busy bee

Ryan is turning into a fairly methodical, detail-oriented little guy. He loves to organize and rearrange things. For example he will take books off a bookshelf one at a time and bring them to you (as demonstrated at Peyton's birthday party). He also likes to empty Grandma's office desk one paperclip or pen at a time and bring them to Grandpa sitting on the couch in another room. Yesterday he put together his numbers puzzle - he flipped the pieces out in his playroom, brought the board to me in the kitchen, set it in my lap, and then carried the numbers across the house one at a time until he had the puzzle put together correctly. He can be very focused when he wants to be (but only when he wants!). He also loves his blocks - oversized legos - and just about anything else with a lot of pieces. He's always busy, always looking for something to get into.

Here's Ryan playing in a cabinet when we were babysitting yesterday. He had a great time lining up all the waterbottles. He's very proud of himself; yes, he is quite a little show-off! :)

newest tricks & 18 months

This week has been great - Ryan has two new tricks that he loves to show off any time he can.

First, he has learned to say "hi." It's awesome. The first time I really noticed it was Tuesday afternoon when I was holding him and we walked by a mirror. He glanced over, saw our reflections, and "hi!" And it's taken off from there. "Hi" to everyone he sees now. It's super cute. Friday was his 18 month checkup and he said "hi" to all the nurses, the other kids, and the doctor too. I love this age; he is so much fun!

The second favorite phase of the week is holding hands. He will grab onto any available finger and walk / drag you all around. He pulls us to the fridge, to the backdoor (he loves the outside, we are ready for the rain to be done so he can play!), and sometimes simply in circles.

Ryan had his 18 month checkup on Friday. The doctor said he's doing great. He's 24 lbs 6 oz, 32.5 inches tall, and his head is still huge - 19.75 inches (96%). He doesn't say quite as many words as he should, but the doctor wasn't worried at all. Ryan impressed her with all his babble, and she said since he's so active and progressing well in general, all's good. She said some babies are more physical first and talk later. And Ryan is certainly an energetic little guy. And of course they all thought he was adorable - probably helps that Coleson had dressed him in the nicest outfit he owns complete with a sweater vest! :)

I'm back!

The cable company stinks.
We were supposed to have internet last Friday and just now got it. Long story that I don't want to go into. All I want to say is I'm back! And obviously everyone missed me; I can tell based on the plethora of comments. Oh wait, there were none... humm... Why don't ya'll leave me one now so I feel loved? Hehe. Anyways, I'll blog for real in a day or two. Too late at night and too overwhelmed with emails and whatnot.

Date night on a budget

Alrighty... here's my top 5 way to have date night on a budget:

1. Have someone give you free theatre tickets. Yep, that's right, we had free seats to Spamalot last night at the Cobb Energy Centre. And they were great seats too! 5th row! And yes, there was an audience member plucked from the crowd, thank goodness not one of us, but she was sitting directly in front of me, that's how scarily close we were (and she was not a set-up). Anyways, the play was great, I had no idea what to expect, but it was a huge production in a beautiful theatre (much more along the lines of the Fox than the Cumming Playhouse).

2. Free babysitters! Grandparents are great creations and wonderful babysitters. Everyone wins. Thanks Nana & Pop-Pop.

3. Dinner on giftcards. Well maybe not, but that was the hope. I had thought we'd use our Longhorn giftcard that we got for Christmas, but we didn't have enough time. Oh well, we did try somewhere new and fun - Doc Green's. Sort of like Moe's for healthy people. Pretty tasty, not too expensive, and most importantly quick since we had to get to the theatre.

4. Consignment shop dress. See that pretty, feminine dress? Basically free, or at least less than a dollar. True story. Last week my friend Marie took me to a consignment shop bag sale. For a $10 bag I got two dresses, jeans, two sweaters, and three or four tops. So much fun!!

5. All you need it love. Hehe, super cheesy, but true! Oh yea, free dessert helps too. We stole two ice cream bars out of my in-laws freezer when we got home and ate them in bed at 11:30 at night. We're wild.

St Patrick's Day

 

Alright, so it's a day late, but Happy St Patrick's Day nonetheless! Hopefully everyone had a good day and enjoyed wearing all shades of green. It's sort of fun, eh? I wish I hadn't already packed my photo albums; I was thinking about being in Chicago six years ago when they dyed the river green, pretty cool stuff!

Sarah's Shower

We had Sarah's baby shower on Saturday. It was lots of fun with friends and family, super yummy food, and Sarah & "Boris" got lots of great gifts. Ryan's really looking forward to his cousin's arrival and playing with the ball popper and sand table; unfortunately we couldn't talk Auntie into letting Ryan test out all the toys until he gets here. :)

Hopefully Sarah will hear something soon about her court date. Until then please continue to pray that everything is going smoothly with the adoption process and that their little boy will soon be home!

road trip

This weekend Ryan and I joined my parents on a roadtrip. We left at 5am on Saturday and drove 8 hours to Rocky Mount to see my sister and her fiancee. It was a super quick trip (we drove back Sunday), but it was worth it to see Laura and Brian. They had some wonderful food for us, we went to the park, and we got to see their new house! That's right my baby sister is buying a house. The contract is all signed, so assuming everything goes well with the inspection, they will be homeowners the first week of April. It's a beautiful house and I can't wait to see what they do with it.

Thanks to Mom and Dad for driving and all the meals and everything else. And thanks to Laura and Brian for your hospitality, a really good dinner, etc. It was a nice weekend, although hopefully the next time it won't be quite so rushed and we can visit longer!

i love my auntie

Auntie Sarah came through town today and we had a nice time visiting with her. And she was a wonderful help with Ryan, fine-tuning her mothering skills. Ryan especially enjoyed a trip to the playground at the outlet malls and going through the slide.

Ryan's fort

Ryan's new favorite game is playing under anything he can get under, in particular tables. Here he is hamming it up while playing under Grandma and Grandpa's kitchen table. He had a great time under there the other night. He also likes to throw cars and balls under tables or couches and then lean over to see where they went.

And yes, his hair is a lot shorter. Mommy decided to cut it and that did not work well at all. Daddy intervened and we immediately took a family trip to Fantastic Sam's to have them fix it. Ryan did really well for them. He sat on my lap and ate a lollipop and had a grand ole' time. It makes him look way too old, but other than that I really like new look.

thanks!

Thank you Grandma and Grandpa and Nana and Pop-Pop for letting me hang out with ya'll practically all weekend!!

I missed my mommy and daddy, but it was really fun spending time with my grandparents. Thanks for the cookies and the animal crackers and the fun baths and the car rides and everything else. I think Mommy and Daddy appreciated being able to go out by themselves last night. They told me they went to Dialog in the Dark. Sounded kinda weird to me, but I guess they enjoyed it. I'm not really sure why any one would pay good money to walk around in the dark but apparently it was fun and mommy didn't have any panick attacks so that's good. And they went with some friends and even got pizza afterwards. And I'm also glad I got to stay over through today - otherwise I would have been in church childcare just about all day. Mommy and daddy were able to go to church and volunteer in the nursery and help set up for some really big conference and go to a leadership meeting and then student ministry (although I think mommy must have snuck out early because she got to Nana's so fast, I think she missed me lots!).

So it worked out really well for everyone. I got to see my grandparents and get loved on and spoiled. My grandparents got to see me and maybe they won't harass my parents for at least a few days about seeing me. And mommy and daddy got a night out and a productive and rewarding day at church today. Everyone wins. It's great to have such a wonderful family that all wants to spend time with me and love on me. You guys are the best and I'm super lucky to have ya'll in my life!

Love, Ryan