Tot School - 13 months / Almost 4 years

I didn't do as much with Tot School this week. Brennan had two snow days this week and it just got me all off schedule. Bryce started the week off with a bad diaper rash (due to teething I think) and today he hasn't been feeling very good and is running a high fever. But I did want to share with you the few activities I did manage to get pictures of. I just mixed the Brennan and Bryce pictures together this week.

I tried to give him a bath at the peak of his diaper rash and it was so painful for him. I quickly got him out and let him snuggle with me on the couch just in his towel. I love these pictures that Kyle took. You wouldn't know he was miserable looking at these.

Both boys had fun playing our Red Rover game. It's too complicated for Bryce, but he had fun watching. I've mentioned this game before on the blog and I highly recommend it. We bought it for Brennan as his gift after Bryce was born. The dog calls out a color, shape, or letter and you have to feed him that matching bone. It's super cute.

Bryce practiced with his stacking rings this week. This is another Melissa and Doug toy. We have a store at our local mall called Education Works. It's a teacher store and has toys in it too. I think most the toys are overpriced, but I go in each time we are there and search for things that are marked 50% off. That's how I got these rings for Bryce for Christmas. I like that they are soft and each ring either rattles or makes a crinkly noise. I also like that the middle stick shows what color comes next.

Brennan had fun finger painting. It had been awhile since painted. We also made a special gift for Auntie Lala so Bryce even got in on the painting action this week. No picture of that though since I was too busy trying to keep paint from getting everywhere.

Brennan has been giving me a hard time lately about practicing writing his name. He was doing really well at it several months ago, but lately not so much. I let him use chalk in the basement this week and he busted out his name with no help from me. Even making it into a pattern. He's such a smart boy!

I pulled out a box full cars for Bryce to play with. He's cute because he'll say "Vrooom vrooom" while he pushes them around. He didn't play with them long though. He was more interested in cleaning them up. He's a little OCD like that! :)

Bryce didn't sit still long enough for me to even get a good picture of him being a one-man-band.

Back to the stacking rings again, but this time he was putting golf balls into the holes.

Brennan turns 4 on Tuesday. He got an early birthday present from some friends at church; Uno Attack. To say he was excited would be an understatement. He just opened this gift this morning and we've already played a bunch of times!

And just one more picture showing the beautiful snow Monday morning. We got more on Tuesday night and are possibly getting more on Sunday. I'm beyond tired of it, but Monday's snow was so pretty.

Thanks for checking out our week. You can see lots more ideas on Carisa's blog!

Dear Bryce,

You are 13 months old today. I can't believe a month has already gone by since your first birthday. I don't feel like a lot has changed over the past month, but there are a few things I'd like to remember. You are still wearing mostly 12-18 month clothes and size 3 diapers. Here's what else you've been up to:

The biggest change is that you are finally sleeping! Glory be! Hallelujah! Now that I've actually typed that on the blog, tonight will probably be a rough night, but for the most part you are consistently sleeping through the night. Some mornings you will wake around 6:30 and fuss a little in your bed until I come and get you at 7, but most days you sleep until a little after 7 and it's such a welcomed improvement! Most days you are still taking two naps, but sometimes just an afternoon one.

You now have seven teeth with the eighth one almost ready to pop through. You are a drooling machine and I think the teething gave you a pretty bad diaper rash earlier this week. Thankfully it cleared up quickly. You also have a little bit of a cold, but thankfully it doesn't seem to be affecting your sleep.

Obviously a big part of this last month was our trip to Disney. I know you were way too young to ever remember it, but you had fun. You became quick buddies with your GeeGee and were so content to ride in the stroller for long periods of time at the parks. You even loved meeting the characters and weren't afraid at all. This was already your 3rd round trip on a plane, so you're going to be a traveling pro just like your brother.

You still aren't walking yet, but have started using your push toy to get around. We are encouraging you a take a step every single day, but so far it's just been more like a little foot forward while falling. I know you'll get there and once you do I'll wish you weren't walking everywhere, but I'm excited for this next step. You can crawl and cruise and climb anywhere you want to go for now. It's pretty funny to watch you crawl if someone is chasing after you or says to you, "I'm gonna get you!" because you take off into this stealth speed.

You still don't really say any words. You can say "dada" and "momma" and a few other things here and there, but nothing super consistent. You understand a lot though. When I tell you it's tubby time, you crawl right to the tub. When we ask Ringo if he wants a treat or a bone, you crawl right to the hall closet where we keep them. If you hear the microwave beep, you beeline for the kitchen assuming I'm heating up water for your bottle.

I've been working hard with you on identifying body parts, but the only one you seem to know is penis. Go figure. We did start Tot School after we got back from Disney, so that's been fun. I haven't really been planning out super original activities for you, but just watching you become more interactive with toys is neat. One of the cutest things you do right now is pick up stuffed animals and give them a big huge. Seriously cute!

You are a Momma's boy for sure. You do get super excited to see Daddy when he first gets home from work, but most the time you want to be with Mommy. You are constantly pulling at my pants legs when I am cooking dinner and often end up in your highchair with a snack during that time. Speaking of eating, you have been a pretty good eater lately. The teething thing set you back for a few days, but most the time you eat your big brother under the table. You can eat more than slice of pizza in a sitting. You devoured lasagna the first time I let you have that. And just the other day you ate six Munchkins from Dunkin Donuts in one sitting. I can't believe you're still so scrawny with all you've been eating!

We have your professional one-year pictures coming up next weekend, so I'm super excited about those. I have a feeling that you'll be a full-time walker by my next update too. I also think it's about time to get you a haircut. I don't think I can look at your mullet too much longer. You are a sweet, sweet boy and I love it when you lay your head on my shoulder and snuggle with me. And I especially love it when you sleep through the night, so keep that up please. :)

Love,
Mommy

Much to the disappointment of the 4-5 people who care, I don't think I'm going to keep doing giraffe pictures for Bryce now that he's over a year old. When Brennan was still immobile at this age, they were easy to still do, but not so much with Bryce. So enjoy his one year picture in case you didn't get to see it before and few other iPhone photos of my silly boy.

Hollywood Studios

The Saturday of our trip was supposed to be the warmest day of the week, so we decided to start the day off at the resort pool. I don't have any pictures of our time there, but it's so fun to be able to swim in January. I'm not sure I'd want to live in Florida year-round, but I can definitely see myself loving spending winters there! We spent some time at the closest pool to our room (I think the resort itself has five or more pools) then headed over to the lazy river. After that we went over to a second lazy river.

Before we knew it, it was already almost one o'clock so we headed back up to the room to get ready to go to Hollywood Studios. We knew there wasn't going to be a ton for Brennan to do at Hollywood Studios, so that's why we decided to head there in the afternoon and not make a full day of it.

To be honest, when we first arrived I thought it was going to be a terrible day. It was hot and crowded. We found the line to meet Buzz and Woody and it was a little over 30-mintues long and Brennan started whining that he didn't want to wait, so we moved on. We did see a green army man from Toy Story, so Brennan had to get his picture with him. We went to the Honey, I Shrunk the Kids playground next. My parents stayed with Bryce in the stroller and I took Brennan in. It didn't go so well. He was being super clingy and whiny. I went down a slide with him and then he did decide to go down alone, but when he did he hit his head and started crying. I felt like crying and leaving.

Thankfully the day turned around after that.

We went and found Pizza Planet because I thought Brennan would like eating there. It was more of a dive than I expected, but Brennan loves an arcade (even a ghetto one), so he was happy. The food was decent and Bryce ate well too. After eating we walked a little and saw Phineas and Ferb. Brennan has never watched that show and didn't know who they were, but was all excited to meet them. He just loves any character. There was basically no line, so we met them. Bryce loved them too. Mater and Lightning McQueen were just around the corner, so we met them next.

After that we went back to check on the line for Buzz and Woody, it was just a little shorter than before and I asked the cast members where we could meet Mike and Sully from Monster's Inc. They told me where, but said those characters leave for the day in about 15 minutes so we needed to head there before meeting Buzz and Woody. I loved Mike and Sully. I really like both Monster movies and I think they're both so cute.

Then we did finally decide to wait in the line for Buzz and Woody. It moved pretty fast and there are lots of little places setup throughout the line to stop and take pictures. The Buzz and Woody pictures are some of my favorites from the entire trip!

Next, we went to the Disney Jr. Live show. I really liked it. You sit on the floor and it only has one live actor with the rest puppets, but it's super cute. I swear I got teary-eyed during the show because Brennan was so happy. I love watching him interact and smiling and clapping along. Bryce sat right with us on the floor and was loving it as well. Thankfully there were a few couches to sit on, so my parents were happy too.

The whole afternoon we had been trying to convince Brennan to stay for the fireworks show. He was adamantly against it and it was close to start time after the Disney Jr. show. I took him quickly to go meet Mickey from Fantasia and then he decided to go to the Fantasmic show even though Brennan was crying that he didn't want to. I'm glad we did. We got there almost at start time so we were ushered in with a huge crowd and had to walk to the far end of the amphitheater. It ended up being perfect because we went to the very top of the theater and our bleachers had backs on them unlike the rest. The show is pretty neat. Video is projected onto walls of water. There are just a very small amount of fireworks, so Brennan even enjoyed it. They do show lots of images of Disney villains and Brennan still talks about how he didn't like the "bad people", but overall it was a pretty show and I'm glad we stayed.

When it was over, we sat in our seats for a long time waiting for the crowd to go down. When we did leave, it started raining as soon as we got out of the amphitheater. At first it was a few drops, then it started pouring. We got Brennan in the stroller so he stayed pretty dry. I had Bryce in the Ergo because he was almost asleep, but once the rain really started coming down, he stayed awake. We thought about stopping under an awning or something and waiting it out, but decided to just keep on walking. It stopped raining just before we made it to our car, but we were soaked. It was a pretty funny ending to our day.

We didn't ride a single ride, but we met some of my favorite characters that day. I don't know if I'd go back to Hollywood Studios again with the boys being so young, but I am glad we go to experience during this trip. 

Disney - Mini-Golfing and Magic Kingdom

Sheesh! It's taken me forever to finish writing this post!

We arrived in Orlando Wednesday night. On Thursday morning, it was a little rainy. Once the boys woke up and had some breakfast, we all went for a walk around the resort lake. It was sprinkling when we started walking, but cleared up before we were done. While walking we decided we would pick a place to go mini-golfing. Brennan LOVES mini-golfing. We went during our family vacation to Myrtle Beach in 2012 and he's been talking about it ever since.

We had a brochure about a place where you could golf and eat at Cici's Pizza for $11.99 total and that sounded good to everyone, so we headed there. It started springing on us again on the 18th hole, but it was a fun, easy-going way to start off our vacation. The boys actually got to take a nap that day and we just had a low-key evening at the resort too. We went to a special balcony on the 17th floor at 9pm to watch the Epcot fireworks show, but for some reason Brennan decided he was scared of them and stayed inside. Then it was bedtime for everyone!

Friday we headed to Magic Kingdom. This was my dad's very first time ever going to Disney. My mom hadn't been in 30 years. I told them we had to start with Magic Kingdom. It's the best for kids in my opinion. We headed there around 8:30am so we could get a pretty early start to our day. We had to get our Park-hopper passes upon arriving at the Ticket and Transportation Center because I just had little paper vouchers from the military I had bought in CT. There was no line though, so it went super fast. We rode the monorail to Magic Kingdom and began our day. 

We were pretty lucky because when we first walked into the park, Minnie Mouse was standing right there for a meet and greet. I had done a lot more research this time on where to meet specific characters and hadn't expected to see her right away. She's Brennan's favorite so he was super excited and wanted to jump into line right away. I wasn't sure what Bryce's reaction to the characters would be, but he wasn't afraid at all.

Brennan wanted to walk through the castle, so we headed that way. Our first stop was Mickey's Philharmagic. We had never done this in our previous trips and I really wanted to do it this time. Total Mommy fail. Brennan hated it! He has seen one other 3D movie and it scared him a little, but this one totally freaked him out. In his defense the movie was ridiculously loud. He ended up sitting on my Mom's lap since I had Bryce in mine and was ok watching without his glasses on. 

After that traumatic experience we rode It's a Small World. I know it's not an exciting ride, but it's one of my favorites. Brennan was happy again, so that was good. 

We then went and grabbed Fast Passes for the Little Mermaid ride. We had done that ride on our last trip, but this was my first time using a Fast Pass. They are amazing! We had about 35 minutes or so until we could ride, so we headed over to the Dumbo ride. Bryce had fallen asleep in the stroller at this point and once we got to that area, Brennan remembered you could meet Minnie inside the circus area. My parents stayed with sleeping Bryce and Brennan and I went inside to first meet Goofy and Donald and then got back into the other line to meet Daisy and Minnie.

For whatever reason when Brennan woke up Friday morning he started saying he wanted to sing his ABCs to Minnie. He forgot to sing them to the Minnie at the front of Magic Kingdom, but he remembered while waiting in line to meeting this Minnie. After he hugged her, he started singing and everyone waiting in line thought it was the cutest thing ever. They all clapped for him when he was done. It was one of the highlights of the trip for sure!

Once he was done singing, we walked out and there was a clown juggling. He stopped Brennan and asked if he could juggle. When Brennan said, "No" he told him he'd teach him a different trick. He got Brennan to balance the spinning plate on his finger...

...while standing on one foot. It was pretty cute.

We still had a few minutes before we could go ride The Little Mermaid, so GaGa and Brennan rode the Dumbo ride together. The wait was only 5 minutes, so they didn't even play at the inside playground area. As soon as they were done, he asked to ride it again with me. Bryce was awake at this point so he rode with us too!

We then headed to The Little Mermaid ride. Using a Fast Pass was amazing. It's a very simple ride, but I really like it. After that we headed to the Teacups. We hadn't ridden that ride before and Brennan was so excited. This was him waiting in line. My mom and I rode with him and while waiting I noticed there was a barely any line for Pooh and Tigger so we headed over there next.

My parents were getting hungry by this point, so we headed into Tomorrowland and ate at the Starlight Cafe. On our previous visits to Disney, Kyle and I have always just brought sandwiches for Brennan to eat and snacked during the day. Brennan wasn't too happy at first about stopping and having to sit down for lunch, but it ended up being a nice little break. We were able to find a table and our food was ready quickly and tasted really good. 

I don't have a ton of pictures from Tomorrowland. Kyle and I had never taken Brennan into that section of Magic Kingdom before, but it was cute. We got Fast Passes for the Buzz Lightyear ride and then went into the Monsters Inc Laugh Floor. I thought that show was really cute. They pick people from the audience to be a part of the show and my dad was selected as Mike Wazowski. We also rode the People Mover ride. It had some parts that were in the dark that Brennan didn't care for, but it was a nice relaxing sit down ride. I knew I wanted to meet Stitch in Tomorrowland even though we'd be seeing him at breakfast on Monday, so we got in that super short line next. Then it was off to the Buzz Lightyear ride, which wasn't that great. We ended our time in Tomorrowland by doing the Carousel of Progress. I can vividly remember doing that on a trip to Disney with my grandparents when I was 9. Brennan LOVED it. I'm not sure why since I'd consider it more of an adult thing, but he really did. Again it was a relaxing time to just sit and watch (and let my dad get a short nap!)

We headed towards Adventureland next. We stopped and waited in line to meet Merida from Brave on our way, but the line didn't move hardly an inch for the longest time, then she took a 20 minute break, so we decided it wasn't worth it. In Adventureland, Brennan and I rode Aladdin's Magic Carpet while my parents got us Fast Passes for the Jungle Cruise. We walked around a little bit waiting for our turn. The Jungle Cruise was cute. The tour guide had all these crazy puns during the boat ride.

We were pretty much done at that point. I would've loved to have stayed for the fireworks, but we started heading back for the entrance. Brennan decided he did want to go into the Theater and meet Mickey so I took him in there really quickly. It was cute because this Mickey actually talks.

We ended our day by riding the Main St, USA Railroad completely around the park and took the monorail back to the ticketing and transportation center. We were there from 9am-6pm I think. It was such a fun day and the boys were so well behaved. I seriously can't wait to go back again!