Loves her big girl car seat, and Sophie I say it each time. So much has happened since the last update. Bentley drove for the first time. She counts to ten. She can stand on one foot.
She can’t do any of that. But she is stilling growing like a weed. Big moments have been happening. Around Thanksgiving we bought a new car seat. A purple “big-girl” car seat. Pretty exciting. She no longer fits in the bucket. She loves this thing. She can sit up and face forward. It didn’t take her long to figure out how to sleep sitting up too.
She can’t do any of that. But she is stilling growing like a weed. Big moments have been happening. Around Thanksgiving we bought a new car seat. A purple “big-girl” car seat. Pretty exciting. She no longer fits in the bucket. She loves this thing. She can sit up and face forward. It didn’t take her long to figure out how to sleep sitting up too.
Playing in the wind of Wrightsville Beach Bentley’s second birthday was at the end of October. It is hard to believe she is 2 and working toward 3. I feel like she just popped out yesterday.
Right after her birthday we went to Wilmington, NC for a Bryant Family gathering, where she got to play in the sand and hang out with cousins for a few days. We also had a nice early Thanksgiving dinner. On this trip we are pretty confident Bentley learned what the phrase “All done” means. You can see her response in the videos below.
Right after her birthday we went to Wilmington, NC for a Bryant Family gathering, where she got to play in the sand and hang out with cousins for a few days. We also had a nice early Thanksgiving dinner. On this trip we are pretty confident Bentley learned what the phrase “All done” means. You can see her response in the videos below.
Right before Christmas she got an Amtryke!!! Don’t know what that is? Well, check out the video below and you’ll see. There is an amazing organization out there called Ambucs. Ambucs builds bicycles for disabled people. You can start as young as Bentley. As you grow, the parent can trade in the bike/trike for the next size up. Each one is custom fit to the recipient. If I’m not mistaken, all Birmingham Ambucs are put together by UAB Engineering students, which is pretty cool. These bikes are free to the recipient. I couldn’t believe it. I sent Lindsay up there to pick it up with a fat blank check expecting to eat Ramen Noodles for a few months. We didn’t have to pay a dime. Bentley’s feet are strapped in and she wears a five-point harness. We just removed the headrest because she was going to sleep while we pushed. Of course there is a handle on the back we can help steer with. It pulls slightly to the right, and Bentley hasn’t realized it yet. She just assumes she’s going straight. I keep trying to tell her to straighten up but that attempt is futile. Ambucs recently came to Dothan as well. Thanks to a local organization, Jon Lee Foundation, Ambucs are now available in the Wiregrass. There is a concert, JonJam, on February 28 that will be directing a large portion of the proceeds to supporting Ambucs in Dothan. A local leadership program I am a part of down here is selling tickets and working the event, if you want some tickets let me know. The proceeds go to support the Jon Lee Foundation and his R.E.A.L program and Ambucs of the Wiregrass. The organizers have agreed to allow a portion of our proceeds to help a local elementary school finish creating a Sensory Room. You may remember me talking about the one up at Hand in Hand. Sensory Rooms are awesome! It wasn’t hard for me to support the concert or the Sensory Room.
The Christmas pj's What else has happened? Oh yeah, she gained a pound! Bentley has been sitting at 18 pounds for over a year now. She is getting longer but hasn’t been able to pack on the weight. The last doctors appointment weighed her in at a whopping 19lbs. Craziness! She feels like she weighs about 30 lbs, but that is just because I’m a weakling right now.
Christmas saw a lot of fun with the family. Bentley got to play with her newest cousin, Juliana. Juliana is Jarod and Elena’s second child. She’s a sweet little ball of joy. We attempted the famed Bryant/Clark grandkid Christmas picture again. I actually missed videoing it this year, but I hear it was almost as good as William biting Bentley’s ear again. Trying to corral 13(?) kids under 5 is no easy task (my numbers may be off, there’s so many of them I can’t keep up. It feels like each month a new baby pops out).
Christmas saw a lot of fun with the family. Bentley got to play with her newest cousin, Juliana. Juliana is Jarod and Elena’s second child. She’s a sweet little ball of joy. We attempted the famed Bryant/Clark grandkid Christmas picture again. I actually missed videoing it this year, but I hear it was almost as good as William biting Bentley’s ear again. Trying to corral 13(?) kids under 5 is no easy task (my numbers may be off, there’s so many of them I can’t keep up. It feels like each month a new baby pops out).
Not a lot has changed in the routines. Lindsay’s weekly trips to Birmingham have continued. We are reaching the 1 year mark for Bentley’s implants. We are told she is right on track in her speech development. She hears like a normal 1 year old. I’m not convinced she is mumbling like one, but we’re on the verge of big words – like xylophone or transcriptionist. Ok, maybe just “eat”. Nevertheless she is getting pretty good at communicating her needs/wants with us. I’m sure I have explained her hand motions for her three favorite songs. Those have not changed, Bringing Home a Baby Bumblebee, Muffin Man, and Itsy Bitsy Spider. She has a hand motion for each one, and can be a broken record. We have recently added a couple songs including If You’re Happy and You Know It – she stomps her feet, even when it is clap your hands time. She has a very keen understanding of the words milk, eat, food, stand, and a few others. She has also figured out that if we say the sequence “1, 2, 3” something is going to happen next. We use this a lot with our standing exercises. She also likes to turn around in my arms and face forward. She will then throw her hands in the air and fall forward until I catch her. She thinks this is the funniest thing. I usually count it out for her “1, 2, 3 fall” and then she falls.
Aunt Jenna being cray cray B still uses her standing chair each and every day. We do stretching exercises where she lays across our lap and we stretch each leg while singing a song. Her IT bands are supper tight and those legs do not want to go out straight. We are in a vicious fight trying to get her legs stretched out properly without hurting her. Lots of standing and stretching exercises are done daily. She is getting better at scooting across the floor. We can’t get her to crawl with her chest pushed off the floor, but she’s scooting. She is, however, starting to get pretty strong. Lindsay has her doing these exercises where she starts face down on the ground, she then brings B’s legs up under her sort of sideways. Lindsay puts her hand up under B’s chest and gives her just enough help that B thinks Lindsay is actually helping her. B will then push up off the floor and into a sitting position. I can’t wait until she sticks this. She is getting really close. She just won’t do it on her own. I even do this exercise each morning when I get her out of bed. I wont’ pick her up until she has sat up with minimal assistance. It is a work in progress, and sitting up on a squishy mattress is a little harder than pushing up from the floor.
Music therapy began this semester. Bentley loves playing the drums, although not how you would think. She sort of pats the drum. There is no beating. We have a toy drum for her here and thought she was getting pretty loud until Lindsay took it up to her sister’s house one week. Parker and Carson got ahold of it and went to town beating the absolute snot out of it. That’s when we realized she doesn’t quite beat the drum. She does like all sorts of instruments though. She has a tambourine, and some shakers, and it’s not an instrument but we got her an abacus. Maybe I’m wrong, but when she plays with that abacus I’m pretty sure she is already performing advanced calculus problems because she throws those beads around like a Harvard professor. Back to the music, she loves listening to music. It is the only way we can keep her ears on in the car. We have her a very tolerable "adult song" playlist including some hits from Jewell, Jack Johnson, and of course the Frozen soundtrack.
Paper is another new toy for Bentley. She has never liked paper of any kind until recently. We bombarded her with tissue paper during Christmas gift-wrapping time. It took a few days of surrounding her with it and helping her tear it, but now she absolutely loves paper. She mostly just picks it up and drops it over and over. She will take a large sheet of tissue paper and crumple it up, and sort of go crazy with it. It’s kind of a small thing, but the fact that she will now play with paper, and not cry when you hand it to her has been a huge deal for us.
Big news in the napping world: Bentley is finally taking a daily nap on a fairly reliable basis. This comes as a huge relief to Lindsay. She was very concerned Bentley had Non-24. Haha, not really. The nap is nice for Lindsay, though. Now she has a few minutes to herself. However, that will only last for a few more months.
B has pretty much proven you don’t have to see or hear well to be your typical 2yo. She is definitely learning how to throw a fit or tantrum. I’ll admit, they are pretty funny to watch. We have frequent fights over wearing our ears. She likes to throw them off, a lot. We have been told that is a battle she is not allowed to win. So we fight the good fight, and teach her lessons on losing. Fun times. Seeing the “normal” developments is really pretty amazing. A tribute to God’s awesomeness and how he created us to grow and learn and blossom into these little people with personalities and strong wills.
Big news in the napping world: Bentley is finally taking a daily nap on a fairly reliable basis. This comes as a huge relief to Lindsay. She was very concerned Bentley had Non-24. Haha, not really. The nap is nice for Lindsay, though. Now she has a few minutes to herself. However, that will only last for a few more months.
B has pretty much proven you don’t have to see or hear well to be your typical 2yo. She is definitely learning how to throw a fit or tantrum. I’ll admit, they are pretty funny to watch. We have frequent fights over wearing our ears. She likes to throw them off, a lot. We have been told that is a battle she is not allowed to win. So we fight the good fight, and teach her lessons on losing. Fun times. Seeing the “normal” developments is really pretty amazing. A tribute to God’s awesomeness and how he created us to grow and learn and blossom into these little people with personalities and strong wills.
Joseph met Bentley one morning at the Bell Center I’ll start wrapping things up. The Mercedes Marathon is coming up again. Bentley is honored to have 4 Bellrunners raising money in honor of her. Kendall Downs and Caroline Blair (my bonus sisters) are running the 5k on Saturday. Jennifer Andress and Joseph Langoria are running the real-deal full marathon on Sunday as Bellrunners for Bentley. Thank you Jennifer, Joseph, Kendall, and Caroline so much for supporting the Bell Center in Bentley’s name. We really appreciate it. You can click on their names to donate at their support page. One last reminder about JonJam, if you’re a Dothan local and want to attend February 28, please let me know. I have a lot of tickets.
Thanks for checking in on Bentley. It is so exciting watching her grow and explore the world. We can’t wait to see how her world expands when she has to share the attention as a big sister. In case you haven’t caught wind, Lindsay is due with Baby Girl Bryant #2 on June 6. We’re very excited and a little anxious. I’m sure Bentley will be an awesome big sister, just as soon as she figures out that she is one. Please send the prayers Lindsay’s way as she prepares to tackle two on a daily basis. Talk to ya soon…later.
Thanks for checking in on Bentley. It is so exciting watching her grow and explore the world. We can’t wait to see how her world expands when she has to share the attention as a big sister. In case you haven’t caught wind, Lindsay is due with Baby Girl Bryant #2 on June 6. We’re very excited and a little anxious. I’m sure Bentley will be an awesome big sister, just as soon as she figures out that she is one. Please send the prayers Lindsay’s way as she prepares to tackle two on a daily basis. Talk to ya soon…later.
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