Random November Pictures

Ryan found a kitty on the porch this morning, he wanted to keep it.
Ryan hates his rain jacket, for some reason he doesn't think he can bend it it so he falls over a lot when reaching for things

We have started taking long walks when the weather is good, Ryan loves being outside and he likes leading the way.

Ryan trying to be spooky with the little lights that went in our pumpkins... BOO!

When Time Slows Down

I was having a conversation today about slow motion moments. When you can see something about to happen but there is no time to stop it and it seems like everything slows down as you watch the chaos unfold. Like when you see a child about to fall but you are too far to catch them, or when you drop a glass but can’t react quickly enough to catch it. It’s moments like these I wish I was in an action movie where everyone seems to have super human strength and speed, unfortunately my slow self gets to stand by and watch.

Like the sock in the previous post… I saw it a moment before it got sucked up the nozzle of the vacuum, but there just wasn’t enough time for my body to react. Today I had another one of those moments. Ryan and I were in the grocery store without a cart (mistake #1… it was raining, the carts were wet I thought we could do without). I was picking out cheese; I was three feet away from Ryan (mistake #2). I reached for a package of cheese and when I turned around Ryan had an egg in his hand (he had opened the package and taken it out). This is when time slowed down, all I knew was that it wouldn’t be good; he looked up at me and slammed the egg down into the open package breaking not only the one he was holding but another one still in the package. Awesome.

Here’s to a speedier me tomorrow…

Adventures in Vacuuming

I sucked up a sock with the vacuum cleaner... now it doesn't work and I can't find the sock. What to do... a decision must be made soon because with a toddler in the house a vacuum is a MUST.
Everyday is a new adventure in mommy-hood.

Learning to Speak

Ryan has always been very opinionated. He wants things done his way or he will not do it. Ryan doesn't seem to be very interested in speaking and therefore is often unwilling to try.

He still primarily uses sign language. He often won't try speaking out loud until he gets frustrated enough because he can't represent what he wants to say through sign or body language. He says some of the basics like "no", "yes" "mama", "Dada", "more" etc. but he hasn't wanted to say a lot more out loud.

The one thing he is willing to try is the alphabet. So far he is able to not only say all the vowels but he can actually pick them out of a pile of letters by sight (those plastic magnetic ones that go on the fridge and the foam ones in the bathtub). It seems like everyday he getting better at it, and he seems to really be proud of himself when he learns a new one. I find it funny that he is willing to learn letters that are essentially useless in getting what he wants but he won't say the word "eat", but as I said before he does what he wants and how he wants.

It is wonderful to watch a small child learn something new, you can see the second the light goes on for them. I hope that he is able to pick up some other basics like "juice", "food" etc. so that he is able to avoid some of the frustration I know he is feeling right now. This week he has made a huge stride towards speaking, hopefully he decides that it is worth the effort to keep trying!

Static

Ryan loves being outside. Today I think we spent over 3 hours hanging out outside. Usually we walk/run, swing etc. Today Ryan was very much into the slide, the first few times I had to go down with him which is always interesting. He must have gone down the slide about 40 times, after the first 10 times he was willing to go alone. My favorite part of it was Ryan's hair, the slide caused so much static that I just had to catch a picture. The first is Before the slide, the second After, the picture doesn't capture that literally every hair on his head was standing up.

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.