Christmas 2010

Bryce's first Christmas!
Christmas Eve we had his Great Grandma and Grandpa Baker over for dinner. He was very excited about his train he got and loved all the bells and whistles it had. We also went to Church service. In the past we've gone with my mom to the night candle light service. Now with Bryce, we went to the early family service. He had a late nap unfortunately so he wasn't in prime shape to make it through the service well. He ended up doing great! I did have to leave once with him for a few minutes, he got a bit squirmy. He was able to calm back down and we finished the service. I loved introducing Bryce to so many people who had a very positive and permanent impact on my life. I can only wish Bryce will have families to look up to as I have.
We headed home and I told David I had a present for him to open on Christmas Eve. He was reluctant. When he opened it, there was pajamas for each of us. Now, every Christmas Eve we will open pj's to wear to bed that night for the next morning. Yeah for tradition! David didn't dig the idea but he went along with it. Now I've caught him wearing them after Christmas, guess they are comfy after all!



Christmas morning we got up and opened our presents as our little family. It was more about watching Bryce trying to figure out what we were up to and watching his delight as he experienced his first Christmas morning. How fun!




We then packed up to head my mom's house. Once we got there, Bryce was ready for more action after a long drive and a nap the whole way. He was very spoiled by Grandma and Grandpa. What a lucky kiddo. I love it how much he is loved. My mom had lots of fun shopping for him, it showed.

We stayed the night at my mom's house. It was the first time we've slept with Bryce somewhere other than our home since he has been in his room. It was disasterous! He barely slept. We had his pack and play with us even. After I heard my mom up that morning, downstairs I went to bring down Bryce and back up headed to fall asleep. We slept until 10:30, wow! Amazing!! When I woke up Bryce was napping too.

We enjoyed our Christmas with Bryce. We talked about it plenty. Christmas is more fun with a baby and even more fun when they grow up and show all their excitement for Santa. I look forward to future Christmas days with our moose!

Changes

A lot has been in the works behind the scenes at the Baker household. After Bryce was born, and my maternity leave was up, I returned to work full time. Few people knew candidly how hard this was for me. Before I returned, I saw the writing on the wall. Something had to change. I felt there wasn't enough of me to give to work full time and to still have enough energy to be the mom I want to be for Bryce. I praise full time working mamas, I am proud of you. With anything in my life, once I let something in, I have a very hard time letting it go. That goes for friends, places, travel, and work. I approached my employer about becoming part time. I wanted to give it a shot, in the end what did I have to loose besides having a harder time maintaining the friendships I've built there? I found out recently, they have agreed to give part time a shot. I'll start in February, working from home part time. It will be a trial, but for the chance to see if it works for the company, I am thankful.

We have also moved. We are off of 128th and Canyon in Puyallup and really love it so far. Funny thing is Bryce is in the boundaries to attend the same elementary school as I did. Go Woodland Eagles, woo! My favorite part is not having a house behind ours. We have a small backyard still but it is open to a wetland behind it, a large one. There is a small pond with ducks. We've got berry bushes and all kinds of birds including Blue Jays. It makes all the difference in the world to us not having someone's window looking into our kitchen.

So, here we go. Onto another path with new challenges and difficulties but also new joys and happiness. We are thankful Bryce will not be in full time daycare any more and I will get to enjoy this short time in his life even more. My prayers have been answered, I am so thankful and very happy to share this with you.

First Christmas Tree

We went out and got our Christmas tree! It started raining on us just as we found our tree and we made a quick exit. Mission accomplished though. We got our tree a bit late this year and it sorta worked in our favor on the tree farm. The trees were cheaper! We got a really nice Noble for a really nice price. Here are some pictures of Bryce and his very first Christmas tree.

Ta daa! I am sitting very well, up to 30 seconds before I get wobbly!

Also, here is a picture of Bryce with his first Christmas present of his little life from my friend Lisa. You can see by his Elvis expression, he was very impressed. I think the gold foil had a little something to do with it.

By the way, reading Dr. Suess books can be very entertaining as an adult. My mom got Bryce one a while back and David and I did our best to read it out loud quickly and perfectly but your brain has got to read quicker than your eyes can :) We'll be up to par in no time.

6 months

Bryce is half way to one and half way to a whole lot of other trouble!
This past month he has become so alert and attentive. He is very into listening to us and reaching for anything in close range. Eating out is not as simple to hold him on my lap now. That silverware is far too shiny and inviting with noise. He has been sitting in the highchair while we eat now. I have continued to make him his food. He has had:

Bananas
Sweet Potatoes
Carrots
Peas
Avacodos
Pumpkin Pie
Peaches
Applesauce
Pears

He has a heart stopping laugh. At least for my heart. Devan, Jesse's little sidekick was over and he started playing peekaboo, he thought it hilarious. Check out this video:


Some more 6 month things:
He also says, "maaa maaaa" but only when he is crying. He just learned a new sound with his mouth, there is no meaning behind it yet but it is still cute to hear him say it.

Bryce has been working on sitting up, he is getting the hang of it and getting pretty strong too. That little tummy has some abs hiding under there!

He gets himself up on his hind legs too, not for a long amount of time and not stable. We all know where that is headed. He scoots himself backwards and covers a lot of ground doing so.

Lilly continues to be a great source for smiles and distraction. She has been so great and patient so far with Bryce. She doesn't like sharing the car with him though.

I enjoy letting him feel all kinds of things when we are in a store. Pier One was a great place for him. His eyes lit up at everytihng and his little fingers were feeling lots of surfaces and textures.

Red Robin is his favorite place to eat out. He dances, talks, and yells all while getting all the attention from the staff and near tables of ladies. Dad is proud. Way to get the ladies he says.

His death grip is painful. Grab and squeeze as hard as you can is his game. Face, ears, forearms anything when changing his diapers too. Ouch!

Here are some pictures of Bryce on his first Thanksgiving, our little turkey. For the memory, our turkey weighed as much as he did, 21 pounds. :)

Checking out black Friday sales with Dad.

Snow Day!

Bryce's first snow day, November 22, 2010! This marks the first time we've had snow in our area before Thanksgiving since 1985. I was one year old then. I love snow so much and always have. I am excited to share all the fun snow holds as Bryce gets older. Until then, it is just a bunch of overbundled quick trips in and out mainly for a picture in the snow :)

I only took him out to take a picture when it first started, since these pictures we've gotten 6 inches but we are all too cozy inside to go outside! The adorable hat Bryce is modeling was handmade by his very talented Grandma!

Lilly came up and found a cozy spot to lay her head right on Bryce's lap and continued to stay and let him play with her ears. What a sweet puppy.

Watching Lilly Dog play!

Not so Glamorous

Pumping is ridiculous. I have to share the fun you'll be in for or- share a laugh if it brings back memories for you.
Just after Bryce was born, Jesse and I made plans to go to a dance show at the Tacoma Dome. Because of nursing and being away from Bryce for such a long stretch, I had to work out something for pumping. There is a handy portable, battery powered pump I was handed down and it has really been a convenience! (Thank you, again Jen!)

After we left the Melting Pot- yum, and headed to our show, I had to whip out the noisy pump on our drive over. I warned Jesse. Although, I'm not sure you can really warn someone how awesome it is to have the passenger in your car hook up their boob? She gets used to it and we are chatting away while driving. I've forgotten really that the pump is going but we are pulling in the parking lot to the pay the attendant to park and I'm still not paying attention to the fact that I'm still pumping. Jesse says, in a holding back her laugh kind of way, "Um... you might want to turn that off real quick...I don't care but..." I cracked up. Of course I need to turn it off! We head on into our show and I have to have get my purse security checked. I find the 1 line with a lady checking. I could tell she felt awkward when she saw what my purse had in store for her! Now Jesse knows first hand what she has to look forward to should she choose to nurse :)

Made With Love

It is a fascinating thought to realize that my body grew and nourished Bryce solely for so so long. I take pride in that. It has not been easy to nurse but I committed to it and since I am able to make it work, I've stuck with it. I am thankful for all the benefits to Bryce he has received from it. Introducing solids to him felt just as important. I started him out on rice, following our Ped's recommendation. Since then, he has had oatmeal, apples, carrots and sweet potatoes. I've made all the fruits and veggies for him myself.

I was excited at the thought of making baby food while I was pregnant. I got into it and ordered a book of recipes. I know there are miles of recipes on the web but sometimes having a book just makes it a little easier. My cousin Jen shared with me that it is easy to freeze in ice cube trays and that each cube is about an ounce. I've got a little pile in our freezer growing for him. It does make me nervous though that I make it myself only because I am worried there will be a chunk hidden and he'll choke. I check it all very carefully... and as you know, I worry a lot!

Introducing Bryce to different foods has not been a big show that I expected to see from him. I was wanting some funny faces, tongues sticking out, refusing to eat it because it was weird, any kind of reaction besides- keep shoveling! Nope. I got nothing. "Keep shoveling mom" is all I get. I think he swallows it all so fast that he doesn't even taste it :)

Today I made sweet potatoes and pears. I also made him a Christmas blanket :)

5 Months

Already, he is 5 months old!

Here are some Bryce updates:

He has mastered his rolling over skills from his back to his belly. His belly back to his back...not so much. He is working on it still. He just lays there with all his limbs out whimpering with frustration trying to get back over to the other side. I am sure I'll say this every month, but this month was especially fun. His personality keeps blossoming more and more!

He is full of smiles and now he is showing his bashful side when he quickly hides a smile in your shoulder from the person flirting with him. I think it is adorable.

Bryce is fascinated with Lilly. At this point, he smiles more at her than anything or anyone. She doesn't have to do anything for it either. Most of the time he spots her across the room and a big smile grows. It all started with very slow controlled reaching movements of his hands to her head to pet her. Lilly has been so sweet and most of the time will let him pet her. When he was a newborn, I never let Lilly lick him but now than he is older and his immune is stronger, Lilly will lick him on the cheek and boy does it make Bryce's moment! It is a joy to watch their relationship grow.

Anything within reach, he is grabbing. They started out as slow reaches, very studied and controlled. Now they are transforming into quick grabs. He loves grocery bags. No, we don't give them to him but he'll reach for it and hit it enjoying the sound it makes.

He screams like a dinosaur once he wakes up and gets going in the morning :)


He loves the song, "Itsy Bitsy Spider"

He tried carrots and didn't even care. As long as food is going into his mouth, I think he is happy. Our baby moose!

Our Pumpkin

Last year around this time I had just found out we were expecting. It was hard to imagine bringing a baby to a pumpkin patch but now it is hard to imagine him walking next year and getting all dirty in the mud.

These are the times that I crave and that I am so thankful for to have a baby and a family. Traditions- I love my mom for making a big deal out of holidays for us growing up and getting to do all these fun things. I am happy to be able to continue these traditions for Bryce.

The day we went to the pumpkin patch was probably the busiest all month. There were cops directing traffic. We thought about skipping it all together but I asked David just to try our luck for a parking spot and it worked out for us. Bryce had a hard time at the pumpkin patch because he did not like the gorgeous sun in his face. Any picture we go of him not getting mad was luck. I tried to take lots pictures but that darn sun kept making him mad. Here is Bryce behind the scenes after he had enough sun:

Food!

We are giving Bryce rice cereal now. After a few days now, he gets it. He recognizes the spoon, leans in to put it in his mouth and starts fussing when I am too slow to get more in his mouth. I expected a miracle when we started to give him rice cereal. I thought it would help him finally sleep better through the night. No miracle yet! Since I've been back to work, he wakes up more and sometimes as much as every 2 hours, 3 if I am lucky. I have so much respect for the full time working mama's of babies. It really is a challenge especially when your sleep is not yours. Anyways, he makes such a mess of his face while eating. I leave it and wipe his face a couple times but David can't take it. He is wiping his face almost after every bite. We'll see if Bryce or David figures it out first :)

Mr. 4 month old!

These 4 months have flown by and the last month has been especially fast since I've been back to work. When I hold Bryce and cuddle with him, I am amazed at how rapidly this boy grew. We've heard our share of comments about how big he is and how he looks more like an 8 month old. It is weird to think about when he was "little" but it is true. He really has grown so much! He wasn't little for long. At his 4 month check up he was 95% for his weight and 90% for his height. He also got 2 shots and barely cried. We couldn't believe it. He screamed horribly for his 2 month shots, it was super sad. I know this blog is mainly about Bryce, but can I just mention that I am so thankful for David's attentiveness? David never missed one pregnancy doctor visit and has not missed one doctor visit for Bryce either. His work schedule helps him be there but he really wants to be there. I am thankful.
Heading into our fourth month, I think David and I would both agree that it has been our favorite time with him so far. He has really shown us his personality and it has been very fun to watch. He is all over his hands, loving to eat them more than almost anything else! He is such a chatter box when he gets going. Since he found his voice, he and David can chat back and forth for quite a while. He likes his talks with Dad more than Mom. I must have boring things to say! I think he smiles for me more though :)

Bryce is also rolling over when he feels like it. He does not do it very often but is making progress. He also giggled for me. Music to my ears! I have not gotten him to do it again. I have tried so hard to be funny but I just can't figure out how to hear the baby giggle again. We'll get there!
Daycare is going well. A lady named Amy watches him in her home daycare. She is an old customer of mine from way back when I was teller during college. It provides such relief being familiar with our provider. I can and do text her anytime I want, she sends me text pictures plus he is the only baby there. David drops him off in the morning and he tells me about how the little kids greet him, "baby Bryce! baby Bryce!" He has a fan club. Obviously :)

Today, Bryce welcomed us into his fourth month of life by peeing on us both at separate times. We surrender to the little squirt gun!