The Batman toy must stay home

    I have a friend at work that just bought a black Ford Mustang with black leather interior, he calls it the Batmobile. I know he sounds like a dork, you would dead on.  The other day I went to McDonalds and got two Happy Meals, one for Bryce and one for Isabella. In the boy Happymeal there was a batman toy and a batmobile toy. I thought I have to bring this to my friend at work he will get a kick out of it. Of course instead of just thinking this I made the mistake of saying it in front of Isabella, one day I'll learn. Now, this toy seemed important and she told me "no you don't need to bring that to work". I told her I wanted to bring it to my friend because it looks like his car. She said "no you just need to leave it here, we can play with it now". I told her that's fine we can play with it now and I will bring it to work tomorrow. She "no it just needs to stay here". Now I'm not proud of my response or the outcome but I said "well Isabella this is Bryce's toy and he said I could have it". She had an excuse look on her face, because Bryce can't talk, she tilted her head and said "OK you can bring it to work but you need to bring it back afterwards". That is the last time I pull the Bryce card, that didn't work at all.

Ten ways to know that Bryce has been there

I feel I have not written much about Bryce. It is not because there isn't much to write about him but completely the opposite. Bryce is either eating some toy or breaking another. He shows no fear at the playground and has gone down the slide just about every way you can, sideways, upside down and he even tried to go down standing up, but only once. He doesn't understand that he shouldn't stand on chairs even when he falls which impressively isn't often. He isn't clumsy but he tends to bump his head into things quite often. He absolutely loves brushing his teeth, taking baths, and bedtime stories. Maybe I have slacked on writing about him because he doesn't say much. Although he doesn't say much, it is easy to tell when he has been around.
Ten ways to know that Bryce has been there

1. All of the safety covers for your outlets are missing
2. Your drink is missing or empty - doesn't matter what kind its fair game
3. Your books are all over the floor, and that one has a bite taken out of it
4. Your remote is missing the batteries - darn little fingers
5. Your dolls heads are either chewed or popped off - I just refuse to buy another Belle doll
6. If you have baby wipes, they are now all over the floor
7. Your cell phone is missing, oh there it is he threw it down the stairs
8. Your condiment containers have been taken out of your fridge
9. Your shoes are missing part of their soles
10. The socks you laid on the couch because you were going to put them on are now wet - you left them alone didn't you, rookie mistake

I'm not the Chef

We were driving to get some dinner and Tammy asked Isabella what she wanted to eat. She said she wanted pancakes. Not just any pancake but the Happy Face pancake, IHOP makes this. She has only had it twice but she can tell you that the hair is made of yogurt, the eyes are made of strawberries, whip cream for the nose and bananas for the mouth. Well she had a new idea she said they need to make a snowman pancake. I very rarely cook but I told her "How about next time I make pancakes I make a snowman pancake". Clearing up my apparent confusion she said "mommy is the chef you are the customer".

Sweet but no help

Isabella was getting a little crazy and she accidentally knocked my drink over and all the ice went on the floor. Ever so sweetly she exclaimed "I'm sorry I didn't mean to do that". So I said "its ok how about you help me clean it up". With the same sweet tone "Oh I can't I'm sorry I'm too busy". Moment spoiled.

Shopping alone with Isabella

 I have decided it is too dangerous to go shopping alone with Isabella. Tammy wanted me to go to the store to get some spaghetti noodles for dinner. Seems harmless enough should cost $1.15. I decided to go to Target, risky. Isabella wanted to go as well, I could be in trouble here. There are a few things I learned at Target while shopping with Isabella.
1.The aisle with the cleaning supplies, the aisle with the exercise equipment, and the aisle with the picture frames are my aisles. The aisle with the Disney princesses belongs to Isabella.
2. Isabella sometimes just wiggles it doesn't mean she has to go to the bathroom. She told me this personally. Five minutes later we were headed to the bathroom.
3. She really needed a new princess.
4. To Isabella everything is only a couple dollars.
5. I'm gonna go broke if I contiue to hang out with Isabella at Target.
My $1.15 trip turned into a $40 visit. When I got home Tammy called me a sucker and Isabella chimed in "Daddy's a sucker". I'm gonna remember that next time.

No We Can Play With That Later

For Christmas Isabella got a game called Elefun from her aunt Margie and cousin Katlyn. It is a little plastic elephant with a 3' long plastic trunk. There is a fan in the elephant that blows little paper "butterflies" up it's trunk. It was given with clear direction to not let Bryce play with it. He will eat the butterflies. Isabella wanted to play with it so I took it out of the box to show her. I told her when I turn it on it may be a little loud but is just the fan blowing the butterflies out. Wrong thing to tell her as she is not a fan of things that make noise. Good news for Isabella, I didn't have any C batteries Isabella said thats ok. Bad news for Isabella, Tammy was at the store so I told Isabella she would buy some and then we could play with it. She said "we don't need to play with it right now we can play with it later with Katlyn". Tammy got home and Isabella told Tammy we don't need to play with the elephant right we can play with it later. I told her we could just put the batteries in it. She then sat on the box and said "it just needs to stay in the box". Needless to say once the batteries were in, it wasn't very loud and she loves catching the butterflies.  On a side note Bryce has not eaten a butterfly yet, I don't think. He does love to pick them up and put them back in the elephant though. Maybe he is just trying to distract me.

Proud Moment Spoiled

       My little boy Bryce, he sure can get into some trouble. It seems he is always reaching on top of counters or shelves to grab whatever he shouldn't be playing with. He tastes everything before he plays with it, sometimes this includes people. He steals his sisters drinks if she leaves them unattended. He has learned that if he shakes his sippy cup while it's upside down he can create a puddle on the floor. I'm not a big fan of red Kool-Aid right now. He has learned a piano is fun to play but even more fun to stand on. That bookshelves, if not attached to the wall, will fall on you if you try to climb them. That at bath time there is a small window of opportunity between diaper removal and entering the bathtub if you want to pee on the floor. That yellow highlighters don't taste good but if you keep trying maybe they will. How to climb out of his highchair while strapped in. How to take the back of the remote off to expose the batteries. How to empty a tissue box in under 10 seconds. When to raid the bag of peppermint patties. Most importantly how to smile and giggle to make none of that matter.
     Well all the things he has learned I was very proud when I saw Bryce pick his diaper off the floor, open the trash can lid and throw it away. It almost brought a tear to my eye. Then he pulled a soda can out of the trash and my moment was spoiled.