Week in Review

As I start this post, I really have no idea where it's going. I've been away from it for a week and so maybe it's best to see just where that week went, why I didn't manage to post ANYTHING, and other random "snapshots of my life."

Oct. 6 (Thurs) There were many combine/field fires in Sioux County. A guy in our office is on the fire department and I will never forget the call of "May Day!" I heard squealing from his radio. As he ran out of the building, we stopped and bowed our heads to say a prayer for all the farmers and firefighters who had a long day and night ahead of them. Thankfully, the particular cry for help we heard was answered and the farmer (and fire chief) were rescued.  After enjoying our 45-minute music class where we got to sing, dance, and play with a parachute, Ryan and I walked to the library. As we walked, we stopped to wave to the firefighters who were returning home from yet another blaze.

Oct. 7 (Fri) God showed me the power of prayer in a big way. A co-worker had an appointment with an oncologist regarding a spot her doctor had found. As a company, we prayed through her appointment and when the report came back, God had moved mountains! The oncologist couldn't even find the spot! Praise God!

At night, Adam headed to the FB game 1.5 hours away, so Ryan and I had a fun night with my parents, sister, and my niece, Saylor.  Ryan sat by her with his hands on her and said "Baby Saylor, my favorite."

Oct. 8 (Sat) I had my first Show Choir rehearsal of the year. An hour into teaching/talking/dancing to Bon Jovi's "We Weren't Born to Follow," I got lightheaded and was pretty close to passing out, so although it was super-embarrassing, I had to tell the kids that I needed to sit down for a while. They practiced for a while without me, then with me sitting in the front, unable to stand, but trying to direct.  After I got some Powerade and rested for a bit, I was able to carry on and we got through the entire song.  I'm pretty sure I was just dehydrated because after drinking 52 oz. of Powerade and water, I was still thirsty. Next time we have a 5-hour rehearsal, I'll know to drink up. Maybe they should come out with that G1, G2, G3 hydrating system, but have the G stand for Glee instead of Gatorade. Maybe. Or I should just remember to drink something other than a can of pop, coffee, and a half a glass of milk in the 48 hours before a rehearsal.

After a short rest to try to get rid of my headache, I spent the night playing with Ryan while Adam ran to Sioux City. I was amazed when he was back only about 2.5 hours after he left (it takes 45 minutes to get there and 45 back). I asked how he possibly got everything done in an hour and he said, "All I needed was a new winter coat, hat & gloves, 2 pairs of jeans, to get fitted for a tux and some new garage shelving." Y'all, that would have taken me about 9 hours! Difference between men and women, right?

Oct. 9 (Sun) We continued exploring churches in our new town (well visiting them, we're not spelunking or anything.) Side note: Who knows what spelunking is only because you played "Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?" on your Apple 2e computer? Answer: me.  We've now been to at least 4 churches 2 times and are hoping to decide on the right fit sometime--there are just a lot of good ones!  After a quick lunch, Ryan went down for a nap and Adam did a few things at school while I packed. As soon as Adam was back I was off to Sioux Falls. I listened to "The Life of Handel" in Music and Words" on the drive up there and really enjoyed it. Ryan has been listening to different composers when going to sleep, but he decided "Pop Goes the Weasel" on repeat is preferable to Handel, so I got stuck with the composer in my card.  I spent over an hour in Plato's Closet, bought some shoes that are probably 15 years too young for me, walked through Big Lots (and decided it's akin to a Walmart except it doesn't have everything), and admired a few things in World Market. Then, I checked into the Clubhouse hotel (which is pretty fab).

That night I met up with about 45 people at Foley's  to kick off our annual marketing meeting. My steak was like leather (but totally my fault for ordering it well-done) and the dense chocolate cake definitely needs coffee, but it was a very nice dinner and a good time with co-workers. I had to make a dreaded Walmart run for diapers afterwards and decided the lights in there are definitely what gives me "Walmart sickness" and need to be avoided at all costs (all costs except the costs of buying diapers somewhere else).  I got 3 cases and hope Ryan is potty-trained before I ever have to set foot in there again. I was really looking forward to getting 9 hours of uninterrupted sleep, but got sucked into a Makeover: Home Edition and then "Long Island Medium" and wasted my opportunity to fully enjoy the delightful room.

Oct. 10 (Mon) We held our Marketing Annual Meeting which involved about 7 hours of listening to someone else talk and about 7 minutes of me presenting, but there was some other cool stuff we got to check out, but can't really share yet.  After wrapping up, I hit the mall for a little more shopping, Panera for some Cinnamon Crunch bagels to bring home, then headed to my sister's to drop off her birthday present.  She liked the bagels.  And the card I got her that was written entirely in Spanish but I told her it was the best I could find at 10pm in Walmart. I finally rolled home around 7:30 to put Ryan to bed, then designed some Christmas/Moving cards and placed a big photo order a mere hour before the sale expired.

Oct. 11 (Tues) Catch-up day at work, which was exhausting. After supper we squeezed in a meeting with our Financial Advisor (I never should have opened this quarter's report).  Think LONG TERM, here, people. It's always a challenge to keep Ryan occupied when both of us are busy, but we got a little bit of mileage out of The Cat in the Hat on the portable DVD player, once we got past the Casper preview. After the meeting and putting Ryan to bed, all I managed was to do a little show choir and then started reading The Starbucks Experience, a book we were given at work. Love it so far and can't wait to continue. All that's missing is a Dark Chocolate Raspberry Frappuccino(registered trademark) Blended Beverage to go with it.

Oct. 12 (Wed) We couldn't decide what to do for supper (except for agreeing that 2 out of the 3 of us did not want leftover Mac & Cheese) so finally settled on going to eat buffet at Pizza Ranch. It was Kid's Night and we had some Rewards dollars to use, so it ended up hardly costing anything. Ryan was such a great kid at the restaurant tonight (which is not something we can count on). We were so happy with how nicely he sat and ate his pizza, pudding, cheesy Ranch Stick, chicken fries, mashed potatoes and ice cream (On second thought, maybe we should have gone with the Mac & Cheese.) One funny thing is that after we sat down, he pointed at the toddler boy at the table next to us and said, "Look, there's Isaiah!" I had no idea who Isaiah was or where Ryan had met him. I'd never seen this family before. We finally asked his parents where our kids could possibly have met (nursery, babysitter's, etc.) and finally figured out that Ryan had met him a few weeks ago at the park when my Mom was here. So funny that he remembered the boy's name!  After that, we took Nika for a walk, stopped to watch the soccer game, and then got Ryan to bed.

So, I realize that was super-boring and basically pointless, but someday it'll be a good idea of "What did your life look like when you were 29, married with 1 kid and trying to juggle work and family and other commitments?" A crazy mess, that's what...but I wouldn't choose any other adventure or any other people to share it with. It's MY crazy mess!

Quick Favs

Ryan's Current Favorite CD to listen to while going to sleep: The Life of Chopin. (He wanted to get Vivaldi, but I convinced him Chopin would be more calming)

Favorite movie starring a former 'Hey Dude' cast member:  Dodgeball (remember Melody? And Ted, Danny, Brad, Buddy, and Mr. Ernst? What was the dog's name? I still can't believe Brad won the beauty pageant by showing how to properly pack a suitcase when Melody couldn't get the song rights to any song other than "Happy Birthday")

Favorite comment on Big Mama's blog post about words that should be sent to the "word cemetery":  The word "moist" reminds me of the sound macaroni and cheese makes when you stir it.

Favorite method of making sure Ryan get's enough exercise: Playing "Mommy punt it and Ryan go get the football" in our huge backyard.

Favorite life-saving Excel formula: =proper(A1:A45416) It will properly capitalize (first letter uppercase, rest lowercase) when you are trying to clean up a database of over 45,000 names that have been typed in with all sorts of capitalization rules. The button "remove duplicates" ranks a close second.

Favorite "so cool it had to be photoshopped" picture going around Facebook: (Don't look for the baby)

Ryan's Birthday Weekend

Beyond the Northwestern homecoming activities, the rest of Ryan's birthday weekend was pretty fun as well. On Friday night we went to a potluck for new teachers in the middle school and Ryan had fun meeting their dog and playing in their sweet playhouse. Then, he got to watch a Dutch victory and cheered loud for my cousin, Colin! Not only did he make it through the entire game, but stayed up until 10:30 playing with Carter after the game!  No wonder he was so tired during the FB game and came home to take a 3-hour nap.

Saturday night we spontaneously decided to head to Sibley for the first time in 3 months to see the beautiful baby boy our friends, the A's, just had. There was also a group getting together to make jalapeno poppers so we hung out for a while catching up with friends. Ryan shared cupcakes with the rest of the kids, so he did end up having a little bit of cake on his actual birthday.

Since we were so busy on Saturday, he never did open the cards that had come in the mail or the rest of our presents, so we opened them Sunday morning. He wasn't too impressed with the first shirt we gave him, but liked the second present, a new Clifford book with a story about firefighting, and one about hiccups!

Then, there was only one present left.

What could it be?

A cowboy hat for Ryan! (or the Clay County Fair's version of a cowboy hat)

Now we just need Jade, Jory, and Jace to teach him how to ride and rope!

NWC Homecoming

 In addition to being Ryan's birthday, Saturday was Northwestern's Homecoming! We got dressed in our Raider Red and headed down to Morning on the Green for some fun!

First, he tried out some fishing...

 ...and snagged some Smarties and a Foam Finger.

We not only got a red balloon sword, but also an N-dub balloon-on-a-stick, which he used to beat on trees and whack passing children.

 

He found Juliana, Leah, Craig, Colin, and Carter. and may or may not have gotten some extra Dum Dums from the Coly guys running the Plinko Game. (I think Juliana had more to do with that than it being his birthday.)

 Ryan had a fun Morning on the Green. Then, we checked out the new RSC and ate a quick tailgate meal before heading over to the football game.  He lasted less than a quarter, but cheered hard for the Raiders while were were there!

Go Big Red!

2 Year Old PIctures: Football

2 Year Old Pictures: Windmill Park

2 Years Old

Ryan is 2 years old! What a blessing the last two years have been. I know parents everywhere warn you how fast time can go, but it's still hard to imagine how fast he's grown up!

Ryan continues to be a healthy, happy boy. At his 2-year checkup, he measured 36" tall (80th percentile0 and weighed 32.6 lbs. (90th percentile). As he's neared the 2-year mark, we have definitely noticed some "twos' behavior such as more whining, crying, and an occasional meltdown, but he can also be a delight to play with.

The variety of food he eats is increasing (with the help of our wonderful day care provider) and he will actually eat a few vegetables willingly (as long as you let him shake "pepper on the peas." His favorite foods are still grapes, toast "with pink jelly", yogurt, Special K, cheese in various forms, mini muffins, "sketty",  and of course, ice cream. He can feed himself independently and has even mastered cereal with milk! He has a hearty appetite at some meals, and no interest at others. This morning, for his birthday breakfast, he destroyed 5 mini blueberry muffins, scrambled eggs, and yogurt and is currently asking for more of all three. :)

Ryan loves playing with this farm and tractors, his Little People sets, stacking blocks, and building with Kids K'nex. Outside, he loves tackle football, playing at the park, drawing with chalk, and kicking the football.  Other activities he likes are going to football games, volleyball games, soccer games, and the grocery store! His favorite teams are the Vikings, Hawkeyes, Raiders, and Dutch! So pretty much he cheers for any team he sees dressed in purple, red, or yellow.

Ryan has ventured a little outside the usual Sports Center and football, baseball, and golf as far as TV-watching. His favorite TV show is Super Why. Mommy wasn't as impressed with the recent episode of Dinosaur Train called, "All Dinosaurs Poop."

Speaking of that, we have regressed in any sort of potty training. Ever since we moved, he has refused to use his little potty and shows little interest in it. I guess neither of us are ready to tackle that milestone yet. We're just working on brushing teeth, washing hands, and not throwing food on the floor.

Ryan is in the "curious" stage and constantly asks, "..uts dis?" (What's this?), and "...uts Nika doing, uts Daddy doing, uts Mommy doing." Thankfully a lot of times he answers his own questions (usually "being naughty, at school, at Pizza Ranch," respectively. He likes to be independent at certain things like brushing his teeth, stirring things while helping me cook, getting into his car seat, and combing his hair, insisting, "RYAN do it." But if he gets frustrated stacking blocks or setting up his farm, he'll readily ask, "Need help."  The "give kids two choices to help them feel like they have some control" usually backfires with him as he'll choose BOTH option and then get upset if he can't wear his football jammies AND monkey jammies at the same time. It is also difficult to be both "upstairs" and "downstends" at the same time.

Ryan loves his new cousin, Baby Saylor, and is learning how to get along with older kids at daycare. I think he fights like a brother with T who is 6 months older than him, but it's good for him to toughen up a bit. He seems to be pretty sensitive to what he sees and has figured out how to show he's scared of something (usually by cowering into your shoulder and whimpering "not scared, buffalo"). He'll spend the rest of the night telling you how he's not scared.  He hates watching anyone fall or get hurt on TV--he has cried watching a lady fall off a horse on America's Funniest Home Videos and burst into tears when a cowboy got bucked off a bull during a rodeo. (I guess he could learn a few things from my cousin, Jory.)

Development-wise, his large motor skills are very good. He can throw a ball pretty accurately, kick a football, and can even hold-out and drop-kick a football (if he's lucky). His small motor skills are improving with a little more interest in coloring, manipulating small objects like hooking up the wagon to his tractor, and playing with K'nex.  He language skills seem to impress people too as he can speak pretty clearly in several-word sentences. No "r" or "s" sounds yet, but you can believe Grandma's working on that.  He also has a good memory, remembering people's names, what they played with last, and even what their houses look like.  Last weekend he commented on "Aunt Kim's car" as walked by it, even though he hadn't see it in several months. He is starting to understand "tomorrow" and other days of the week. He'll tell you "Gamma B---- come on Wednesday!"

Overall, we have a sweet, smart boy (doesn't everyone?) and we couldn't imagine life without him...although I would imagine it would involve sleeping a little later on Saturdays.

WE LOVE YOU RYAN! 

Happy Birthday!