Spring has finally arrived!

I truly think that the weather makes a difference in how we all feel.  I can tell that Brycen is extremely excited to be playing outside again.  So much that when we get home from Jean's house we usually have to play for about 20-30 minutes before stepping foot in the house. 

It's been beautiful out the last couple of days and we've had fun playing with his outside toys again... his car, bike, golf set, basketballs, and of course his favorite pushing toy, the mower!  We've also had a fun time playing with the neighbor girls for a little bit too. 

Today, Brycen is home playing all day with Grandma Jo!  It sounded like they were going to the park, maybe for a bike ride, and other fun outdoor activities to soak in the spring weather.  He will have so much fun spending some special time with her.

This weekend we are heading back to the farm to see Grandpa and Grandpa Fara, Uncle Eric & Katy, Uncle Steve, Aunt Leigh and cousins Logan and Skylar.  Brycen has been talking ALL WEEK about seeing Grandpa Fara's cows, baby calves, their dog Pearl, and all of the other animals on the farm.  It will be a rushed weekend with many things to do and people to see but I'm looking forward to him spending time with family. Sunday. When we were leaving Jean's house on Thursday afternoon, he ran out the door saying that he was going to see Grandpa Fara and his baby calves!!  I'd say that he's excited.  :)

New do!

Hair cut night in the Blanchard house!!! Our new do is a Mohawk! (For a while...)

2 Year Check-up Appointment

On Monday, Brycen had his 2 year Doctor's appointment for a check-up.  The last two appointments (1 year and 18 months) he had been in the 99th percentile for both height and weight.  Brycen is a big boy for his age, yet I thought this growth has slowed since last fall so I was unsure where he would fall for height/weight for this appointment. 

Not to our surprise, Dr. Reinertson (Brycen calls him Dr. Mark) said he was yet again in the 99th percentile for weight and height.  Brycen was being difficult (very shy) when they asked to have him stand on the scale so we just went with the weight documented 2 weeks earlier... 36 pounds.  His height was 37". 

Grandma Jo had mentioned she heard somewhere that when a child is 2 years old, you can double their height and that is what they will be when finished growing.  If that is true, Brycen will be 6'2".  This sounds about right when looking at the Blanchard and Fara family heights for the men.  Burke, Perry and Ross are all around 6'1-2 and my brothers Steve (6'1") and Eric (6'4") are both tall as well. 

He did real well with Dr. Mark.  He let him check all over including his ears, eyes, teeth and mouth.  By the time he was finished, Brycen was actually talking to him and comfortable in the room.  The good news is that Brycen does not have to have any shots until he is 5 years old.  (I was dreading him getting shots at this appointment.)  The bad news is that he had to have blood drawn for a blood screening.  This was not fun.  He didn't mind the finger-poking so much but when the nurse squeezed his little finger to draw enough blood for the test Brycen let her have it by crying and yelling, "it huuuuurts!"  She put a circus band aid on the finger to help stop the bleeding.  This was his first experience with a band aid and I realized we should probably buy some "cool" band aid's for home. 

The nurse tried to win him over by letting him pick out a sticker, but he actually said no to her.  "No want it."  He soon stopped crying as we went back out to the lobby to check out and his attention was drawn to a little girl a little older than he was throwing a fit in the lobby.  His did continue to ask to take the band aid off and pout as he would put pressure on his finger to pull it off but I convinced him to keep it on until supper somehow. 

All was good at the end of the day and we are happy that Brycen is a healthy and very happy boy!

2 year pictures!

Saturday, Brycen took his 2 year pictures.  Both Burke and I went along to be able to tag-team keeping him happy and "going along" with what the photographer needed to get a shot. 

Overall he did a great job, but the process was slightly at this stage as he follows directions well but he is pretty shy and leery of others. 

Here are a few shots to share...

  

Birthday Money

Quick blog about the money that Brycen got for his birthday. When Brycen opened his birthday cards the other day, he was excited to find money in a few envelopes.
Daddy and Brycen share a few special things together and one of them is putting money in his two different piggy banks. Brycen immediately wanted to put the money in his Hawkeye piggy bank. While they were upstairs, Burke asked Brycen what he wanted to spend his birthday money on... His response was blueberries and strawberries. A true response from the little boy that loves every fruit there is!

Today Burke asked Brycen again and his response changed to a bike, but he already has one and we took it out for a stroll today. (Picture below)

Spring Break

This week Brycen and I had both Thursday and Friday together. I really wish that it was more seasonal weather for "spring break" but we made due with the 30 degree weather last week... At least it was sunny both days.
Thursday was probably boring for Brycen as I spent most of the day leaning, organizing and taking pictures of the house. Friday was more fun with free time at the Cedar Rapids Science Center, visiting Daddy at his work, and lots of fun playing outside in the sunshine.
Here are a few pictures...

Birthday extravaganza

On Tuesday, our little man turned two years old! It was a very busy weekend and week too. Over the weekend, we had the Blanchard party at Grandpa and Grandma's house. Brycen got a lot of one on one time with his aunt, uncles and grandparents. He was pretty spoiled and loved every minute of it.

Highlights were getting to spend all day with Aunt Sarah and Uncle Ross, riding on his bike, a new tool bench, and being able to play with Uncle Perry, Aunt Sarah, Uncle Ross, Grandma Jo, and Grandpa.

He had just as much fun at Jean's house on Tuesday for his birthday. She had balloons for everyone, made cupcakes, and even gave him a gift. She truly made it his day. He took all of his super hero capes to her house to share and had fun playing with his friends.

Here are a few pictures to share...

To finish up the week he got to spend all day on Thursday and Friday with mom. More to come in a later post about our adventures!

Mustache Bash!

Today we celebrated Brycen's 2nd Birthday with all of the Blanchard clan.

The morning started off by Bycen waking up at 5:47am bright eyed and bushy tailed. We had a mustache birthday bash before lunch and opened presents. He was very excited about the new toys and wonderful gifts he received from his aunt, uncles, grandparents and mom & dad.

He got new clothes, books, capes, puzzles, a tool set, apple TV, a batman towel, a glow in the dark Colorado shirt and his new bike!

Brycen opening presents.

A family picture with our mustaches!

Carrot cake with maple cream cheese frosting "mustache" cake.  Yum!

Uncle Ross reading to Brycen.

Brycen blowing out his candles on the cake.

"Riding on the bike."

Ready for the weekend!

I'm just putting on a quick blog post for this morning with a video taken at breakfast.  Today, Uncle Ross & Aunt Sarah fly in from Colorado to Cedar Rapids and Brycen and I get to pick them up at the airport.  Brycen loves watching the planes take off and land on our way past in the mornings and evenings. 

We've been talking to him about who will be coming this weekend, Uncle Ross & Aunt Sarah, Uncle Perry, and Grandma & Grandpa Blanchard.  This is a video from breakfast this morning... enjoy.

Grumpy Brycen

Last week on Friday, Brycen had a rough day at Jean's house. He was "grumpy" as he told Burke and I on Friday night.  He's normally such a happy guy and not normal for him to have an "off " day.  He ran a slight temp a few days earlier on Wednesday but didn't show any other signs of being sick besides his attitude.  Over the weekend he started to have more and more discharge from his eyes.

It wasn't until Saturday morning when he cried for about 20 minutes over something I can't even remember what it was about.  He continued to have crusty eyes on Saturday and was noticeably tired.  It was most noticeable in church when Brycen cried a few times and had to be taken out to the narthex. We've only had to take him out of church to visit the nursery changing table. A few people even commented that Brycen was not his usual self. He seemed real pale and had slight bags under his bright blue eyes.  Burke put it best at supper time on Sunday night, "We've had a lot of ups and downs over the weekend... More downs than ups" when referring to Brycen's attitude and demeanor.

Sunday evening we decided that if he had goofy eyes in the morning to take him in to the doctor. Brycen has a big birthday party this weekend with family coming from Denver, Colorado and Madison, Wisconsin. He needed to healthy and ready to PARTY!

We got to Dr. Mark Reinertson's office and the prognosis was pink eye PLUS an ear infection. No wonder he was a little grumpy this weekend! We stopped at Walgreens to pick up some medicine and got home just in time for lunch. He had a long nap that lasted over 3 hours and woke up his happy and extremely goofy self... making jokes and smiles all around.

Hoping for a complete turn-around just in time for the weekend!

Hamburger

This is Brycen being silly... he's such a great speaker and there are very few words he does not get real close with pronunciation.  (Besides his own name: "Fysen")

The other evening at supper, Brycen was telling us that he was eating "ham-da-ker." It was so funny to hear him playfully argue with us on the pronunciation of the word.  I was able to get a video of it a few days later... here is the video from Tuesday afternoon of him saying the word "hamburger."  Enjoy the laugh!

Potty Training

Brycen has been doing so well at potty training and just in the early stages of knowing to go when he's on the potty.  On Monday, he earned 4 stickers at Jean's house for going #1 and #2!  He was pretty excited and even went for Daddy that night giving the day a total of 5 potty stickers on his board.

On Wednesday, he had a record day by earning 8 potty stickers! He also started telling us that he has to go beforehand. He's doing so well and is catching on pretty quickly. We're really "talking up" the big boy underwear so he thinks its the cool thing over diapers... even though his cloth diapers are pretty neat looking.  

Our polite little man

Recently, Brycen has been very into saying "thank you" for everything.  He's always been pretty good at saying Please and Thank You.  He is much better for remembering his thank you's rather than the initial pleases.  Of course, he sometimes needs a reminder like the rest of us. 

Often times, Brycen will thank Burke for making supper.  His words are usually, "Thank you making supper, Daddy."  When we get his plate, milk, silverware he will sometimes say "Thank you getting it."  It's adorable to see him say this because he is so serious and sometimes it might be accompanied with a hug. 

A few weeks ago he was playing with his guitar in the kitchen.  I asked him if he liked playing his guitar and he responded "yeah."  I asked who gave him his guitar and he said Uncle Perry.  He then says, "Thank you guitar Uncle Perry."

Yesterday morning, I was folding laundry in his room with him and he pulls out his clothes to tell me what each item of clothing is... "Brycen's digger jammas, Brycen's new jeans... like Mommy's" and "Brycen's blue pants!"  He would say "Thank you washing it Mommy" and sometimes thank who gave him the article of clothing. 

He will even be in a full out cry sometimes and be very polite.  The other night he really wanted to eat an orange (his favorite food by far!) for a snack after his nap and he had already had one for lunch.  I had told him no, we would have something else.  Of course, he was upset and started to cry.  Brycen can be very sensitive and emotional just after nap time. 

I asked if he wanted an apple, "No thank you"... yogurt? same response... raisins? again "No thank you Mama" while crying.  I couldn't help but laugh at him (which made him more upset) because he was being so nice even while being so upset and crying.  By the way, all of the options I gave him are some of his favorites.  We're usually able to coax him down, but his favorite foods are very important to him.  Lately he's been into his blueberries and raspberries.  Yum!

Snow Day!

March 5th means another Snow Day for Brycen and mom. We had a great day playing outside in the snow for about an hour and a half!

Happy Day!

Swimming lessons

Saturday marked the last day of Brycen's second year in swimming lessons.  His lessons started January 26th, every Saturday for a half hour at the North Liberty Recreation Center.  He did great last year and just had fun splashing around in the water.  He was only about 11 months old and was at peace floating around.

This year was also a lot of fun but you could tell a definite change. At times, he was difficult to maneuver in the water if he was fighting something... mostly floating on his back. The very first week, he went to the bathroom in the pool and I swear he's been talking about it ever since.  (It's usually one of the first things he tells people about going to swimming lessons. It gives everyone a laugh when he tell the story.)

He is one of the older kids in his class and I really think that he will be ready for the next level of swimming lessons in January of next year and not the "Parent/Toddler" class anymore.  You can tell that he enjoys singing the songs and doing the fun activities, yet he's such a shy guy and likes to listen more than participate. He is way more interested in the other kids in the pool and the adults swimming laps than paying attention to his teacher and the activities for his lesson. 

For a while his favorite part of swimming lessons was jumping off the side into the water.  The first week, he couldn't get enough of it, the pool echoed of his laughs and screams and he splashed in the water.  But he must have gotten a little scared toward the end as he cried in one of the last few weeks and did not want to jump off the side.  He even reported at daycare to Jean that he cried in swimming lessons just days afterwards.  But it all ended well when Dad took him, he made it fun for Brycen again. Thanks Dad!

enjoyed going in the water with Mom most weeks but also had fun swimming with Grandma Blanchard and Dad for a week each.  Saturday afternoon I asked Brycen how his lessons were, his immediate response was that he splashed Daddy in the face with water.  Ha!  I think he'll miss his Saturday morning routine of going swimming. He did get a little certificate for completing the program.  I attempted to have him hold it up so I could take a picture but failed.  I'll try again and post it later.