To add to the post about Ryan speaking... this morning when he woke up he told Don all about the dreams he had last night. The first one was about a monkey that was singing and dancing. The second dream was that Ryan was laying in his crib reading a book.
Ryan has hit an age where he tries to tell stories. It's very entertaining because he doesn't always have the language to say what he wants and even if he does you can't always understand the words.
Today he was telling us that he wanted Grandpa to visit. His story went like this "Pa, Ryan" "Pa Truck outside" "Pa Up" Which essentially means (it takes a parent to understand.. and even then we rely somewhat on hand motions)
"Grandpa is going to come see Ryan, he will drive his truck and park it in the driveway and he will pick up/ carry Ryan."
Ryan thinks it's hilarious (most of the time) when you guess what he is saying... he will laugh and laugh until you get it right, then he will say "Yes!" as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
Audrey is one month old today. The time is going by even faster then it did when Ryan was a baby. She is starting to lose the "newborn look" and you are starting to be able to see what she is actually going to look like.
Uncle David came over today and took Ryan on an outing and then came back and got to bond with Audrey. My kids are lucky to have such a fun uncle! 
Ryan is the most picky eater ever. He has refused to try anything new since he was about 14 months old. If you put something in front of him he doesn't recognize he starts gagging uncontrollably. Well at least he did until about 3 days ago. All of a sudden he is willing to try things again! 
This is Ryan eating MY blueberry french toast... he ended up eating almost all of it.
He is pretty pleased with himself here, this is his "show your teeth" smile. 
I always said I would never put a bow on my baby.... but then I had a little girl. I just couldn't resist!
I knew when I walked down the aisle that I had made the right choice. Since marrying Don over 3 years ago I have not had a day of regret. Over the weekend I was reminded just how lucky I am.
Here are the words that came out of my husbands mouth without any prompting from me: "I would like to take over the night duty with Audrey, I like to have bonding time with her since I am away at work all day."
.... Honestly hearing that is better then finding out you won the lottery.
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Belly Button Stub fell off... my baby is growing up already! She will be 4 weeks old on Tuesday, time is flying!
As a stay at home mom I am very particular about anyone that takes care of my children. I think part of it is that I am here, not working so if the care takers aren’t great I would just rather have the kids with me. When I signed Ryan up for school I really loved it, but of course all good things must come to an end.
I used to be a 2 year old teacher at a preschool, so I feel like I have a unique perspective as a parent. I know what goes on, I know how a group of kids that age are, and I know what is important for the happiness of a classroom. It makes me both more understanding about certain things and more critical of others. I think that qualifies me as hard to please.
Ryan has had amazing teachers at the school, which in my opinion is the most important thing. I have been willing to overlook some of the short comings of the school because both the teacher he had in his 1 year old classroom and the one in his current classroom were so great and he loved them so much. Well, his current teacher is leaving (she is getting a masters and doing that, working full time and having 4 kids of her own was too much). I have that mothers intuition that things in the center are about to fall apart, or at least fall under my standard of care when it comes to Ryan (there is obviously a lot going on that I am not specifically mentioning on the blog). So, we have decided to put Ryan into a new school. We have found a school that is out of our budget but my mom is helping us out, it is hands down THE BEST School I have seen. I will keep you updated on how the transition goes (it won’t start until next month). I hope Ryan loves it as much as I do. After much discussion we are going to make this work, I mean really what is more important than the happiness and safety of your child?
Audrey is sick... I don't know where it came from but this sickness is not being kind. There is no fever thank goodness. She is stuffy, which with a baby makes sleeping and eating very difficult. Luckily Don's aunt sent us a humidifier as a baby gift so we have had that running all day. I hope this clears up tomorrow!
Ryan is getting to the age where he can sit and watch a movie, if he deems it worthy of course. Here is a picture of us having a family movie afternoon... this is my bliss.
It's Friday... which means that I have made it 2 1/2 days with Don back at work. It's been good... for the most part. The hardest thing about it is that I am at the mercy of the moods of two small children.
If Ryan is having a good day he can be super helpful and self sufficient. If he is having a bad day, he wants me to make 300 snacks and then refuses to eat any of them, he cries, throws things and refuses to listen to anything I have to say. So far I can't seem to determine the trigger except for lack of sleep.
Audrey is much the same, if she sleeps it's pretty easy. If however she wants to eat every 2 hours (from start to start of feeding) then it's hard to do much of anything else but sit and feed her, which makes it really hard to keep up with Ryan.
We are figuring it out and Ryan and I are getting used to things not following a strict schedule. It helps when we plan things for our day so we will have to get better at that. Everyday we are adjusting and learning tricks to make this juggling act work. Luckily I have two kids that are sweet, and Ryan genuinely cares about Audrey a lot. That being said, I'm really glad the weekend is approaching and Don will be back to help during the day!
Today was Don's first day back at the office since Audrey was born. I am not going to lie, it was rough. I swear Ryan has been an angel since Audrey came into this world but today he was... how do I put this nicely... the devil.
He threw fits and toys, he cried at every change of activity, he was rough with the baby... I am exhausted. Hopefully we fall into a Rhythm because I'm tired. Don walked and I handed him the kids and went upstairs for a shower so that I could have some quiet time. Luckily Don started on a Wednesday so the weekend is only 2 days away now :)
Ryan has school tomorrow which is good because we are out of food and after today I can't imagine taking both of them to the grocery store by myself. We will work our way up to that!
