Happy Easter

My blogging has been so horrible lately and I'm really hoping I can improve on that. I love posting pictures of the boys on here and I love that it makes me pull out the good camera more often. Today I wanted to share the pictures we've taken today of the boys celebrating Easter. Brennan has especially enjoyed it. He's been looking forward to an Easter egg hunt for months! But it's been even more fun listening to him talk about the true meaning of Easter and realizing how much more he can understand this year.

Unfortunately, Brennan woke up crying at 6am this morning. He said he needed to make a poop and poor little buddy had diarrhea. I tried to get him to rest a little more in our bed, but he wouldn't fall back to sleep. Thankfully after one more trip to the bathroom, he seemed to feel all better. Even though it wasn't even 7am yet, we started the Easter basket scavenger hunt.

I thought Brennan would like having clues lead him to his basket and when your four-year-old can read, it makes it especially fun. The scavenger hunt was a big hit! I'm sharing all the pictures because I just love the looks on his face. He did a great job reading the clues. I think I only helped him with one word. He's such a little smarty!

The search ended on our bed and Brennan immediately began tearing through his basket. Both boys got a lot of clothes for Easter because it has been such a long time since I've bought either of them any article of clothing. Brennan was super excited for his books, bubbles, and his favorite was this little dinky tabletop golf game.

Then we got Bryce up and he joined in on the fun too!

Thankfully we were able to get fed, dressed, and ready in time to take a few pictures of the boys before heading out the door for church. It's no easy task trying to get a decent picture of them together!

We had a great morning at church. Bryce didn't cry when I left him in the nursery today, which was huge! There was no Children's Church, so Brennan was up with us in the service the entire time and he did great. We are so thankful for our church family year-round, but especially at the holidays when being away from home is even harder. After church we asked Brennan what he wanted for lunch and he picked McDonalds. So, we grabbed some classy Easter lunch and headed home. After we ate, I went out and hid the Easter eggs for Brennan to find. 40 eggs in all and he easily found every single one!

Afterwards, we came inside, I laid Bryce down for a nap, and Brennan got to open his eggs. 20 of them had jellybeans inside, 18 were empty, and 2 had dollar bills inside. He was pretty excited for those. I took him outside one more time to blow his new bubbles for a little bit, then it was his turn to lay down for a rest. Right now both boys are still sleeping, I've had a little nap, and Kyle is asleep on the couch. It's a beautiful day and I couldn't think of a much better way to spend it!

Happy Easter!

Saddest Kentucky Fan

I figured I should just go ahead and share this here too. Monday was an exciting day as we were getting ready to cheer on the Wildcats in the National Championship game. Before bath, I let both boys paint banners to hang alongside the one UK would hopefully win that night. Both boys were asleep before tip-off and Kyle had duty, so it was just me in the living room pacing around like a crazy person. Obviously the game didn't go the way we wanted. I was certainly sad, but when Brennan woke up Tuesday morning the first thing he asked me what if Kentucky won. I knew he'd be sad too, but wasn't expecting so many tear.

Dear Bryce,

You are 15 months old today and it's the first time I have blogged in forever! Right now you are still in size 3 diapers, but I'll probably get size 4 overnight diapers for you once these run out. You currently wear mostly 12-18 months clothes, but even some of your hand-me-down 18 month pajamas are getting a little tight on you. You have a size 5 foot, but still rarely wear shoes and refuse to leave socks on your feet for more than three seconds. You've already had a your 15-month checkup. You were 30.5 inches and 21.1 pounds. You are up to the 7th percentile in weight now instead of the zero! Here's a little of what you've been up to lately.

You are walking more and more, but crawling is still your main mode of getting around. You are quite the speedy crawler and are very adventurous, so I'm fine with you taking your time walking. I think you'll be quite a the wild child once you are a full-time walker. Speaking of being a wild child, Friday night you dove head-first into the bathtub full of water with you pjs on! I had given you a tubby with Brennan like I do most nights and had taken you out to get you dressed. When I'm home alone, I know I have to close the bathroom door if I leave Brennan in the tub for a few minutes because you've come close to diving in there before. This particular night, Daddy was home and I happened to leave the bathroom door open. I hollered down the hall, "Bryce is coming" when you took off crawling once you were dressed, but you were fast enough to get in there and into the tub before Daddy could grab you. Brennan was still in there and you obviously got soaked from head to toe. You were fine, but I can tell you're going to keep us on our toes.

I should probably stop here and make the important announcement that you have finally become a good sleeper! It only took you 14 months to figure it out. You did have a bad night a few nights ago that required me to go in several times to rock you, but other than that you've been sleeping 12-13 hours every night. It makes Mommy happy that I can finally get some good sleep and I'm super happy you are finally getting the sleep I know you need. You no longer get a bottle at bedtime. No more bottles at all and it seems like once I took that baby bottle away, you decided to sleep less like a baby. Some days you take two naps, but you can usually manage with just one now. Occasionally you'll fall asleep in the car in the morning and then it's much harder for you to fall asleep for an afternoon nap.

You were sick a few weeks ago with a double-ear infection. It was your second ear infection since turning one. You had never had one prior to that and I'm hoping it's not a new trend. I think you are close to cutting some of your molars, but right now you still have eight teeth. You are a such a good eater. You aren't too fond of veggies, but love fruit, yogurt, mac and cheese, quesadillas, grilled cheese, pizza, lasagna, chicken, ground beef, crackers. And you've already learned to love fruit snacks. You still have such a sweet tooth! You drink a lot of milk each day too.

You are talking more and more each day. You like to repeat a word until we acknowledge what you've said. It'll be hard for me to think of all the new words you've added, but off the top of my head I can think of: up, ba (for your sippy cup), mil (for milk), egg, and some d-word for diaper. My favorite is still when you say "all done". The only new sign you've added is the sign for "milk" and we've been working on thank you for a few days.

You are usually a very sweet and playful boy. You get super cranky when you're hungry and sometimes cry in your car seat now. I don't think you like being strapped down in the car. You are always on the move. You can make a huge mess in a matter of minutes. It's quite impressive. Your happiest time of the day seems to be after supper when your belly is full. You just go room to room playing with different toys and do a great job of entertaining yourself. You love playing with the toys in Brennan's toy box. You have also been enjoying jumping on the mini-trampoline.

You are certainly a Momma's boy. Daddy was hoping for a Daddy's boy with you, but no such luck. You do get super excited when Daddy gets home from work, but you love your Momma. You get super upset if I leave you, but I do feel like that's getting better when I leave you with Daddy. You become hysterical when I leave you in the church nursery, but it doesn't take you long to calm down. You want to be doing what Brennan is doing all the time, which annoys him to no end. You also love Ringo (which annoys me to no end). You give Ringo hugs all the time and crawl all over him. He's so sweet to you.

You are my sweet, blue-eyed, crazy wild boy. I feel like you are going to be so different from your brother and I'm excited to see how your little personality continues to develop. I love your hugs and kisses! Mommy loves you very much!

Love,
Mommy

I know I've shared this picture already, but I haven't uploaded pictures to the computer in such a long time, so this will have to do for now. :)

Bryce's Professional Pictures

We got the cd of Bryce's cake smash pictures in the mail today. I wanted to share them with you. They were taken by Amanda Elyse Photography who also took his newborn pictures.

It was tough getting pictures of him because he wouldn't stay still for long. Even though he's not walking full time yet, he still moves a lot. I still love this bow tie and suspender set from Chatterbox Shop.

I think this next one is so sweet even though he's not looking directly as the camera.

We tried to get some of him with the letters to spell "ONE", but he wasn't too interested.

Then came the fun part. The cupcake! Unfortunately the morning of the photo shoot the photographer called me and said there had been a cake accident with the baker she used. The cake and had somehow fallen and gotten destroyed and she couldn't have one ready for our afternoon shoot. Instead of rescheduling, I just brought a cupcake with me. The cake would've been amazing I'm sure, but this worked well too!

He was so funny. He started off pretty slow and when the cupcake fell off the stand, he immediately picked it up and put it back on there.

Serious cuteness right there!

Dear Bryce,

Today you are 14 months old. Time just keeps ticking right along with no sign of slowing down anytime soon. You are still wearing size 3 diapers, but have started to outgrown many of your 12 month clothes. I tried to put a pair of jeans on you the other day that were just recently too big, but they were already too small. You've definitely had a growth spurt because I can tell you've packed on a few pounds and when you stand up in your crib, your entire head is over the front railing now. You currently have a size 5 foot. Here's what else has been going on!

You decided to take your first steps on February 10th, the day before Brennan's 4th birthday. You took a single step to get to me in the kitchen while I was cooking supper and then after we ate, you took a few steps for Daddy too. After that night, it was over a week before you decided to take anymore steps at all. I certainly wouldn't consider you a walker yet, but you do take a few steps each day. You really need to be encouraged to do it, but have taken as many as five or six in a row now. I am still in disbelief that at 14 months you aren't walking. I'm not rushing it though because you are already into everything and once you take off walking, I know there will be no stopping you.

Sleeping has been so-so during the past month. Most days I still get two good naps out of you. It's so nice because you and Brennan nap at the same time in the afternoons and it gives me some time to get stuff done. (Or take a nap too). I think it's safe to say that you are not a deep sleeper. Even on nights when I don't go in a give you a bottle, you rarely make it through the night without some crying. Somehow we have made it this long with never owning a video monitor and I feel like it's so late to get one now, but I'd really love to have one so I can see what you're doing when you start crying in the middle of the night. I think often you're just trying to soothe yourself back to sleep. You got your eighth tooth recently and I'm sure that disrupted your nighttime sleeping some. You have a little white minky blanket you always sleep with you and often you sleep with a polar bear from Build-a-Bear that we named Snowy Bear. You love to give him hugs.

I have still been giving you a bottle of warm whole milk right before bed and bringing you one when you wake up around 7-8am. However, when you wake from your two naps I have started bringing in a sippy cup of cold milk. You don't guzzle it down like the warm milk, but will carry it around with you for the next hour or so drinking a little here and there. I'm glad you're doing ok with it, because I already feel like you're way too big for a bottle but just haven't pulled the plug on it yet.

I know I need to be working more on new sign language with you because you are so proficient with more, all done, and please. I think you are at an age where you can absorb so much right now. I have been using the signs for help and thank you some this past week, so we will see if you start using those.

The exciting thing is that during the past week and half you have all of a sudden decided to start talking. You have always made lots of noise and grunts, but now you are saying so many more recognizable (at least to Mommy) words. You currently say, "dada, mom mom, dog, woof woof, vroom vroom, ball, all done, ticka ticka (for tickle tickle) & no". You also say something that sounds a lot like "this" when you're pointing to something you want. And you're so funny when you're eating because you constantly say, "mmmmmm".

You're a pretty good eater. You love peaches and pears. You still love pizza and like graham crackers a lot. You ate taco meat the other night and will sometimes eat chicken. You love macaroni and cheese. You have a huge sweet tooth! You devour cookies and cupcakes and if can see either of those sitting out on the kitchen counter, you go ballistic until we give you some.

You certainly enjoyed your cupcake you had during your one-year photo shoot we and done about three weeks ago. Unfortunately, there was a cake accident with the baker the photographer uses, so I just brought a cupcake with us instead, but I think it worked out so well. I cannot wait to see the pictures!

Most of the time you are a sweet, pretty laid back little dude. You do great at just crawling or cruising around the house and finding things to play with. You really enjoy your red car, music table, and work bench. You like making cars go "vroom" and playing with Brennan's mini-golf clubs. You tend to get whiney at night when it's getting close to bedtime and can pitch a good fit when you're told "no!" You still love bath time and most nights take a tubby with Brennan now. It saves me so much time and sanity only have to give one bath each night instead of two!

As always I'm sure there are more things I'm leaving out. I am excited for this next month because I know you'll keep taking more and more steps on your own. I'm also excited to try and teach you more things. You don't seem to have any interest in learning where your body parts or about the letter B, but I'm sure that time is coming. Thanks for sleeping through the night sometimes and for making me laugh by coming up and tickling me all the time. You are loved so very much!

Love,
Mom Mom