Sick day!

What a perfect sick day, if there is such a thing.
I have been sick forever. New year, I guess. It is a scratchy voice sickness without a whole lot of other symptoms. People have a lot of sympathy when you sound bad. So I am going with it. Wednesday my mom came for a visit. It was just in time. Bryce got in a fight (over a bike) and got bit. Then I guess he found a way to eat sand. And you can guess the outcome of that. So this morning when I woke up, I thought, I can rush around and get the monster to day care OR I can sleep in since my mom is staying for the morning. So I slept in and my mom left right after Bryce went down for a nap which will hopefully last for 3 hours. And OH YAY Damon just got home. 1:45 and the perfect sick day! Gotta go.

Happy Birthday B

Here’s to you, Bryce Kingsbury Roberts, our big 1 year old
Who loves his Kitty and would love his dog Tarn if Tarn would let him give kisses
Here’s to you who waves at everyone on a hike and in a restaurant
And double waves to a room to make sure everyone is watching
Here’s to you who does the “more” sign when birds fly over
And “says” more books
Here’s to you who repeats words like “troll”, “kitty”, and “bubbles”
And makes a sound like “thank you”
Here’s to you who will put up with almost anything unless it has to do with changing clothes or diapers
You have brought so much love and happiness into our lives!
Happy Birthday Bryce!

One year ago yesterday was supposed to be Bryce's due date. It is so crazy that on the same day one year later I feel so relaxed. I should whip myself into a frenzy and put all of the stuff away that I moved home this morning, pack for tomorrow (Bryce is going to day care and I have a meeting at work), and pack for camping this weekend. But it is not going to happen. I guess I'll have to whip myself into a frenzy tomorrow. I think Bryce just fell asleep. Bryce is crawling like a maniac. What happened. I looked through the last four blogs and saw him barely start eating toast and playing with kitty on the ground not moving. Wow, what a difference a summer can make. He eats anything and is into everything. Mentally I am trying to figure out how to rearrange everything to give him maximum exploring and separate him and Tarn. Tarn is not having the crawling and is much more territorial in his home. Maybe we will just give up and give Tarn the couch. We celebrated Bryce's birthday this week with a visit to the zoo and a pizza party with family and friends. Bryce loved all the attention and all of the times he got to go in the water. Then spent one night at the Pass and packed up all of our stuff this morning and came home. Sure I'd love a few more days to get organized, but that would have been time we weren't enjoying the Pass, Damon and all of the family and friends we got to spend time with. It was such a great relaxing and needed summer (at least for Bryce and I). My feet are so dirty it is going to take a long time to scrub off the filth. Back to the grind I guess. I am going to follow the advice of the so wise Heather...busy is a state of mind, I am not going to buy into it. No more frenzy. At least for today. My aunt Sandy took these pictures of Bryce's birthday celebration. Bryce learned early that one minute you are covered in shat and the next minute you are covered in cake. Cheers to almost a year of Bryce!

The most productive day

I rushed home to Yakima because the housesitter said Kitty was peeing and pooping all over the house. Since we ditched Kitty all summer, I felt horrible. Arriving in Yakima feels like our fun relaxing summer on the Pass is coming to an end. I guess since I already feel sad and heavy that must mean I have had a pretty good time. Which is true, it has been a vacation for me. I have loved hiking everyday and being closer to the West Side. I have loved all the visitors. I have loved waking up day after day with nothing to do but entertain Bryce. I have loved sitting on deck in the evening waving to the cars going by and laughing at Damon's embarrassment. That leads me to the most productive day ever. Today. I opened and read all of my mail for the summer. I paid all of my bills (even the hearing test for Bryce in the hospital - 11 months later). I swept and mopped, cleaned the bathroom. Washed the sheets. Took Bryce to visit at Day Care. Went to Costco. Went swimsuit shopping and bought a swimsuit. Fed, bathed and took care of Bryce. Bought a new phone. And updated the blog. Expect updates on a regular basis after August 20th. Oh ya, Kitty is fine, there was no evidence of his using the restroom all over the house, which doesn't speak to the yard looking like a big giant cat pissed all over it. The neighbors must wonder about us. Half the time we have a trailer in the driveway and the other half the time the house is abandoned. I'd guess meth lab.

Hiking Monster

We are loving the pass. Lazy days of naps and hikes. We have started lots of hikes, but haven't finished many. Bryce is good for about 2 hours. You can see he has can even snooze on the hikes. We have had my parents, my aunt Sandy, and Janice, Micah and Sawyer come for hikes. We love having visitors on our hikes so please come visit. Call or text, I don't really have great computer access. Today we are headed to Elko and will be there until next Tuesday. Then next week I have a conference in Crakima. But other than that, I'd love to take you on a hike! The only downfall of the summer is not having Kitty with us. But he is sitting next to me and seems no worse for the wear (thanks Nate!).

Lucky

This a long one but I think it so cute! What could be cuter, Bryce, Kitty, and Tarn. I know I am a bad parent. Bryce's favorite toy, a 1.99 cat toy, probably made in China, with who knows what chemicals on it. I remember taking it away from my dad when he first let him play with it. And yes, I know he can poke his eye out with it, and I know you are not supposed to let your baby hang with the dog. But he likes it. Bryce again got to hang with the grandparents for a couple of weeks. He loved it! We will have to come off the grandparent hang over and get into our routine. I have mapped out his feeding schedule and the baby whisperer said now is prime time to potty train. Hmmm, we'll see. Grandma turned 60 and Bryce got to help her celebrate. And I finished my internship and now I am officially done with school forever. Have my first official school psychology job starting August 20th and have 10 weeks of Bryce time. I am calling it Maternity Leave. Don't expect me to be productive. How many ways can you say Lucky??? Happy Birthday MOM - 60 years young. I hope I look half as good as you at 60! Thanks for taking care of Mr. B and cleaning my car.

Hike 1

My video camera was full so I needed to get some videos off there. Mostly it is Bryce clapping. He has learned to clap his feet. I will be plugging that in for crawling when asked about developmental milestone. Ya - he doesn't crawl, but he does clap his feet. We spent 4 nights up at The Pass in the cabin. It is very nice and very fun. I went for 3 hikes only 1 was to completion so I am down to 54 hikes to do. Not sure if I should count it since my dad carried Bryce. True to form, it rained the whole time. Ask Damon how he likes it up there since he was working most of the time. We made a trip to REI and Trader Joes in Issaquah. Tarn got a backpack. He is going to start carrying his weight.