Brontë 2.5

This is a boat.

Oops, late for another month's update on Bronte. I'll keep it brief:

Favourite things

1. Play Doh. There was a good solid few weeks there where Play Doh was the first thing Bronte wanted to do every morning. As soon as she finished breakfast, she demanded that I bring her the box of all the Play Doh tools & toys.
2. Building Toys. Brontë's really gotten into building things lately, with Duplo or our big foam blocks. She built us each a "boat" made of two blocks, colour coordinated (mine was green, Papa's was blue), then created her own elaborate yellow structure. 
3. Telling people what to do. This girl is much more rule oriented than her sibling & that extends to every single person or even animal she interacts with. She'll tell someone off when they're doing something she doesn't like on the playground, even if she isn't directly involved. She will confidently order a dog to "drop it" so she can throw it's ball on the playing field at the park.
4. Kale. For some reason, she's on a kale kick right now. I can't finish a bowl of salad without her picking a few handfuls out & munching them. She prefers it dressed, but will beg for pieces straight out of the salad spinner.
5. Breastfeeding. This girl is still breastfeeding as often as she did as a tiny baby, about seven times a day usually. I had intended to let her wean when she was ready like Linnaeus did, but he was finished at exactly the age she is now. I think if she had her druthers she'd nurse til kindergarten, but I'm not sure I want to go that long...
6. Drawing. It started with scribbling in colouring books with washable markers & on paper at the Family Centre's craft table, & now is often on her magnetic drawing pad. Her drawings are starting to be representational, circles with dots for eyes & sticks for legs. Mostly octopus & spiders, according to her.
7. Picking our her own clothes. Some days I can just grab clothes out of the drawer & put them on her, but most days she needs to have input on her outfits. The days where she insists on dressing herself entirely, including actually putting the clothes on, are pretty funny. Crazy colours & patterns, half of it on backwards, dresses layered over jeans. 
8. Two sleeps. For a while there, I thought Bronte was going to drop her midnight wakeup/nursing session, but she's back in the routine again. About half the time she stumbles bleary-eyed into the living room as we're watching a show, somewhere between 10:30 & midnight. Typically she spends the first part of the night in her own bed, then joins us for the rest of the night because I know if I nurse her down in her bed, I'll just fall asleep there. 
9. Bubble baths. I bought the kids some bubble bath for Christmas & they've both really loved using it. Bronte has started washing her own face & getting her hair wet herself, which makes things easier.
10. Electric toothbrush. Another Christmas gift that went over very well was a couple of cheap AA battery operated toothbrushes. Bronte was the kind of kid that had to be restrained to brush her teeth--she'd fight so much that I took to laying her on the bathroom floor, then kneeling over her so that her arms & body were pinned down jus so I could get a brush in her mouth. With the new electric toothbrush, she willingly submits to it while standing up. She also likes to brush the bathroom mirror with it.