We have another cat named Bandita but you'll never see her and Berik together as she makes it a point to be where he isn't. Berik is pretty good to Sam but there is always brief pull of the ol' tail waiting and Bandita doesn't want any part of that.Berik continues to amaze me with the things he does an
d says. He continues to try and help me, help him, get dressed and sometimes dresses himself :). Here is pic of B lining up his blocks as he lines up a lot of things, magnets, food, his trucks etc.
He is messy at times dumping out the whole toy basket but at other times he insists that everything is lined up. His vocabulary is picking up and he can say some things that I would think are more difficult, like butterfly but can't or won't say milk. He calls all liquids juice so then the guessing begins as to what he wants. I think he is on his own agenda :) . In the morning, if he gets into the kitchen first, he helps himself to whatever he wants for breakfast, this day it happened to be a sugar cone which I didn't think was great but I should have gotten there sooner and no, that's not all he had for breakfast. 
The other day while I was attempting to tidy up the house, I turned to see Berik completely up in his highchair. What? How did you get up there? After all it is still on the tallest setting. So, naturally I grabbed the camera and got him down and asked him to do it again, and he did.
He also "has to" buckle up the highchair straps after each meal and although they aren't always correct he does get the job done.
For the first few times I had not seen him clip the buckle and I thought Jaimie was doing it and I found it quite annoying but now that I realize it is my darling sweet baby, then it's ok right? Speaking of darling and sweet, I think we are hitting the terrible two's early. When he is not being good, which is most of the time really, he shreds stuff like magazines, video covers, books (which we keep out of his reach the best we can) and styrofoam cups which don't stand a chance.
I finally just gave in one evening and let him destroy a cup and of course I took pics. 
He is easy for the most part but at times he is quit challenging, as he runs from you instead of coming to you, sits when you need him to stand and squeals!!!!!!!!!!!!!! oh my does he squeal, so shrill it practically pierces your ears. When this doesn't work then he cries or stomps his feet. All my friends and family tell me it's just a phase and I hope they are right because I don't much like this. Just look at him at nap time, uh I think he is saying something like..."#!@&^*^ I don't need a nap@&^%$*^*"
and then once he winds down he is so peaceful and sweet and wakes up the most smiley happy baby! Maybe he will pass through the terrible twos before he actually is 2?Every year, for the past 13 yrs now, I have taken pictures for my friend Tracy, of her kid, (now kids), for their Christmas card. This year we went to the Huntsville State Park for a nice background/scenery. Not really planning on pictures of us we just kind of threw on something that had fall colors in it and left the house. Go figure that our pictures turned out pretty good but I just couldn't stand it that Berik's white socks he had on with brown boots showed, and that I had on a 3/4 sleeve shirt and they had on long sleeves so I decided not to go with this set of pics for our Christmas card.
Due to busy lives, it was a couple of weeks later, when Tracy came over to our house one morning to take our pics and it was the most overcast, windy, ugly day ever but we went for it anyway and just picked out the best of the those. Note to self... next year plan way ahead, as this was stressful for me or just send picture of Berik and be done with it..as I am sure my friends really don't care what Jaimie or I look like anyhow! :)Thanksgiving day was at our house and my parents came over, as they live here in town. We had really good grub and had some really cute pics of Berik and Mimi and Papaw but who knows where those went? We can't seem to find them anywhere. Finally, I qualified to have Thanksgiving at my house because I have a little one, but in the past I have always had to go to someone else's house. Berik initially balked at the turkey but eventually ate everything on his plate. We let him down from the table early as we were still stuffing it in. Mistake! Berik found my cell phone and somehow managed to put it on speaker phone and dial up Jaimies work. About the second time the lady said , "Wynne unit, control picket, officer so and so speaking" we figured it out and rushed over to get it but he hung up on her. Oops!! About a week later my cousin called me to ask me if I had text messaged her? Uh? No. Well guess who? Yep he had my cell phone again and had texted her, wmmw. Ok, note to self put cell phone totally out of sight. Out of sight, out of mind? We will see.
Last but not least, I think of things for, You know your a momma when... but when I don't write them down like all momma's, I forget. Here are three that stand out in my mind that I haven't forgotten yet...
You know you're a momma when.....
..you drop your baby off at daycare and you find yourself still listening to and singing along with the nursery rhyme CD all the way to work...
while tying your own shoes you attempt to double knot them..
you can turn the nightlight off and on with your toes because of course your hands are full..
I am sure there are more stuck in my little ol' brain just waiting to bust out but for now that's all folks. Until Dec. post, you'll take care!! Gena
PS- If you look close at the picture of Berik where he has dressed himself you will see that the wall it chewed and clawed up. This was the present we got, when we got back from Kaz from our boxer, Harley, who apparently wasn't too pleased that we were out of country. :)
