The Rhino Report

• Lately, when I ask Ryan a simple question, he answers with, "Umm, not sure."
• After turning his nose up at Handel, we have finally gotten past the "Pop Goes the Weasel" phase. Last night he chose "Nutbrown Hare" which is the CD that came with "Guess How Much I Love You".  Tonight it was "A Mother's Touch" which is a folksy sort of CD I got from a great-aunt.
• On Tuesday, Ryan had fun playing with Juliana and we enjoyed being able to get our mortage finalized and test-driving a few minivans without a tag-a-long. Signing away the next 15 years of your life isn't always fun, but we are pretty confident we hit the rates at the bottom of the market. We didn't find any minivans we liked and I'm not sure the dealer was too excited about the 180,000 mile Malibu I offered as a trade in. ("You hold on to something this cherry." ~Tommy Boy)
• On Wednesday, Ryan and I skyped with my sister, Megan,  Emily, and Lincoln. It was fun having the kids talk to each other (okay, Emily did most of the talking) and showing off. Ryan shot a few hoops, demonstrated his tackling dummy, and sang "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" (just imagine the Merrily, Merrily, Merrily part with no "r" sound.)  Lincoln sang "Happy Birthday," and told me he likes to eat at Pizza Ranch and Old Donald's. Emily showed me how fast she can run and announced that she got 7th place in her race (we told her Ryan loves watching the video of that race) and also, in case you didn't know, it is 11 days until she turns 5.
• Ryan is very emphatic about praying at meal times and at bedtime. If he wakes up in the night, we have to re-pray before he can go back to sleep. He doesn't usually contribute much besides "Dear Jesus" and "Amen" but when he's stalling to go to sleep, he will come up with a laundry list of people I need to pray for. So...Mommy, Daddy, Ryan, Nika, Gampa, Gamma, other Gampa and Gamma, Gate Gamma, Gate Gampa Vanna Kooi, Gate Gampa and Gamma M, Aunt Abbie, Uncle Wade, Baby Saaaayloooor, Aunt Megan, Uncle Austin, Em-i-lee-and-Lincoln, Uncle Andy, Aunt Keem, the 5-member household of his daycare provider, and anyone else he's come in contact with on that particular day...consider yourself prayed for!