Trader Joes

Sharis has been to Trader Joe's with Ryan in tow at least 180 times
and about half of those times, Ryan has been big enough to push one of
their mini shopping carts around the store. Every time he has asked,
Sharis has been able to shut down his requests. It is so much easier
for her to get through the shopping if he is sitting in the cart.

So today, we head there as a family. I have gotten Ryan out of his
seat and we are heading into the store and he sees the carts and I
think "What a great thing for a little kid to do." He asks to push
one and I say yes. At that very moment I feel laser eye balls in the
back of my head. Sharis has been working for the good part of the past
year on him to NOT push around a cart. I just undid all that work in
15 seconds. It's good to have Dad around to help on the weekends but
it can mean the undoing of months of training.

As I was taking this picture, I was almost escorted out of the store
because Trader Joe's has a VERY strict no picture policy. I just had
Ryan butter the guy up so I didn't get thrown out.

One more note. Elaine, the cashier who checked us out, says we are
going to have an 8lb 3oz girl and she is going to be born in the early
A.M. She says she is very good at this type of thing (predicting the
sex, size and time of birth).

Easter

Easter Eggs
Originally uploaded by flowmug

A little late, I realize. Sorry.

I took Ryan on an Easter egg hunt the weekend before Easter. They had a bunch of them going on at parks all over the city of Chicago and so I made plans to go with him. We got there and it was packed, just swarming with kiddos of all ages. We headed to the line to register and pay our obligatory $3 for the hunt and I literally had trouble finding the end of it! After about a 200 yard walk across the park, we found it. I thought to myself, "This is going to go well. We'll see how long Ryan lasts in this line." Luckily for us, they were starting the first group of kids in about 10 minutes so they created a MUCH shorter line that we caught wind of and quickly moved to. Ryan was actually being amazing throughout just looking around and taking it all in, while holding tight to his basket (the tool box from Aunt Marla and Uncle Ben), my hand, and sporting his cool shades, of course! Too bad I have no pictures of the actual event. It was too hard for me to try to capture it by myself. Here is a pic of Ryan with a sample of his loot though. They put stickers in the eggs, which were a hit with both of us! The Easter bunny was there too and Ryan took to him much more kindly than he did to Santa.

Actual Easter morning we video taped and that may or may not get on here (depending on if I can get it together). We "hid" some eggs that looked like sport balls (from Grammy) and a few toys. He loved it! Then we spent a great evening and wonderful Easter meal with Kelly, Augy, and Kelly's family...thanks again for taking us in guys!

Towers and Bananas

Here are a couple of collages from some pictures we took the other morning. Ryan was in a good mood, the sun was shining in our windows and I hadn't taken pictures in a loooong time so I grabbed the camera.

I was able to get a couple of action shots of him destroying a tower he likes us to build for him. I will have to teach him to keep his eye on the target.

And how about an action shot of him sneezing while eating a banana?

So Much For Sleep...

So Dan posted that I've been sleeping well....and I had...until now. I might have gotten an hour in tonight so far and have been up since (it's now 2:30 AM). I've been feeling a bit nauseous lately and like maybe things are going to start happening soon here...we'll see.

Wanted to share a Ryan story since I'm up. We've been going to the park regularly lately and every time he gets so excited when we get there b/c we just let him run off. During the entire walk to the park he has to hold our hand (down busy Lincoln Ave).
Side note: what is it with kids and ledges? He steps up on every one as we make our way down the street. It takes about 20 minutes to go less than 1/2 a block. At the hair salon we pass along the way, he points to every product in the window and tells us the color.

Anyway, as he runs in excitement (often in his rain boots lately so that he can play in the puddles-another LOVE) he inevitably trips and takes a mean digger on the cement. He's great at keeping his head up though and usually doesn't even let out a whine! Tough kid!! Dan and I wonder if he will be a baseball player with the comfort he seems to have in sliding head first across the ground.

Speaking of sports. Dan was watching golf this past weekend and Ryan decided he was inspired to play a little, sans clubs. That's ok, did you know that a small pasta strainer can double as a golf club? AND, if you happen to misplace all 20 of your golf balls (thanks G-Pops!) a ping pong ball works just fine. Though he has demonstrated these skills in other sports, he assures us that what he really wants to play is football and soccer.

Finally, Ryan is so into anything with wheels. His most recent envy is any kid on a bike or scooter. He constantly tells us that Ry Ry wants a bike. When asked which he would prefer, he says, "Bike...gibberish...Scooter." I ask, "You want both?" He answers, "Yes."
BTW...this is not a suggestion grandparents ; )

20 Days To Go

You wouldn't know it by the coverage on the blog, but Sharis is still VERY pregnant and the second baby will be here any day now. With Ryan taking up so much of our time and energy, this second baby doesn't get her fair share. Not that she isn't as important to us at all. It's just priorities are different now. The blog falls down the list.

Sharis is still feeling very good. She feels big - but if that is her only issue, we are doing well. She has been sleeping just fine whereas with Ryan, I don't believe she was sleeping very well at this point in the pregnancy. Her restless legs have reared their ugly heads at times, but again, it hasn't been as bad as it was with Ryan. Thank God, because being pregnant with a 2 year old in the house is a LOT harder than being pregnant with no other responsibilities.

The baby moves around quite a bit - especially in the evening. I've spent a little time enjoying these movements from the outside, but again, not quite as much as I was able to do with Ryan.

The latest with us and the babe is that we've decided to move forward with having the baby at home. We've been trying to make it happen since November and over many months have learned a lot about how difficult it is to get certified as a homebirth midwife in Illinois. Ironically, it would have been quite a bit easier for us to have made this happen in MN (so we are told anyway); but, we had pushed off our plans for the move until the end of this summer and after baby #2 was here and (hopefully) in a routine with our family.

We are very excited about having a home birth this time around and look forward to being guaranteed a tub, a relaxing environment throughout labor (no car trip or triage), and a comfortable post partum recovery environment. It will also be nicer for us to manage Ryan since we don't have family in town to pop over at a moment's notice and watch him while we trek to the hospital. My parents are planning to come in as soon as we say "go", but that trip takes 7 hours and we've heard many stories about second babies moving MUCH quicker (with Ryan, Sharis was only in active labor for 14 hours).

We have received a lot of questions and concerns from family and friends (and always welcome more discussion on the subject). We have gone over many, many scenarios and are very confidant in our decsion to stay out of the hospital. With a pregnancy that is VERY low risk in a mother as healthy as Sharis, the chances of problems arising are low. That doesn't mean they are non existant but we are comfortable with the risk / reward tradeoff.

We hope to be able to share a lot of this experience with our family and friends. I had hoped to keep everyone much more updated during Ryan's birth. But low and behold, labor and delivery are very exhausting (even for the husband) and very emotional. I hope to be able to share more this time. So keep an eye out.

75 and Sunny

It is gorgeous here in Chicago today. We went to Oz Park right near
our house this morning and it was crawling with kids. So after Ryan's
nap I took him to a park that is a little further away. This park is a
bit hidden but all the neighborhood kids know about it. They have a
bunch of vehicles that stay here all the time and Ryan loves it. NO
ONE is here. Very odd but good for us.

Flying with Ryan

Ryan and I are flying to Chicago from MN this morning. We came to look
at another house. Unfortunately Sharis couldn't come because she is
too far along in the pregnancy.

Ryan (and the grandparents) had a great time at the zoo yesterday
while I handled the house stuff. Hopefully I can show some pictures
when my dad puts them on Flickr.

Meanwhile, Sharis was able to spend a relaxing day in Chicago
recharging before the baby comes (by getting a message and going to
yoga).