Barrettisms

Barrett was trying to butt his way in on a toy Audrey was playing with.
Me:  "Barrett, you need to let Audrey play with that by herself."
Barrett:  "but I'm helping to teach her to talk."
Barrett, now in Audrey's face: "TALK."


Me:  "Barrett, what do you think you'd want for your birthday?"
Barrett, without missing a beat: "cake.  Birthday cake."
Me:  "that is the gift you'd want for your birthday?  That's the only thing you want?"
Barrett;  "yes, just cake," with a big smile on his little face.
Alright, sounds like easy birthday shopping for his Mommy!  He definitely is my kid with that sweet tooth!


One morning we were discussing how children are so demanding and think they rule the house.
Me, laughing:  "Barrett, are you a tyrant?"
Barrett:  "no!  I just woke up!"
That one took me a second but then I got it, haha.  Tyrant = tired.


Audrey expresses a lot of interest in the toilet.  Barrett was going potty tonight and Audrey looked very curious.  So Tim asked if she wanted to sit on it.  Se replied, "yea," in her sweet little voice so he pulled her diaper off and sat her on it.
Barrett: "she needs to push her penis down."  (as he was instructed to do when sitting on the potty).
Tim, laughing:  "She doesn't have one"
Barrett:  "oh.  Because she's little?"


We finished a puzzle one afternoon.
Me:  "you did a great job!  I'm very impressed with what a great job you did on this puzzle!"
He very seriously responds: "I couldn't have done it without you."  Smartie pants.


I mentioned to Barrett that our babysitter, Cassie, is coming over to watch him and Audrey on Saturday.
Barrett:  "why?"
Me:  Because Daddy and I are going to dinner."
Barrett:  "I have an idea.  Why don't Daddy and Cassie go to dinner and you stay home with us?"
Hmm....


Barrett and Audrey were playing nicely one day together.  I asked what they were playing.
Barrett: "I'm the daddy and Audrery is the mommy.  We put the cars to sleep and the babies to sleep."
Me: "oh, sounds like everybody is asleep!  Do you want to go to sleep too?"
Barrett: "no, mommies and daddies don't sleep."
Truer words were never spoken, kid.


Irony:  Barrett coming up to me as I was making dinner and telling me, "I locked the pantry door so Audrey can't get into mischief."


Barrett and Audrey were dressing up in the construction worker and firefighter costumes we have.
Me:  "Barrett, do you want to be a construction worker when you grow up?"
Barrett:  "no, a firefighter."
Me:  "oh, a firefighter?"
Barrett:  Thinking..."No.  A bird"

And just one more...

This morning

Barrett: "I don't want to go to school today.  I want to go to work with you."
me:  "You wouldn't like Mommy's work.  There's no playground and no friends and no books.  It's not very much fun.  Why would you want to go to work?"
Barrett: "I just want to be with you, Mommy," wrapping his arms around my legs and kissing them. 

Awww!

This is age 3.  A roller coaster of independence and snarly faces and backtalk and deliberately knocking glasses of milk off the table and throwing trains and cuddles and laughter and sweet kisses and sweet words and "I love you so much"s and discovery and joy.

Latest Barrett-isms

Having a 3 year old is a source of never-ending frustration and fun.  3 is definitely challenging but I will say, Barrett makes me laugh every single day.  He's so sharp, aware, and funny.  Here are the latest Barrett-isms:

B was quite interested in two dogs at his grandparents' house and kept wanting to see them and know what they were up to.
Barrett, to me: "What are the dogs' names?"
me:  "I don't know. Why don't you ask?"
Barrett:  "Maybe they don't talk"


Barrett is obsessed with his blue blanket.  He carries it constantly around the house, snuggling it and chewing on it all the time.
Daddy:  "No taking blankie into the grocery store.  You need to leave it here in the car."
Barrett:  "Okay.  I chew it really quick."
proceeds to nibble on it for a few seconds.  Then sets it aside.
Barret:  "Okay.  All done" and was ready to go.


I asked Audrey a question tonight, in the usual sing-song way of talking to an infant without expecting an answer.  Barrett decided to set me straight.
Barrett:  "Audrey doesn't talk."
me: " Well, Audrey  will talk soon!  What do you think she'll say when she will be able to talk?"
Barrett:  "'Give me back my toys.'"
Yes.  Probably.

Latest Barrett-isms

Barrett is a never-ending source of laughter these days.  Some of the latest things he's said to make us laugh...

Tonight on the way home from school:
me: "I see you didn't eat lunch today!  Why not?"
Barrett:  "I didn't like it.  I didn't like it, I didn't like the pizza, I don't like pizza bagels, I didn't like the fruit, I don't like yellow fruit, I didn't like it, I didn't like the fruit, I didn't like it... I like ice cream.  I like ice cream and candy."
oh. Okay then.

Barrett is obsessed with getting bigger and tall (like Daddy/like Mommy).  Some of the funny things he's said about that:
Barrett:  "When I grow big and tall like the sky, I won't fit in Mommy's car."

Barrett and Audrey were splashing in the tub, giggling and having fun. 
Barrett to me:  "When you get littler, you can get in the bath with us and play too."
Sorry, kid, it doesn't work that way.

Random

Tuesday's Randoms

1.  I have been sick for over 8 weeks straight now.  There was a brief respite of about two days when I was finally getting better and only had a sore throat, but that was just the segue into yet another cold.  8 weeks, people.  I think I've forgotten what it's like to be healthy.  I know my co-workers are loving all my germs but they can take it up with my two year old and his insane need to touch everything in a 10 foot vicinity.

2.  I just remembered that we have two boxes of Girl Scout cookies still in our pantry, hidden behind the bags of chips at the very top.  I hope I forget again so they can stay there a little longer. 

3.  Speaking of #2, Barrett has a very lively sweet tooth and Tim likes to blame me.  I did eat a lot of oreos while I was pregnant with him but that was only to encourage me to drink milk.  It was for his own health.  I deny that it's my fault he loves sweets but let's face it, it probably is.  He looked at me Saturday morning when I asked if he wanted eggs or cereal and said with a straight face "jellybeans." Yeah right, coming right up. 

4.  Yesterday Payton was sniffing around Audrey's seat while I was buckling her in and Barrett points at him and says "No Payton!  Dat's B-Audee's.  Walk away!"  It cracked me up.  Daycare tells the kids to walk away when they come around looking to get into trouble.  I am guessing he hears that said to him more than once or twice a day.

5.  I finally got the Pottery Barn kids chairs that I've been eying for a year now. I got an email that they were $20 off on Saturday so ordered one for each of the kids.  They are so cute and I know Barrett will like it, so I finally bit the bullet. I am excited to see how he reacts to a chair his size just for him.  Here's the chair, minus the name obviously:

6.  Tim and I had an actual date night Saturday night.  It was pretty great - we had a dinner where we both were seated at the same time, didn't involve food being thrown on the floor, forks being banged on the table and didn't end in tears. Then we went to see Hunger Games.  Loved it!  It was our the 3rd movie we've seen in the theaters in the last 3 years.  Of course once you added up the cost of dinner + movie + babysitter ($$$!!!), we might as well have just gone on a cruise. 

Those are my randoms for today.  Clearly it's not all fireworks and parades in our lives these days, this is all I've got. 

Looking forward to seeing my sister and her family this weekend!

Barrett lately

Not to be outdone with all Audrey's monthly updates, I want to make sure I write about what's going on with our other kiddo these days too.  He is in the midst of being two and a little dynamo!

Barrett is soaking up words non-stop.  He will whip out these words that I didn't even know he knew, like pointing out geese to me the other day.  I didn't even know he knew the difference between birds and geese.  He really is speaking in sentences lately of about 2 to 4 words.  He still loves to point out what belongs to whom and what's his.  He is definitely exerting his independence by requesting "I hold it" when he wants to carry something and wanting to pull his wagon down the sidewalk instead of being pulled by us. 

Food is still an annoying issue, for our little picky one.  His latest loves are doughnuts and bagels (pronounced do-notes and baay-gahs) and jellybeans. Healthy, right?  He continues to drink a ton of milk and would eat only fruit if I let him.  He loves cereal and his favorite activity is taking all the cereal boxes out of the pantry, opening them, and pulling out the bags.  His favorite color is blue and he's always requesting a blue cup or blue plate.  No more toddler silverware, now he must have the regular forks and spoons. 

He is learning his letters and numbers.  He can point out the letter B and we're working on some other letters, like E and M. He's so cute singing the alphabet song, which he probably half knows.  He can count somewhat when prompted and is very good with pointing out two of things.  But if you ask him to count other numbers, he often says "seven, eight, nine, ten," so he's no pro yet.  He also knows his shapes.  I love hearing him say diamond and oval, with his little baby voice. 

He loves books and his favorite now is "Big Elmo bookie."  He still loves Elmo and The Wiggles.  He loves to dance and is really into music lately.  He has zero interest in his old bear Baby and hasn't for months now.  But he's still obsessed with his blanket "Blue Body" and lugs it around to daycare and back every day and refuses to sleep without it. 

His favorite games are flying through the house "I fy!", being chased "Run, mommy!" and collapsing onto the sofa to be tickled and hugged.  He still lets me give him hugs and cuddles but sometimes squirms away.  He is good at holding my hand when we walk.  I think he misses our time together when I was on leave because he's always trying to get my attention in the evenings and weekends. 

Barrett is into EVERYTHING these days.  He's up on the table, up on the island, pulling open drawers.  Thank goodness he hasn't figured out doorknobs yet.  His teacher told me he's her little Curious George and I can't say I disagree!  She told me that last week she turned her back to hand a parent a sheet of paper and in that time, Barrett managed to find the paint and spill it all over himself.  She said in all her years teaching no child's ever found the hiding spot for the paint but wouldn't you know that our little Bear would?  He's such a monkey!

He makes us laugh, he drives us crazy, he's such a silly little boy!

Barrett has it all figured out

Barrett is big on identifying what belongs to whom these days.  He's always pointing out what's his, what's mommy's and what's daddy's.

So the vacuum cleaner was sitting out and he points to it and says "that's Mommy's."

And when we're walking through the garage and he sees a beer bottle in the recycling bin he says "that's Daddy's."

Smart kid, apparently he has figured out how it works in our house!

Our current leading name choices

We were talking about baby names last night and I asked Barrett if he had any name suggestions.

Barrett: "Yes"

Me: "What name do you like for baby sister?"

Barrett: "Barney."

Me: "Hmm. I'm not sure that will work. Do you have a second choice?"

Barrett: "Yes"

Me: "What is it?"

Barrett: "Mommy."

So there you go. According to Barrett, baby girl should be named either Barney or Mommy. We may or may not take his ideas into consideration. I guess you'll have to wait and see!