Little boy, Big personality

Whenever people ask us to describe Brenden Tim will always reply, "He looks like me, with Amanda's personality." I'm still not sure if this is a compliment or not. Brenden has some really funny moments, but he also has some pretty awful ones, so who do we attribute those to? Tim and I are both pretty darn stubborn so Brenden was doomed to inherit that. I've started writing down a few of the funny things he does. I'll let you decide which parent he may have received these traits from.

His latest skill is putting his fingers in his ears. He isn't doing it to pretend he can't hear us, he just thinks it's funny. He'll hum while he does it so I think he may have discovered that it sounds different when he does it. I know that Tim and I didn't show him how, he just walked up to me one afternoon grinning like crazy with his fingers firmly in each ear. Since everyone thought that was rather hilarious he decided that he would try sticking his fingers in other places on his face. His newest one is up his nose. He doesn't dig around or anything, he just puts both index fingers in his nostrils and snorts. I can't help myself when I laugh at this, although I'm sure it will come back to bite me in the end. If we're at a store I may say, "Brenden, that's not very attractive" but I don't exactly stop him. When he starts wiping things on me, I might.

On Saturday night we ate Christmas dinner with Mike and Connie. We had yummy stuffed pork chops, scalloped potatoes, crescent rolls, and salad. We thought for sure Brenden would love the potatoes and the carrots that his grandma made for him. Unfortunately his picky side came out and all he would eat was the rolls and a banana. (Brenden shares the same obsession with bananas as his friend Anthony. We can't say the word around him.) After trying everything we could to get him to eat something else for dinner, we gave up. He had enough to eat that day and wasn't so hungry that I thought he needed tons more food, and the fact that it wasn't exactly a balanced meal didn't bother me at that moment. If he was eating I was happy. Eventually Brenden decided he absolutely HAD to sit in his grandma's lap. He was content for about 5 seconds and then tried to grab his grandpa's knife. Back into the highchair he went, but not very happily. We tried to bribe him with a roll, which he took but he refused to take a bite of it. After much screaming and pounding he realized we were not going to let him back out. This is when he looked at his roll and bit it with a ferocity that I did not know he had in him. He then glared at each of us in turn, as if to say, "Fine. I'll eat the stupid roll." I'm pretty sure we were all crying from laughing, which didn't make Brenden feel much better.

There is a mall not very far from our house that has a nice play area for kids. The floor is squishy and so are the toys. We've gone twice, once with Connie and then again today with Tim and me. Brenden has no problems running around with the other kids, occasionally getting knocked down or running into the benches around the sides. Both times we have gone he's found one or two kids he plays with the entire time and thankfully their parents have been extremely nice. Brenden is a big time hugger and always seems to find a little girl to love on. The little girls don't seem to mind, especially since one of them followed him everywhere today. (She was 2...an older woman!) :) Today he took a big step and went down the slide all by himself! The first time he made it to the top of the slide and I held his hand while he sat down and put his feet out. The next time Tim put him at the top and Brenden figured out how to push himself to get going. I thought he had the hang of it, but I was wrong. His next attempt he thought he'd try going head first, which means he tumbled down and landed in a heap. I was sitting on the bench watching and Tim was recording it with his phone. I thought for sure he would cry, or at least not want to go down again. I was wrong! He went down one more time, but this time was feet first. (Mom's insisting changed his mind about going head first.) We're very proud of him!

The video of his last sliding attempt. It's a little fuzzy since we used our phone. (The first thing you hear me say is "No." hehe)

Slides aren't the only thing that don't scare him. He's also not afraid to walk up to random people and ask for something, like lifting him so he can reach a button or their cell phone. I am constantly amazed at what complete strangers are willing to do. There was a lady that works at Circuit City that actually sat him on the counter and let him type on her computer. Another lady handed him her Blackberry and didn't even blink when he ran away with it. Who are these people!? I think they are all wonderful, I just didn't know that so many people would give into him so easily. I know I wouldn't hand over my cell phone to a child that I didn't know. Someday this strange power he has over people will stop working and he will be so upset. Until then, I guess he'll just enjoy having an extra grandma or grandpa every where he turns.