Baby Martin

Bronson is now 2 years old, weighing in at 16.7kg and measuring 96cm (the prediction is that he will be 192cm, about 3cm shorter than Magnus, and it looks like neither of our boys will be taller than their Daddy!)

We had a really fun build up to Bronson’s birthday and he was obviously excited about the event.  He would start singing (humming) Happy Birthday To You and then pretend he was blowing out the candles.  On the big day we had a cute little birthday party with a few of his friends and family, including all of his Grandparents. We played pass the parcel, at the request of big bro as the little ones weren’t all that interested.

Bronson’s language has developed greatly over the past few months.  We have finally moved out of the NO phase and now Bronson’s favourite word is ’dup’ (yup) and ’Mummy’ is his second most used word.  He has taken a very different vocab path to his big brother which is fascinating.  Bronson  has taken more of a ‘phrases’ approach to talking – rather than learning lots of single words, he attempts to say phrases or strings of words, such as:

• I did it!
• I got you!
• I want a drink
• I want that
• I want that side (is the new phrase which means he wants to sleep in Mum’s bed and not his own!)
• Mummy have bath with me (is the longest to date)

Some of Bronson’s favourite things at the moment:

• tractors and diggers
• animals – especially giraffes and cows
• stickers – I bought a book for Magnus to do on the plane, but he wasn’t that interested in it and Bronson loves it, he has worked on it every day for the past 2 months. It is’ Things That Go’ with over 1,000 stickers that you create scenes with throughout the book, Bronson also loves to stick the stickers on his face! The best $10 I’ve ever spent

Finally a boy in the house shares Mum’s love for pop music and dancing! …after a year without a car stereo, we now have one that Bronson and I love to crank up nice and loud (but only when Magnus isn’t in the car otherwise all we hear is ‘toooo loud, turn it down!’). Bronson’s little head and shoulders bop around to the beat, non-stop! He’ll even be bopping as he drifts off to sleep in the car. Bronson loves to go into the lounge and dance around to any music, kids music or Mum’s music…esp Lady Gaga (lol)   If the music isn’t on in the car Bronson will sing or humm away, usually Baa Baa Black Sheep or the Wheels on the Bus.

Bronson is definitely a typical fiesty second son, who knows how to hold his own, learnt through survival around the house with Magnus, but also put into practice while dropping Magnus off at kindy – I’ve seen a 3 year old trying to take a toy off Bronson and kicked him, Bronson held on tight to the toy and said NO very firmly.  This morning our friends were here for a playdate and Bronson quite happily hit a 4 year old boy, who quite happily hit him back and then got on with playing!  I am surprised at how strong willed he is. I guess to his advantage he isn’t too much smaller than the 4 year olds either!

It’s been about 3 months since Bronson dropped his daytime sleep, much to my dismay! He just refuses to go to sleep, playing, singing and jumping in his cot until I get him up.  He might fall asleep in the car every now and then, but generally does not nap.  Magnus is still having a nap a couple of times a week! But Bronson just doesn’t seem to need it, he just goes about his day happily playing and doesn’t seem to get over tired, cranky or lose the plot (like big bro might if he hasn’t had enough sleep!).  Just another difference between our 2 boys.

Bronson has grown out of his egg allergy!  He now has no reaction to eggs and loves eating egg in a cup, great news

Ok, that’s enough of an essay about little Bronson, and should happily keep you up to date with the life of our cute as can be 2 year old

Drinking juice with bubbles and eating chocolate, my favourites!

Playing pass the parcel with friends

I needed Grandfather’s help to blow out my candle

After the birthday party we went to the Lagoon to feed the ducks with cousin Riley and Aunty Nic.

Here is the latest family shot

Bronson at 18 Months Old is 90cm tall and 14.5kg.  He has amazing comprehension but still doesn’t have many words, but has a lot to say.  He points to things in books and tells us all about it, but we’re not quite sure what he is saying yet! We can recognise some words/sounds to be:

digger, tractor, dark, all done, my turn, kiss kiss, dance, jump, shoes, sit sit and the new favourite word is ‘NAH’!

Bronson is an excellent swimmer after spending heaps of time in the pool over the summer.  Bronson was in the pool teaching himself how to swim while Magnus was absolutely performing and refusing to do his swimming lessons –  ironic isn’t it!  Keryn and I can put Bronson on his tummy under the water and he will kick and flap his arms to get from one of us to the other, or he can reach out for the side of the pool and pull his head out of the water.  He loves to hold the bar at the side of the pool and push himself under the water and then pull himself up again.  We are rather impressed!

Bronson is running really fast everywhere and has just learnt how to jump, demonstrated by about 5 jumps in a row while saying ‘jump jump jump’.  He can do perfect roly polys and his favourite thing to do is wave and everyone and everything. He is much better at sitting and listening to stories, but they have to have animals in the book, cats, dogs and farm animals are his favourite things. He can’t go past a dog without giving it a pat and just loved having our friends’ little dog Oscar stay with us for a couple of weeks.

Bronson is getting into the train thing and plays nicely alongside Magnus, which is a much calmer alternative to just pulling apart Magnus’ train tracks. Big bro has taken to playing a lot of rough and tumble and poor wee Bronson often gets pushed to the ground and jumped on. But he has definitely learnt to scream loudly and will perform even before he’s hurt.

We have had a couple of trips away and had lots of fun outings over the summer hols. Bronson loves the beach and digging in the sand (or mum’s garden) is a favourite. He is still really happy to sit in the buggy for walks or at the mall, so that makes life a bit easier, Magnus was well over the buggy by this age.

Keryn and I often say that Bronson seems to be much easier at this age than Magnus was, or maybe it’s just that we are more relaxed second time around. We really are enjoying this stage and think Bronson is just the cutest little thing! xxxx

Check out my running style at 14 months!

The first good bump on the head from running into the door

Check out the bird on my head at the Lamb and Calf day

My first day at Creche (Sept 09), dressed up as a Lion

At the Dorothy Show with Dada and Magnus

 At the Zoo

Brothers in their new wetsuits to brave the cold water at Karehana Bay

A quick stop at Rangatiki River on our way to Taupo – Throwing stones into the water, one of my favourite things to do!

Some shots from our short holiday in Taupo:

With Leanne, Shane and Summer

Bronson and Summer

The Damn release in Taupo

Family shot at Huka Falls

Wow, Bronson is 1! And what a gorgeous, lovely and fun one year old he is!

Weight - 11.6kg and Height 84cm (in comparison: Magnus weighed 12.5kg and was 83cm at 1, so Bronson might be a slighter build)

We had a lovely, low key birthday celebration on the 1st of July with family.  We enjoyed the morning opening presents, well big brother Magnus opened the presents and Bronson played with them. His favourite pressie was a simple dump truck (with no bells and whistles) from Mum and Dad that he pushed around the lounge for about half an hour. We had afternoon tea and birthday cake with Mama, Granny, Aunty Nic and Riley, G. Aunty Diana and Cathy.  Bronson was just the cutest when we sang “Happy Birthday”; he was very coy and obviously knew it was all about him and almost fell off his chair (Mum caught him )  Bronson also managed to blow the candle out all on his own – what a clever boy! He then preceded to very delicately poke his finger into the cake to try it out. Of course he then was loaded up with chocolate and cake to hoe into and make a royal mess out of (pics below).

So, at one year, what can Bronson do???…

• Words – da da (for Dad and Dada for Denis), mum-mum-mum (for Mum), yum (when he likes something he’s eating)
• Favourite things – bedtime doggie, playing with anything in the kitchen cupboards and drawers, throwing clothes into the washing machine or out the catflap, swings, singing Old MacDonald has a farm
• Favourite books - Bronson seems to prefer to get the books rather than read the book! He brings a book over, sits up on our lap, stays for one page and then gets down again and goes to get another book, and does it all over again! But if he does stay to read, he loves Farmer Jones and Old MacDonald has a farm and a BabyTouch Playbook.
• Favourite food – watermelon, mandarins, hot chips and icecream in a cone

Bronson’s special ways and tricks:

• Walks amazingly well, very steady and cautious, he’s walking all the time now. Bronson is an expert at going down stairs backwards (thanks to Dada’s patience and teaching), and he can now reach right up and open internal doors in our house so loves being able to follow me around
• Kisses – he walks from Mum to Dad and back to Mum and back to Dad giving kisses, blows kisses, especially to doggie when we get him up from a sleep
• Dancing – walks around with his hands in the air when there’s music on
• Gives ‘high fives’

So that’s our Bronson at one!

Bronson happily having water dumped on him by big bro on the eve of his birthday