Halloween Now vs. Then

2008

2009 (no pictures of him with the insides of the pumpkin this year because he gagged, ran away and cried when he saw it)

Halloween Day 2

Today we took Ryan to a local festival. It was fun because there was lots of room to walk around and so much to see. We were supposed to go to a Halloween party afterwards but Ryan was worn out. Overall a great day, though Ryan did not want anything to do with candy, I'm sure that will come with time. This is Ryan's face when he saw someone dressed as the Grim Reaper.

Ryan thought the cow was interesting until it put its hand on my shoulder, then he freaked.

Ryan posing with me.

Ryan's favorite part was the pen of bunnies


Sitting in the fire truck, another highlight.

Walking with Dad

My cutie

Halloween Day 1

Here are some picture's of Ryan's Halloween costume, how cute is he? He is a doctor in training, though there aren't any pictures I am his scrub nurse (Grandma is the person in the picture with him). The last picture is Ryan sleeping, he was wiped out for the car ride home. This is day 1 of 2 of the Halloween celebration!

Playing in the Fall Leaves

Today Ryan and I spent a lot of time outside taking advantage of the fall! It isn't often that you can play in leaves in a t-shirt (with it 70 degrees outside). Ryan loves leaves, he digs around in them and throws them in the air. We went on a super long walk and Ryan pointed out all the trees with leaves that had changed colors. The last picture is of Ryan recovering after being outside for so long! Sorry for the quality of the pictures I only had my phone with me.

Beautiful Fall

For all of you NOT in North Carolina I would like you to know that today is 77 degrees with clear blue skies. We were able to play in the park this morning and look at how beautiful the leaves are! Let's hope the weather holds out for trick or treating on Saturday!

Blog to Book

Sorry for the slackness in my updates. I have been working on converting this blog (at least the entries thus far) into a book that I can give to Ryan in the future. So far it looks great, I can't wait until I get to see the final product. I will update soon on the happenings around here.

Vegas Baby!

I just got back from Vegas! It was my first time leaving Ryan with Don since Ryan has been born. I missed them both VERY much but it was a wonderful vacation and I feel like a totally new person.

I went with my brother David which was a lot of fun. We ate at amazing restaurants, explored almost every casino on the strip (one we missed was Circus Circus because who wants to run into a clown...? David and I were in agreement on that one). We went to the Beatles Love show and a comedy show. I had never been to Vegas before so the exploring was great but by the end of the trip we were both exhausted. I hope to make a habit of going on one vacation a year (sans child), and I hope they all are as much fun as this one was! I think short breaks like this are great for keeping sanity and helping to maintain a separate identity from just "mom" which makes me feel like a better parent and role model.

Bibs

Would you like to know why we don't use bibs?.................

................Because they don't make full body bibs :)

Life Lessons

An important part of being a parent is helping your children become well rounded individuals. By the time you are a parent you have gone through a lot of things and you want to give your children some of that hard earned wisdom. I know children have to learn from their own mistakes but if you can prevent even an ounce of pain your children will have to experience you will do anything to do it.

Here are some important life lessons I would like Ryan to hear from me (Since this blog is for his benefit I thought this would be a good forum for it).

1. When you go to college get a degree you can do something with when you graduate… they all cost the same and you can go to most graduate schools regardless of the undergraduate degree.

2. Make the choice to be happy not to be right. I know you really want to be right, but understand the consequences before you fight too hard.

3. This one might seem a little too much information but… don’t have sex with someone you don’t know will be a good parent. You never know and you are not the only one that will have to deal with the consequences if you choose incorrectly.

4. Look at how the people in your life treat other people in their lives. If you notice they treat other people poorly your turn is likely coming up. Make sure you are okay with that before investing too much of yourself. (This is especially true with how they treat their parents).

5. If you are spending your time doing something (like school) put your all into it. You are spending the time being there, you might as well get something out of it. Also, you don’t want to close doors of opportunity because you were being lazy.

6. Be kind, be gentle and love even if you get hurt sometimes.

7. Don’t let stupid people make your decisions for you (this one comes from my mom). What it means is watch how you react to people who are irrational, mean or crazy. Let’s say someone like that tells you to do something so you do the exact opposite to rebel against them…. While you didn’t do what they wanted they still influenced your decision and who wants a crazy person making your decisions for you?

8. You can't change other people, the only thing you have any control over is how you react to them.

9. If you won't remember it/ it won't be important in 5 years it probably isn't that important no matter what it feels like at the moment.

Ryan's Classes

Ryan has gotten to the age where he can participate in classes. I love getting out of the house and it is really helping him feel more comfortable with new people and I can see him learn something new each and every class. Right now he is taking a gym class and an art class. His gym class includes dancing, singing, obstacle courses, races, soccer kicking and one week there was even a bounce house. Ryan is the youngest in the class but I think that might actually be a good thing. He is picking up on what the older kids do and it is helping him with following directions, language and motor skills.

Ryan loves art class. He gets excited when we pull into the parking lot and the second he gets out of the car he runs to the classroom. He really likes the teacher and listens to all that she says. As you can tell from the pictures Ryan takes the art projects very seriously. I love coming home with a new piece of art every week and he likes that his creations are on display.

Final Round of Asheville Pictures

Running.... this is what he does ALL DAY
He decided as long as he could eat with the grown up fork he would eat whatever we gave him for lunch. he ended up eating a large piece of pizza and a spinach salad. I have no idea how he fit it all in his tummy, but he had enough room to drink all my water when he was done.

He is deciding whether or not to run into the house or go cause more trouble. He stood there for a good minute before picking "trouble"

Nice play area huh?

The Farm

Asheville

We went on a long weekend trip to Asheville with some lovely friends of ours. It was amazing and wonderful and I am so glad we took the time to do it. We rented a house, what we didn't realize was that it was directly on top of a mountain. When they said "we recommend four wheel drive" they were not kidding. At one point we couldn't go up any further, our car literally was sliding down the hill, it couldn't grip the rocks. Don figured out how to turn off traction control and I think it was on attempt #6 we made it up! When we saw the house we knew that it was all worth it. Both the front and the back of the house overlook miles and miles of valleys. (Above is the view from the back porch, Below the view at sunrise from the front porch). Our friends (Lindsey and Josh) have a little girl Ryan's age so it was great to have people who understand/ abide by a toddler schedule. Even more importantly Ryan loved having a friend to get into trouble with and we enjoyed hanging out with the adults. We spent a lot of time outside enjoying the beginning of fall in the mountains. The leaves were just starting to change and the air was turning crisp. I will post later with pictures/ stories from downtown Asheville and the amazing farm we visited. Overall the trip was great, the company was excellent and I'm exhausted enough to need another weekend!