Solicitation

This post is simply to ask for advice. The last couple months I have said to myself nearly every day "hmmm, I should probably get some books to read about how to handle discipline for toddlers." Not because Bria has any discipline issues, but because I could sense a change in Bria. She started pushing boundaries gently, and she would throw a tantrum here or there. In the last couple days, this casual thought about what books to read for guidance has become more of an urgent need. Our sweet little Bria is nearly two, and it is becoming rather apparent. Tantrums are becoming more frequent, and I think Bria screamed "MINE!" approximately 8,000 times today. I have general discipline measures in place, and I feel confident in my abilities to remain calm and consistent when teaching her appropriate behaviors, but there are some situations I find myself completely baffled.

My question is this: what parenting books would you recommend?

A picture of my darling girl after insisting that "Beebee do it," while putting on her coat.

Ugga

I have been doing yoga in the mornings lately, and Bria loves to tag along. She loves to unroll the yoga mats and play on them all day long. She is always asking to do "ugga" with me, and she can do a mean downward facing dog-- her head touches the ground with straight arms and legs, heels touching the ground. She also loves to crawl under me during downward facing dog and tickle my ribs, and she climbs on my back while I do pigeon pose, which makes me feel kind of like I'm dying. Even though then I can't get her off my back and I fear I'll never be able to move again, it's still pretty cute.

Snowpocalypse

So here is some proof that we did survive the snowpocalypse. Sam went to work early last Friday so he could put in a full day of work and come home a little early before the snow accumulated too much. We even ventured out Friday night to hang out with some friends, and it was a nice way to spend the evening before we were shut off from civilization for a while. The snow started around 10 am (Friday) and stopped Saturday evening around 5pm, I think. Our electricity was out for 12 hours, from 11am to 11pm on Saturday. While it was inconvenient and boring, we feel really blessed that we didn't have to go through a night without power or heat. It was also nice to have friends on our street who have a gas-powered stove-- they made us a delicious dinner and provided us with a flashlight and some emergency candles. Thanks guys!

Walking to Hannah and Rob's house:
Monday was a gorgeous day, but the metro was still closed, so Sam got to stay home. We spent the day cleaning off the car and playing in the snow (Bria calls it "fos"). Bria doesn't have snow clothes, so I wrapped her hands and feet in plastic bags under her mittens and shoes so the melting snow wouldn't get her hands and feet too cold and wet. It seemed to work well.
Sam went to work Tuesday, and I even took a trip to Costco-- and it took THREE HOURS. I think everyone on the eastern seaboard was at Costco on Tuesday. And Tuesday afternoon, the second storm hit. The wind was insane, and it undid all the work they had done to clear the metro, so Sam was home for Wednesday, Thursday, and part of today (Friday). Luckily it wasn't as bad cleaning off the car this time.

Here's the aftermath of both storms outside our building:

It was nice to have Sam home so much with us, even if we got a little bored. Bria's favorite activity to play asleep. She puts her toys, herself, and us to bed, and insists upon "seepy" (sleeping). She likes to play on the couch with Sam. This was a common sight in our apartment.

We also signed up for Netflix so we could stream movies and tv while we were stuck inside. We also cooked and baked up a storm, which was good and bad. I think I need to do a sugar detox. The sky is bright blue today, and I'm hoping the weather reports that predict snow for Monday are incorrect. I don't think I can handle any more snow this year.

Skillz, Part Two

Our most notable update is that we survived the Snowpocalypse this weekend. We got about two feet of snow over the weekend, and we lost electricity for twelve hours. It was all very exciting, adventurous, and sometimes boring, but we survived! Now, on to the next snow storm which will start today and bring another 10-20 inches of snow. Look forward to pictures later.

The real point of this post is to showcase another of Bria's exciting skills. She learned to say her name! We call Bria by more nicknames than we do her actual name, so I was starting to wonder if she even knew her name was Bria. We most often call her Beebee, and that's what she would say to refer to herself. When she wants something, she pats her chest furiously and says "Beebee. Beebee. Beebee," in this very serious, very longing tone. But recently I asked her what her name was and she responded very enthusiastically, "BEA!" She still has some trouble with saying her Rs, so it sounds maybe more like bee-ya. It's incredibly adorable. I caught this video of her showing off the skill:

Skillz

Bria has been so fun lately. Even though she is demonstrating her almost-two-years-old-ness in a lot of creative ways (read: tantrums, screaming, biting, and hitting), I am just adoring this stage. She still says new words every day, and she picks up so much more than I realize (which is simultaneously scary, adorable, and hilarious). Just yesterday she started singing along to "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" and "Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree" (which she calls "Cup"). A video of that is definitely in order. She has also started counting. If we count with her and alternate numbers, she can count to ten (usually), but throughout the day, I hear her counting by herself, and it is always "2, 2, 4, 9 . . . " She counts everything all day long. So here is a video of Bria's new counting skills.

Mimi comes to visit

Last week we were so excited to have our very first visitor since we moved to Virginia. My mom came out for seven days, and we had a blast! Unfortunately, I didn't take very many pictures, but we enjoyed our time with plenty of shopping, a trip to the temple, visiting some memorials, and generally enjoying each other's company.

My mom wasn't too excited when I told her the weather would be warm, and it ended up being quite chilly for many of the days. (Even Bria's hat was necessary.)
On the nicest day of the week, we did enjoy walking around DC (it was 65 degrees!). We took my mom to our favorite restaurant, Founding Farmers:

Bria loved the new outfit her Mimi bought her, and probably more than that, Bria enjoyed the chocolate milk Mimi likes to drink for breakfast.

Thanks for coming, Mom! We had so much fun and can't wait to see you again!

starlet

Whenever the camera comes out, Bria immediately smiles and says "cheese!" which actually sounds much more like "keys!"
She loves to ham it up for the camera, which is good, because I love to take pictures of this little girl.