February Fieldtrip and 1st Day of School

Hi everybody - it's Ryan here! I've been waiting to write another blog update and finally my mama has said I've behaved well enough to do it again, so here I am! I know last time my mama wrote a teaser that I'd be writing about my new big boy room. Unfortunately she's not finished decorating it yet. She wants to get the full reveal in one post. If I'm lucky, I mean if I continue to behave, maybe she'll let me write that update too!

We're getting at the point in winter where I think mama is tired of being indoors. She seems to make herself busy whenever I want to read "B is for Bear", "Guess How Much I Love You", and "I Love You Stinky Face," likewise she rolls her eyes whenever I ask for my music cds to be put on. I don't understand why anyone wouldn't want to read these books at least 5 times a day or who wouldn't love the same kids songs over and over like I do?! I'll have to ask Meema (who lately I've been calling Meemee) if mama had favorites when she was my age.

In addition to playdates, mama and I try to go on other adventures during the week. But even the library and the grocery store don't seem to interest mama anymore. I can't imagine why. I'm ALWAYS chatting about the doors, fire doors, and potties when we go to those places. Who wouldn't want to have that conversation (time and time and time again). Recently though she took me to the Kohl Children's Museum in Glenview. It was a pretty neat place! Really my most favorite parts were the drinking fountains and bathroom doors, but I tried to do some other stuff there (you know, to make mama happy so it was worth the 45 minute drive and price of admission).

Here I am in the water area. It was great fun getting wet. Silly mama didn't notice there were smocks to keep me from getting my clothes wet. So after playing in this area, I got to spend a good 10 minutes under the hand dryer in the bathroom drying my shirt.
Here I got to push a button that would make bubbles. Then the bubbles would shoot the octopus up in the air. It was a blastt!

I finally got a turn to be in the drivers seat! Captain Ryan, reporting for duty, ready to set sail on the open seas! All aboard for a pirate's adventure!

Mama said she'd miss me too much if I lived on the water. So next she took me to the vetrinarian clinic area. She wanted to test to see if any vet skills were genetically passed onto me. I really liked opening and closing the cages and removing everything from them. Maybe Uncle (Dr.) Dan and Aunt (Dr.) Sherry will let me clean cages someday!

Besides moving to a new bed and bedroom, something new and exciting did happen recently. I started school!!! 2 days a week for 2 hours at a time I get a break from winter sick mama and get to go to school. I've heard that my mama and daddy were both pretty smart in school, so I have some big shoes to fill.

Here I am on my first day! I've got my school bag and am ready to go!

This is my teacher, Ms. Brandi. She is super friendly and lets me play with all the doors and trash cans I want. I also get to paint and play in the tunnel, and have a snack with juice, and sing songs, and hear stories. There are only 3 other students in the class, all of us are boys, and I am the youngest. I still try to act like a big boy though and do a good job of not crying when mama leaves.

That's it for now! Maybe this weekend my room will be finished and I'll get to write about those pictures. Talk to you soon!

Ladies Man

Having just passed Valentine's Day, I thought I'd post some recent pictures of the little guy looking like the charming, cute, and sassy-self he is.



Always ready to pose and give a kiss to "Mama Titi" (aka Great-Grandma Katie) - especially if a cracker is involved.


All Aboard the Love Train!

The future cover of GQ magazine - March 2030

Coming soon - pictures of Ryan's new Big Boy Bedroom!!! As described in detail by Ryan.

Good times in January

Look at the awesome toy I found at Sam's Club!!! $124 marked down to $19! It says for ages 6 and up, but by the time Ryan is that age, he'll be too big to play in it. So instead it might be something we build this summer for him to enjoy. Where to build/store it are still mysteries to me, but it was too good of a deal for me to pass up.

It doesn't matter to us that the temps have been low or that there's been snow on the ground. We've found different ways to have a good time inside despite the weather. One day, I watched Joslyn. She's 13 months old and her mom works with Dean. Coincidentally her mom is also my 2nd or 3rd cousin - what a small world! Joslyn was a cutie and we had a great time together, the two actually kind of played together and got along well!

No, Gizmo isn't going to eat Joslyn. This picture just shows how much Gizmo likes little kids - I mean other than the one who lives with us full-time. She frequently gave Joslyn kisses.

It's very difficult to get 2 kids of this age to sit still together long enough to snap a picture. This was the best one I got. Both liked the barn magnet toy. I'm sure my singing and dancing along helped ;)

I've been fighting a cold this week, but thankfully Dean and Ryan have stayed healthy. I didn't want to sit and mope all day through, so one day Ryan and I pull out the smock, paint, shaving cream, etc. and went to town! You can see his 2 finger painting masterpieces at the end of the table. I had to help him mush his hands around as he was uncertain about the texture of the paint.

AH --- , AH ---, AH ---

CHOO!

(no it didn't really happen that way, again this was a mommy-assisted mess)




Ryan actually found this hat in his chest of drawers and wanted to wear it one day. He wouldn't stand still enough for me to get his picture from across the room, so I settled for a close up. But I swear from slightly afar he could've passed for a short 4 or 5 year old! What a big boy he is getting to be.

Christmas 2010

I cleaned off the camera this morning (1/4) since Ryan decided to sleep until 9am! I found a few pictures from Christmas and the few days before it. You'll notice I didn't take many on the actual day, I had a 28 pound weight attached to my leg what seemed to be at all times. Better luck next year!


Ryan still fits in his bird sled from last year, with knees bent. Here Dean gives him a ride around the yard.
It was a chilly one! Even Gizmo ended up wearing boots that day.

Cold weather didn't bother Ryan at all, he trekked up and down the sidewalk like it was a balmy 60 degree day, rather than a frigid one in the teens.

And now the Christmas pictures:

Cousin Adam received some dress up clothes. Although I missed getting an absolutely adorable shot of him in the construction workers clothes, here he is - following in the steps of his parents and dressed as Dr. Lendman.

Looks like Gramma Pat was one of Dr. Adam's patients.

Ryan loves his trampoline. He wasn't a big fan of jumping on it that day while people watched, but it's a hit at our house now!

The tunnel/tent toy also was a popular one. The tent is almost big enough for Dean to sit in, but Ryan loves to hide in it.

And that's it for Christmas pictures, I told you there weren't many!

Dean's parents (Nana and Grandpa - who like my dad Ryan ended up calling Papa) came out for a visit. I finally remembered to get out the camera the last day they were here. Ryan's little issue of separation from me carried on through the week. I'm the one taking the picture and he was mad that I wasn't holding him. I tell myself he won't do this when he's in kindergarten, it's just a phase he'll grow out of.

A much happier little boy now that mama is holding him, though you can still see the tears in his eyes.

Even daddy's death grip couldn't calm the whinin' Ryan.

Our family of four, and a half - though you can't see any sign of our half in there yet! Won't be long I'm sure.

A Santa Filled Day

After weeks of preparation, we finally took Ryan to see Santa on Saturday. How do you prepare a 2 year old for Santa you ask? Well we started reading "Twas the Night Before Christmas" about 3 times a day just after Thanksgiving. Each time Santa's picture would appear in the book, we'd tell Ryan "This is Santa, he says Ho, Ho, Ho". It wasn't long that Ryan would say "Ho, Ho, Ho" whenever he'd see a picture of Santa anywhere, but the name "Santa" didn't stick to his vocabulary. So we told Ryan he was going to meet "Ho, Ho, Ho". Rather than wait in long lines or go somewhere to pay for what may or may not be a good picture of Ryan with Santa (you know, if our full-proof Santa prepations didn't work), we took Ryan to a local bank. We'd been to another bank of this chain in the past and were very impressed with Santa. Here he is reading, what else - "Twas the Night Before Christmas".

Again we were impressed with Santa. He was very patient and did not push Ryan coming to him. No, I am not picking my nose in this picture, but am "shhing" because it was the picture of "The Children were nestled all snug in their beds, while visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads."

This was as close as we could get without the death grip being applied to my neck.

After seeing Santa in the morning, we did a little Christmas shopping and then boarded the Polar Express! This was Ryan's first time on a train and he did great. He really liked looking out of the window. Unfortunately this was close to nap time and he was fighting a weekend cold, you can tell by the glassiness of Ryan's eyes that he's just a bit off.

Once we arrived at the North Pole (aka Fox Lake), Santa aboarded the train. This, however was after we had to do a standing diaper change for Ryan. The little pill peed through his diaper onto Dean's lap. It was only fair since he did the same thing to me that same morning. Must've been a bad batch of Huggies!

You'd think that maybe seeing Santa that same morning would've prepared Ryan for another visit - nope, not a chance.

Oh well, at least he didn't scream bloody murder. And on a positive note, Santa told both Dean and me that we were on his good list!

Reading a bedtime story

If you have about 2 minutes to spare, you can enjoy the Stoeber Family version of the book "Do Your Ears Hang Low?" It is no exaggeration that this story has probably been read 200 times in our house. So it should be no surprise that Ryan can fill in some of the blanks. Enjoy!

Halloween Week 2010

We had some busy days leading up to Halloween, fun and excitement all around! Our 3 week Halloween class at the Round Lake Area Park District came to a close. I snapped a few pictures of Ryan in his last class.


There were about 5 other kids in the class, but I didn't feel comfortable taking any of their pictures. However, I can always count on Ryan's best friend to strike a pose. So here he is slapping five with his buddy, the trash can.

I still have trouble getting Ryan to touch anything with texture - slime, sand, oats, playdoh, etc. But each week he would scribble a bit with the markers or on the chalkboard. Babysteps, definitely babysteps.

While he can't yet say and count numbers (other than say "Two"), Ryan likes to point and make sounds like he is counting. That's what he's doing here with the pumpkins.

FINALLY, Ryan conquered his fear of climbing up and going down the slide. We also have one about this size in our basement. Everytime I would have to hold his hand to help him climb up and hold his hand to guide him down the slide. However this week, it clicked for him and he's been climbing and sliding more than a game of Chutes and Ladders!

On Thursday, I had a huge playdate from the mom's group here. There were 15 moms, 7 kids under the age of 1 year, and countless toddlers and kids here. I really got into the Halloween theme and served strawberry ghosts, skeleton cookies, witches brew punch, and below is the cracker/veggie/dip graveyard.

Here is part of the upstairs group.

And part of the basement crowd.

I know Ryan is still a bit young to understand Halloween, so rather than spend a bunch of money on a costume, I decided to create something that fits his likes and sometimes his personality. Here is the view from the back, can you guess what he is?

For my little trash (can) loving son, an Oscar the Grouch costume!