Dinner Out!

There's nothing like a gift certificate to get you to take the plunge and go to a restaurant with the kiddos! Both slightly humiliated parents were dying inside when Nicholas loaded his straw with pieces of french fries to shoot at us across the table with a marked "chawww!" He is still obsessed with Daddy's potato cannon (which we are no referring to as the potato launcher...I told Fred unless he is going to rearrange his work schedule to drop-off and pick-up Nicholas from preschool, we need to be more careful of our wording. I can only imagine the things he will share at school!)

Since the mall was closed, we had the place to ourselves for all the elevator rides and piggybacks we wanted.

A Swing Just for William

Ahhhh, the perfect morning for a first swing ride!

Of course, big brother wanted to help. He was insistent on giving William an underdog, but sufficed with doing commentary for Will, "weee, baby, weee....he likes it, he likes it!"

"Okay, get him out - its my turn!"

(its hard to believe this is the swing Nicholas used last summer!)

Happy Birthday Dominic!

Cousin Dominic turns the Big Two!

The adorable construction site cake was a big hit with the boys.

Everyone was in shock with how much William has grown since they last saw him. Basically, he's as big as Giada - and she was born in December '08!

Family Fun Night

Making homemade ice cream!

Daddy preps the vanilla bean as Nicholas stirs. Gotta love watching two boys busy in the kitchen.

Our ice cream maker is a vintage 1960's Sears Roebucks. It works like a charm, but is terribly loud - so we put it in the bathroom. (Yes, in this house, our potty seat is in the kitchen and the ice cream maker goes in the bathroom - I think we've officially confused Nicholas!)

As we waited on and on for the ice cream, we watched the shuttle prepare to launch. Nicholas was ecstatic the entire time and loved watching the astronauts get in their suits. Let's just say it was quite the battle to get him down for bed, since the shuttle wasn't launching until midnight. He woke first thing the next morning asking to watch the recording.

Out little astronaut in training!

Photographer Nicholas

Nicholas got a couple adorable shots of little brother in the jumper...

and then wanted his picture taken with Mommy!

Yummy Phone

Welcome Baby Evelyn!

Evelyn Nicole Ryan joined our extended family on Tuesday August 25, 2009

6:24pm

7 pounds 14 ounces

20 inches long

Big Brother Dillon inspected his long-awaited baby sister.

The Ryans are now a family of 4!

Awww, proud big brother.

So sweet!

Congrats Angela & Jim! We are so happy for you and just can't wait to meet little precious Evelyn!

New Independences

Suddenly, Nicholas seems to be developing many new independences. He started this battle with me over coming downstairs in the morning "just a little bit without you," meaning he wants to come down when I'm still getting ready for the day. I started to give in a couple minutes earlier here and there, but admittedly was rather surprised when he returned upstairs holding a perfectly peeled banana telling me, "boy, I'm just really hungry today."

And to think I've been peeling this boy's bananas for how long!

Nicholas just admires the big boys of the neighborhood. He's always reporting what antics they are up to and finds it so hard to stay in our yard when they are out playing in the street. The other day I caught him yelling to the boys, "come over to my house and play with me in my backyard!" Sure enough, his buds Andrew and Bryant came over. Nicholas was psyched and kept saying, "hey, check this out!" as he showed them his playset, sandbox and hose. He even started pumping his legs when swinging (despite all my efforts this summer, all it took was watching an 8 year old). The best was when Nicholas came to me and said, "Andrew and my friend want a popsicle."

Another new interest - picking out his own clothes and footware for the day. His preference is still for pajamas, but I have to say there's been some unique fashion statements.

Logger Boy

Nicholas has always seemed to have an attraction to old-fashioned things (like the original Curious George books, not the newer versions) so his more recent interest in Golden Books has not surprised me. After reading 'Scuffy the Tugboat' which had one picture of Scuffy passing by logger men riding logs down a river, Nicholas came up with this activity. It took me a while to figure out what the heck he was doing, until he told me he was "standing on the logs like the big mens."

That's my boy!

Ab Workout!

The other day when glancing at William, I had one of those "what looks different here" moments. I then realized he was pulling his legs up and holding them high a lot more than his usual kicks and thrusts.

Glad to know that under his big belly are some growing ab muscles!

Potty Reward!

After being dry at naps and nighttime for 4 days and only 1 accident, it was time to give Nicholas some feedback for doing so good with potty training. Over a month ago when we were at Babies R Us, he fell in love with a toy that he's been asking about ever since...

"the computer with the little green phone!"

He was soooooo excited to see it again- and this time get to bring it home!

At the store, he even told me he had to go potty. After hauling both kids out of the cart and into the restroom, Nicholas had already found the "magic sink." I was super proud of him for pulling himself away to do his business.

Unfortunately, now he's obsessed with checking out public restrooms to see if they also have these magic sinks.

Since it was Daddy's nightclass day, we swung by his office so he could pump up the special reward. What an extra-special day:

a cool potty reward, a magic sink and a ride on the elevator at Daddy's office!

Little Jumping Bean!

Today we pulled out the 'ol doorway jumper for William - he loved it, right from the start! Given the high doorway its in, his little feet barely touch the floor. Big brother was right by his side to help with the bouncing.

Happy bouncing boy!

Look at that smile!

It's obvious this will be a favorite!

3 Months Old!

William has changed tremendously over the past month! He's now 16 pounds 7 ounces and 26 1/4 inches long. He eats 7 times a day (between the hours of 5am and 8pm - which equates to close to every 2 1/2 hours). He is becoming much more interested in exploring his world than sleeping and is sleeping very little during the daytime. He fights naps - BIG TIME! He can cuddle up and appear out like a light, but bright-eyed the next second, with no intentions of closing his eyes. Thankfully, he is usually down for the night around 9pm and sleeps until 5'ish.

William is beginning to find comfort and amusement with sucking on his hand (always the left) and is starting to hold onto small toys. He loves the bouncy seat and very purposefully activates the toys on it. William also seems rather interested in books and is doing well with storytime. Much like his brother at this young age, Will hates the car! He cries for a good portion of nearly every car ride and does not sleep in the car!

This boy spots his Mama across the room and watches my every move throughout the day. He's very in tune with me and often remains happy when I'm in sight (which certainly has its drawbacks). William is a very vocal little guy who is doing a lot of exploring with sounds, inflections and some belly laughs - it brightens our day!

Sir Mix-A-Lot

With all our potty progress, we told Nicholas he could have a root beer float or a milkshake for dinner at A&W. Of course, he quickly noticed the jukebox (on the way to the bathroom) and spent the remainder of our meal spinning songs.

The only thing that got him out of the restaurant was the promise of going to Home Depot!

Picnic at the airport

Wednesday we had a picnic dinner at the airport! It was a busy night with plenty of take-offs and landings.

William was especially content in his seat for an unusually long time. Later I realized he had the perfect view of a black maple tree waving over a light blue sky. He's still mesmerized with high contract.

The big surprise of the night came when we found Nicholas to still be dry after over 2 hours and plenty to drink. By day 3, it seems as though our potty training boot camp was clicking in!

"A Fancy Party"

Toddler Imagination at Work:

Welcome to our "fancy party" hosted by Nicholas. I have no idea what inspired this one, but he had the Little People house all strategically set up, assigned seating (Nicholas in the red chair, William in the Bumbo, Mommy in the wooden chair)...

and he shared his potty prize suckers from the day.

This carried on all afternoon - our "fancy party!"

"What's that I hear?"

Despite Nicholas' history of inner ear problems, his boy has super sonic hearing for thunderstorms. Gotta love it when you hear him on the monitor about a half hour into naptime screeching, "hey Mommy, what's that noise I hear....I think a thunderstorm is coming!"

This afternoon, he insisted on calling Daddy to check on him during the storm.

"See the storm, Daddy?"

The Tales of Potty Training...

Last week we took the plunge at potty training Nicholas. Following his interest on Mother's Day, this daunting task had gotten brushed to the side right around May 21st with William's arrival. With preschool just around the corner, it was time...and so needless to say, we spent the week in the house! Our days consisted of pajamas all day (well, Nicholas wore his PJ top - and bottomless for him), plenty of drink boxes, potty prizes, enough stickers to redecorate a bathroom, way too much Curious George viewing and a whole lot of crafts & playing.

On a good note, William enjoyed the new sights of sitting upright in the Bumbo better.

On Day 2, we took a long walk/bike ride and celebrated dryness (with Nicholas toting his potty prize in the "trunk" of his bike)!

William has really found his hand (looks to be a potential southpaw like Mommy). He's also started to hold onto small toys.

~ another pajama shot - with the hand ~

For the first time, the boys played together. They shared a pillow and Nicholas activated the lights and music for William. (Don't be alarmed by Nicholas' appearance - he had gotten a little too into scented markers earlier that day.)

I'll definitely remember this day, seeing my two boys interact so nicely with each other...despite Nicholas being bottomless and marker-stained and both in their pajamas mid-afternoon.