TWO

Bodey Frank-the baby of the family, the glue to our crazy, the sweetest little soul...you are TWO! 

You turning two wasn't as hard for me as I thought it'd be. You have turned into such a toddler, with your own personality, and you have seemed 2 for months now! You are such a smart little boy, and you listen and follow directions SO well at this age. Keep it up! :) You have started in with a little of the "no" and the "no want to, with a little fit every now and then, but nothing is comparison to what you could be doing.  And you mostly learn any defiant behavior from your big bro, ha! 

You are definitely an observer. I remember being worried about you before you turned 1 that you really weren't talking much at all. You were just SO quiet in comparison to your big bro. We always said, as we'd see you just standing there quietly, that you were watching us and taking it all in until one day you'd just talk up a storm and tell us how it is. And that''s exactly what you do! You talk so much now, nonstop. But you still have the quietest and sweetest (low pitched) voice, and don't really ever get too loud or harsh. Your biggest sound is roaring like a dino which is pretty much the cutest thing ever.  It seems as if you observe everything, think about it, and then take a very thought-through and deliberate action. You are passionate and know what you want, but you can be talked to through it if we need to redirect you. You are putting together multiple words for a sentence, I think max has been 4 word sentences 

You have truly been our "easy" kid. Everyone has one, right? Barrett brings the life and you bring the peace. Just so go with the flow from the very beginning, and you continue to be that way. You eat well, sleep well. listen well, snuggle well. Your hugs are THE BEST!  I've joked that you are making sure we don't have any more kids by giving us abundant world class cuddles and love. Lol. You will drop whatever you are doing if we ask for a hug and you'll give them over and over if we keep asking for one more. You say "I love you too" right back, "sorry" quietly right away whenever you bump into us or anything that may have hurt someone, "thank you" and "please", "bless you" if someone sneezes, "oh my gosh", "alright", you call for Jax with a super low pitched "Jackson COME", and of course your most used word: "NACK" (snack). If we call for you, you answer with "yeah?" or "what". It's hilarious. If you need our attention, but we aren't listening you HOLLER our name once "Mommy, Mommy, Mommy.....MOM!" You now say Barrett's name pretty much perfectly, but for the longest time you'd say "Bare-dit" for Barrett (which I now find myself calling him that lol). 

You just love food and always have. You are slightly pickier than Barrett was/is, but you still do pretty well. You definitely love your snacks and could live off of them. But when it's time for a meal, you are definitely up for that too. Your favorite vegetable (and one of the only ones you actually eat) is steamed broccoli. I can get you to eat green beans sometimes and maybe corn, potatoes, and lots of veggies if I put them in a soup you like. Otherwise, I hide veggies in some of our meals to be sure everyone is getting what they need! You love almost all fruits and want them all the time, especially clementines and berries (although you recently decided you were over blueberries for some reason). You love applesauce, veggie straws, bars, cottage cheese/yogurt, and crackers. Your favorite meal is probably my meatloaf, but you also love soups, tacos, and any meat.

You are getting good at standing your ground and are very vocal if Barrett is making you upset ("NO!" or crying). On the other hand, Barrett is your guy. If he's not with you, you are calling for him ("Oh Barrett!") or looking for him. You have started having to take timeouts, mostly for hitting Barrett (usually provoked, other than the time he randomly got a wooden spoon from the counter and walked up and bopped Barrett right over the head with it)

You go to bed around 8/830 pm and usually wake between 6:15 and 7 am, I try to make you go back to sleep until 7 am, but usually doesn't work. Time change happened though and now you sleep until 7 just fine! lol. You take one solid nap every day, usually for 1.5-2 hours, but will randomly do a 3 hours nap. We took your paci away around 20 months or so, and you did great. Still in your crib, which is still on the highest level (second child problems). You can climb in, but haven't tried to climb out yet. You've been peeing on the potty before your baths since about 18/19 months, and you've even pooped on the potty a couple times! We've thought about potty training you, but I'm not quite sure if we or you are ready yet. 

You LOVE Moana and Little Baby Bum. You are also OBSESSED with BOOKS! One in particular..."Giraffe in the Bath and Other Tales" (or "giraffe baff" as you call it! It's a collection volume of 6 phonic readers and you request to read it every single night and also throughout the day. I didn't leave for vacation without it!), but also all the sound books and any story book. You know the words to a TON of songs, and walk around the house just singing. Your current fav, that you request over and over at bedtime rocking is "Frere Jacques". You can jump with both feet, count to 20 (!!), don't have a clue about your colors yet (you will sometimes point one out or know if something is that color, but if we ever ask you what color you don't ever get it right...we are starting to wonder if he's color blind! lol), and are a rockstar at your Montessori school with Barrett! You are officially the youngest one they've had, but you are doing FABULOUS! You are so smart and independent and love researching your environment, I'm not surprised you love it. 

2 year stats: (you insisted on wearing these orange construction goggles the ENTIRE appointment)

Weight: 32.4 lbs (91%)

Height: 36.4 in (94%)

Head: 18.8 in

Weight for Length: 83%

Happy 2nd Birthday, Bodey! You are SO very loved!

FIVE

Oh, sweet Barrett. You are FIVE years old! 5 is a big one. It blows my mind that it has been five whole years since we first held you in our arms.

You have made life more amazing than we could ever dreamed up. You are SO full of life and I can still see pieces of you as a baby in you now. You are equal parts challenging and exhausting that you are insanely hilarious and overwhelmingly huge-hearted. There is truly no one quite like you and we are SO lucky you are ours!

Barrett at 5 is:

*SO smart (I'm in awe of you)
*SO handsome
*always talking. ALWAYS.
*reading independently as of 4.5 years and can read just about anything on your own with ease and confidence (inflection and all!)
*can do simple math with ease (adding and subtracting)
*a sport enthusiast: LOVES all sports and is getting really into them! Favorite currently is probably basketball (he is good! plays best defense out there hands down and has most desire and motivation to play and win out of anyone else playing by FAR), but he also really loves soccer and baseball and is improving wildly at all. Even likes watching bball and fball on TV if it's Purdue :)
*a snack lover
*vegetable and fruit lover and would choose this over another snack (eats at least 1 apple a day)
*not afraid of a whole lot
*loves rides and rollercoasters and adventure
*great at holding doors for me and for strangers
*needs a haircut every 3 weeks MAX
*riding a bike with no training wheels as of this past Summer! (4.5 years old)
*putting shoes on the wrong feet 95% of the time
*randomly saying "I love you, Mom/Dad" as we are moving along with our day
 *always asking us to sit with you or cuddle with you
*having to learn everything on. your. own. and simply will just not take what we say without seeing for yourself ("Barrett, that is hot, do not touch"...you carefully move your finger closer until you lightly feel on your own if it's truly that hot)
*loves being with people and being busy
*fighting bad guys/being superheroes
*loves building with magnatiles and creating
*making any box into a craft and won't let me get away with breaking a box down without saying "MOM! Hey! That's a great box to make an (xyz) out of! I need that."
*starting to discipline his little brother with the exact same words we use with him
*MUST have books (with Mom) AND songs (with Dad...5 now since you're 5) at bedtime to feel complete. And always asks for "one more hug and kiss?"

You are learning to control your emotions. It's so hard sometimes! You are so smart and can understand when we talk to you like an adult explaining things. We are all working on controlling emotions and making good decisions. Oh, and listening! (your 3 rules are listen, be respectful, and no hitting!) When you are good, you are SO GOOD! And when we are in a rough phase (happens every few months or so, and we notice you making some sort of mental leap once we get past it...but while in it, it is pretty rough for Mom and Dad! haha), it is very challenging. We know a lot of it stems from your little brain absorbing so much and having to rack through all of those emotions and feelings. You are overall such a great boy!

Such an amazing big brother. We comment almost daily on it. You love Bodey so much and stand up for him. But you're also pretty great at picking on him and antagonizing him for which you get into trouble for.  You love playing with him, but you guys also butt heads and have arguments throughout the day. You are teaching him quite a bit by him watching your behavior (saying "no", "why", "fine" lol). Those sweet moments between you guys is enough to make us burst into tears. We are so lucky we have you to be his big brother.

You love all fruits and veggies, spaghetti, and meatloaf, but will eat just about everything I make. You don't nap, unless it's once a week or once every two weeks that Mama drives you around to get you to take a little snooze if it's becoming quite necessary haha. Goes to bed around 7:30/8 pm and gets up around 6:30 am/7 am, but has to stay in him room until "seven oh oh" every morning. If he gets up before that, he does a FABULOUS job of going right back in his room and reading his Reading Library books until the clock turns 7 am. Sometimes for quite awhile! I've walked in on him reading before and it's the coolest thing ever to see him sitting there calmly and reading out loud. It took a lot of work to get you to start staying in there until 7 am, but now you are amazing with it.

We celebrated your 5th bday by flying down to Florida for our Dunn bday vacay! We surprised you that morning when you woke up with streamers lining the hallway, and then some gifts with a card we had you go search in the treasure chest for your a clue. You found our MagicBands and we got to tell you we were leaving RIGHT THEN to go to get on a plane to Florida! We did 2 days at Disney's Magic Kingdom, spent the nights at the Hills with your buddy Henry, and then drove to visit Grandpa Jerry and Grandma Mary in North Port, and then Grandma Claudette and Grandpa Joe in Naples. You got to do so many fun things and had a blast. You were very much on the go and always wanting to do something to to be playing a game at home with someone. Your strong little legs walked the entire 9 miles at Disney that first day with no stroller break! You amaze me!

You are such a creator. Your favorite thing is a huge box of art supplies that you can make something with-usually involving recyclables lol. We go through a massive amount of tape. You are starting to be able to tell time on a Digital clock as far as knowing how many more minutes until a certain time. Which you mostly learned by asking every. single. time. we went somewhere in the car on vacation, "What time will it be when we get there?" and then doing the math in your head on how much longer we had until it turned that time. You love getting out all the blankets and pillows off the couch and creating places to lay and forts on the floor.  Your mind is always working!

 

5 year stats:

Weight: 48.3 lbs 89%
Height: 46.7 in 98% (projected to be 6'3"-6'5" as an adult!)
BMI: 15.5 (53%)

I hope we never forget your one-liners or how tightly you wrap your arms around our neck when you give us your best hugs. Happy Birthday, sweet boy! We are SO proud of you!