colors

Bryce loves coloring and writing a B. He has finally given up trying to eat crayons and he actually wants to use them the correct way. I keep the crayons at the computer desk and whenever I'm at the computer he comes up to me and says "colors" (he means crayons). He was going through the computer paper and Jason's books (oops) very quickly so I bought him a coloring book. The only bad thing was when he colored on the floor, he was not good about staying on the paper (at least it was crayons and not markers) so I decided to buy him a table for coloring.

The table came today so I put him right to work. How many crayon marks do you think will be on the wall before I have to move the table?!?

I thought his little feet looked so cute dangling from the chair.

He didn't stay interested in coloring at the table for long. He was on the move with the furniture before long.

beach boy

I think maybe I will start all of my posts with "What a difference a year makes". This year's trip to Nags Head was SO much better than last year! Bryce had so much fun and so did we! We had a traffic free and happy baby ride down on Saturday. We got there about 10:30 and hit the beach right away. We brought an inflatable pool because Chase seemed to love his last year in Sandbridge. Bryce started off in the pool, but after about 5 minutes, he could have cared less. He may have spent a total of 10 minutes in the pool. He would have rather been in the ocean!

He loved playing in the waves with Jason. Look at the grin on his face!

I just think they look so cute holding hands looking out into the water.

Bryce was not afraid of the waves crashing. He liked standing and sitting in the surf and he would have walked right out into the waves if we had let him. He didn't have a fear at all. Of course this could all change next year!

Taking a break in the beach chair.

My camera battery died the first day and I wasn't brave enough to bring the good camera out onto the beach. This morning Bryce enjoyed watching the minnows that got washed up on the beach. He helped Jason put them in a bucket and then he carried it up and down the beach all day. Not only was he great on the beach, he was a great sleeper, too. We could not have asked for more. Especially since he fell asleep in the car before we even pulled out of the driveway and didn't wake up until we were about 30 minutes from home. Now we're just wondering when we're going back!!

16 months

What a difference a year makes. You may remember this post. It was a pictureless post of Bryce at 4 months. This picture was taken soon after that when we returned from our trip to OBX. We are actually leaving tomorrow for the same annual beach trip. I KNOW Bryce will be so much better and easier than he was last year at the beach. I can't wait.

Bryce definitely has his own personality. He is sweet, funny, and a little stubborn. He knows what he wants and he doesn't mind letting you know. Especially if it's something he doesn't want!

I am so excited I was able to get him to look at me and smile. I post so many pictures of Bryce looking at the floor or turned the other way so I was excited when he cooperated this morning!

Bryce continues to grow and change everyday. He has 6 teeth and 4 more coming in. He's starting to say 2-3 word phrases like "where da da go?", "more yogurt please", "hold you", "pee pee potty". Speaking of potty, we bought one the other day and we're going to start a little potty training. I'm sure he just heard Chase say it a million times, so he says it, but I really think he is ready to poop in the potty. Sorry if that was too much for you, but he knows when he has to go so I'm going to try and get him to go somewhere other than his diaper. He also says "change diaper" and it is too cute. There are a bunch of other phrases he uses, but I didn't want to bore you.

Bryce is still a picky eater. I've been trying to do better with vegetables this week, but it doesn't seem to be working. We tried carrots and lima beans this week and neither went over very well. He loves to eat fruit and he is starting to eat a little more meat now that he likes chicken, hamburgers, and hot dogs (even though that doesn't really count as meat).

Bryce enjoys coloring on the driveway with chalk and anytime he sees a pen or a crayon he says "B". He loves to write a B for Bryce (which is just 3 straight lines, ha!). He can even tell you that M is for Macy and D is for da da. Sometimes he can even point out a B when he sees one. Bryce has been counting 1, 2, 5 for a while. He gave up on the five and stops at 2. I have really been working on 3. The other day he had an 8 in his hand from his foam mat and I said 8, and he said 9, 10. He's starting to grasp a concept of numbers. We couldn't be more thrilled with his development. It is so fun watching him change and grow everyday. I am loving that I get to experience it even more now that I am home for the summer.

a summer giveaway

My friend Beth is hosting a giveaway to celebrate her 500 followers! Head on over to her site for your chance to win a cute pair of flip flops from Vineyard Vines.

My personal favorites are the Seahorse Trinkets. They also come in a coconut (white) color and I think they are super cute.

Maybe I will have a giveaway one day if I could even get 25 followers, ha! I keep telling myself that this blog is for family and to document our memories of Bryce. I would do it for 500 followers or 0 followers.

library visit

I took Bryce to the library for story time today. He had a lot of fun and he was very well behaved. They had carpet squares set up in a circle around the room and Bryce was excited to sit on a turtle carpet. I was worried that he wouldn't sit still and would try to wander around the room, especially since other kids were. However, he sat great until the very end and I let him get up and dance to the songs.

Once he got up, he found a whale carpet to sit on in the middle of the circle. I was kind of glad he did that because I didn't really want to go out in the middle of the circle to take his picture when he was sitting on his turtle carpet like a good boy!

When story time was over, we went out into the library and did a puzzle, picked out a few books to check out, read a few books, and played with the toys.

Bryce was excited to read the Spot book on the way home. We don't have any Spot books at home, but Kelly must have had some because as soon as he saw the book on the shelf, he yelled Spot. Guess we'll have to get some of our own.

And not a minute later, I looked back and Bryce was asleep. I considered laying him in his crib when I got home but he never stays asleep so I sat down on the sofa thinking he would wake up any minute. Turns out we both got a great nap on the sofa since he slept for an hour and a half.

our day

It's day 3 of summer vacation and we haven't slowed down yet. We had a picnic lunch at Nana's office today. Bryce enjoyed sharing Nana's bologna sandwich with her, too.

Bryce has not been the best napper these days so I have been playing around with his nap schedule. We went back to the normal routine today and he took a great morning nap, but he refused to take an afternoon nap. After an hour of him playing in his crib and a bit of crying, I tried to get him to nap with me and he wasn't having any part of it. I have been trying to let Bryce play outside in the mornings since it is SO hot here this week. We just had to get outside this afternoon so we filled up the pool and went for a swim.

He took some time out of his swimming to water Jason's blackberries. I'm not sure they are going to make it through this heat wave.

I wish life was as easy as eating on the floor and making a million trips to the pool to fill a watering can, but it's not! As our buyers/renters prepare to move out this weekend, Jason and I are feeling the weight of this debacle. We're not worried about the money (for now), but the potential to actually sell the house again, under the current circumstance (torn up front yard and little hope of growing grass in the summer heat). I know "this too shall pass", but sooner rather than later would be better!

busy first day of summer

I was inspired by Kelly over at Kelly's Korner so I decided to copy her idea for a blog post today. My first day of summer has been a busy one. I think I got carried away last night when I was making my to-do list, but I was just so excited to finally have time to do some of the things that have been backing up on me.

Other than the fact that Bryce didn't get much play time today, the list was very "doable". However I don't think I can go at this speed all summer and I don't really want to. I want Bryce's days to be filled with playing and learning rather than riding in the car from stop to stop so I can get a to-do list checked off.

I managed to complete everything on the list except the laundry. I have done 2-3 loads, but I just can't seem to get caught up this week. I usually do all the laundry on Sunday and it works out fine. However, we are dirtying up more things since we are working at VBS this week so it's understandable. Tomorrow will probably be just as busy since it's Jason's birthday, but hopefully next week once VBS is over we can relax a little. Hope everyone had a great first day of summer.

summer vacation is here

Donuts are a food group in Bryce's world. They have taken the place of vegetables! We went to the bakery on Thursday to get an early birthday cake for Jason and Bryce continued to ask for a "nut-nut", so I gave in. Here he is enjoying his treat once we got in the car.

Bryce wakes up saying "chalk", "B", "chalk", "B"....you get the point. Here he is one morning trying to write his name on the driveway.

We had a wonderful night out last night. Our friends Justin and Beth (she is in blue) just celebrated their 1st anniversary. His parents had the wedding party over last night for a delicious dinner. It was a great time. Bryce spent the night at my parents house last night (it was only his 2nd night away from home).

We met for breakfast this morning when we picked up Bryce.

Bryce took a bath in blue water tonight. I bought some bath tablets to color his water. I'm not sure he really noticed it. He still just loves the bubbles.

Jason was squirting Bryce with one of his toys and it made for some sweet smiles!

Bryce kept saying "mouth" so Jason tried to squirt it in his mouth. I think I got it in this shot!

I'm sad to say that I didn't get a picture of Jason and Bryce this Father's Day. I had intended to, but it kept slipping my mind. Hopefully I will get one next year and that will be the only gap in our Father's Day photo documentation. Happy Father's Day, Jase. Bryce and I love you very much. Thanks for being such a great daddy and husband.

update

Jason and I are still going strong on our Biggest Loser diet. I lost 1.6 pounds last week and Jason lost .6 pounds. I have lost 7.8 of the 8 pounds I wanted to lose. Once I get to my first goal weight, I have 10 pounds left that I have gained and lost since high school. I'm hoping to get back to the gym when school is out and tone up some areas rather than lose anymore weight. My biggest fear about the gym is dropping Bryce off at the Kid Zone. I know he's going to scream bloody murder the first time, but hopefully he'll get used to it because I need to get our money's worth.

In other news, it looks like the sale of the old house is a "no-go" with the current buyers. It doesn't look like the new well, testing, and inspections will be done in time for the June 30 closing our buyers needed in order to get the tax credit. As of right now, we are fairly certain we will be putting the house back on the market July 1. I worry about how the front yard will "show" once they dig up my flower bed/yard to dig a new well. My hope is that the house won't sit on the market as long this time as it did last time. We're just going to take it one day at time from here.

I hope to post a hula hoop video of Bryce soon.

just like daddy

Jason bought more goose decoys yesterday. And as usual, the box provided more entertainment for Bryce than the contents of the box.

The bubble wrap is fun for kids of all ages. I'm not sure if Jason or Bryce had more fun with it!

I just had to add this picture because it cracks me up!

Bryce decided today that the goose decoys were really more fun than the box. Jason is trying very hard to mold Bryce into a goose enthusiast like himself.

Jason was very excited that he asked Bryce to look at the camera and smile and he actually did it.

Can you see Bryce peeking through? He loves it when you come up to the opening and scare him while he is crawling through the tunnel.

Hope everyone had a great weekend. I only have 5 more days of school and I couldn't be more thrilled. If anyone is interested in a house update, we are down to the wire. The new well should be dug at the old house next week and the samples should be back in time for closing. However, we aren't getting much from our buyers end and they don't have a closing date set (which has to be before June 30) and Jason doesn't have much confidence that closing will even happen. If we don't close with these buyers by June 30, it's back to square one and we will be putting the house back on the market. Please pray that everything will work out with these buyers and we can finally move on from this phase of our lives.

for the birds

I put the water table away last weekend after we got a pool, but I felt like I had wasted my money since we only used it for a short time. Jason had the brilliant idea of putting bird seed in it.

We tested it out tonight and Bryce really liked it. I think he liked how it felt on his hands. We thought maybe bird seed wouldn't be as messy as sand and a little easier to clean up.

He quickly learned what to do with it. He didn't even try putting it in his mouth!