morning at the playground

We planned to go to the playground last night, but the rain kept us at home, so we got up and went first thing this morning. They recently resurfaced the playground, and put down this amazingly cool fake grass. It looks so beautiful all the time, it's a great surface for the kids to play on, and if we had a yard, Eric and I are pretty sure we would like fake grass for it!!! ;)



Remember this kid? He used to HATE going on the swings. Until he was about 4, Bryce and swinging were not the best of friends. But now, he is a tummy-swinging champ!!!
Then there's this one. . .he had ZERO hesitation about being in this swing! He loved it!
Hmmm, I won't tell you how many shots it took to get ONE of both boys looking at the camera! I think this is as good as it gets!
It's hard to believe that Bryce was about Tanner's age, the first time that we brought him to this park! And yes, that is one sweaty little head! We headed home pretty soon after this shot! It might be fall, but it won't FEEL like fall for at LEAST another 6 weeks around here! (And even then, just barely!)

XOXOO

he's famous!

Gotta brag on my girl, Charity. . .she did this super cute scrapbook layout about our kids at the pumpkin patch last year. It is featured in Creating Keepsakes Magazine this month!!!! See our little firefighter there? (You can click on the image to see it larger!)

a little tanner photo shoot

the weather is actually reasonable today, so tanner and i ventured outside for a little while. we discovered that he does NOT like walking in the grass. or standing in the grass. or being anywhere near the grass. he MUCH preferred chilling out on the blanket instead! (which made it much easier - i thought i was going to have to chase after him the whole time!)

we have some new pictures from The Little Gym too, that I will try to get posted by tomorrow! But since it's been just a bit since I posted, I thought I'd quickly share these!

XOXO

tanner's one-year-old checkup

Tanner SCREAMED through most of his checkup today, partially because . . well. . .it's the doctors office, partially because he caught the cold Bryce caught at school last week, and partially because he was hungry. Not a great combo.

But despite it all, and other than the cold, the doctor says he's AWESOME!

24 lb, 1.5 oz. . . .75th percentile for weight (I told you he's slimming down!)
31 inches tall . . . .90th percentile for height

Kind of funny because I think he flip-flopped. . .I think last time he was 90th percentile for weight, and 75th for height!

four shots. . .one in each arm and each thigh. MMR, chicken pox, hep A, and a flu shot. And Oh goodie, we have to go back for a follow-up flu shot in a month. NOT A HAPPY CAMPER!

Now he is sleeping, hopefully (but not likely) for a LONG time.

now that i am one year old. . .

now that i am one year old, i have decided that walking looks like a MOST fun thing to do.
on the afternoon of my birthday i decided that i did not need to be lured by water bottles or Daddy's iPhone. i decided that i would just try to walk around for the heck of it. and i must say, i like it! i can walk about 10 steps at a time, and then i fall on my bottom. . .which is also quite fun, and sometimes it makes me laugh.

now that i am one year old, i am suddenly facing the other direction in my carseat. i can see mommy and daddy and i can make faces at them in the mirror while they drive. mommy can hand me cheerios and goldfish while we wait in the very very extremely long line waiting to take bryce to school. (and then we wait in that same very very extremely long line to pick him up again. that part of my day is not really so fun.) the line is not quite as bad though, now that i can see mommy. my question is, why did they make me sit backwards for SO long? this is WAY better. they should have changed that AGES ago.

now that i am one year old i still think that sleeping at night is really not so great. there are so many exciting things that i might miss, so i wake up every so often, and scream for a while. so far, the exciting things that i seem to be missing while i sleep are: darkness. crickets. mommy being grouchy. the fan spinning. the air conditioner turning on and off. the street lights glowing.
see what i mean? LOTS of exciting things are happening at night, and you people are all missing them. but not me and mommy. we don't miss a THING. so far all of my screaming for the past year has not woken up bryce. but one of these days. one of these days i will scream loudly enough and long enough that he will hear me, and he will come and join the fun. i hate that he is missing the streetlights and the darkness and the crickets.

now that i am one year old i have two teeth poking out of the top of my mouth, and i think there might be some more about to poke through the bottom of my mouth. mommy says she doesn't know if there's one or two bottom teeth about to poke through. when she sticks her fingers in my mouth to feel around, i usually like to bite down. that should teach HER to go sticking her fingers in my mouth!

now that i am one year old i have a baby doll.
and i LOVE him.
he doesn't have a name.
but he has a dog on his shirt.
i LOVE dogs too.
i love to hug my baby doll, and give it kisses.
mommy and daddy and bryce got me my baby doll for my birthday because i was always trying to kiss and hug bryce's baby dolls. but now i have my OWN. bryce likes that.

The birthday boy!!!!

So do you think he LOVES sitting front-facing, in his carseat now? Ummm, YES!!!! He was soo excited! He loves that he can see us in the front seat now! And look at those two teeth! (I think one or both of the bottom ones are finally starting to poke through too!)

Here is Tanner with his new baby doll that we got him for his birthday. He always tries to get Bryce's babies. . .and he definitely needed his own! Tanner LOVES it! After presents, and sweet potato pancakes for breakfast, we went to the zoo to celebrate Tanner's big day! Annamaria and her family are in town for the weekend, so they met us at the zoo, and the kids of course had a BLAST together!
(Don't worry, its just a STATUE!!! Not a REAL komodo dragon!) Tanner had such fun looking at all the animals. He kept pointing, and saying "Dahhh!" (That's pretty much what he says about everything lately!)

The big kiddos, on the go-go!

In the Asian Gardens

Apparently the morning wore Tanner out! He was asleep before we were out of the parking lot!

Thanks for a great visit, Jillian and Ava! Thanks for helping us celebrate!!!

Tonight we are going to go out to dinner, and then come home and eat birthday cupcakes that have been in the freezer since Tanner's party last weekend! Yum Yum!

Soooo happy!

So happy to go from THIS. . ..To THIS. . . . (It's sort of shocking to me, to look at that first picture of me. . .HOLY COW, I was HUGE!!!!!!! And when that picture was taken, I still had another week before he would be born!)

Happy birthday to our sweet Little T. . .more pictures to come, as we celebrate his first year!

BACK TO SCHOOL!!!!!!

He got up and got dressed without a reminder.

He started the day with a healthy oatmeal breakfast.

Zero hesitation.

Zero nerves.

Zero concerns expressed.

He.

Was.

READY.

The big man started Kindergarten today. He was excited, and walked right into his classroom, got himself settled, let us kiss him goodbye, and that was THAT.

Our neighbor happened to be outside, and snapped this of all four of us!

Soooo. . . .I still have almost FOUR HOURS until school is out.

Now what!???

the birthday shindig!

had to do a trial run on the party hat! he really didn't mind having it on too much!

here's bryce playing in the very cool new play area from Gigi and Doobie. it was definitely the HIT of the party!!! (and it only took four or five people to figure out how to put the thing put together!)

yummy food!
i was really happy with how the cake turned out! it was the first time i tried using fondant, but it was quite easy to work with! phew!

hmmmm, let me see what this tastes like . . .

yup, i guess i like this!

are you looking at me and my cake????

thank you so much to everyone who celebrated with us yesterday, whether here in person, or via Facebook!!! we had a great day! (and I think it was a little less traumatic on me, to celebrate the week BEFORE his birthday! i can still enjoy him being NOT QUITE ONE, for a few more days!)

Oh - and Tanner even took THREE STEPS during his party!!! Any day now, he's going to just TAKE OFF and GO!!!! :)

the wet wet walk

One afternoon last week, the boys and I decided to go for a walk. The sky was a little cloudy, but the dark ones still looked pretty far away. (Perhaps that was mistake number one, but in Florida during the summer, if we never went out when there were clouds on the horizon, we would never go out!) So we went walking. And Bryce brought our little misty bottle, and was misting Tanner and I, and basically using it like a water gun. So by the time we got halfway around the block, it was almost empty. But not to fear, the poolhouse has a drinking fountain. We headed inside to refill the mister, and Bryce asked "Can I put my feet in the pool?"

I being the fun, cool mom that I am, said "Sure!"

But within one minute, as I was getting Tanner out of his stroller to put HIS feet in the pool, Bryce had suddenly gotten MORE than just his feet wet. . . .he walked down to the bottom step, and was in the water (in his clothes, mind you, NOT a bathing suit) up to his shoulders. The crazy boy just walked right in.

We stood there for a minute, me trying to process WHAT had just happened, Bryce grinning from ear to ear, and the two of us discussing the lack of towel with us. . . . .and then I looked up at the sky. Suddenly those dark clouds were on the move - and FAST. In fact, by the time we got out of the poolhouse, it was sprinkling.

So we HUSTLED.
And we were doing just fine, with just some sprinkles, and the dark clouds moving faster than we could walk. We got right across the street from our driveway, and it started to RAINNNNN.
So we RAN FOR IT!!!

By the time we got to our doorway, the sky totally opened up. But no thunder, no lightning, and witin 10 minutes, the sky was blue, and the rain was completely done. That's Florida for you!

Ramblings about Mr. B

(why this picture keeps posting sideways, i do NOT know. i give up. sideways it shall be.)

As promised, some ramblings about Mr. B, Bryce-Man, B-Money, Bryce-a-roni,. . .he is a man of many names. And a man of many talents too. He is especially proud of the following skills:

-jumping off the couch.
-jumping ON the couch.
-jumping off the chairs.
-jumping off the bed.
-running around in circles and then throwing himself down on the floor.

-crossing his eyes (which I know makes many of you cringe)

-making crazy faces for the camera

Oh, and then there's other stuff he's proud of, like counting by 2's, and 10's, and quite a few addition problems that he's got figured out. He's writing his first and last name like a TOTAL champ, and most other letters too. He knows how to spell a couple of words (most of the time) and he knows the letter sound for each letter of the alphabet.

He is still obsessed with Lego Star Wars. And Legos. And Star Wars. "Can you tell me some stories about Star Wars?" is the question Eric gets 12 times a day. (I am so happy that I don't KNOW any stories about Star Wars, so I am spared from such questions!) Thanks to my darling husband, Bryce is now also obsessed with Superman and Batman. "Can you tell me some stories about Superman, Daddy?" has been added to the daily conversation. (And ha ha for me, I have avoided that one too!!!)

Bryce loves making little projects, involving little paper bags, along with drinking straws and toothpicks (because he can reach them in the pantry.) He's been making lots of little snowflakes, and little people on tiny pieces of cut paper. Then he puts them in one of the little paper bags for people. Most of you who are due one, have not yet received it, because he forgets whose is whose, and eventually they. . .umm. . disappear, in a fit of cleaning. (I will deny it to my death if you tell him i threw ANYTHING of his out.) "It's around here somewhere," along with "Where did you have it last?" are my daily statements.

So far, Bryce seems to be feeling pretty good about starting Kindergarten. I'm sure he'll be nervous when it's THE DAY, but so far, so good. I asked him what he is most excited about, and he said "meeting new friends." That's a good thing!

We found out who B's teacher is, and thanks to our friend Sara, who used to teach at Bryce's school, we got the inside scoop!!! Sara said that Ms. Hamela is WONDERFUL, and she was one of Sara's top picks for Bryce! Hooray! Sara told us that Ms. Hamela went on a trip to China this summer, and Bryce thought that was pretty cool! I think it's going to be a great fit, and I am feeling really good about the schoolyear. I also just found out that the kids have optional uniforms this year, but thankfully Bryce has a couple of things that fit into the dress code already. And since it's optional (they are transitioning to mandatory uniforms for the NEXT schoolyear) I am not really stressed about buying a ton of uniform clothes.

We go on Friday to meet Ms. Hamela and see Bryce's classroom. And then school starts on Monday!

FINALLY. . . .north carolina!

the inflatable pool on the backporch was one of everyone's favorite spots!

Mimi and Poppy organized the coolest treasure hunt for Bryce! It had photo clues and took him on a wild goose chase all over the place!

At the end, this is his treasure chest that he found under the house. It was filled with all sorts of craft supplies and fun little goodies!

We went to the waterfalls at Deep Creek and put our feet in the verrry cold water!

When Bryce gets a little bigger, and is a stronger swimmer, we will go tubing at Deep Creek - it looks like SOOO much fun!

Tanner loved watching all the butterflies, and people on tubes, and the waterfalls. and he liked putting his feet in the water too!

The boys had fun riding in Poppy's wagon, up and down the driveway.

This was the first time we've been to the new house in the summer time. When we were there at Christmas, Tanner and I hardly ventured out at all, because he did NOT like the cold weather!!! It was fun to go exploring this time!

Daddy and Bryce, at Lot 7, up the hill (umm, mountain) from our house.

Out on the porch!

Bryce would have SLEPT out in our creek if we had let him!!! He and Daddy, Mimi, and Poppy were working on moving some rocks around the creek to make some better waterfalls. Bryce looked so cute in his giant tall boots!!

And there you have it. . .the very QUICK rundown of our trip!!! Better late than never, right!? :)

ACK!

I was getting ready to post North Carolina pictures, and realized I hadn't ever published THIS post with more of the Fort Myers pictures!!!!!! If someone could please find me an extra two hours for each day, and a larger dose of energy and motivation, I could really use it!!!!

LOVE these pictures. . . .

Tanner's birthday ideas. . .

I'm starting a list of birthday ideas:

http://bryceandtannerswishes.blogspot.com/

I'll keep adding to it, but I will try to remember to post a note when I update!

XOXO

Ramblings about Tanner. . .

Just had to pull Tanner's hands out of the toilet. Such a lovely way to start a Saturday morning. We just had a fairly good night sleep last night so I thought I'd tell you about Tanner, while I have a spare clear thought in my head.


(Tanner playing in the pool at the cabin. It was pretty normal to just strip him down every day and he'd get in the pool. Or he'd just crawl in, in his clothes. Either way, he LOVED it!)

He seems to think he's having a lot of logical conversations with us these days. Telling us what he sees ("dog", "diaper", "cup", ) or what he's thinking ("don't do that", "give me that", "you're so funny", "I'm tired", "You are the best mommy in the world and I love you") except that they all sound like "DAH!" and yesterday "NAH" seemed to be the word of the day. But he looks at us like he is quite sure of what he's saying. Adorable and so funny! There is lots of pointing and laughing and "DAH"s and "NAH"s and clapping around here lately. Sometimes the clapping is clapping, and sometimes it's him trying to sign "More" (which is a similar sort of gesture.) We are pretty sure that yesterday he started signing "Cup". I still remember the first time Bryce came toddling into the kitchen and signed "CUP!" because he was thirsty. It was PRICELESS. We are excited that Tanner is catching on to the couple of signs we've been working on. Communication is a beautiful thing!

And then there's the teeth. . ..Oh the teeth!!!! Because Tanner likes to be different, Tanner is getting his TOP teeth first, rather than his bottom teeth, like the other 90% of babies out there! (I'm making up that statistic, by the way!) The first top tooth started appearing while we were in North Carolina. I hadn't even been looking up top, because I was so busy looking for bottom teeth to start poking through. But there it was. Eric found it! And now the second top tooth is on it's way out. Bryce was 7 months old when he cut his first tooth (and we were in North Carolina for that one too!) and Tanner was 10 months old.

Tanner LOVES taking a bath. (I told you he loves the water. . .the pool, the toilet. . .whatever!) He gets so excited when we turn on the water. He starts jumping and laughing. He gets pretty excited about anything he wants. He dropped a ball a few days ago, and I asked him "Do you want the ball? Should Mommy get the ball?" And the hysterical laughter that followed had Eric and I about in tears!!! He is SO funny. He seems to laugh instead of saying "Yes!" (One day he'll probably laugh at us as he tells us NO too!)

Watch for my random ramblings about Mr. B soon. He is turning into quite a big boy. Just like last year when it was a little overwhelming to have a baby and have a child starting preschool within a week of each other. . .this year it's a little overwhelming to have one starting KINDERGARTEN and one turning ONE in the same week. UGH. This mommy business is exhausting.


XOXO