It's August again
A whole year since Bruce was born
Closing this chapter
In some ways, this past year has seemed like:
366 nights of "less than ideal" sleep
Nearly 1000 hours in the nursing chair
Close to 300 hours of bouncing to Phil Rice's cd
Quite possibly 200 hours at the high chair
At least 3000 diapers
Over 1200 times strapping Bruce into his car seat
Probably close to a 100 or more trips to Wal-mart
And countless miles in the car driving all over the country
In other ways, I feel like this year passed in the blink of an eye, and somehow, while my eyes were closed for that second, my little baby turned into a little boy!
So what is that little boy up to? He's really working hard on walking and talking! He can walk all over the place if he has a piece of furniture to hold on to, or has something to push ahead of him. He hates when you hold his hands though, so there's no walking while cutely attached to our fingers - yet. We don't feel like we can confidently say we've heard Bruce say any intelligible words, but so far MAYBE we've heard him say truck, cat, hat, touch, duck and Dada. But that's a stretch.
This month we got out some "big boy" toys for Bruce - and he's crazy about them! Mainly they're the Little Peoples brand. He has a hand-me-down air plane, barn, and Noah's ark, along with several gender-ambiguous rolly-poly people and cute animals to go with them. His favorites include the farmer (naturally, with the straw hat and all) and the mechanic/scientist. (I can't really tell what he's supposed to be.) He loves that the plane plays music, and thinks Noah should drive the tow truck rather than stay stuck in the ark.
 |
| Playing in the spaceship play area |
There's always new games to be found for this kid! This month he loves throwing a toy, then crawling over to it and throwing it again. He also thinks it's hilarious when he picks up a piece of "tiny something" on the carpet - he catches my eye so he knows that I know that he knows he's not supposed to have it, starts to put it in his mouth, squeals, then "runs" away - crawls a bit, then whips around to catch my eye again, and does it all again. He's a nut! He's also become a little OCD about the way things "should" be. If you play with a toy a certain way, he tries really hard to play with it the same way. If you take a lid off of something, he wants to put it back on. If you take something out of a box, he wants to put it back in. It's really fun to watch him figure things out, unless he gets frustrated when he can't get it quite right!
 |
| Playing in a pillow crate at Sam's Club |
 |
| It was like quicksand! |
Bruce is completely done with baby foods now, and is even venturing on to more sophisticated foods - you know - like tacos. And spaghetti. He won't go for the garlic mashed potatoes yet, but all in good time... all in good time. We've also begun the process of weaning, with fairly good success. Bruce still seems a little confused by it all, but has been a pretty good sport. He seems to like cow's milk, and does a decent job drinking out of a cup. He has trouble with a sippy still, so we just go for the real deal.
 |
| At the Taco Truck for a Birthday Lunch! |
Probably my favorite new development this month, is that Bruce has started to enjoy books and being read to! He'll even sit still (almost) in a chair with you while you read to him for a little bit. Right now his favorite books include Blue Hat, Green Hat and Hippos Go Berserk by Sandra Boynton, Brown Bear, Brown Bear and Will You Be My Friend by Eric Carle, and The Little Blue Truck by Alice Schertle. He never gets tired of them! (And neither do I) Bruce has never been interested in cuddling, or sitting on laps, or anything of that nature - he's always on the go - so this has been a welcomed addition to our daily activities!
 |
| Opening presents with Granny K! |
We had a birthday party for Bruce the weekend before his birthday. We invited some friends over for a hotdog cookout, and were thankful the rain cleared up in time for people to be able to spend time outdoors. It was a packed house! We're so thankful so many people love our baby! Charlie found a great deal on Craig's List for a free tractor tire sandbox, which made a perfect birthday present!
 |
| Bruce and his buddy Judah! |
 |
| ohhhh... I think I can do that too... |
 |
| Tractor tire smash cake |
 |
| Everyone else's cake |
We've hit a few obstacles, but our chickens are doing pretty great! We started with 17, but three of them died within the first couple of days from shock. That's pretty typical unfortunately, that's why they sent us some extra to begin with. Then, the first day we put them in the outside pen, one died from heat exhaustion. A few days later, I guess a few chickens got the idea to plan an escape. The lower two feet of the pen has smaller openings in the wire, but towards the top of the cage, the holes are big enough for small chicks to fly out of. We assumed those holes were too high for our little guys, but we were wrong! We noticed one night some feathers caught in the upper cage wire, and that one of the girls was limping. Upon further investigation, we discovered that she had torn a huge gash in her leg. Thankfully, our neighbors work in the medical field, and Ryan was able to put a few sutures in to help her out! She camped out inside in the dog crate for a few days, with daily dopings of neosporin and betadine, and has made a complete recovery! (Good thing too, because she might be our only copper colored hen) The morning after we noticed the hurt hen, I did a head count on our chicks, and realized we were missing a buff one! So I guess the two were in on it together, but one made a clean get away! So we're down to twelve chicks, and I think soon we'll be able to decisively tell which ones are males and which are females. The plan is to keep six, and then if that turns out to be too many for our hen house, we can always put two up on Craig's List later. We've been getting friendly with them by offering up some mealworm treats a couple times a day, and I can't wait to give them names!
 |
| Grady County Fair Chickens |
Last weekend we adopted a new group of Korean students through the Friends to International Students organization at OU. We've been a host family for several years, but took a bit of a break last year with Bruce. It's exciting to get back involved with the program though! We have five students that will be a part of our family this year. We're looking forward to having them over for dinners and introducing them to our culture!
We're loving the (somewhat) cooler temperatures and are ready to eagerly embrace the coming Fall season!
No comments:
Post a Comment