Big Beezy

Now that Peyton is walking, she feels like she can do anything.  And is trying to do it all on her own.  She now wants to feed herself, refusing to take a spoon or fork from us.  She has to hold the spoon and insists on doing it herself.  Luckily, I can help her guide food into her mouth.  Most of the time, it becomes one huge mess, but she is so happy that she did it by herself.  She also tries to dress herself, which I end up taking over.  She tries to put her own pants on, which is pretty funny, given that she will sometimes put it over her head.  She also loves brushing her own teeth, and will clench the toothbrush and not let me help her.  When I do pry the toothbrush away from her, she will close her mouth and not let me stick the brush in.  It is definitely a compromise, as I have my hand on hers while the brush is in her mouth.
Just this morning, the teacher told me that another child came up to Peyton and tried to take a toy away.  Peyton looked at the child, then firmly said, “NO!”  The teacher was so happy she was using her big girl words.
I drove up to Dave’s Flavor Friday at work in honor of St Paddy’s day, to take Peyton on a field trip.  Brandon’s been to Dave’s work plenty of times.  We were there for about an hour, and Peyton mad-dogged everyone who stopped by to say hi.  Dave put on some funny glasses and maybe a half-smile appeared, but it was fleeting.  To her credit, she had been sleeping the entire trip up.  Most kids would have warmed up by at least half an hour.  Not this little girl.  She wasn’t having any of it.  She did sit on her own chair and eat some cheese by herself.  But if anyone tried to make eye contact, she gave the stare down of all stare downs.  It was raining as we were about to leave, and Dave was holding her and the umbrella.  As soon as the door opened, Peyton had the BIGGEST smile.  Ever.  It was like she held it in for an hour, and finally got to release it.  It was accompanied by her “O” funny faces.  She was her hammy self, just a few feet outside of the building.  Oh well, she’s a closet ham.

Brandon has been training for “Name that Artist” for some time now, thanks in part to our listening to the radio on the way to school.  He LOVES T. Swift, listening to her CD all night long as part of his bedtime routine.  He knows R. Thomas, whether its a solo song, or with his band.  That one surprised me because we’d never heard that song before, and he still knew it was R. Thomas.  Dave thinks he knows the artists because he has a limited number of artists he knows, and when we quiz him, he will just “guess” the right one.  I’m not so sure; I think it’s part of that, but he also loves music, and really wants to know who is singing what song.  He is well on his way to memorizing many of the T. Swift songs.  He knows the order of the songs, especially since just loop the CD.  Peyton is still the dancer in the family; she’ll hear the songs coming out of Brandon’s room and will start shaking her booty.

We were all done eating tonight, and Brandon was playing with the straps of Peyton’s high chair.  I was holding Peyton, and suddenly, she started pointing and screaming at Brandon and the chair.  Brandon put the straps down and said, “Okay!  You don’t want me to play with your chair.”  She calmed down as soon as he took his hands off her chair.  He then ran away to go sit on the stairs.  Dave asked him if he was scared of Peyton.  He didn’t say anything.  Maybe he is.
Brandon felt at school and put a hole in his nice jeans yesterday.  I was telling him that clothes are expensive and that we had to take care of our clothes.  This morning, on the way to school, he asked me, “Mommy, when is the hole going to go away in my jeans?”  I guess he thinks it’s like a scrape on his knee, which does eventually go away.
Dave came home a little earlier with Peyton today.  I found them out in the backyard.  Dave has a video of Peyton “golfing” in the backyard.  I’ll have him post it soon.  He said “she’s a natural”; she wants to learn and gets really excited to see the ball move.

This is the amount of sleep that I got last night!  It was mostly uninterrupted; I woke up just a little bit because I wasn’t woken up (weird, I know).  I thought it was weird that I hadn’t been interrupted.  I went to sleep around 1015pm, while Dave was watching TV with Peyton, who had fallen asleep at around 9.  I don’t know what time it was, but I closed my eyes and waited to be woken up.  That did not happen until 6am!  Hopefully this is the new norm.  I told Dave to sleep-train Peyton before he goes to China.  He said it wouldn’t happen because Peyton is so stubborn.  And it’s next week.  She is obedient in some cases though.  Last night, we were playing with her, telling her to sit up, which she did, lie down, which she did, then close your eyes, which she half does, because she wants to listen, but also keep her eyes open to see us and await her next command.  So it’s more like a squint.  Here is a picture of her with the command, “Open your mouth!”

She is also learning her animal sounds.  We were watching a food program on Ireland, and there was a picture of a cow, then a slab of meat.  She said, “Vuuu…”  Dave asked her what a dog says, she said, “Wuh-wuh.” Dave asked what a cat says, and she said, “Mao.”  Close.
The other day, I was asking Peyton different questions.  They all ended with a “NO!”  Finally, I asked her if she wanted Cheerios.  She waited, then said, “Yeshhhh.”

We now have “Mama”, “Dada”, “Hi”, and a very clear, “NO!”  She can be very obedient when she wants to.  Like if we say, “Lie down,” she will put her head down on the comforter we have on the floor for her.  Too bad it doesn’t last long.  She’ll do it long enough for us to say, “Yay!” then she pops right back up.  She can also sit and stand on command.  And knows to lie down when her diaper is wet and needs to be changed.  Still many commands most household dogs have mastered.  Oh yea, and she’ll “fetch” her books when asked as well.

On the way home from school today, Brandon asked, “Mommy, do you know what 2 plus 3 is?”  I asked him, “What is it?”  He answered, “5!”  He was so proud of himself.  Then he proceeded to tell me what “2 plus1″ and “2 plus 2″.  He told me, “I’m only telling you what I know.”  I asked him what “3 plus 2″ was.  He said, “Ah, thirty-two.”  At least he knows what 2 plus 3 is.

Brandon’s been having trouble again with his classroom dailies.  I asked the teacher to help me understand more what he does during class so that we can work with him at night.  She said that since the kids serve themselves food during lunch, Brandon tends to hoard food.  The teachers all know that he eats more and make sure to get him what he needs, but they are trying to teach Brandon to wait until others have had their share before getting seconds.  He did tell me the other day he got in trouble because he took the fruit bowl away from another child.  They said he loves milk, and while they won’t stop him from drinking it (they do limit the juice), he will fill his cup up right to the top.  Other kids don’t like it as much, so he essentially takes their share.  During circle time, he makes animal noises and is disruptive.  She did laugh though because she said the teacher leading circle time will stop and ask Brandon what it was that she just said.  Invariably, he will answer correctly, even while he was appearing to not pay attention.  She said he was a great “multi-tasker” in that respect.  I did mention that I’ve been telling him to pay attention so that he can learn a lot during circle time and that he needs to let his friends learn, too (since apparently he can talk and learn at the same time).  Dave said Brandon is the same way when they read.  He is fidgety, and looks around, away from the books, but can always tell Dave what is going on with the story when asked.  We just have to read him new books so he doesn’t already know what’s going on.  We keep reading the same old stories to him, and he’s memorized what has happened already.
Last week, after Brandon got his shots on Thursday, we went to the Farmer’s Market at my work to get a treat.  On Sunday, we went to another city Farmer’s market, and we saw the same cookies by the same bakery.  Brandon pointed to the cookies and said, “Hey Mommy, just like the cookies at Kaiser!”  The baker was there and overheard Brandon talking.  He answered and said, “Yes, you are right.  I was at Kaiser!”  I rushed away embarrassed.

Today, when I went to drop Peyton off at school, we entered the infant room portion of the infant/toddler area, which is separated by a sliding kitchen door.  She heard all the children in the other room, and when I set her down on the floor, she said, “Eh?” and looked toward closed door to the toddler area.  I told her I wasn’t ready to take her over there yet because I needed to put her sheets, bottles and food away.  While I was putting food away, the distant noise became louder.  Suddenly, I heard, “Hi.  (pause)  Hi.  (pause)  Hiiii.”  I peeked to see what was happening.  Peyton must have stuck her finger into the door and pushed it open.  The teachers were laughing, asking her if she got in there all by herself.  I told them that she must have, because the door was closed, and I had no part.  Koko told Dede, “Wow, she is saying, ‘Hi’ to us, and made such a grand entrance.”  She just wanted to say good morning to everyone in there.  Koko asked her for a hug, and she gave her the extended version, a “welcome back from the weekend” kind of hug.
Dave picked up Peyton early for her dental appointment.  Elyn, the director of the school, told him that Peyton was in the buggy.  Vahideh, the teacher, came up behind the buggy to whisper something in Elyn’s ear.  Immediately, Peyton said, “De-de.”  Elyn was amazed a Peyton’s supersonic hearing.  Peyton didn’t even see Vahideh, she just heard her voice.  She’s going to make a great eavesdropper some day (just like Mommy :)  )   Apparently, at the dentist, she gave the entire office her death stare.  She let the dentist look at her teeth, but according to Dave, she was very leery of the entire experience.  I can only imagine how she was.
Brandon has been learning to follow patterns at school; it’s usually with shapes, alternating squares, circles, squares, circles, etc.  Today, for dinner, Dave steamed some gaelan.  I wanted to make sure Brandon ate enough veggies, so I made him eat one gaelan first, then a ravioli, which he loves.  He ate one round, the said he was still hungry.  We handed him another gaelan, then he said, “And then I get another ravioli because that’s the pattern.”

Brandon got a toy for Christmas, which he calls his phone.  It is like a kiddie smart phone, in that it has a QWERTY keyboard, with a large screen and large buttons.  It is different than this laptop that he has, which has all the keys lined up alphabetically.  Today, he was sending a text to his friend, and spelled out his name.  He was so busy typing in the letters, then he handed it to me in the car.  On the screen was “A-L-E-S-S-A-N-D-R-O”.  Genius.  Not only can he spell his name, he can spell out his friend’s, too!  And that is a LONG name!  Pretty soon, he’ll be able to send texts faster than I can.

These take awhile for me to upload, so when I do them, they usually come in sets.
Here Brandon is showcasing his inner Idol, while Peyton thinks she can dance.

Here, both are eating Cheerios before picture day at Brandon’s school (to which Peyton was invited).