Birthdays, Walking, and a Surprise – Can you find all 3?

I suppose I am setting a trend of providing Bryson’s updates at least 2 months late.  I could be hopeful and say I will get better at this and be more diligent, but that would be a lie.  I do think about posting updates when they happen in real time, but actually sitting down to make it happen takes much longer.  I also see a trend of me continually saying better that than never.  I’m sticking to that.  Ok, now that my reasoning for being super late on this is out of the way, on to the fun stuff!

Best friends...sort of

Bryson turned one on February 22, 2012.  He had chocolate cake for the first time and thoroughly enjoyed it.  We gave him a huge piece thinking that he would just smash it around and maybe half of it would make it in his mouth.  We were wrong.  A moderate amount of smashing occurred, but it ALL went in his mouth.  Yes, he ate the entire piece we gave him.  He sure does love his food, especially birthday cake. Lesson learned:  only give him what we want him to eat, because taking any cake away from him would only cause extreme devastation and very loud, angry screams. 

We then celebrated the big day with Bryson’s very first birthday party.  Planning his party was a lot of fun, and Mike had to remind me what our “budget” was on numerous occasions.  I put “budget” in quotes because at some stages of the planning, that word didn’t exist to me.  I definitely appreciate Mike’s easy going attitude toward my blatant disregard for this.  I did try, honestly.  I just didn’t do so well.  I also had lots of help from the grandmas.  We couldn’t have pulled this off without them.  From the food, the location, the decorations, and everything in between, they were lifesavers. 



This was a banner Sandi made that has a picture of Bryson for every month until he turned 1

The little ones had their own tray of goldfish, cheerios and yogurt bites

The candy bar for the older kids and grown ups

Bryson's "smash cake" that Mike made

Bryson had such a great time playing with his friends in the ball pit.  That’s right, there was a ball pit.   We also got to give him another birthday cake.  Mike made Bryson his own and cut out a number one to put on top of the cake.  He did a great job.  This cake is traditional referred to as a smash cake – for obvious reasons.  Once again, there was little smashing and lots of eating.  Bryson was very excited to have cake again.  I think his favorite part was trying to blow out the candles, or at least watching me to see what the heck I was doing.  We got lots of smiles during this part.  With EVERY bite of cake, Bryson would kick his feet up and down in delight.  It was definitely fun to watch him enjoy it so much.  He also enjoyed opening his presents.  And when I say opening, I mean removing tissue paper from bags and trying to eat it.  He was understandably easily distracted by toys and wanted to play with everything.  At one point, he opened a car that he could ride.  He left me to do the rest of the opening while he rode his car.  I should have saved that one for last.  If I only knew.



See, he loves the candle





This is the car - the culprit of ultimate distraction



 

Another exciting new event around the Arbuckle household is watching Bryson walk around everywhere.  He is officially mobile!  This will come in handy since he is going to be a big brother in October.  We are so proud of him, and he is equally proud of himself.  He giggles every time he walks somewhere, which is a lot.  He can be in the living room when I am in the kitchen, and all of the sudden I hear him giggling.  I’ll turn around and see him walking my way with a huge smile on his face.  If he could say “look at me, I’m doing it!” I know that he would.  So instead, he giggles, which works just as well.  I can’t believe how quickly he has learned this process.  It seems like in just one week, he went from standing on his own, to taking 2-3 steps, to full on walking.  I’m not sure how he learned so fast, but he just went with it. 

Bryson is now in the toddler room at daycare, which we were anxiously awaiting.  It needed to happen about a month sooner than it did.  Toward the end of Bryson being in the baby room, he was pushing the cribs around the room.  This wouldn’t be so bad if the babies were not IN the cribs, but they were.  I guess Bryson just wanted to give them a tour of the baby room to make sure they weren’t missing out on anything cool.  Thanks, Bryson.  The toddlers are definitely a wild group.  They have taught Bryson lots of fun things (blowing kisses, walking, saying uh-oh), and a few not-so-fun things (how to have a real toddler tantrum).  Another good thing about the toddler room is Bryson’s girlfriend, Julia, got to transition with him since they are only a month apart.  They play together every day, and I’m told they are inseparable.  When I pick Bryson up to leave, the teacher will pick up Julia so they can hold hands while the teacher and I chat about his day.  What a sweet pair!

Easter was a big success as well.  My family fills the eggs with cash, so it’s certainly a good incentive for the parents to find the eggs also.  It’s a bit tough toting around a one year old that only wants to eat the egg and doesn’t help find the cash, but we had a good time with it.  After much searching, Mike took over to find some more to support the Bryson Toy Fund.  We had a good time spending the day with the family, and Bryson crashed in the car in about 8.3 seconds.  I don’t even know if we made it out of the driveway before he fell asleep. 

I will try to give updates more frequently, so wish me luck with this!  Until next time!