Braden stayed at Brian’s mom’s house on Wednesday night, which helped our transition to home life with Carson. With improved nursing comes improved sleep for Carson, which is good. We almost feel he’s a bit easier at night than Braden was at this age.

What could make it better is if Carson didn’t sleep so much during the day. The worst is that he takes a long nap in the evening, which makes it hard for him to go to sleep at a decent time. Right now, Brian stays up with him until he finally goes to bed, which could be 11 or midnight.

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It’s funny, we think Braden looks bigger now, especially in comparison to Carson. For example, Braden’s face looks bigger (fatter?), if that’s possible.

He is getting more acclimated to having Carson around. Sometimes he’ll come up to his little brother to touch his head or leg. Braden usually refers to him as “the baby.”

We’ve been doing our best not to make Braden feel jealous or left out. In fact, we ask him to be our big helper.

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Carson poops a lot! As in, he’ll poop after EVERY feeding. It’s funny, we had to almost overfeed Braden when he was first born to get him to poop out his bilirubin (and get rid of his mild jaundice). Carson has absolutely no problem with his bowels, apparently.

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We gave Carson his first (sponge) bath last night. Just like his brother, he cried the entire time. We’re sure there will be a day when he loves baths, just like Braden.

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We’re unable to get Braden to go get a haircut (isn’t that a problem for when he’s a teenager?). We’ve resorted to cutting his hair ourselves–Kristin trimmed the back of his head last night, much to Braden’s anger. We’re going to wait until he’s asleep next time.

Journal bath, haircut, home

Braden has really improved on the Angry Birds game. He’s better at controlling the direction of the bird, and he knows which birds change when you tap them mid-flight.

He plays it wherever he can–our tablet, Kristin’s iPhone, Kristin’s dad’s iPad, Brian’s iPod touch, etc. Brian recently gave Braden his old cellphone to play to Angry Birds, but that didn’t stop him from still asking for the other devices.

Speaking of the tablet, Braden is getting more adept at using it. We’ve already mentioned he can unlock it, but to see him move apps, add shortcuts, load YouTube, etc., is quite the sight.

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We can’t get Braden to stay in his room all night. Several months ago, he began coming into our room when he woke up in the middle of the night. We initially let him do it, but unfortunately it became a habit. Now if he comes in the middle of the night, we take him back to his room, much to his disappointment. Otherwise, if it’s close to time to wake up, we let him stay.

It’s harder to put Braden to sleep, too. He wants us to stay in the room until he falls asleep, but we simply don’t have the patience for it.

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Poor Kristin. Like Brian, she had to deal with an accident in the bathtub. It started with Braden passing some gas, then he had some diarrhea. He said, “Mommy, mommy, look!”

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We’re amused when Braden repeats things in a list. For example, we may say, “Braden, do you want any milk?” He’ll respond, “No, I don’t want any milk.” We’ll try again with, “How some juice or water?” He’ll then say, “No, I don’t want any milk. I don’t want any juice. I don’t want any water.”

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We finally got Braden to wear his new shoes, which we bought a couple of months ago. His Converse shoes were getting a bit tight, and these new shoes are so much easier for us to put on him.

Journal bath, sleep, talking, video games

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

For the most part, it’s easier to put Braden to bed. After brushing his teeth, giving him some water and reading a couple of books, we can put him in his crib while he’s still awake, and he’ll go to sleep on his own. Much better than the old days of having to rock him to unconsciousness.

On the flip side, it’s become harder to get him out of bed in the morning (isn’t that supposed to happen in the teen years?). He’ll usually lie there and talk to himself. When we try to pick up him, he puts up a fight. Braden also won’t let us change his clothes or diaper in the morning (or at night).

In other words, the morning routine has become quite the struggle. We attribute part of it to his reduced hunger in the morning. Previously, he couldn’t wait to head downstairs to eat. Now he’s not that hungry for some reason and doesn’t mind the leisurely pace.

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Braden babbles a lot, and is starting to string together the few words he can say (e.g. “mama dada”). He’s getting better at repeating words, and he certainly understands a LOT of words in both English and Mandarin.

We know Braden can say (and understand the meaning of): mama, dada, nai-nai (paternal grandmother in Mandarin), up, yes, uh-oh, hot, un-un (no) and Bucky. He also likes to say “yeah yeah,” which stems from TV show segment we once watched.

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Braden for sure has reached the terrible twos (hopefully it doesn’t get worse). When he doesn’t get his way, he well lie on the floor and throw a tantrum if you try to pick him up. His bossiness has increased, too.

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Some times Braden likes to take his sponge and wash himself in the bathtub. It’s so cute to see him try to wash his own feet, for example.

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Braden has been getting hives on his back and face lately, though we’re not sure why, since he hasn’t been exposed to any of the foods to which he has allergies.

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Braden continues to show that he is half Kristin, half Brian, especially in social situations. We were recently at our condo’s flea market, and all our neighbors wanted to say hi to him. Instead, Braden begged Brian to pick him up, then he buried his head in Brian’s chest. Anytime someone try to move to another angle to see him, he would further try to hide.

After 5-10 min., he was running around the room like a crazyman and being his normally cute, outgoing self. It’s funny that it takes time for him to warm up and drop his shyness.

Journal bath, new skills, sleep, talking

We know it’s been a while since the last episode of “Brian and Kristin Plus One,” and we appreciate your patience. Brian is done traveling now, so we’ve had some time to shoot new episodes.

That said, please enjoy episode 7, in which you can see Braden fuss over his bath.

Video bath

Th new episode of “Brian and Kristin Plus One” is the sequel to episode 4. In it, we wrap up our hospital stay.

Video bath, family, hospital

It was such a nice day today (mid-50s for those not living in the Madison area) that Kristin took Braden to visit Brian at his office in the afternoon. That was a fun little trip, and they returned home just in time for another feeding.

Usually Braden falls asleep after he eats, but once in a while he’ll stay awake. After his 8 p.m. “dinner,” Braden stayed up so we decided to give him a (sponge) bath.

(For you “Seinfeld” fans out there, we were hoping it would be 6 p.m. “Hey Scott, it’s six o’clock. Time for your sponge bath.”)

As expected, Braden cried a bit because he hates being naked. We have captured this on film, and you will be able to watch part of it in Episode 5 (Episode 4 will be out shortly).

Journal bath, work