Gemstones and Smiles

The paintbrush has been replaced. Last week I got out our game of Mancala to see if Cason could sort the gemstones into the different compartments by color. He became very interested in the gemstones and spent a good hour putting them in the box and taking them out again.

Over the past week he has been placing them in all sorts of different containers and carrying them around the house.

Today Kelly was cooking up mass amounts of french toast to freeze. Cason was up on the ladder playing with the gemstones on the counter beside him. All of the sudden, he ran into his playroom where his play kitchen is. He came out with one of his little pots and dumped all his gemstones in. Like father, like son.

Bryce was all smiles after his three hour nap today. Yes, I know all of the pictures look the same. I'm that crazy mom who can't decide which one she likes best -- this is narrowed down from 24 pictures.

Grandma and Grandpa G.

Last weekend, Grandma and Grandpa G. came to visit. Bryce and I were tired after walking around three different malls in three days with Grandma! We had a great time with them but forgot to take very many pictures. These are the only pictures I have. That seems to be a common thing with me, forgetting to take pictures.

And today Bryce is 1 month old. This kid just loves to sleep. Cason didn't sleep longer than 45 consecutive minutes during the day until he was 5 months old. So imagine my surprise when I put Bryce in his crib for a nap yesterday for the first time and I had to wake him up after almost 3 hours. He appears to be doing the same thing today. I love it!

And here is proof that he is awake some of the time. He loves the pictures of the frogs over his changing table.

Grandma B.

My mom just left this afternoon after visiting with us for a few days. Cason had a blast playing with her and she loved holding Bryce. Tomorrow Grandma and Grandpa G. are coming to town for a few days.

Bryce is doing great, he is three weeks old now. At his two week appointment last week, he was already 10 pounds, which is more than Cason weighed at one month. Cason was in newborn diapers until the day of his two month appointment but Bryce outgrew them by day 3!

He LOVES to climb up ladders. All we hear some days is "up a ladder!" over and over and over...

He's actually hanging although it looks like he's sitting.

Doing pull-ups with Daddy.

1 week old

This is a bad picture but I just love sleep smiles!

A few videos

Well Bryce definitely does not have red hair so Kelly lost that bet. The terms of the bet were that if he lost, we had to go out for ice cream and I could pick what he had to eat. How is this different from our monthly ice cream trip that was part of his New Years Resolution? When we go out every month for ice cream, he always gets the no sugar, no calorie, no taste option. So this time, I got to pick an actual dessert for him to eat and he couldn't complain. He's been talking about banana splits for months now so we went out and got him a banana split. He scarfed it down and said that he could have eaten two more. I think that the other 9 people who voted "yes" to Bryce having red hair owe me ice cream. You know who you are!

I'm still trying to get some cute pictures of Bryce to post. He sleeps all the time, way more than Cason did at this age. In the meantime, here are a couple of videos of Cason.

Can you guess what Cason watches Daddy do a lot?

And this is just a video of Cason doing his favorite puzzle. It's pretty long so only watch it if you are bored and have 6 minutes to kill. Oh and notice the paintbrush sitting next to the puzzle. Yes, he still carries that almost everywhere.

Bryce Patrick

Two years ago when I was pregnant with Cason, I had a placental abruption that required an emergency c-section. I thought the recovery from that was pretty rough and I couldn't imagine coming home to a very active toddler while trying to recover from another c-section. So early in this pregnancy, I decided that I wanted to try for a VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarian section).

Here are the details of Bryce's birth, as much as I care to go into them:)

Tuesday night (May 12th), I started having contractions around 10pm. They came pretty steady every 5-7 minutes all night. I didn't get any sleep because they were fairly strong and would wake me up if I did doze off. But they didn't get any closer together or stronger so I was a nice wife and let Kelly sleep.

Same thing all day Wednesday. About 5-10 minutes apart so we just waited around at home all day. Kelly even went to the gym that afternoon while Cason napped. At 3:30, he finally came home and the contractions were very steady and getting stronger so I told him I thought we needed to go. Kelly scrambled to get some stuff together and drop Cason off at the neighbor's house.

We got to the hospital around 4:30. I went to triage and I was at 4 centimeters so they moved me to a labor & delivery room.

Half an hour later, I was checked again and was at 7 centimeters.

About 7:00 I got checked again and was only at 8 centimeters. I caved and got an epidural. That totally stalled me and I got stuck at 9 cm for a couple of hours. They gave me two small doses of pitocin which barely worked. Then Bryce's heart rate kept dropping so a repeat c-section was mentioned several times. My doctor gave me an ultimatum of one more hour to be ready to push or else he was going to operate.

I guess that was the threat that Bryce and I needed to hear because a half hour later, my nurse gave me the go ahead to try pushing. After about 40 minutes of pushing, Bryce was born at 10:42 pm on May 13th. He weighed a whopping 8 pounds, 15 ounces. We were shocked because Cason was only 7 pounds, 3 ounces. Bryce was 21 1/4 inches long.

When I first saw Bryce, I didn't have a clue who he looked like. He looked nothing like Cason did when he was born. Now at 4 days old, he is starting to grow into his cheeks. He reminds me of a kitten because he rarely opens his eyes. He is a really good baby who loves to sleep and is pretty mellow.

These are all pictures from the hospital. I haven't really taken any since we got home so I will update soon with better pictures.

He looks really chunky in this picture. I assure you, he's not that chunky!

Cason meeting Bryce and giving him a kiss. Cason is pretty indifferent towards Bryce. I'm sure that will change in time but for now, I'm glad that he's not jealous.

Navy SEAL Fitness Challenge

Last month, Kelly found out about the Navy SEAL Fitness Challenge coming to our area. He really needed a new workout challenge so he signed up. The Challenge involved swimming 500 yards, push-ups, sit-ups, pull-ups, and a 1.5 mile run. We knew he'd do great at all of the -ups, do okay at the run, but were worried about the swim. The last time Kelly swam laps was, um, well, never. Two weeks ago, Kelly decided to join the local gym since his workout room was stolen by Bryce. They have a decent lap pool so he spent quite a few days in there trying to work on his swimming form. Had he not done this, he probably wouldn't have been able to finish the swim portion of the challenge.

Participants in the fitness challenge received a white shirt if they completed all of the events, a beige shirt (although they called it yellow) if they met SEAL training school entrance requirements, and a blue shirt if they met SEAL competitive standards. Had it not been for the swim, Kelly probably would have received a yellow or blue shirt. But he is happy with himself that he was able to finish the swim and Cason and I are very proud of him. He also discovered that swimming is a great thing to add to his workout so if the fitness challenge comes here next year, I'm sure that he will do much better.

I couldn't get a good action shot of Kelly swimming but here he is right after he finished. He swam the 500 yards in 15:56.

He did 94 push-ups in 2 minutes. This was almost the highest amount of anyone on his team.

63 sit-ups in two minutes.

19 pull-ups, 22 was the highest on his team. So close!

Cason was sooooo good the whole time we were there (almost 4 hours). Keep him fed, keep him happy I always say.

Cheering Daddy on? It appears so but he's really just shaking the fence.

Kelly ran 1.5 miles in 11:30.

Cason's cheesy grin.

The awards ceremony where they handed out shirts.

Kelly's team, the white team. I'm not sure how many teams there were but there were a lot. The participants competed against the clock and the minimums for the shirts but the best times or highest number in each event got a medal.

Kelly with his white shirt.

Good job Kelly! We are so proud of you and I'm just happy that I didn't go into labor before today so you could participate!