Today, there was a breakthrough in our household. Something that made my life easier. Something that made me smile. A big, genuine, happy smile. As I sat on the couch nursing Carter, Brayden actually played . . . alone. Without asking me every two minutes if I wanted to do something with him. Or if I could play ‘backetball’. Or golf. Or soccer.

He actually picked out a couple of toys and played by himself for twenty minutes. We still needed to be talking and interacting . . . he won’t be that independent, but at least it was a huge step.

I was able to get a couple of photographs–taking a picture with a heavy camera, with one hand, while nursing took some skill–but I did manage to get a couple . . .

He played with blocks, played a little golf, and then rode on one of his riding toys.

I know this may all sound very silly to some of you. I am aware that there are those of you who have young children who can captivate themselves in play for an impressive measure of time. Me? Well, I’ll take twenty minutes . . . especially when I didn’t have to bribe him to do it.

Maybe he just felt like being imaginative today. A little bit of his daddy came out earlier in the day when he asked if we could play a game. James is a master of coming up with something, out of nothing at all. He can fabricate a game, complete with a set of rules that will entertain any child for a good chunk of time . . . in twenty seconds flat.

So I asked Brayden what kind of game he wanted to play. He was very specific. First, you roll a letter cube. Then you roll a golf ball. Then you have to write the letter on the piece of paper, after announcing what it was. I’m not sure exactly what part the golf ball played in the game, but I just went along with it. Brayden’s interpretation of “announcing the letter” consisted usually of something that went like this: TNNNZO. Followed by a couple of scribbles on the paper. Mind you, the scribbles were very authentic . . . some of them did actually kind of look like part of the letter though, so at least we are on the right track.

A few more random notes:

A good friend of mine from high school came to visit last night. She lives much too far away, so we don’t see each other often. I was elated to hear from her earlier in the week–that she would be in the area and would be able to stop by.

James was overjoyed to be able to teach her how to play Guitar Hero. She caught on rather quickly.

Carter is learning the art of falling asleep without a warm body holding him. He is also learning that he doesn’t like eating from a bottle nearly as much as he thought he did. I think he’s finally catching on that it’s not a boob. I guess we were only able to trick him for a few days. The jealous part of me is okay with it. The part of me that wakes up, stumbles bleary eyed into his room at all hours of the night and tries to get him to stay awake long enough to fill his little tummy is not okay with it. I’d much rather have James be responsible for that every so often.

Thankfully, he is generally a very content baby. He has his moments though.

More random notes from the files of Brayden:

~While watching Super Why today, Brayden consumed an entire bowl of peas. I found it a very odd scene (and would have taken a picture if I wasn’t feeding Carter and not near my camera) . . . a two year old boy, sitting on his Elmo chair, watching t.v. while popping peas in his mouth like they were candy. Seriously–he’s totally not normal. I mean–who does that?

~James and I finally got ourselves new phones. Now that Brayden can tell the difference between things, I gave him my old phone to play with. He obviously is old enough to know the difference between things like that, if I explain them. He already knows how to activate the camera and take pictures (his favorite part). And yesterday, he started pushing a bunch of buttons and exclaimed, “I’m texting Gigi!”. A few minutes later he told me that Gigi texted him back. Do you think it’s a problem that my two year old knows what texting is?!!

~Today, while at the grocery store, we were in the freezer section. Brayden started talking to a man stocking some waffles. The man explained what he was doing. As we were walking away, I heard Brayden say something about Santa Claus. I looked back to see if the man was stocking something with Santa Claus on the box–which, mind you, would be very strange in the middle of March . . . the man had a look of amusement on his face, and pointed a few yards away to another person. It was an old man, with a huge, bushy white beard on a motorized cart. We both laughed. Later on, we saw the old man coming down another aisle. Brayden ran behind the cart and said, “Oh no! It’s Santa. Mommy, I have to hide! So he doesn’t get me!”. Strange, strange boy of mine.

We are so ready for Spring to visit. Please come soon!