18 Months and 1st Dentist Appointment

I can't believe that our sweet baby boy is 18 months old. That's only 6 months away from being 2! He is growing way too fast. He is learning something new everyday. He is a big talker and not only has a new word everyday, but now he is forming sentences. They are short sentences but they are sentences. The funniest thing he does is when you are reading him a book and ask him where something is in the book, he points to it and says "it's right there!". It is the cutest thing ever. Also, whenever he wants to give you something he will bring to you and say "here, here." Lately he has been so interested in counting, saying his ABC's, and animal sounds. He knows all the animal sounds now. Our favorite is his monkey sound and his frog sound. He loves saying his ABC's and normally will lay in his crib and sing them to himself until he falls asleep. He has the entire tune down and most of the letters. He knows all the letters in the correct order but he doesn't say them all at the same time. The funniest is l,m,n,o,p. He kinda jumbles that up into one long letter. As far as counting goes, he now knows most of his numbers. Just like with his ABC's, he won't say them all together, but he knows the all in the correct order. When did my little boy get so smart?
His new toy obsession is now Woody and Buzz. If I would have typed this last month, it would have been cars, but this month, he can't go anywhere without taking Woody or Buzz, or both with him. He talks about them all day and plays with them all day. He only wants to drink out of his Woody and Buzz cups and will pout if that's not what I put his drink in, but he gets over that very quickly.
He is definitely getting closer to his terrible two's. He tries to test us during the day, but he quickly realizes who's the boss. He tries to be sneaky about doing things he's not supposed to do, but all we have to do is call his name and say no and he stops, well most of the time. We started back to school in the beginning of August and compared to some of the kids in his class, he is an angel. These kids hit, push, pull hair and take toys all afternoon. Bryson just sits there and watches. The only thing he gets in trouble for at school is climbing on the table. He has a little friend in his class named Asher that is just like him except Asher is a lot smaller. Asher is a few weeks younger than Bryson but they both seem interested in the same things and both are talking about the same amount. Bryson has tried to play with the other kids in the class but I guess they are not as interesting because he will quickly go back and play with Asher. I'm glad to see that he is beginning to make friends.
We had his 18 month check up last Monday and everything went perfectly! He weighs 27.6 pounds (75th percentile) and is 33.5 inches long (also 75th percentile). He got 4 shots, one of those being the flu shot and did great. Of course he screamed, but he was fine right afterwards. The doctor was very impressed at what all he could do at 18 months. After the doctor, we went for his first dental appointment. The offices are right by each other so it made sense to schedule them on the same day. I won't do that again. I felt like we just tortured that poor baby all day long. I wanted to take him for his first dental visit sooner but at the recommended age of 12 months, he only had like 2 teeth so there was no point then. Then I just kept forgetting to call. Bryson hated the dentist, but he hates it when we brush his teeth too, which is apparently normal according to the dentist. They brushed his teeth and examined them with the explorer. The dentist said his teeth looked great and that he could tell that we were taking good care of them. I was glad to hear that since we have the hardest time getting his teeth brushed every night. He got his first fluoride treatment and when we go back in 6 months, they will attempt to take his 1st xrays. I wanted to take some pictures of his first cleaning but since I had to help hold him down,  I could only get before and after pictures.

 All smiles before his 1st cleaning.

 He has so much fun just running around the office.

 Checking out the hygienist before getting his teeth cleaned.

 After getting his teeth cleaned. What a big boy!

You can really tell in this picture that he had been crying. It breaks my heart, but I know that he needs it.

We don't have to torture him again until March when he has his 2 year check up at the doctor and then another cleaning and xrays at the dentist. He did a little bit better with the doctor this visit so hopefully by March, he won't be as scared.

Labor Day 2011

This year for Labor Day, Robert's mom booked us a hotel room in Panama City Beach Florida. We were so excited to get in one final trip to the beach for the summer and because neither of us had been to Panama City in years. The only bad thing, Tropical Storm Lee decided he wanted to hit the Gulf Coast Labor Day weekend. We kept an eye on the weather and decided it was safe enough to go. We knew it would more than likely rain the whole time but there's always great food and great shopping at the beach so we knew we would have something to do even if it rained the whole time. We headed down Friday evening after work. After stopping for dinner and making one small wrong turn, we still beat Lee to the beach. Of course since Bryson fell asleep in the car he was full of energy when we got there so we all decided to go to Wal-Mart and stock up the room while Lola put Bryson to sleep. Thankfully when we got back, he was out. After we got back, me, Robert, Lisa and Paul walked down to the beach since it wasn't raining. It was so cool to see the lighting in the distance and the way the clouds looked. The storm was far enough away for it to look neat and not be dangerous.
We woke up Saturday morning to no rain, but that changed very quickly. Bryson enjoyed a yummy fruit breakfast on the porch watching the waves crash in the ocean. There was no rain, but it was very windy.

There also weren't very many people on the beach. It was a lot quieter than when we normally go to the beach. One of the only sounds we could hear was a plane flying overhead warning everybody to stay out of the Gulf because of how dangerous the waves were.

Everybody except me, Robert and Paul decided to go to IHOP for breakfast/lunch and the rain started very shortly after they left. (we stayed behind to watch the Auburn football game). Our Saturday was spent mostly in the hotel room watching the football which worked out great since it rained the whole game. Even though we were at the beach, we were prepared with all of our game day gear.

After the game, we drove to Pier Park to see what it was all about. It was really neat with a bunch of different shops and restaurants. (of course we didn't find out until we were on the way home that there was an outlet mall behind those shops, but they were closed for Labor Day). We decided to go eat at a place called Dusty's for dinner and it was pretty good. We didn't realize it was so far away so our short walk turned into a super long walk but it was worth it because the food was great.

 The restaurant had signed dollars all over the place

The Dorsey dollar

Sunday was another day spent inside. In the morning there were a few tornado warnings but it never got too severe where we were. We spent most of the day in the hotel room playing a board game. There was finally a break in the rain so Robert, Lisa, Paul, Erin, and Eli decided to go swimming. (and yes, they were crazy enough to get into the ocean). Bryson didn't swim because it was little too chilly but he did get to walk around outside and experience the crazy wind. 

 The crazy waves on Sunday

 Bryson in his new Pineapple Willie's shirt

Bryson braving the wind

Sunday night we went to dinner at Reggae J's at Pier Park and got some goodies at the Kilwin's candy store. After dinner me, Robert and Paul sat outside and enjoyed our last night at the beach. The rain finally stopped but we were able to see the storm in the distance. It was pretty cool to watch.

We had Bryson's head covered so he wouldn't get wet but he was so determined he was going to see what was going on. It was the funniest thing ever!

We headed back on Monday and were making great time until we hit a good patch of rain and our car started acting crazy, so we pulled over to check our tires. They were fine so we have no idea why we were sliding so bad but nobody else was. After that we were still making good time until we got stuck in traffic on I-65 just past Montgomery. I swear we sat completely still for over an hour. Thankfully Bryson was asleep because he would not have been happy. Since we sat still for so long we were so anxious to get out so we stopped at Peach Park in Clanton and enjoy some yummy peach ice cream and other peach goodies before heading home. Even though our trip was pretty much rained out, we found other ways to enjoy our time. We had a great time braving Tropical Storm Lee at the beach.