Milestone weekend of 11/18/11 . . .

It was a long, great, hard, fun, frustrating weekend for the Brudam Brigade . . . lots of milestones this weekend:

• First Timeout: Well, actually first 4 Timeouts for Ethan, who was utterly charming 99% of the weekend and utterly terrible for 1%. The Timeouts were issued respectively for pushing Noel, pushing Noel, pushing Noel and dumping over an entire glass of tea despite Pai's clear direction: "Ethan, do NOT turn that glass over." Pushing boundaries is clearly the phase we're entering and there is not doubt we're going to be challenged!
  



• First sentences! Noel uttered not one, but two sentences this weekend, both of which bowled us over given where the boys' growing language skills have been as recently as last week. The first sentence uttered (and captured in the video below - well done, Dad!) was "I did it!" while the second sentence uttered was "Bless you, Daddy" after one of Daddy's super-loud sneezes!
  
  




• Self-feeding (themselves and the pets!): This weekend showed a clear transition towards knowing where food lives and how to ask for it towards independently sourcing, navigating and ultimately obtaining food. For the first time (with much repitition), we noticed the boys identify their favorite cereal (puffs!), use a stool to pull it down, and park themselves on the stairs consuming one puff after another. This works well for a snack, but Pai and Dad realized that we'll have to come up with a higher location for some of the appetite killing, carbo loading, much preferred over meat and veggies snacks. The culmination of their realization came when Ethan was able to discern between toddler food and dog food - he pulled out every treat in the pantry and proceeded to hand-feed each dog until they were stuffed full. Ethan is definitely our little caretaker and this video definitely shows you a uber sweet side of his personality.
  




• Last Family Visit to a Toy Store: This one was completely unexpected . . . we've always taken the boys with us whenever we got to a baby or toy store for a gift or supplies . . . while they occasionally express some interest, we've always successfully utilized diversion tactics to get out of the store without much pain. That all changed this weekend - not only did they demand to touch and hold toy after toy after toy, as we were leaving, Noel saw a Noel-sized motorized car and demanded to rent it with the option to own. When Dad denied his demands, there was a Noelly Canoli meltdown like we have never seen before . . . I'm talking a writhing around on the floor, kicking his shoes off, and screeching like I'd set him on fire kind of meltdown. Pai ultimately demanded that I get him out of the store, so we retreated to the car where the fit continued for another solid 15 minutes (20 minutes in total) . . . during that time, punches were thrown, heads were jerked and he threw every object he could get his hands onto the floor of the car. All over a car that he clearly wanted for his own. The video below captures the last 30 seconds of this fit and shows you that he had not lost any steam that far into it . . . we have definitely concluded that this was our last family outing to a toy store. :(
  
  
  
  



• First planned co-sleeping nap with Pai and Ethan. OK, so maybe this isn't a true milestone, but it is suuuuuuuper adorable and made both of them very, very happy.