Updates

Ryan has had a horrible bug for the past week. He (and I) vomited all night a week ago and he had vomited every day since until yesterday. He's also had diarrhea (which doesn't seem to be kicked yet). We were in Pittsburgh for my brother-in-law's 40th birthday party and managed to get the entire family (Ben's and mine) sick as well. Happy Birthday Ben. We suck.

I pirated this photo from Team Met. It's one of my faves.
In keeping with Dan's rule, I couldn't do this post without any pics...
and since we have all been sick, we don't have many.

Seeing your little baby go through that has to be the worst thing ever. He has been pretty amazing through it though. He's also been super snugly, which Dan and I have loved. I took him to the doc and he had lost some weight (a month ago he was 20lb 14oz), he's now 20lb 4oz. And since I forgot to post his stats last visit, he was 30" tall at that point too...though we think he's grown since as he is now hitting his head on the refrigerator door when it is open. All this growing has convinced me that I need to get him in a new car seat so he's been in the Britax Boulevard for the past week and I absolutely love it!

Silly Sunday

Hopefully this is as hilarious to some of you as it was to me...obviously.

Mango

As many of you know, Ryan loves fruit. The other night he down an entire mango himself. It was pretty impressive. This isn't a picture of him eating the mango. It's just an old picture of a messy meal. I just figured the post is a little bit better with a picture of Ryan. He has also been known to eat entire boxes of blueberries or raspberries.

Walking as the Preferred Mode of Transportation

The weekend we were at the beach in North Carolina is the weekend he began walking almost exclusively. He had known how to walk for a while but preferred not to. This is one of the first pictures of him walking full time. Sorry this is a repeat picture of the "Atlantic Ocean" post and not very interesting but I wanted to make sure to document the moment.

Ryan brings the term "sandy bottom" to a whole new level doesn't he?

Rhino Request

Here is the rhinoceros for all those who are looking to brush up on their animal-sound-vocabulary. It's hard to hear, so hopefully you can make it out. Also, apparently the football package that I discuss at the end is more like $240 (because there is a time obligation). I realize these videos have left much to be desired in terms of editing, but I only have so many minutes of time each month on Dan's computer (he's pretty much always working on it). Other than that, sit back and enjoy the show...

What is Ryan Doing

Some of the things Ryan is doing at 13 months of age:

• He knows the animal sounds for monkey, puppy, rhinoceros and sheep.
• He makes a small "woof woof" sound at every dog we see while on walks.
• When he eats good food, he rubs his belly.
• He can show you his belly and his nose if you ask him.
• If you ask him "Who's a good boy?" he raises his hand.
• He can blow bubbles in the tub on command.
• He loves to take baths but oddly, he loves to get out of the bath as well.
  
• He used to hate having water poured on his head but he doesn't mind it now.
• Daddy is "da da" and Mommy is "ba ba." I don't know why, but he can't say "ma ma."
  

Where's the baby?

I often buy prunes for Ryan instead of making them myself b/c they are a pain and the store-bought ones (surprisingly) don't taste much different. Every time I make them, they stick to my food processor and are difficult to get off. So usually I buy "Earth's Best", which have a picture of a baby on the jar. Ryan LOVES this baby and plays peek-a-boo with it. However, one day I was at Domenics and they had their own brand of organic prunes there, so I decided to try them. They have a picture of a big prune on the jar (rather than a baby). To our amusement (and Ryan's dismay), Ryan was searching all over for the missing baby.

Sorry the clip is so long (I figured the families would appreciate the length and wanted to get some of the signs documented in there-the waving of the hand in the air is his version of "drink").

Ryan's Hair After a Nap

Chicago Air and Water Show

The Chicago Air and Water Show is this weekend. This is the first time since I moved to Chicago that I have been in town to see it (that is 7 or 8 years). We went with my friend Augy after Ryan's first nap so we didn't get to see the water portion but the aerial portion is fantastic - truly amazing.

We were able to see all the navy's jets (F/A 18 Hornet and F22 Raptor), some bi-planes, a sea to air helicopter rescue by the coast guard and even the stealth bomber. Ryan was very interested when he could see the planes - but he couldn't follow them the whole way. He only cried once from the loud noise (the jets are VERY loud) because he didn't see it coming and it scared him - it even scared us a little. So if we showed him where the planes were, he loved it. We had to leave to get Ryan a nap before we could see the Blue Angels but we ended up watching them from our roof.

The whole beach and walkway along the lake was packed with people - good for people watching.

Atlantic Ocean

We took Ryan out to see the Atlantic Ocean for the first time this weekend. He wasn't as scared of this ocean as he was his last ocean. Just in case you missed it, he has now touched both coasts. Here he is with his buddy Jackson for the first time at the Pacific Ocean back in March.



We visited my Aunt Katy in Wilmington, NC from Wednesday to Friday (sorry about the windy picture - you think Ryan is a little annoyed by his Mom's hair in his face?) and then headed up to Virginia Beach, VA for the weekend for a wedding for one of Sharis' friends (Matt married Stephanie) from college. She was in the wedding so she had responsibilities all weekend. My friend Susie came down from Washington DC to visit us but unfortunately I don't have any pictures of her.



Ryan did really well on the way out there but we had some troubles on the way back. He didn't want to sleep on the plane even though it was bed time - so he became overly tired. Poor little guy. He finally fell asleep in the cab on the way home.

Copycat

We just came back from a trip for my friend, Matt Koop's, wedding in VA Beach and during the plane landing our very tired and wired little one year old was imitating the sounds of the landing gear. Hopefully some of you have flown enough that you can imagine this high-pitched, screachingly annoying sound and find the humor that Dan and I found in hearing Ryan try to mock the sound. He has become quite the little mimic of all that we do, but this is the first inanimate object that he has tried to imitate.