Love by association

I heard Brendan rattling around in our bedroom this afternoon and went to investigate. He had pulled out some stuff from who knows where and was lovingly holding a little statue of a mother deer curled next to a baby dear. He showed it to me and pointed to the bigger deer and said “mama”.
I replied, “Yes, that’s a mama deer.”
He repeated himself a few times, then pointed to the baby deer and announced, “Brendan.”
Awwwww! 😉 I didn’t think his brain could think of something like that… so abstract!
Yesterday, Brendan’s sleep schedule was all messed up. He woke up absurdly late and since we had to go somewhere in the car, there was no keeping him awake to skip his nap. So at bedtime he was not sleepy in the slightest. After trying to get him to go to sleep in his own room and having him get up and come back into our room, I pulled him into my arms and said to him, “You are wide awake aren’t you?”
He replied, “Yup.” LOL!
***For the record: I have noticed a huge diffrence in Brendan these past few weeks. He is more cooperative and understanding and less tempermental. He’s been a real joy to have around. The “Terrible Twos” seem to be waning!! For him, it was more of an 18 months to 2 1/2 thing.***