Bryce's 2nd Birthday Party

Bryce's 2nd birthday party was a huge success. He had almost 60 of his closest friends and family there to help him celebrate. Friends from both of his playgroups came, friends from church, friends of ours with little kids, and family were all there. We chose to do a John Deere tractor themed birthday party since Bryce loves tractors. To go along with this he was given an electric John Deere tractor and trailer that look just like the one his Pawka has. Bryce and his guests had fun swimming, playing in the sand, playing with bubbles and chalk, and eating cupcakes and ice cream.

He didn't open presents during his actually birthday party. We felt it would have been too much with all of the kids. He did open a few gifts from family before the night was over. We saved the rest for the next day. It took a long time for him to open all of the nice gifts because he had to play with each open before moving on to the next present.

After all of his friends went home the family stayed and had a BBQ. Bryce was given his tractor before dinner and absolutely loved it. He didn't quite understand how to push the pedal to make it move. It will take a bit of practice. And as if the 2+ cupcakes and ice cream he had during his party weren't enough, we decided to sing happy birthday again with the family and have more. This time we cut into his tractor cake (this was a fun cake to make). He had so much cake that the next day his poop was the same color as the tractor cake. Oh well, you only turn 2 once.

Bryce had a great day. Thanks to all of you that helped us celebrate.

Father's Day

We spent Father's Day hanging out at Nanny and Pawka's house swimming.

For my dad a.k.a. Pawka we bought him a hat that says Pawka, the boys got hats that say Pawka's Helper and the girl (soon to be girls) got hats that say Pawka's Princess. Trey, the oldest grandchild, and Pawka had hats that said Trey's Pawka and Pawka's Little Helper, but we thought we needed to expand the collection to include the two littler ones and the one on the way. Pawka was very touched and the kids thought it was great too.

Nathan thought it would be the perfect day to wear the Big Guy, Little Guy shirts my parents bought him for his birthday. Nathan even put Bryce in matching shorts. They looked so cute.

Bryce's First Baseball Game

Nathan, Bryce, his Grandpa Tom, and I all went to a Giants game on the 14th. Nathan had shown Bryce baseball on TV a couple of times. Bryce's understanding of the game was simply that you throw a ball. We talked about the game a few days prior to going to get him excited about it. He would say, "baseyball frow" meaning baseball throw. We got to the game about 30 minutes early. Grandpa Tom immediately bought Bryce a Giants hat. Bryce was really proud of his new hat.

We had excellent seats. We were in the Field Club level 10 rows up right behind home plate. For most of the game no one was in front of us or beside us, so Bryce had a perfect view. He clapped and yelled "yeah" when the crowd got excited. He watched the game for a few minutes at a time and then was content to climb up and down in his seat. He also had fun jumping up and down in the aisle.

Potty Time

Bryce went poop on the big potty for the first time on June 2nd. We put him in the bath and he said potty and started to make a face like he was going poop. We quickly picked him up and put him on the potty. He bounced around for a few minutes and then grabbed Nathan's arms for support and went poop. We made a really big deal about it so that he would think using the potty is great. We also let him flush the toilet, which he thinks is really fun. The following day he went pee in the potty a couple of times, and once this week he peed four times in the potty. Now when we are home I let him run around naked. I told him that it was a no-no to go pee-pee and poo-poo on the floor. He now says "no pee-pee floor" and shakes his finger. I really hope that once we make a good effort at potty training for a couple of days in a row that he will be fairly easy to truly potty train.

23 Months

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The development at this age never ceases to amaze me. Bryce went from knowing just a couple of his colors to knowing the whole rainbow, including black, white, pink, and gray. He can count to 3, but he typically starts with 2 and says 2-3-2. He says this before he jumps, goes down a slide or runs. He is consistently putting 3 to 4 word sentences together. You can see him counting in the picture of him coming down his slide. Some of his favorite new phrases are "one more" for one more turn on something, or one more of whatever he is eating. He also says "five more" for five more minutes of play. He also says "do" or "Bryce do" meaning he wants to do it by himself. He is becoming quite independent. He is also saying "see-see" meaning "sing-sing" for music. I just love this.

His favorite things are tractors (he loves riding on Pawka's tractor still), trains, cars, balls, and anything having to do with outside play. We finally got him his own Little Tikes Cozy Coupe Car. A few of his playgroup buddies have this toy and he never wanted to get out. We decided he needed his own.
When we go anywhere he likes to pretend that he is helping us drive. He sits in the back seat and pretends to steer the car.

I can't believe he is just a month away from turning 2. My little baby is growing up.