cleaning

Bryce found this duster in the laundry room tonight and decided to help clean the floors while I cooked dinner. I'm sure he won't want to do that once he is older and it turns into "work".

Nobody involved in our house selling/buying/closing process is happy right now. Nothing has gone right and things seem to get worse by the day. However, the environmental group that dug up the oil tank is going to have a conference call with the buyer's loan officer and plead for them to sign off on the loan this week so we won't have to wait the 3+ weeks they were originally saying it would take to close.

kitchen window

We have not closed on the house yet (the old house is causing us more trouble), but we are starting to get a little more settled in the new house. The first refrigerator we had delivered didn't work so we had to live out of a cooler last week. Thankfully a new, working fridge was delivered on Saturday. Bryce and I went to the store today and now we have a fully stocked refrigerator. After being in the new house for over a week, I have finally cooked my first meal here.

Bryce enjoyed looking out the kitchen window while I cooked dinner tonight. Hopefully it will continue to entertain him so I can get dinner ready every night!

13 months

Chase and Bryce enjoyed eating lunch on the new deck this past weekend. Don't they look cute in their backwards hats?!

Bryce is a busy boy these days.

• He is walking all over the place. It didn't take him long to catch on.
• He is saying lots of new words. My personal favorites are thank you and uh-oh. His other new words are cat, bird, boat, stuck, more, there it is, up, yes, and pas (paci).. There are probably others, but that is all I can come up with. We are working on love you...it sounds like a mumbled mess of sounds, ha!
• He can make the monkey sound and it is adorable.
• He only drinks a bottle at bedtime and he does great with cups of milk throughout the day.
• He is wearing 12 month clothes and size 3 diapers.
• He enjoys reading his books in the car and he loves facing forward in his car seat.

We are enjoying watching Bryce grow and develop each day. He continues to amaze us!

update

I wish I could say I have pictures of the new house, but I don't. I can't even begin to tell you the events of the past month. We were absolutely thrilled to finally get a contract on our old house and a price that we could live with. However, we were not so thrilled with the home inspection and the repairs they wanted made. But we wanted to move, so we took on the challenge. In the past few weeks, we have had our oil tank removed, our chimney repaired, a window replaced, gutters cleaned (I mean really), a mold inspection done that required removing insulation and spraying and putting insulation back up, a squeaky floor fixed, a pocket door fixed, and part of our roof fixed. If that wasn't enough, the appraisal people wanted us to paint the exterior of the house and the sheds. Needless to say, we have had numerous projects to do ourselves in an attempt to save some money and some projects that had to be done by professionals that were not light on the pocket book. The new owners are closing on Friday and we still have painting to do. Thankfully we have a dear friend who is helping us get the work done on time.

We started the moving process on Thursday. We packed all the boxes and a few other things in the truck on Thursday evening. We unloaded the first load Friday morning and brought over two more truck loads of furniture and such. I felt really good about things by Friday night. Jason and his dad brought two more truck loads over on Saturday and we got our new appliances (but the refrigerator doesn't work). I feel like we are camping because we are living out of a cooler. Jason is still making small trips back and forth to the house for a few things, but we are basically moved in and unpacked.

I have been very emotional about leaving our old house and trying to get into a new "normal" at the new house. However, I think "normal" is not in my future for some time. We got a call last night that Poppy was in the hospital with pneumonia. I don't know much of the details, but within minutes of being told this information, I was being told that he passed away. This came as such a shock to me and even though Poppy had not been in great health, this was unexpected.

Poppy was the best grandfather a little girl could ever ask for. I will never forget his silly songs he would make up and sing. My favorite was "Grace Page Ann". Whenever Nanny and Poppy would visit, Poppy and I would always make rice krispie treats. Poppy was hard of hearing from all of his years at the shipbuilding. We always got such a laugh out of how he misunderstood things we said. My favorite will always be when we were talking about a hibiscus plant. Poppy thought we said "hot biscuits". From then on, any time Poppy misunderstood us, we would say, "hot biscuits". I am very thankful that Poppy got to meet his great grandson. Poppy will be greatly missed, but I know he is in a better place waiting for the rest of his family to join him some day! I love you Poppy.

moving

We packed the truck with boxes tonight and we are going to unload them at the house in the morning and then come back for a second load with all of the furniture. We have been so busy packing and fixing the many things on our house that the buyers wanted. We are so ready to settle into the new house and have a night of relaxation. If you are missing seeing our sweet boy, head over to Kelly's blog and see what he does when we're at work.

snack time

I'm not sure who loves snack time more, Bryce or Macy! Bryce ate the marshmallows out of the Lucky Charms and gave Macy the actual cereal pieces. He's a smart boy!

packing

we're doing a lot of this.....

so you won't be seeing much of this.....

We have had some spring weather this week and it is SO nice. Bryce is going to have to start liking shoes so he can walk outside until it is warm enough to go barefoot. We are in full swing packing mode. Our closing is not until March 26, but we are able to get possession of the house on March 20. It will be nice to be able to get in and clean and paint a little before unloading boxes. I don't remember being this stressed out when we moved into this house, but I guess it was because we didn't have to sell anything. You name it, it has come up. I never realized how much it cost to move. Our house needed a lot more repairs than we could have imagined. I know we will love being in the new house, but it is frustrating trying to get out of this one. I told Jason that it is likely that we will die in the next house because I'm not sure I can do all of this again, ha!

"bumpin' up and down in my little red wagon"

Bryce has been dying to go for a wagon ride since last weekend. The wagon is currently sitting in the Florida room just teasing Bryce. It was sunny and slightly warmer today so we decided to take it out for a spin. He loved it! I think it is so cute how he is holding onto the sides. We have been listening to Raffi in the car and the song, "Little Red Wagon" is stuck in our heads. It worked out nicely because it provided a good title for today's post!

thanks

If you know me well, you know I pride myself on my promptness with thank you notes. I normally have them in the mail the day after I receive a gift. I had hoped to do that with Bryce's birthday thank yous, but I had an idea. I thought it would be fun to take a picture of Bryce playing with all of his presents and then include the picture in the thank you note. This was before I knew what kind of endeavor I was taking on. I decided that in the midst of moving, this might not be the year to try such a task. Rest assured, the thank you notes are being sent tomorrow and may still reach you within a week of Bryce's party. The pictures below were from my attempt to document the presents.

block shape sorter

Chase picked out this fuzzy green pillow all by himself!

We bought this toy organizer with the Target gift cards Bryce got. Our buckets are different colors than these. We thought it would be good organization for the new play room.

Nina and Pop gave Bryce this Little People airplane. He has already learned how to put the people inside.

cookie jar shape sorter

Bryce's piggy bank was very well fed on his birthday!

Bryce also got some diapers and this turtle car

And on a totally different note, I had to take Bryce to have some blood work done the other day. At his 12 month appointment the doctor said they needed blood work to test his iron and to see if he had lead in his blood. Our insurance makes us go to Lab Corp for blood work rather than at the doctor's office. Let me just say, we had a VERY bad experience. First they stuck him in his left arm. They were able to get some blood, but then the vein blew. You can see the results of this in the bruise on his arm. Poor kid! Then they had to switch to the right arm. They dug around in his arm for about 2 minutes while Bryce screamed bloody murder. They never found the vein so they gave up. They were very unprofessional and basically told me that the test wasn't really important. I was not a very happy mommy when we left and I can assure you that Bryce was not a happy boy.

shrimp

Well I've already told you that Bryce didn't gain any weight in the past 3 months, but he did grow a little bit. We really hoped he would get the Boone genes and be tall. I'm pretty sure he is going to be a shrimp just like us, ha! I don't understand how he can fill out these 18 month pajamas and only be in the 25th percentile for height and weight. Normal size babies must be months ahead in clothing size. Just wanted to update you on what our little one year old is up to these days.

Bryce has a growing vocabulary. Not only can he repeat words when asked, he can name objects when he sees them. He can say cat, dog, book, ball, bus, s"no"w, ma ma, da da, na na, fish, duck, bye bye and tiger. There may still be some that I missed. He can make the elephant sound, too. He used to make a cow and a sheep sound, but he has forgotten those. He is very good about following commands like turn off the tv and take your paci out!

He has been standing on his own for about a month now and each day he is taking a few more steps at a time before falling to the ground. I can tell he is getting more confident and less wobbly.

He continues to take two naps a day and sleep through the night. He loves to give kisses and he lays his head down on you when you say, "love on _______". He is starting to learn how to share, but I'm sure he will quickly forget how to do that. Whenever he eats a lollipop I ask him if he will share it with me. He always pulls it out of his mouth and puts it at mine. Even after I have stopped asking, he hands it to me every other lick. Too cute!

We are making the switch over to whole milk. I have started giving him a cup of milk throughout the day and he seems to drink a little more each time. He loves to eat, which is why it baffles me that he hasn't gained any weight. I guess crawling burns a lot of calories.

Bryce is starting to get his top two teeth and two more bottom teeth. He is still in size 3 diapers and 12 month clothes. He enjoys climbing and he can get himself down from his bench and the sofa.

I am sure that there are many things that I have left out, but I think I have done enough bragging for tonight! It just amazes me what he is capable of doing. What a difference a year makes. Who knows what he will be doing a year from now!

na na......Na Na......NA NA

Bryce LOVES bananas. It has gotten to the point that I have to keep the bananas out of Bryce's sight. As soon as he sees a banana, he says, "na na". If you don't get it right away, he yells, "NA NA". I usually have to take him out of the room so he will forget about it. Of course, sometimes I give in and give it to him. He loves holding the banana and doing it himself!
How do you like the pants over the footed pajamas? I think it's a new trend that could catch on, ha!

packing

Now that Bryce's party is behind us, we can concentrate on packing. All I know, is it is going to take us FOREVER to get all packed up. We have been doing a little each night, but we are quickly running out of room to put the boxes. I have started packing up decorations since those aren't things we use on a daily basis. However, the decorations are the saddest thing to pack because the house is looking so bare and it's just so dag on sad. I'm going to miss this house so much, but I really am looking forward to all of the room in the new house to spread out! Bryce had fun helping me pack the beach towels!