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.