Do all kids stutter?

Brody has talked in circles as long as he's been able to string together words. A typical sentence will be "Brody go to pool and Dada go to pool and Brody." As he's nearing two and a half his sentences are becoming more concise but we're starting to notice a new trend- a stutter. He often repeats the first word when he's excited and struggling to get the rest of the sentence out, but that's not what I mean by a stutter. Over the last week he's developed a true stutter where just the first sound is repeated. I wonder if this is common and if all kids stutter a bit while they're learning to talk. I'm interested to see how this changes as he becomes more comfortable with his words and his ability to communicate. For now, we'll just keep watching and listening.

My little motivator

Last night was my first bike ride with Brody in tow. In hindsight, I probably should have reacquainted myself with the bicycle before I hooked my child to the back, but we survived. Jacob said I came close to hitting a tree at one point and I definitely had a couple of wobbles as I tried to check on Brody behind me while continuing to pedal.

Brody was quiet for most of the ride. I wasn't sure if he was enjoying himself or if he was bored or even scared. At one point the bicycle started making a funny noise so I slowed down to check it out. As I came close to stopping I heard a quiet voice behind me say "Go mama, GO!" I turned around to check on him and he was dazed but looked comfortable. I asked if he was ok and he said "GO!" So I sped off again ignoring the noise of the bike, which eventually went away.

A little further into our ride I hit an uphill that slowed me down quite a bit. Again, a little motivating voice came from behind me "Fast mama, GO FAST!" I did my best, but I don't think I could hit a speed that satisfied him at that point. My legs were rubber. If I were all alone I may have stopped at that point but with Brody behind me I knew that wasn't an option. My little motivator, aka drill sergeant was back there to keep me moving all the way home.

Our good little eater

Brody has the craziest sense of taste. Since infancy he's been drawn to sour foods like lemons and limes. I've never seen him pucker up at the intense sour taste. He will chew on a lemon slice until only the rind remains, then keep chewing on the rind until someone asks him to spit it out. He also loves spicy foods and will continue eating them while he sweats and his eyes turn red and watery. He's a big fan of Anita's salsa and likes to dip his chip over and over again, licking off the salsa after each dip.

At Mamie's he's an eater of unusual vegetables. He can finish a bowl of raw radishes all by himself. Last night he couldn't get enough of the raw onion soaked in vinegar. While I ate them with pot roasted beef and potatoes, Brody ate them alone. Then asked for more. And more. And more. The kiss I received from Brody as I left for work this morning was rather unpleasant. I hope toddler toothpaste is strong enough to take care of his onion stinkbreath.

County Fair

We met up with Mike, April, Kylie, Katie, and Evelyn Wednesday night for the Prince William County fair. We told Brody about the animals and rides we'd see at the fair so as soon as we parked the car he was practically running to get... somewhere. I don't think he really had any clue where he was going, but he knew it was going to be exciting so he was moving fast. I have never seen him walk with such long strides. He took the lead and Jacob, baby Logan, and I did our best to keep up with him.

After we toured the animal paddocks we went to check out the amusement rides. I think Brody is at that perfect age when he enjoys a lot of things but doesn't yet realize the things he's missing. Of all the rides at the fair, Brody was tall enough to ride only three. He wasn't upset that he couldn't ride the others; he was very happy to ride the three he could. First he rode around an oval track in a train that had cars that looked like bulldozers. Considering Brody's love of construction vehicles this ride was practically made for him. Next he rode down a big slide with Jacob. I thought he might be scared, especially when the kid before him came down kicking and screaming... literally. But Brody wasn't scared at all. He had a huge smile the entire way down. Brody's third ride was the carousel. He walked half way around, examining each horse before he found his choice. We have no idea what drew him to his horse, but he was happy.

After rides we ate dinner and dessert then attempted to watch the demolition derby. Brody probably saw more than the rest of us since he was able to get up on my shoulders. I heard him say "oh! They crashed!!" a couple of times so I think he must have seen a little. After a few minutes he grew bored and spent the rest of the night chasing cousins Kylie and Evelyn around in the grass. That was probably the highlight of his night. Well, that or the chocolate ice cream cone, which he came close to finishing all by himself.

Logan is 4 months old

Logan is now 4 months old. He's consistently sleeping through the night- roughly 10pm-7am. We've enjoyed 2-3 weeks of this schedule and keep our fingers crossed every night, hoping that it'll continue. Every once in a while he'll wake around 4am and talk himself back to sleep. We haven't had to go into the room to soothe him in quite a while.

He's not really on a nap schedule yet and probably not getting enough sleep during the day. We're still trying to figure that out.

He's 15lbs (50th percentile) and in the 90th percentile for height. He's holding his head very well and on Tuesday of this week he rolled from his tummy to his back for the very first time. I haven't seen it yet, but Jacob was there to witness the first roll. He's a strong little boy, I'm not surprised that he's able to move around.

He continues to be a happy and easy baby. He is not a fan of the car seat right now, but otherwise he is a perfect little boy.

Brody the tomato eater

I plant tomatoes every year. In the past our cherry tomatoes have always outperformed our full size tomatoes so this year I only planted a single cherry tomato plant and planted 6 of the larger varieties. As of mid-August we haven't had a single cherry tomato make it into the house. The plant isn't producing like they have in the past, but that isn't the only problem. Brody is an addict.

One of the vegetable gardens is right next to the deck and we pass it every time we walk between the house and the car. Brody won't let a red tomato sit on that plant. He checks it every time and if any tomato is red or almost red, he picks it and eats it right off the vine. I'm lucky that he can distinguish between the green tomatoes and the red ones because otherwise there wouldn't be any fruit left on the plant.

Granny and Poppa have chicken wire around their plants in an effort to deter the deer. The wire is no match for Brody.

fuzzy head

I love when babies start growing new hair and have fuzzy heads while the hair is short, soft, and sticking straight out. Logan is just starting the fuzzy head stage. It's still short enough that he looks bald from afar, but up close you can see the short baby hairs.

Brotherly Love

When Logan was a newborn I was telling Debbie how Brody seemed to love Logan a little too much sometimes. Debbie asked me if Logan had learned to turn his head away from Brody yet. She said that her own baby lover Wilson would get so close to Jackson's face that he eventually learned to turn away from Wilson. I was amazed that a newborn could have such a strong survival mechanism so I looked for the same behavior in Logan but never saw it. He wouldn't look towards Brody but he wouldn't look away either. He seemed indifferent unless Brody was crying, in which case Logan cried too. Of course, this wasn't specific to Brody, Logan cried whenever he heard anyone else cry.

Now that Logan's almost four months old I can tell that he's not going to turn his face away from his brother. When Logan hears Brody's voice he looks at him and smiles. Brody thrives on this, so he tries to do whatever he can to make Logan happy. When Logan cries, Brody shouts "he needs pacifier!" and races to find one. When Logan is in a happy mood, Brody tries to make it even better with big smiles and laughter. I have already written about their gigglefest, which was repeated last night at Granny and Poppa's house.

Brody also has a calming effect on Logan. When Logan cries, I often ask Brody to sing to him. He'll sing Baabaa Black Sheep or Twinkle Twinkle Traffic Light or You are my Sunshine until Logan is happy again. Last night as we were driving home from Granny and Poppa's and nearing the boys' bedtime, Logan started getting fussy. Without prompting, Brody started singing his ABCs. Logan began to calm down but started crying when the song ended, so Brody kicked off round two of his ABCs. This time Logan calmed, but started whimpering again during Brody's last sentence "now I know my...". Instead of finishing the last bit of his song, Brody started right over with "ABCD...". I think he went through 4 or 5 rounds of his ABCs before Logan drifted off to sleep and slept through almost all of our car ride home.

I've heard other parents say that they were afraid having a second child forced their first child to grow up too fast. I don't think we have that problem in our home. Brody was ready to be a big brother and luckily for Logan, he's really good at it.

Brody the bully?

For as long as I can remember, Brody has been bullied. Kids at day care picked on him, cousin Evelyn overpowered him, the neighbors' kid called him a baby... the list goes on and on. He's submissive and he's sweet. He just takes the abuse from the other kids and doesn't retaliate, which makes him an easy target. Once, when Jacob was dropping Brody off at day care a slightly older kid (Nicholas) approached him and Brody instinctively backed into a corner. Whenever we asked about a new booboo received at day care, Brody always told us that "Nicholas did it", which we know wasn't always true.

Soon after Logan was born we moved Brody to a new daycare that has children ranging in ages from infant to 3.5 years old. Brody seems to have adjusted well. He plays well with most of the children and loves his new teacher, Miss Shahnaz. However, by combining children of all ages we've created a situation where there are kids smaller than Brody. Suddenly, Brody isn't bullied anymore, he's the bully! He has chosen 9 month old Kate to be the victim of his stored aggression. Jacob saw Brody shake Kate's highchair while she was eating breakfast and push her down when she approached him. The teacher told us that Brody gets along with everyone except Kate.

What happened to our sweet boy? Why is he picking on the little 9 month old girl who just learned to crawl? Is 2 years and 5 months too early for a kid to learn to pick on someone his own size? Or is Kate's 3 year old brother Alex going to have to seek revenge for his sister? Alex is huge so it would certainly teach Brody a lesson. Although Logan may be able to protect him.

Gigglefest

Last night Logan and I sat next to the bathtub as Brody took his bath. Brody was cranky and having a "no" kind of day. He has a new molar that just cut through his gums so he's not exactly a joy to be around. (He keeps telling me that he has a "boo boo in his mouth"- too cute!) Out of the blue, Brody reached over and touched Logan's knee saying "tickle, tickle, tickle". Logan smiled at him, so he did it again. This time Logan did a half laugh. Brody beamed and looked up at me and said "he's smiling at me!" When Brody did it a third time, Logan let out a gurgling, hiccuppy laugh, the kind that only Jacob had succeeded to extract from Logan. It made Brody's night. He tickled Logan's knee 8 or 10 more times, each time causing Logan to laugh harder, which in turn made Brody laugh harder. Eventually this gigglefest induced a case of hiccups in Logan and the boys calmed down. By the end of the bath Brody was back into a cranky mood, but it was nice to have those minutes of sunshine when everyone was happy and the boys were in their own little world.

We have a thumb sucker

Logan continues to find his own ways to soothe. Last night I set Logan on the big bed to stare at the ceiling fan while I cleaned myself up for bed. By the time Jacob came into the room with Brody, Logan had gotten his thumb into his mouth and curled his forefinger over his nose. He lay there happily, sucking away. Let's add this to the list of habits that we'll have to break later.

We see fire

We took the boys to a Japanese steakhouse Saturday night. I'd suggested this in the past, thinking that Brody would have a good time and Logan is easy anywhere right now, but Jacob was hesitant and finally warmed up to the idea this weekend. Before we arrived we tried to explain to Brody what we were going to see so he wasn't overwhelmed when we sat down. By the time we got to the restaurant he was telling us that "the man cooks the meat" and "we see fire". I'm sure he had no idea what that meant, but at least he was a little prepared.

I think Brody decided he loved the place as soon as he sat down because they immediately brought him soup and salad. After a few failed attempts to eat the soup with a spoon he fished out the noodles to eat them without the hassle of all of the broth. The waitress put a paper umbrella in his drink and the hibachi man payed special attention to Brody throughout the meal. Brody even opened his mouth to try to catch a lump of rice thrown by the hibachi man, but it hit him in the chest instead. Brody ate like a champ, he loved the fried rice and dipped his chicken in the ginger sauce. He even finished all of his ice cream. Our dining companions commented on his appetite, which was particularly strong because Brody was starving.

Logan sat content in his car seat for the first half of the meal. He was watching all of the activity around him and listening to the sounds of the restaurant. As we started eating our main courses, Logan's eyes became heavy. He didn't fuss at all but blinked a few times and went to sleep. He didn't make a peep for the entire meal, even with the fire flare-ups.

It was a perfect dinner and left me smiling for the rest of the night. I'm so lucky to have these two sweet boys in my life.