Barrett lately

Now that I've been home on maternity leave with Barrett these last two months, I am really spending quality time with him in a way that I haven't been able to before.  He is a little tornado of energy and I just try to keep up!

He is adjusting well to having a little sister.  He does steal her toys - who knew that newborn toys were so interesting?  Apparently they are very interesting when little sister is looking at them.  He has had just a few little jealous moments, when I'm busy feeding her or holding her and he wants attention.  But most of the time I try to balance attention between the two so it hasn't been too bad yet.  I sometimes channel this jealousy for my own benefit: any time we change her diaper, he lays down and wants his changed instead of her.  So if I need to change his and he won't come to me, I pretend I'm about to change her and he comes running over and lays down.  Win!  I don't know how long he'll be fooled by this but it's working so far!

Barrett competing for diaper-changing time.  Notice the blue in his hair - he decided to give himself a dye job with fingerpaint

Expecting me to be as amazed by his tummy time as I am for Audrey

He is obsessed with trains and carries them all around the house with him.  He sleeps with them in his bed.  I was singing goodnight to him the other night, put my arms around him, and felt a half dozen little trains under him.  I don't know how that's comfortable!  When we go downstairs in the morning, he insists on us carrying them all down, so our arms are overflowing, and then it's the same story at night bringing them back up.  Tim keeps wanting to buy him more and sets up elaborate tracks, so I think these trains are really toys for both my boys!

A sample of some of the trains in Barrett's bed.  Including an empty toothpaste box that has trains on it.

He is still my baby in a lot of ways.  He likes to be picked up and carried.  This was tough while I was recovering from my c-section and he didn't understand why he was holding up his arms to me and I wasn't picking him up.  Now though, I can't resist picking him up and cuddling him whenever he'll let me.  Who knows how much longer I'll be able to do it, so I want to take advantage of it whenever possible.

watching the Superbowl together in our Bears gear

He is still very good at going to bed.  He loves when we lay down in his bed next to him and sing him songs.  At the end, he'll clap and say "yay!  more!"  It's very encouraging.  He goes to be between 8-8:30 these days (depending on when his Daddy gets home from work) and wakes between 7:30-8:30 usually.  He still hasn't figured out doorknobs but gets our attention by kicking the door.  Loudly.

He still loves the Wiggles and Elmo and can name other Sesame Street characters too.  He knows his colors, some shapes, can identify the letter B and likes to sing some of the alphabet song.  He knows a zillion words and loves books.  His current favorites are the lift-the-flap Noah's ark book, a lift-the-flap Little people farm book and he's still loving the read-along books my parents gave him.

always the attention-stealer!

Barrett isn't always a day at the park though.  He's definitely a two year old boy and into testing limits these days.  He takes advantage of time I'm incapacitated with Audrey or pumping and will act out.  When he gets sent to time-out, I'll hear him inching out and seeing how far he can sneak out of time out before I catch him.  He runs away from me sometimes in parking lots, which makes me crazy from the danger so that definitely gets him in trouble.  And the food throwing at meals is still going on and driving me crazy!  I really struggle with discipline with my high-spirited two year old and we haven't found what exactly works yet.  Time-outs do work, but are hard to do 100% of the time since I can't always force him there and to stay in it when I'm preoccupied with other things.

He is silly and crazy, boisterous and loud, naughty and sweet and all kinds of fun!  I love my little two year old tornado!