Happy Birthday Ryan!

I can't believe its been a year already since Ryan was born! He turned one yesterday, November 24th.
Here is a picture of my little man the day after we brought him home (Thanksgiving 2008):


He sure liked to be snuggled up and warm!

Now that he is a year old, I'm going to borrow an idea from my friend. Her daughter turned one yesterday as well! She listed things about her daughter and I think its such a good idea. You forget quickly. Thanks Natalie!

Here are a list of things about Ryan:
Stats:
Height: 29 1/2 inches (just under the 50th percentile)
Weight: 20 lbs 4 oz (15th percentile)
Head Circumference: (drum roll please) 48 cm-which is just under the 95th percentile! ;)

Foods: He likes most anything. He especially likes to feed himself. No baby spoons for him, please. He loves green beans and potatoes, muffins, mac & cheese, noodles of any kind, and water. He loves his sippy cup full of water. He doesn't care too much for really sweet things or juice.

Activity: Ryan started walking the night before his birthday. He is getting faster and before we know it, he'll be running. He is my climber. He will climb into or on anything he can. He likes to climb on to the lower mantle by our fireplace. He really thinks he's big stuff there. He likes to play with a ball and loves to be chased by his brother and sister.

Temperment: He is a pretty happy, easy-going kid. He is going into a shy phase and will lay his head on your shoulder and cuddle a little. I love it! None of my kids have been cuddlers as a baby and Ryan is no exception. He is too busy looking around and doing things to sit and cuddle. He loves have songs sung to him. He is also a tease. Loves to tease Hannah. Gives you a huge, cheesy grin as he is doing something he knows he shouldn't.

Words he says: He says mama, dada, and Hannah pretty consistently. The rest is jibberish to me but he puts infelections into what he says, so you know he must be telling you something important. He follows directions pretty well unless he is in a mood to tease. He points to things he wants or places he wants to go. He makes it very clear when he doesn't want something-he bats it away or throws it off his tray. (The last trick we are working to have him not do).



Ryan has more hair than any of my kids. He has huge brown eyes and long lashes. He has 4 teeth with 2 more on the way. I call him my little man. Happy Birthday, my little man!


Here is his first long-distance walk. Look how excited he is!

Bye-Bye Work Car

We are unimaginative. Some people name their cars. Our little white stratus is called the "Work Car." The kids called it that. Probably because they never get to ride in it because it is always at work with one of us. Well, its time to say goodbye to the work car. I'll tell you why:

Last Tuesday, Blaine was driving home from picking up Garrett from piano lessons. He was driving into an intersection and someone turned left in front of them. Well, he hit the brakes but they still crashed into each other. So as you can see, the work car is totaled. Bye Bye work car!

Curious George

Here is Ryan. My little Curious George. My little climber. The monkey costume at Halloween was very appropriate.

If you open the fridge, there he is is. If you open a door, he is crawling at full speed to get through. If you try to unload the dishwasher, he sneaks up behind you and tries to help.

And when you are not looking, he'll just climb right in and have a look around. I seriously did not see him climb up there until I looked down through the top rack and saw him. He's a mischievious little fella!

Then out he goes! Headfirst. Just like he does everything else. He is very brave. Or just doesn't know any better. I think he knows better. We are constantly telling him to turn around. He knows that that means. He just grins at us and does it his way.

Here's how he goes down the stairs in our sunken living room. He figures there are only 2 steps and he can make it. And- even if he crashes, it wasn't that far to fall. Again, we tell him to turn around. See how well he listens? And he's not even 1 year old yet!

Small crash at the bottom. No harm done.

"See! I can do it MY way!"

Now off to more important things...like maybe getting a haircut!

Halloween

Ok. I know its the day after Halloween, but I just had to post pictures of my kiddos in their costumes. We had a busy week before Halloween. Garrett had his class party, we were in the spook alley for the school carnival, we did the trunk-or-treat dinner and my kids had their usual trick or treating and Halloween traditions with my family.

I made black and orange cupcakes for Garrett's class party this week. They decorated them in class. They were delicious, if I do say so myself. I got the recipe for them here.


Blaine was a mad scientist at the spook alley. I'm told he was the scariest thing in the whole spook alley. He had a live patient and there were some closet doors behind him that said "Corpse storage." There was another person under the table kicking the doors and yelling "Let me out!" That really creeped the kids out. Hehehe! (evil laugh). Thats the whole point of a spook alley, right?

This is Garrett. He was a mummy with an incredibly creepy mask on. He is in a coffin and then when people came to look at him, they weren't sure if he was real or not. Until he moved and creeped them out! I was also in the spook alley. I was a witch, of course!


It wouldn't be Halloween without some pumpkin carving. We had been so busy this week that we had time to do it on Halloween. The pumpkins were cleaned out (thanks to the mom) and then dad set to work carving the faces. I usually like to use the pumpkin carving books and carve something elaborate. There was no time for that this year, so we got traditional jack-o-lanterns. I loved them!


Here's the happy kids with the happy jacks!


All dressed up to go trick or treating! Hannah was a princess, Garrett was the mummy monster, Ryan was a monkey, I was a witch and Blaine was a Rastafarian.

Blaine and I had to go to the church to do the trunk or treat dinner so my kids went to Grandma's house and went trick or treating with Grandpa! Then the Brownies came while the kids were gone and left new pajamas and treats! The brownie tradition started with my great-grandmother. The brownies watch you all October and leave little treats for good deeds done. Then, on Halloween, they leave you presents, (i.e. toys, candy, games). My great grandma didn't like her kids to trick or treat-she looked at it as begging- so they had parties with all their cousins and the brownies would leave presents. This is one of my favorite family traditions! I'm sad to have missed it this year. My kids had a blast, though!