I shouldn't think this is funny...

Merry Christmas from the Kingsbury/Roberts Family!

Here is your e christmas card. Bryce got his once a week hair washing, his bangs snipped and a sweater vest dropped over his head. Then he chose not to sit still, pointed his finger at me and said no-no, and finally dumped the dog's water to end the ill fated photo shoot. His calm sitting shot minus the sweater vest (thanks for the hand me down Janice) was while he watched baby einstein christmas. Thanks mom and dad for the cute whales to hang on our Christmas tree. We actually made it up to the mountains to cut down a tree this year. We are slowly working on decorating it. Anyway it's been a good year (blah, blah) and we are looking forward to a similarly good one in 2011. Hope your holidays find you and yours in good health and good spirits because truly nothing else matters!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We are spending Thanksgiving in Yakima for the first time. It is kind of nice to not have to drive. Ask me after I go to the grocery store. It is so busy, but will try to be better at updating. The monster is walking. He walks like frankenstein. So cute. You have to love his nerd outfit. A grandpa sweater like my great grandpa Pops used to wear. This one has a whale so I had to buy it at the Goodwill. He is also wearing his black leather shoes with a star on it, a polo shirt, and later he was wearing high water sweats with his outfit. I will be missing my family on Thanksgiving and the laziness of not having to cook, but am amused by this whole Thanksgiving meal thing. I have spent my whole life trying to pretend like the food thing at Thanksgiving doesn't exist. I guess it does so off to the store I go. Lots of love to all of you!!!!

Happy Anniversary!

We are celebrating 3 years today! Damon is hoping to come down from the pass and I have a conference that gets over at 1:15. Yesterday was long and today will be short. Sunday we celebrated Tarn's birthday. He had sausage, steak, a trip to the dog park and a walk. A good day for him.

Patch

Moo! Bauk! Bryce loved the baby cows and chickens at the pumpkin patch. There was a goat ladder, too. That is a ramp the two goats are supposed to climb (?) After our goat attack at the fair, Bryce and I let Damon take the goat food. A very friendly goat that had escaped was getting hearded by a dog and it was all to crazy to deal with. The food got thrown again. It was very cold out and although we arrived when the paper said it was open, I guess we were an hour early. They let us tramp around and pick out a pumpkin and go in the maze. Bryce wasn't big on the maze since plants kept hitting him in the face. Mostly he just likes to ride in the wagon, so he would be happy in a dump if he got to ride in the wagon. This morning he stood by the door clapping his hands together in the more sign and pointing to the wagon. He also said "more" and pointed to his bed Thursday night. You gotta love him. We didn't get to see the pumpkin cannon since we were too early. Maybe next year.

Stuck like glue

Have you heard the song that has a line "you and me are stuck like glue". That is me and Bryce. Stuck like glue. We are celebrating our stuckness by having (another) sick day. Are you seeing a pattern here? He woke up this morning covered in spots. I quickly took him to the doctor. The regular doctor is out on Wednesdays and I have seen this doctor before. Both times it was a "yep he's sick" and that will cost 85$. Good thing we have already maxed out our portion of the deductible and Bryce is now double covered. It probably won't cost a thing and I got a get back into day care free note. Plus, it is just a virus so we can do stuff. Now I better come up with something to do. My parents took Bryce to the pumpkin patch. There is a pumpkin patch in Naches that slingshots pumpkins. Hopefully, I can convince Damon we need to go there for a visit this weekend. Well, here's to spots and another day off. Hope my sick days last.

we forgot the camera to go to the fair.
bryce loved the horses.
big horses and little horses.
he loved licking anything was a railing near an animal.
baa to the sheeps.
attacked by a goat mama and two baby's in the petting zoo.
signed more to the big circle ride. then it was scary.
that was it, away we went.

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.

Toast Monster

I guess he just wanted some toast. Toast eaten in a matter of seconds.

Canyon for a day bike ride

So happy to have visitors to participate in the Canyon for a day! Bryce made it close to 10 miles in his trailer behind Damon. It is depressing when Damon takes off up a hill with the trailer streaming after him and you are going so slow just to try to make it up. KC, Laurel, Mom, Dad and Sandy joined us for Bryce's first ride. Glad to have turned around 9.4 miles in to beat the pouring rain. Next year, back to riding the whole thing. Bryce seemed to enjoy lounging in the trailer. He loves his skin suit and his helmet hawk.

Flashback Friday

Heather took this cute picture when Bryce was a few weeks old. We are having so much fun with this cute little monster. Right now I am hoping that he sleeps a couple of minutes longer so I can finish a cup of coffee. That probably won't happen since Tarn is loud barking at Kitty right now. I am about as excited to Friday's as I have ever been. Partly because I am so tired, equivalently tired as I was in January. Not as tired as I was last February, when I was pregnant, working full time and going to class three nights a week. (Tarn if you don't stop whining at the lady walking her dog- I am going to snap). So I am about a 7 on the tired scale. A 10 being October of this year and a 9 being February of last year. I just wanted to honor this last year and how hard it has been. Literally, I have started 3 new jobs and had to close them out before moving onto the next job with a brand new baby and for the last month a husband gone most of the week. My parents have been so helpful, and my aunt Sandy has come to take care of Bryce. We would not, could not have done it without them. AND I get summer off. 13 days to go.

We think the soy formula is working. Bryce started eating and started saying ball. If he starts crawling in the next few days, it will be official.

The fence finally got done being painted. About 9 months after it got started. Damon started painting the fence a the week we had Bryce. I did not help at all. Damon did some, his friend Troy did some, my dad did lots, and my mom did some. Me, I am like Tom Sawyer and just picked up the paint brush at the end. The paint alone for the stupid fence probably cost over 500$. What. We even have some extra for the next time we get tagged. Bring it on want to be gangsters. Paint the fence. Damon fixed the irrigation. Seriously, we aren't doing any more work on this house. We also got to have a hot date, thanks to super sitters, mom and dad. Next weekend is the Canyon Ride. Should be interesting since I haven't rode a bike since last Canyon ride when I was 7 months pregnant.

My parents to the rescue again!

The drain got backed up between our house and the sewer line. Water was coming up into the bathtub and around the toilet. So my dad came and snaked it and fixed it. We'll be doing some, hopefully, painting of the fence (you know the one that started getting painted the day after Bryce was born) and fixing the irrigation lines. The irrigation has been a thorn in our side since the day we bought the house. Then the house will be in business for the summer while we aren't around. Here is Bryce playing with his friend Logan on a recent trip to Wenatchee. Logan was born at 26 weeks old or something crazy like that. Bryce is now showing Tarn his treat and not giving it to him. Awww I better get to work. Loving the sunshine. Happy weekend all.

Kitty Joy

We are so excited! We have found a place at the pass. 5 weeks to go and then 10 weeks of living in the mountains and being a stay at home mom with Bryce. I know there are a lot of you out there that are working odd schedules or working at home with the munchkins, so please join me as I attempt to hike all 55 trails in the Snoqualmie Pass trail guidebook. We can pick a hike that fits your time frame. The longer hikes will be done near the end of the summer when I am in shape!

Baby Goats

Bryce met his first baby goat. The baby goat was 4 days old and lives at the assistant day care teachers fathers house. Only a baby goat would prompt me to ask someone I don't really know if I can go to their parents house to see it. So Friday night after work we visited the baby goat. As you can see Bryce was much more taken with the noisy momma goat. The baby goat was so cute. It felt like holding Dairy cat, so soft and all limp. This baby has not started bouncing but she was so cute. For my 34th birthday, Mom and Dad allowed us to take a night away. Although it was hard to leave Bryce, it was not hard to leave all of his stuff behind. We were able to go for a real hike, with some actual mileage and elevation gain. Then we spent the night in Hood River. It was so perfectly relaxing and we appreciated knowing that Bryce was in good hands. Then it was off to a hard week with Damon at the pass and me doing the single mom thing. Definately not easy, and makes me really appreciate what single moms go through. The house is starting to look like I am a Hoarder so that needs to be addressed this weekend. 8 weeks left until summer break. Yahoo!

Bed at 7 up 6 w/ one binky replacement at 3 AM

Oh my little Easter Bunny

We had such a great spring break. It started off with a fun, beautiful wedding. A visit to Heather's cabin with lots of laughing. Lots of family time with everyone in town. A trip to meet baby Stella and stop by Great Grandma's on the key pen. And a kidless lunch with Nic. Bryce got lots of Grandparent time. He is having grandparent withdrawals and has thrown about 10 fits since being home. It is pretty funny, but not funny at the same time. He just went down for a nap, had a fit and I let him cry it out. At least he didn't protest about the way to small Easter hat. We are going to go to the western store to see bunnies and chicks for our Easter activity.

Happy Anniversary!

We are so lucky (KC and I) to have parents that have been married for 40 years. What a great example for us and our relationships. What great parents we have. They probably thought they were done raising kids 15 years ago when I turned 18, but they are constantly still sharing their love with us and our families. They step in whenever they can to make our lives easier. Whether it is taking care of a screaming 1 month old or doing a BBQ for hundreds. This year has been a huge challenge for me. Having a baby and having to finish an internship. Going back to work a month after having Bryce, there would have been no way I could have done it without their help. When my friends say they want a Ron and Carla, I always remember how lucky I am. They are always the ones standing at the finish line of any important event saying “way to go”, but most of the time they smoothed the way to make it happen. Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad! You are so loved and so appreciated!

**side note** Bryce was constipated (yes I am that parent talking about her kids poop, but don't worry my Dad was that grandparent talking about it at wallyball). Problem has been solved and we are ready to move on to not talking about poop. Thank you internet for once again playing doctor with me!

Limbo between sick and not sick

Our new home is the doctors. Bryce is always sick, at least according to Day Care. He has a temperature. He has a diaper rash (don't you think I know). He hasn't had a BM. He has a cough. So the nurse at the doctors is my best friend. Try this. Try that. Let's schedule an appointment Thursday if he isn't better. The day care says, "Thursday, they won't see him until Thursday?" Go to the doctors. He is fine. Don't worry. Here's a container you can put his poop in and we can have it analyzed. Catch it 2 minutes after he goes and run it to the hospital lab. Not sure if that is going to happen or not, I think the doctor is humoring me and providing one of those unnecessary tests. But now I better do it or I'll feel like a bad parent. So here we are in limbo between sick and not sick.

Super sweet almost seven months

We found the camera. Damon did and I guess it was right where it always is. I think it was Heather who taught me not to look for things, that it is pointless. Thanks Heather because it drives Damon CRAZY. So then I thought I'll put some pictures on the blog. So here they are. Big surprise I am sure. Bryce with Tarn. Bryce with Kitty. Bryce hating on food. Us hiking. So that is what we were doing a few weeks ago. Lately, we have just been sick. Bryce, Tarn and I went to the dog park. That was our big Sunday. The walls are starting to close in. As soon as Bryce wakes up from this nap, we are going somewhere. I don't know where yet.

Sickies

If your wondering where we have been...we've all been sick. Welcome to a baby in day care. Last week my parents came and saved us when Bryce cut a new tooth and had a fever. They also put in a new bathroom cabinet just because. We really appreciate all their help. Then 3 days after sending Bryce back to day care we were blessed with vomiting and the opposite of vomiting. That one whipped through the whole house. Being sick sucks, but being sick with a baby really sucks. Today he went to the doctor and the doctor said he was okay so maybe we'll try day care again tomorrow. And we lost the camera, so we couldn't even document the pre-puking snowshoeing trip.

Feeding Frenzy

We had a nice visit on the west side. Bryce went to the zoo for the first, went to a crazy sushi dinner, and had his first Valentine's day. We loved spending time with family and friends and always wish there was more time. The best quote for the weekend was from my grandma Hazel. She said Bryce looks like Ron (my dad) only cuter. Bryce tried food for the first time today, which is exactly his 6 month birthday. He is starting to teeth and came home with a stuffy nose and cough. So we are spending the day sleeping a lot. I am also excited to share that I passed my licensure test to be a licensed mental health counselor.

Firsts

Bryce learned to roll over. Know this stuff is kind of boring but I know the grandparents want to see it/hear it. Bryce also went to his first swim lesson. It says you can bring kids 4 months and older. There were some pretty young kids, Bryce being one of them. Bryce made it about 10 minutes until he was crying so hard we figured enough. Mostly the Dads are the ones in the water with the kids and the Moms are watching. I thought the whole thing was a big hassle, but very amusing for the 10 minutes Damon and Bryce were in the water. When they starting singing the wheels on the bus go round and round I thought Damon would sneak off to the other end of the pool. But he played along and even sang. He said there were some Dads that took the kids into the dressing room to get them changed. I said, Oh good, you can do that part too. He said, the dads in the dressing room looked scared to death. Guess I am stuck with that job.

Bouncing

This one is long, but it shows how much Bryce like Kitty.

Tarn chasing

We celebrated my brother's marriage this weekend (KC married Laurel 1/4/2010) with a family trip to Leavenworth. We had so much fun! Thanks Mom and Dad. Bryce got to go swimming for his first time, saw fireworks, and a horse. He seemed unimpressed by it all, he'd rather just have grandma and grandpa. Damon and I got a much needed night out with the newlyweds. We also got to go snowshoeing alone. We'd take Bryce, but he can't really hold his head up yet. There is nothing like being up before anyone else, watching the snow fall, thanks Bryce for your 4:30 wake up calls.

RIP Precious Dairy Monster

In memory of the precious dairy monster, Bryce would like you to meet his hair dresser. We so sadly lost one of the coolest cats ever. He was so soft. He was the best hunter and avoided being eaten by the monsters in the woods. He also survived 104 E. 11th in Ellensburg. He lived in cat heaven with my parents! He even regularly got to stay with my grandmother who fed him like crazy. What a lucky cat with lots of people he had trained to love him! We will miss him so much!

We made it!

We made it through our first week of day care. I can't really say it was good or bad. Bryce seems to be surviving. Probably better than we are really. It is so hard to look through the window and see him strapped to a chair crying. But such are the choices we have made. It appears to impossible for them to follow his schedule so we are probably going to give up on that. He is so tired at night when we get home, he sleeps most of the evening. Kind of depressing, but only 5.5 months to go and I will be home with him for a couple of months. I started working full time and the middle school and it will be challenging and I am looking forward to learning a lot. We took Bryce to an art opening last night and showed him the art. I asked Damon as we walked in "is it wierd to bring a baby here?" I still don't know, there weren't any other babies. This morning we took Tarn out for a much needed hike. He proceeded to chase a coyote up the canyon. Fortunately, he came back after a few minutes. Bryce stayed up for a bit of the hike.