Finally

Sheesh! It's been such a long time since I did a blog post. I finished up a great, but very exhausting week of Vacation Bible School. It seriously wore me out leading worship each night from 6-8:30 since Bryce STILL isn't sleeping well. Kyle had duty today, so after the long week it was just the boys and me again all day, but we actually had a great day.

Brennan actually slept until 7:40 this morning. That's the latest he has slept in a super long time. I think VBS wore him out too! After Bryce took a little morning nap, we headed off to the Warwick Mall which is special because there's a carousel inside. The boys and I rode it twice, caught a magic show that was happening at the mall, and had lunch at the food court. Thankfully both boys went down for naps right when we got home and Momma got to sleep too! It was amazing!

It was such a gorgeous day today and I was feeling a little bad that we had spent the morning inside, so once Brennan was up from his nap, I packed us up a picnic supper and we headed downtown. It was a perfect night to be down there. We found a great parking spot, ate our picnic by the water, watched the Mystic drawbridge go up and down, and then ended our night at the playground.

Here are some pictures I snapped with my phone. It was pretty sunny so they aren't that great, but hey at least I blogged! :)

I was sitting on a blanket, but Brennan just wanted to eat in the stroller. Silly kid!

We got a see a few boats and kayaks go by in the water.

Brennan HAD to sit on this big rock. He refused to get his picture taken though, so I told him I was taking a picture of the boat behind him and was the able to catch him looking at me.

The drawbridge in our downtown goes up once an hour during the summer months. Brennan really liked watching it.

Even though we live in Mystic, we had never been to this playground before. It was cute. Brennan is getting so much braver at playgrounds now. He makes me a nervous wreck!

Let's hope now that VBS is over I can play catch up a little and get back into a blogging routine!

Happy Sunday

via

Happy Sunday

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Dear Brennan,

You're 41 months old now little dude. You'd be made if you knew I called you little. :) You are growing up so fast and developing quite the personality, which isn't always so pleasant. I can definitely tell you are getting taller, but you are still holding strong in your teeny size 7 shoes and wearing mostly 3T clothes. 

I mentioned in the last update that we had seen an attitude starting to develop. Boy it has reared its ugly little head more than a few times again this month. I know it's all part of growing up, but sheesh it's so frustrating. I know every parent has been through it and I think it's just driving me a little crazier than it should because I'm so sleep deprived. You have mastered the art of talking back. So many times during the day you'll snap back with the opposite of what I say. Even if I say something like "Be careful, you're going to get hurt." You say, "I wanna get hurt!" back in an angry voice. I am so very thankful you are still taking naps each day because without that break in there I'm not sure I could take it! You have thrown some pretty good fits when we are leaving places too now. Not full out tantrums, but you can scream with the best of them. 

But just like I mentioned last month, you then come out with the sweetest little things you say and I know you truly have a kind, sweet heart and that being three is just tough. At random times throughout the day you'll look at me and say, "I love you too!" just out of the blue. You always tell Bryce that you've missed him if he's been away napping or at church. You are great at cleaning up (most of the time) and say "yes ma'am" a ton too now. You use please and thank you without being reminded. 

We took a trip to Vermont this past month and you had a such a good time. You did keep saying you wanted to come home to see Auntie Val, but I know you had fun. You loved playing at the Fun Zone. You really enjoyed the bounce houses there and loved playing mini golf. You liked it so much that we bought you a little golf set when we got back home. We also just bought you a little bowling set and you have been playing that daily. I know you're only three, but I always wonder if any of these interests you have right now will prove to be something you love doing as you get older. 

While we were in Vermont, you watched the tv show The Octonauts for the first time and really started liking it. You haven't watched it here during the past week or so, but for a while you were obsessed. I printed off some Octonauts activities from Carisa's site and you LOVED those. You are getting really good at identifying coins and can tell how much each coin is worth. You also understand greater than and less than from that packet after I showed you one time. 

You are so so very smart. You picked up a book from Bryce's room just the other day and read it cover to cover to me. Read it. We haven't read that book in over six months and I only had to help you with one word. You are really learning how to sound out words to read them and you can also spell some words too. You are so good at board games, but you can't play them with anyone your age because most three year olds don't understand or follow the rules and that makes you mad. You have to play by the rules (with occasional cheating at Candy Land). One of your newest favorites is to play Domino War. We put all the dominoes upside down in the middle and each draw on. The person with the most dots wins those two dominoes. It's great counting review and it's even caused you to remember some addition facts because you know 5+5=10 and 6+6=12 without counting. You are doing great at writing your first name and on the 4th of July proved me right and counted all the way to 100 by yourself. Your smarts show up in the car too because you're now interested in direction. You like watching the little compass rose on the rearview mirror and shout from your car seat, "We're going northwest, we're going east!" 

I have mentioned before that you are speaking much more clearly now. We did have an incident back at the beginning of the month where I could not understand what you were saying though. It started while we were at the commissary and you said something about the race car cart you were riding in. I just sort of pretended I knew what you were saying while we were there, but then you brought it up again in the car. It sounded like you were saying, "The green car was a vegetable." I kept trying different words trying to guess what you were saying and you started crying so hard because I couldn't figure it out. I even asked you what letter the last word started with and you said, "V". We decided to just not talk about it on the ride home. Once we had been home for a bit I asked you if we could try again. You repeated it and I still couldn't figure it out. But then you said it one more time and it hit me, "The green car was available".  It all made sense then because usually as we are driving to the commissary you tell me what color race car cart you want and I'll say, "We'll see if it's available". Well that day the green car was available. I just thought it was so cute that you were using such a big word and loved that you sounded it out and said it started with a "V". 

You love playing rough and thankfully Daddy is home for a quite a bit longer because he's much better at that than Mommy. You love for him to wrap you up in a blanket like a taco and he even wraps you up in it and swings you all around the living room. You just laugh and laugh. You've decided that Bryce is now big enough to wrestle too. I'm sure he'll be tougher than you are. I don't think he'll have a choice. And you still love playing the iPad. Just two days ago, I printed off some tickets I made so you can earn iPad time. During the day you can choose a ticket and perform that task to earn 10 minutes of time. Some of the tasks include: writing your name, listening to a Bible story, reading a book, completing a puzzle, etc. Once you complete an activity, you know how to set the timer on the iPad and will play for your allotted time. There have still been some tears when the timer goes off, but it seems to be working pretty well. It's limiting your time on the iPad and getting you do some activities I'd like you to be working on this summer. 

You're just growing up so fast and even on the not so great days, I love being your Mommy!

Love, 

Mommy

Happy Sunday

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Dear Bryce,

Wowza! You're 6 months old! Half a year! You are just such a cute little dude and unless you're sleepy, you are almost always happy. I weighed you this morning and you're currently 15 pounds 1.5 ounces. You'll see the doctor in a little over and week for your official stats. I just packed away more clothes you have outgrown. Makes me a little sad because it might be the last time I ever use those. You wear mostly 6 month clothes and are in size 2 diapers.

You're still nursing and doing great with that, but you are much more active while eating and like to smack me around with your free hand. You are getting solids at least 2 times each day. You devour rice cereal and like most fruits (not peaches) and like veggies that aren't green. You like helping Mommy with the spoon. Just yesterday I was trying to feed you peas and you'd grab the spoon and make sure it didn't make it to your mouth. Then I switched to apples and you'd grab the spoon and jam it in your mouth so fast. You know what you like! You have also had some practice with a sippy cup, but you mainly just like chewing on the spout. You've taken several bottles during the past month, so Mommy has been able to leave you with a friend even during your feeding times.

In your 5 month update, I mentioned how horrendous your sleep had been. Thankfully right after you turned 5 months, it drastically improved again. You weren't quite sleeping through the night but were making it from 7pm-5am and would eat a little and go right back to sleep until 7:30am usually. You were still getting swaddled too. Well double-swaddled actually because you kept squirming out of one swaddle and waking up, so I used two. However, while we were vacationing in Vermont, you rolled over while swaddle two different times and we figured we better stop swaddling. Since then sleep has been pretty bad again. Most night you're up three times each night right. Blah! Naps are hit or miss since we stopped swaddling you. You're now using a sleep sack. I don't even think it's having your arms free that is keeping you awake, but the fact that you're so darn active. You roll all around your bed and hit your head pretty hard sometimes. Hopefully sleep will start to improve again soon.

You were fantastic during our trip to Vermont. You did great with the traveling and sleeping in the pack-n-play. You got to go swimming for the first time while we were there. It was a nice little getaway for us! While we were there you discovered your feet and now play with them all the time. It's given you something to do with your hands other than put them in your mouth, so that's nice. You also learned how to blow raspberries, but so far you don't do it nearly as much as your brother did during meal time.

You've been rolling for several months now and are extremely fast. You have better control over your directionality now and will intentionally roll to get a "toy" you want; often paper that you'll eat. You can turn easily while on your stomach and will still pull your knees up and lunge forward some, but no crawling yet. We bought at exersaucer at a local consignment store and you love it! It's nice that I can put you in that now when I need to keep you from rolling. You are also pretty good about playing in your crib if I need to you confined for a little bit.

You can do a tripod sit alone for a few seconds sometimes, but certainly aren't proficient at it yet. You do try to sit yourself up when you're in your whale tubby though. I have had to start putting that tub in the big tub because you splash so much in the water. You love bath time just like Brennan always has.

You still don't take a binky, but like to play with them. You can put them in your mouth on your own and will chew on it, but won't leave it there and suck on it. You chew on anything you can find, including your brother's hands and just as of this morning your feet. No teeth yet though.

You really are such a good baby. You have the biggest smile and those blue eyes still get comments from strangers everywhere we go. You continue to love your brother and your eyes go straight to him if I say, "Where's Brennan?" He loves you most of the time too! :)

I can't believe in just six short months you'll be one! Time is flying by and even though I'm one tired Momma, I'm trying to savor every second of it; especially if you're my last baby!

Love ya bunches and bunches!

Love,
Mommy

Brennan back at 5 months

Brennan today at 6 months and looking much less babyish. :(

Just Some Pictures

Here a few pictures of my sweet (sometimes ornery) boys.

Playing the iPad, in his underwear, while lifting his leg for some reason.