The Week from......... 2 year old ville

This week has been the comedy of errors with Ryan. On Wednesday, I had a doctors appointment that took an hour and a half to see the doctor for 10 minutes. Needless to say, Ryan's patience was wearing thin by the end. On the way home, I opened the windows since it was nice. Ryan decided to throw his hat out the window! Luckily we were stopped at a light, so I got out of the car and got the hat. Ryan was mad I wouldn't give it to him, and I was mad that my seatbelt folded and I couldn't buckle it! Finally, we made it home. After naptime, Ryan and I watched a video and he, being the 'helpful' child he is, noticed that I had finished my water bottle. So he decided to 'help' refill it. He got the very heavy Brita bottle out and proceeded to dump the contents all over the floor. With my big belly, I was of course having trouble mopping it all up! After we finished cleaning, I started to get dinner put together and Ryan usually helps by getting his milk out of the fridge. Today, he decided he wanted a cup of applesauce and after I said ok, decided to open it up - and spill it all over the floor. Because I yelped, Ryan freaked and started to run into the living room with the now almost empty cup of applesauce! So back to the floor we went - cleaning up pink applesauce! I was glad when the day ended! I sat back, folded baby clothes and watched a movie.

After that, our week got better. We went to Chuck E Cheese for dinner on Thursday, where we were supposed to meet other people, who didn't show up. It was packed since it is Spring Break here. Friday, we went to the library to play with some friends of ours. One little kid pulled the fire alarm (I am thankful it wasn't mine) so we ended up trying to get a bunch of little kids and old people who had congregated for tax help out of the library! Ryan just liked seeing the fire trucks! Kris was home when we got home and we worked all afternoon on building things for the baby. I built the beautiful bassinet my parents bought us for Easter and Kris built a plug for the swing, so we can avoid using batteries.

Today, we spent the morning at the gym. Then I relaxed reading a book and napping, while Kris put together Ryan's tricycle and putting the baby car seat bases into the cars. When Ryan got up, he got his first try at the tricycle! He thought it was fun, but has to work on the pedaling. Now Kris is making dinner with leftover ham from Easter and Ryan is playing with his new cash register he got for collecting enough stickers by sleeping through the night and staying in bed at naptime and bedtime. He has earned another toy/book as of naptime today, so we'll be going shopping again soon!

Happy Easter!!

Ryan is napping and I'm trying to get stuff done - so even before this Easter day is finished, I'm going to post about it! Ryan woke up this morning at 8am as usual. I had to sneak downstairs and hide the eggs since I was too tired to do it last night. Kris got him up and going and they came down and searched for eggs and baskets. He had a great time, but is too much like his daddy! He wanted to play with every toy in his basket before moving onto anything else and wanted to open every egg before looking for anymore. He loved the microphones that he found in each of his baskets - which will hopefully encourage him to talk more - so far it's worked.

I made breakfast with eggs and cinnamon rolls, then we got ready, took some pictures and went to church. They had an easter egg hunt there too, so Ryan got some more candy! Of course, he wasn't hungry for lunch after the candy, so had a lunch of grapes! Now he's sleeping (in his bed for the second day in a row) and Daddy is making ham and sweet potatos for Easter dinner.

Also - Happy Birthday to Grandmama!!

Rain, but nice

Over the last week, we've had a nice time. My mom came out to visit while Kris was out of town. Kris and I did get to go out to dinner and search for new books at B&N - I was in desperate need of a toddler sleep book. The previous week, I had several nights (when Kris was out of town - of course) where Ryan was up several times at night asking for a kiss and then going back to bed. It made the night very exhausting since I have trouble sleeping anyway (being so big!). We had a nice night and I've finished the book and starting implementing some stuff and we are on our way to sleeping through the night again.

Last week, Ryan worked at the desk with me, while I created a baby registry at Target.com (since they decided to give me a $20 gift card if I did). So I took a picture of him 'working'. Here is also a picture of Ryan in a new outfit that my mom and Robin got him. He looks so cute!

Anyway, my mom gave me some nice time to myself by taking Ryan outside to play (when it wasn't raining) or to Target. I got some stuff done and some relaxing time, which I am so in need of. We started getting out some baby stuff and cleaned up some of the house, which was in desperate need. And of course, we went to the library (two different ones) and did some shopping. Buppa (my dad) sent Ryan this flashing bowtie for St. Patty's day that he wore with my shamrock headband to storytime, looking pretty cool!

Friday night, I went out to start my pedicure process again since I can't reach my toes anymore and treated myself to a movie while, Kris took Ryan to the park and out to dinner.

Saturday, we dyed some eggs. Ryan broke most of them, which we expected. But he did have fun dying them and wanted to do some more since it only took us about 15 minutes! He was covered in dye as you can see in the pictures.

I also included a picture of Ryan from last month that I didn't post before of him fingerpainting. He had a great time doing it and loved showing his hands off.

The Blizzard

This past Thursday I thought people were crazy. I was at the gym and overheard people talking about early dismissal from school. Now around here they cancel school or get let out if there is 1" of snow on the ground - evidently someone might slip or something. Anyway, the snow wasn't even supposed to start until Friday morning and they were already discussing this. Now I've seen so many times growing up that they call for snow and we get a dusting and then everyone (the kids) are disappointed because they still have to go to school. So I just brushed it off.

Friday morning came. I got up around 7:45 - no snow. Around 8 am it started - and by 9 Ryan's doctors office called to ask if we could come in early (we had a 4 pm appt to check his ears). So we got there around 9:45. The roads were already awful. I probably had to clean off 2" off the car - after just an hour! It continued most of the day. We didn't go to our playdate, but we did have to pick Kris up from the car dealership. He had a problem with his truck that only happens in the snow and finally wanted to show them. We were just happy that his flight got in at 6:30 that morning! By Saturday morning, we were hoping that things were better - but now. It kept snowing until around 3 yesterday.

So we got about a foot of snow all together. This is 2 days after we were playing outside in 50 degree weather. So Ryan and Kris went out to play/shovel twice yesterday. Ryan had a blast. Kris made him a little slide out of the snow pile from the driveway. He also loved eating the snow! So here are some pictures of him outside!

Speech Therapy and Preschool

Today, we had our first speech therapy session. Every time we had mentioned that she was coming over (yes they do it at our house), Ryan stuck out his tongue. Evidently, he associated doing tongue exercises with the speech therapist, Michelle. At least it was a correct assumption. She played with him for a little while and started to do some face stretches. I'm supposed to do these at home too. She also wants me to make sure to ask him to speak instead of just accepting the sign language that he does. He has gotten a little frustrated with me, but all I'm asking is for him to try. She is thinking that he has decided it is easier to sign and get what he needs than try to talk. Although, I must say, I've been hearing new sounds come out of him lately. So hopefully, this will work.

Today, we also went to look at another preschool. I had originally ruled this one out because I thought it would be out of my driving range (15 minutes), but I had driven by last week and it took me exactly 15 minutes to get there. This was was recommended to me by several friends out here, including one who is a speech therapist (just happens to be on maternity now or we would be using her!). It was in our price range and I liked that they had a separate music and gym rooms. I had previously seen places where they sat in one small area the whole morning, which bothered me. They are also putting in a new outside play area over the summer, so that made it even better. Ryan seemed to like being there too, which was good, he kept waving bye to me as if I was leaving him there today! So I signed him up there and sent our registration money in when I got home. It is nice to be done with that decision.

Other than that we have a very busy week here. Playdates, the gym, a hearing test for Ryan, library, and our 1 year warranty walkthru. Next week doesn't look much better. But we like to keep busy!

Chicago Wedding

Last weekend, the family went to Chicago for Cyndi's wedding (a friend from NJ). Kris had a meeting out there on Friday, so he flew out on Thursday night and Ryan and I drove up on Friday afternoon. It took us 6.5 hours to get there through rush hour traffic plus going to the north side of Chicago. I was exhausted by the time we arrived and Ryan was just happy to get out of the car and see Daddy. Every time he started to whine I reminded him that we were going to pick up Daddy and he perked up.

Saturday, we gave a call to Uncle Denny, to see if we could go down to visit them. Unfortunately, we missed him and we had already left for downtown when he got back to us. So we took Ryan down to Navy Pier and did a little walking around. Luckily, I was smart enough to bring the stroller with us, which saved us. We also went to the Children's Museum there, which Ryan and Daddy really enjoyed. Kris had never really been to one of the play places like that with Ryan, so he just wanted to see everything and get to do everything! It was too bad, we just didn't have the time to do that. But here are some pictures from the day.

When we got back, we met our friend Liz and her boyfriend, Mark for some appetizers before the wedding. After that Ryan and I took a shower (he had played in the water at the museum and smelled like raw fish) and we all got ready for the wedding. The wedding didn't start until 7pm (Central time) because of it being a Jewish wedding and there being some rule that it had to happen after sundown (I apologize for not understanding this any better). The wedding was beautiful as was Cyndi. We had a great time catching up with all our friends from NJ and meeting some of their new men. Ryan did pretty good for it being so late. He was pretty tired and stuck to one of us all night. He didn't want to dance unless you were holding him and then he was pretty mesmerized by the colored disco ball. They did have one of the coolest cakes ever, so I included a picture. Ryan was very upset when they lifted Cyndi and Matt up on the chairs (a Jewish tradition), he must have been worried about them falling! By midnight, we were ready to call it a night.

Luckily, Ryan slept until 9:15 Central time, but that still didn't make up enough sleep - especially since he won't take longer than a 20 minute nap in the car. But we made it home right before bedtime. Exhausted and ready for a new week.