Phew!

This has been a whirlwind of a long weekend! The festivities began on Wednesday for
Bryce's 2nd Birthday! Bryce still needed some help to blow out the candles, but was very intrigued by the smoke!

A picture of the "Choo-Choo" cake before we dug in! Bryce couldn't wait for us to get him a plate!

Cake and kisses!

Bryce openening his birthday gift from Mimi (and this picture has a bonus element in that you get to see how big my belly is now!)

"Wow-ee" A farm animal puzzle!

On Thursday, Macky came over and gave Bryce his birthday presents... Cowboy boots and hat! Bryce even walks like a cowboy when he has his boots on!

Macky also brought up hydroponic tomato kit, so Bryce helped Jeremy plant the tomato seeds. Bryce was and is super interested in what is happening with the seeds...hopefully, they will survive his attention!

Later that evening (Thanksgiving), Jackie and Julien joined us for dinner. Julien rejected all of the food I made (even the pies!), but he and Bryce had a fantastic time playing!

Bryce and Julien are both very skilled drummers, though, we all would have liked it more if they had felt the urge to drum on something a little softer and quieter!

On Friday, we went to the NYC Transit Museum for Bryce's birthday party. He had a fantastic time and was joined by a few of his friends (Eva, Daphne and Julien).

Here, Bryce and Eva are playing on the subway cars. The museum has a variety of cars (throughout the ages) that you can explore.

Bryce particularly enjoyed being able to run...everywhere!

He also felt knowledgeable enough about the museum to act as a tour guide!

The weekend ended with Julien's 2nd birthday party, which was lots of fun. Unfortunately, my camera never came out of my bag while we were there...

Lunchtime

Bryce's new favorite game is "lunchtime". He serves us water, tea, sandwiches, green beans, pasta, meatballs...and occasionally cake. It is amazing how much his pretend meals mimic our own "real" meals - he is very observant!

Here's Bryce practicing for tomorrow. He knows he will be turning "2 years old" and is trying to learn how to show it on his fingers. I can't believe that it was two years ago that I was in labor!

Daddy's Little Helper

Jeremy was installing a few shelves in a closet this evening, and of course, Bryce needed to help! There is a song from "Free to Be You and Me" that runs through my head a lot now (because Bryce wants to help with everything!)... "Some kind of help is the kind of help that helping's all about and some kind of help is the kind of help that we all can do without!"After watching his daddy, Bryce was pretty sure he could do the work himself...

Finger Paint!

When it is cold and rainy outside and you have a cold, the only thing left to do is pull out the finger paint!Bryce was a little disturbed by the "mess" on his hands, but ultimately had fun smearing the paint all over the tray.

Fun with Julien

Bryce has had a fun-filled week, as usual. On Friday, we met up with Jackie and Julien to go to the Children's Museum. Bryce led the way to the museum and was only momentarily distracted by all of the leave piles along the way. When we first arrived, we headed to the water area first.

Bryce and Julien eventually decided that it would be more fun to play with a ball maze. An extra bonus was getting to take the super large smocks off!

On Saturday, we met up again with Jackie and Julien at Music Together. On the walk back to the subway and Farmer's Market, Bryce and Julien played in the leaves. Jeremy was the instigator, but Bryce caught on pretty fast!

What cuties!

2-Year Check-up and Election Day!

Bryce went in for his 2-year check-up yesterday and is in perfect health. You would have thought he was in a torture chamber, though... he screamed the entire time the doctor was in the room and she doesn't even give him any shots! He did have to have blood drawn and get a flu shot, so the screaming that went along with those made more sense.

Bryce now weighs 26 pounds and is 34.5" tall (both of which are in the 25th percentile). Assuming nothing unusual comes about from the blood work and that Bryce stays healthy through the winter, we don't have to go back to the doctor until he is 3!

After the doctor's appointment, we took Bryce to go vote. He has really loved seeing all the pictures of Barack Obama and when asked who we were going to vote for, he would answer "Barack Obama". The funniest part is that when we were standing on the subway platform waiting for a train, a well-dressed, light-skinned black man walked by and Bryce called out and pointed..."Barack Obama!" The man didn't hear, but another woman who was nearby thought it was hysterical!

Happy Halloween!

On Halloween-eve, I made a ghost cake with flaming eyes. Bryce thought the cake was very interesting and particularly enjoyed getting to eat some! (Please ignore the obvious chaos in our new and not finished apartment...)

The next night - Halloween - we were to head over to our old neighborhood to meet friends (Jackie and Julien) and see/participate in the Halloween parade. However, Bryce took a late nap and then absolutely did NOT want to put on a costume. He also did not like that I had a costume on, too. Eventually, we convinced Bryce it is fun to put on a disguise and made it over to our neighborhood, but missed the parade activities. Thankfully, Jackie had made a delicious lasagna dinner and Bryce had tons of fun playing with all of Julien's toys!