Because I know you all come here for Brice...

Grandma Sheila ordered a playpen for Brice to use at her house. This way I don't have to tote ours back and forth. He's happy to play in there for awhile. Then he wants back out on the floor. He just can't get enough of getting into stuff. Which is a little dangerous now that he's pulling himself up with the help of the furniture.

Happy Birthday, Andrea!

15 already!  Watch out!   Next year she'll be on the road!  The middle of my little sisters.  The special spot.  Not the oldest, with everything expected of you...and not the youngest, fighting so hard to be noticed.  In the middle, just right.  

Look how tiny Brice was!  This was shot in July, so he was...about 2 months old.  I was 14 when Andrea was born, just as she was at the time of this picture.  Funny enough, I was all the ages of the girls now, when each of them was born.  11 for Bethany, 14 for Andrea and 17 for Lizzy.  That was the age of all the girls this summer with Brice - Bethany was 17, Andrea was 14 and Lizzy was just about to turn 11.  

He sure loves playing with his Auntie Andrea.  It's so exciting that you have so many years with Brice ahead of you.  You really get to enjoy his being young while you are young.  Happy Birthday!  I wish I was there to help you celebrate!  

P.S. Please respond to the email Bethany forwarded you!  I need some ideas!

8 Months Old

We forgot, we're 8 months old now.  He's getting so big.  He's weighing 18.5 lbs now.  I'm sure his doctor would be happy.  He's still small, but gaining good.  We have lots of new vocabulary these days.  He knows ma-ma, da-dee, doggie, na-na (Grandma), GG (Great Grandma) and Day-did (David).  Not only can he say these, but he knows exactly what he is referring to.  When he wants David, he says Day-did.  When he see's the Dalmatian, Honey, he says doggie.  And when mom wont give him what he wants, he starts saying na-na-na-na.  He knows his grandma spoils him.

Teething

He was in quite the mood Sunday.  Biting us all, grabbing our faces and hair...and glasses!  He was down right mean about it, too.  But the poor boy was teething.  

He's chewed his thumb a lot, too.  He does that when he gets teething.  

The front teeth are suppose to be the first to come in, but I just have not been feeling anything coming in there.  If you feel back further to his molars you do feel those just about through the skin.  And those can be the most painful.  They start to come in around 10-14 months...so he's not too far off.  I'm not sure if that's what was bother him or if it was the front teeth.  

Fortunately, GG still loves him.  And today, I do think I felt the tiniest bit of teeth on the bottom front coming in.  Thank goodness for infant tylenol, cause I couldn't get through this without it.  10 minutes after he gets that, he calms down and becomes almost my sweet boy again.

We're Doing A-Okay!

We've been a little absent from the blog the past few days.  The memory card in the camera had a malfunction and I had to restore lost images.  Luckily, we got them all back, as this one was too cute to lose.  I love his wild hair after a bath.  This little guy has been cranky today.  That is always hard to deal with.  But he is chewing his back gums a lot.  I think his molars are just about through the skin.  I know that's not the order teeth come in, but I don't think his mouth cares.  So this tired mom is off to relax some more.  

Oh My! 18 Already?!?

Yes, the oldest of my little sisters is 18 today. Makes it all that much harder to be 29 this year. I may have been only 11, but I remember when she was born and how excited I was to have a little sister. Hard to imagine that was 18 years ago. I wish I was there to help you celebrate this milestone. Happy Birthday, little sister!

He Likes Yogurt!

Can you tell?

Vanilla, banana, peach and pear. He loves them all. Especially peach.

Peek-A-Boo!

Doesn’t get much cuter than that!

Outting: Whole Foods

He had so much fun in the shopping cart, seeing all of the food on the shelves. We were even able to find him some teething biscuits without rice in them! He was one happy boy. And a messy boy!

Details

Why is it that little boys have the most beautiful eye lashes? Lucky kid.

New Developments

There have been so many new developments with Brice over the past few weeks. I was going to blog about them a little at a time, but he just keeps doing new things! So I thought i'd better get to sharing.

He crawls like a mad kid now. Army crawls, but he's working on getting his knees under him more and more. He can pull himself up to his knees, and if he holds our hands, he can get to his feet. He now thinks he needs to nurse while on his knees. This is a pain. It's harder than heck to change his diaper. He rolls as you are laying him down. I have to find some forbidden toy (like the remote) to give him to get a few seconds to change him. Usually I end up putting the diaper on him while he's on his knees.

He makes a "thhh" sound now. Also, "dee". Now if I could just get him to say "da-dee" we'd be in business. He makes some sort of "da" sound that sounds like he's saying "David". He knows i'm Mama. He is stuck on "da-da" until he wants me then he knows to start saying mamamama. Very cute.

He is using his tongue a little, like to blow raspberries. He also uses it to make a few more sounds along the lines of "thhh", but different.

He developed a small rash on his lower back and cheeks last week. It's now all over his trunk and legs. It's also on the back of his arms, and back of his head. It seems to be fifths disease, which really isn't that big of a deal. It's just a rash following cold-like symptoms. He's irritable these last two days and a little itchy, but doesn't have a fever or anything. On top of that, I think we're going through some teething pain. I had to give him some baby Tylenol last night, that seemed to help. I tried to look at his lower gums, and it kind of looks like the whites of his teeth are coming in, but I still can't really feel them with my finger.

Lunch with Grandpa Gary

Some photos from lunch with Grandpa Gary + Arlene yesterday. He did so good sitting in a high chair for the first time at a restaurant. He was a happy baby and I think he liked the fact that he got to sit at the table with us, instead of in his car seat. Such a nice development.

Birthday Shopping + Lunch

We went shopping to my favorite Japanese bookstore for my birthday this year, and then out to lunch. Brice had a little chunk of pizza crust to chew on - he loved it!

We also stopped at a favorite quilt shop that had just changed locations. I didn't get any fabric, can you belive it? Brice loved this little bear that mom was buying.

At lunch he finally noticed my sparkly ring. Took him long enough. He is just facinated by it now and is always touching it so delicatly.

After we were done we went back to moms place and Brett came to pick up Liz, who had joined us in our shopping adventure that day. Colin came out, too. Brice of course had to go give him a big kiss! I haven't been able to tell you all about that yet. He is now doing those big, open mouth, slobbery kisses for a few weeks. It's so sweet. Poor Colin.

Big Boy Bath

These days are filled with lots of firsts for Brice. We are doing so many new things and i'll fill you in on them all one by one over the next week or so.

We've moved on to baths in the regular tub now. With how much he loves to splash, it cuts down on the mess somewhat. Although I still get soaked. It's much easier to give him a bath before bed now, the sink baths always seemed to be a lot of work. And now that he's crawling and trying some mashed foods, he's getting a little dirtier now.

I admit, he use to only get a bath about once a week...but there wasn't a need for more when he wasn't doing anything to get dirty. Now it's about every other day! Soon i'm sure it will be every night before bed. It really does help to calm him down and get him ready for sleepy time.

Brice's First Christmas - Part 4

Are we tired of Christmas posts yet? Yeah, me too. So quickly: we had a wonderful visit with my dad's side of the family. Of course it was way too short of a visit. They just need to move up here. The girls love seeing Brice and Ryder. And of course Ryder just LOVES all of my sisters. He got all of them to play light sabers with him this year. They are such good Aunties. That's so cute, too...they all refer to themselves as Ryder's Aunties, too. I don't set a direction for what Ryder will call my side of the family, I feel that is up to him to decide on what he feels comfortable with. Brice got lots of great toys. Everyone did so good picking them out. This year we drew names for the first time with that part of our family, and I think it worked out very well. I'm looking forward to doing it again. It was such a huge stress relief to shop for just one (and the kids) instead of eight!

Happy Birthday To You...

...happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear Aunt Betty....happy birthday to you! We sure have a lot of Capricorn women on my moms side. This is another of my grandma's sisters. She lives in Florida with her husband - I bet the weather is beautiful there right now. Sadly, we only get to see Betty about once a year, but that's more than years past, so i'm happy for that. This photo is from this summer when she visited us, i'm so glad she got to meet Brice. Have a great birthday, Aunt Betty!

Brice's First Christmas - Part 3

Next on our Christmas stops was Grandpa Gary & Grandma Arlene's (Aaron's dad and stepmom). Brice was such a good boy! He had lots of fun with Grandpa Gary, playing with Kirby.

And Kirby was such a good sport! I think Kirby deserves some dog treats next time we visit.

And look at the fabulous toy Brice got! I know he is going to have so much fun with this over the years. I remember my brother having something similar when he was younger and loving it. As soon as these Christmas posts are finished up I can start reporting on all the other milestones Brice has been hitting, and you'll find out why he will be behind this pushing it very soon! Sadly, I don't have very many pitures from that night. Most didn't turn out and I just wasn't behind it much. Next visit we'll make sure and take a lot more.

Happy Birthday, Uncle Ray!

How lucky are we to share a birthday, Uncle Ray? I hope that you are recovering well and find some small way to enjoy your birthday. I have no plans this year, other than freaking out a little bit over the fact that this is my last year of being in my 20's. The big 3-0 next year. Eek!

Brice's First Christmas - Part 2

After we left Grandma Sheila's house to head to another family member's home for Christmas, we had a bit of a delay.

I was none too thrilled by it, luckily Grandpa was just down the road and able to come to our rescue.

Mom's road was TERRIBLE! It had to be the worst road in Clark County. You didn't dare get yourself into the wrong ruts....or this happened.

It doesn't look too terrible...but trust me, I could open my window and touch the snow on the other side of it. It really did seem as if the car was going to tip right over into the snow.

Grandpa Jack (Brice's great grandpa) brought up his truck, and with the help of one of the neighbor's chains, pulled us right out! It just reinforced for mom and I the fact that we were not meant to leave the house in all of that snow!

The drive through Ridgefield was beautiful. With close to 18" of snow, and no rain yet, it was a winter wonderland. Like nothing the region has seen for 40 years they said.

It's kind of ironic that the day I came home from the hospital, there was 14" of snow (1980) and for Brice's first Christmas we had 18" of snow.

All of that snow is gone now. But we got a new layer last night, about an inch. It's pretty, but nothing like what we had. More Christmas with the families tomorrow. Flickr album here.