Mr. Brown Can MOO! Can You?

Ryan loves when I read this book and do all the sound effects. We often repeat the BOOM BOOM BOOM, Mr. Brown is a wonder. BOOM BOOM BOOM Mr. Brown makes thunder!

Piano Man

Happy Retirement, Mom!

Life's Too Short...Retire!

 That's the message on the mug we got for my mom this past week (or, the message that appears once you fill the mug with hot liquid.)  Oh, the great strides in mug technology. How far we've come from the days when the most clever thing you saw on a mug was the saying "Someone from Albuquerque Loves Me" or "My Parents Went to De Smet, and all I got was this mug" or a logo of Valleyfair with personalized names in black typeface along the top.  When we went on vacation, my younger sister would get mad that tourist traps always made mugs, keychains, combo comb/mirrors with "Courtney" and "Megan" on them, but never "Abbie". Darn you, Abbys with a "y", you caused my sis to miss out on the pleasure of having a Mickey Mouse ruler with her own name printed on it.

But back to the mug...once you add hot coffee and the saying appears, you realize, it's true! Life IS to short! That's one of the reasons my mom has decided to retire after a long successful career in education. She has spent 30+ years as a Speech-Language Pathologist and Early Literacy Interventionist and is hanging up her (formal) teaching hat this year. I'm sure she'll continue learning and teaching in her own special way. I'm counting on her making sure Ryan pronounces his S's correctly, or she'll send him to Speech like she did me! I had justht had a sthmall problem sthaying my s's. 

Retiring will give her much more flexibility in spending time with family such as going to visit my sister 4 hours a way or having her come during the week when my BIL is traveling for work. My mom has already been a huge blessing taking care of Ryan 2 days a week this year and we're so lucky to have her want to continue watching Ryan part time. He loves grandma time and I love bringing him there! She'll also be able to travel more now that my parents won't have to balance the school calendar along with the planting/harvest calendar.

I made a poster for her and my sister hung it up in the lounge with the cake, flowers (and the mug...don't forget the mug, besides being an example of science at work, it also served a more mundane but crucial function. It held the forks). She liked the "speech jokes" on the poster. My favorite was the pirate saying "I'm working on my ARRRRRRR".

Hip! Hip! Hooray! for Bette! 

Inch Worm

OK, I got this. Arms pushing up....

...on my knees, butt in the air...

...face plant.

Crawling= EPIC FAIL

7 Months Black & White

Wild Waves

7 Months Old

Ryan is 7 months old today! The biggest milestones of the month involve Ryan trying all kinds of new foods! Now instead of just rice cereal, which he none-too-quietly wolfs down, he likes peas, squash, sweet potatoes, applesauce, prunes, pears, and bananas! He does not like green beans. I repeat, he does NOT like green beans! He has also tried Mum-Mum rice rusks.  He gets the idea of putting a sippy cup in his mouth and the idea of picking it up by its handles, but has not yet successfully done both at the same time.  We also tried giving him little pieces of watermelon and peeled grapes, but his fingers couldn't quite pick up the slippery pieces and when I put it in his mouth, he puckered and spit it out. Ryan gets pretty insistent when it is time to eat and is usually not happy when it is all gone, but I think he is just dreading the head-bracing washcloth wipe-off of his face. He is generally a pretty neat eater since he puts his hands out to the side like an airplane and doesn't rub them in his face.

Ryan's hair continues to be a challenge. We now have quite-long blond peach fuzz on the whole head except for a very narrow strip of hair right down the middle from front to back that is long. This turns into one of three things: rooster tail, combover, or mohawk. Take your pick. Since I picked out a summery "surf" outfit for his pictures this morning, I went with a curly mohawk.

Ryan does a great job sitting up by himself. He can usually play by himself without any support but could make an ocassional "tip-over" if he loses his center of gravity (usually not a problem--the belly helps). He still does not like being on his tummy and will not roll from front to back, only back to front. Now that he can sit up and play, he doesn't really like to be laying down unless he can be eating his toes.

Ryan's smile continues to light up a room and he's usually got a two-tooth grin for everyone! He likes to roll a ball back and forth and watch us bounce it (sometimes off his forehead...ahem, daddy) and he likes playing with blocks that go into a musical bigger box--sometimes he even picks them up and puts them in the big box.  Ryan really likes to watch Nika (or Milo) and will always reach for the puppy if she is nearby. He loves stroller rides and will sit up straight, watching the scenery intently.

His sleep habits continue to be quite a blessing and he seems to be happier the earlier he goes to bed (7:30 instead of 8:30). Sometimes he takes 2-3 short 40min. naps but will conk out for 2 hours at a time sometimes. He's going on a 2.5 hour nap this morning which has allowed me to mess with his pictures for too long! (see coming posts).

We love our little boy and are having so much fun watching him grow up and learn new things!