Two Wheeled bike

So we tried riding two wheels today. Apparently Brock has been practicing on balance bikes at school and is totally capable. We probably could have taken off the training wheels months ago. Sigh....

Stop - Yes - Please

After a full day of not listening, especially to "stop" commands. We informed Brock that we were upset and that "stop" wasn't working. He needed to tell us what words we needed to use to get him to stop doing the things that he was doing. He said "Stop - Yes - Please".

And this worked. The interesting part is that the order is specific. He would frustratingly fail to stop if we would say "Please Stop", or "Yes, Please stop".

Potty talk

Quote of the day: Sometimes my penis has poop.

Barn it

Instead of saying darn it, Brock has been saying "barn it". Super cute.

Fun Pronuciations

At the moment Brock has some super cute words, that we are not correcting him on

Here = Here-im
Automatic  = Audo-d-matic

Paradox: Having a maid helps kids clean up

While is sounds paradoxical, having a maid actually makes the the kids clean up more. The fact that the maid puts things away in weird places, and toys get lost, motivates the kids to make sure that they know where things are before they get "cleaned".

Brock asked this morning if this was her day to come, as she only comes weekly. It wasn't, so he didn't clean up, but that's okay. You could see that the seeds of motivation are there, and that he recognizes that others (at least the maid) cleaning up for him, might not be in his best interest.

Who knew?

Book boundary pushing

While going to bed, I told Brock that if he wanted me to stay with him, he would have to put his books away. Instead of puting them on the floor, our next to him as I expected, he put them under his head and went to sleep on them.

Testing boundaries

The other night, Brock had decided that he wanted some of the birthday party favor chocolate that he got. Quinn decided that she wanted some of her halloween candy. After eating the chocolate, Brock wanted candy too, but we firmly said no. He was determined to get it himself, and was trying to drag his stool over to the counter so he could get it himself.

I was holding the stool and firmly told him that he had chosen the chocolate and couldn't have the candy. I also said that if you went over to the counter, that it would be immediately bedtime. (btw, the candy was in the middle of the counter).

I let go of the stool, and Brock, all the while looking at me, dragged the stool to the far left of the edge of the counter and asked if that was okay. I said yes, and he climbed up and played with the light switches. Then we moved the stool out and to the far right edge and asked if that was okay. I said yes, and he played with the other light switches.

Then he said okay, and went to play in the other room.

I love it. You could see him testing and exploring the boundaries in his head before he did it. :)

Reading letters

I guess that Brock is reading letters now. As I'm reading his bedtime stories, he is enumerating each letter and then telling me what the word is. He will say "B - L - A - C- K - O - U - T, that spells blackout"... Now he is not actually reading, he knows the name of the book, and knows that that is the title of the book. The relevant part is that he recognizes the letters AND that the the letters are grouped together to form words.

Such a boy

Here is a list of tiny observations about his boyness:

• We have dinner at Natachees, which happens to be directly infront of a rail stop. Brock spends the entire time watching the "trains". One comes about every seven minutes. That is almost all he does while we are there
• I get him a air ping pong gun, the kind that squirts out a ping pong ball, with a nice pop. His new favorite toy. He loves building a tower of blocks, and shoot them down.
• Go to a gymnnastics party or a bounce house party, and he wants to play catch
• On the gymnastics mat, he loves to run and tumble, but not in a somesault way. More in a run full speed, jump, and land on his knees and then roll to the side kind of way. 

Corrections from school

Brock and I were playing this morning and he said put your hands up if you want to "waterski" ( pull on the jumprope attached to the ottoman on wheels).

So I put both my hands in the air.

"Big boys only put one hand in the air," says Brock.

Then somewhere along the way, he asked me a yes / no question, to which I replied "uh-hun" and he said "yes or no... you have to say yes or no"

Schlitterbahn

While at Schiltterbahn last weekend, Brock recognized that he was tired. He slept on a lounge chair in the shade in the middle of the park for an hour and a half.

What a rock star!

Swimming

Brock is a great swimmer. At 2.5 he is starting the minnows class. The description for this class says for 4-6 year olds. He is incredibly comfortable in the water, and for the most part, doesn't need supervision to make his way across the pool. He is able to retrieve sunken toys and loves to swim like a dolphin.

First incredible insightful play on words

So, here we have it. Brock is 31 months old (2.5 + 1 month) and he said is first intentional insightful play on words. We were at a friends house, who happen to have a guitar hanging on the wall.

Brock said it was an "art-tar", as in guitar art. I was unsure if this is what he meant, so I asked him if he ment "guitar". He said "no it's an art-tar". I asked him if he meant  it was "art", and he said "no, it's and art-tar". I asked him if it was guitar that was art, and he said "yes, an art-tar".

:):):):):):):):)

Big boy toothpaste

For the record, Brock started using spit toothpaste.

Sleeping sounds

Last night was the first night in 5 years that we didn't need to use the monitor any more.... Good bye white noise oceans sounds. Hello music to sleep to again. I've missed you.

Bedtime "routine"

Its is amazing how different the kids are. For Quinn, it took years before she'd let us leave the room before she was alseep. Brock is not that way at all. He could care less about the stories and songs from mom and dad. He "reads" on his own, sings, plays with toys all by himself. He'll come out several times to get a new toy or book, and then go back to his room to continue to play.

Granted, it still takes him at least an hour to fall alseep, but it is all on his own.

Pre-Day planning - Curiosity of genetics

It is REALLY bizarre what genetics brings to the table. I'm a planner... It normally takes me a fair amount of time to fall asleep because I'm thinking about the days events and what I'll be doing the next day. Brock is exactly the same. He will talk, sing, and plan in his bed for up to an hour after we put him down. Last night he was talking about all of the fun adventures he was going to do today, along with a couple of songs.

I have know idea how he picked this up from me.

Falling in the pool

This post is just for the record of it... but Brock was helping me clean the pool this morning and fell in.
He did great... he was able to swim enough (not really above water), that I could reach him from the side. And when I pulled him out, he was most upset that he got his pajamas wet.

We talked about what happened, and how we always need to be safe around the pool.

He was swimming an hour later, clearly not even phased by it. (I was hoping for a little phasing, so that maybe he might learn from it.... we'll see).

Skiing

Brock skiied and stood up on the ski trainer by himself this weekend