Bruce Being Bruce

Some recent video of Bruce to share where he showcases his break dance moves, his funny lips, his love for Mickey Mouse, and his initial attempts at walking. Enjoy!

So what happened to January...

Apologies to all of Bruce's fans for the lack of posts this month!

Bruce is Back!

It was quite a month in the Heier household. Bruce is a lot more active, crawling around and getting into anything he can get his hands on, making it a little harder for mom to get on the computer. Robb also had class 3 days a week throughout January, making the work-class-family-life balance a little harder for us this month. We never would have made it without our friends and family who pitched in to watch Bruce. Becky got to hone her Spanish skills with Bruce and his Bilingual Learn and Groove table. Liz and Craig got to practice their infant entertainment skills (less than 3 months till we get to meet Baby Carroll!) And poor Nhan and Dana were the unfortunate winners of the only poopy diaper that needed to be changed during babysitting hours. Sorry, I guess it was the prunes we gave him for breakfast! Bruce even got to spend a couple days with his nanny Lorraine again. He had great fun with you all.

We had another fun visit from Pop Pop this month. Pop Pop got to see how much Bruce has changed since Christmas. He's always on the move and a lot more talkative. Deanna also had a work trip this month (to New Orleans). It was tough to be away from Bruce, but he gave me the best welcome home with his first hug! Reserved just for Mama. And I brought him back a children's book about Mardi Gras that we've read a few times, Bruce loves the colors.

Major milestones this month

Movement: Bruce has learned to pull himself up and stand on his own. He walks all along the "perimeter" (hanging on to his gate or couch to get wherever he wants). He crawls quickly from one side of the room to the other and has a funny sit spin/break dance he likes to do. The most exciting milestone last month in this area was that Bruce is now able to walk up the stairs by himself. It's adorable, he's super fast. We'll try to get a video uploaded.

Oral: Bruce is up to 8 teeth (4 on top, 4 on the bottom). He always seems to be teething, so we're wondering if the molars might be next. Bruce is "talking" almost all the time. He has started associating Dada with Robb and Ball with his red ball, and even Mama with me some times. I think he knows Doggie too for Duke, but it's hard to tell what's association and what's coincidence.

Eating: Lots going on in this department. Bruce will pretty much eat anything you put in front of him and has started eating off our plates. His favorite food by far is cheese (sharp cheddar cheese!). He also really likes grapes, bread, crackers, and pasta. He's less interested in his baby food and would much rather feed himself. He still takes his formula in his bottle (about 24-28 oz) and has started holding his bottle by himself. We are slowly introducing the sippy cup, he had very little interest in it the last month (mainly he just played with it and made a mess) but he is starting to get it the last few days.

Sleeping and General Health: Bruce is sleeping well, with 2 naps a day (ranging from 45 minutes to 2 hours each) and sleeping 11-12 hours overnight. Hard to remember the days of 2-4 hours of sleep each night. We've been working on the bedtime routine. It used to take about an hour to get Bruce down to bed, we've cut back to about 30 minutes max and then putting him in the crib to soothe himself to sleep (some nights that works better than others). Bruce has still managed to avoid his first cold/illness. He's weighing about 20 lbs and his next doctor visit is next month.

Some pictures from the last month below (I lost my camera which had his official 10-month photo :( among other photos from the past month):

Closest pic we have to 10 months

Bruce, his gate and Dukie

Bruce and his red ball

Bruce standing up by his gate

(yes, that's his Woody Doll hanging from his pocket)

Bruce with this Learn and Groove

Bruce with Dada

Christmas Trip to PA

On Christmas day we traveled with Pop Pop Green up to Uncle Kevin and Aunt Rhonda's in Macungie to spend the holiday with them, Brett, Lena, and Grandpa and Grandma Heier who were visiting from Nebraska. We spent a couple of days up there and have plenty of pictures to show for it:

We had a great Christmas with the family!

Buena Noche (Christmas Eve)

On Christmas Eve, we celebrated Buena Noche at Aunt Lisa and Uncle Rich's house. It was so nice and made me think of Christmas memories of Buena Noche Feasts at Mima and Pipo's house in South Florida. Lisa (and Rich) prepared a yummy meal, consisting of arroz con pollo (chicken and yello rice), puerco con mojo (pork seasoned with mojo), frijoles (black beans), platanitos (plantain chips), yuca (like potatoes? in mojo sauce), and a super yummy lava chocolate cake (not cuban, but OH SO YUMMY!). It was great to spend time with Pop Pop, Lisa, Rich, Lisa's brother Sean, and their puppy Channing and foster puppy Anabelle. We look forward to continuing this tradition in the coming years. Thanks guys!

Our Hosts: Uncle Rich and Aunt Lisa

The Cook!

Bruce (held by Aunt Lisa) with Channing, Sean, and Uncle Rich

Bruce and Aunt Lisa

Dada and Bruce

Pop Pop, Bruce, and Uncle Rich

Mama, Bruce, and Dada

A Merry Christmas indeed!

A Merry Christmas to all!

We had a wonderful Christmas holiday this year. Bruce was lucky enough to spend his first Christmas with all his Grandparents and his East Coast aunts and uncles, though everyone was in our thoughts, particularly as our Nebraska family was hit by a bigtime blizzard this year, Delaware was chilly, and the Miami contigent, while warm, was equally missed.

We started off Christmas week with the greatest snowfall on record for our area in the last few decades, guaranteeing Bruce's (and Deanna's) first White Christmas (as you may have seen in pictures on our blog) . It was pretty, even this Florida girl will admit. We were joined by Pop Pop on Monday and Grandma and Grandpa Heier on Tuesday and it was really nice to have everyone around. Bruce is a lot more mobile and interactive since the last time we were all together. Everyone got to see Bruce sporting his new pearly white teeth (we're up to 8 teeth now! 4 on top, 4 on the bottom) and they got to see his new moves too as he can quickly get from one side of the room to the other by either crawling or walking while hanging on to the gates or couches with one hand. He's quite a squirmy boy, doesn't sit still for very long; that's the Eleuterio (Guerra) in him.

On Christmas Eve, Grandma and Grandpa Heier headed North to Macungie to see Lena and Aunt Rhonda in their church Christmas pageant. While we, with Pop Pop, headed over to Aunt Lisa and Uncle Rich's house for a traditional Cuban Buena Noche celebration (blog post to follow).

Christmas morning, Bruce awoke to several presents under the tree left by Santa and many family and friends, of which he was most excited about the gift wrap! Lots of neat presents and beautiful Christmas cards from those near and far. Thanks to all who sent their Christmas wishes. Then on Christmas Day we headed up to Macungie to join Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle Kevin, Aunt Rhonda, Lena and Brett for Christmas Dinner (another blog post to follow).

We hope you all had a Wonderful Christmas too and that the joy of the season made its way into each of your hearts!

Robb, Deanna, Bruce and Duke on Christmas Morning

Many of you asked what Bruce thought of Christmas, well...

I think it's safe to safe he liked it!

A cozy Husker coat from Grandma and Grandpa

A UNL Piggy Bank from Aunt Becky, Uncle Chris and the 5 C's

Start saving those pennies Bruce!

A Pop Pop (I mean Woody!) doll from Pop Pop :)

And a great time with Grandma and Grandpa, thanks for visiting!

Bruce Meets Santa Claus

On Thursday, December 17, we took Bruce to the Tyson's Corner mall to get his picture taken with Old Saint Nick. After waiting patiently in line for an hour, he got to meet the man:

So let me get this straight...

You come to my house and you bring me presents?

Do my parents know about this?

Christmas Decorations

We pulled out the Christmas decorations a couple weeks ago and put up our Family Christmas tree. I had dreams of Bruce's eyes lighting up when he saw the tree, the ornaments, the lights! But no, it seemed like he hardly realized it was there and he would look everywhere in the room, but at the tree. Nonetheless, we made attempts to have him help put up our favorite ornaments. It was a difficult photo day, but we managed to snap a few to share with you all below.

Hope everyone has a very Merry and Blessed Christmas!

Dada putting up the Christmas Tree Star

Bruce and Dada hanging Robb's favorite ornament

An Angel with a bell that reads 'Every time a bell rings an angel gets their wings'

From It's a Wonderful Life (Robb's favorite Christmas movie)

Bruce and Mama hanging Deanna's favorite ornament

A butterfly of course ;)

Our little reindeer trying to run away instead of posing with the tree

Robb, Bruce, and Duke posing in front of the tree

Bruce sneaking a peek at the tree when Mama wasn't looking

but Grandma Angel was watching!