My buddy Luca

I have had the pleasure of watching my friend Amy's little guy Luca while she substitutes for another teacher on maternity leave. We get to hang out with Luca a couple of times a week. Bryson really enjoys having Luca around and it's nice to see him learning to interact with someone his own age. The boys like watching their cartoon in the morning while they snack on cereal and puching each other around on the dino car. They have races up the stairs to go take their naps and sometimes they hold hands and share toys in the car! It's taken a while but Bryson has finally learned to say Luca.... but it comes out Goo-ca. Makes me smile everytime! (Luca calls Bryce 'B'.)

A visit with Maya...

Maya came to visit today! We sure miss having her around... hopefully if Bryson can learn to share better, her mommy will let her come and play more often!

Mommy's helper...

Nothing beats teaching your child how to use the Swifer!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Bryson, Nate and I just wanted to let you know how thankful we are for you, our family and friends!
This Thanksgiving we made the trek to Saginaw Michigan to visit Nate's parents! Bryson did pretty good on the five (almost six) hour drive there, though we broke it up with a trip to Olive Garden and Target! We also discovered the wonder of portable DVD players!! God bless the person that invented them! So 5 Baby Einstien videos later we made it save and sound. Bryson took some time to warm up to his Nana and Papa but made everyone smile with his new word, 'Nana'.

Since there was a decent amount of snow on the ground, we decided to take Bryce out to play. He tried sledding and of course loved it! We built a snow man for him that was just his height. He thought that was pretty funny. He also like his Uncle Benno teaching him how to throw snowballs!

We enjoyed seeing Uncle Tim and Aunt Paula as well, though we missed Grandma and Grandpa Buckert! (Bryson loved the plane by the way and plays with it daily!)

Happy Halloween!

Oh what fun, Halloween when you're one. Bryson learned a new word today, can-ee, which is what he calls the yummy suckers that he kept receiving all day... Note to self, giving your one year old a sucker is both messy and not fun to try to take away!! We had lots of fun visiting Grammie and Poppie and they're crazy neighbors house! Interestingly enough, Bryson and Maya both took a liking (more like an obsession for Bryce) to the 12 foot animated monster in their front yard. It was all very surreal!

After visiting, we headed back home with Maya to do some major trick or treating in our neighborhood. It was lots of fun for Bryce to hang out with all his little buddies and it was so nice for so many people to think of our little guys, giving them age-appropriate treats for halloween (like goldfish crackers and sippy cups)! We then had a little pizza party at our house with the neighborhood gang and finally put our hyper little one to bed! All in all it was a fun day.... long, but fun!

*Please excuse the purple walls... something is wrong with my camera!!

Happy Birthday Auntie Mar-Mar!

Bryson's Auntie Mar-Mar (Marlene) had a birthday, (don't worry we won't tell anyone which one), and we got to hang out with Maya. And wouldn't you know Maya decided to impress us all with her latest trick of walking... across our kitchen!! It was so fun to live those 'first-step' type moments all over again. Now the two of them chase each other around and stay quite busy together!! It was also tons of fun to give them a bath together... I'm still not sure the bathroom has dried out all the way from the splashing! Thankfully we got a few funny pics to embarass them with later in life!! Hehe!

Bryson's Drawer

For about a week straight, every evening Bryson would get into the drawer with all the baggies and bring them to me... one at a time until he had emptied the box. I decided the best way to stop this was to convert that drawer to Bryson's Drawer. A special place for him to put his toys or for me to put little surprises for him. Well the idea caught on rather quickly. On a daily basis you can find anything from coasters, remotes, hats, pieces of cardboard, to toys, hats and even iPhones. Whenever something can't be found in the house we now know where to look!

Is this a trick?

Nope, Halloween has not come early! Bryson is lucky enough to have 2 costumes... so he wore one today just for fun! Psst! It glows in the dark! (HI DA! Miss You in Taiwan)

Mommy's little helper...

Bryson decided to help me clean out the pantry... somehow we ended up with a box of Cherios dumped on the floor... hmmm...

Culturing Bryson

On Monday, Marlene and I decided to be brave and bring the kiddos downtown. We first spent some time at the Shedd Aquarium. Both Bryson and Maya were enthralled with the big tank, they especially loved Nickel the (giagantic) Turtle and the Sting Ray area where they could walk over the water filled with sting rays.

After the aquarium we stopped for some quick photo ops despite the rain. We then went to the Field Museum for lunch and a quick look around.... before his naps (hurray) Bryson couldn't seen to get enough of Sue, one of the Field Museums main attractions!

We all made it through the day in one piece and can't wait to try it again!