Early April in Cincinnati

 Spring came early here--early for us! We are used to seeing these types of things about 6 weeks after they appeared in our front yard. I was so happy to see all these bright tulips pop up next to our sidewalk. Nothing like a good surprise of flowers in your yard that you didn't know were there.

See that dead bush in the background? Yep, that's the one I dug out and threw down the ravine. It's buddy (right behind it) joined it a couple of days ago...  R.I.P. dead bushes full of bag worms!

 It was so nice to have it warm enough to let Bryce run around without his coat on!

 Drinking the water from the tulip leaves

Playing on the porch

Before and After--Bryce's Room

 Bryce's Room Before

 When we first moved into this apartment in Cincinnati, we had Bryce upstairs in our bedroom, which is on the 3rd floor of the house and was formerly the attic. It gets very hot up there in the summer and freezes in the winter, so we moved him down to the bedroom on the 2nd floor, where our living room, office, bathroom and kitchen are. This is the bedroom when we first moved in.

This was Bryce's corner of our bedroom on the 3rd floor.

For Bryce's room face lift, I painted this inherited dresser and got new hardware for it. Now I am kind of fond of it--after putting in all that work to make it look decent.

 

Bryce's Room After

I found the airplane on clearance at TJMaxx (that store will be the death of my bank account) and my sister Elyse sent me some fishing line (thank you!!) so I didn't have to buy a whole reel junst to hang it. Bryce loves the airplanes, so this was a big hit. I added 1 1/2" green ribbon to the Wal-Mart curtains we have had forever, giving them some revitalization. I sewed a bed skirt (not shown in this picture) that turned out better than I had hoped, and both of the quilts were sewn by my mom.

Bryce is tearing all the diapers out of the package while I was working on his room. While I was stapling the padded head board, I ran out of staples and had to buy more to finish it the project. You will notice the left side isn't quite right.  This is an "in progress" shot.

Mirror from TJMaxx, piggy bank was a baby shower gift, and lamp from Jess' nightstand. :)

THE Spot

Anyway, Bryce gets the camera out of the desk drawer and brings it to me saying "Cheeeeeese Momma!!" and then proceeding to stand in his "spot" in front of the fireplace for 0.00001 second while I am supposed to take a picture of him and let him look at it on the play back screen. Most of these are taken on the second try, after I show him that the camera isn't even on yet.

 

Cheeeeeeeeeeeeeeese!

Veggie Tales (and other foods)

Bryce had his 2-year-old check-up about a week ago. He hasn't gained any weight since his last appointment, which was about 6 months ago. He's a scrawny 23.9 lbs. (5th percentile for weight) and 34.5 inches tall (50th percentile for height). We have a long, skinny kid on our hands. The doctor had us take Bryce to have blood drawn to check kidney and liver function and to see if he was anemic--and thank goodness, everything came back normal. He is healthy as a horse--we just need to get some meat on his bones! Lately I have been spreading peanut butter, butter, frosting, or ranch dressing on EVERYTHING he eats. Any other ideas about how to help this kid put on some pounds?

He likes rolls--and I gave him one to eat while I was making spaghetti for dinner. He got his hands on some uncooked noodles and made himself a pre-birthday cake!

I also try to feed him a 1st and 2nd breakfast, 1st and 2nd lunch, and so on... Here he is, eating 2nd breakfast.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Bryce enjoyed licking frosting off several of the sour cream sugar cookies we made for Valentines Day--back when it was Valentine's day... 

The Zoo in February

 

Cincinnati is home to a fabulous zoo--we waited for a warm day in February (high 50's) and headed there to check out their "penguin parade." We had a fun day and slept very well that night!

 

The "Bryce" parade

 The penguin parade

Checking out the baby Wallaby

Winter Gear

 

Sleeper + winter boots = stylin' February in Cincinnati. 

Really, it wasn't THAT cold. 

He just wanted his boots on.

Hair, there it is!

To the tune of "Whoomp, there it is" by MC Hammer. His hair really looks more red in this pictures than it really is. It does have some redness, but not this much. I took this picture around sunset.