Walking to Mommy

Baby Bryce is trying to walk. It's going to be a few months before that happens though!

(He still needs to learn to roll over...)

Hats

Baby Bryce can finally fit into his baseball hat he got from our awesome neighbors. It's a Mets hat. His first one. And definitely not his last.

They look so much alike in these pics.

Ah yes...the next new thing

And, this morning started out with a bang. No less than three outfit changes BEFORE we even got to daycare. Sigh...exhaustion.

Somehow Sean manages to be out of town on mornings like these. :)

Anyhow, my pity party is over and I am happy to report that Sean and I have learned something new about our sweet baby. Drum roll... We know the exact moment when he is making 'poopies' as Sean would like to call it. Although gross, it's pretty comical. Some serious grunting, followed by straightening/hyperextending the legs, and it's over. Today, even his little face turned red. I laugh.

Also, here is a link to my photographers blog. She is great, and took the 6-month photos last week. Bryce is on her blog, and I'll post the link to look at the pics when I have them. In the meantime, here's a sneak peak!

http://picklepussphoto.blogspot.com/

TCU Horn Frog

Let me start off by saying this. I love my TCU Horn Frogs, but my loyalty is to my SMU Mustangs. I am a Mustang through and through, but, I did get my MBA from across the pond.

Two wonderful TCU people, Linda Smith and Garry Bruton, the Director of Administration and Professor sent me a onesie. It's sooo cute, I had to put it on Brycie. He looks like a super stud. It's pretty cold here (still) so we had to wear an undershirt and jeans with his styling Uggs (that now fit him).

Mommy, I'm standing!!!

Notice the hornfrog fingers.

Standing on the counter!

Yay, TCU Neeley School of Business!

Everyday

Everyday.

Everyday is a new adventure. It seems like every single day Bryce does something new. If you just blink, you miss out.

Last week, he learned how to hold his sippy cup and drink it all by himself. We don't have enough sippy cups, so he still gets a bottle sometimes, but at least half the time he uses his sippy cup all on his own. And, he's got the bottle holding down too. Funny.

This week he has learned to take his binky and put it in his mouth himself. And let me just say that Sean and I are learning that we need to not give this to him unless he absolutely needs it. (Much easier said than done because remember, he is at school 8 hours a day, so who knows what goes on there...)

Sean and I are trying to give it to him only at bed time now. I should video tape this because it is absolutely amazing that this little binky has become his soothing mechanism. When he's tired, he'll be cranky, rub his eyes, and get all ancey if you are holding him. As soon as you give him that binky, he is out in about 5 seconds. And I am not exaggerating on this one-- just ask Sean.

Maybe next week he'll be feeding himself too. Then maybe he'll change his own diaper? (I can only wish).

6 months

Bryce's half birthday was over a week ago, but, I thought I would wait for the official check up before posting any thing of significance.

Our big boy was 17lbs, 11 oz, which puts him in the 55% range for weight. He was over 23 inches for height, which puts him in the 70th percentile! Can you believe that!?! He might actually be tall! How cool would that be!?! Well hey, I'll even take average!!!

Anyhow, here are some things he's up to:

• Sleeping: 10 - 11 hours at night. He usually goes to bed at 7:30 - 8pm, and is out until I have to wake him up around 6:30am - 7am. He then typically sleeps around 3 to 4 hours during the day.
• We are on lots more 'solid' food. He eats oatmeal and bananas together in the morning, and then 3 more meals during the day. The ladies at daycare get excited when they see more food in his bowl. But we space it out appropriately.
• He's drinking less and less milk...breast milk, that is. No formula-- yet. Thank goodness he's drinking less. As of this week, I've officially cut one pumping session-- so I only pump four times per day now. (I actually never breast feed him, he only gets breast milk...I can't even remember the last time I breast fed him.) Anyhow, he drinks about 26-28 ounces per day spaced out into 5 sessions.
• The mix of bottles and sippy cups. We have started sippy cups during his morning meal and during his dinner meal, but we keep with the bottle for school.
• Bryce loves to stand. Loves loves loves it. He could stand all day. In fact he'll stand while just holding on to the couch. I'll just hold his hand and he'll stand. We even started practicing to walk, because he's acting like he wants to take steps.
• As much as he loves to stand, he HATES tummy time. No, he loathes tummy time. So, there's no initiating rolling over by himself yet. But we anticipate that coming soon.
• He seems more alert every day, just soaking up the world around him. So much fun!

That's it for now! We have official 6-month pics this weekend, so that should be lots of fun!!!

Another Exersaucer Video

Dear Daddy's Friends Jonathon and Tiffany,

Thank you very much for my exersaucer. I get a lot of use out of it. Even though it took daddy 8 hours to put it together, he always tells me that it was worth it because I love it so much.

Here's the proof in the video below. Oh, and by the way, daddy says that what goes around comes around...whatever that means.

Love,

Big Boy Bryce

PS. Mommy says daddy is sometimes crazy because he doesn't know how to film a video the right way. You have to turn your computer or head sideways to watch. Duh, dad.

First Sporting Event

Ahhh yes, the Mavs played the 76ers! We had to go, and we brought Bryce.

It was AWESOME! Sean got us floor seats for super cheap. We all had a great time, and Bryce was such a champ. Not one tear the whole time.

Here's the team warming up.

Look at that beautiful family!!

Mommy and baby. Everyone around us was impressed at how well he behaved. He didn't bother anyone!!! It was awesome!

So I was meandering in the grocery store last Saturday morning (a trip without Bryce)... and I was reminiscing about being pregnant again and all the cravings I had. At the time I really didn't think I had any cravings, but it's funny because looking back on it, I really did. Case in point-- Captain Crunch. When I was pregnant, I was always buying sugary cereals such as Captain Crunch, Reeses Peanut Butter Cereal, Lucky Charms, Cocoa Pebbles, and the like. And now, no craving for those. Weird.

It's crazy how life has changed post Bryce. It's all for good, but life is totally different.

I don't know what we did before him.

Let me just tell you about a typical evening:

1) Pick up Bryce from school. Sean almost always does this...thank goodness because they close at 6pm.

2) Clean bottles and food containers from the day at school. That would be three bottles and the four extra pieces that annoyingly accompany them, and then the two food containers and spoons. Oh yah, then all the stuff that I use to pump during the day-- the four pieces plus the bottles. We hand clean everything. This process takes about 15-20 minutes, if one is able to do this without having to watch Bryce...

3) Give Bryce a bath, or get him in his PJs...20ish minutes.

4) Give Bryce his dinner...10ish minutes.

5) Make bottles and food for next day. Defrost and pour all the milk into next days bottles, and make the food to go into the little containers...20ish minutes. And not to mention, making sure he has clean bibs and putting it all into the pack, so all we have to do is grab it going out the door.

6) Give Bryce is last bottle (now sippy cup) for the night: 10-20ish minutes depending on how hungry he is.

7) Put Bryce to bed. 10ish minutes if we read a book or two.

Somewhere in there we manage to eat dinner. And then, I still have to pump (again). Although Sean and I have a pretty good tag team going, we typically don't sit down until 8pm.

Typically, I'm in bed before 9pm, to get up and going by 5-5:15am. Tonight is a random night that I happen to be up...working, no less.

Being a full-time worker, a full-time mom, and a full-time pumper, I"m thinking that I need to give up one of these sooner rather than later. I'm thinking it's time to start weaning off the breast milk.

Six month doc appointment tomorrow. Six month pictures this weekend. More to come...

Exersaucer!

Bryce loves his exersaucer. This video doesn't really do it justice, but nonetheless, he's a happy boy!

He's in his PJ's still this morning!