A Slice of Bryce (#5): Two Months!!!

Hey there. Bryce here. Mommy is in the other room folding burp cloths (she sure seems to be doing a whole lot of that these days), and she just dropped her iPad on my lap and told me to "earn my keep" by typing up a two-month update for you all. I took offense to her wording, obviously, but I don't want her to cut off the milk every 3 hours, so I'll do as I'm told. Which, by the way, is not something I've learned from my sisters, particularly in the past few weeks. Mommy was even forced to start a "marble jar" system, which is supposedly going to help with the girls' first response to a request by Mommy and Daddy being "NO". The jury is still out on whether or not it's going to work. But I like looking at the colorful marble jars nonetheless.

Anyway, this post is supposed to be about me, not the girls, so let's get to it. In list format, since I'm already starting to learn organization from Mommy (and I know she's going to proofread this with her proverbial red pen and change it to how she wants it to look anyway).

1) I am smiling a lot these days. I like to call it my "get-whatever-I-want-someday grin", but Mommy says the internet calls it the "social smile", so I'll use that here so it sounds like I know what I'm talking about. For those of you with a Facebook account (which I'm happy to say now includes Nina and Papa, since Mommy set up an account for them when we were in Missouri), you've already gotten a sneak peak. For the rest of you, I think Mommy has plans to try to get me to smile for the camera in my "2 months" shirt later to include with this post. I haven't decided yet if I'm going to cooperate. Guess you'll find out soon enough...

2) Hold on a minute. I have to take a break from writing this to get Mommy to give me some medicine for my hiccups. I sure seem to get them a lot. Thank goodness Mommy has discovered Little Tummys Gripe Water. I don't really understand how that stuff works, but it sure does! Although, as I searched for a link to share with you, I read a review and it said that this stuff has parabens in it. I have no idea what that is, but I guess I better tell Mommy in case it's something I'm not supposed to have. Hmmmm, on second thought, I think we'll keep it our little secret. Whatever parabens are, I can deal with them. Those hiccups? Can't deal. They make me shake from my big head to my little toes!

3) Speaking of me and measurements, I had my two-month check-up on Monday morning. Here are my stats:

Weight: 14 pounds, 9 ounces (97th percentile)
Height: 23 inches, or 1 foot, 11 inches, as Dr. J put on my form for school. They were out of daycare forms, so he had to use a sports form. And 1' 11" just looked better on a sports form, he thought... (50th percentile)
Head Circumference: 40 1/2 centimeters (75th percentile)

More about my doctor's appointment in a minute.

4) I'm starting to love to sleep at night! And if I could get rid of this cold-slash-start-of-ear-infection, I might love it even more. My record so far is 9 hours between feedings, which was just last night! I've also had an 8-hour-and-40-minute night, and an 8-hour night, just to prove that it wasn't a fluke. If Mommy didn't put me to bed at 7:15p, I could say I've slept through the night at only 8 weeks of age. But when you go to bed that early, 9 hours and only gets you to 4:15a. Which Mommy says doesn't count. She's tough. But she refuses to keep me up past 7:30p or 8p. Something about 8p - 10p being "her time". I wonder who's going to break it to her that there is no such thing as "her time" with 3 kids in tow? She'll figure it out on her own, I guess. No sense ruining her vision only 2 short months into her life as a mommy of three.

5) Mommy thinks it's pretty cool that she can walk around me now, in circles, and I do my best to follow her voice with my eyes. Who knew that a simply turn of my head could make a grown woman so happy?!? I know I just said in #4 that she's tough. But when it comes to stuff like this, she's a pushover.

6) Guess I better mention something about my naps, since I'm only a couple of weeks away from starting school (just part-time to get me and Mommy used to it). Miss Linda is NOT going to be happy that I don't like to nap in my crib. Mommy says that we need to practice that a lot over the next couple of weeks. So I've decided to show her my disdain by only sleeping for 30 minutes, fitfully, and then screaming my everlovin' head off until she rescues me. Only to fall asleep on her shoulder from exhaustion when she picks me up. As a result, I've noticed that she doesn't seem to mind when "errands" get us out of the house around nap time, which means I get to sleep in my favorite spot. My car seat. I can sleep there for hours. So comfy.

7) Alright. I'm running out of things to say, so I guess that means it's time to share with you the little bit of troubling news from my two-month doctor's appointment. Dr. J spent a lot of time listening to my heart with his stethoscope. And it was cold, so I was a bit squirmy, making it even tougher for Dr. J to get a good listen. When I finally calmed down enough, he told Mommy that he heard a murmur in my heart. And then he started using acronyms that I didn't understand (and, truth told, I don't think Mommy did either, though I did catch her Googling them when we got home). They were PFO and VSD. Dr. J told Mommy that she shouldn't worry about it (Yeah right. Does he know my mommy?), but that it was probably a good idea to go to a cardiologist and get an EKG to rule out VSD.

Like I said, I don't know what any of this means. But I don't want any of you to worry, because I feel just great. I certainly don't show any signs of this murmur causing me any problems ("failure to thrive" and "lack of appetite" are certainly not in my vocabulary), so I'm sure the cardiologist is going to tell me I'm fine.

But if you want to feel like you're helping, Mommy said I should tell you that you can pray for me. And for her and Daddy, because they're a little anxious about the test. My appointment is next Wednesday morning. I'll let you know how it goes.

Okay, I think that's it for now. All this typing has made me tired. I think I'll just put this iPad down and take a little nap...

My 2 Month Pictures
(and my accompanying thoughts about the process)

I told you earlier that I wasn't sure if I wanted to smile for Mommy. I decided to go ahead and give in. You know, back to the not-wanting-to-be-cut-off-from-the-milk issue. I'm afraid she's going to have me on that point for several more months...

But I wasn't going to give in easily. I started with smiling, but refusing to look at the camera. See?

Then, I moved on to making my smile disappear so quickly that, by the time Mommy got her eye back behind the camera, only half of it remained.


I got tired of smiling, so I thought I would just play with Mommy a bit and make silly faces. Like these:




So Mommy thought it might help to actually put her prop, this ball, on my lap. Like THAT'S going to make me smile! Good try...


This was getting really old. Seriously, Mommy, you're embarrassing me with the faces you're making at me.


Probably best for me to just go ahead and cooperate. But hurry to take the picture, because I'm about to fall over and I need you to catch me...


Okay, I'm balanced and happy now. Here it is, my parting smile. For now, at least, since I have a sneaking suspicion that this won't be the last time we have to go through this rigamarole.