Brett Casey at One

Brett Casey at one: • Brett is a Mama’s boy. There is something about Brett that absolutely warms my heart. And for Brett, there is something about me that makes him light up when he sees me. While I obviously love both my children, I have different relationships with each of them. Brett and I have a special bond that makes us able to simply make each other feel good. Sometimes when Brett is playing he comes over to me, gives me a hug and a snuggle, and then goes back to playing. Like he just needs that for a minute. When I have had a rough day, I walk in, scoop Brett up, and he just wraps his arms around me and snuggles. And somehow, things just seem better. • Brett is a man of few words. While I worried that he took so long to talk, I have now realized he just waits until he has something to say. If he is in the mood, he will play the “Can you say…” game, but he doesn’t often talk on command. I’m learning by simply watching and listening closely that he says far more words than I thought. They don’t always come out right, but I have figured out what they are. His new one the other day was “ta-da.” He climbed on the box of baby wipes, balanced himself, and looked at me and said “DA!” • Brett is proud as a peacock of himself. Whenever he does something that he thinks is amazing, which is a lot of things, he just beams with pride. Often, it is when he has figured out how to get somewhere he is not supposed to be. He figured out a way around the baby gate at the bottom of the stairs, sat on the step, and just grinned from ear to ear at me. • Brett is gearing up to be a Sumo wrestler. He loves to eat and sleep. He is not the child that fights taking a nap or going to bed. When Brett gets tired, you ask him if he is ready to go night-night and he finds his blanket and runs to the stairs. And Brett is always ready to eat. He can finish a meal and will walk into the kitchen five minutes later and try to get a banana off the shelf or point at his cereal bars and whine for one. The child is a bottomless pit! • Brett has somehow won the affection of our nine year old cat. I feel a little bad that Sammy has never really warmed up to Jack, but absolutely adores Brett. Jack has never noticed this, so I don’t worry too much. And Sammy has come around a little with Jack. But Sammy will seek out Brett. Then he will sit patiently while Brett “pats” him rather roughly, pulls his fur, sits on his tail, examines his ears and whiskers, and so on. Sammy rarely gets up and walks away and never swats at Brett. Maybe Brett is an animal person from before birth. I’ve read that animals can sense “animal people.” Our cat Riley, who passed away last spring, was obsessed with lying on or near my belly when I was pregnant with Brett. I guess we can say Brett has “animal magnetism!” • Brett will sit and figure things out. He is amazingly patient in those times. After playing matchbox cars with me and Jack one day, Brett took a piece of the track and sat in the playroom by himself until he figured out how to put one end of the track on a box and then slide a car down the track. He still wanted to play cars, so darn it, he was going to figure out how to do it on his own! I’ve noticed he likes to figure things out, and is perfectly content to sit by himself and study something until he understands or makes sense of it. Brett just makes me smile. Even when he gets scolded, he has this adorable pouty face that he makes and I wonder how he can get his bottom lip out that far. Brett is quite the character and each day I am more convinced that his goal in life to make others smile, especially his mama. So far, goal accomplished!