Bubble Bath

Daddy's Workout

In many home gyms, people use whatever is readily available in place of professional equipment. Broom sticks are great for shoulder stretches; water bottles or soup cans can be used as hand weights.

We also make do with what we've got.

Some enjoy it more than others.

Ryan's First Trip to the "Zoo"

Look at the smile on that kid's face. And I'm not talking about the one in the stroller.

As soon as I saw that Adam's brother lives mere minutes from Cabela's, alarm bells started going off in my frugal mind...until I came up with a plan. I look forward to the day when Ryan is about 7 and all his friends are raving about going to the Henry Doorly Zoo and Ryan's going to be like, "Yeah, I go to see the animals too, and the aquarium. The stuffed moose is my favorite...and the geese flying overhead, they're neat too." Because basically my plan is to convince him that Cabela's IS the zoo so we can go for free instead of shelling out the big bucks just to see some emu and elephants. If he's lucky, I might even buy him some kettle corn in the parking lot. Or better yet, a stick of the finest beef jerky preservatives can preserve.

Another great thing about this zoo is that you can get closer to the bear cage!

Unfortunately, any money saved on fake zoo visits will probably be spent on hunting and/or fishing gear at Cabela's.

Because there are basic necessities when you're hunting wascally wabbits.

Husker Country

Last weekend we took a trip to Adam's brother and sister-in-law's.  One of the highlights this time were tours of both of their workplaces. First, we visited Andy's first grade classroom!

 

"So, Buster...we meet again."  

Ryan got to try out the special "wiggle seats" that are offered to students who have trouble sitting still. They are slightly inflated and cause you to have to constantly move to balance yourself.  Andy has done so much work putting together his classroom. He has a lucky bunch of first graders!

After the school tour, we headed to Wheatfield's for a supper celebrating Adam's grandma's 75th birthday! There was so much to choose from and the only thing that kept me from devouring the dessert case was the promise of birthday cake at home. 

It happened to be the night before Halloween but I'm not sure what was scarier for the local Husker crowd- the eight foot spider hanging from the ceiling, or the presence of a one-year-old in an Iowa Hawkeye warmup. We actually heard the disgusted comment from the party sitting behind us! HA! Go Hawks!

After supper, we toured the public areas of the hospital where Kim works. It is beautiful and has the most amazing bathrooms--each stall has it's own sink! Also, Ryan threw his pacifier into the hospital's waterfall/fountain. I hope his wish comes true.

We had a great time with the family and are grateful to Andy and Kim for letting us stay with them! Ryan loves spending time with you and so do we!

Blocks from Great Grandpa

Last weekend, Ryan opened his birthday present from Adam's Grandpa and Grandma. Ryan knew just what to do! He tore into the wrapping paper, took off the lid, tossed aside the tissue paper and then pulled out his new blocks!  Great-grandpa had made him a whole set of painted wooden blocks that fit into a special wagon he can pull.  Ryan thought they were pretty neat and likes knocking down the towers we build. What a special gift!

Now if we can only convince him to stack them instead of eat them.

Family Portraits

We had family portraits and Ryan's one-year pictures taken a few weeks ago and I am thrilled with the results! Hayley of Southern Belle Portraiture took them in my parent's grove and on their neighbor's covered bridge on an unseasonably warm Sunday in October. Despite a tumble Ryan took, scraping his chin halfway through the hour, sending him into hysterics, they turned out fantastic! 

Check out Southern Belle's blog or "Like" her on facebook to see 8 more pictures from our session, but here are a few more of my faves that aren't posted there. (click to view full-size) Now, to choose which ones (and how many) to print!

13 Months

Our happy clapper is 13 months old! We've graduated to "standing" pictures instead of laying down on a blanket. Ryan is pretty proud to show off how he can stand and walk by himself! He's taking longer and longer "trips" on his own and sometimes will walk from toy to toy or chair to toybox instead of only between people prompting him. He can also clap, throw a ball, and drink from his sippy cup while standing on his own.

Since he's supposed to be able to eat all solid foods now, we've been experimenting with different things. Some days he'll eat whatever is presented, but often he picks out one thing that is "acceptable" and insists on only that. His absolute favorite thing is grapes and other pretty "sure" things are yogurt, multi-grain Club crackers (which he tries to eat vertically and/or whole), and diced peaches. Our fall-back foods are bananas and peanut butter sandwiches but once in a while he'll surprise me...like how he finished almost an entire pie plate of spinach quiche over the course of a few days! He can use a spoon or fork by himself if you help load it, but we reserve that for non-rushed meals at home since the utensil usually ends up on the floor several times, taking the yogurt or casserole with it. He should be able to eat just about anything since he has 16 teeth fully through!

Ryan's vocabulary continues to evolve as he has phrases that sound something like "What's that?" and "What's this?" and "Get down" (directed at Nika). His more recognizable new word is "socks" which he repeats as he either looks at or pulls off his shoes and socks. My mom also recently interpreted that when he says "bocks" he is actually referring to "books." He continues to imitate David Spade's SNL sketch by repeating "buh-bye" and waving whenever we are leaving or someone else is leaving. Once in a while he'll use "dada" but I'm learning to live with the fact that he says "socks" more often than "mama."
Ryan can give you "five" and also likes dancing to music and paging through books, especially "lift-the-flap" books and ones with sounds. He interacts with his Little People sets by putting the animals on the tree top platform, moving the counting rings over the school house, and opening the doors/sliding the chicken on his farm set. These toys are great in that they will continue to grow with him.

We can see a little more of a mischievous streak coming out in him as he tests the boundaries by throwing his cup/food/untensils, standing up in the bathtub, and hitting the dog (then giggling hysterically). Hopefully we'll figure out how to handle these situations...but in the meantime, you probably won't catch us in a nice restaurant anytime soon.