We love Aunt Sarah!

It seems like we have had a lot going on lately. Last weekend my sister Jessica and her kids came down to visit. Mostly because my sister Jenny came home for the summer and my other sister Chelsea came for a short visit. So it was all 5 Burkinshaw sisters together! And we had a lot of fun. While Jess was here we took the kids to Chuck E Cheese. Spencer really enjoyed it too. He loves throwing things and so he loved the game where you get to throw balls and get tickets! They had a little toddler play area with a slide which he loved. And he wouldn't stay out of the car games. He would play on this one for alittle bit and then get tired of it and walk away. And another kid would come up and start playing and he would come back and try to push his way back on the seat.

Spencer at Chuck E Cheese.

While everyone was here my sister Sarah had her last home soccer game. I had made Spencer a shirt for her senior night, and so we made some matching ones for all of Jessica's kids too. And they were adorable. Especially when I made them all hold hands and walk up to the ticket gate.

Isn't this so cute? Holding hands...so sweet.

And what are the chances that a bird poops on Spencers head?? Jenny was carrying him up the stairs when all of the sudden some bird poop dropped from the sky directly onto Spencer's head and Jenny's hand. It was disgusting...but I had to get a picture before we wiped it off.

Before the game starting we had a little photo shoot with the cousins and their matching shirts. We even madea little onesie for Jilly!


Go Aunt Sarah!

Did taking this picture make me nervous?? Yes! But it turned out cute and Spencer didn't fall off the stands so it all worked out alright.

Just Some Pics

Here are a few cute pictures of Spencer that we've taken lately.


In case you thought Spencer slept nicely on his pillow with his teddy bear under his arm all the time, I thought I'd show how he really sleeps. He is usually all over the place. He has gotten out of his bed a few times, but we are pretty sure it's because he falls out as he's rolling around in his sleep. I still don't think he has figured out that he can climb out and play around in his room if he wants. Hopefully he never does.

He is really into climbing. I mean really! He climbs on everything. One morning while I was getting ready he figured out how to climb on the drawer handles!

Spencer loves listening to music on the iPod. Usually if I take him running with me I put him in the jogging stroller with his sunglasses on and he gets to listen to some piano music on the iPod. Sarah said he looks like a really high maintenance baby, which is probably true. But it keeps him from screaming and trying to get out of the stroller so it works.


Aunt Jenny brought home a BYU shirt and hat for Spencer. The hat is adorable and I think we are going to get a lot of use out of it come BYU football season this fall.

I'm a big kid now!

Yesterday was Spencers first day in nursery. And he absolutely loved it. I really didn't think he would have a problem going and so I'm glad that is how it worked out. I went in to drop him off and he immediately ran over to the toy closet and didn't look back. So he didn't even notice when I left. And they told us after that he did so good and didn't have any problems! I peeked in after the second hour just to see how he was doing. He was sitting up to the little table eating his snack. It was adorable and he looked so grown up.

Speaking of grown up, Spencer has had quite a few changes lately. He has officially crossed over from babyhood into toddlerhood. :) The binky is totally gone from his life (except on very rare early mornings when he won't go back to sleep and we are desperate...that has only happened a few times though). And he's doing so great without it. Yesterday he started nursery. A few days ago I decided to move his little booster seat up so he could sit at the table and eat. Thanks to my sister Jessica for telling me that his little chair could be raised up so he could sit at the table. I was about to go and buy a new booster seat for him! The only problem with this is that he likes to slouch down in his chair and put his foot up on the table! And it seems like he takes even longer to eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner...which I never thought could be possible.



Spencer enjoying putting his feet on the table more than eating his toast.


And last night Bryce took the front rail off of Spencer's crib! So it's almost like he is in a big boy bed. We have been talking about doing this for a little while. And I was telling Bryce yesterday all the things we needed to do before we did it. Like really babyproof the room and move things around. I unfortunately have to work some Sunday evenings, so I was working last night and came home and Bryce informed me that he decided to just do it. I am sure he purposely did it while I was gone without telling me because I would have made him wait. But I am glad he did it. Spencer slept really well last night. He didn't fall out or even try to climb out of it. So he's doing great in his "new" bed. I put him down for a nap not too long ago. He cried for a little while so I decided to go in and check to make sure he was still in the bed. And he was. He had thrown out his blanket and teddy bear but he was still in it. Btw, we gave him a teddy bear when we took the binky away. I figured it might help with the transition. :) Anyway, he eventually went to sleep and didn't ever try to get out of the bed. I think he doesn't try to climb out because Bryce put the wood beam up a little higher so that it is above his mattress a little. That's my theory anyway.



And I couldn't resist going in there to take a picture. It was way to cute to pass up. :)


And there you have it. Spencer is now a big boy! Actually, I guess he's not really a big boy until he is potty trained. But we've still got a while before that will happen I think.

18 months old

Yesterday Spencer officially turned 18 months. Which means nursery this Sunday at church! It is just crazy to me sometimes how big he is getting. I still carry him around way too much, I know this...but he's the only one I have to carry around. Anyway, he is getting heavy! It is getting to be quite the arm workout. And he's not quite as easy to rock anymore. Of course I don't get the chance to rock him very much anymore because he would rather be down getting into something rather than being rocked by his mother. He never really has been a cuddly baby so I'm used to it.

Anyway, here's our little 18 month old stud.

For Bryce's birthday the girls at his work gave him these necklaces to wear all day. Just so everyone would know it was his birthday I suppose. And every once in a while Spence will let me take his shirt off, put the necklaces on, and snap a few pictures before he rips them off and starts swinging them around trying to hit things.

He is a crazy baby but we love him. He is sleeping much better and now we're thinking maybe it's time to switch him to a big boy bed instead of the crib. I have heard it's an easier transition when they are younger. Maybe because they don't know they can climb out of the bed and play with toys yet? Although I think Spencer might figure that out, but you never know. It's worth a try anyway.

And just for fun, here are some silly pictures of Spencer. Grandma Barbara (Bryce's mom) sent us a package for Easter. And in it was a book for Spencer! On the back of the book was a little puzzle with frogs. And Spencer thought it was funny to put the frogs up his nose and on his ears. So thanks for the book Grandma! Spencer is obviously enjoying it. :)

Isn't he such a handsome little guy? I am slightly biased, but still...look at that face! :)

Easter

We had a wonderful Easter this past week-end. We enjoyed listening to General Conference, spending time together as family, and celebrating the resurrection of our Savior. We also enjoyed lots of food and candy...possibly too much. I admit I was pretty excited to do some easter egg hunts with Spencer this year. He just wasn't very into it last year, but I figured he'd get a real kick out of finding candy filled easter eggs this year. So our first easter egg hunt was on Saturday between sessions of conference. A friend in our ward had some families over and had a big easter egg hunt in their back yard.

On our way to find some candy!

Spencer got a sucker before the search for eggs even began. And it was really all he was interested in. He would pick up eggs and put them in other kids baskets. He's a very generous baby.

I also couldn't help but do an easter egg hunt for Spencer on Sunday morning. I got way too many eggs and candy for just him. Mostly just to make sure there was some left over for me to steal. :) But before our easter egg hunt we gave him his easter present. I would've done a basket and everything but I figured this is probably our last year before he knows any better, so really it didn't matter that much. And he doesn't even know who the easter bunny is...so he can't believe in him yet.



Toy Story 1 and 2. I got these for an amazing deal..$6.99 each for a DVD/Blu-Ray combo pack. They are regularly priced somewhere around $24 so I'd say that's quite a steal. :) And even though he had already started watching them before Easter he was still pretty excited to get them.




The easter egg hunt begins! There were way too many eggs for one baby. It took forever to take him around to all of the eggs and he really just wanted to pick one up, open it, and eat what was inside. So we had to take them away once he found them so that he would find another. But I think he still enjoyed it.






Enjoying his candy. I really try to get him to eat only one piece of candy (or any other kind of food for that matter) but he doesn't buy it. He thinks it is best to stuff as much in your mouth as you can. So we're still working on it.



Playing the piano with daddy.

Clifford the Big Red Dog

This morning Spencer, my mom, and I went to my cousin Jack's school. My aunt is doing the book fair at his school this week and so Jack was dressed up as Clifford the Big Red Dog to help promote the book fair. We figured Spencer would get a kick out of Clifford because he really likes dogs. It's the only animal noise he will make and he loves my aunts dog Rocky. I heard that my uncle will give Spencer a piece of bologna and Spence will hold it and Rocky will put his mouth over Spencer's whole hand! And Spencer thinks its just hilarious and asks for more. I haven't ever seen this, it's just the reports I've gotten. :) Anyway, we went to see Clifford and Spencer wasn't as excited as I thought. I guess I should've known from his Santa experiences this past Christmas.


This was basically as close as he would get.

He was fine as long as he could see Jack's face, but once Jack put the head down he was out of there!




In other news, mission take binky away hasn't been going as well as I thought it would. I just figured we'd take it away and he'd be fine after a few days and be sleeping really well like he had been. And it hasn't been horrible or anything, but he usually always cries when I put him down for a nap. And he wakes up earlier (which is bad news for me!), and sometimes he wakes up during the night.

I can understand it's perhaps a little traumatic for him. He's had a binky from day one, like a lot of babies I am sure. Thinking back though I remember the first night we were in the hospital with him he was pretty fussy. The only thing we could do to calm him down was to let him suck on our finger. I didn't even think of bringing a binky to the hospital. While he was in the room with us we just let him suck on our finger...which is kinda gross but we made sure they were clean. But after awhile we decided to let him go to the nursery so I could get some sleep. Does that make me a horrible mother? I don't think so. Sleep is obviously way too important to me. :) Anyway, I guess he was fussy enough that after a little while a nurse came in and asked us if we wanted him to have a binky. To which we said of course! Why didn't you tell us earlier there were binkies in this place!? So he loves his binky. I mean he has slept with it every night for his entire life! And I can understand his unhappiness with the whole situation. I'm sure he will get used to it and start sleeping better after a while. It will just take a little longer than I had anticipated.

One thing that we have noticed since taking the binky away is that it just seems like he doesn't sleep as well when he is asleep. Which makes for a little grumpier Spencer when he is awake! And this is the real problem. We have seen a whole new level of tantrum throwing from this little guy. Maybe it's just the age...because as my weekly BabyCenter emails tell me it is very common to start seeing tantrums at this age. And he of course was throwing tantrums before we took the binky away. But like I said, it's a whole new level. He screams so loud and will drop to the ground and bang his head on the floor and then start rolling around. It's actually pretty ridiculous. And most times I can't help but laugh a little. Because he is still so cute, even when he is throwing a ridiculous tantrum. :)


Feeding himself some yogurt. Spencer has also been really into doing things himself lately...so maybe it is just the age. But I was trying to feed him some yogurt for a snack today and he was not happy about it. I know he loves yogurt so I knew that wasn't the problem. And it was pretty obvious he wanted to hold the yogurt and spoon, but I didn't really want to clean up a huge mess. So we discussed it very calmly for a little while and decided that Spencer could hold the spoon if mommy could hold the yogurt and help him scoop little bites. So we were both happy.



Trying on Grandma Stacey's reading glasses and stealing some of her lemonade. Although this post might make it seem like Spencer only throws big tantrums and doesn't sleep very well, that really isn't all he does. He is a very sweet baby and is usually very happy. He does all kinds of funny things these days and we just love him to pieces.

Climbing in the box from diapers.com. I know you may be able to get a better deal on diapers and wipes from a drugstore with coupons, but I just love having a nice supply waiting in the closet for me. So I usually get the big boxes from diapers.com. And it is delivered the next day! So I really love it. And Spencer's bum does too. :)

There are no real updates on Bryce and I. Just working, taking care of Spencer, watching the news, reading books, and trying to get back into running since the weather has been so beautiful. Bryce does occasionally throw ridiculous tantrums too, but I figured that wasn't really appropriate to blog about. ;)