A Day in the Life

I've seen several people do "a day in the life" posts and decided to give it whirl too. I decided Monday to keep pretty detailed notes on my phone. As the day wore on, I thought about stopping because the day didn't seem that interesting. I did several chores around the house and really nothing educational with Brennan, but in the end decided it doesn't matter what we did. I just like having memories like these to look back on.

Monday, March 18, 2013 - Bryce is 2 months and Brennan is 3 years old

7:00am - Brennan calls out for Mommy from his bed. Even though I wish he'd sleep later, I am a happy Mommy because I was only up once at 3:45 with Bryce and he's still asleep! I go in and snuggle in bed with Brennan for a bit then take him potty and he puts on underwear. I then grab Brennan's laundry and put it in the washer and take Bryce's clean laundry out of the dryer and bring it upstairs.

7:25am - Bryce wakes up, so I go in and try to feed him, but he doesn't seem interested in eating. I give Bryce a bath while Brennan stands on a kitchen chair beside me eating fruit snacks (yes, for breakfast - go ahead and judge me). I get Bryce dressed after bath and he gets the hiccups, so I put him sitting upright in his swing while I eat breakfast. Brennan sits at the table with me and asks for a lollipop and I let him have one. I guess I was in a really good mood after so much sleep. He normally eats a healthy breakfast, I promise! Bryce's hiccups are gone, so I move him over to the couch to play and clean up his bath stuff.

8:30am - Brennan plays on the iPad on the couch while Bryce sits in my lap beside him and talks up a storm.

8:40am - I try to feed Bryce again since he didn't eat when he woke, but he still doesn't seem interested. His eyebrows are red, so I know he's already getting tired. I swaddle him and lay him in his crib for what I assume will be a short 1 hour nap. Brennan says he actually wants breakfast now, so I fix him a waffle.

8:50am - While Brennan sits at the kitchen table eating breakfast and Bryce naps, I go shower and get ready.

9:20am - I'm done getting ready and come out of my bedroom to hear Brennan saying, "I'm all messy!" I discover he hasn't eaten any of his waffle (probably because I let him eat junk first), but has just played in his syrup. He has never done this before. I clean him up and we go downstairs together. He plays in the basement while I print his Raising Rock Stars Preschool papers for the week. I remind myself that I really need to get them printed by Sunday night.

9:50am - Bryce starts stirring in his crib. I quickly switch Brennan's clothes to the dryer and put towels in the washer. Brennan stays downstairs playing while I come up to feed Bryce. He eats well this time. Brennan comes upstairs on his own. I get myself dressed and then get Brennan dressed. I change Bryce's diaper and load him into his car seat.

10:30am - We head to PetSmart to see the animals and just to get out of the house. We go the same ole places all the time, so this was a change for us. It is still literally freezing outside this week, so we have to come up with indoor activities. We look at the fish, cats, rats, and birds at the store. We also watch some dogs get groomed. I remember I do need new batteries for Ringo's wireless collar and buy those.

11:15am - We leave PetSmart and drive to Auntie Val's house for a visit. Brennan plays the piano, eats his peanut butter and jelly sandwich I packed for him, and then plays with Val's dad on the computer while Val and I chat in the kitchen. Bryce just sleeps in the car seat.

12:30pm - We leave to go home. I get Brennan ready for his nap (brush teeth, potty, read stories) and lay him down at 1:00. Bryce should be waking to eat, but is still sleeping so I decided to fix myself a sandwich really quick. I also switch the towels in the dryer.

1:25pm - Bryce wakes up. I feed him (he only eats on one side) while Brennan is happily talking to himself in bed instead of sleeping.

1:45pm - Brennan is still talking away. Bryce and I come to the couch. I talk and sing to him while I fold his laundry and Brennan's laundry.

2:00pm - I put Bryce's laundry away and go into my closet and pull out a few shirts to add to my Goodwill pile. Bryce is getting a little fussy on the couch, so I put him in my lap and finish watching Army Wives from Sunday night. Brennan STILL isn't sleeping!

2:30pm - Army Wives is done. I top Bryce off on the other side and change his diaper. He gets in the hiccups (darn you, hiccups) so I put him upright in the swing. I figure he will probably fall asleep in there which is fine because I need to leave a little before 4 to take dinner to a friend who just had a baby. I put together Brennan's RRSP board and Bryce does fall asleep in his swing. Brennan is still happily talking in bed.

2:45pm - I start prepping dinner for my friend and realize I'm missing a key ingredient. I go ahead and get Brennan up (not that he ever fell asleep), transfer a sleeping Bryce to his car seat and we head to the grocery store for chicken broth.

3:20pm - We head back home from the grocery store. Bryce slept the whole time and continues sleeping in his car seat once we're back home. I quickly fix the soup (recipe below - YUMMA!) and we load back up into the car to take dinner to the Mowry's. Kyle texts right as we are leaving to say he's headed home for the day.

4:30pm - We head back home to see dad. Once there I take the towels out of the dryer and put them away.

5:00pm - I heat up our soup for dinner (made a double batch) and around 5:15 we sit down to eat together.

5:30pm - Bryce is still sleeping!!! I wake him up to feed him and hope he can stay awake until 7pm, so he's super sleepy for bedtime. Kyle cleans up dinner while I feed Bryce.

5:50pm - Family playtime. Kyle wrestles with Brennan while I play with Bryce.

6:15pm - Bath time for Brennan while Daddy plays with Bryce.

6:40pm - A little more family playtime.

6:50pm - Brush Brennan's teeth. He says he needs to poop, so I put him on the potty. Bryce is getting fussy with Daddy, so I take him, swaddle him and put him to bed. Come back to check on Brennan and he says he doesn't have to poop now.

7:05pm - Give Brennan cold medicine, we read two stories, his Bible, pray, and sing songs and he goes to bed. He falls right to sleep since he didn't nap at all. I change into comfy clothes and buy plane tickets for the boys and me to visit Amanda while Kyle and I watch tv.

9:00 - I get ready for bed and go in to "dreamfeed" Bryce. Then Kyle and I go to bed.

So that was basically our day. Now for a few disclaimers...

...Bryce doesn't always sleep as much as he did on Monday, but I am blessed that he loves his car seats and does typically sleep well in it.

....Brennan usually takes a 2 hour nap each day, so it is extremely odd that he didn't nap this day, but again I am thankful he just happily stays in his bed even when he's not sleeping.

...I know I leave my laundry in the washer and dryer too long before taking it out (sorry, Val!).

Recipe for Chicken and Cheese Soup:
1 can (12.5 oz) chunk chicken
1 can Rotel
1 can cream of chicken/mushroom soup
1 can chicken broth
4 oz. Velveeta cheese
1 can kidney beans
dash of garlic powder

Just throw it all in a pot and heat it up! So easy and super delicious!

Brennan and Bryce Comparison

When Bryce was born, many people told me they thought he looked just like Brennan. Now that he's two months old, most people say they look completely different. They say Bryce looks just like Kyle, but the funny thing is everyone told me Brennan looked just like Kyle too. I started a folder on iPhoto right after Bryce was born where I could put pictures of both boys to compare and thought I'd share some with you.

Here are both boys being weighed right after they were born. Brennan looks like a chunky monkey compared to Bryce! They were both 19.5 inches long.

Here they are in the same outfit playing on the playmat. Brennan is first at only three days old and Bryce is second at 10 days.

Here are their 1 month giraffe pictures. Again, Brennan's is first.

Their 2 month pictures; Brennan is first.

Here are both boys sitting on the couch. Brennan is first and he's a few days shy of 2 months. Bryce is 2 months and one day old. 

And here are two more. Both are a little over 2 months old; Brennan's pic is first.

I think they look pretty different. But boy they are both so cute. I am just loving Bryce's bright blue eyes and I hope they stay. I also think both boys look so alert and make good eye contact with the camera.

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Happy Sunday

via

eXcept you be converted...

...and become as little children, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven. -Matthew 18:3

I had started this post on Thursday and completely forgot to finish it and post it yesterday. Better late than never!

We had a good week doing Raising Rock Stars Preschool this week. Our letter of the week was 'X' and the verse was long for Brennan to learn. We did talk a lot about heaven and how Jesus loves children. We sang "Jesus Loves the Little Children" many times during the week.

Here's the board for the week and some of the activities I had ready for him.

Brennan was eXcited to try using scissors again this week! I cut his 'X' words into strips of three and he cut them apart. He still needs a lot of help, but he's learning.

He was very eXcited to do this shape sorting activity. I cut out four shapes and he had to match them to their outline on the paper. 

 He also enjoyed tracing the letter 'X'.

We've done capital and lowercase letter sorting before. As I was cutting the letters out for Brennan, he said he wanted to play with his Easter eggs. I came up with the idea to put a letter 'X' in each egg. Then I had him close his eyes and I put an extra 'X' in one of the eggs so that it had two. Then he opened his eyes and had to search through the eggs for the special two 'X' one! He LOVED this game! It wasn't very educational, but it was fun and it was good fine motor practice for him to open and close the eggs over and over again. We repeated this activity many times this week!

We laid his 'X' words out in the shape of an 'X' and he found all of them. Then he showed me his eXcited face!

Once again, B painted his coloring sheet with the week's verse on it. I think the Easter Bunny is going to need to bring him some more watercolors! 

I love my smart boy!

Little Brother

A few of the many faces little brother makes...

This next one especially cracks me up! Don't mess with him!

Dear Brennan,

I contemplated not doing these updates for you now that you're the big 0-3, but I just love them so much I don't think I can stop. I love having a place to document the things you are doing and it's especially nice to be able to look back at what you were doing when you were Bryce's age. So for now, I'll keep writing them. You are now 37 months old. I guess we stop telling your age in months at this point. You are wearing 3T clothes and just got some new size 7 shoes! You had a great third birthday party and you can show 3 on your fingers!

Unfortunately the day after you turned 3, you got a stomach bug. Thankfully it was short-lived, but it was so sad to see you all lethargic and pukey. You were a strange sick kind though, because you kept saying you liked puke and diarrhea. After the stomach bug, you had a cold for a while and that gave you a cough that stayed around for a long time. It made for a few restless nights of sleep for you, but now you seem healthy again! You see the doctor for your official check-up later this week, but when I took you in while you were sick you weighed right under 30lbs. Of course that was after a day of puking and not eating at all, so I'm sure you're over that mark now.

I feel like the restless nights of sleep and your brother sometimes waking up around 6:30am have caused you to start waking up earlier in the mornings. You used to sleep until 7:30 very consistently, but lately you've been waking before 7, which is too early for this Momma. You don't get out of bed when you wake up, but you start calling out, "Mommy, mommy" over and over again. I was considering buying you a Tot Clock of some sort, but since we already had a digital clock in your room I decided to try something else. One morning when you woke at 6:45, I came into your room and got in bed with you. I told you to look at the first number on the clock and that when it said '7' you could get up. You didn't fall back to sleep during those 15 minutes, but you did lay still and watch the clock and as soon as it said '7', you said "Time to get up now!". Since then you're waiting until 7:00 (on the dot) to start calling out for me. I still wish you would sleep later, but at least now you're being quiet until then. You're such a good boy!

Speaking of sleep, you are still sleeping with no pillows, no cover, and no stuffed animal or anything in your bed. I think it's totally bizarre. I guess we need to give Bryce a blanket early, so he learns to sleep with one. You seem plenty warm at night, so I guess it's not a big deal; just strange. We use the word "strange" with you a lot! :)

You have always liked our dog, Ringo, but you seem especially fond of him as you're getting older. This makes Mommy sad because Ringo is not her favorite! When we kenneled Ringo for your birthday party, you kept asking where he was. You like to wrestle with him (until he gets too rough) and occasionally ask to ride him.

You have a new game you like to play now; Trouble. You got Candyland for your birthday and since we already own it, we took it back and you picked out Trouble as your new game. You understand the directions and follow the rules most of the time when you're playing. Lala brought you a special Thomas the Train version that we've been playing recently too.

That's right, your Auntie Lala came to visit! We don't get to see her very often, but boy do you love her! You couldn't stop talking about her visiting and once she was her, you were with her during most of your waking hours. She even got to put you to bed two nights! I'm so glad you all get along so well even though we live so far apart!

We've been working on correcting your words when you speak. Some words you just don't say clearly and we've been trying to get you to work on them. We also correct your grammar sometimes. We've been working a lot on using the word "I" instead of "me" and you get so excited when you use it correctly. We hear a lot of "I did it!" now. Then you jump up and down because you said "I" correctly. It's nice to know you like correct grammar like your Mommy (and Auntie Val).

Every week when we're at church, at least one person mentions to me how much you're talking now. You talk all the time and it's so nice to know that people are able to start understanding you more. People constantly talk about how smart you are, which makes me very happy, but what I love to hear is when people say what a good boy you are. It makes me very proud when people are impressed by how obedient you are (most of the time!). We've been working on saying, "Yes ma'am" recently and I think it's so cute to hear you say that.

People are right though, you are a smart boy. You are "reading" so many words now. I guess it's really more just recognizing them, but it's cute to see you run your finger across the word from left and right and try to figure out what it says. A few weeks ago, you surprised me and read the words "go" and "happy" in a book. I had no idea you knew those. And just last week, you were playing with you magnetic calendar. You pulled out all the months and were reading them. You know your months of the year and were mainly just looking at the initial letters because you'd get May/March mixed up and January/June/July mixed up, but again I was so impressed. You are so observant and if you're told something one time, you don't forget it.

Some of the funnier things you're doing right now include saying, "I'm growing up!" You'll say that when you're too big to fit somewhere (like Bryce's playmat) or when you do something new on your own (like reach the light switches). You also like to motorboat on Mommy boobs. And sometimes other people's boobs too! Your Daddy taught you that trick awhile back, but now you come right up to me and say, "I wanna rotorboat" (you say it with an r) and I die laughing every time. I guess we should probably get you to stop doing that soon.

I know I say this every month, but you really are such a sweet boy. You give me hugs and kisses many times each day and say unsolicited I love you's! You continue to be a great big brother and love to hug and kiss on Bryce too. You love going to church and you are learning so much about Jesus in your class and I just pray that you will grow to love Him. I really think you're going to have such a big heart for loving people!

I love you so very very much!

Love,
Mommy