Ryan's 2nd Birthday: Presents

Ryan isn't experienced enough in the birthday department to anticipate the presents, but once they started showing up, he knew exactly what to do! It was fun now that he's able to open them relatively unassisted. And since he was the only child there over 2 weeks and under 24, he wasn't interrupted by other present-unwrapping "helpers".

 First, he opened the Little People Nativity set and Wisemen. He has had a lot of fun playing with all the camels, and "Mommy & Joseph". He told me Baby Jesus goes "in the water." I think this is in reference to his Moses books and the fact that Baby Jesus kind of looks like he's in a basket. The funny thing is my niece Emily used to call him "Baby Moses" when she was little too!  I love the nativity set and being able to tell him the Christmas story using all the characters.

Next, he opened a whole set of cows/bulls and a red grain wagon! He loves both of them and spent a lot of the weekend playing farm.

Ryan opened his big red tractor and immediately wanted it out of the box! He loves hooking up the wagon and pushing it around. He also got some clothes and pajamas from Adam and me (which he immediately threw to the side in search of more desirable presents). But, he has worn his new football and Santa pajamas since and likes them almost as much as his "Curious George" (aka generic monkey) jammies.

He got a book about Diggers and a Minnesota Vikings teeshirt! When he opened the shirt, he said, "Go Dutch!" We just have too many teams to cheer for to keep them all straight (Vikings, Twins, Hawkeyes, Raiders, Dutch).

Next, he got a Red Raiders football! He loved practicing kicking it at the party (but we have since moved all kicking activities out of doors). It's the perfect size for him and he likes to practice drop-kicking it!

Ryan got a new fence for his barn, made by Adam's grandpa from a tree recently cut down on the family Century farm. It's the perfect fence! Folds up, but Ryan can set it in any configuration himself and it stays standing on carpet! It fit the barn perfectly.

The last present Ryan opened was the odd-shaped tower Uncle Wade had wrapped in scraps of Christmas paper and duct tape.  It was a Vikings tackling dummy! Once he got the hang of it, he was relentless! Good thing we had worked on "wrapping it up" and "drive your feet" earlier that morning. Adam was just happy to substitute the Vikings FB player for himself!

Here's a video of one of his tackles:


If you can sum up how Ryan felt about his birthday party, here it is: Hooray!

Thank-you, everyone, for the awesome presents! Ryan loves each and every one of them and is excited everyday to play with his new toys!