Brody & Madelyn | Two Years Four Months & Four and A Half

Since I literally have one photo from our weekend and we mainly just spent it at home after Brody had a night with the stomach bug, I will spare you a boring recap and give you this post today!

It’s been awhile since I have done updates on these kiddos.  On one hand, it seems harder to give updates as they get older; but on the other hand, there really is so much more to update!!  I can’t believe that I am going to have a five and three year old this year.  These two have become the best of friends and watching their sweet relationship blossom has been my favorite part of motherhood yet.  One never wants to do anything without the other anymore and it makes my heart melt.

There are plenty of fighting, pinching, biting, stealing and whining, don’t get me wrong; but, they realize how lucky they are to have each other and play together all the time.  When I pick the kids up from school, I will grab Madelyn from her room and we will walk to get Brody.  She stands at the door waiting for him to walk over and is screaming, “brother, I missed you” and she gives them this huge hug.

They love to play at home with both his and her toys.  Brody is all about Paw Patrol, Star Wars, and his new Batbot.  She will play any of those things with him; but when she’s ready to play with her toys (usually her baby dolls), he is right there to play with her too.  Here’s a little update to each of them…

Madelyn

You are 2 years and 4 months old as I write this.  You have these white ringlet curls that make strangers on the street always stop and compliment.  You are outgoing, yet shy.  The shyness is slowly peeling away as you are getting older and slightly less clingy to your Mama.  You seem so mature. You love school and your teachers.  You are a complete chatter box.  I have loved watching you over these last four months develop an amazing vocabulary.  You sing and know the words to more songs that I can count.  You learned all three of the Christmas songs that Brody had to learn for his Christmas performance at church and love to sing them with him.  You ask for the Moana song every night along with Jesus Loves Me, Twinkle Twinkle, Jesus Loves the Little Children and then Brody has to sing Away in the Manger, Silent Night and Clop Clop Clop.  Brody has loved singing you to sleep over the last month with his newly learned Christmas songs.

You are still sleeping in your toddler bed from when you were 18 months old.  About two months ago, we put a twin bed in your room for your new big girl bed.  You haven’t slept in that bed yet, but we really haven’t pushed you.  You have been a wonderful sleeper for awhile.  You still take naps every day around 1pm.  You don’t nap super long…usually 1.5 to 2 hours.  You go to bed every night between 7 & 730 and usually up between 630 and 7am.

You love your baby dolls, Three Little Pigs, Winnie the Pooh, Doc McStuffins and whatever else Brody drags along for you to play with.  My favorite thing you do right now is say “very, very” about everything.
“I’m very, very tired.” “I’m very, very hungry.” “I’m very, very cold.”  It cracks me up.

You’ve had your first spend the night parties at both of your grandma’s houses over the last couple of months and you have also sat through a couple of movies at the movie theater now.

You are a wonderful eater and still eat just about anything.  You love chicken, Mac & Cheese, peas, carrots, green beans, yogurt, all fruit, pizza, turkey and whatever else we serve you.

We finally weened you off of a bottle of milk just after your 2nd birthday in October.  We kept procreating because you loved it so much, but we just went cold turkey.  You went to bed at night just fine without it, but you woke up in the morning kind of cranky begging for it.  We just held our ground and by the third day, you had just forgotten about it.  Unfortunately, I still don’t really have you drinking milk from a sippy cup.  You will drink chocolate milk when given to you, but you are not happy drinking regular milk out of anything.

You are quite strong-willed.  You do not like being told No.  You are a bit on the whiney side right now in my opinion.  I am often trying to get you to Stop Crying!!  We went through a phase at the beginning of this school year where you were biting other kids.  It’s quite embarrassing, but she seems to have grown out of it.  You have peed on the potty a couple of times and have been showing interest in potty training for awhile now.  We haven’t dove headfirst into potty training yet, but I think it’s about time!

You love your family so much and are usually the first to initiate the family group hug each morning before Daddy leaves for work.  We love you to the moon and back and can’t wait to watch you continue into toddlerhood.

Brody

My buddy!  This kid is 4.5 now and quite the little personality.  You are Star Wars obsessed, own every Paw Patrol toy on the market, love riding your bike (with training wheels), and newly fascinated with Transformers.  You are amazing at puzzles, building with magnatiles, and putting things together.

You love having spend the night parties at both of your grandma’s house and you want to bake all the time.

You gave up your afternoon naps sometime this fall after your turned four.  That was a sad moment for Mama, but you have figured out things to do during quiet time to keep you busy.  It does make you sleep better at night and go to bed at a decent hour.  You will go to bed at 730pm, but we usually let you stay up until around 8pm. You sleep until about 7am.  You went through a little period where you were waking up during the night and trying to weasel your way into Mom & Dad’s bed.  We had to just stay persistent and keep bringing you back to your room and eventually you quit.  You also still sleep in a pull-up.  I don’t really see any signs of eliminating that yet in the near future.

You are really enjoying school this year.  You are learning to identify numbers, letters, and words.  You still have a pretty long way to go on your handwriting.  You have some really cute friends in your class this year and go to school from Monday through Thursday 9am-1pm.

You are definitely still my picky eater. You want cereal, pancakes, PB&J, grilled cheese, chicken nuggets, or pizza pretty much all the time.  You love fruit but can’t be seen touching a veggie except for maybe a carrot.  You still don’t like any type of pasta and have a major sweet tooth.

You love watching movies and currently your favorite shows are Transformers, The Magic School Bus, Super Wings and much to my dismay, Power Rangers.

You have a huge heart and are (mostly) so sweet to your sister.  You love to build forts with her and play underneath the dining room table with all of your toys together.  You play soccer with her, ride your jeep and slowly teaching her how to use the scooter.

Speaking of soccer, this Fall was your first year playing on a soccer team.  I was worried how it was going to go since you were the youngest out there; but you ended up doing great!  You made some friends on the team and even though you never scored a goal, we definitely so improvement from looking up at the sky at the first game to running after the ball and kicking it at your last game!

I love watching you as a big brother and a pre-schooler.  You love your Mama and want to be right next to your Daddy doing anything he is doing when he gets home.  I hope you always let me dress you and continue to be Mama’s sweetest boy.  I look forward to watching you all of your sports or activities you choose to do.  Stay kind little one!

All Photos by Annabelle Rose Photography

Phew, I think I covered it all.  I haven’t done on update on either of these two since they were two and four!  These are always time consuming to do, but I’m so grateful to be able to look back on them!