Random News

Being somewhat short on sleep (surprise!), I lack the narrative capability to weave the following into a coherent narrative. Behold, the lazy writer's best friend: bullet points.

• Bry has learned the sign for "hurt" and has used it on several occasions. It just about breaks my heart every time. He's also learned the sign for "flower," which consists of sniffing repeatedly. Only Bry does it by breathing really loudly on the in breath AND out breath, which makes him sound like he's starting to hyperventilate. Charming.
  
• I think we're working on a language spurt. And by "we," I mean Bry is trying his best to make out words and his crazy parents are emphatically shouting out random words we think Bry might like to imitate. Ethnographers studying our family might wonder why the parents preface most communications with the phrase, "Bry! Can you say... (insert word of your choice here)?"
  
• As far as language goes, what Bry lacks in actual technique and pronunciation, he makes up for in spirit. So even though A LOT of his words sound alike or totally nonsensical, make no mistake, Bry is making himself heard.
  
• Wanna know the word that makes him giggle more than any other word in the English language? Poop! ("Boo!") Especially when said with an exclamation point after it. In theory I'm very much against gender typing, but this one gets me. Is he a boy or what?
• I was kind of holding out hope (OK, magically thinking) that Bry wouldn't develop the contrariness that goes hand in hand with being a toddler. Ha. Ha ha ha ha ha. He's now learned how to shake his head "no." And sometimes he nods his head "yes." When he wants to. It would be a lot harder to stomach his frequent and enthusiastic expressions of "no" if they weren't so darned cute. Bry doesn't just shake his head. He gets his whole body into it, so that he kind of twists from the waist in one direction while his head is flying in the other direction. The whole thing has a kind of maniacal feeling to it, as if Bry's very life depended on communicating the message, "No, nuh-uh, not under any circumstances, not now, not ever." The best part is that he smiles the whole time he's thrashing his body around to tell you "no." How can we argue with that?