A bouquet of sticks for daddy!

Most days when we are home we wait outside for daddy to come home from work. Yesterday Ryan decided to gather sticks, which soon became a very nice collection, and it would be just a perfect gift for daddy. After all his hard work, he decided to put them all in the back of his bike.

Uh-oh, he soon realized that he needed to put them back in the cup. Since it was a gift for daddy, he needed to present them to him in something nice.... you know like a plastic take out cup from Casa. He frantically put them back in the cup, in only 2 handfuls from the bike.Then he waited so patiently on the bottom step watching for his daddy to come home :)Just moments later, daddy pulled up, Ryan jumped up and screamed...dada. He was so excited, he rushed to the driveway to hand deliver his precious gift he made just for his daddy. And daddy was just as excited to receive them. What a way to come home from a yucky day at work! After dinner we went for a short walk to St. Mary's to play at their playground before the storm moved in. He had to take his fireman's hat, and if wasn't wearing it so proudly he had to be caring it, he was very cautious with it since the wind kept blowing it off. He's getting so big, he actually walked all the way home with out being in his stroller. Besides this picture, he was holding my hand all the way home.This picture means nothing, we were still just waiting for daddy, and I think its a very funny picture, so I decided to share it.

the park chatter

On the way home from my doctors appointment today, Ryan kept telling me he wanted to go to the park. So I said we can stop by there for a few minutes.

We went to the big airplane park. And they have this wooden chained bridge. Well it takes a little 2 year old a little bit longer than say a 5 year old.

Little Ryan went trotting across ever so cautiously, as I waited below. At the beginning of the bridge I hear another kid ( I would say 5 or so)say, "I'm waiting"

Then when little Ryan is all done, the other kid says, "FIN-A-LLY".

When little Ryan reached the end of the bridge he looks over the railing at me with a really big smile of completion. He was so proud of himself, and he was letting me know it, all while completely oblivious to other boy.

My heart just melted. I don't want his innocence to go away, I want him to stay this sweet FOREVER!

It's amazing how much our kids can open our eyes to things.

swimming in 70 degree weather...

Despite the very chilly weather we have been having, we still went swimming today. It has been scheduled since like April. Who ever would have guessed we would be having record breaking lows in July...here!

This was another activity put on by his play group that he went to last school year. They always have one summer activity for the kids to stay connected. Well to say the least my little water baby LOVED it, and did not care about the goosebumps he had up and down his body. He wanted to stay, and we were the second to last to leave.

Mr. Independent

Even though he is so much more needy these days, he is still a very content child. He will still play all by himself for quit some time. He is sooo sweet:)

zoo pics again!!!

I know Zoo pics again. But Ryan just loves the zoo, and we always have so much fun, and its free. Usually we go in we go straight to River's Edge and see the elephants (spend a lot of time there), then the carousel then the penguins. By that time it has been at least 3 hours, so its time to go.

Well today I wanted to go early so we could stay awhile. Well we actually saw a whole new (to us) part of the zoo. Giraffes, zebras and camels. And, Gloria, Marty, Melman, but not Alex for all you fellow Madacascar fans!!Ryan and Loni matched for the day!Poor Ry was looking at a sweet little monkey and he runs up and sticks his butt in his face! He insisted on pushing the stroller...for like a total of 10 seconds before he realized how heavy it was!

I tried getting his pic with a zebra but he kept running off, which he thought was hilarious!

Can't forget the fits he had, throwing his self on the ground because he didn't want to hold our hands or sit in his stroller

an artist in the making

Since Easter, Ryan has this obsession (one of VERY many) with chalk. We do have a chalk board downstairs, he usually wants to go outside and draw, but not all days does mommy want to, or is mommy presentable enough to sit in our very high trafficked front yard.

So the other day we went downstairs to draw with the chalk. My usual commands are Bar Bar (Barney) or an elephant. This time he chose Barney. And after I draw the basic Barney (which to me looks like a TMNT with out the mask) he demands other objects to be put on him, its usually teeth lately, and for the first time he wanted a hat. So this explains my funny looking monster I have drawn.

Well just like anything else, I loose my patience with drawing him over and over again, because he does know how to erase it and want more to be drawn for him. So lately I have told him to draw me Barney. He has successfully drawn o's, h's, one elephant (kinda), a sun (w/all the rays coming out of it), and a few other things I can't think of. Well on Friday I asked him to draw me Barney and this was his face that he drew for me. Not bad for a 2 year old!

Good Night Bar Bar and SCHEK

another year at the PORFD annual picnic

It has been a year already, and it means that I have been blogging over a year now! That is so crazy, I remember last year having the PORFD picnic as one of my first posts on my blog. Man o man time flies...and kids get older, and more independent with EVERYTHING.

Once again we had fun, we hung out a bit, then watched the parade, and ate, then bingo started.

Its so exciting watching the kids get older, he has always had fun at parades but now he goes and picks stuff up and waves as the go by. He didn't pick up everything though, we still had quit a bit in front of us, and as soon as the parade was over, everyone from on the sides of us, and across the street swarmed our area because we had so much candy in front of us...but it was the parents, not the kids. I so hope I never get like that.

My mom walked over and let him pet the ponies. It was $4 a ride, I decided to pass on that, since I am sure as soon as he sat on it, he would have wanted off!My poor parents sitting there trying to relax before the night was going to begin. They usually go up there with us, but this year I asked them if they would watch Ryan for us since we were helping Jason and Loni with bingo. Well it was my mom who did all the work, it should have been a paying gig running around in the heat with a very hyper 2 year old. She was a trooper, she did it for 2 hours. I would have given up atleast an hour before that!Jason and Loni calling Bingo. I must say they did very good, and kept everyone very put together. I even got yelled at by Loni. It was definitely my fault. I quit listening to my directions and went off and started collecting money, and we were assigned rows and I didn't pay attention to that part, and just went off and started doing my thing...opps, sorry Loni.

One nice thing about helping with the bingo was, we got to wear little tie around aprons (just the small lower part that has the pocket). And thank goodness, because I got to put one on the front and back, since during the parade I ripped my pants right up the butt! I thought I felt something, but I could not feel it with my hands, then I sat down in my chair, and well there it was. It was horrible! But my friends and loved ones looked out for me all night! At least they were only a quarter from a yardsale...thanks for the pants Kath, they only lasted a week!

And my mom with Ryan attempting to actually play a game of bingo, dad very soon took over moms cards. But lucky for Ryan, he got to eat his first mini bag of skittles he got at the parade! He had no trouble with them. Why is it they have never seen these before and with out hesitation they stick it right in their mouth. But put a new veggie or food in front of their face and its no no no.

Madacascar 2 at the movies

Wednesday night when we all got home, I filled Ryan in on his special treat he got to do on Thursday morning. Now I know why parents wait till the last minute to tell their kids really exciting things. I told him we were going to the movies to watch Madagascar 2 on a really big TV screen, and Audrey and Annabel get to go with us (then he added Kathy as well). Annnd, he gets to eat popcorn while he watches it. Oh my, he ran over and got his Madagascar DVD case, and was screaming 'adacar' all night, I had to tell him it was time for bed, and he cried, but telling him the faster he went to sleep the faster we could see the movie. He went to bed gripping his DVD case for dear life. The first thing in the morning when I heard him wake was a little whimper then screaming 'adacar, adacar' over and over again!

It was a very long and difficult morning before we left. He did not want to eat breakfast, he just wanted to leave. 8:45 could not come fast enough.

And yes, the DVD case even came with us to the show. This is him screaming 'adacar' when we got there. They all sat there pretty good. They didn't quit make it through the movie, since we sat there for about 40 minutes prior to the movie starting. but we had to because they were going to be sold out if not.Then it was popcorn time. They loved it of course. Audrey even fed Ryan. It was so sweet, they even gave each other their first high five with out assistance.

Kindermusik Class

We try to keep Ryan in some sort of class with other little kids, about every 6 weeks or so, since he does not go to a learning center or daycare. I DO NOT want him to go to a daycare, but a learning center that makes since with out schedule and budget would be very nice.

So this go around we have him in a music class ( we try not to call it dance class). It's called Kindermusik. It's pretty cool, they dance and sing and use everyday objects as instruments, it gets them aware of there body and senses. Of course he loves it, because all you do is go around the room as you will and sing and dance. Perfect for a 2 year old!

There are only 4 other kids in the class, its a smaller class this time she said, its usually 8-10. So we get a little more hands on.

Ryan playing with an egg shaker, they have to shake it real fast,then real slow, he is doing one or the other here, I can't remember.

They get 'rhythm' sticks, and the click them together in many ways. On the floor, like a hammer, way up high, way down low, side by side and on top of each other!We play a song that they use scarves for, we play peek a boo, toss up and watch fall down, and really what ever they wan to do with itThen its parachute time, they can help us shake it and walk in a circle or they can run under it, which they do both.I also have a really cute video of the parachute time, but since we have had our computer back, I have not been able to upload videos. So Jason and Loni are coming over today, so I am going to get him to fix this problem and I will have a post just with videos...so watch out Tami, you have one of these special videos I have been so desperately trying to post!