Berke's sayings

Berkeley has been cracking me up all weekend with the things he says. His vocabulary is expanding so quickly and I love watching him learn and grow. Some of his funny sayings this week:

***We were at the Park on Saturday and and the only kids at the park were Berkeley and a 5 year old little boy. Berkeley walked up to the little boy and pointed to him and said, "What's that Mommy, a boy?"

***I was taking Berkeley's picture and he said, "Cheese.... Oh, that's cute!" He didn't even look at what I had taken, he just knows he is that cute.

***Berkeley has a new book with 100 different machines. There is a whole page full of trains. He opens it up to that page and walks around saying, "I love trains."

***Berke is getting more and more independent. His new routine in the morning when either Christian or I comes in, is to shake his head at us and say, "No, no. Leave. Leave." Then we get him up and change his diaper and he pushes us out of his room, closes the door and says, "Leave, Leave!" I thought this wasn't supposed to happen until like 12 or 13 years?

Here Comes the Sun

The weather Gods were good to us this weekend; it was rainless and sunny and we took full advantage of the clear blue skies.

We took a stroll to the Somerville Castle on Sunday after church. We gathered up the entire family and packed a picnic lunch. We took the 25 minute walk and then let the children run around and play. The Somerville Castle is where the first American flag was raised in the United States; so it is pretty cool piece of history right in our backyard.

My sweet boys

McDuff was SO happy to get out of the house and enjoy some freedom. Duff and Berkeley played together with the best stick in the area. I love watching these two interact.

When people see McDuff they always comment on how big he is. He has always been big for his breed; but he has put on some serious pound this winter thanks to the lack of walks and his new found love for the toddler eating time. So this dog is a HUGE Westie at the moment. We promised McDuff we would help him get off his winter weight by taking him out a lot this summer.
He was chasing sticks and running around like crazy today; he was in complete bliss! (This dog has NEVER chased a stick before, so it was pretty entertaining.)

This weather does something for the spirits; I am so much happier! Thank you Mr. Sunshine (I do not mean Matthew Perry)!

What Happens When the Kid has a Short Nap

It all starts at dinner with "Sleep Eating"

The head starts to droop.....

SPLAT! Right into the mac and cheese

And back up again.

Pretty Much a Rock Star

Tuesday was the big day. The day I took the FOUR hour test to determine if I would become a Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker (LICSW). Once a Social Worker has a Masters Degree they can take the LCSW test and it opens up doors for better jobs. Once you have that license and work for 2 years under a LICSW and receive 100 hours of supervision then you can take the LICSW exam. The exam consists of 170 questions, all of which are multiple choice and made to trick and confuse you. They usually give a brief scenario and expect you to know what type of therapy is being used, what clinical diagnoses someone has as defined by the DSM-IV, how to assess for different things such as Domestic Violence, Suicide Risk, etc. They test your knowledge on stages of development, different types of family therapies, group therapy techniques, defense mechanisms, and on and on and on. It is a lot of information to jam into your head; then you have to apply it to the scenarios they give you and learn how they want you to answer the questions.

I have never been great at multiple choice test, so I was nervous to say the least. I have been studying for months now and really intensely for the last two weeks. It has been such a stressful time!

Tuesday morning I woke up early, got ready, Christian dropped me off in Back Bay, I spend 3 hours and 40 minutes answering all the questions and then pushed the FINISHED button. My hand were sweaty and I was shaking; I was SO nervous. Then the letter came up to tell me if I passed or failed; my eyes would not focus, I could not find any words that meant anything to me. FINALLY, the words CONGRATULATIONS popped out at me. Instantly I put my head in my hands and began to silently sob. Passing this test opens up so many opportunities for me and my family in terms of jobs I can do, my salary etc. It is something I have worked for since I decided to become a Social Worker. It was a really great moment of accomplishment for me. I made it outside the building and instantly called the love of my life to tell him the good news. He screamed, I screamed, and I was all smiles for the rest of the day!

The best news of all is that I NEVER have to study for another test EVER again!

A special thanks to my dad who helped fund the test and some of the study materials! As well as my sweet hubby who allowed me the time to study when he had so much to do himself. And to my sweet friends and mom who sent me encouraging words and texts before the test!

Wahoo! I did it!

Look What I Can Do

Top Three

The top 3 highlights of my day:

1. A 60 degree day that felt like a special Gift from God to all his children (this one in particular)

2. My boot camp class instructor told me I was looking skinny (oh HECK yes!)

3. When Berkeley told me at dinner tonight, "Mommy, doggie poopy butt." (Hey honey we need to start watching what we say, as we have a mimic in our midst)

Berkeley at 26 months

Mr. Berkeley is growing up so fast. He is learning to talk more and more and his personality is really emerging these days. I want to write down some of the cute things he does or says right now as I know my memory is pretty poor; and so that all his family that rarely gets to see him can know what he is up to.

• Berke Man LOVES to dance; anytime he hears music he starts to move to the beat. He loves all kinds of music. Even driving in the car he starts rocking back and forth in his car seat and doing some fist pumps when he hears a song he likes.



• His most said phrases are: "I did it!", "Mommy, what's that?"(this is said to any care taker..mommy, daddy, babysitters, etc.), "Show, Mommy?"(I want to watch a movie), "I pad" (this kid has a serious obsession!!!), "A goo?" (I want milk), "Where'd he go? Where'd he go?"



• Berke is very good at making many animal noises. My favorite are his pig, owl and elephant sounds.
  



• Berke loves bath time. He pours his foam letters and numbers in tub and will hold one letter up after another asking, "What's that mommy?" I tell him, then we move to the next. He isn't really picking up the ABC's in order, but he does know quite a few letters from playing this game. He picks up the letter B and says, "B for Berkey." He also knows the letters, F, S, Q, Y, and O. There is really no rhyme or reason to it. But it always amazes me when he picks up a letter and tells me what it is.



• This kid really loves books, not reading them so much, but looking at the pictures and asking, "What's that Mommy?" (are you starting to get the picture of how much this phrase is said at our house?) He loves to name objects and just look through the pictures in books. We make frequent trips to the library to get new books. Last go around he was obsessed with a book called COWGIRL ROSIE. We discussed the book several times, and one night I gave Berke his milk and his reply to me was "YeeHaw!" Christian and I looked at each other and just started cracking up.



• He still loves Elmo and when we ask him what Elmo says, he states, "La la la." When we ask what Cookie Monster says, he pretends to eat a cookie like Cookie Monster does and says "namnamnam." He sleeps with all 5 of his Sesame Street stuffed animal friends at night. He is FINALLY learning that Abby and Zoey are not the same character and has even said Zoey a few times.



• Berke's favorite shows right now are Sesame Street, The Cat in the Hat movie, all his Elmo's World Movies, Cars, and Curious George. We are pretty good at only letting him watch 45 minutes of TV a day or else he would become a serious couch potato. It doesn't stop him from asking for it all day everyday however!



• Berke loves playing with all of his musical instruments; he has lots of them. Almost daily he will bring everyone in the house an instrument and then say, "okay, go!" We all play our instrument while he dances to the beat we create.
  



• Berke also has an obsession with Thomas the Train which he calls "Tommy." He can name all the trains he has, Percy, Victor, Charlie, Lady (he calls her Lily), and Freddie. He loves to wear the Thomas sweatshirt his great grandma Evans gave him for his birthday. He always wants to watch the Thomas show on TV, but it only keeps his attention for 5 minutes max; it really is kind of boring.



• He also loves doing puzzles and is pretty good at them. He will sit at his table in his room and asks, "Car Mommy?" That means he wants his car puzzles; he has 4 car puzzles that we cycle through a couple times a day. He has many other puzzles as well but he is on a strike against all puzzles that do not involve cars/planes/choo choos. He will occasionally do his tool puzzle as he loves to hammer.



• Berke has always been a good sleeper, he was sleeping 8 hours by 7 weeks old. However he has always done odd things in his sleep. Luckily he overcame the head banging stage a while ago and we have done well until a few weeks ago. We have now entered a new sleeping stage where he is waking up every night between 2-4 a.m. and is awake for an average of 2 hours. During this time he is a very happy, very chatty little two year old. He talks and laughs and has a grand old time. The last couple days this chatting has turned into yelling; not a mad yelling just a "I am gonna talk really loud and animated" kind of yelling. This is not the easiest thing to sleep through and there is really nothing we have figured out to quite him down. We try whispering to him and he giggles, we try giving him all his stuffed animals and he talks to them, we try giving him a book and he yells, "What's that Mommy?" So we just close both the doors and wonder when this new madness will end. He NEVER cries, so what do you do? Any suggestions. Needless to say, this kid seriously loves his crib and is in no way ready for a toddler bed. He sleeps like a maniac and if he were in a bed now he would probably be up playing with his toys at 2 in the morning.
  



• This kid is a picky eater! His diet consists of milk, vegetable juice, veggie dogs, spaghettio's, PB and J, graham crackers, crackers, fruit snacks, apples, applesauce, bananas, sometimes yogurt, craisins, dried blueberries, raisins, banana bread, raisin bread, waffles, pancakes, cheerios, and cheese tortillas. He won't touch a vegetable and the green smoothies that he loved for so long he now rejects. He refuses to try anything new unless it is candy. It is crazy to me how he knows sweet stuff and will try it right away! He doesn't like cake but he loves ice cream and all things chocolate (he really did inherit the Gentry sweet tooth). Luckily we rarely have junk in the house so he doesn't get to indulge too often.



• Berke is not really averaged size for his age, he is kinda short and small. Luckily all of the 18 month summer clothes that we bought for him to wear last summer (that never fit because he wore 12 months until he was almost 2) will fit him this summer. He is still sporting 18 month clothes at the (26 months) moment. He still wears a size 5 shoe and we are hoping this summer he can move up to a size 6 so he can fit in the adorable sandals I bought for him.



• Berke has some signs of OCD, if he sees the side of a rug curled up, he has to fix it. If he sees a drawer open he has to close it. He cant stand to have his sleeves rolled up. He gets obsessed with shirts with zippers and buttons; they have to be just a certain way.



• Berke is a hitter! He hits any kid that comes near him and has any thought of even looking at the toy he is playing with. He has gotten very good at saying, "Sorry, no hitting" We work on this constantly and I am seeing NO signs of improvement. Hopefully he grows out of this. Time out is sometimes a useful tool, but many times he hits and then says to me, "timeout mommy?" Then he laughs and sits in time out and folds his arms; he thinks its funny. What do you have to say about that Super Nanny?



• Berke loves to go to the babysitter's house. Megan is the BEST babysitter EVER! She is so good with Berkeley and really cares about him so much. I could not imagine a better place for Berkeley to be 2 days a week. He loves Megan's little boy, "Q". Every time we get in the car he asks, "Q house?" He is always happy to go and never wants to leave. He loves his little friend Q so much. When I tell Berke we are going to church, he says, "Oh Church, Q, RyRy?" He knows he gets to see his favorite people when he goes to church.




• This kid is generally VERY happy and is always trying to make us laugh. He has a contagious laugh and smile. He is so sweet and happy the majority of the time. He is also quirky and silly and that is why he fits into our family so perfectly!