Brycen Update.

I'm glad so many of you approve of my wacky schedule! But with Brycen not waking up until 11:30am yesterday!! (and then taking a 7:30pm nap!)..bedtime is coming awfully (scarily) too close to my 6am wake-up time and I'm a complete zombie after 9pm. So if this 6am thing is a keeper, Brycen's schedule needs to change. Going to bed after midnight doesn't work...as much as I enjoy having so many hours to blog in the morning....

But as long as this 6am thing does continue...I will probably continue to blog twice a day--Enjoy! The best part: waking up to all the "comments" email notifications in the morning. LOVE it...and thanks!

Never ceases to amaze me.

And with me getting up at 6am these days and Brycen 11am...it's amazing how much time I spend looking at him and reflecting on these things: (Not to mention, Brycen hasn't been sleeping the best lately and wakes up at least every hour to make sure I'm still there just to fall back asleep in my arms. So, right now, I'm sitting on the bed next to him and with every startle, I placed my hand on him and he immediately goes still. Oh, how I love motherhood...)

Brycen:

-Always very happy...well, most the time. He is known to show his frustration as well...especially when it comes to the camera.

"I said, NO cheese Daddy! Okay?" (direct quote, pictures from the Oregon Coast)

-Always wants to go along. As soon as I say anything like, "I'll be right back" "I'm just going to go get your sippy cup"... He always pleads with his arms open, "With me!" and wants to be brought along. ("With me" is a phrase he has been using for quite some time now to mean, "With you". I'm guessing he uses it because of all the times I give him choices such as "Do you want to go to stay home or go with me?" And it always replies, "with me". I love it).

-He is a people watcher just like his Mommy. I think that's why he is so content to sit in his stroller all over Berlin. He loves watching the people, especially other kids.

-He is using full sentences these days. He is always repeating things I say like he is trying to permanently add them to his vocabulary. And then not soon after, will use it (them) in a sentence. For example, on Monday night we bought ice cream from the grocery store for dessert. I normally just refer to desserts as simply ice cream or a "treat" (words he knows). However, Monday night I found myself telling Brycen to hop in the stroller so we could go home for dessert. He immediately hopped in while repeating "dessert?" and I explained to him that we had ice cream. As soon as we arrived home (our Berlin apartment), Brycen leaped out of his stroller and ran to the kitchen while exclaiming, "dessert!" By the time I followed him into the kitchen after dropping off bags and shoes, he was sitting at the kitchen table, had his bib on, and replied, "I want dessert please".

It's very common for him to miss connecting words such as "the" and "of" but we love that he communicates and he LOVES being understood. A lot of things he says, I think he says just so that we can tell him he's right. Such as "Daddy in shower" and "Mommy, coming too?" "Water! More boats!" and other observations.

He also says, "hard" alot. My dad and brother got a big hoot out of it while in Utah. He often reaches out and if something isn't within his reach, he says, "Humph. Hard." and wants us to retrieve it for him (which the uncles and grandpa usually did). We're working on him doing things himself though, rather than wanting us to do things for him... Also, while in Utah, my sister Katie came home from work and let herself collapse into a kitchen chair with a sigh and Brycen asked, concerned, "hard?" Haha. so cute.

I love to ask him questions because he will normally say, "Hm..." or "Um..." and then reply. And then he also has a tendency to end statements with "okay?" Such as, "This is baby's! Okay?" I didn't realize until he started doing these things that they are exactly some of the things I do. At one point yesterday, I told Brycen, "Only color on the paper. Okay?"

-He is very smart. Currently, learning his numbers and can count up to thirteen and will count anything he can. His blocks, his crackers, Mommy's fingers as she tries to get him to look at the camera...

While in Utah and in Oregon, Brycen started comprehending the fact that he has more than one set of grandparents very well. He started calling my grandparents,"Grandma and Grandpa Great" and while riding in the car with Grandma and Grandma Great to a play, Brycen replied while pointing, "Grandma and Grandma. Two Grandmas!".

He is also learning his letters and loves to point them out on Mommy and Daddy's t-shirts and is so thrilled when his shirt has some (like his truck shirt from Aunt Jenn and Uncle Mike!). He doesn't quite know the whole ABC song but can pick out lots of letters such as "A. O. E. M. B. R". A few we still need to work on like how W's are not M's. I never realized how confusing that could be to such a little one. And he knows most his colors and shapes.

-He takes care of me and makes sure Daddy does too. Whenever I say, "Ow" (more out of reflex than pain, like when I accidentally bump my head), Brycen looks up concerned and says, "Mommy, ouchie?" which was the case on Saturday when I hit my head while exiting the bus. After getting off the bus, Brycen said, "Daddy muah Mommy's ouchie"....(which Daddy then did...)

Brycen is still very much into the power of the kiss and Mommy and Daddy kissing all his "ouchies" (what he calls owies). Sometimes I think he intentionally falls down just so we can do it....and other times I walk into the room and he is kissing his own ouchies. Strange, indeed. And yesterday, he requested I kiss his blanket after he swung it into a wall.

Monday morning though, Brycen and I were in the shower when I got a bloody nose (the climate is about perfect here (breezy, sunny, 70s degrees, little humidity (weather for Kelli :) just a bit dry compared to the 110% Indiana humidity I'm used to :)). Anyway, Brycen is already pretty "iffy" about the shower (big bath tub with a detaching shower head here, which Daddy thoroughly enjoys and already tells me he'll miss) and became very concerned long before I realized I was bleeding. "Mommy, face ouchie!" "Shower ouch-ed Mommy's face?" Once I realized what he was talking about, I jumped out to take care of it with a tissue while Brycen went hysterical. "Where's Daddy?" When I replied that he was at work, Brycen cried harder and pleaded... "Daddy muah Mommy's ouchie". I tried to comfort Brycen over and over until my nose was done just to have him become more hysterical when I insisted on hopping back in the shower to rinse out my shampoo. After the shower, he kept checking my face to make sure the blood didn't return.

His big concern for me might be a result of a fall him and I took about 4 weeks ago while leaving the doctor's office after baby #2 ultrasound. I missed a step in the parking lot while carrying Brycen and ended up falling completely. My arms held on to Brycen for dear life, leaving me to only have my knees to brace my fall in which I then fell onto my side. Not fun and luckily Bryce was there because by the time he came around the car to help us, Brycen was going hysterical and so I tried to immediately get up to let him know it was okay just to then faint...Bryce caught me and laid me down and I woke up to "MOOOMMMMY!!!" After Bryce helped me into the car, Brycen couldn't hold back much longer and climbed into my lap and then gave me his much loved sticker he had just received from the doctor. For days after he pointed out all my ouchie sand wanted me to kiss them. Haha!

-Brycen also makes sure I take care of Daddy. Not an afternoon goes by without Brycen requesting that I kiss Daddy's eyes or eyebrows or head for some ouchie that Brycen may or may not have caused and he always makes sure Mommy and Daddy hug (him and each other) before bedtime. He is very much into routines and make sure we pray, hug, and sing before bedtime. He loves "Sunbeam" "Popcorn Tree" and "Follow Me" (Do as I'm Doing)....with the corresponding hand motions and is learning almost all the words. SO cute.

He keeps us in line and always brings so much joy. Love him!

So so tired. And yup, that's his bedtime attire. His clothes are soaked with sweat otherwise (and no, I don't purposely lay him right on the edge of the bed--he moves alot!).

Quick fun memories: Brycen will pretty much do anything to delay bedtime so when Daddy gave him the option last night, "Brycen should we go to bed or do facebook?" Brycen replied, "facebook". Which I'm almost positive he had no idea what it is but was very eager to look over Daddy's shoulder at the thing that was prolonging bedtime.

And also, since I have been in bed long before Daddy or Brycen lately: last night I was laying in bed and didn't realized I had closed my eyes and was drifting off to sleep until Brycen came by and kissed me on the cheek. He then turned off the lamp by my bed and said, "Night Night Mommy".