thank goodness he's improved over the past few days!! One day while I was upstairs getting dressed, he dumped an entire container of Q-tips into the "cave" (toilet). I had to fish them out by hand. Another day, he decided that while playing outside he didn't want to wear his shoes anymore. Remember all of the rain we had received a few days back? Our yard was quite muddy, and soon his socks were, too. Another day I was online finding material for our next MOPS meeting. The TV was on and a Blue's Clue's movie was on. I assumed (poorly) that both boys were watching the movie. About 10 minutes later Gary comes running in "mommy, brendan's throwing rocks". I go to our basement steps and find chaos. We have a small rock garden near our basement stairs with potted plants in it. Brendan has an obsession with rocks. He had taken something like 20-30 handfuls of rocks and tossed them down the basement stairs. Every step from the top to the bottom had DOZENS of rocks on it. To make matters worse, he decided to grab handfuls of dirt from the plants and throw that down the stairs, too. Brendan was spanked, and sent to time out until I finished cleaning up the mess, nearly 20 minutes. Earlier this week I was taking a day to try some potty training. He was wearing some pants and no diaper, and at one point Gary came running down from the play room yelling "mommy, Brendan's got a turd!". Brendan had pooped his pants, the turd rolled out his pants, and he was carrying it around. Later that same day he went into the bathroom to pee, came out a little later after doing so. I praised him, gave him a sticker, and had him go play. I went into the bathroom later on, and I don't think any of that pee made it in the toilet. It was all over the seat and floor. A month ago or so, he drug a large plastic tote across the living room and put it on the hearth of the fireplace. He climbed up on the tote to get something off of the mantle and in the process knocked off one of my Willow Tree figurines and broke the heads off of the statue of the mother snuggling her young son. Another day I was putting clothes away in my room, and all the while Brendan was taking Q-tips and tossing them, one by one, down the register. He loves Q-tips, too. There are several more examples, but they escape my memory right now. Maybe that's natures way of ensuring multiple children in a family. The parents forget the bad over time.....

He's so incredibly sweet, so I guess I can overlook what a turd he's been lately. He has the goofiest grins. I will always melt when I hear "I wuv you, mommy!". Today I went to a store and when I strapped him in his car seat for the ride home, he said, "I want a hug. An a kiss. An anuhver (another) hug. An anuhver kiss. An anuhver hug." You get the idea. It was too cute. Then he'll bring me something, and follow it up with "Here you go, mommy". I just love hearing his cute little voice..... I want him to grow up and stop being so, well, TWO, but I'll want it all back down the road, I know it.