Brycen's Latest Doings and a Pregnancy Update

First off, this our 500th post on this blog! Talk about a milestone!

I'm already 26 weeks pregnant and I just can't believe it! I'm amazed at how quickly this pregnancy has gone by. I thought for sure it would go by super slowly. But apparently I'm wrong! We're on the down slope and I'm feeling great. The acid reflux I've been able to get under control (without having to give up chocolate, thank goodness) and I haven't had any crazy cravings lately. Yay!

This picture was taken at 25 weeks and I'm posting it for those who I haven't seen in a long time and have requested it. This picture makes me want to say "Yeesh!"

At night the baby seems to always be on my right side. Whenever I roll over to sleep on my right he starts kicking like crazy. As soon as I roll back he stops. I'm considering trading sides of the bed with Tyson because I like to face out when I sleep. All of the kicks sure are fun though! They make me laugh out loud.

I bought the new little baby an outfit the other day, marking the very first thing we've bought for this baby. We have all sorts of boy stuff for him, but I still want him to be able to have some stuff of his own that isn't just a hand-me-down from Brycen. This outfit will be one of them. It's a 0-3 month sweats and onesie that makes my heart melt a little.

I just started wearing maternity pants at 25 weeks and I don't know what I was thinking. I was doing fine without them, but I forgot how comfortable that massive panel is in maternity pants! I love it.


Brycen

Brycen started saying "gone," "socks," "teeth," and "pop" over the last week. I'm amazed at all of the new words he keeps saying! When he's done with his drink of water or milk, or when he's finished eating a snack, he says "gone" or "all gone". I was folding laundry when he said "socks" for the first time. And when he wants to brush his teeth he runs up to us and says "teeth", or takes us into the bathroom to get his toothbrush while saying "teeth". He learned pop when I was drinking a diet vanilla pepsi on tap and he asked for a drink of my water. I corrected him and told him it was called "pop" and he's been saying it ever since. Now he just needs to learn how to say "chocolate" and he'll know two of the most important words in the English language.

A week ago Brycen called me "Alli" all day. He said it more like "Ayi", but he sure wasn't calling me "Mom"! When he first said it I thought I was hearing things. Then I was in my room putting some clothes away and I could hear him coming down the hall saying "Ayi! Ayi!" Then he asked for some water. Silly kid!

Brycen LOVES the movie "Wall-E" lately. (He calls it "Waaa".) I decided to record it one day off Disney Junior and he has loved it ever since.  It's our go-to movie when he wakes up from a nightmare and needs to snap out of it, or before bed when it's time to wind down. He'll lie back on our bed and watch the entire thing if we let him. I've never actually sat down and watched the movie. But it's funny to me that he likes that one so much because it's not very colorful like a lot of the other movies he likes. On Saturday my mom and sister were in town and Brycen went to go wind down on my bed. Mom and I brought him into the bedroom and put him on the bed. I started "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse" and he freaked out. So I put "A Bug's Life" on and he was really excited when he saw the Pixar part at the beginning. But as soon as he saw what movie it was he threw a fit. (Both of these were saved on our DVR so it was easy to change/start them.) I decided to try "Wall-E" and see what he would do. Sure enough, as soon as he heard the opening song to the movie-the song "Put On Your Sunday Clothes" from "Hello, Dolly!"-and saw the planet earth come onto the screen he started clapping. Mom and I just laughed.

And finally, some of the most exciting news for Brycen is that he is OFFICIALLY off of the bottle. WOO HOO!! It wasn't even hard! He was able to quit cold turkey. We didn't even have to do anything to ease him into it. We could have taken him off of it a long time ago but we just didn't. Life was just easy and he went to bed really well with it. So we just kept giving it to him. The first time we put him to bed without it he asked for it by saying, "Bottle? Bottle?" We ignored the questioning and just kept saying, "We love you! Love you, Buddy!" He cried for about five minutes then fell asleep. And he's been going to bed just fine without one since. Yay! It's been great! I don't think we give this kiddo enough credit. He's capable of more than we think! He's been able to drink milk during the day just fine. We're so happy!

Rolls

Rolls. I'm not talking about dinner rolls, I'm talking about fat rolls. But not just any fat rolls. Brycen's fat rolls. They're hard to come by these days. I just gave him a bath and realized that he only has one fat roll crease on his thighs to clean. When he was a baby he had about three or four going down those chunky thighs and I just loved it. My little chunky baby is growing into a little boy with far less rolls. Where does the time go?

When I look over at Brycen's birthday ticker on the side of our blog I see a little boy playing in the sand going across the little calendar. The ticker I had for him before he turned two depicted a growing baby in a high chair covered in food. In one day after changing Brycen's countdown ticker the baby grew into a boy. And that's how I'm feeling about Brycen these days! He's out of nowhere acting like a little kid and not so much a baby anymore. It's one of those things that makes me sad, but I'm also loving watching him grow up. It's also confirmation that I'm definitely not done having children (obviously). I need a newborn around again!

A few more things about Brycen:

• He started saying the word "bowl". Whenever he has a snack of crackers, dry cereal, etc I always put them in one of his little bowls. Yesterday I got the Ritz crackers out of the pantry and as I was walking with Brycen through the kitchen he pointed to the cupboard and said, "Bowl". I was so proud!
• Brycen and I got to Skype with my mom, Amber, and Tayen yesterday. It was so fun! We talked for almost an hour. Brycen loves to Skype. He likes to sit in the computer chair and just chat away. He'll talk your ear off and it's just so funny. We sat and laughed at him as he fluently spoke his jibberish language, throwing in an actual word here and there. They love hearing him say the word "water" so they asked him where his water was. He went and got his water bottle and talked about water for a few minutes.
• Brycen calls every liquid "water". Milk, soda, juice, water...it's all "water". We're working on helping him learn the different names.
• Up till about a week ago, changing Brycen's diaper was a struggle. He kicks and screams/laughs and makes it quite difficult. When I was in Idaho I had the diaper, got down on my knees, and he walked over to me and lied right down on his back to get changed. My mom and I were in shock! And he's been doing that ever since. Two days ago I knelt down and he walked right up to me and put his arms around his neck. What a great hug! Then on his back he went. It's been wonderful!
• And now a confession. I'm not proud of this by any means but here it goes: Brycen just barely stopped using a bottle. We're talking yesterday's nap was the last time he used a bottle. I know what you're thinking, and I completely agree. How the crap could I let him go using a bottle till he was two? Let me tell you. At the age of one he stopped using a bottle during the day and only used one to go to sleep. We figured we'd get him off of it completely in the near future but it just never happened. One day I opened my eyes and he was 18 months old...still using a bottle. When we went in for his pediatric appointment in March the doctor said, "And he's done with the bottle, right?" Of course Tyson and I animatedly nodded our heads and said, "Oh yeah, he's off the bottle. Yes, definitely." Gah! We left the hospital that day and just said, "Crap." He was down to one nipple that he hadn't chewed a hole in so we decided that day to just let him use the bottle until that nipple got chewed up. And yesterday, 15 minutes after Brycen went down for a nap, he started crying really hard. I went in his room and he and his bed were soaking wet. Sure enough there was a huge hole in the bottle nipple and it had spilled. Into the trash it went and my heart dropped into my stomach. Here we go! I changed Brycen's clothes and his bedding then put him back in his bed. He screamed and screamed so I took him out to watch TV and calm down for a minute. I put "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse" on the TV and lying on my lap he turned his head the other way and fell asleep. (Let me just say here really fast that I LOVED that. Brycen is so beyond wanting to cuddle. But every now and then when he's tired he'll curl up to me or Tyson and just fall asleep. It's so wonderful and I just love it.) I let him sleep on me for about five minutes before I attempted to put him back to bed. He fought back and screamed so I sat in the rocker and rocked him back to sleep. Also another fabulous mommy moment. That could have been the last time Brycen will ever let me rock him. (Tear!) He went back to sleep quickly so I put him in his bed. He screamed and cried again, but I decided to let him cry it out and fall asleep. I could tell he was just exhausted so I closed the door and let him cry. He didn't cry for too long when it went quiet. He slept for 2 1/2 hours. When bedtime came Tyson and I were nervous again. We read Brycen a book, said family prayers, then put him in bed. He looked up at us and said, "Bottle? Bottle?" Ignoring him, we told him our "I love you's" and quietly walked out of the room. He talked to himself for about 5 or 10 minutes, occasionally throwing the word "bottle" out there, then he fell asleep. He slept all night long for almost 12 hours and only woke up once. No tears, just talking in his sleep. (He's so much like his mom in that way! Poor kid.) Today Brycen had lunch, we swept and mopped the kitchen floor, finished a movie, then I put him in the bathtub. After his bath it was time for a nap. I told him to go get his blanket. He knew then that it was nap time. He started saying, "Bottle?" and pointing to the counter where the bottles normally are. I didn't say anything about it and brought him in the room. The entire time I was getting his bed ready he kept asking about his bottle. Then it was time to put him in his bed. He struggled, kicking and screaming, and just cried and cried. I felt so bad, but I don't know what else I'm supposed to do now to get him to go to bed without his bottle. He cried long enough for me to send a text to Tyson telling him how much I hate this no bottle thing, then silence. He's been asleep for the last hour or so without a peep. Could this actually be working? Did Brycen just quit his bottle cold turkey? I sure hope so! There's no way I'm caving and busting out the new baby's bottles! Now we just need to figure out how to get him out of his crib and potty trained one day!

And now a few pictures...

On Saturday we had to run a few errands. We didn't take Brycen to any Easter egg hunts because he had one in Idaho Falls with his cousins. Plus, he's still a little young to understand or even get enough eggs to make it worth it. So we spent the day as a family running errands instead. We went to Kohls, then to Wendy's for lunch, next Target, then we had to stop at an IFA Country Store to pick something up. While Tyson went to find what he was looking for, Brycen and I looked at all the chicks, ducks, bunnies, and geese. It was so fun! I'm not sure who enjoyed it more, me or Brycen. All of the little animals were so cute and fuzzy. Looking at the rabbits brought back memories of when my siblings and I had rabbits when we were kids: Cozy, Fuzzy, and Taffy. May they rest in peace, poor things. We just loved looking at all of the little animals!

Brycen has some seriously funny quirks. One of them is wearing pairs of my fuzzy socks on his arms. He thinks it's so funny! He started doing it after I used them as sock puppets. I did that for about six months before he decided he wanted to wear them too. Funny kid!

I don't think this kid is ever wearing pants!

We've enjoyed living in Utah the last six months (minus issues with our neighbors), and we look forward to being out of our apartment in six months and into a house. It's a cruel joke to take someone out of their three bedroom house with a basement and put them in a cramped apartment! But we've adjusted ok and we're anxiously waiting for the day that we can move again. Being on the third floor, the more and more pregnant I get the harder it is to go up and down the stairs with Brycen in my arms. He still isn't really stepping up and down those big steps too well so I feel the need to carry him. It's getting tough. And now that the weather is getting nice he wants to be outside. I don't blame him! It's been beautiful outside. We have a great playground right behind the building that he just loves. But when it comes time to leave he throws a big fit. It's really tough trying to force 31 pounds of toddler back to your apartment on the third floor, with or without a pregnant belly. Lots of kicking and screaming! It makes it hard to take him outside. A lot of the time we have to wait till Tyson comes home and we go after dinner. Or we wait till the weekend. If we had a backyard we we wouldn't have this problem. It's hard for me to watch Brycen cooped up. I've decided, however, that I'm just going to suck it up and let the tantrums come. At least he'll have gotten to go outside. We're looking forward to Hogle Zoo soon!

Even if we were living in a house right now, one of the hardest things for me for Brycen's sake is not being around his cousins like he was in Idaho. It would be one thing if he had a sibling to play with, but for now I hate that he doesn't get to see his cousins. He LOVES his cousins and makes that very apparent when he sees them. He loves hugging them and sitting on their laps, and being in their presence in general. I truly feel for people who live miles and miles away from family and don't get to see them hardly at all. I can't imagine that. That thought feels almost impossible for me. I'm grateful that we'll be able to come to Idaho once a month while we're here! (Hopefully.) I can see that getting difficult as kids get older. But as for now, it's working out well. We'll be in Idaho in May, possibly June, then that will be it till probably September where the baby will be coming in July. (Family, you're more than welcome to come see us whenever you'd like!) ;) My parents will be here next weekend and we are so excited for that! (Mom, City Creek on Saturday?) :)

We sure do love our families and friends! We miss every last one of you. We're so grateful that we've been able to keep close with so many and hear from so many of you. You don't know how much it means to us to just hear from you on Facebook or get a text. It's a pretty lonely time for us right now and we just really appreciate your love and for thinking of us.

Easter

This year marked our very first Easter without our families. We were on our own this year and I have to admit, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I was dreading celebrating such an important day without our families. But spending it with my own little family was pretty special. We had a nice, quiet day together and we enjoyed one another's company. We decided not to make a big fancy meal or anything, instead having one of our favorite go-to meals: peanut butter and grape jelly sandwiches with chips. Our moms will probably feel sad for us when they read this, but Moms, it was just great! We had a nice day together as a family and it felt good to be with my boys.

Here's what Brycen's Easter basket looked like:

I have to admit that Tyson and I are not big fans of the Easter bunny. However, the idea of an Easter basket is always fun for kids. We decided for our family tradition to give the Easter baskets to the kids on Saturday. But we won't be telling them that a big bunny is bringing them-just a little something from Mom and Dad. (Is it just me or are Easter baskets looking more like stockings on Christmas morning these days?) Easter Saturday will also include egg hunts and other such activities. Still fun for everyone! Sunday will be dedicated to remembering the atoning sacrifice and resurrection of our loving Savior. Such a wonderful thing to celebrate.

Of course Tyson and I started off our family tradition with a flop this year and forgot to give Brycen his basket yesterday. Oops! We gave it to him when he got up this morning.

And he sure was excited about those plastic eggs! Or "ball", as he calls them. We went pretty simple this year and gave Brycen a Charlie Brown Easter pop-up book, some candy, and plastic eggs filled with even more candy.

 He loved opening the eggs with Dad. Lots of fun surprises inside!

And he especially loved his new book. ($1 special at Seagull Book! Don't mind if I do!)

Time to get dressed for church!

My aunt Bridget (my dad's youngest sister) provided Brycen with his Easter outfit this year. We always get one for him and she ended up getting him one for his birthday. It was so thoughtful of her and we just really appreciated the gesture. Thanks, Bridget! 

My handsome boys all ready for church.

Don't let that sweet face fool you. He's a cute kid, I admit. But once he walks through the doors of the church house he's an entirely different kid. He was out in the lobby before the opening song was over today. Tyson ended up taking him for a drive after the sacrament because he threw such a big fit. I played the piano for the primary kids today or I would have let Tyson stay and enjoy some of the meeting too. They were back by the end of sacrament meeting just in time for another colossal meltdown from Brycen. I ended up taking him home and Tyson filled in for my calling. Sigh. One of these days we'll make it through church without the meltdowns!

Celebrating Brycen's 2nd Birthday

We had fun celebrating Brycen's second birthday yesterday! It's hard to believe that we have a two year old. He sure is a fun kid to have around. 

He started his day off with a bath.

He also watched a movie and we played with Lego Duplos.

After lunch and his nap we baked his birthday cake.

Then Dad got home and we went to Burger King for his birthday dinner. He sure loves Burger King!

He loves the crowns!

 

After dinner we came home and he opened his card from us. He opened all of his gifts in Idaho while we were there so he opened his card on his birthday.

Then he got to put the last of his birthday money from grandparents in his bank. He loves dropping coins into his piggy bank! 

Time for cake! Brycen got to blow out a candle three times for his birthday this year. I should say he had help three times blowing out a candle this year. And he got three different desserts. This time it was Texas Sheet Cake. You can find the recipe here!

We had a great day celebrating Brycen's birthday!!

Two

Two years ago on Easter Sunday (which was also a General Conference Sunday) I went to the hospital five weeks early to have our precious baby boy. The next morning, this little man entered the world and changed our lives forever:

Two years later our sweet little baby has turned into a little boy. He has brought so much joy into our lives and makes us laugh every day.

We love you so much, Brycen! More than you'll ever know. Happy second birthday!

This and That on Pregnancy and Brycen

My little boy is going to be two tomorrow. I can't believe it's already been two years since we were blessed with this sweet little boy. Time sure does fly! We had a great time in Idaho and we're ready to get back into the swing of things. A few things on Brycen these days...

• Brycen loves giving hugs. While I'm holding him he'll wrap his arms around my neck and just want to snuggle for a few minutes. It's the best! 
• Sometimes Brycen gets confused and calls me "daddy". He also calls my mom "mom" so I don't really know what to say ha ha. He's getting there though!
• He calls every drink "water". Milk, juice, actual water...whenever he wants a drink of something he just says "water". 
• He's watched "A Bug's Life" a bazillion times now, I'm sure of it. And he learned to say something from it. And of course it had to be this part: There's a scene where the "warriors" are being treated to a play by the second grade ant class. Some of the ants are "warriors" and others are the grasshoppers that the "warriors" are supposed to fight off. At the end of the scene one of the ants says, "And die...die...die" then falls down dead. Eventually Brycen started saying, "Die! Die! Die!" Awesome! Just what every mom wants her child to be saying, especially in public. Hopefully he'll forget that one soon ha ha.
• Brycen LOVES the Lego Duplos Tyson and I gave him at one of his two birthday parties. It's so fun watching him be a kid and just sit there and play with them. He builds all kinds of towers, houses, cars...it's just so fun. He's growing up way too fast. 
• Today I put away a bunch of his 24 month clothes. It seems like yesterday that we were just pulling out bigger baby clothes for him. And now here he is in toddler sizes. It makes me sad!
• I've come to realize lately that Brycen understands us more than we think. Yesterday he was getting ready for bed and the Stacy Pasley blanket wasn't in his room. I asked, "Where's your blanket?" With a questioning look on his face, he put his hands up in the air and started looking around. Then he went into our room, saw it on the bed, then excitedly pointed to it. And just now I was getting Brycen a snack of Teddy Grahams and I couldn't find the little bowl he had used for his previous snack. I said, "Where's your bowl?" and walked around looking for it. I couldn't find it so I went into the kitchen to grab another one. Pretty soon Brycen came up behind me with a big grin on his face and handed his toy cookie jar to me. Inside was his bowl. It really surprised me! He still uses his jibberish talk a lot but I think he's really starting to understand us a lot more. It's so fun!

I'll be 24 weeks pregnant on Friday. This pregnancy has just flown, it's amazing! Here are a few tidbits I wanted to jot down before I forget:

• I've had horrible acid reflux lately. I didn't have it at all with Brycen so it's been tough to get used to with this little guy. And it's so bad! Sadly I've come to find that it's my beloved chocolate that is causing all of the trouble. At this point I'm trying to decide which is worse: the acid reflux or going without chocolate. I'm going to think about it while I eat a Reese's egg.
• This morning I started being able to see the kicks of the baby when looking at my stomach. This baby seems so much more active than Brycen was. I don't remember Brycen moving around so much, kicking so hard, or kicking visibly this soon. I guess that's why they say every pregnancy is different!
• I haven't had any food cravings lately, but while I was in Idaho I went through a few day time period where all I wanted to do was eat. I felt so hungry all of the time and I found myself eating everybody's leftovers ha ha. There was one occasion where Mom, Amber, Brycen, and I were eating Arctic Circle and my mom had a couple of bites left of her hamburger. She went to throw it away and I said, "Wait! I want to finish that!" Her response was, "Seriously?" I can't think of another time where I was more serious. Thankfully I haven't felt that way in almost a week and it feels good. Yesterday I didn't even eat lunch! That's saying a lot, considering I ate enough for everyone last week!
• And Tyson is wonderful through everything. Every now and then I have those dreaded mood swings and he's so patient and sweet. I married the best man in the world! Brycen and I just love him so much.

Easter Egg Hunt with the Miller Family

I was so excited when Tyson told me that his parents were planning their annual Easter egg hunt with the grandkids a week early this year!! We were going to be in town the two weekends before Easter but back to Utah for Easter weekend. I was so bummed knowing I'd miss Easter with family and that egg hunt until he told me the awesome news. And just like last year the Easter egg hunt was a blast and a half! It was held in Tyson's parents' backyard with all of the cousins who live in Idaho. (Bailey and Connor, you two were missed!!) It was so cozy and fun. We all had a great time! Especially the kiddos, and Brycen in particular! He enjoyed it so much more this year.

*Tyson's parents do such a fun hunt every year. His mom fills a whole bunch of eggs with candy, as well as coins, and writes each child's initial on them so they all have an even amount of eggs. The kids run around and pick up the eggs with the inital that matches their name. The parents of the kids also contribute to the hunt by filling eggs but leaving them blank on the outside. These eggs are free game and the kids can grab them as they choose. There are also bigger treats spread out across the lawn from the grandparents. Some of these include peeps, Pez dispensers, and chocolate bunnies. Each of them have an initial on them as well. It works out really well and it's so much fun!

 Brycen loved picking up the eggs! He was distracted at first and was happy with one egg. Then when he realized what the other kids were doing he was all into it. 

 Tyson eventually had to start helping Byrcen again when he wanted to run around with the other kids.

 Jack was so excited about his treats!

 Each child was also given an Easter outfit from Grandma and Gramps, placed randomly in the yard and inside a gift bag. The parents got their own kids a special toy as well and placed it in the yard. The kids loved it!

These kids made out with a haul! I had a hard time getting good pictures when we got inside, having switched my lens from auto focus to manual focus somewhere between there and being outside. I didn't realize what had happened till it was too late. So of course all of the indoor ones were blurry! I had to save this one though, even though it's perfectly blurry. Brycen LOVES putting money in his bank and was so excited when he saw the quarters in the eggs. He was so happy to show me!

 The kids also got to go out and hold the baby chicks that day. Gramps is taking care of them to bring out to the dairy to the petting zoo. Brycen didn't want to hold them but he loved touching their soft fur! It was a fun activity.

 Cooper loved them too!