Great Brennan Quotes of 2012

Brennan is hilarious! I copied these all from my Facebook page from the last year. Enjoy!

2012:

Winter:

Brennan can count to ten with no problems. After 10, it gets a bit hairy..."Eleventeen, ...*mumble*...6, 17, 17 and the 18."

Brennan is supposed to be taking a nap. Instead: "Daaaaaddy. Daaaaaaaddy. Daaaaaaaddy. ...Oh well. MOMMY! Mommy, wanna get out!"

Brennan was carrying around two pieces of aluminum foil: "Whoa, lotta shiny!"

Me: "Ooooh, Brennan, you're so cute!"
B: "Nooo."
"Why not?"
"Big boy. Big boy now."
...He was a little offended when I burst out laughing.

Me: "Go to sleep, Brennan!"
Brennan: "Silly Mommy!"

Spring:

Funny Brennan story of the day: He was telling me to drive "really really fast". I told him I had to go slow because that car had an owie. After that, if we started slowing down again, he would yell, "Oh nooo! Car got owie a-GAIN!" It took me several times to convince him it was all better!

Brennan's little world has been topsy-turvy lately. Things keep disappearing, because Mommy is doing something called "packing". So yesterday, when Brennan noticed his Thomas train case in a box, he took it out and brought it to the playroom. He set it on the floor and commanded, "STAY!" and then continued on his merry way!

Brennan got 3 new Lightning McQueens and a new Mater today. So, there's no napping. But there IS a lot of: "Light on! Open door! Nenny wake! Lightning McQueen and nother one Lightning McQueen and Mater and one pick-up truck and purple car! Mommy! Mommy, I want you to obey! You comin'? Mommy!" *throws cars*

Brennan still can't find where we moved his books too. "Where it IS, Mommy??" Poor child.
He was reading one of the ABC books. "Duh, duh, doll...duh, duh, flower..."
Me: "That's a daffodil."
B: "Duh, duh, daffo-flower."
Close enough.

"Look at dat RAIN! I need a towel!" - Brennan, after our soaking 5-second dash in the rain. "Dat fun!"

I love how Brennan tells me when he's doing something naughty. For example: "Nenny standin' on da table!"

Brennan's nap: "Hey yellow car! What doing? Drivin' on a bed! Ken? Ken! Goin' Grampa house? Bye, Ken! Hey 'nother yellow car! What? What doin'? Ken? Ken! Hey blue pick-up truck, what doin'? Bye! ... Everybody! Everybody! WHAT! ... OHMYGOSH. *cackle*"

"I squishin' pea. Aww, poor pea!" – Brennan

Summer:

I think Brennan turned into a teenager overnight. This is our conversation this morning:
Me: "Brennan, it's time to get out of bed!"
B: *head under blanket* "Nooooo!"
"Come on! We're going to church!"
"I sleeping!"
"I think Valerie will be there..."
B: *head pops up* "Valerie!?"
And then he got out of bed. For a girl.

Brennanisms today:
Brennan: "Ouch! I gotta owie! Hey, Mommy, is dis a owie?"
Me: "No, you're fine."
B: "Okay!" *happily scampers away*
***
B, to himself: "Have underwear on? Probly not."
***
Me: "Brennan, you don't have any pants on!"
B *looks down; pulls his shirt down over his knees* "It's SHIRT-PANTS."

Me: "Who should we invite to the party?"
Brennan: "Cake!"

Me: "So, there are 6 bananas and five apples. Are there more bananas or apples?"
Brennan: "Cherries."

Brennan: "Oh no! Milk all over!"
Me: "Do you need a towel?"
Brennan: "No. I just whining 'bout the milk."

Brennan: "I AWAKE NOW! I awake Mommy! MOMMY! Listen to Brennan, Mommy! Now! Brennan is awake!"

"My head is beautiful and dry!"

Brennan is starting to get desperate at nap time. First, he tried "Mommy, I have a present for you!". Then he tried: "Mommy! Remember, I'm a gummy bear!" For some reason, that didn't work either.

 "See horses, singing, play balls, have lunch, and eat cake and pie. That's a wedding." – Brennan, after Jotham and Pamela’s farm wedding

All too early, there was a small child sitting on my back saying, "You can wake up, Mommy! I turned the light on for you!"

Brennan just put a bowl on his head and said, "I'm a birthday party!”

Brennan: "I fly with these wings, Mommy!"
*Jumps of couch and crashes*
*Looks dejectedly at his arms*
"Hey, these ones not working!"

Me: "Way to go, Brennan! You kept your underwear dry all morning!"
Brennan: "I did? WHAT?!? Already?? That's incredible!"

Best Brennan quotes of the day:
Me: "What are you doing?"
B: "I'm really not sure!"
**
B: "I'm the best ever Brennan!"

Fall:

Brennan has decided not to nap today. He says: "MOMMY! YOU TRICKING A LITTLE BOY!"

Me: "You are going to Grandma's house after your nap today."
B: "No, we not take a nap at Gramma's house."
Me:"No, you're going to take your nap here."
B: "HAhaha, no, Mommy. I don't think so. This bed is too hot. And Charlie's bed too hot. Also, all the things too hot."

Me: "So, you want Charlie to watch you fall asleep??"
B: "Yeah!"
Me: "That doesn't sound like much fun."
B: "Yes it is. SO much fun."

Me: "You're goofy."
B: "Haha, yeah. And weird."

I asked Brennan what his favorite part of his party was, and he said: "Raspberries! And I eat with everyone and I had a pickle! I have one of Grandma's pickles and it was yummy!" I asked if he liked his presents and he said: "It was SO much fun! There's cars in my presents!”

Me: "I am amused!"
Brennan: "No, you are a woman!"

Every night, I pray Ephesians 3:16-21 over the boys, then we do our "God Bless"-es. This is Brennan's version: "God Jesus, loves the power, strong in spirit, stronger in love. Amen. God Bless Dee-dee, God bless Luigi....uh, I think I need to play with Luigi."

Once a once a time, there was a cat named Emily Elisabeth. He liked to eat fish because they were SO cute! Then he went go outside, but he was scared of the worm so he ran away. Then the Wonder Pets came to save the animal in trouble! The told him [the worm] to go away because the cat wasn't scared any more.

Brennan: "I can't sleep like this, Mommy!"
Me: "Can't sleep like what?"
B: "I just fell out of this bed!"

Brennan was holding our friend Baby T. I thought we were about to have a thoughtful, educational discussion, but it went like this:
Brennan: "What color is Baby T?"
Me: "What color is he, Brennan?"
B: "Gold!"
Me: "Oh...what color is Brennan?"
B: "Shiny!"
So much for that educational discussion.

Brennan picked out Christmas presents for everyone. Daddy: a violin. Charlie: a watering can. Mommy: Celery, because it's good for you. And for Brennan: A pine cone, but not for eating. squirrels eats pine cones, but people do NOT.

A while ago, we were listening to our kids' Bible songs CD. "God Made Me" was playing, one of Brennan's favorites...
Brennan: "God made ME?"
Me: "Yes, baby, He did!"
Brennan: "God loooooooves me!"
He gets it. :)

Yesterday, Brennan went with Daddy to pick up my Christmas present. I was hoping to get what it was out of Brennan, but that kid's lips were sealed:
"What's Mommy's present, Brennan?"
"A box."
"What's in the box?"
"A present."
"What kind of present is it?"
"A box present."
That is one tough kid to crack!

Only my child: When playing with tangrams: "They're hexagons! They're rhombuses! Oh, they're SQUARES!"

I wasn't paying attention to Brennan until I heard him say to himself: "This is not something to color on." ... I found him with a pen on my bed. Then, while walking past the box where he'd found his present a few days ago: "We can't play with these beautiful cars *sad sigh*".

Me: "Lay down so I can cover you up."
B: "You know what? I'm making cookies right now."

Merry Christmas!

With cousin Baby Selah!

Thanksgiving 2012

So blessed to call these treasures mine!

Time Warp!

Yes, we do still exist. I can't believe it's been so long since I've blogged! It kept getting bumped off my to-do list. And now, suddenly, it's January. Just BAM, now it's 2012. What happened? And why do my babies look like little men??

I swear, if I leave the room for a minute, they've grown an inch by the time I walk back in.
Too fast.
The good news is, they're such fantastic little men! They are smart and adorable and I feel so blessed that they're mine.
Charlie is loving school! In fact, often on the weekends he'll ask (by signing) for school! He's doing so well. At PT, he's starting to use a walker. He's got a ways to go before he can do it on his own - he'll go a few steps and then randomly let go - but he's quickly gaining the strength and skills he needs. Last month Charlie got some AFOs to help support his lower legs and help the arch of his foot form correctly. They help him out a LOT and he can *almost* stand on his own! When he's really focused, he can stand with just one of my fingers on the middle of his back for support. And he loves being able to stand! Once Charlie really gets mobile, we're going to be in trouble! We'll have TWO energetic toddler boys running around! Yikes.
Another big development for Charlie is eating real food! He loves to eat, and who can blame him? For awhile we were really struggling to get Charlie to gain weight while weaning him from his Pediasure. It didn't help that he was NOT a fan of drinking regular milk from a cup. Also, his jaw was quite weak, so he'd tire out before taking in enough calories. But we kept at it and now we're down to only one bottle of Pediasure a day, split between breakfast and bedtime! I've learned how to add calories to ev.er.y.thing. He loves mashed potatoes, and we load them up with butter, cheese, and olive oil. We add cheese to his scrambled eggs (another favorite!) and carnation instant breakfast to his yogurt. And you can add so many things to oatmeal! Charlie goes crazy over cookies and cake! He fits right in with this sweet-tooth family! Food is a great language motivator for Charlie, too. I think nearly half of his signs are eating or food related. It's also one of the best ways to get him to do two signs at once - "More potato", "more chicken", etc. One of his few spoken words is "more" and when he's eating something he loves, it's so cute to hear him yelling "MAH! MAH!" so enthusiastically for every bite!

Brennan is finding his groove as a two year old. I took both of the boys to Target a few days ago and couldn't figure out what happened to my sweet, obedient child and replaced him with this terror who kept lying down on the floor and running away from me, giggling maniacally. Yup, he's definitely two! Lol. He's still very good, *most* of the time. But then there are the days where he's just...two. He really cracks me up though. Brennan talks ALL day long, and some of the things he says are just a hoot! Like the time he was trying so hard to pick Charlie up off the floor, straining and pulling, and finally sat down next to Charlie and said, "Charlie stuck!" And when Ken was putting up the Christmas lights - oh, that made Brennan's day. "Oo! Oo! Red light! Green light! Blue! Green! Oo! Oo! Lights! Red light! Big tree! Pink light!" It was so funny! We taught him to say fun things too, like "What does a Ninja say? "Hi-yah! (arm motions)" and the Feeny call "FeenyFeenyFeeny!" He is an endless source of entertainment!
Brennan is so smart, too. He knows all the letters - lowercase and capital - and he knows what a lot of the letter sounds are! He knows B says Buh, P says Puh, etc. I'm pretty sure he'll be reading chapter books by the time he starts kindergarten! Every where we go he reads letters and numbers that he sees. It keeps him busy in the Target check-out lane! My favorite thing about B right now is that he loves to sing! It's adorable! He sings at the top of his lungs when we're in the car or when he's supposed to be sleeping. He sings really quietly when he's trying to copy us and get the words right. He used to drag a small reading lamp around the house with him to use as a microphone, so for Christmas we gave the boys an old karaoke machine that was my sisters' and mine. It has a camera so the boys can watch themselves sing on TV. They love it! Yesterday I made up a song to the tune of "Clementine" : Oh my Nenny, oh my Nenny, oh my little Nenny boy... [B calls himself Nenny] so now he walks around singing "O-Oh Nenny, Oh Nenny, oh little boooooy!" Love! 

So there's your super-long update. Hopefully it won't be so long til the next one. ;)

Six months home! -Pic heavy

October marks six months home for Charlie.

When we met him, he was 3.5 years old and weighed only 16 pounds. 

Charlie was very weak, and had just begun sitting up on his own. He frequently fell over. Our 1.5 hour visits completely wore him out. He had no language. He wore size 9 month pants.

When he first came home, he was quite sick. We were in the ER one week after he came home, then again 2 days later for an 8-day stay. 

Once we got him healthier, we saw the real Charlie start to come out! We found out he's smart, a good imitator, and very observant. He's a quick learner! He quickly learned his first word, "All done!". It was a long summer as we met with many specialists and dealt with lots of fevers. In his first five months home, Charlie had 5 ER visits, 3 hospital stays (not including surgery), 2 day procedures requiring full sedation, a sleep study, one failed heart surgery attempt, and numerous consults, doctor appointments, xrays, and labs. And, finally, the heart surgery we'd been waiting for! 

Now, at 6 months home, Charlie has truly blossomed. He is my Superman. He's gained a whooping 11 pounds, weighing in at 27lbs. He's now in size 24 month clothes and is finally catching up to his little brother in size! He's gained a lot of strength and energy, as well. Charlie can sit for long periods of time, roll across the room, and bear weight on his legs for up to a minute! He works really hard at physical therapy and leaves us amazed. He's learned a half dozen spoken words and around 30 signs. 

Charlie is a completely different kid than the one we met in the orphanage. He's come so far in so many ways. I am so glad God blessed me with Charlie. I love you, rock star!

Jump!