Number Two

Happy Second Birthday Brigham Golden.  

My almost Christmas baby had his second birthday yesterday and we had a wonderful day.  We have been talking to Brig for sometime about his upcoming birthday and singing the happy birthday song so he could get ramped up--not that he needs much help in that department.  Just recently, like over the past few days, when I mention the word birthday, Brigham says, "Tree Birthday."  Much like my uncle Greg whose birthday on the 4th of July made him think the fireworks were all for him, I think it will be sometime before little Brigham does not associate his birthday with trees and lights and Santa.  There could be worse things.  

Even though he is only two, Brigham has an amazing zest for life.  He is all boy and all go all of the time.  He loves sports and airplanes and trains and digging in his sandbox and playing at the park.  He loves to sing and read books and color and dance.  He has one volume--loud--and is very excited about life and people and his family.  He loves to tickle and play tackle football and run around the house saying, "I'm gonna get you."   In short, Brigham's personality is as big as his eyes (he gets the eyes from his mom and the personality from his dad).

His verbal skills are coming along and it is fun to watch all of the little neurons in his brain firing and making connections.  Like I said earlier, Brigham is obsessed with airplanes and loves to drive on base and see all of the planes on static display.  Just in the past few weeks, he has learned how to identify and name a propeller on a plane--a thrill to a dad who is a Herc driver.  He looks at a plane and says, "prop" when he sees a propeller.  Last week, I was unloading the dishwasher and Brig was taking advantage of my temporarily turned back to try and sneak in the usually closed and understandably locked dishwasher.  With half of his little body somewhat stuck in the lower level, he stopped and said very excitedly, "Look mommy, prop."  Of course he was talking about the washing wand at the bottom of the dishwasher, but I was impressed at my little genius and his dad has not stopped smiling since.  Jets are for chicks.

Briggie loves the zoo, especially our local zoo because you can feed the giraffes and they have plenty of Georges (aka-monkeys).  The male lion at this zoo roars all of the time--it sounds like he has a permanent hair ball in the back of his throat.  During one trip to the zoo, Brig started to say, "Whoah, lion roar" every time he heard him.   A few days later, Brigham had just finished eating something and burped a little burp.  He looked up at me with his huge eyes, got a sly little smile on his face and said, "Whoah, Briggie roar."  That has become the new descriptor in our family whenever someone burps--Briggie, Callie, daddy.  Never mommy, though--she is too much of a lady.

Brigham is a wonderful son, brother, grandson, nephew, cousin, friend.  He brings excitement and humor to our home.  He keeps us light on our toes and quick in our heads, or is it light in our heads and quick on our toes?!?  He is warm and loving and sweet.  He is also rough and tumble and rowdy.  Sometimes I wonder how we are going to make it out of toddlerhood.  Other times I wonder what I did right to be blessed with such an amazing little man.  Other times I just shake my head, shrug my shoulders and say, "Oh Brig."

Happy Two Years, big boy.

We have great pictures, videos and stories from his little family party, but we will save them for another post.  Happy Holidays.