7 Months and mobile

Things are going well around the Arbuckle household.  We have been staying constantly busy, which has been the case for the past 7 months now.  I can’t remember a time where we had a weekend with no plans.  Not that I mind, since I enjoy getting out of the house and doing things.  But on Sunday nights, I scold myself for wanting to always be on the go.  Usually Mike and I decide to not make any plans the following weekend.  Then by Wednesday or Thursday, our weekend is generally booked solid. 
 

One of our many adventures included going to Arrington Vineyards this past Saturday with our family. We had such a great time, minus the mosquitoes and getting rained on at the end of the night.  We always enjoy spending time with our family, and we got lots of yummy food to munch on while we were there.  The sunset was gorgeous.  Bryson seemed to enjoy himself a lot also.  It was his first picnic.  Because the blanket on the ground was not on a smooth surface like he’s used to, he wasn’t able to crawl around.  He would scoot a little, then give up and roll on his back to play.  For once we weren’t chasing him around when he was on the ground.  



Our view at Arrington

Bryson is moving like crazy now.  Everywhere he wants to go, he gets there quickly.  He will get on his hands and knees and rock back and forth.  He gets this look of extreme anticipation, like he is wondering why he's not going anywhere.  Then he leans forward and takes off.  He doesn't full on crawl on his hands and knees, but he will army crawl with speed I've never seen before.



Mike gave him a mohawk

He still thoroughly enjoys his food.  I tried to give him those Gerber puffs that dissolve, but he wasn’t sure what to do with them.  He would grab them, squeeze them, drool on them, then try to shake them off his hand when they would get stuck from the drool.  This reminds me of when cats get something on their paw and they try to shake it off rapidly.  It goes something like that.   Then when he thinks he dropped it, he gets surprised that it’s still on his hand.  He looks at it like “hey, you’re still there!”.  Then the process starts all over until it finally ends up on the floor.  Aspen loves that part.   He has eaten a few puffs now because I will put them in his mouth so he can understand where they go.  They get stuck to the roof of his mouth for a few seconds before they dissolve and he makes the funniest faces.  His eyes water and excessive drool immediately follows.  If this is what all finger foods will result in, it should be interesting.

Bryson has officially said his second word.  No, it’s not Mama.  I’m hoping he will learn Mama next, but I’m not holding my breath.  He said bobo.  You may be thinking “Bobo?  That’s not a word, so it doesn’t count.  That’s just babble.”  Wrong.  It’s a word in our house.  That’s what we call Aspen’s toys that are those long, skinny, soft animals (picture below).  Those are her favorite kind of toys.  If we tell her to get her bobo, she knows which ones to get.  Anyway, Bryson has become attached to one of the bobos.  Although I can’t understand his fascination with this specific one, it’s the UT bobo.  I suppose it’s because it’s orange, and he equates all orange things with Auburn.  After all, he’s just a baby, so he doesn’t understand there are many varieties of orange – Auburn orange, UT orange, Florida orange, etc.  So I strongly believe he sees the orange bobo and assumes it’s all about Auburn.  Yep, that’s exactly what happens.  Anyway, he can have a floor full of his toys, and he will make every effort to crawl to this bobo.  This holds his attention for quite a while, unlike some of his other toys.  Last Saturday, 9/24, he stole the bobo from Aspen (as usual) and started saying “bobobobobo”.   I thought he was just babbling, and then he looked at it and said “bobo”.  I asked him what he had, and he said it again.  I was super excited.  Now if only he could say Mama.

Speaking of toys, his other favorite is his turtle that lights up and plays music.  I will agree that it’s a pretty cool toy.  The legs must be quite tasty, because Bryson chews on them constantly.  

At daycare, Bryson has become quite the ladies man.  There is a girl in his class named Hope that is 2 months older than him (not that you could tell, because Bryson is the same size).  They love to play together.  His teacher says they hold hands sometimes when they play, which is so sweet.  Then the other day, Bryson met a new girl named Julia from another class that was a month younger than him.  She was all smiles when she was playing with Bryson.  He kept giving her sideways looks until she grabbed his foot and tried to steal his sock.  After that, he couldn’t stop grinning at her either.  I’m glad Hope wasn’t there to see this interaction.  Bryson would never hear the end of it.

Bryson and Hope

Halloween is coming up soon, so we have been wondering what Bryson should be.  One of my friends lent us a dragon costume to see if Bryson would fit in it.  He wore it like he was born to be a dragon...the cutest dragon in the world. Mike and I thought it would be funny to get Aspen a dragon slayer costume so she could chase him around, but apparently they haven't created one of those for little dogs yet.  Maybe soon...

Because Bryson is growing at rapid speed, he is almost ready for his big boy car seat.  For some reason I thought his current car seat would hold him until 27-30 pounds, so I thought we still had a while to go.  Then my parents came over and pointed out that it only sustains 22 pounds.  Fabulous.  Bryson is about 20 pounds.  I was clearly mistaken.  So Mike and I are going car seat shopping on Saturday.  Of course, we have no idea what we are looking for or which ones are the best, but I’m sure we’ll figure it out.  Babies R Us, get ready for a million questions from us!! 

Six Months of Awesome

Warning…this is long.  What can I say, it’s been a while.

I know it’s been WAY too long since I have posted anything on here, so for that I’m sorry.  Every time I think I have a spare minute or two to get on here, something comes up.  I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised since I have a little man to tend to now, but I do wish I was able to post fun stuff on here more often.  There are so many wonderful things that Bryson can do now.  I want to brag about all his new accomplishments, but I’ll try my best to keep it brief-ish. 

So if Mike were writing this, I already know the first thing he would mention.  Not that I blame him.  I would be shouting in the streets if Bryson’s first words were Mama.  But they weren’t.  If you couldn’t guess already, Bryson has officially said DADA.  And just to make sure we heard him correctly, he has been saying it nonstop over the past three days.  Sometimes he starts out saying it, then gets really excited and begins to shout.  It goes something like…”dada dada Dada DAda DADAAAAAAA!!!” It’s the most incredible thing to know that he is learning and understanding.  Although he seems to think that I am his Dada also, he’ll get it sooner or later.  The main thing is he said it. A lot.

The next exciting phase is that Bryson has now entered the world of baby food.  The doctor gave us the thumbs up to start, and I’m pretty sure Bryson winked at the doctor when he said this.  He loves to eat.  Not that anyone could tell with those chunky legs of his.  He weights 19.1 pounds and is growing like crazy.  I know some one year olds that aren’t much past 20 pounds, so I can only imagine how big he will be for his first birthday.  Maybe 47 pounds?



This was his first cereal experience. Successful!

 



Did I mention how messy this was?  There was sweet potatoe in his ear, in his hair, and up his nose.

But back to the food.  We have been feeding him cereal for a month to get him used to eating with a spoon.  He mastered the spoon in about 3 days.  His first actual baby food was green beans.  He opened his mouth on cue when he saw the spoon coming, ate a big bite of green beans, and made one of the funniest faces I have seen.  This face was then followed by a shudder of disgust and slightly watered eyes.  I began to think he’s never going to take another bite, and he immediately looked at me and opened his mouth again.  He ate another bite of green beans, with a slightly diluted reaction compared to the first time, but still not great.  Then again with the open mouth.  I started to wonder if maybe he thought something new would be on the spoon each time, but was then highly disappointed when the green stuff returned.  I ended up mixing it with cereal to lessen the potency, which Bryson gladly accepted.  Sweet potatoes were next three days later, which were gobbled up instantly.  A nice change, I’m sure.

Bryson is almost on the move.  In the last post, I was raving how he could halfway roll over.  Well, he’s way past that stage now.  He is rolling to his destinations in full force.  He will roll where he wants to go, then inch-worm his way there when he gets tired of rolling.  He will straighten his legs with his butt in the air and his head on the ground (sort of like a teepee stance) then push off with his feet, which scoots his head across the floor.  Every now and then, he lifts his upper body up with his arms and leans forward and his legs will come completely off the floor.  He looks like he’s trying to break dance, which is hilarious.  So You Think You Can Dance…here we come!  He is starting to rock back and forth on his hands and knees.  It seems like he’s on a launching pad about to take off. He will be crawling in 3…2…1!

Pool time with Bryson is not his favorite.  But on the bright side, it’s not his least favorite either.  He seems somewhat impartial that he’s floating in water.  I suppose he’s waiting for me to wash his hair and give him a bath, but that never comes, so he just goes with the flow.  We haven’t had many pool opportunities this summer, but hopefully we will get one more in before our pool closes for the season.  I think he will enjoy splashing around one last time.

Aspen completely loves Bryson, except when he gets a handful of her fur…or an ear…or her tail.  He has a snapping turtle reflex when he gets a hold of her and you have to pry his fingers off her one at a time.  I’m sure it’s a pleasant experience for her.  As long as he’s not inflicting pain, she’s his number one fan.  She is always bringing him her toys to play with.  It’s sweet, but I can’t count how many times I’ve looked over to see her forfeit her toy to him and it’s heading toward his mouth.  I think my sprinting skills have improved dramatically.  I can make it to the little guy in about 2.7 seconds from any location in the house when an “ewww, gross” factor is coming his way.  Aspen loves that too.  When I run over to get the toy from Bryson and throw it across the room, that’s a favorite game to her.  As soon as I’m back across the room, the toy has reappeared in Bryson’s hands for round two.  And the game continues.  Thanks Aspen.



Favorite things to play with ...his feet.





See ya next time!



One half roll at a time

Quite a few exciting things have happened since the last update.  There was my first Mother’s Day, the Easter bunny came to visit Bryson, immunization shots were given for the first time and Bryson decided it was time to become a mover and a shaker. 

Mother’s Day was such a wonderful day.  It wasn’t until about five days beforehand that I realized I was included in this fabulous holiday.  Once it dawned on me, I was pretty excited about it.  When I woke up that morning, Bryson had put flowers, a card with some goodies inside, and a self portrait on the table for me.   Even Aspen got me a card.  It was definitely very sweet to wake up to such precious things.  Did I mention Mike is awesome?  We had two family get-togethers that day (one away and one at our house).  Normally I think the idea is to spend Mother’s Day with your child.  However, when your child is three months old and as cute as Bryson, everyone takes him away from you the instant they see him.  I think I spent two hours with just me and the little man the entire day.  That would be the first hour of the morning and the hour before his bedtime.  But those were some perfect hours!

The Easter bunny (and Grandparents) paid a visit to Bryson and gave him lots of goodies.  He got stuffed animals, a book just his size, and some Reese’s eggs.  To be fair to our son that doesn’t have any teeth yet, it didn’t seem right to deprive him of the eggs.  So I took one for the team and ate them so that Bryson could have them later (still breastfeeding).  I’m not sure at what time he actually got them, but I know it made him happy.  Thanks Easter bunny!

At some point in all this excitement, Bryson and I had to go to the bad place.  The doctor.  This is usually a pretty neat visit because they weigh and measure him and we get to see how much he has grown and discuss with the doctor how awesome he is.  We all tend to enjoy these happy times.  Bryson is 13½ pounds and 24 inches long.  His length is in the 80^th percentile. He will probably outgrown me when he turns five.  With all the fun that happens at these appointments, the fun expired at two months – Shot Day.  Booo!  I had to take Bryson by myself because Mike had to work.  So my support person was the nurse that administered the shots.  I braced myself for loud cries and screams, but hoped he would not feel a thing and we could go home without a tear.  Wrong.  There were real tears and real cries.  Bryson cried too.  He wailed for 5 minutes straight AFTER the shots were over.  It was down right horrible.  So glad that’s over with.

On a happier note, Bryson has become quite the talker.   I sure wish that I knew what he was saying, because he seems to think his stories are extremely funny.  He can make himself laugh with the smallest sounds.  Sometimes he looks like he is trying so hard to say something very important.  He gets this serious look on his face, takes a deep breath, moves his mouth…and nothing comes out.  It’s awfully disheartening to him, you can just tell.  Then, just when you think he’s not going to talk, out comes the loudest coo ever.  It’s like he’s saying "SURPRISE"! 

Bryson is addicted to watching tv, so we have to be very careful when it's on to turn his head away from it.  I read that tv can overstimulate such a little one, so I try to minimize it as much as possible.  Not to mention the fact that we don't watch baby appropriate shows...until now.  I thought that it would be an ok idea to let him watch Little Einstein since it's geared toward little ones.  I tried, but I only lasted 2 minutes before I turned it off.  How do grown ups watch these things??  It was not exciting.  Then I tried a show called Yo Gabba Gabba.  If you've never heard of this, a word of advise is to NEVER watch it!  I think I'm going to have nightmares for the next three nights.  It's very strange, and I'm pretty sure it terrified Bryson.  I need some tips on which shows, if any, an adult can watch and not go insane.  I'm sure it's an acquired taste, but I don't think I want to acquire that!

Our little man is beginning the exciting journey of becoming mobile.  He is not a big fan of tummy time.  He pretty much just lays there for about 10 minutes, then gets angry because nothing cool is happening.  I don't blame him. I was starting to wonder how I was going to get him to learn how to roll over, but he beat me to it.  Well, sort of.  He won’t make any moves on his stomach, but on his back is a whole other story.  He loves to dance all the time.  Laying still is pretty much not an option in Bryson’s world.  But the other day he took it to the next level.  And for us, the “next level” means a half roll.  I know for some people they may think that’s not a big deal since it’s a half roll, but it’s all about progress.  The way he half rolls is hilarious.  He starts by lifting his legs in the air, then grabs his shirt and pulls it to the direction of the roll, then lifts his other arm in the air like superman to give him the extra lift off.   I plan on getting a video of this if I can catch him in the act.  So far a picture is all I can get  He tends to get camera shy.

Here's the roll!

Some other fun pics...


Bundled up after bath time for a quick warm up



Trying out the bumbo - not quite a fan yet



He loves his cow blanket



Bryson's new favorite place

 

Can't get enough of this smile

I had good intentions of updating this blog every two weeks or so. As it’s already been five weeks or so since the last post, that clearly didn’t pan out. Being a Mommy is WAY more time consuming than I ever could have imagined. When people say that babies sleep a lot, it’s certainly a true statement. However, they sleep at random times and sometimes only in your arms (which I’m not complaining…I love this!) so it makes it difficult to do anything else.

The adjustment into parenthood is going somewhat smoothly. It really does come naturally. I thought there was no way I would know what to do with this little guy since I’ve never taken care of a baby before, but Mike and I learned quickly. Most things are just trial and error. Bryson had a tough first few weeks. He had his days and nights mixed up at first, which was fun for us all. It would take a lot of coaxing to get him to sleep. Then when he figured that out, he began to exhibit colic symptoms for a few weeks. He would scream for hours and nothing we would do would soothe him. It was by far the most heart-breaking and frustrating time. At one point, Mike came home to Bryson and I crying together. It’s a horrible feeling when you can’t comfort your baby. But it’s a fantastic feeling when you figure out how to fix him! We changed his bottles from Avent to Dr. Brown’s, which made a world of difference. I can’t say enough good things about those bottles! I feel like a walking advertisment to them.  We also put him on baby probiotics, which are suppose to help his digestive system. He has become a perfectly happy baby now!

Bryson has definitely got me wrapped around his little finger already. He just started smiling the past two weeks or so (and I'm talking about real smiles, not the ones where he poops and giggles about it), and it’s been the best. All he has to do is give me a little grin and my heart melts. I love watching him sleep, because he makes the funniest faces while he is dreaming.  I sure would like to know what his dreams consist of. If he falls asleep with his pacifier in his mouth, once it falls out, his mouth stays wide open. So then when he grins, it’s the biggest open-mouthed grin I’ve ever seen. He is now learning how to coo, which is the cutest sound I’ve ever heard. Sometimes he gets really into it. Mike was holding him the other day, and he made the funniest sounds for a good ten minutes. It was like he was telling us a story.  I think he is going to be a talker.  I'm not sure where he gets that from...

The bouncer and mobile gym are his new favorite things. Now that he is able to focus on objects, he seems to really enjoy both. Just a few weeks ago he hated both of these. I would put him in the bouncer and he would immediately cry because he didn’t understand what to do. Now he will stay in there forever.  In fact, he's in it right now, which is the only way I was able to finish this post. He absolutely loves the vibration feature. If he starts to get fussy in the bouncer, I turn on the vibration and his face gets calm and happy. What a life-saver! The mobile didn’t keep his attention for a while because he didn’t understand what all the objects were above his head. He would look at them for a second and then look away. Now he will stare at them to try to figure out what they are all about. The ones that rattle are his favorite. He is big into anything that makes noise.

His favorite toy seems to be a stuffed panda bear that makes music when you push his feet. He likes to dance to the panda bear music. If he gets mad and the panda bear is around, all he needs is a little panda music to chill him out. I’m sure I’m going to run out those batteries within a month, because I’m constantly pushing his feet every 10 seconds or so. If only the music just stayed on!

This is the famous panda bear

Bath time was an adventure when we first started. I was nervous to give him a real bath by myself for the first time, so I kept waiting on Mike so we could do it together. We planned a Saturday to do it, then here came Sunday…then Monday. I felt bad for waiting so long to give him a bath, so I finally just took charge and went for it on my own. His first bath was March 31, and what a fun time it was (sort of). Bryson seems to love it at first. He wasn’t too sure about when I would pour water on him, but then it would warm him up so he was cool with it. His little hands and feet get cold almost instantly, so I have learned to continuously pour water on them. As long as I do that, he’s a happy camper. If I wait too long though, he gets cold and mad – which I don’t blame him. So it’s a challenge getting the bath part over with while I have to constantly pour water on him. If only I had a third arm, it would be MUCH easier. I would dedicate this third arm to changing diapers also, because we do a lot of that also. Somehow I have managed to avoid getting peed on so far. I know this is only temporary though. I’m sure as I type this Bryson is plotting a way to do it. He’s just waiting for the perfect opportunity…maybe when I’m ready to go somewhere and running late. Yep, that sounds like the best time for his amusement.

As soon as my six weeks came, I started back on my P90x workout routine. I’m on day 6 and feel like I’ve been run over several times by a massive truck. Every muscle hurts, including ones I never knew existed. I’ve been amazed that I’ve actually been able to do it, but oh the price I paid for doing it. I can barely walk up the stairs, lift my legs, and hold Bryson for a long period of time because my shoulder and arm muscles stop working. Let me tell you, it’s been great! Haha! But it sure is nice to be able to get back into it. I was feeling like a marshmallow peep there for a while, so I’m glad to be able to knock that out.

Being a Mommy is by the best thing in the world. I never knew I could love Bryson as much as I do. I could talk about him for hours on end. I’ve deleted A LOT of stuff on here already because it was getting a big lengthy. There are just so many fun stories and cute things he does that I want to share, but there is just not enough time in the day to put them all on here.

And for more sweet pictures, here they are!

 

Holding his bottle at 4 weeks!

Best buddies

Also best buddies

Sweetest face in the world

My little man

See, told ya!