April already!

This month started off with a switch in daycare providers. This has been brewing for quite sometime I suspect, although we were not told that we would need to be looking else where. Long story short, the private sitter took on a new born which meant less time for Berik, which meant, Berik and others to stay inside more and more so newborn baby's needs could be met, which equals disaster with Mr. Busy Body. Plus there was no structured activity like coloring or singing time.. etc... so it was time to for a change. Almost as quickly as I began to look for another daycare, "the mood" changed at the sitters house and we wanted Berik out of there. Our church has a wonderful daycare but I worried about class size, competition and him being put in with so many other kids at once. Also we were paying $270.00 monthly with meals included and would now be paying $430.00 plus meals. So you know this knocked me through a loop, however, the day she told my husband that we might ought to have Berik "tested" we suddenly found the extra money to switch him the next day! Tested for what????? For being 2? and wanting to be busy? The first couple of days were tests for both him and the teachers, however, after about day 3 he was literally running to get inside to his new class! He loved it!! 8 boys and 2 girls, poor girls! The teachers say he quickly fell into the routines and is thriving!! His speech has picked up up 100% and we are SO VERY PLEASED!! They go out 2x a day for play and they have covered areas to play outside as well as a regular playground and he eats 2 snacks and lunch in the lunchroom, so this guarantee's that at least 5 times a day he gets to get out of his regular room. Well worth the $ !!!

One evening we went to the Walker County Fair, here in Huntsville and we had a great BBQ meal with some friends. After dinner we went on the giant super slide. It was soooo much fun but due to sooooo many stairs up to the top, I elected to only do it once. We looked at all the fair animals but he was mainly interested in the cows. He mooed and mooed over and over. If you say what does the baby cow say, he will softly say, moooo but ask about the BIG COW and you'll get MOOOOOO. He will do this now with all the animals he knows and it is a good game to play in the car.
As always my friend Tracy and I like to get pics in the bluebonnet flowers with the kids. When it was just her and one son and no Berik it was easy, but now with son #2 and Berik and some additional friends it was quite hectic this year and this is really the only good pic we got. The flowers are so pretty but they only come out for a couple of weeks and they they are gone so you have to hurry!
I think we were still exhausted from last month's activities so we didn't do so much this month. We did take a boat ride in our newly acquired boat, that basically is being housed here in our back yard. No money has been exchanged but it's previous owner bought himself a new pontoon boat and found it a must, that Berik, not Jaimie, but that Berik have a boat. With that said , thank you Bob and Berik is enjoying his boat! See Daddy teaching Berik how to drive a boat? Bad habits daddy! Daddy has been teaching Berik to drive a car/truck also for sometime now. I am sure that when B is in his teens and steals the car to haul the boat to joy ride in, that Jaimie will remember that he taught him so well. :) Berik spends alot and I mean alot!!!! of time telling Jaimie, Berik drive..Berik drive..and when he is in his car seat he spends the other part of his time saying, "drive daddy drive". Pretty cute but can also but pretty annoying when you are trying to have a 'grown up' conversation.
Although B is a momma's boy he loves Daddy and loves to wear his work boots. He moves pretty slow in them as they are heavy! He continues to wear every pair of shoes he can find around the house. He is Mr. Independent and as if he didn't know that a friend of mine brought him over this shirt so he could proudly boast about it! He is proud of his Dora Dora Boots, boots if you will, and would wear them all the time if he could Ever since he turned 2 he is some kind of ... "me, me, me , mine, mine, mine and no, no, no! Daddy tried to teach him the right way to play with his dump truck, (also a gift from Bob & Judy) but who know if he really ever got it because he continues to hold the controller upside down and pulls it to him using the wire. ? Whatever.. he is having fun with it. I guess that about does it for the most boring month we have had in while. Sorry I just can't remember if there was anything exciting and have misplaced my notes for this month. You'll take care. Gena, Jaimie and Berik

March Mania

Every since we have gotten back with Berik, I have tried to find a special day/date to have him baptized. Would it be our
Gotcha day? our court date? his birthday? Finally, as I was going through some papers I came across my stepdaughter, Jessi's, baptism certificate that was dated March 30th and that set everything into motion. We would celebrate Berik's birthday (March 27) on Sat March 29th and have his baptism on Sunday March 30th. Both kids would have the same baptism day. So most of the month was spent gearing up for back to back celebrations. Berik is very busy and is getting more vocal by the minute. He is growing and progressing so much everyday that I can hardly keep up. Each time someone sneezes, he says, "bess you" minus the "l" but close! He is stuck on counting his way or no way. Sometimes he will count with you but will not say one. If you say, say one, he says 2 and if you say 3, he says 4, when you say 5, he says 5 and then when you say 6, he says 7,8 and then you say 9 and he says 10 and claps and says yeah! Other times you say one and he says, two buckle yo shu and 3,4 hu the do (shut the door). One day in the car, he started saying i wanna pa de don,over and over, which translates into, I want to party down! No one knows where that one came from but it was good for his birthday month. Well by now you should get it, that he is on his own agenda and we pretty much just go with the flow and laugh! His fine motor skills are great, see for yourself. If you turn your back he will empty a thing of wipes in a flash. He is really into shoes and goes around saying, shoe on, shoe off, over and over again. He brings you shoes constantly and puts them or more like, forces them on your feet . He walks around in any shoes he can find and them when he isn't wearing them, he busies himself with taking out the shoestrings, which is really convenient when you are in a hurry :). Berik was more into the Easter baskets for daycare, then he was last month for Valentines day. He looked so funny in his Easter bunny glasses and he managed not to break them! Look at the haul he made from daycare. Mommy and daddy helped him out and ate a lot of the candy. We wouldn't want him to have cavities now would we? See,all for the good of Berik. This year, I wouldn't give up until I had the perfect Easter outfit for him. Not wanting to pay full price I turned to e-bay, bid on two and won them both! Oops! What to do now? So we wore one for Palm Sunday and one for Easter Sunday. I plan to re-sell them next year on e-bay. We will see how that goes. With my luck no-one will want them. He netted bunches of eggs while hunting them with his Sunday school class. Other than that, we ate with my parents and enjoyed a beautiful day at home. Then it was back to gearing up for the weekend to come. Family and friends came from near and far to help us celebrate. We had a fun birthday party at the park with hot dogs,baked beans, chips, etc. Berik had a lot of fun riding on my nephew's shoulders and playing with the other kids. His puppy dog cake was really cool and it was homemade for only $18.00. Can't beat that price with a stick! He got more than his fair share of gifts and I thought the present opening would never end. Thanks to all for everything! The next day we had his Baptism. The church had it set up for early in the service , as he is kind of squirmy. He sat in my lap and listened intently at one point to the choir. Just as they finished , he YELLED at the top of his lungs, YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AND CLAPPED!! At that point the congregation began to laugh and clap along with him. Then it was his turn and needless to say he was quite excited but did good and he literally leaped out of my arms and into the arms of the preacher. All in all a really great experience! Afterwards we headed over to my parents and had brunch and special times with family and friends. I had his cross cake made for $20.oo, again a steal! Thanks to Gert for making both cakes. The were really good too! Berik got more gifts too, many thanks ! This pretty much concluded the month for us as we were wiped out of energy and $.

February---finally

This is actually in January but I wanted it on here. He is having a blast but look how much he has to duck to go through.



I don't know where to start with this one as it is June now and I am so far behind. Berik continues to strive to be independant. He does well at chow time with his fork and glass.
I mean , my fork and glass. He wants whatever we have, especially me. That's probably because he knows I will give in for a moment of peace and quiet. It was suggested that we try veggie burgers and we did but couldn't find the recommended brand and B didn't like the ones we got. We will try again and we are still trying to remember the bread sticks when we are at the store. Thanks , Sara for the suggestions. Another thing I failed to mention in my last post is that Berik has all of his teeth in. Yes, all of them and he isn't 2 yet. He sure uses them too to crunch up, shred up and rip up usually food but sometimes I think we may have a puppy in the house.
Valentines day sure got here in a hurry and that meant shopping for Valentines goodies for the 3 girls at daycare. Right now Berik is in private care and the other children are all girls. They exchange gifts or "have parties" 4x a year, Valentines, Easter, Halloween, and Christmas. I do enjoy making up the bags and usually Berik is excited but this time he couldn't have cared less. I couldn't even get him to hardly sit by the bags much less hold his Valentine puppy. Berik loves to get and open mail. He got an early Valentines gift from his Godmother, Elizabeth. Thanks!

He is still into lining up things, his trucks, magnets, food, etc.. the daycare lady says each morning he lines the playroom window sill with trucks.









Just by chance I figure he got these in order from smallest to largest.

Other than my birthday this month, which I have no idea what I did, there just wasn't alot going on except getting ready for Berik's baptism and birthday in March. I am into taking all of these cute pictures of him sleeping and will leave you those.