Let me give this some thought...

Brennan has lately really been thinking about his actions and been learning to control his frustration, and it has been fascinating to watch.

This morning, we were ready to go to daycare, and Brennan wanted to take one of his cars with him while he walked down the stairs to the garage. I've been trying to impress on him lately that he shouldn't go up and down stairs carrying things. So I told him that he couldn't bring the car with him. He started to get a little upset. Then we had about a 20 second staring match -- my eyes basically telling him "yes, really, put the car down, and let's go." Finally, without any real fuss, he relented, and walked over to his bag of cars, put the car in the bag, and then walked over to the stairs. It was great not needing to physically remove the car from his hands -- that now he'll just pause and think, and then do what he's told.

Same thing when we got to daycare. He was playing with a leapfrog drawing thing in the car on the way over, and when we got there, he wasn't done playing. He wanted to take it in with him. I told him he couldn't. I could tell he was annoyed, but after about a 20 second pause for thought, he said "okayyyy," dropped the leapfrog toy, and reached out for me to pick him up out of the carseat.

Hopefully this agreeableness isn't just a fad for Brennan and he sticks to it. I much prefer this approach to the old way -- tantrums, crying, etc.

Brush Teeth

Brennan loves to brush his teeth. One of the many things he observed us doing for the longest time, so when we started brushing his teeth, he jumped at the opportunity to be able to do another thing that Daddy and Papa do. Other activities falling into this category include washing hands, putting lotion on, putting chapstick on, and others.

It's now to the point where he doesn't want us to brush his teeth. He wants to do it himself. He's actually pretty good at it so this is mostly okay with us. And when he sees a toothbrush lying around, he wants to brush his teeth regardless of whether they've been recently brushed.

He's certainly making Mommaw--his grandmother/former dental assistant--proud.

The Class Clown

I've often thought, since Brennan was very young, that he had the potential to be somewhat of a class clown. I've always thought he is very smart and will be successful -- just with how curious he is and how he is determined to figure out how things work. But he also likes to make people laugh, even it if requires being a little naughty. He always has been a performer around crowds. Whenever we take him to a party, he wants to be the center of attention -- dancing, singing, doing whatever he can to get people to watch him. Or when he was younger, he would run all around the waiting area at the airport clapping and saying "yay," getting everyone in the terminal to clap and cheer with him. He would make a great mascot in high school if he's not on the sports team.

At his family daycare, I think we're getting a little preview of what's to come. Apparently, this week, when all the kids go down for a nap, Brennan has started trying to keep them all up and and get them to play. Which is sort of funny, because he loves to sleep, and even nap.

The picture above is a little hard to make out -- crappy Blackberry camera. But it's Brennan trying to make a cat laugh.

Vacation

The above picture pretty much summarizes our whirlwind, 12-day, 3 city vacation for the holidays. Although we got to see a lot of family and friends, and we ate a lot of good food, the vacation was thoroughly exhausting.

Brennan slept in a total of seven different places (not including naps in the car, stroller, or planes). Fortunately, he's a pretty flexible kid, so he was able to sleep everywhere we went. But he was definitely getting fed up with the trip near the end. Acting up, throwing a few punches, throwing some food off the table. Now that we're back in town, it's time to eliminate those bad habits. Also fortunately, Brennan dodged the Christmas cold that always circulates around our families, but I didn't, and I'm still suffering from it.

This trip included a few "lasts" for us, for at least as long as we have young children:

- This was our last multicity trip

- This was our last trip longer than a week

- This was our last trip in which we take EIGHT pieces of luggage (including carry-ons).

- This was our last trip with Brennan as a "lap infant" on the planes. Both because he's turning two and because we wouldn't want to do it again anyway.

- This was our last trip with Brennan sleeping in a pack-n-play. He just doesn't fit anymore. Time to get him used to the big-boys bed.

Dipping in the Katsup

Brennan has become a big fan of dipping things lately. Doesn't matter if it's even something logical to dip. Dip a cookie in some salsa? Yummy. Dip some pumpkin bread in syrup? Why not? Here he is doing some more traditional dipping: