McDaniel Family Journal

I really do need to update this thing every week. It seems like every time I turn around you are doing to saying something new! Okay…let’s try to pick up where I left off…

You turned 2 on June 12th, and we had a wonderful party for you on the 14th. I was a pool party and lots of family and friends showed up. When I sent out the invite, I told everyone how much you adored cars and trucks, so all of you presents were car or truck-related. You got shirts, small trucks, big trucks, truck puzzles, truck books, a remote-control dump truck, a track… you name it, you got it.  You had a blast swimming in the pool with Daddy and all of your friends and absolutely LOVED all of your presents.

On June 24th (a Tuesday), your daddy traveled to Finland for a week. He had to give a presentation a very large Digital Media conference there. While he was gone, Grandma Pat came into town, and we worked on a few home-improvement projects. Since GP hadn’t seen you in a while, she was amazed at how much you had grown and how much you spoke! It was this day that you first called me “Mommy” and asked GP for a “Cookie”, before she showed up you had called me “Mama” and would ask for a “Ackie”. You still say both of those sometimes, but moreso than not, you are using the right words.

She was also amazed at your agility. One of your favorite past-times is jumping off of the couch, or diving off of the arm of the couch and flipping onto the floor, or standing on the arm of the couch and jumping off. Telling you no doesn’t do much good. You love to climb and you will climb on anything that you can. You freaked her out a couple of times and she swore you were going to hurt yourself, but you got up laughing every time. I took a couple of pictures of you standing and on the kitchen table for you Daddy to see. You definitely are a dare devil.

As for talking…you say full sentences now, and have for about a month and a have. The other day we had gone to our friend Mona’s house and you got some bug bites on your legs. Well, apparently you are allergic or something because your little legs swelled up and you could tell that those bites hurt quite a bit. Anyway, the next day you woke up and said “Mama, bug bites, leg hooorts”, then you looked down and saw one your toe and got the saddest look on your face and said “boo-boo toe!” Poor little thing! I am always amazed at all of the things you say. I think I told you about Daddy teaching you to make a fort, well now you two scream at the top of your lungs “No GIRLS!” when you go to get in it. You started adding things, like “No Girls…Antny’s Truck (that’s not a typo…that’s how you say it)…Ti-tas Bus (Ti-tas is how you say your name)…Mia’s Cookie!” It’s pretty funny  Yesterday when I came home I asked you if you were thirsty and you nodded, so I asked you what you wanted to drink and you said “Apple Juice” You definitely know what you like 😉

You are also getting sweeter and sweeter every day. Throughout the whole you give me the sweetest, biggest hugs, and are very giving with your kisses. You’ll look at me, smile all shy-like, and say “Mama hug” with your little arms outstretched. It is the sweetest thing. I read an article the other day where research had been done that found that children’s smiles actually caused a reaction in their mother’s brains that was comparable to achieving a high…much like in addiction. I can believe. When you smile, I say to myself “I want to remember this moment forever” I want to remember those beautiful smiles and keep them with me. It makes me sad to think that you won’t remember all of this. We have such fun and silly moments everyday that I will remember forever, but you may not. I hope this journal shows you how much I treasure all of those “little” moments.

Oh…you also started a new class at school the week that you turned two. This class if for children 2 to 2 ½ and you love it. It’s filled with trucks and lots of your friends from your old class and you seem to like Miss Georgie. She’s a bit older and seems to have a pretty good grasp on things. She asked me a couple of weeks ago “Ummm, does Brighton have trouble listening at home?”…and I was like “Ummmm, yeah!” LOL. She said that sometimes you would ignore her when asked to gather for story time and snack, and that she had to take you by the hand and lead you to where you needed to be in order to get you in line. I told her that if she figured out how to make you mind all the time to let me know. Lord knows you don’t always listen to me! 😉

You do love to be helpful now, though. Sometimes we ask Erica (a girl in our neighborhood that also happens to be one of your teachers at school) to come watch you for the evening, and you LOVE her! The other day, you were acting up and I told you that Erica was coming over, and told you that you need to pick up all of your toys before she got there. You picked it all up and put everything back where it went. I was amazed. I’ve been having you help me put things away (the other day you helped me with the dishes), and you do such a good job!

You are also becoming more independent. This new class is where they begin potty training and you though you are not quite ready… you are willing to entertain the idea and will sit and try for quite a few minutes. You also no longer really want to ride in your stroller when we go on walks. Last night, you and I walked around the entire block (about ¾ of a mile), just the two of us. No stroller, nothing. Granted, we had to smell every flower, and you had to try to open every door to every truck and car we saw (and tell me the color and that it was “cool!”), but you did a very good job. A lot of neighbors commented on how well-behaved and cute you were, and though it took us well over a half hour…we had a lot of fun!

Oh… you also love the song “Head, shoulder, knees, and toes”. You are absolutely adorable when you see that song and do the motions… you basically just say “knees and toes”, and throw a couple of head’s in there occasionally, but you it’s amazingly precious! 😉

Filed under: What Brighton is up to now on July 7th, 2008