Tea for 3

We have officially entered tea party phase and Daddy is one of her favorite guests. Tonight, I put Marshall to bed and came out of his room to find Brenna and Stephen on their way to have a tea party before bath time. You gotta love a daddy who will sit and sip pretend tea from tiny blue cups. :)

Hey, what's taking so long in there?

The entire roll.

Brenna Calls Mia

Brenna's pretend cellphone conversations have become more complex lately. What used to just be "hi {giggle}, bye" has turned into calls with a purpose. At 2 1/2, she is now scheduling her own playdates.


These videos show a "conversation" between Brenna and her friend Mia. She wants to play with Mia after she takes her nap. The cell phone is not real - she's not really talking to anyone. 

It's a Joke

Brenna has learned a joke... sort of. It took me a couple days at first to figure out what she was trying to ask me. It all became clear when she informed me it was a joke.

Brenna: Why 6, 7?
Me: I don't know. Why?
Brenna: 6, 7, 8, 9. It's a joke! (hysterical laughing)

I think I like her version more than the usual "why is 6 afraid of 7?" :)

Yay! It's a school day!

Attention Everybody!

Brenna has taken to announcing our presence. I'm not sure where this came from. When we leave the house, she stands in the driveway while I put Marshall in the car and proclaims loudly, "Attention everybody! This is Marshall buddy and Mama!"

I'm waiting for the day when someone is walking by when she does this. :)

Mama's Little Helper

We've hit the phase where I can't work in the kitchen without Marshall "helping".

Fighting Naps

This is a picture of Marshall trying not to take a nap. He fell asleep sitting up with his head against the crib. I have a picture of brenna doing the same thing at about this age.

Found the picture of Brenna:

Playing with Food

This morning started with screaming, tantrums, and general crabbiness (not just the kids). I never would have guessed the memory we would make shortly thereafter. Once everyone had calmed down (and I had my cup of coffee), I took both kids up to the game room to play. I was hoping a change in location would equal a change in mood. Brenna went to her play kitchen and prepared a big bowl of wooden vegetables for our "lunch" then sat down next to me on the floor. Marshall crawled over by us and instead of Brenna flipping out over him touching her stuff, she gave him a spoon. I watched as together they mixed the bowl of veggies. No screaming. No pushing. Just calm playing. Then, without being prompted, Marshall scooped his spoon though the bowl, moved it to my mouth, and fed me a delicious bite of pretend lunch. :) The three of us sat there and fed each other one of the best lunches I can remember.

Foo Finishing

From the moment Brenna found her voice as an infant, she has always been a chatterbox. I remember having long, incoherent conversations with her as a toddler - her speech completely animated, but not containing a drop of English. Now at 2 1/2 years old, her grasp of the English language is impressive, but also contains a few unique Brenna words and phrases. My favorite of these is "foo finishing". This was a phrase that she began using in her early speech development and we continue to hear daily. Our best guess is that it translates to "not through finishing." Here's an example:

Me: Brenna, are you done eating?
Brenna: No. I foo finishing.

This term confuses most people as they think she is saying that she is done. She will correct them - "NO! I foo finishing!!!!"

Marshall is now starting to jabber. I'm excited for this phase and to see if he too will be so creative with his language.

Time flies by

It's been about a year and a half since I last posted a family update. Wow, time has flown by. In that time, Stephen has earned his pilot's license, Brenna has grown into a full-fledged 2-year-old, and we welcomed a new baby boy named Marshall into our family on Feb. 12, 2011. Life is crazier than ever.

Marshall will be 11 months old tomorrow and I'm not sure where all the time has gone. Watching him every day reminds me of this time with Brenna and I find myself remembering some of those baby days and wishing I would have recorded them. So... here I am back on the blog with the intent to keep better track of our family life and preserve as many memories as I can.

Wish me luck.