So as July is almost over...

I hate that this summer is running out of steam. I still think about just throwing in the towel and quitting RHS to stay at home so we can have an eternal summer (except for when it is snowing... but we could just turn on some music and fill the baby pool in the basement?).

Over the past few weeks Bryce has turned up his skills. He now can point to the dog and say Jager and he has put together Hi and other words to form mini sentences. He has learned how to climb up his climber and slide down on his own and he has ditched the bottle and is loving his new sippy cups. He still is a manic crawler, but he has moments of stretching where he almost lets go and steps off... and then he drops to the ground and crawls.

He has had three mini haircuts over the past few weeks and we are now to the point were I have him looking like a little boy... not girl... or Amish boy... but a little boy with amazingly good hair (it has amazing body and a bit of a wave so it falls perfectly).

At his one year appointment he weighed in at 23.12 pounds and was 32.5 inches tall. So that brings him into the 99% in height and 75% in weight. Just as his sister was.

Emerson has been very active with being a big sister and playing outside. She is awesome on her bike and loves playing in the pool. Although still a little afraid of going underwater, she is building her confidence and working on actually swimming!

I have not posted pictures lately because we are having computer issues. I am doing most of these posts from my ipad... since the desktop mac died. I am working on that and hope to have pictures up soon!

Hot Dog Hot Dog!!!

Mickey Mouse is the only character that catches Bryce's attention, so with that we decided to have a Mickey Hot Dog Birthday. I probably shoulda focused on balls or cars, his true loves, but Emerson insisted we do Mickey.

The day before the party Eric, Emerson and I made a ton of cupcakes, cakepops (that looked like mice) and a smash cake for Bryce. Emerson had a hard time staring at the display in the dining room, because she wanted to eat all of it!

We were extremely lucky to have had excellent weather and a great number of family members in attendance. It was so nice to be able to see the kids (cousins) playing in the pool (finally working!) and in the yard. They all played so well together!

Bryce was loving all the people and getting to play with the adults, until he was presented with his cake. He must have had a flashback to his actual birthday and one again touched the flame and began crying. After a brief delay and a regrouping he LOVED his cake (first time he had any)!

We had promised everyone that we would take pictures of him opening the presents, but to be honest he had no interest in opening anything. Emerson ended up opening most of the presents and he enjoyed playing with them. He loves all of his cars and balls and Mickey items and I love the clothes... cause he is constantly out growing everything (or ruining it).

Happy First Birthday Mr. Bryce!

For Bryce's first birthday (the actual day) we hung out around home. After vacationing in Hilton Head for a week, we decided to get a quick set pool (thanks Jess) and have spent the better part of this week working on it. After the first set up we had to drain it and today was spent leveling and digging and figuring out how to get it to work. Hopefully by the weekend we will be in business.

Bryce celebrated with a donut instead of the cake, which we will save for his actual party. The sad part was that he decided to play with the fire and got burned. Bad call on our part... I think we may have crippled his love of the experience. Good thing is that he won't remember it for next year!

This year has flown by so quickly that I feel kinda foggy about all of the experiences. Bryce has proved to be an amazing baby and I am hoping that transfers to toddler. He is using words (mama, dada, hi) and shakes his head no when he doesn't want something. His crawling skills have allowed him to ignore the need to walk, but he is cruising really well. He has mastered crawling in and out of the house, so he can play on the porch and even manages to crawl down the deck to go into the backyard. Bryce loves to swing and thinks it is hysterical to go down the slide. We got him a climber to keep inside so he could burn off some energy (along with Emerson) and he has just started to learn how to get up the steps... although he can race up the steps in the house! We ditched the formula and he is loving the milk... hopefully in the next few weeks we will be able to ditch the bottles!

The Zoo... Part Two

So the Zoo is two for two. The first attempt was a wash and this past one was a flop, literally. Emerson sat down on a bench, leaned back and fell through. She cracked her head on the concrete and I carried her back to the gate to get an ice pack. We were only there for a little over an hour and the highlight to that point was her trip on the train. A quick ice cream cone made it a little better and then we left. Hopefully the third trip pans out better for all!