Hugs

Gosh I love these boys!

And yes, Bryce is wearing My First Christmas jammies. They won't fit him in December and we have very few 9-month footed jammies, so he gets to wear these now.

Dear Bryce,

You are seven months old now my wild little man! You are definitely getting bigger, but at your six month check-up you weighed 15 pounds 6 ounces, which only put you in the 20th percentile. You were 40th percentile for length. You are currently wearing mostly 6-9 month clothes. The clothes I already packed away because they were too small are now officially gone. We sold them to a friend, so that means there's a a very very good chance you'll be my last baby. You're crazy enough to make that seem ok though. :) You still wear size 2 diapers during the day and size 3 at night.

You are still nursing. I'm hopeful to make it to a year with you, but you eat so quickly most times now I sometimes wonder if you're getting enough. You still get solids twice a day. Somedays you act really hungry and eat everything up I give you and other days you seem to care less. I don't really push it. If you don't act interested then I just get you down. I think I'm much more relaxed with you than I was with your brother. You did enjoy eating the squeezy pouch foods a few times when I tried those. You're showing a lot more interest in using a sippy cup, so we are going to try to be more consistent about using that this next month.

Let's talk sleep. Or lack there of! :) Knock on wood, the past two nights have been better. I stopped using your sleep sack three nights ago because after a month of being in that thing your sleep wasn't getting any better. You seem to be a belly sleeper. Last night you were only up once at 3am and then up for the day around 6:40 (which is too early, but at least I only got up once in the middle of the night). I am so hopeful that more sleep will come soon. I know this time will soon seem like a distant memory, but some days are ROUGH! You typically take two naps each day. You have been taking an excellent morning nap, but the afternoon one usually isn't as long. You can get pretty cranky at night because if you only nap until 3:00 or so, you end up awake for 4 hours before bed and you get super tired. You also seem to be pooping almost every single morning and I think that's waking you up early.

Still no crawling. I thought you'd be an early crawler, but honestly I'm not sure when you'll do it because you get around really well rolling and turning on your belly. You can move fast and get to anything you want. You are already drawn to the electronics in the living room. You also have several toys you like now including ABC blocks, the workbench, and bowling pins. You're in the living room playing with the blocks right now as I type this. You are supposed to be napping. Oh well. You roll so quickly and sometimes I just need you to be still for a few minutes. Right after you turned 6 months you and Brennan received a package in the mail and the box was the perfect size little "bed" for you. It was super shallow and I put a blanket in it and in you went. You would just lay on your back and play and couldn't roll around. It was nice. For about two weeks until you figured out how to roll out of that too. :)

Your rolling makes diaper changes nearly impossible. I rarely use your changing table anymore because you are all over the place. You HAVE  to have something in your hands in order for me to have any chance of getting a new diaper on. Even then it's a big challenge. I often call you crazy because I just feel like you don't want to stop moving. I think that's what you aren't proficient at sitting up yet. You can do it for just a few seconds, but always want to arch your back and lay back down so you can get to rolling again. I think once you've mastered sitting up that will make my job easier. I can dream, right?

You like books now. You get so excited at bedtime when I grab your bedtime book "Welcome to the World". You just start making these excited almost snorting sounds. You also like the Little Einstein ABC books Brennan always loved. Your favorite thing to chew on is a spout I took out of one of your sippy cups. You still like Sopie too and also like the little star teething cloth we have.

You have moved up to taking baths in the duck tubby now. You are constantly rolling onto your belly during bath time too. You can hold your own bottle if you get one. You took a bottle three nights in a row when Daddy put you to bed while Mommy and Brennan were at VBS. We also took the car seat adapter off the double stroller, so you ride in that like a big boy now. We just installed Brennan's new car seat, so you're about to move into the convertible seat! You have also learned to shake your head "no". I can't believe that's one of the first things you've learned. I'm afraid it mean you're gonna be trouble! :) You like to fly up in the air and will just laugh every time we do that. Ringo also makes you laugh.

I call you wild and crazy, but you are a good baby. You cry when you're tired, but even then it's not a full out cry. You do this cute little sound that sounds like Chewbacca from Star Wars. You put yourself to sleep for naps and bedtime. If you do wake in the middle of the night, you simply eat and go right back to sleep. You are great about playing independently on the floor or in your exersaucer. You are such a handsome little dude too. You still have your blue eyes that get comments wherever we go. I'm excited to see what the next month holds because I know soon you'll be interacting a lot more with Brennan and I can't wait to see what that's like.

Love you wild guy!

Love,
Momma

Bryce back at 6 months

Today at 7 months. It was such a fun "photo shoot". He was so happy!

Shaking his head "no!"

Fort Griswold

I'm really not much of a history buff, but I decided it was time for a little history lesson last week and stopped by for a impromptu visit of Fort Griswold. The old fort has a tall tower that Brennan often sees while we are out driving and he always points it out. I figured it was a good day to stop and let him take a look around. I wasn't about to climb all the way to the top with both boys because I knew Brennan would never make it, but he was still quite the trooper walking all around the historic grounds.

Here are some low quality iPhone pics of our time there.

Both boys were great. Bryce slept most of the time and then they played happily together once we got home!

And just for fun, here are some pictures of the first time I visited Fort Griswold back in August of 2007 when my parents came to visit.

Happy Sunday

via

Compare and Contrast

I decided it was time to do another comparison blog between Brennan and Bryce. I still find it so funny how some people will say they look alike and others say they look so different.

Here's a pic of both boys playing with the workbench while propped up by the Boppy. Brennan (top) is six months old and Bryce is five months old.

Both boys loved the water from birth. Brennan is on top. Both boys are five months old.

A little Johnny Jumper action! In the same outfit no less! Brennan is on top again and both boys are six months old.

I just took this picture of Bryce this week. He's on the bottom. Both are six months old again. 

I still think they look quite a bit different. Bryce just has those bright blue eyes, blonde hair, and fair complexion. I think someone mentioned something once about their noses looking alike and I think that might be true looking at some of these pictures. Either way they are both tons of trouble, but I love them to death!

Better Late Than Never

Not sure there's really much use in posting this now, but I wanted to have here just to remember what things Brennan was liking on his last day of preschool. I asked them these questions right after he was done with school, but just never got around to putting the answers onto his picture until now!

Compared to the first day of preschool...

First Family Photo

I just wanted to share this here too (finally) even though it's been on Facebook for a while now. It only took us six months to get a picture of the four of us together! A friend took this one a few weeks ago at church. So glad we finally have one!

I snapped a few on my phone before church too!