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.