Cruelty or Fun?

Originally uploaded by flowmug

Is dunking an 8 month old child cruel? I'm not sure he ever got used to this.

St. Patty's Day With Out of Towners

I know this is a bit late but my Aunt Katy and Cousin Liz were in town the day after we came back from Cabo. Liz lives in Milwaukee and Katy came in to see her and go to the Bruce Springsteen concert. It was nice of them to take time out of their "girls' weekend" to drive an hour and a half to meet Ryan.

Fun With Sister-in-Law

IMG_7969
Originally uploaded by flowmug

Sharis was a little tuckered out after my cousins left on Friday after pizza. Tim thought he would take advantage of the situation.

Easter Pizza

My cousins on my Dad's side were able to come to my parents' house on Friday for what we called Easter Pizza.  All 3 of my cousins have their own kids now so it is quite fun to have them all run around together.  Ryan isn't quite "running" around yet, but hopefully by the next time they see him he will be.  

Ryan and Riley interacting.


Ryan and Papa.

Nonny and Adrienne.

Katie, Adrienne (Meg's girl), Ryan and I.

Ryan in his new Twins hat from Uncle Tom and Auntie Trish.

If you click on any of these pictures you will be taken to the Ryan Month 9 photo set on Flickr.

Christmas Morning

I know, I know. It's Easter weekend. But it seemed like Christmas morning on Friday morning after we arrived in MN. But there is a back story.

We rolled in at about 10:30pm after a 7 hour drive. Ryan was asleep (which was great because he had been sleeping for 3.5 hours which means we didn't need to stop - which was also equally impressive that Sharis didn't have to stop to go the bathroom) so we rushed him in the house and down to bed. Well, my parents had been counting the minutes until we arrived so they could see Ryan but we wouldn't let them see him because we wanted him to go right to sleep. So we told them he would be up at 7am and they could see him then.

Well, the next morning he didn't wake up until 8 or 8:15. They had set their alarms for 7am and were waiting and waiting - just like it was Christmas morning. But it also seemed like Christmas morning because we woke up to 4 inches of snow.





Needless to say, my Dad was pretty happy to have his grandson and his puppy right by his side.


And Ryan is finally old enough to interact with Cooper.

Tooth Update

There were a few posts before about Ryan having a tooth and then it seeming to recede back into his gum.  Well, we haven't updated the fact that tooth is here for sure.  It really started to poke out in Cabo.   There goes the gummy smile.

Cabo Pictures

Originally uploaded by flowmug

The Cabo pictures are finally up on Flickr. We had a fantastic time in the sun all week as it was 80 and sunny with nary a cloud in the sky.

We would like to thank Cas and Missy for agreeing to spend a week with us. We had a fantastic time with them and Jackson and Ryan seemed to get along quite well together. They didn't really interact as much as Cas and I thought. We thought they would break out into a wrestling match at any minute. But the girls just thought we were crazy. We would also like to thank them for setting up a lot of the trip. A lot of the logistical details were taken care of by them.

You can click on this picture to be taken to the entire "Cabo San Lucas" set but I will also be highlighting more pictures from the week if you would rather just do that.

PS - That is Cas and Missy's yacht in the background.  

Teaser

Here is a quick photo as a teaser since I didn't get the photos
uploaded to Flickr tonight.

Long Absense

We haven't posted in over 2 weeks. Sorry about that. We were on
vacation in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico last week and trying to get
ready for it the week before that. We have some decent pictures from
vacation and maybe even a couple of movies. I will try to get the
pictures on Flickr before the Easter holiday but can't promise
anything. As many of you know, the NCAA basketball tourney starts this
week and I am in a couple of fantasy leagues that will take up a bunch
of time this week. Plus, the games start Thursday. I'll try though.

Happy belated St. Pattys Day.

Sent from my iPhone

Mr. Tough Guy

Now that Ryan is more mobile, he's definitely taking a few more spills. But Dan (and I'm sure his Uncle Kyle) is happy to see that he is pretty tough. He really only cries when he hits his head pretty hard on the wood floor. He most always hits his head when he falls, b/c it's so huge and heavy, but he usually doesn't cry. Anyway, this past weekend we learned that drawing blood also does not discourage him. We were at mass and he wanted to play with the paper handout (you know, the one they give you sometimes to follow along with the mass-kind of like the program at weddings?). I was watching him do it and all of a sudden noticed some red on his fingers and spots on the paper. He was giving himself paper cuts! Not phased, he continued playing. I, of course, needed to force him to stop and was in disbelief that my ending his masochistic fun was the thing that upset him most about this situation.

New Favorite Toy

Ryan has, again, found a way to get in touch with his video monitor. I moved it from sitting on his crib to mounted on the wall, but the wire was hanging down past the outside of his crib and now that he is constantly standing in his crib, he found a way to get to it. Now the wire is masking taped to his crib (a temporary solution which I'm sure he'll McGuiver around soon). Sorry about the poor quality in the first half. There was too much light behind the monitor and I was zoomed in all the way with my video cam (so it's a little shaky).

Standing Man

Ryan is constantly pulling himself up into a standing position now without our help. His eyes are no longer at the floor's level any more. He is peeking above and over the couch / the chair / his crib rails.





Notice the messed up hair? He just got up from a nap here and his hair is finally long enough where he gets bed head.

He is learning when he is too close or too far from an object to be able to stand up.




A click on any of these pictures will introduce you to the 'Ryan Month 8' set.

Captain Curious

Ryan has been exploring his surroundings with much more vigor lately. Here is a picture of him burrowing under some pillows we had leaned against the couch. He went head first into those things and never looked back. He has no problem trying to crawl off the edge of the couch or off his changing table - probably because he doesn't know the consequences of what can happen if he does.




For more adventures with Ryan, click on the picture to be taken to the Ryan Month 7 set - the last in this set. On to Month 8 ...