A Slice of Bryce (#4): One Month!!!

Bryce was one month old yesterday! For someone who has likely averaged 5 hours of sleep a night since April 23rd, I can't believe that I can sit here with a straight face and say that "time flies". But it really does! Aside from gas pains that get him squirming, whining, and painfully grunting a few times a day, Bryce is a very sweet baby who loves to cuddle. And I'm quite happy to oblige!

Today was his one-month doctor's appointment, so here are his latest stats:

Weight: 11 pounds, 12 ounces (95th percentile)
Height: 22 1/8 inches (75th percentile)
Head Circumference: 39 centimeters (50th percentile)

Woo Hoo, Dale! His head isn't humongous! And he is continuing his crazy weight gain. As a nursing mother, I love it!

To commemorate Month #1, I took the below pictures. Thanks so much for the "month" stickers, Megan! This is going to be a fun way to show his growth throughout his first year. Provided I can remember that I have them. One month down!

Macie's Turn (#11): Daisy the Dog

Another Bryce-related gift went to Show-and-Tell this past week with Macie. Except this one was actually a gift for BRYCE to which the girls have latched on...

This gift came from our neighbors, Bill and Sue. They have a beautiful dog named Daisy (see below picture - sorry it's so small!), whom the girls adore.


So, as part of Bryce's gift, they gave him a stuffed animal that resembles Daisy. And they even wrote "Daisy" on her tag!

Very thoughtful gift that Bryce will likely have to fight the girls for someday...

Show-and-Tell, Round 64: Zoobles

Ivie got these Zoobles as a "big sister" gift in the past few weeks. The girls think it's pretty cool that when Bryce was born, all of a sudden our friends started sending THEM gifts, too!

If you haven't seen Zoobles before (which I hadn't before we got these), they're pretty nifty. They start in a ball, but then, when you put them on their "Happitats", they pop open (caused by magnets). Pretty cool. Ivie loves them!

Making a Ponytail

Dale, admittedly, has no clue how to make a ponytail. He says his fingers are way too big for those little rubber bands. So if the girls' hairdo needs to involve anything other than a barrette or a headband, he's out.

Which, obviously, leaves me to fill that role. Knowing that I can't do it forever, I've often thought about how in the world I was going to teach the girls how to make their OWN ponytails. Since I had really short hair until the 6th grade, I really didn't know when it was that I should start trying to teach Iv.

Turns out I didn't have to worry about it. Chalk it up to something else she apparently learned at school, since she came home one day and told me that she could put her hair in a pony by herself. I didn't believe her at first. I mean, that was definitely something we were going to have to practice on for DAYS with her Barbie dolls, right?!?

Nope.

After she showed me that she could do it, I sent her immediately to brag to her daddy that she learned how to make a ponytail before he did. Then, she told me that she wanted to teach Daddy, so could I please video her making a ponytail so Daddy could learn?

So here you go, Daddy. Sorry it takes me a few times to get it right. But at least it means that Mommy was able to give Bryce a cameo appearance in the video!

Oh, and Daddy? Let me know if you want to practice on one of my Barbies...

Fishy, Fishy

On Nina's last night with us, we decided to sit outside and enjoy our hasn't-been-this-clean-since-the-day-it-was-built screened porch (thanks for your hard work, Nina and Papa!).

Macie and Ivie were in singing moods, so I asked Mac if she would sing one of her (and Nina's!) favorite songs for my Flip. She happily agreed!

"Fishy, Fishy, In The Brook": Sung by Macie Herman (with minimal assistance from Mommy).

Ivie's Random Thoughts (#19): Birthstones

Several years ago, for Christmas, Dale got me a sapphire ring and matching earrings. Not only is sapphire my birthstone (September), but it's also blue, which is my favorite color, so it was a no-brainer! I'm too lazy to take a picture of it for this post, but visualize a sapphire stone with small diamonds on either side. I love it!

Fast-forward to a couple of months ago, prior to Bryce's birth. A co-worker stopped by my office, and we got to chatting about our kids. She showed me what she called her "Mother's Ring", which was pretty much identical to my sapphire ring! She explained that she had three children, one September child (the sapphire) and 2 April children (the diamonds).

It didn't take me long to realize that, if Bryce arrived by his due date, I would already have my Mother's Ring! And, not only that, but my stones would be in the correct order on the ring: Ivie (April), Macie (September), Bryce (April). Perfect!

So Bryce cooperated, and the ring has now officially been dubbed my Mother's Ring.

The other day, I was explaining this to my mom, and Ivie happened to be listening, as well. We got into a conversation about birthstones, and I explained to her that diamond was a GREAT birthstone to have (ha!), and that Macie and I had the same birthstone. I told her that it was sapphire, which didn't mean much to her, so I just told her it was blue and she was satisfied...

Ivie didn't mention it again until yesterday morning when Dale was taking the girls to school. I'm not sure what brought it up, but, while I was feeding Bryce, I got the following text from Dale:

"Ivie just said that your and Macie's birthstone is 'campfire'."

Close, Iv. Very close.

Wordless Wednesday (#56): What He Thinks of the PURPLE Burp Cloth...

A Slice of Bryce (#2): Three Weeks

It's already been two weeks since my last Slice of Bryce post! Crazy. Time for an update...

1) Bryce still eats every 2.5 to 3.5 hours. And sometimes every 2 hours, particularly if it's nighttime (or at least it seems that way!).

2) Proof that he is a very good eater can be found in his weight gain over the past 3 weeks. Here are the stats:

April 23rd (Birth): 8 pounds
April 25th: 7 pounds, 14 ounces
May 2nd: 8 pounds, 13 ounces
May 9th: 9 pounds, 12 ounces
May 16th: 10 pounds, 11 ounces

So he has gained exactly 15 ounces each week. The mathematician in me loves the pattern in these numbers. The mom in me loves that he's flourishing! The organizer in me wonders if I should just go ahead and change his closet over to the 3-6 months clothes, since he's already filling out the 0-3's!

3) Bryce really struggles with gas pains. And, unfortunately, it's proven to be the worst during the night. He's quite a grunter! And when he tires of grunting he moves to screaming. I don't really know what hyenas sound like, but I imagine Bryce could give them a run for their money. I wish I could say that his cry is cute. But it's not. It's actually pretty annoying. Good thing he's my baby, which makes everything about him amazing. Too bad that doesn't translate into sleep for a tired mommy...

4) I've discovered that the best naps are the ones B takes in his car seat. He will sleep for HOURS in there. I feel guilty leaving him in there when he's sleeping upon our return home from an outing, but he just looks so peaceful. And quiet. Ahhhhh, quiet.

5) Seriously. Is this not the most perfect baby you've ever seen?!?


6) And one more picture, just for kicks. Doesn't he just look CHILL here?

School Pictures: Spring, 2011

Spring is here, and, along with it, another round of school pictures.

Dale picked out the outfits this year, getting the girls matching dresses on his trip to the Masters several weeks ago. Ivie's was a little short, and Macie's a little long, but the photographer worked her magic and made them both appear identical for these shots.

I always worry about Macie smiling for the camera on picture day. Probably because she hasn't always been the best when it comes to being photographed! But, based on this round of pictures, I needn't worry any more. Macie is all grins for these. It's Ivie that doesn't seem to pull out her best smile for all of the pictures (namely her graduation one), but I guess I can't really blame her, since it probably felt weird having that cap and gown on...

Without further ado, here are the 5 shots from this year. (Dale picked the girls up from school on picture pick-up day. Instead of worrying about me being upset at him for not picking out the best pictures to purchase, he decided just to buy them all. Smart man.)

Spring, 2011
(Ivie, 5 yrs)

And the Preschool Graduation shot...

Spring, 2011
(Macie, 2 1/2 yrs)


And, the duo shots. First, the one with the not-so-great Ivie smile...


And now the best duo picture they've ever had taken!

Another round of successful school pictures! It makes me sad to think that this is the last round of pictures for Ivie at daycare. Her next school picture will be from Kindergarten! And it will be Macie and Bryce in the daycare pictures in the fall... Pretty sure it will be Bryce that I'll have to worry about not smiling!!

Naked Baby Photo Shoot

Aside from the twice-yearly pictures they have taken at school, none of my children have had a professional photo shoot. There are many reasons for this:

1) I'm too cheap.

2) I have a (slightly) elevated opinion of my own photography skills.

3) The thought of putting together picture outfits makes me sick to my stomach.

4) I keep delaying it, telling myself that if I'm going to spend that kind of money, I want my kids to be out of the "baby stage" so that, years from now, they will at least resemble the people in the pictures.

5) Have I mentioned that I feel like I take decent enough pictures myself?!? I mean, for someone who snaps as many as I do, some of them are bound to turn out...

So, since Bryce (like his sisters) will not have a professional newborn photo shoot, Mom and I staged our own version on Wednesday morning around the house. Using shots I found on professional photographers' Facebook pages as our guide, we staged as many pictures as we could get Bryce to cooperate for. And we discovered that it's not as easy as it looks to get a sleeping baby to hold a pose!

We'll call it a success, though, since the one time he urinated was when he was covered up, resulting only in a wet blanket and a lot of laughs. And, amazingly, we got a few decent shots. For free. Score.

I know this sweet boy is only 3 weeks old... But my heart overfloweth.