Seventeen

Bryson's now seventeen months old! He loves to 'help' with certain chores, such as shutting the dishwasher door, washing the car, rinsing off his toothbrush and occasionally bringing us a diaper.

* He's wearing 18-24 month clothing and depending on the brand, size 5 1/2 to 6 shoes.
* He's wearing size 4 diapers.
* Bryson LOVES Elmo and Sesame Street! He has a great 'Ernie laugh' and favors Cookie Monster.

* He's starting to talk more- saying 'cookie', 'NaNa' (Nannie), 'Papa', 'Stinky' when he needs his diaper changed and so on.

* Bryson's still a huge thumb sucker....ugh....

* The fit throwing has started. When he doesn't get his way and he's mad about it, he'll throw himself on the floor and cry.

* He LOVES to give kisses and hugs. He blows kisses and waves/says 'bye bye' every time we leave school, home, etc.

Bryson is turning into a delightful toddler and I can't wait to see what the next few months hold as he talks more and more!!

Snow Day!

I've been itchin' for a good snow day. Even though, it's silly to wish for one, because if I don't work, I don't get paid. Nevertheless, I woke up at 4:30AM Thursday morning-giddy-to see the snow falling!

My nephew Asher came over to spend the day with us, as my SIL and Brandon both had to work. The boys only spent a short amount of time outside, but we had a GREAT day. Bryson loves playing with his cousin and Asher does a great job of entertaining him.

Bryson did really well with the snow, until he face planted into it. He enjoyed it from the sled- but as soon as he fell off, he was DONE. He was almost impossible to calm (as it was nap time) so I just put him to bed and let Asher play a few minutes longer. Then neighborhood kids enjoyed pulling Bryson and Asher around though!

Speech

A friend of mine recently published a book for parents titled 'Teaching Speech the Fun Way". It's basically a 'how-to' book for parents to teach their children proper articulation techniques. If your child struggles with just a few sounds/has just a few sound errors- I'd highly recommend this book!

Right now, it's only $10 on Amazon and qualifies for free shipping! Monica in no way asked me to write this post- I've just recommended it to so many of my clients, I figure why not put it out there on my blog too! :)

2010 in Review

January 2010- a slow, but long month. Bryson started full-time day care at his current facility and had RSV. Yuck.

February 2010- Bryson is now 6 months old!

March 2010- I joined Jazzercise and lost the majority of my baby weight (still a little bit hangin' on though). Bryson started to crawl, and we finally were able to play outside some!

April 2010- Bryson received his first set of PE tubes for his ears. These tubes (in retrospect) actually caused more problems then they were worth......

Bryson started to pull to stand this month.

May 2010- Bryson took his first trip to the lake and I celebrated my first mother's day. Also, the charter school I contract with was hit by a small tornado, which made for an interesting last week of school. Thank goodness none of my materials were ruined.

June 2010-Bryson got his 1st haircut!!!! We took a Diaper Dolphins swim class, and played outside almost every night with the neighbors.

July 2010- We enjoyed our annual neighborhood potluck/4th of July party and Bryson started walking! Career wise, I made a drastic move and took a leap of faith.....

August 2010- My business partner and I opened our own private practice!!! We celebrated Bryson's 1st Birthday, and he started going to daycare 4 days a week and I am finally able to spend more time with him.

September 2010- I really can't remember much from September! We wrapped up the summer by going to lake Texoma, and we were blessed to find a new ENT who promptly replaced Bryson's PE tubes with the correct set and removed his adenoids. A huge sigh of relief- we saw a great reduction in the amount of drainage from his ears.

October 2010- Brandon's parents came to visit and we had a blast taking Bryson to the pumpkin patch and dressing him up for Halloween. Also, Brandon and I had a much needed getaway weekend to Eureka Springs!

November 2o10- Simply Speaking opened its OWN, free-standing office in Jenks! As a family, we continued to cheer on our OSU Cowboys in football, traveled to Texas for Thanksgiving and got more involved with our church.

December 2010- Simply Speaking really started taking off! We thoroughly enjoyed Bryson's first 'real' Christmas season and watching him open gifts Christmas morning.

I can't wait to see what 2011 holds for our family, Simply Speaking and our friends!