Brentley on Maternity Leave

I have been home full-time with Brent for a month and have really enjoyed spending so much time with him. He is mostly such a happy, goofy guy. He's friendly, likes to play with kids, interact with strangers, and talkative (just not always English). He is also strong willed when he has an opinion but sometimes struggles with communicating what he wants. He rarely cries when he hurts himself, just gets up and brushes himself off (literally). He seems to be fascinated with the way things work - always investigating moving parts. He laughs every time he shouts “AH, AH, AH, CHOOOO,” (like he’s sneezing), plays chase or hide and go seek, and wrestles with Dad. He insists on brushing his teeth every time we brush ours and turns on the sink to make a mess at every opportunity he gets. Today we went to CurioOdessey in San Mateo and he was happy running around to all of the animals and letting us know which dog they looked like (Olive was a raccoon and Bowzer was a river otter). He knows the difference between basketball, baseball, and football on tv and the radio although he prefers to listen to his music.

 

He loves playing with his trucks, cars, blocks, puzzles and riding his ATV, big wheel, and wagons. He also LOVES being read to. We probably read 20 books a day, every day. His favorites change weekly but some include: On the Night You Were Born, Good Night Good Night Construction Site, Llama llama Red Pajama, I Love You Through and Through, Hungry hungry Caterpillar, and any book that pops up or has moving parts. He knows his way around our apartment building – knows where the elevator is, which buttons to push, where mama’s car is. His vocabulary is decent; we’re definitely in the stage where Mom and Dad are the only ones who can decode most of his words. Some words are very clear – No, mama, daddy, hi, bye, more, agua, juice, car, bird, doggie, duck, bear, elmo, fire, and other animals. Others not so much, Bow (Bowzer), OLLLL (Olive), truck, milk, squirrel, otter, elephant, airplane, etc. We can tell he understands what we’re saying when we talk to him and sometimes he chooses to listen. He is getting pretty good at reciting the alphabet with our help. He loves to look for trucks and choo choos when we’re driving. He also really likes to FaceTime with Nana and Pop pop and his cousins Dylan and Lucan, Uncle Justin and Aunt Adri. His favorite songs are Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star, Wheels on the Bus, If You’re Happy and You Know It, Old MacDonald, BINGO, and Itsy Bitsy Spider. Our schedule these days:

·         He is usually up by 7 am at the latest, and has a poopy diaper waiting for us (every SINGLE time). He will occasionally grace us by sleeping in but it’s unpredictable and usually when Ryan has to get up for work anyway,

·         He helps make his breakfast, usually toast and some sort of fruit. He really likes yogurt smoothies and helps put the fruit in the blender. He has a step stool that he is very confident pushing around the kitchen to get to whatever he wants or needs. He is not careful about avoiding my feet and is still learning that knives, the stove and the dirty dishes in the sink are off limits,

·         He gets a nebulizer breathing treatment to help with the wheezing. He is much better now but we still do it as a precaution,

·         He plays with toys while I get ready to go (or sneaks into the dog food)

·         I try to get out the door with him by 9:30 (otherwise he turns into Brent the crazy terrorist toddler). We have been rotating through the Children’s Discovery Museum, Happy Hollow, two different parks, the library, and My Gym class,

·         He eats lunch around noon, helps again with the preparation, and is usually down for a nap by 1:30. He is still a great napper, some days will sleep as long as 4 hours.

·         After nap we play and/or take the dogs out for walk. He really likes walking the dogs himself or pushing the stroller so our 30 min walk can turn into an hour ordeal. We often meet Dad on his walk home from work.

·         We eat dinner as a family around 6 or 6:30. The current challenge is getting Brent to stay in his seat during dinner. I’m not a fan of the in and out of his chair business that he likes to do,

·         Bathtime is at 7:15, then teethbrushing, story time in Mom and Dad’s bed, and bed time is 8-8:30. Lately it’s been a procedure to tuck in and say goodnight to all of his friends.

When asked, Brent knows where the baby is and he points out babies wherever we go, but I don’t think he has any idea what is about to happen. He likes to try out the bassinet and put his baby in it. He likes to point out the mama and babies in all of his books too. It’s funny to me that it’s always a mama – apparently there are not daddies in his books.

Brentley is working on learning not to hit or kick, especially kicking his pregnant mama. I’ve stopped changing him on the table unless I have to because he attacks me every time and thinks it’s hilarious. We are doing time outs on a regular basis but it’s still a work in progress. We’re also trying to teach patience and “please.” I suppose "thank you" should be on the list too.

 

Bowzer and Olive continue to tolerate him. He loves them but also hits them a lot and climbs on Bowzer like a horse. They seem to get a long best when Brent is throwing Bowzer's toys or feeding them from his plate.