Kristin had her 20-week ultrasound yesterday. It was bittersweet. The baby is healthy, within all normal parameters. However, it will be a … BOY! We had been wanting a girl, but now Braden will have a little brother to beat up.

We had enough difficulty coming up with a name for Braden. We are not sure how we’re going to come up with another boy’s name.

At least we don’t have to buy a whole set of new clothes. Braden’s ample wardrobe will now pass down to the next in line.

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We’re not sure how Braden learned to use the phrase “excuse me,” but he did it three times today. He burped twice after lunch, and after both times he said it. Then at home, when he was trying to walk by Brian, he said “excuse me.”

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In our breakfast bar/kitchen counter, we have our laptop. Braden is now able to climb the bar stool to sit in front of the computer. He enjoys watching YouTube videos, but he can’t quite master the mouse yet. That’s why he prefers to use our touchscreen desktop downstairs, because he can simply just touch the videos he wants to watch.

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We love watching Braden get excited about certain treats. For example, if presented with, say, animal crackers or a cookie, he’ll say, “Oh! Animal Crackers!” and then pump his arms up and down while smiling.

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Braden won a toy sword at the fair in Lake Geneva when we were down there a few weeks ago. Brian taught him the difference between the sword and the sheath. It’s amusing when Braden holds them apart and says, “sword … sheath … sword … sheath.” It reminds of us of the scene in the movie “The Jerk” in which Navin learns the difference between shit and shinola. “Shit … shinola.”

Journal talking, technology, ultrasound

As Braden’s vocabulary continues to grow, we’re still enamored by how he pronounces certain words and phrases. For example, he says “they-air” instead “there” and “Bob Bob Pair Pants” instead of “Sponge Bob Squarepants.”  

He still confuses proper nouns, too. He’ll say “Braden hungry” instead of “I’m hungry” and “Daddy feed you” instead of “Daddy feed me.”

We also enjoy watching him try to sing along to songs, like “Sesame Street.” He’ll mumble for a bit and them jump in when he knows the words, such as “air is sweet.”

We think Braden isn’t learning Mandarin as easily as he once did because now he thinks words are contradicting. For example, he doesn’t understand why there are two words for “hat” or “rice” or any other word.

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We were a bit hasty in thinking Braden exited the terrible twos, because over the month of July, he re-entered. It really comes down to him not wanting to ever change his clothes in the morning or at night.

Sometimes the timeouts we give him works, sometimes offering him a treat works. However, letting him pick out his own clothes, which as we previously mentioned was the supposed “cure,” no longer works.

Just this past week, he’s starting to despise baths, too. It’s funny, we used to not be able to get him out–he just loved baths. Now, it’s a struggle to clean him.

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Braden is getting better at brushing his teeth. He used to just suck on the toothbrush, but now after watching Brian “scrub” his teeth (done deliberately), Braden does the same thing.

He also figured out how to unlock the gate blocking the staircase, so we got rid of it (good timing, too, as our house is now on the market). Braden also can connect the top clip of the seatbelt of his child seat (fortunately, he can’t undo it–yet).

At the Brewers game last week, Braden helped Brian with the grill by flipping the meat. We’ll post pictures soon.

Journal bath, new skills, talking

We are pleased to announce we are expecting our second child, due Jan. 23, 2012.  We’ll find out the gender in about two months. Until then, here’s our new logo:

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Last week we went to Bent’s Camp in Land O’ Lakes, Wis. (at the UP border) with Kristin’s parents. Our cabin, which was spacious with three bedrooms, two baths and a separate three-season room, was secluded and had its own pier.

We always made Braden wear his life jacket when he was on the pier, and actually, he enjoyed wearing it (sometimes we couldn’t get it off him). He was eager to use a fishing net to “help Daddy catch fish.” However, on the few times that Brian did catch a fish, the fish frightened Braden slightly. He also didn’t like the worms, which he at first called “snakes.”

Braden also seemed to enjoy boating, which we did for most of the day on Wednesday. Bent’s Camp is on what’s called the Chain O’ Lakes, so many lakes are connected by small, hard-to-find channels. Fortunately, Braden never seemed to get seasick, despite how much he moved about the pontoon boat.

We had a couple of cloudy days, unfortunately. On one of them, Tuesday, we drove 30+ min to Paulding, Mich., to check out Bond Falls. It was very pretty out there, and Braden liked climbing the path with his grandpa.

We wanted to take Braden to this beach Brian found not too far from Bent’s Camp, but we never had the chance. Braden did get to play twice on the small beach at the resort itself, though we would have preferred a larger area.

One afternoon Braden refused to nap, even after Brian tried for 1.5 hours. Other than that, he slept fairly well the entire week, unlike the last time we went up north, back in 2009 at Maywood when Braden was just five months old.

For the most part, the bugs left Braden alone (instead, they attacked Brian). Braden also got to see some deer and loons (plus he imitated their wolf-like howl).

Finally, the travel for Braden was pretty good. The drive is slightly under four hours; we timed it so that he would nap most of the time, with a break for lunch each way.

Make sure to check out the Bent’s Camp photo album.

Journal vacation

Over the past month or so, we’ve noticed Braden has slowly phased out of his Terrible Twos, which he actually started around 18 months (he’s now 28 months old). One way we’ve ‘measured’ this is by how few timeouts we have to give him now. In fact, we can only think of one in the past month.

It also helps that we’ve recognized Braden’s independence. He likes to do things such as  sit in a regular chair at the dinner table and as previously mentioned, pick out his own clothes in the morning. Speaking of the former, he has not sat in his high chair at our house in several weeks; in fact, we’re thinking of packing it up.

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Braden’s ability to form sentences is amazing. For instance, today he used the word “too,” which we didn’t realize he knew. He still understands more than he can express–the other day, he was saying something garbly that we couldn’t understand.

He’s slightly better at recognizing colors but still has trouble from time to time. However, he can recognize most objects, as evidenced when he correctly picks them out from one of his books.

Braden also like to sing. He’s know the Alphabet Song, and he’ll often use the tune with other words.

Journal talking, terrible twos

We like watching Braden play by himself, as he’ll often talk, sing or attempt to read. Regarding the last point, he loves spelling the letters of words he sees, whether they’re on signs, the TV, books … you name it. Usually he says “Braden” at the end of spelling a word, after we previously taught him what his name looked like.

Braden has just about learned the alphabet song. It’s so cute when he sings along to his alphabet game device (or without it). Even if he messes up the “now I know my ABCs …” portion, he’ll always end the song correctly on “me” (and hitting the right note).

In terms of speaking, Braden is getting much better at communicating in either two- or three-word sentences as he learns the meaning of more and more words. For example, he says “are you?” quite often when he’s looking for something or someone, as in “daddy are you?” or “blanket are you?”

He’s also very quick to repeat words he hears, so we have to be careful with our langauge. He usually repeats the last two words of a sentence he hears, then puts them into a question form. We may say something like, “Braden, it’s time to eat dinner.” He’ll reply, “eat dinner?”

As Braden’s vocabulary continues to grow, it’s funny what he calls certain things. For example, Brian was trying to explain what syrup was, but eventually he told Braden it was “waffle juice,” and now that’s what Braden calls it.

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Braden can count to 10 in both English and Mandarin. Sometimes he switches back and forth if he forgets a number.

In terms of understanding both languages, he’s definitely getting more fluent. He also know his Chinese name is Jie (though he’s affectionately called Jie Jie by Brian’s family).

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Braden likes to do things himself. For instance, he may want to go down the stairs without our assistance. Often he’ll either shoo us away and/or say “Braden do it.”

That independence extends to the morning, when Braden prefers to pick out his clothes and take off his own pajamas. Too bad he’s not potty trained yet, or we’d be set!

When he’s in our downstairs area, he likes to pretend he’s exercising. He’ll pick up the medicine ball, or he’ll lift the shake weight up and down.

His fine-motor skills also have improved. He can do things like turn on Brian’s iPod Touch, swipe it to unlock it, then run the Video app to watch “Wiggles.” He can also use his wrench and screwdriver from his toy workshop.

Journal new skills, talking

Thanks to Kristin, Braden can read just about the entire alphabet. Sometimes he confuses “I” and “T,” and he has trouble saying “W,” but he’s really getting there!  

In his bedroom he has foam cut-outs of letters and numbers, and it’s neat to seem him pick one up and say what it is. Last night he picked up the “V” and said “Y,” then he flipped it over and said “A.” He’s definitely recognizing the shapes.

Along those lines, Braden is getting much better at identifying objects. He has a book with pictures of everything from A to Z. When we read to him at night, we ask him things like “which one is the dog?” and he’ll point to it.

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Braden’s language is evolving into sentences (usually just two or three words long). From “more, please” to “night night daddy,” his speech grows every day. He also can understand what people are saying to him in both English and Mandarin.

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Braden calls Brian’s grandma “ma,” as that’s what Brian’s aunts call her, and he mistakes that as her name.  To Braden, she should actually be “tai po.”

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Braden was slightly sick last week. He learned to cover his mouth while coughing–it’s really cute. He also knows to grab a tissue paper when he has a runny nose.

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It seems like every new generation is more comfortable with new technology than the previous. Braden knows has to unlock Brian’s iPod Touch by swiping the screen. He also knows how to use the YouTube app on our smartphones.

In addition, Braden loves playing with Kristin’s dad’s iPad. We would probably buy him a tablet device if they weren’t so expensive.

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Somehow Braden learned to roll his eyes. It’s really funny to see him do it. For example, he’ll roll his eyes and then look at Kristin after Brian does something goofy. We suspect Braden will be rolling his eyes throughout his life at his dad.

Journal sick, talking, technology

We can’t believe it–Braden is two years old! We took him and Kristin’s parents to the Nitty Gritty for lunch (he was the first name on the board), and the staff sang him “Happy Birthday.”

Afterward, we all went back to our house for vegan cupcakes that Brian found at the Willy Street Co-op. Braden loved the frosting! It’s obvious he has his mom’s sweet tooth.

Braden also celebrated his birthday, along with Chinese New Year, on Friday at Brian’s mom’s house. By the way, Friday the 11th marks his Chinese birthday (Brian’s is Thursday the 10th).

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Braden prefers to pick out his clothes in the morning. In fact, if we pick something else for him to wear, he gets upset. So far, he’s picked shirts and pants that match (fortunately).

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When Braden gets gassy, we take him to his own toilet, where he’ll sit down, read a book for a while then grab some toilet paper (too much) to “wipe.” He has yet to poop for us, though he has peed in his toilet.

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Brian read Braden a bedtime story the other night. On a page where Braden was “counting” the objects on the page by pointing to them, he got up to eight (Brian was counting outloud the whole time) and paused (so did Brian). Then Braden said “nine.” Brian couldn’t believe it, though it may have been a coincidence that he made a noise that sounded like “nine.”

Journal birthday

Braden had his one-year follow-up allergy appointment last Thursday. As it turns out, he’s still allergic to peanuts and tree nuts (even more so), as well as dairy. However, the doctor believes Braden will outgrow the dairy allergy, since the levels were so low.

Meanwhile, the doctor gave us the OK to give Braden a little egg (one-fifth teaspoon)–the levels were very low, and Braden had already had it when it was baked into foods. So we gave him a little scrambled egg on Sunday, and he did not have any negative reaction.

We will slowly increase the amount of egg over time, and hopefully he will still be fine. We’re also praying he gets over his dairy allergy by next year.

Just in case, we also purchased an EpiPen in case of any accidental exposure.

Journal allergies

Braden is getting better at repeating and pronouncing words. For example, he can say “I” then “love” then “you,” though he has some trouble stringing it all together. His “please” is more like “psshh” and his “xie xie” (Mandarin for thanks) is “shh shh.”

But he does know the meaning of the words he can say. He says “more” when he wants a food refill (quite often), “bow wow” when he wants to watch the Wiggles (it’s the name of one of their songs; he also knows how to say “wiggles”), “Elmo” when he wants to watch an Elmo DVD or Sesame Street and “ball” when he wants to play catch.

Brian and Braden were searching for something in Braden’s bedroom the other day, and Braden was so cute in looking under and in everything (drawers, closets, his crib, etc.), and each time he came up empty-handed, he would declare “nope!”

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Braden is way ahead of us technology-wise. One of our computers is a touch screen, and he knows how to operate it, especially when he’s picking videos to watch on YouTube. A few days ago, Braden opened the protective case to Brian’s iPod Touch, then turned it on and swiped the screen to unlock it. It was unbelievable (we never taught him this).

Apparently, he can work Kristin’s dad’s iPad as well. We’ve been considering buying him one of those cheap tablets (~$100) to play with.

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Braden is getting closer to dressing and undressing himself. For instance, he can unzip his one-piece pajamas and take it off (this is actually quite impressive). We’ve seen him put on/take off pants and shirts before, too.

He’s getting to the point in which he picks out his clothes in the morning. Once, Brian dressed Braden in something he did not choose, and he was SO mad.

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Braden has an allergy appointment this week. We’re hoping it brings us some good news that he’s grown out of some of his allergies (peanuts, dairy, eggs).

Journal talking, technology