Happy Birthday Mike!

A very happy birthday to Mike!! We hope you have a wonderful day!!!

Brenden says, "Habbe birday papa!"

Testing

He's 2 years old...I get that. I understand that this is supposed to be his "terrible 2's." I know that he will push his limits, test my patience, screech like a banshee when I say no or someone doesn't do what he wants right now. I can understand all of that, but that doesn't mean I have to like it.

He's become very demanding. He will tell me to "Stop it!" or yell at other kids to "Sit down!" Both of those outbursts are usually followed by someone gasping, and it's usually not me. Obviously I'll make him apologize, either to me or to the child, but it still bothers me.

He's also becoming more physical, and not in the loving sense. He still wants to hug all the kids, hold their hands and sit next to them. But he also wants to "play tag," which really means "shove you to the floor." And hand holding has gone from sweet to not so fun since now he likes to drag them around. Again, we make him apologize and he will usually stop pushing or pulling, but by that time a lot of the children are done trying to play and the parents are giving me the stink eye. Yes, they really are. I've given the stink eye to plenty of parents at the play area at the mall who let their 9 and 10 year olds run around like hoodlums, trampling the teeny tiny kids. I know what the stink eye looks like. But that's another story.

The worst part is when I know he knows not to do something but does it anyway. Even after being told not to. "Don't open the back door" doesn't mean anything to him anymore. To time out he goes! "Don't kick the dog" apparently means "Just wait a second, I may change my mind." Telling him to stop running or not to yell is like talking to a wall.

Again, I know this is not abnormal. I know that Tim did these kind of things as a child, especially being told not to do something and then looking right at his parents as he disobeyed them. I'm sure I gave my parents plenty of headaches. That just doesn't make it much easier. I'm tired, and by 4 pm, after telling him about 15 times not to do something, I'm worn out mentally.

Not all of his developments are awful. Some are actually really great. For example, his speech his really taken off. A few people at the dance studio hadn't seen him in a week or two and were amazed at how much more he was saying and how they could understand him. Even when you are told that they will make huge strides out of no where, it doesn't really prepare you for just how much they can change in a matter of days. Before, I was happy that he was finally saying "mommy" and "daddy." Now he comes up to me and says things like "Mommy, that's your eyebrow." (while actually pointing to my eyebrow) or "Mommy, where did daddy go?"

He could be speaking fluent French right now and that wouldn't really make up for all the tantrums and screaming. Even when he asks me "Need help?" it doesn't do a whole lot. Especially since he doesn't like it when I answer, "Yes. I need you to stop acting like a crazy person!" Of course, "Mommy, need a hug?" Yeah...that makes things just a little easier.

What Else Would You Like?

Christmas cards...my least favorite part of Christmas time. My hand always cramps, finding everyone's addresses is never fun, and I never seem to have enough stamps.

I decided to remedy the stamp problem yesterday. I didn't think it would be that big of a deal, but Brenden decided to be a complete problem child. His new thing is saying "Owww!" every time I touch him when he doesn't want to stand still. He also decided to lay down on the floor, crawl under tables, yell, scream, cry...the works.

When we finally got up to the counter I figured the lady would glare at us and rush us through to get us out of her hair. Brenden couldn't see over the counter so he asked to be picked up. As soon as he could see the lady he said, "Cookie please!" My response? "What?!? Why in the world would you think you get cookies at the post office?" The lady was so funny. She told him she was sorry she didn't have cookies but if she had one she would definitely share. Another lady came up to me and tried to teach Brenden the sign for cookie, which he was not impressed with.

As we were leaving, a different lady stopped me and said that she had baked cookies for her daughter that afternoon and wished she had brought one in to give to "your cute little boy!" (I'm guessing that they all missed his horrid behavior. Who rewards that?!? Or finds it cute?!?) Not 2 seconds later her 14 year old daughter ran in with a big old chocolate chip cookie in her hand. "COOKIE!!! Thanks!!!" Brenden screeched. So of course I couldn't say no. He was so happy and that girl was ecstatic that she made his day.

Who knew that you could walk into a post office, act like a hoodlum, and still get a cookie. I guess you have to be 2 years old. I know I couldn't pull that off.

They Learn So Quickly

Last night the conversation at bedtime went like this:

Tim: "Brenden, it's time to change your clothes."

Brenden: "NOOOOOO! Wanna play with Jarrett!" (our friends were over with their little boy)

Tim: "It's bedtime. Come on."

Brenden: screams all the way through changing his diaper, putting on his pajamas, taking his medicine.

Me: "Are we ready for bed?"

Brenden: "NOOOOOOOOO!"

Me: "I'll lay down with you for a while."

Brenden: "NOOO! I'm stinky!" (as in, needs his diaper changed, which had just happened 2 minutes before)

Me: "No you don't, silly."

Brenden: "I'm wet?"

Me: "Nope. I don't think so."

Brenden: "Have to go potty?"

Me: "I wish you would go potty in the potty!"

Brenden: sighs, realizing he has used up all of the excuses to not go to sleep yet

Next up? "I need a glass of water!" "My clothes are too tight!" "It's too hot in my room!" And on and on. Why didn't anyone warn me that this started so soon!?!

The Name Game

Many girls start dreaming of their wedding day when they are little. They want to do hope chests and cut out pictures of wedding dresses or wear a pillow case on their head like a veil. I don't remember doing that at all. I'm sure I dreamed of getting married, but it was more about the feelings of loving someone and being a bride, not the details of the actual day. Planning our wedding wasn't difficult. Tim actually had great input and made very little requests. (He really just didn't like certain colors, that was all.) It may have been stressful but I didn't have a grandiose dream that I had to make come true.

No, what I really dreamed about was names for my future children. I recently threw away all my old diaries and there were pages and pages of names that I liked. Taylor, Rose, Madison, Mariah. I can only recall one boy's name, Tyler, and that was to go with Taylor.

Surprisingly, making a list of 5 or 6 names that we both liked wasn't difficult when we found out we were going to have a boy. It was much more difficult to narrow it down to just one. The name Brenden didn't show up on that list until I was about 33 weeks pregnant, and even then Tim was positive he was going to be named Braden. (When he likes a name he likes a name. Poor Brenden gets his stubbornness from both parents.)

However, this time around has not been so easy. There have been names we have both liked but nothing has really struck us as THE NAME. Tim has a name, again, that he is extremely fond of. I don't hate it, I just like other names better. I have a name I love, but the nickname that would obviously come out of it is something that I don't like at all. I tried doing an impromptu poll on Facebook, asking if there was any way I could request for her name to not be shortened. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem like we could convince anyone that the name we picked was the name we would like for her to be called.

I don't have a problem with nicknames in general. Obviously Tim's name is shortened from Timothy and many people in my family still call me Mandy. (Those family members are the only people allowed to call me that.) If we decide on a name and later on our daughter wants to be called by a nickname then that is totally fine with me. After we've given it to her it's her name. Much like when I was 3 years old and decided my name was Amanda, not Mandy, and my parents respected that, I would respect her right to choose.

So for now, she's nameless, which is obviously okay since we have a little time. It just makes me slightly anxious because there are so many people having babies right now and I would hate for one of my friends to decide to use a name we already like. Yes, we could still name her that, but it would feel weird to me. The fact that I've been dreaming about naming a girl since forever doesn't help either. This is much more stressful than planning a wedding...by a LOT.

Wordless Wednesday

Not long ago it was his dog. This week...his horse. :)

It's a...

...GIRL!!!

Never in a million years did I actually think we'd have a girl. I wished, I hoped, I crossed fingers and called it a girl forever but I never thought we'd really have one. The reason? The Kellys don't really have girls. Tim's cousin Jessica was the first girl to be born on the Kelly side of the family in over 70 years. We would have been thrilled if it was a boy, but to have one of each is truly a blessing!

When Courtney, the super sweet sonographer, first started we immediately saw the face. The hands were right up there, right where they were at the 9 week ultrasound. That's just the way she likes to sleep! Courtney then pointed out the brain, the heart, both hands, the diaphragm, the spine...all the really important parts. She said everything looked perfect.

That took about 20 minutes and then she asked if we were ready to find out if it was a boy or a girl. We were SO ready! While we chatted about names (or our lack of names, really) I told her how I had promised the anesthesiologist that administered my epidural with Brenden that I would name my next child after him. She laughed and said "I hope he had a very feminine name!" And then I BAWLED. I was so excited! I don't think I was really composed for another 5 minutes. She would hand me pictures and my hands were shaking so badly that I couldn't hold them. I had that same problem when we found out with Brenden. :)

Since we were the last appointment for the day she "played" a bit. She even turned on the 4D and let us see her face! (We weren't supposed to have that done which makes me like her even more!) It was absolutely amazing.

So here you go, the first pictures of our daughter! (How crazy to say that!) Click on them to enlarge.

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Her foot!

She's looking right at you! (and her left arm is up)

Beautiful!

Hello world!