More Firsts

I remember before Bryant turned 1 how many firsts he had and how exciting they were.  He's growing up so fast it is hard to recognize all the changes that he makes.  But this last weekend, he had some more firsts that were pretty exciting for all of us.  Bryant was invited to his first birthday party that was not a friend of mom and dad too.  So first we had to go shopping for his friend.  Bryant originally wanted to give his friend his invitation back as a gift, but we convinced him otherwise.  He also thought the flags were really fun, but not for a gift.

The party was scheduled to be at the park, but due to snowy weather, it was changed to the Carousel.  Bryant continued his picky nature and at first, would only ride the big frog.

But once he found this bench, he loved it.  He was waving, blowing in his little party favor, and just being silly!

It was fun for Travis and I to see how Bryant interacts with his friends from school.  I've noticed a huge change in him since he moved up to the Deer room.  He used to be so shy and wouldn't hardly make eye contact with strangers and at the party he was talking to all the people he didn't know.  He was so independent (even rode the carousel without mom or dad) and followed his friends around.  He cried when we left because his friend couldn't come over to his house to play.

The other first is that I would go so far as to say that he is officially potty trained...no more diapers!!!

He is still seeming to be quite the little athlete...I'm probably a bit biased, but I'm so impressed with his hand-eye coordination for how many times he can hit the baseball and he's got pretty good throwing form:)  Grandma and Grandpa Handl were up for a bit this last weekend and I would say they were impressed too!

On a side note, I've seen where people record funny things that their kids say, so as I remember them, I'll try to include them here so that I can remember all the fun conversations we have.  The other day we were going for a walk around our neighborhood and Travis and Bryant were having a conversation and Travis asked "why" a couple times.  Bryant's response: "Stop saying why".  I wonder where he heard that before...must have been at school ;)

Times are a changin'

I haven't downloaded pictures in a little bit, so here's a few from the past couple weeks.  In this short time frame, Bryant's been changing so much.  The other night he wanted to play soccer - I think we will definitely have to sign him up for fall soccer because he was sure having fun.  Especially when he scored and the song played.

He got a book from school the other day and when we got home, he just wanted to stay in the car and read.

He goes from a very studious passenger to a very silly passenger in a really short time frame.

Last weekend was a big weekend for Bryant.  It was his first weekend in big boy underwear.  We went to the Dollar Store and picked out a whole bunch of potty treats - one of which was his bug catcher

He has been doing pretty well all week with only a few accidents.  Accidents comes with more laundry, so who doesn't want laundry basket rides? 

He also got a lot of bubble potty treats, each of which were quickly spilled outside on accident.  Clever daddy thought about making our own bubbles, so we grabbed the ingredients and headed to Grandma and Grandpa's house to make a mess.  But, we built some huge bubbles!

So among potty training this week, Bryant's daycare also asked me if he could start transitioning to move up to the next classroom at school.  I was happy that he was moving because all his buddies recently moved up.  So on Wednesday after breakfast in his deer room, he went to the bear room and got to play around.  When they went to take him back to his rabbit room, he refused to go!  It definitely made for a quick transition:)  His first day he told me that he was really shy at school and ever since I've been getting reports that he is smiley and cheerful.  Maybe our shy little boy is coming out of his shell.  Besides our challenges to see who can be more stubborn (probably me), Bryant is at such a fun age.  I love all his stories and his imagination - the other night he had a tiger in his room that roared.  He didn't come back the next night because he told him "not in my house" and put up a fence so he couldn't get in.

Cousin Fun

On Saturday, my brother and his daughters came up for some fun.  They made us a play-doh dinner - Zoey made tortillas, Bryant made hot dogs, and Reagan was making water.

The entire weekend was so windy and the only thing that I think wind is good for is kite flying.

Reagan cracks me up in this picture as she watches Bryant and Zoey flying their kites.

Bouncy castle fun!

They also got to color their own monster mask.  I would have gotten a picture of the end product, but Bryant didn't want to wear his.

Bryant was having so much fun that he didn't want to take a nap and we sure had one tired boy for the rest of the weekend!  

Happy Easter!

Bryant's been prepping for Easter all week with projects at school and on Thursday, they had an Easter Egg Hunt.  I didn't want him bringing his nice basket to school and losing it or getting it dirty, so we made a quick stop at the Dollar Store and he found a soccer ball Easter basket!  He had so much fun at their school hunt and couldn't stop talking about all the candy and stickers that he got.

On Friday we met up with Grandma and Grandpa Zanto for dinner where he ate a lot of food and proclaimed he was all done.  We got home with his Easter presents from Grandma and Grandpa and he grabbed his bunny cookie and said "I'm hungry for this"

Obviously not M&Ms since it was definitely melting in his hand!

Then we got ready for his friends birthday party.  He picked out their presents, bags, and cards all by himself.  It was funny when he woke up the next morning and saw the presents.  He forgot they were for his friends and thought the Easter Bunny came early:)

We did a few practice egg hunts at home in preparation for the neighborhood hunt and realized that baskets make good hats too!

We must have wore him out with practice because when we got to the neighborhood hunt, Bryant was too shy to want to play.

It was a good thing there was over 500 eggs for the 12 or so kids because it took Bryant a long time to finally warm up and get some eggs.

And he still got a ton of stuff!

He immediately had to try his new bubbles

and kite!  The wind wasn't blowing much, so we taught him how to run and fly the kite.

And then it was Easter Sunday!  Bryant was so excited with his gifts from the Easter Bunny!

Elmo!!!!

He also got some fun presents from my Aunt Sheri and Uncle Carl.

I've never seen a kid get so excited for clothes before, but he LOVES this new shirt.  His favorite shirt is his long-sleeve basketball shirt (see pictures from Saturday), so this will definitely be the new fave as the weather gets nicer.

He loves to hammer, so his new game from the Easter Bunny was a big hit.

After presents and breakfast, we headed to Whitehall to see Grandma and Grandpa Handl.  Bryant was exhausted from his busy day on Saturday between egg hunts and birthday parties.  So tired that he fell asleep in Church during the first song.  He slept through children's time, but wasn't forgotten as he still got a flower like all the other kids:)

The weather was crazy - it snowed like crazy in the morning/early afternoon, so Grandpa and Bryant built a snowman.  By the time we left, the snow was almost completely melted.  

The weather didn't cooperate for Bryant to get to use his new kite from Grandma and Grandpa, but I'm sure he'll get to enjoy it soon enough - especially when he finds out that he doesn't have to run the whole time to make a kite fly!

And more egg hunts!

We had a great weekend with lots of family - so much to be grateful for!  Happy Easter!