Thankful for my amazing husband that helps with laundry and rushes home from work just to spend time with his family. Thankful that he reads his Bible with Bryson. Thankful that we can laugh together about the silliest things that happen in our home. Thankful that we've been together for almost 10 years and still love eachother so so much!
Thankful for our little ball of energy who makes us laugh all day long. Thankful for his hugs and requests for "moe amens" because he wants to pray again. Thankful for his precious heart that is being formed and molded everyday. Thankful for his excitement for the little things in life.
Thankful for our friends and family that make life special. Thankful they never tire {at least they've never told me} of me texting pictures of Bryson and the cute/silly/crazy things he does. Thankful they pray for our family and freely offer advice on life.
And, especially now, in this season of life, thankful for health. Several months ago my mom had a test result come back a little sketchy. Over the following few months, several more scans, tests and biopsies were done to pin point the problem. It was not fun thinking, knowing, that something was wrong with someone I love so much and there was nothing I could do. We prayed hard. So hard. Before her last biopsy, her doctor was trying to prepare her emotionally for the results to come back as lymphoma. But it didn't. God is so good. And we are all SO thankful. Instead, it ended up being something very minor that has no lasting effects on her body. Thank you, Lord for her health.
Man oh man. My baby is almost 2! In someways I can't believe it AT ALL, but other ways, I feel like he's getting so big that sometimes I feel like he's older than 2 already.
I'm going to do a big post this month because I know that next month will just be super crazy with his birthday, brthday party and all the Christmas festivities. :) I also realized this will be the opposite of most of my posts and more word heavy since I am lacking pictures. Sorry.
I feel like I have left out so many things that have been going on in Bryson-world since I haven't really done big posts in several months, so here goes:
The biggest change is definitely his increase in vocabulary and comprehension and just all around speech. He literally adds about 6 words every single day to his vocabulary, it is the most incredible thing to see and hear.
He's also been putting the ending sounds on words in the last month, which is neat. Instead of ba, he says, "baff"-(bath) and used to say ah duh and now, "all done". Same with "yes" "fith"-(fish) "wahwer"-(water).
Every single word that comes out of our mouths, will be echoed 5 seconds later by his little mouth. Its really cute to see our words come out of his mouth.
Recently, he's picked up on my "oopsie" when I do something silly, so when he drops his cup, or falls down, he blurts out, "oopie, mommy. otay"
He also needs affirmation on everything he says and wants us to repeat it. Most of the time, it's totally fine, but some sentences are still a "your guess is as good as mine" and I just smile and nod and see if he gives me any more clues as to what he's talking about. haha
I tried to take a video of B talking, but he pushed/hit the button in the middle, so it's split in 2 videos. They're super cute though. Just ignore him hitting the phone :)
I bought him some dull preschool scissors a while back because I had been doing a bunch of school stuff and he was incredibly curious about them. He was over the moon when he cut paper for the first time!! Oh man! It was so funny, the whole way to the store I was telling him that we were going to get Bryson's scissors and he would squeel with excitement and say, "yes, mommy. yidders. my!!!" We talked about how we ONLY cut paper. Our conversation went like this (for 15 minutes. No lie. He was sooo excited)
Me: What are we going to get at the store, Bryson?
B: Yidders!!!!
That's right! And what are you going to do with the scissors?
cuuuuuut!!!!
Yes you are! What are you going to cut?
papuuuuuh!!!
YESS! Are you going to cut your fingers?
NOOOOOOO!
That's right, that would hurt. Are you going to cut your clothes?
NOOOOOOO!! papuuuuh!!
{that exact conversation word for word repeated over and over for 15 minutes.}
Last week, we were sitting down on the sofa with a snack and he crawled up and sat in the middle and I sat next to him and he looked at me and said, "no, mommy, yit down oder dere.." and I scooted over to the side, just for him to come cuddle in right next to my arm. ;)
When I pray at night with him, he chimes in at "an mommy, an daddy an byebuh" (what he calls himself) and then usually adds in something that's in his bed with him, like, "an ernie or papie (paci)" It melts my heart!!!
He is LOVING Christmas already and gets soo excited when we see a "missmas tee" or "waindeer" or "yights". He might just go totally crazy when we put up our Christmas stuff in a few days :)
Since he says "yes" instead of just "yah", I've been reminding him to say yes, please. He does this about half the time on his own and the other day I asked him if he wanted help putting on the lid to his cup and he said, "no peese". I giggled with excitement that he made the connection while being polite!!
He is a total monkey and mans the playground completely on his own. I'm always close by for back up, but he is such a big boy!!
He may be nearing 2years old, but he definitely hasn't hit the "terrible twos" yet. Don't get me wrong, we have had FOUR enormously huge tantums in the last 3 weeks that remind me we're heading that way, but he has such a sweet and joyful personality.
He is never short on hugs and kisses at home and loves to play and cuddle and say "I yub you too"
He tries to share everything he has with other people. He shares his milk with his stuffed Ernie, put's his paci in my mouth because it's "mommy tun" (mommy's turn). When we are with other babies, he is constantly taking toys to them and telling them to "pay" (play).
He is almost always happy and helpful around the house. It's so crazy because I think he knows when he's starting to get grumpy because he self manages himself and will go to his room and lay in bed for about 20 minutes with his paci and blankie and relax and cool off and then come back out to the kitchen totally fine and ready to play. {He's only allowed to have his paci in his bed}
Ok, I feel like I could go on and on...oh wait, I already did.
I'll stop here because I'll be back soon with posts from my birthday, Thanksgiving and his birthday party, which is next weekend! eek!!
Happy 23 months, Bryson. Mommy and Daddy love you so so much!!!
Last weekend, Michael and I had the house to ourselves for the weekend for the first time in almost 2 years!!
Bryson went to spend the weekend with Grandma and Papa and had a blast!! They went to the mall, toy store, church, and the zoo :) He loved spending so much special timewith them!!
Meanwhile...Michael and I went on a real date on Friday night! It was so fun to get dressed up, put each other first in our marriage, and go somewhere besides Olive Garden or On The Border.
Michael made reservations at Wolfgang Puck's restaurant, 560, at the top of Reunion Tower. It was SO neat! The restautant is in the "ball" of the tower and the whole restaurant spins slowly so you have a full 360* view of Dallas. We had some of THE best (and THE most expensive!!) food we've ever eaten!! Oh man, I'm still dreaming drooling over the food ;)
The romance was shortlived because we had a "work weekend" planned for the rest of the weekend. Pretty much trying to get everything on our to-do list done without Bryson in the house--all in a day in a half. We got SOO much stuff done, it was fantastic. We were both sore as can be, but it was worth it. A few things we knocked off our list: cleaning out and organizing the guest room and guest room closet, back flowerbeds, front flowerbeds, winterizing the yard, organizing my way-too-big-craft-junk, rearranging the house, buying and putting together a coffee table, and a ton of other little junk. Oh, and putting up the borders on the mirror in our bathroom!! LOVE them! {P.S. All told, all parts and everything was $45!!!}
Before:
After:
We were totally drained and exhausted, but honestly, I was counting down the minutes when Bryson was going to come home! I had renewed energy and strength when I opened the door and his face lit up and yelled, "Mommy!!! Hiii, Mommy!!" I love spending alone time with my husband, but I LOVE our family time together. That's who we are now :)
Ok, I'm jamming the rest of all the Halloween 2, 3, & 4 celebrations all into one huge long picture-overloaded post. Get ready for cuteness!!
This year, I wanted to have a family theme for Halloween, except I couldn't think of anything cute at all. A few months ago, I thought about being the smurfs, but then the costumes were everywhere, so nixed it. Then, last week, we were at the Halloween store and Michael picked up a pilot hat and it all clicked!
Pilot, Co-Pilot and PanAm Flight Attendant :)
I made my blue hat, wing pins and shoulder strips out of construction paper and then laminated them: Kindergarten teacher at it's finest! haha
Celebration 2:
Michael and I went to Jen and Brandon's Halloween party on Saturday night. They went ALL out; it was so much fun!
Celebration 3:
My parents, jen and Brandon invited us to their church's Halloween party on Sunday night. They had petting zoo and pony rides, so B was in heaven-again! 3 petting zoos in the last 5 days! He is seriously going to associate Halloween with animals!
(sorry Steph, apparently I take terrible pictures! It was so fun to see y'all there!!)
Celebration 4:
Trick-or-teat!! Michael and I raced home from work to my parent's house for B to trick-or-treat in their neighborhood for a little bit bfore Michael had to go to BSF (Bible Study Fellowship) for the night. My parent's culdesac always has a huge halloween party, and growing up, it was THE best!! We had 21 kids on the street and all went trick-or-treating together. Ah, SO fun!!
Anyway, we went out last night and ate and talked and had fun with the neighbors...for a little bit.
Turns out I have strep, so I wasn't feeling all that fantastic and didn't feel up to much celebrating. Bummer.
BUT, B did get to trick-or-treat for the first time and LOVED it!!
