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first ice skate (sorta)

A few weeks ago, before the warm snap ruined the ice, and before the cold snap froze us to oblivion, we took a family walk down to Nokomis and checked out the ice (and pond hockey preparations, which were then ruined by above-mentioned weather patterns). However, the day we were there it was gorgeous outside, and the ice was perfect for skating. Unfortunately, no one in our household owns skates, but we tromped on down to the ice anyway and decided to introduce Ry to the fine art of trying to remain upright on ice.

He spent a few moment unsure of how to proceed…

but quickly gained confidence and ventured off to do his thing.

He fell down– a lot.

But did not care at all. He was having a blast out there on the ice!

And soon was even attempting pirouhettes! (this is his stance pre-pirouhette)

And no ice skating experience would be complete without a little taste-testing of the ice.

We’ll aim to own some real skates one day. Maybe next winter??

the BBB

The Big Boy Bed is up and running, and the transfer to Ryan’s new room has gone smoothly. I’m not going to talk further about how anything’s going… I firmly believe in the blog jinx, as you know.

I will talk for a moment about naps though. As in, I would pay large sums of money to take a peaceful one myself everyday. You see, unless Ryan himself sleeps, I am unable to sleep. I get way too distracted by the singing and moaning and hollering and banging and clattering that I hear coming from his room. I’ve tried all tactics…telling him that mama really wants to rest and can’t do that with his loudness is one that I thought would maybe work, but um no. He wasn’t really taking naps anymore in his crib either before the transition, so I’m not surprised that he’s not napping in the BBB either. But now he’s roaming around and getting into closets and drawers and making lots of commotion, so my relaxation level at naptime is ZERO. What bugs me is- the dude is tired. The other day on the way to an event he practically fell asleep in the car at 11:45. Then he DID fall asleep in the car at 3:15. Yesterday on the way home from Grandma’s after lunch he just about fell asleep at noon. But then when ya put him down for a nap? NADA.

Ah well, so it is.

I’ll attempt some ‘nicer’ pictures of the room one of these days. Here are a couple from the day we were getting his room all organized before the big move. Oh yeah, and he’s still “sleeping” with 539 different stuffed animals, 92 pillows, and 47 blankets.

random January photos

This is the church, this is the steeple…

open the doors and see all the people! (Grandpa Bob taught him that one).

We have just a bit of static electricity in our home.

Plenty of shoveling opportunities this month!

whine

Feliz Friday!! I hope you’re having a great one!! Here are some of my thoughts for today…

  • Wish wish WISH I could have some WINE with that WHINE. I could really benefit from being able to drink heavily right about now.
  • Our garage door is non-functional. The car is INSIDE the garage. We’ve been stuck at home all day.
  • Our kitchen faucet is barely functional.
  • Some rusty pipe from our bathtub is leaking into the basement onto the guest bed. This, in addition to theĀ  previous statement, is going to cause me to call the plumber very soon. I do heart my plumber, but don’t really need the hassle or expense of plumbing work right now.
  • I want to put together Ry’s big boy bed. But, don’t think I have the stomach muscles to do it myself. So there it sits.
  • I also want to: paint a closet, do a zillion loads of laundry, clean bathrooms, put random crap away, and clean up our living room. BUT…
  • Mr. Demanding would prefer that I play Candy Land, playdoh, tball, Memory, car garage….
  • I called my dad this morning and invited him over to fix our garage door and put together the big boy bed. He declined the invitation.
  • Oh! And so my belly?? That I thought was growing enormous? It appears I’m measuring two weeks behind my due date, which is no shocker because I always measured small with Ryan. Which means I’ll probably have another ultrasound at the next visit. Anything for them to eek out another expensive medical scan, right??
  • The child is screaming my name. He doesn’t nap anymore, have I mentioned that? He enters his crib at 1:30pm along with 12,397 stuffed animals, and then proceeds to sing songs, arrange animal gangs, and bang furniture around instead of nap. Thus…
  • I’m worried about the advent of the big boy bed. Nothing to keep him contained. LORD HELP ME.
  • And that brings us back to the whine. And wine. I need some.

P.S. Two weeks till Mexico, yo. [AND I HAVE TO IMBIBE VIRGIN DAQUIRIS]

27 weeks tomorrow…

And it’s official: I’m the same size at 26 weeks with this pregnancy that I was at 39 weeks with Ryan. Oh and another thing?? Shopping for swimwear when you are pregnant is WAAAAYYYY worse than shopping for swimwear when not pregnant. I’m just saying.

Oh!!! And since I’m meant to be applying myself and working hard at a most-excellent online SLR photography workshop right now, this is probably the BEST time to post of a bunch of crappy pictures from the point and shoot. Why not??

Ry’s started talking to the baby and singing the ABCs to my belly. He also loves to touch the bare belly with his ice hands.

Here’s a preview shot of the big boy room (man this thing is slow in the making). It’s blue– a little more electric blue than we were expecting. Here we all are hanging out in the new room one evening.

where’s waldo?

I *told* you he sleeps with a lot of crap in his crib, you just didn’t believe me.

duped??

The following conversation took place last night when FatJ got home from work.

FatJ: Hey, I didn’t realize that I was being duped when I signed on for this vacation of ours in Mexico.

Me: ????? What???? What are you talking about?

FatJ: You didn’t know that we’ll be gone over SUPER BOWL WEEKEND???

Me: (smiling, with heavenly realization) Um, no dear. As you know I don’t follow sports and I hate football so I do not know when the Super Bowl takes place.

FatJ: For the first time in history the Vikings have a chance to actually BE in the Super Bowl, and I’m going to be IN MEXICO!!!!!!!!

Me: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!! Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!! (Laughing my HEAD off, because this is seriously the funniest thing I’ve heard in a very, very long time.) Let’s get a few more in there, hahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!!!!!

Me: Well the resort will have it on TV at their bars I’m sure.

Me: DUDE, IF YOU’RE SUCH A CRAZED FOOTBALL FAN WHY DIDN’T *YOU* LOOK INTO WHEN THE SUPER BOWL WAS ANDĀ  TELL ME THAT WEEKEND DIDN’T WORK FOR YOU??

Me: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

Ryan, at 2.5 plus two

I guess the dude was 33 months on Christmas. He’s still going strong with his 2.5 year old disequilibrium phase. (Shouldn’t it be over soon?? But then people tell me that 3 is WORSE?!)

Lately Ryan…

Is very, very interested in playing with stuffed animals.** He usually calls them his ‘guys’ and sets them up all around the house in different groups and clumps as they participate in various imaginary activities. There’s the choo choo train couch scenario, the animal train coffee table scenario, the blanket boats on the floor scenario, the beach scenario. In addition to wanting to play with the ‘guys’ all the time, he also requires no less than 103 animals in his crib with him at all times. Plus the five blankets and two pillows that must be in there as well, and there’s little room left for him. He finds a way though…I’m always amazed at the disorder of his crib when I go in to cover him up at night, and how he sleeps just fine with all that bed clutter. {{BigBoyBed set to arrive in a few weeks. Zoinks!}}

Oh, and multiple ‘guys’ have to come along with us on every excursion. That means we’re toting usually two stuffed animals, one car baba, and sometimes even one full-sized baba into stores etc. I thought these kids were supposed to require less baggage as they got older?

Potty training…I’m not going to talk about it. I firmly believe in THE JINX. I’ll just say there are good days, and there are bad days. And I’ve never cleaned my bathroom floor so much in my life.

He’s become extremely re-attached to needing mama at all times. He flips out if daddy gets him up in the morning or if daddy suggests using the potty. It must be MOM. One night after dinner I ran out to buy dog food- a 15 minute errand. Ryan started screaming just as I was leaving (even though daddy was waiting with baseball glove and tball to play), and when I walked in the door 15 minutes later he was still sobbing that mama left him. Also- [and this is super fun!!]- daddy can have no part in bed time if I am home. I usually try to make Ryan let daddy read the books, but even that proves challenging. [You'd think he'd have had enough of me by the end of the day?!?!]

He’s become more obsessed with snacks- if that was even possible- and way less interested in mealtime. Anytime we go anywhere he thinks he’ll be handed a snack, no matter what time it is or when he last ate. He also thinks he should receive one snack in the car, one snack at our destination, another snack later in the destination, and yet another snack on the car ride home.

He had a stretch of 8 days of no napping. Yesterday he finally napped. Perhaps in another week and a half he’ll take another snooze.

He’s very active, he’s very vocal. One of his favorite activities is to antagonize the dog and run up and hit or kick her for no reason. He also enjoys coming up and walloping me for no reason. It’s fun. I’m not sure how many times I’ll have to say “we don’t hit, we don’t kick, it hurts, it’s not nice” before it finally sinks in. He also likes to scream. And yell. And sing. And throw tantrums about not wanting to leave the house, not needing to pee, not being able to eat a snack on the couch…you name it, he fits about it.

**************

He looks so grown up lately!! He’s tall- he looks like a big boy. He’s very conversational, and has gotten really great at talking on the phone. I also love the way he answers yes/no questions- he’s very formal. Instead of answering NO or YEAH, to something like Did you have a nice sleep last night, Ryan? his response will be “I did” or “I didn’t.” He answers like that for EVERY yes/no question.

He talks about this new baby that’s coming our way. He’ll ask to “see” the baby…which means he wants me to lift up my shirt so he can gaze at my bare stomach. Then his fave thing to do is place his freezing ice hand on my belly. He’s not patient enough to hang out and wait to see or feel the baby kick, so he hasn’t experienced that yet. Ryan thinks he, too, has a baby growing in his belly. Which is suuuuuuper cute. He got a baby doll for Christmas and has been practicing feeding it a bottle and saying “sshhhhh” to it when it cries. And he puts it down for a nap by chucking it over the side of his crib. Ryan likes to talk about where Baby Goy will take a bath (“in the blue BATHTUB in the KITCHEN SINK?!!”) and he fantasizes about Baby Goy enjoying playtime with Ryan’s toys.

We’re taking him to Mexico in a month. He knows we’re going; knows there’s a beach; knows we’ll fly in a plane. He knows he’ll take his Thomas the Train backpack and wear his Crocs. What he doesn’t know is how much he’ll be required to wait around and do nothing in order to get to Mexico. Or that he’ll be sleeping in a huge bed in the same room as mom and dad for five days. OR THAT HIS MOM IS BEGINNING TO LIVE IN FEAR OF THIS TRIP.

He has an incredible memory. He recites lines from books and sings lots of songs, but HATES it when mom or dad sing along to a song. He loves to dance on daddy’s shoulders. He got some games for Christmas and has been obsessed with playing them.

He’s cute, he’s funny, he’s a dear. But at the end of the day, his mama is exhausted.

**Please note: I have declared a moratorium on stuffed animals. We do not need any more stuffed animals entering this household!!

ryan sayings

I have to document this stuff. The way Ryan speaks these days cracks me up. At times endearing, at times hilarious, at times causing me to want to rip my hair out– this child has a way with language that’s all his own.

*******

I was working on painting his new big boy room over the weekend, and I was getting tired of the task.

Me: Ryan, this painting is for the birds!

Ryan: No Mama!! This painting is for Ryan’s ROOM, it’s not for the BIRDS!!

********

This morning I noticed a box of paperclips had been dumped out in front of the computer. No time to think twice about it as we were rushing out the door. Later in the afternoon Ryan and I were headed downstairs, and he tells me this: Don’t look at that mess down there!! Don’t look at that mess!!

Me: What mess?

Ryan: DON’T LOOK AT THAT MESS DOWN THERE!

Me: Which mess? What room is it in?

Ryan: Don’t look at that mess! Don’t look in that room right over there!!

(I hope he always has this need to admit everything to me!)

*****

While walking through Kohl’s on the way to make a post-Christmas return, Ryan finds himself eye-level with the women’s brassiere department. As we’re walking by he shouts out WHAT ARE THESE MAMA??

Me: Those are bras Ryan.

Ryan: GRANDMA MARY CALLS THOSE UNDERWEAR!!! THOSE ARE UNDERWEAR!!!

*****

Continuing on with conversations about things I didn’t think I’d have to talk about quite yet…

This little chat occurred one day when Ryan saw me changing…

Ryan: What’s THAT mama?? (pointing to my, ahem, boob).

Me: That’s a breast.

Ryan: {stares}

Me: Little babies drink milk out of breasts. When the baby in my tummy comes out he will drink milk from there.

Ryan: Yeah!!! When Ryan’s baby comes out of my tummy he’s going to drink milk out of my breasts too!!!!

*******

While digging around in my bathroom cabinet, Ryan finds the feminine hygiene products. Pulls out a tampon…

Ryan: What’s this mama??

Me: Ummm. That’s something that mamas use.

Ryan: Do you eat it?

Me: No.

Ryan- pulling out a panty liner: What’s this mama?

Me: That’s something that mamas use.

Ryan: Do you use this when you go poop?

Me: Um. No.

ringing in the new year…

On New Year’s Eve FatJ and I were heading out to dinner and a movie with friends, so I decided we’d do a little toast to the New Year with Ryan at 5:00pm before we left. He was with me in the grocery store when we bought the bottle of sparkling apple juice, and I really hyped up the ’special drink’ in the fancy glasses that he’d get to have before we left. So I poured the bubbly and said we’d be counting backwards from 10 and he yelled out NO NO NO COUNTING!!! (typical) but we did it anyway- with Grandpa Jer and Grandma Mar nonetheless- and the dude thought it was pretty cool, and then he proceeded to chug three champagne flutes full of sparkling apple juice, followed by another flute full of milk. He does nothing halfway, this one.

Happy New Year!! Here’s to 2010…a year you just know will be good because it contains the most-excellent #10!

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