Bryson turns 2!

A few random pictures leading up to his birthday...

A Saturday morning hanging out in the study while Daddy played Ultimate Frisbee.

Whenever it's time to get in the car, Bryson tries to race to the back of the van to sit in a "big boy" seat.

A particularly messy lunch

Chocolate ice cream!

We got together with my family on Nov. 1st for some cupcakes in the park. Bryson was pretty clueless but loved the attention and loved opening presents. 

Singing "Happy Birthday"

Sporting new pajamas that Grandma got him.

His other presents

What's life like as a 2-year-old?

Bryson wakes up around 7am every morning. With the recent time change, he's been waking up more around 6:30. He's hungry for breakfast first thing, which usually ends up being pancakes since that's Caleb's request every morning. He loves Cheerios, bananas, waffles, oatmeal and eggs for breakfast as well. We run Caleb to school in the double jogging stroller while Caleb rides his bike. On Tuesdays and Thursdays we rush home so Mommy can get ready for teaching preschool. Bryson gets in the way at preschool a lot, but the kids are really patient with him, and Bryson is getting better at learning to sit on his carpet square. On Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, we have a more relaxing morning. Sometimes we go ride bikes after we get home from taking Caleb to school since that's Bryson's favorite thing to do. He loves to take off on his little tricycle. Other times we go to the park, go to play groups, or run errands. 

Around noon he eats lunch and then goes down for a nap every day at 1pm. Most of the time he sleeps until 4pm which is sacred time for me to get things done around the house or do things for my calling. Once Bryson wakes up, Caleb is home from school and we love to go play in the backyard together. Caleb and Carter like to take turns batting while Bryson fetches balls. The boys usually continue playing while I go inside and make dinner. Because the weather has been nicer, lately we've been jumping on the trampoline every night together as a family after Daddy gets home and after dinner. It's even more fun now that Daddy brought home these fun balls that we put on the trampoline.

Cool ninja moves

Bryson loves to dance and jump to music. In this picture, he's holding the ipad because it was playing some fun songs while he jumped around on the trampoline.

Around 6:30 - 7 we start the bedtime routine with baths, scripture study, prayers, brushing teeth and Bryson's bedtime. His bedtime was getting later and later (8:30) and thankfully the time change has helped us get back on track to getting him to bed at 7:30.

We've started taking steps towards potty-training. Up till now we've had Bryson sit on the potty before bath time every night. Now we're trying to buckle down and make some progress. He's had two successes which will hopefully get him started with recognizing what to do. We'll go from here and see if he gets things figured out as quickly as my other boys who were both potty-trained and in underwear by 27 months.

Happy boy after he got a candy corn for going #1 in the potty!

It took Bryson longer than average to start talking. He would just make noises like "eh-eh" while he pointed at things expecting me to tell him what everything was called. Things have finally started clicking. I just counted today all the words he knows, and he's at 30 which I think might actually be average for a 24 month old? "Hot" was his first word. I love that "Carter" was also one of his first words. He loves to say Carter's name; he calls out Carter's name in the morning when he wants Carter to get him out of bed, and when he can't find Carter during the day, he'll walk around the house calling out Carter's name over and over. It's really cute. With that said, Bryson is very much still a Momma's boy. He loves to play with Daddy for just a little bit before he runs back over to me. One of the more interesting words that Bryson says is "moon" as he points out the moon when we're out at night. Bryson is still very much obsessed with dogs and loves to point out busses as well which he calls "but."

Bryson's favorite game to play is Hide and Seek. He only likes to hide and only if I'm holding him. Daddy is always the seeker and chases us around the house. Bryson gets so excited while we're hiding that he generally gives our location away with his squeals and laughter.

We love having him as part of our family!!