Brice at 15 months!

Phew! I forgot how challenging toddler-hood is, especially with a little guy who has a big brother showing him the ropes (and how to climb, move things, find what he wants....). Although still a happy guy, Brice is finding his voice and making his preferences know- both vocally and with his actions. At 15 months, Brice...

-Has 11 teeth- 4 front bottom, 4 front top, and 3 premolars

-Has a lot to say! His words include: Dada, Mama (MAMA!), Chees, Abu (Mueller), ball (BALL), bird, book, baba (bottle or cup), down, nigh-nigh, apple, that, more (he signs it and says it), noh, and yeah. He also makes sounds for dogs, ducks, and trains (choo-choo)

-Trying to feed himself with a spoon and often insisting that he has a spoon for mealtime and something to eat with it (like yogurt)

-Getting into all kinds of trouble- climbing the stairs, climbing into the high chair, climbing into chairs and the sofa, pulling things out of the cabinet, throwing himself off the bed/chair/sofa onto the floor

 -Only taking 1 nap from about 12:30-3:30

-Slowly giving up the bottle and moving to a sippy cup

-Has favorite books: Peek-a-Who? and Where is Baby? are his favorites, but he also loves animal books

-Getting mad when he doesn't get what he wants. Brice says "Noh!" and hits. This behavior *may* have been encouraged by his big brother. We tell him no and he laughs. We ignore him and he keeps doing it. We try to distract him and he still does it. So we're out of ideas.

-Understanding most words and concepts- He will do things when asked (if in the right mood) that demonstrate his understanding. For example, with prompting, he'll walk into the kitchen and get out the dog treats and give one (or more) to Mueller.

Playing hide-and-seek. This is Chase's favorite game and Brice has grown to love it. At first he was really upset about me hiding (can't find Mommy, oh no!), but now Brice loves to "hide" behind the chair in his room and the curtains in the living room. He is also getting to be very quiet while hiding with me from Chase during family games of hide-and-seek.

A typical breakfast

A few scenes from this morning's breakfast....

Summer 2013 iPhone photo dump

Every time I plug my iPhone in, I get an error message that says it couldn't be backed up because I'm out of iCloud memory....and obviously the biggest use of memory is pictures! So before I erase them to make room for more space, I thought I'd post some pics of our summer. My iPhone is a 4, and in desperate need of an upgrade to a new camera. So not only is the quality poor, but I also take a lot of pictures hoping to catch one that is useable.

Happy Summer! Cheese!

Caught eating sand. Sweet.

Next, he takes on t-ball

Brice loves to color...he's often carrying a piece of chalk or a crayon around. And if he can't find something to color, he tastes the chalk or the crayon. Needless to say, he often has a mouth full of color.

We recently discovered the Silver Diner, a 1950's-ish diner with locally grown and natural food. (Think free-range beef meatloaf). Each table has a juke box *and* the juke boxes have superhero theme songs. Add to that breakfast all day, and we have a new favorite restaurant (the Dinah!).

Chase was jumping in the living room and hit his head on the corner of the tv hutch (while I was on the phone with Nonnie and Pop). I was convinced we'd be going to the ER to get stitches, but it only turned out to be a tiny puncture. We sent this to Nonnie and Pop to show them he was okay.

For the first time in years, we were home for the 4th of July. I was lamenting not living in a small town with fireworks and parades and other activities. The night of the 3rd (after the diner), we ran into some neighbors on a walk who told us about the bike parade. It's in the other neighborhood that feeds our elementary school. Bikes, kids, a fire truck, and a nice small-town feeling event ensured our participation this year, and going forward. There were literally hundreds of families.

Later on the 4th, we went to the park and I tried to get some pics of the boys. It was stinking hot!

Sometimes they look so much like teenagers, I can hardly take it!

Brice likes to make Chase's police man action figure (who he calls "Penny," the girl from Fireman Sam) swim in the dog bowl. He generally just loves the dog bowl and splashes in it and moves Mueller's food from his food dish to the water bowl one piece of a time.

Bricey also LOVES to sweep. Luckily we have two brooms. Unless, of course, he gets both!

We had Josh, V, Daniella, and Victoria over so we could meet Victoria and catch up with them. After swimming and dinner, Chase and Daniella spent a quiet 20 minutes reading separately together.

 (not even distracted by Mommy with the camera phone)

When it's really hot, I sometimes make Stephen and the boys pick me up at our metro stop. It's so hot that they need to take ice pops for the ride!

Happy Friday!