Brice at 6 months!

 

He is growing up so fast! I am simultaneously thrilled at all of the development Brice is making and sad that he's growing and changing so quickly! Luckily his charming personality has not changed.

 

At 6 months, Brice is:

-Drinking over 30 ounces of breastmilk/formula a day plus 1-2 jars (or a similar amount of homemade) baby food three times a day. The boy loves his solids.

-Sleeping longer stretches at night--but I don't want to write about it and jinx us. I will say that once it was 9 hours!

-Still taking two naps: 60-90 minutes in the morning and 2-2 1/2 hours in the afternoon

-Silly and funny! He razzes. He smiles so big. He giggles and belly laughs.

-Making lots of noise. He's babbling so much and cracking us all up--including himself!

-Teething...? His hands are always in his mouth. I don't feel anything under the bottom the gums, but under the top gums it feels like teeth are close.

-Sitting up! He can sit alone for a few minutes if he has something interesting to play with in his hands. But most of the time what he wants it out of his reach so he falls over to get it.

-Taking his pacifier out and putting it back in all by himself. He can pick it up and put it in all by himself!

-Obsessed with Mueller. Brice tracks Mueller across the room and chases him when he's in his walker. Apparently Mueller is even more thrilling than Chase.

-Moving-- when he's on his belly (or, more accurately, pushed up on his arms), Brice cans turn around in a circle. When I'm sitting and hold him on my lap, he pushes off with his legs like he's jumping.

And...getting up on his knees and rocking! Crawling is not far off, I'm afraid...

Brice is such a sweet boy. He has the biggest smile when I take him out of his crib and mouths my face. It makes it hard to be mad when he's awoken too early! He is just a joy. We love you, sweet Bricey.

Fall Festival 2012

Once again, we headed to Butler's Orchard for their annual pumpkin patch and fall festival. I'm not going to narrate this entire posts--  the pictures will speak for themselves.

Brice & Mommy, 2012



Chase & Mommy, 2010

 

 

Chase 2012

Chase 2011

 

Brice 2012

Chase at 2 1/2

He's too old for monthly posts now (although he does seem to photobomb all of Brice's monthly updates!), but Chase is definitely still growing and learning. He is funny, inquisitive, and strong-willed. He loves his "Bricey."

In his own words, at 2 1/2, Chase is:

-Talking about everything, asking a lot of questions, and repeating what we say, even when we don't think he's listening. We have really got to watch ourselves now! Sometimes it's hard to understand him, but we can use context clues to figure out what's he's saying. He even corrects what I'm saying to make sure I pronounce it right.

-Can count up to 14. Fifteen throws him off. To be fair, it should be "fiveteen"

-Can name his extended family and many of our good friends. One of our favorite tricks is to look through our wedding pictures and have him name everyone. We were all younger back then!

-Singing. Chase knows all the classic kids' songs, but now he's added school songs to his repetoire. He sings Friends, Friends 123 and Ram Sam Sam. I've used Google to look up a few of the songs, but Chase has the intonation and words right so now I trust him.
-Sleeping in a big boy crib! (entire post on this coming up) He goes to bed between 8:30-9pm and wakes up around 6am. He's got a new alarm clock that keeps him in bed until 6:40am. Most afternoon Chase takes a 2-2 1/2 hour nap.

-Quite independent. "Mommy, I can do it." We take advantage of this by asking him to pick things up and put them away, retrieve things for us (when we have our hands full with Brice), or help us feed Mueller. Chase usually happily obliges.

-Going through a whiny phase. It's awful. Everything has been whined or cried for a couple of weeks now. We finally realized that we need to tell him "no cry talking" and he sort of gets it. But when he's cranky or hungry, there's no stopping the tears/whine.

-Loving on his little brother-- They are so sweet together. Chase loves to hug Brice and Brice loves to hug and mouth him back. (entire post on this coming up too!)

-Doing great in school-- He loves his teacher and his class. Chase repeats school songs. He talks about the kids at school and what they are doing.

-Not eating much, but his favorite foods are:
          Breakfast: pancakes with syrup, waffles, fruit, yogurt
          Lunch: pasta, hot dog, peas, edamame
          Snacks: pretzels, rice cakes, fruit, yogurt, apple sauce, milk
          Dinner: pasta, rice, hot dog, sushi, broccoli, shredded cheese, cabbage, tortillas

-His favorite things to play are "shoot ball," "kick ball," volleyball, baseball, football. In that order. Don't even think about sitting down when you are playing with him. You have to be standing up to play with him. You also have to dribble, dribble before you shoot.

-Calling Mommy and talking on the phone. Chase has Carol call me every day after he finishes lunch. He asks, "How is you day at work, Mommy?" and tell me what he had for lunch, whether he went on the potty, and who blew out the candle during circle time at school. Lately he hasn't wanted to give up the phone so he'll say, "I have to tell you something," but then proceeds to carry the phone around as he plays with his toys. Needless to say, I'm usually laughing.

-Using the potty and often wearing big-boy underpants! He wants to wear them to school, but I spoke with his teacher and we're going to start that the week after Thanksgiving (another post coming on this! I had better get writing...)

-Funny!