this is Ryan

Something about the expressions on Ryan’s face in these two pictures just sum up the little guy.

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friday randomola

–One thing I find amusing about having a blog is that I get to see what phrases people google that end up getting me a hit on my site. Here are a few that have come up within the past couple of days:
“why is america fatj”
“women wearing nothing but overalls” (to which I exclaim- ew!! [...]

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language explosion

Over the past few weeks, Ryan has been picking up language like a mad-man. I’ll do a little update here for my records, just in time for the 17 month mark.
Ryan’s words- 17 months:
mama
dada
ball (and sometimes “ba-woo” for balloon)
dog, doggie
baby
baba (= blankie, but it’s now starting to sound more like ‘babee’)
nigh nigh
bye bye
hi
whoa!
wow!
uh-oh
wa wa (=water)
doe-ah [...]

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planes, trains, or automobiles?

The following is a post by FatJ guest blogger, Erik. This post details why I will NOT be selecting Amtrak as my mode of transportation to Chicago in two weeks.
Didn’t you hear about our “train” ride back to Chicago???  If you haven’t heard let me fill you in.  First, Jer takes us to [...]

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muffin header

Check out the new header. Muffins! Whoa muffins! There is a short story behind these muffins:
Ryan and I go to ECFE every Tuesday. At the first class, a clipboard was passed around and each parent was to sign up for a week to bring a snack to the class. The snack is to consist of [...]

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hitchhiking is an option…and some other things

OPRAH UPDATE: Thoughts of Oprah have been keeping me up at night. Imagining which show we’ll get on, what I should wear, where we’ll be seated, if we’ll leave with a parting gift.  In addition, I’ve been trying to figure out my mode of transport for getting myself to the windy city for the mid-week [...]

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did you ever know that you’re my hero??

This post is dedicated to my hero, Erik.
Who is Erik, you ask? Erik is a guy who takes a day off of work to try and get through the perpetually busy phone lines of Harpo studios to get Oprah tickets for his mom. Erik is a guy who hits redial on his home and cell [...]

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sportin’ the chucks

Fall rolled around in our household, and I realized the only shoes that still fit Ryan were his Crocs. I decided Ryan could probably do without the chilly, wet feet scenario that running around in puddles in 50 degree temps wearing hole-y rubber shoes will bring. So that could only mean one thing: Shoe shopping!
Ryan [...]

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thoughts for thursday…or friday

Do me a favor here and participate in this really quick poll. I’m interested in finding out if my readers are introvs or extrovs…
On an average Thursday night, which option sounds more fun to you: a.) making small talk with strangers at a dinner party, or b.) sitting at home reading blogs and watching dvr’d [...]

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I miss you summer- week 1

Okay, so I know we’ve actually had some lovely sunny days lately. AND summer is not technically over. AND this picture was taken just last week, after summer in my mind DID officially end.
But here’s the beginning of my “I miss you summer” series anyway.

—Just two things, really quickly—
1. Look closely at this picture. The [...]

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