My Braxton is growing up!

It is truly hard to believe that two years have gone by since we first met our little Braxton face to face. From the start I knew he was such a different child from Quincy. He was always a good eater, a terrific sleeper, and a sort of no fuss kind of baby. In all honesty he hasn't changed much as he has reached toddler hood.

(This mama is so thankful).

We had a great time celebrating with my family on last Saturday. 

Braxton was thoroughly excited to get his party started... when he woke up from his nap he was a little disappointed that everyone wasn't there yet (they came a little bit later). However, once they showed up it was all smiles. 

Have I ever mentioned that we have an amazing ward? Well we do, the nursery leaders are fantastic and were even thoughtful enough to make B a little Birthday Crown. He loved wearing it home from church, but it took a little bribing to get him to put it on for his party. Nothing a little distraction from a cupcake couldn't fix. 

Now that he's two, B has learned the fun of blowing out his own candles. He had no problem waiting patiently for us to sing to him and then, as if he understood exactly, he blew them out after we were done. It was very cute. 

He thoroughly enjoyed the cupcake, AND some ice cream, AND some cookies, AND to wash all that sugar down he drank some Sunny Delight. It's sort of the running joke whenever we go to my parent's house-- my dad likes the stuff, and my mom hates it, however juice is juice when you're thirsty, right? B has no problem drinking it at all and so "bapuh" (Grandpa Loren) brought him his very own gallon of it.

 Lovely. 

The adults enjoyed some strawberry ice cream cake (courtesy of Winco-- and I have to say for the price it was pretty decent, nothing like a Dairy Queen cake, but then again... half the price.) I decided to fancy it up with some freshly sliced strawberries on top---- you know, to make it feel more homemade. ;) 

Like I said, there were plenty of treats, cupcakes with sprinkles (which the boys were dying to eat) and cupcakes topped with strawberries and kiwis.

Then of course we had left over sugar cookies we made a few days earlier so those got put out too. The boys were quite proud that THEY did all the decorating on these by THEMSELVES.

At 2 years old Braxton is now:

**Expressing his emotions so much more. When he's happy we get a big smile, when he's mad he gets a real fantastic scowl, when he's sad boy --oh boy-- does that lower lip stick out.

**He's also making more of an effort to talk-- YES. Finally, he is showing an interest in talking. He says the beginning of many words and is insistent about saying a certain word over and over until we respond with the correct pronunciation. Occasionally he'll try and mimic what we just said or more often than not he'll continue on, filing away the information. At any rate I'm thrilled that he's started this stage of talking, although it can be a little tiresome when he's adamant about a response to something and you've got to stop what you're doing to figure out what he's trying to say. We're taking steps in the right direction for communication. I (mostly because I'm with him 24/7) understand most of what he says, but it's REALLY  nice to know that OTHER people might understand him too.

** He knows the colors red, blue, yellow, green, purple, orange, pink, black, white, gray, and brown. I love hearing him say "beeeenk" (pink). It's just so cute. He is sure to tell us not only when he sees a bus, but that the bus is "eh yow" (yellow). He is really starting to become aware of all the things around him and making an effort to tell us he knows what things are.



**He is still making progress in the sharing department, Quincy and he go through spurts of when they play well together and when they can't stand each other. I think this will be a lifelong theme....

**He has gained a sense of humor. He often finds things really funny. There's a particular Subway commercial where people's buttons on their jeans are popping off and B thinks this commercial is hilarious. He laughs at silly faces Q makes, or when Tyler dances all goofy for him.

** He knows where is eyes, ears, mouth, chin, eyebrows, eyelashes, nose, chin, cheeks, head, hair, arms, hands, fingers, elbows, belly, bum, legs, knees, belly button, peanut, feet, and toes are.

**He has a love for balls and cars and books relating those subjects. He has recently started pretending to play with their safari guys in the cars and I can see his imagination starting to emerge. He refers to all male things as dada's and females as mamas. He has recently made the distinction that older looking girls are mamas whereas younger looking girls are just gahs (girls). 

**He's a great helper and likes to tell me whenever he sees a baby, and then proceeds to run over to stranger's babies and point excitedly.

**He is going through a little snuggly phase with me. A huge part of me is enjoying every second of this, and another small part of me is worried how his new baby brother will affect his snuggle time with mom. I'm hoping he'll learn to love being a big brother.

**We have not started potty training yet (although I keep debating it) I feel that probably by summer (when the talking has progressed) we might have better luck tackling this job. Plus by then I won't have such a needy, teeny tiny baby. ---Fingers crossed!

Everyone enjoyed eating the treats. :)



Our growing family. 

B scored big time this year for presents.

And Quincy was there every step of the way to help him. :)

Nanny and Pappy got him a stylish new church outfit, which I managed to not snap a picture of...

Great Grandma Rena sent some money and with it we bought him a Cars book with noisy buttons. I almost regretted the purchase, except for that he loves it SO much. 

Although it has been the cause of a few fights, we have to have time limits with this new book. 

Tyler and I got him an ABC Cars book with a read along CD. I  think this one will be good for road trips. 

And as a solution to all the fighting that's been going on around our house with the one and only Lightning McQueen car (which is technically Q's) we got Braxton his very own. Now no fighting. 

Grammie and Grandpa Loren got B a bunch of new books: A truck book with sliding things on the pages -- he REALLY loves this. 

He also got a Big Brother book, and a Baby Einstein's first words book-- he likes them all! 

They also got him some punching balls... yay. :/ 

We couldn't very well be the party poopers about these balls and so we let the boys play with them for a while. Sadly (for the boys... not us) most of them have been put away and only one remains blown up right now. B also got a whoopee cushion which is a whole other story in itself-- Braxton loved it (for other people, but refused to sit on it himself.) I have a great video of this experience, but sadly it was too much work to load it. 

And although Grandma Teesy and Grandpa Kent were well into their vacation in Hawaii they didn't forget to send a birthday package as well. They sent both the boys some angry birds gummy treats. B also got a train carrier with three trains inside (he likes to put his other cars into this, as the slots are the perfect size for them). 

Uncle Spencer was generous enough to give B: finger paints, tons of tiny stickers (which I usually find on my furniture), water color paint and brushes, crayons and a coloring book, a pet that grows in water, and bubbles. Clearly the bubbles were a big hit.... :) 

Uncle Spencer and the boys. 

Putting their punching balls to good use.... 

Pula had his own party in my tummy. :) 

B and Uncle Kar kar being 'oh so serious'. 

Grammie and Quincy. 

The boys and Kar kar. 

The boys with Grammie and Grandpa Loren.

This picture cracks me up with Quincy... giving some thumbs up. What is he thinking? It reminds me of Michelle Tanner from Full House saying "thumbs up dude!" Ha ha. 

A humongous THANK YOU to everyone who came to celebrate and to those who came in spirit! :) We had a great time.