Mr. 8 month old!

What fun! Bryce is still growing like a weed! When David and I see other babies who are his age and who are "normal" size we feel like they look so little and skinny. I like having a big boy! I do feel like I never had a tiny baby mostly because it went so fast since he started out so big :)

Bryce waves, he prefers to only wave at Daddy though. I think he has only waved once at me but he will wildly wave to David. I am not too jealous though because now when I ask Bryce for a kiss, I have a wide open mouth, tongue hanging out, smiling baby coming right for my face and leaves me with a slobbery kiss that I love. He hasn't given a kiss to anyone but me! Mama's boy!

Grandma plays Patty Cake with Bryce whenever she hangs out with him, so we've got to give her the credit for our little clapper. He is getting pretty good. The other day, I was feeding him lunch and he was too excited about clapping but yelling at me at the same time to keep the shovel of food going into his mouth. He clapped faster than I could move the spoon and splattered food all over.

One thing Bryce enjoys doing now is setting next to his overflowing toy box and pull out each toy on his own. He is starting to pull himself up on it and gets to his knees even to look in and discover what toy he can dig out next. His little arms are too short to reach the bottom and he starts to get mad when he has his eyes set on something he can't reach. At that point, I tip over the toy box and all is good.

Search for it...

Get it!

Up on his knees!

Cute lil' butt!

He isn't crawling yet. He cares more to stand and wobble around. He gets upset most of the time when we put him up on all fours.

and for more pictures, of course!

Look at him just kick back and lounge in the sink :)

He is a pro at using his sippy cup and sitting in a highchair when we are out to eat. We have to keep clearance free in arms reach of him, he will grab anything and then try and eat it of course!

He figured out that he could eat his toes.

I'm home now with him while I work from home part time. I am so thankful, I love it and love spending even more time with him.

The late pictures...

He fell asleep grocery shopping!

At the doctor getting ready for shots :(
He is such a tough guy on shots now.

One reason it is nice to have an SUV,
there is room to change Bryce.

We took this picture right after we realized his
first tooth popped through!

7 months

Wow, things got crazy and I got behind here. Now that the holidays and moving are behind us, things might get easier but I doubt it. Because we're jumping head first into the next chapter of me working from home, I am going to be tasked with spinning lots of plates and to keep them spinning all in the good company of my little man. I will have the help of friends and family to help watch him when I need a good chunk of time to work or attend meetings. I'll rewind a bit so I can make sure to capture the many fun things of month 7! Here are somethings to note:

Bryce now has 2 teeth, his bottom front 2. He has a wide smile that he does from time to time to show them off but he doesn't do it too often.

He shows preference now by reaching to you to pick him up to hold him if someone else is holding him, to get him out of the highchair or to get him off of the floor.

He worked on waving and he now waves. Super cute, it is a bit wild and sporadic still but I am amazed that such a little brain grasps the concept of waving, cause and effect. Very cool. Next we are working on clapping.

He bangs his toys together and understands that it will make noise, he uses both hands to switch toys to and from.

All he cares to do is practice standing with your assistance. Put him on all fours and he gets mad and frustrated, we think he will skip right over crawling and take off running one day. I've already started the baby proofing in preparation.

No new news here but the kid still loves to eat. He is a professional. He chomps down solids now like a champ. He gets puffs in his fingers and has enough coordination to get it in his mouth. He worked on that quite a bit this month. He used to get the food to his mouth and release the grip so it would fall in his lap, he was able to figure out to pop it into his mouth... happier baby then!

Bryce still doesn't sleep well...still waiting for our night to celebrate sleeping all night...

Pictures to come later :)

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.