Pooh Bear it is!

We managed to sneak our mid-pregnancy ultrasound in a little early and got to find out Bub C's gender before Christmas. Most importantly, the baby looks healthy and is growing right on track.
And Aubree and Bryce will soon have a little brother!

Capturing the Ordinary

Some of the most common words of advice/warning I receive about raising my children sounds something like this: "don't blink or you'll miss it," or "before you know it, your kids will be grown and gone." While I know these older, more experienced parents are only waxing nostalgic and trying to be helpful, my initial reaction is always to plug my ears and run away screaming.
You see, I get it. I really do. At the First Presidency Christmas Devotional last Sunday, President Monson said, "time flies as if on wings of lightning," and I was immediately reduced to a puddle of tears. I know my time with little ones is fleeting and some days that breaks my heart. That's one of the main reasons I try to keep up with this blog. Sure, I hope friends and family enjoy hearing updates and I hope someday Bryce and Aubree (and future children) appreciate reading about themselves when they were young, but I have a much more selfish motive as well. I don't trust my memory, and when these ephemeral moments have passed, I want a record I can turn to time and again. I don't just want to capture the highlights, but also the day-to-day routines, sorrows, frustrations, and joys.
So, with that background, here are some of the little things about Bryce that I hope never to forget because he's at such a fun and rapidly changing age. (Aubree will get her own post later.)

Communication:
The last couple weeks Bryce's vocabulary has exploded and his articulation is improving dramatically. Every day he throws out new words and phrases and I'm not sure if I'm just finally understanding him or he's learning new words super-quickly. Regardless, it's made for a much happier, less frustrated boy and it's had a similar effect on his momma.

Routines:
Bryce is a kid who seems to love routines and now that he's speaking better, he likes them even more as he tries to dictate each and every step. For example, since Bryce was about six weeks old, 6:30 am was when his internal alarm went "Ding, time to wake up." 6:30 was a bit too early for my liking, but I tolerated it. Then that stupid daylight savings came along. Apparently we didn't do a good job of letting Bryce know about the change, because his internal alarm still hasn't switched over. We're making slow progress, but now every morning shortly before 6:00 am I hear "Momma!" (I wish I could somehow bottle up all these early mornings and save them for his seminary years...)
I'm selfish (I mentioned that earlier, right?) and I'm not willing to get up with Bryce at that time, so I get him a sippy cup of milk and make him cuddle in bed with me. He goes along with that plan for a little while before demanding, "Up! Get up!" Once I finally roll out of bed, he points me to the bathroom and says "potty" (for me, not him). Then lately he's been telling me, "I stinky, I stinky!" and runs to his bedroom for a new diaper. After that he lets me know, "I eat! I eat!" Every morning. Except for the early part, I love it.
His bedtime routine is similarly predicable. He gets the signal that it's time for bed when we put on his pajamas. Then he runs to the bathroom chanting, "teeth! teeth!" After getting his teeth brushed, he runs to the kitchen to get his sippy cup (water, of course), then runs to say and wave goodnight to Dad and Aubree. Aubree sometimes doesn't wave back, but Bryce won't go to bed until she's waved and said "good night." Then he's ready for bed.
Another funny routine occurs when Mark gets home from work. Usually Mark will make a cheese burrito as a snack and Bryce has appointed himself "assistant burrito-maker" and "primary burrito-eater." The other day, Mark got busy on his way to the kitchen. I soon heard Bryce chanting, "Up, Up, Up!!!" and found him in the kitchen trying to get up on the counter. I stood watching and laughing until he saw me and said, "no, NO, go out, Mom. I-do-it-with Dad"). When I didn't heed his orders, he came running over and pushed me out of the kitchen. Clearly, I'm not part of that routine.
Here's one final routine that I love- when I take a shower in the morning, Aubree and Bryce sit right outside my bathroom and read books. Bryce hasn't always loved books, but he does love Aubree and she loves books. He wants to be like her and by emulating her actions, he's become a bibliophile as well. When I say it's shower-time, both kids run to gather a stack of books. And they'll read happily for the duration of my shower. Aubree often reads Bryce his favorite books during this time and it's always a highlight of my day.

Playing:
Bryce loves to play. He's especially fond of careening Aubree's stroller wildly through the house, dumping out all the Little People, building block towers, riding bikes, and pretending to cook and eat all the play food. He's surprisingly good at playing independently. Lately he's developed a love for all things related to transportation- notably trains, tractors, and trucks.
Sometimes Bryce makes up his own games. Take, for instance, the "Make Aubree Squeal Game." It's a very simple game with just a few guidelines:
Step 1: Wait for Aubree to be playing independently and happily.
Step 2: Grab away one of her toys.
Step 3: Step back and watch with pleasure as she squeals and tantrums.
Step 4: Hand the toy back.
Step 5: Allow her to calm down before returning to Step 1.

Helping:
Bryce also LOVES to help. Most evenings after dinner it's his "job" to carry the food from the table to the fridge. He also loves to help put his clean clothes away in his drawer. In fact, I usually fold his laundry at night when he's sleeping and when he wakes up to find piles of clothes ready to be put away, he's giddy with excitement. Yes, I know - he's his father's son. Another time he really likes to "help" is when I'm putting on my make-up in the morning. When he notices I'm getting ready he begs, "up, please," then proceeds to point out any red spots on my face he thinks need to be covered up. It sounds something like this, "right there, right there, right there..." Thanks, son. :)

Loving:
Bryce has always been a loving kid (see the side picture from a year ago) and it's continued to the point where his most common nickname from me is "lovey." He gives fantastic hugs and has recently learned to give real kisses (complete with the smacking sound). When we were standing in lines at Disney during our most recent excursion, he kept himself entertained by kissing one of my cheeks, then moving my head so he could kiss the other side.
He has also developed a great love for babies. Unfortunately, that love is usually manifest by trying to lie down on top of them. Likewise, when he gives hugs to his peers, he typically holds on too tightly and pulls them to the ground.
Misc.:
* Bryce is doing MUCH better in nursery. Last week he only cried for just a couple minutes after I dropped him off. Hurray!!
* Yesterday morning Bryce had unscheduled "surgery." Some of you might be aware that in Bryce's mouth his frenulum's are attached both under his tongue and between his two front teeth. We've gone back and forth about whether or not to get these two clipped and have received conflicting advice from a variety of experts and non-experts. Well, yesterday we went to a party for Aubree's preschool friends and Bryce decided to give his friend a hug. His friend fell backwards and hit her head on a table. Bryce didn't seem to hit anything, but both were crying. However, I soon noticed blood- lots of it. It turns out it was all coming from Bryce's mouth. Somehow in the fall his top frenulum was severed. The bleeding stopped after a short while and soon Bryce was back to playing again. So, I guess we don't have to wonder what to do about the top frenulum! In fact, I wonder if that wasn't less traumatic than a professional "clipping" might have been.

Weekend with Walt (Disney, that is)

Mark and I decided to bite the bullet and get seasonal passes to Disney World for our family. As part of a special promotion for Florida residents, we got 15 months for the price of 12 months. So, anyone want to come down and go to Disney with us???
To celebrate my birthday last weekend and to kick off our year-plus adventure, we decided to get a hotel in Orlando and visit both Animal Kingdom and Magic Kingdom over two days. When I told Aubree we would be going to Disney World her first reaction was, "what's Disney World?" A friend had given me a "Kids Guide to Disney World" book, so I hunted that down and gave it to Aubree so she would know what to expect. In the two weeks leading up to our trip she spent countless hours looking over the pictures and asking us to read (over and over) about the different rides and attractions. By the time we left, she was extremely excited.
Animal Kingdom was great! It involved a lot of walking around and didn't have many rides, but that worked out well for us because standing in lines is not Bryce's strong point (more on that when we get to day 2). We LOVED the Lion King show, the safari tour, and the Finding Nemo musical. Bryce was careful to notice every giraffe (real or otherwise) the entire day. I'm pretty sure giraffes are his favorite animal.

On our safari jeep

Towards the end of the day Aubree declared she wanted to see the 3-D "Bug's Life" movie. We'd been warned that it's scary for little kids and tried to talk her out of it. She wouldn't be deterred. BIG mistake!! Bryce was actually the first to freak out. The combination of the loud noises, darkness, and splashes of water were way too much for him to handle. While trying to calm a screaming Bryce, the theater went dark and the audience was "gassed" by the revenge-seeking bugs. That's when Aubree flipped out. Luckily it's a short "film" and everyone else in the room was also screaming. I don't think we'll be doing that attraction again anytime soon!
After a long, adventurous day we went out to dinner then checked into our hotel. The idea of staying at a hotel always sounds fun and appealing, but then I get there and realize two kids in one hotel room is not exactly a picnic. I hoped they'd both be exhausted enough to fall asleep quickly, but no luck there. Then, Bryce woke up at his typical 5:45 am with extra "enthusiasm" (aka LOUDNESS) and soon woke up not only Aubree but probably all our neighbors as well. I'm sure they loved us.

Aubree watching TV in the hotel, ready for day 2

Magic Kingdom was fantastic! There is so much to do and take in; I'm really grateful to have year passes so I didn't feel any pressure to try to see and do it all in one day.

Cinderella's Castle

We went on lots of different rides and saw a number of shows. Most were really fun. Standing in line, however, was not fun. Bryce is at an age where he wants to be independent. He doesn't want to be held, he doesn't want to have his hand held - he just wants to be free to walk on his own (and run away if possible). He didn't understand the concept of "standing in line" so I think he probably thought we were torturing him. At first he didn't like the rides either, but as the day progressed he got more enthusiastic once he was actually on the ride.

Trying to escape his "jail"

A fairly typical "standing in line" scene

We went on lots of variations of this ride

There were a number of highlights. Bryce couldn't get enough of the parades. He waved at all the people and floats as they went by. Mark kept talking about the Monster's Inc. comedy show. I was pleasantly surprised by the "It's a Small World" ride. For Aubree, seeing the princesses was a really big deal. She told Sleeping Beauty all about going camping for her birthday. She told Cinderella about me being pregnant and how she's going to be a big sister again.
It was a great way to say good-bye to my twenties.
P.S. We've since washed and dried our passes. Oops. At least they're still readable...

October Highlights

October is one of my favorite months and we did a lot of fun things even though all I really wanted to do was sleep. Here are some pictures:

Traditional Halloween sugar cookie making & decorating -
As soon as Bryce saw the cookie cutters, he ran to Aubree's room and grabbed the toy rolling pin. Despite his obvious enjoyment of eating the dough, he really was a natural when it came to rolling and cutting out the cookies.
Aubree's getting pretty good at frosting her cookies!
Every year the Kennedy Space Center Visitor's Center offers free admission for all county residents. Since it's ridiculously over-priced regularly, we like to take advantage of the free offers as they come. This year we went with our amazing friend, Holly and her 4 kids (the oldest is only 3 and she has no multiple births!). We took our 6 kids, ages 4 and under to an IMAX movie and (wonder of all wonders!) made it through the entire 40 minute movie.

Aubree & Bryce will Holly's two oldest - Emme & Parker

Parker, Emme & Aubree posing inside the shuttle cargo bay.

We also got together with a group of friends and visited the Green Meadows Petting Farm. We went two years ago and LOVED our experience. This year was equally as fun, even though Aubree made it very clear she is NOT an animal fan (gee, I wonder where she gets that...?).
Holding a baby chick -
I think the following picture is a pretty good summary of our day - Aubree would go into the animal enclosures and watched all that was going on, but kept her distance from any actual animal (she says she doesn't like their smell). Bryce wasn't overly enthusiastic either, but was willing to at least touch the animals.
Aubree did ride a pony independently and says that was her favorite part of the day.
I think Bryce liked his ride too.
Here's a photo of most of our group at the pumpkin "pile" (not to be confused with an actual "patch").
And here's one of just me and the kiddos.

Aubree's reaction & Bub "C"s 1st Picture

We waited to tell Aubree and Bryce about their new sibling until the day of our first ultrasound. I knew that once we told Aubree there would be no more secret keeping, since I suspected she'd be beyond thrilled to learn we were having a baby. In fact, it was more than just a suspicion - Aubree's been talking about her "little sister" for over a year now. People at church were constantly asking me if I were pregnant after hearing her talk (thankfully, they stopped months ago so I didn't have to lie once I really was pregnant and not telling anyone yet). Around the time I found out I was pregnant, Aubree started praying nightly for Heavenly Father to "please send my sister."
Here is a video of Aubree's reaction. The beginning is a little slow because it took a while for Aubree to understand what we were trying to tell her, but once she figured it out it's really cute and funny to watch her reaction.

Here is Bub "C"s first picture. The ultrasound tech tried to get a good profile shot, but Baby was way too wiggly to cooperate.
Our little one's official due date is May 21, 2010.

Truth Hurts

This morning Aubree took a shower with me. Here is a short excerpt from our conversation -

Aubree: "Mom! Your belly is huge!"
Me: "Uh, thanks? You know, it's just going to get bigger..."
Aubree: "No, Mom, your belly is HUGE! It's almost as big as your bum!"

Bat & Bear

We interrupt the previously scheduled baby announcing to bring you these pictures of the kids on Halloween:
We had a great bat costume that I thought would be perfect for Aubree to wear this year. She, however, was not quite so sure. "Bats are scary and I don't want to be anything scary." We finally determined that she would be a "nice" bat, more specifically - Stellaluna. I think she turned out to be a very nice (and very cute) bat.
She was really excited to be wearing make-up. Here's a close-up:
Bryce dressed up as a bear (the bear from Playhouse Disney?). He wasn't too sure about the hood, but was a good sport especially since people kept giving him candy. Generally he was so excited he didn't bother to take off the candy wrappers before chowing down.
Halloween night our Ward had Trunk-or-Treat. This year we also had a potluck dinner and everyone brought creepy food. Fun! Both Bryce and Aubree enjoyed trick or treating around the cars, though (you'll notice from the death grip Aubree has on Bryce in the picture below) Aubree did NOT like that they were walking around in the middle of the parking lot.
Here they are enjoying some of their spoils: