An Interview with Brinkley – August 2012

The last post in the interview series, the one I’m sure everyone’s been waiting for: Brinkley!

I’ll admit we had to help Brinkley out a little bit, just like we did last year. Because he can’t, you know, talk. (Or maybe I should say he doesn’t talk? Perhaps he can.) And I can definitely say he’s grown and changed a lot since last year because all babies are growing and changing a lot at this point.

His favorite foods have changed, and not for the better. He’s turning into a mini-Jenny, preferring junk food, and hating vegetables. And yes, I understand that this is mostly our fault for giving him the junk food in the first place. His recent favorite treat is M&Ms. We gave some customized ones to Lee for Father’s Day, and he put them in his desk drawer. Brinky discovered them one day and decided he could go get a few whenever he wanted. That means he’s smart, right? The fact that he could remember where those M&Ms were?

Something that hasn’t changed since last year? His love for Dora. Except that it has intensified. Nothing makes him happier than watching his friend Dora, and his most favorite funny friend the Map. He focuses and laughs and just generally loves it. His favorite episode is Save the Puppies. Those dogs are hilarious.

One of his favorite things to do while watching Dora or just hanging out in general is to build with his blocks. Mega Bloks are pretty much the greatest thing ever. They can entertain him for the longest stretches of time, and he’s good at building with them. Sometimes we notice patterns – he chooses a particular block size or color and only uses them. That’s why we picked yellow as his favorite color – he loves his yellow blocks – and also why we said he should be an architect when he grows up.

His favorite place to go is to my car. He always wants to head outside and get in the car. He doesn’t generally like our destinations that much though, and he’s always happy to get back home. Just like his dad, except Lee doesn’t like going to the car at all.

Party Rock Anthem has been his clear favorite song for several months now. It’s one of the only songs (besides songs on Dora) that he even reacts to. He starts bouncing and jumping and smiling. Interesting fact: we discovered this love of Party Rock Anthem when Jenny did a science fair project on the effects of different genres of music on babies by playing different songs for Brinky.

I feel a little bad for making a joke about the fact that he can’t talk, and he used to. He said da-da and cat and dog at about 12 months. And then he quit. Now he never says anything. I try not to worry about it because the doctor says it’s fairly normal for boys to take longer than girls to start talking. But I do worry about it.

We think his one wish would be freedom – to go where he wants and do what he wants. He hates being restricted in any way. He’s getting more freedom than ever these days though because we clearly need to end our denial and accept that he knows how to open the gate in the family room since he walks out of there a couple times a day when we know it’s been closed. His OCD makes him stop and close the gate and we always hear the click, so at least we know he’s out.

That’s the end of this series! We’ve interviewed all of our children. But I’ll be back with updates at this time next year. And maybe Brinkley will be able to provide his own answers then.

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