Maxim's here!

the Petting Zoo with Maxim and Madeleine!! Ryan had a great time hanging out with his two best friends!!

 

Ryan was scared of the turkeys and I was having a very pregnant day, so Ryan stuck to Mrs. Tara who could pick him up whenever the turkeys came near! Thanks Tara!!

 

Catch-Air with Maxim and Auntie Sarah. Ryan was very brave and did great. He actually ran all over the place and tried new things instead of merely following the bigger kids, yay!

 

We've had a great start to our weekend and look forward to more fun to come!! All our siblings will be here and we have lots of good stuff planned - haircuts, Abby's shower, celebrating Maxim's birthday, celebrating Grandma's birthday, Ryan's friend Peyton's birthday party ...

Vroom- Vroom!

Yesterday, Grandma & I took Ryan to his first race! (Ours too!). My mom's boss races cars for fun on the weekend and we enjoyed hanging out with him & seeing his car. It was a very laid-back and relaxed atmosphere. We were able to walk all around the cars and go anywhere we wanted. Ryan loved watching the races, he would get so excited!! "Race-car, vroom-vroom!!" However he didn't really like the cars all that well up close and would not get in Al's car. Grandma did get to go for a ride though (I don't think I could have gotten in & out what with being 8months pregnant and all!). It was something very different & fun and I am glad we had the opportunity to experience it!

Updates!

We've been doing really well recently. Ryan's growing up so fast. I know that's cliche and everyone says it, but it's true! I don't know when he turned into this little boy instead of my baby. I'll try to highlight some of the exciting things he's saying and doing, although there's so much fun happening everyday, I'm sure I'll overlook something ... But here we go anyways ...

- Ryan's vocabulary is improving all the time! He says all sorts of things now, and is getting pretty good at doing so unprompted vs always just being my parrot.

- He can name probably 2/3 of the alphabet (only capital letters). It still catches me off guard to hear him announce "E" or "B" or "H" seemingly out of the blue. But if I look around, he's always right and there's the letter on a sign or something. He has a set of large cutout alphabet shaped books and he loves to match them to the correct letter on his alphabet caterpillar. Even if he doesn't know their name, he always matches them right. And he does this on his own, he's really smart :) He also knows his name. He reads the label on his sippy cups: "R-Y-A-N"

- He tries to do numbers, but doesn't do them in the right order. He just starts naming them ... "6, 2, 5, 3,9, whatever" and wiggling his fingers. He can finally hold up just two fingers which he likes to do. For a long time that third finger just wouldn't stay down and he'd try to hold it out of the way.

- He also can name the colors. Unfortunately he just doesn't put the name with the right color yet! Pretty much everything is either green or yellow. Funniest thing: Twice now walking up the stairs, he has recited "green, ye-yow, green, ye-yow" up the stairs. Not really sure what that's about.

- He loves school. He's all smiles and happy to go now. And when I pick him up, he's very talkative. "Bye School, Bye Friends, Bye Vickie (his teacher)" followed by "Home, Sampson- Dog, Kitty- Nellie." Occassionally he's offered "fun" and "ball." It was hard those first few weeks to leave him, but I'm starting to enjoy my free time!

- He can open doors now which is mostly bad, but has some positives. He gets his own sippy cups from the fridge and that's nice. Not so nice is opening the pantry or the garage doors - those both have baby proof handle covers now. He hasn't quite figured out the front door, but he's way too close to that one too. He can open the deadbolt, but not the little lock on the knob. Aargh!

- He's becoming very independent. Really like to put on his own socks and jeans, which he can't quite do. So getting dressed can take a very long time now if I let him help! It's hard trying to balance letting him try these things and just wanting to do them myself since it's easier & faster! Esp on the mornings when we are trying to hurry to get to school or a doctor appt.

That's about all I can do right now, my attn span is running out and I'm tired of sitting here at the computer! :)

Have a great weekend!!

I Pray For You

Not sure if this will work or not. For some reason this song just cracks me up, I have to laugh every time I hear it. See what you think ...

Cool looks like it's going to work, you just have to be patient through a commercial!

Jaron and The Long Road to Love More CMT Music More CMT Music Videos

A visit with Granddad

Coleson's Dad & Jo-Ann spent the weekend with us and Ryan had a great time visiting with his grandparents. We walked to the playground, went to ihop & kayson's, finished putting together Abby's furniture, played lots of playdough, and enjoyed spending time together. Ryan was very well behaved and really liked all the attention! It was a nice weekend, thanks to Granddaddy and Grandmom for coming to visit!

I'm a big kid now

Well, Ryan's in a big boy toddler bed now. I must confess I was hoping we could get away with the crib a little while longer, but Ryan had other ideas. Yep that's right, Monday morning he went over and out the crib. He was fine, a little shaken up, but no injuries thankfully. So Monday evening Ryan & Daddy "built" Ryan a new bed. He has slept in it two nights now and is doing great at night. He's stayed in bed and slept all through the night. Yesterday's nap was more like playtime as he enjoyed taking books off his shelfs, all the wipes out of the box, opening dresser drawers & the closet. But so far, today's nap is going better. I've been checking on him every few minutes and being more firm about staying in the bed. He's been in there everytime, usually sitting up playing with a soccerball, although last time he was laying down. Maybe he'll actually nap today!! So many milestones, hard to believe how big he's getting!!

PS. Ryan was so cute on Tuesday morning - the first time he woke up in his bed and could get out on his own. He was standing at the gate to his bedroom and when he saw me walking to his room, he shouted "hi!!"

fishes & animals

We just spent a great weekend in Chattanooga! So nice to get away with my two favorites guys! We drove up Friday night and woke up Saturday morning for the Aquarium. Ryan loved all the fishes, esp the sturgeons which he called sharks. He also liked the turtles quite a bit. The Aquarium was not nearly as big and fancy as Atlanta, no whales or dolphins or other big ticket critters, but it was great for kids. Not nearly as crowded, a very relaxed feel. There are two separate buildings and in between them we walked down by the river. Ryan loved saying hi and bye-bye to the boats going by and then discovered a great playground. The lunch spot we were hoping for was way too crowded, so we enjoyed sitting outside and eating hotdogs. And even better was the ice cream we got afterwards, yum! After that we headed back for naps and a swim in the pool - what a wonderful feeling for a pregnant lady! So nice to feel weightless and be able to move all around, loved it.

Sunday morning we went to the Chattanooga Zoo. Same story as the Aquarium - loved that there were no huge crowds and Ryan was able to explore a lot more then he would have in Atlanta. But unfortunately, no big animals. Ryan loves to point out giraffes and elephants, so I was excited to see how he would do when he saw a real one, oh well. His favorites included a parrot and a coyote - go figure. They also had a train car that you could go in and out of - it was a viewing area for the cougar. While Ryan couldn't have cared less about the cougar, we did spend a long time going in and out of the choo-choo. Oh, and Ryan picked out a pair of souvenir sunglasses in the giftshop. Now he's a rockstar and the best part is they fit so much better then Mr Potato Head's glasses :)

It was a great weekend, beautiful weather, and so nice to be able to get away - esp since it was only about 1hr 45 mins away - not a bad drive at all. Pictures are in my Feb picasa album so be sure to check 'em out!

Thank you, Trees, and Trains

Ryan's vocabulary is improving all the time! It's so much fun to hear him say new things and put new words together. But 99% of the time, he's still just repeating what he hears or commenting on what's around him. However, a few days ago Coleson gave him a cup of cheerios and without any prompting, Ryan said "Thank you Daddy." It was a really cool feeling to have him interact with us completely by his own doing. This morning I handed him a book when I buckled him in the car and he looked up and said "Thank you Momma." So awesome!! I can't even describe how wonderful it was! I love how he's becoming more conversational and not merely a parrot!

Happy Arbor Day! We heard that the city of Canton was giving out free saplings in honor of Arbor Day, so Ryan and I took a drive to investigate. Ryan was very excited the whole way there, repeating "tree, tree." We were given a crepe myrtle and a wax myrtle, both about two feet tall already. I am always excited to plant more trees, so here's hoping I can keep them alive in their makeshift pots until the weather breaks and we can get them in the ground :)

This weekend we are headed to Chattanooga for one last hurrah as a family of three. We are looking forward to a quick getaway and enjoying some family time. We have a nice suite style hotel with an indoor pool (a must for the pregnant lady!) and free breakfast - thanks Barbara & Jim!!. We are planning to visit the aquarium and the zoo, I really think Ryan will love all the animals. I don't know that we will take the risk of buying expensive train tickets, not knowing how Ryan will react once we are on-board. But I am hoping to stumble across a train in a park or museum or something safer :) Ryan loves choo-choos and Thomas the Train. Stay tuned for stories and pictures sometime next week!

Happy weekend everyone!

Ryan's week

Well, Ryan & I haven't been up to much the past week or so - lots of lazy days stuck at home. After a stir crazy potty training weekend, we were sidelined by a nasty cold virus. Last Sunday night, Ryan woke up crying and throwing up :( So potty training was put on hold while we battled with a high fever - over 104 both Monday and Tuesday. Poor little guy was miserable and pitiful. We did make a visit to the doctor, but he was negative for strep throat and the flu and ear infections. So we just had to wait it out. He finally started feeling like himself again about Thursday. Unfortunately he missed both days of school last week, including his little Valentine's Day party. And this week his school is out for a winter break. He finally starts to like school and now we've missed two weeks!

Friday afternoon we were hit with snow once again. Two big snows in one year, crazy! There was no snow when he went down for his nap, and by the time he woke up there was probably 3inches. He remembered it though and said "snow" when he looked outside. However, I was not too excited about more snow, so we didn't play in it this time.

Yesterday we celebrated Madeleine's Dedication at her church. Ryan really enjoyed seeing her up front with her parents - "Mad-lynn!!" (He's finally got the M at the beginning of her name, but still leaves out the middle syllable). It was a very special day and we were honored to be able to celebrate with her. Afterwards, we went back to their house for a yummy lunch - lasagna and Valentine's cupcakes. Ryan was very well behaved and ate two servings of lasagna!! While we were happy about it, we were confused none the less :)

Abby Boom

We've made lots of progress on Abby's Room (if you're Ryan then it's "Abby Boom"). Coleson painted the room Saturday morning. It's a fairly dark purple color - liliac ice. It looks great on the wall! The furniture is all white and there is a big double window in the room, so it all works really nicely together. Grandpa helped Coleson pick up the furniture and it's a relief knowing it's all here, albeit mostly still in boxes. We made good progress on the hutch last night, but they aren't kidding when they say some assembly required!