Ryan's Laugh

We finally got a good laugh on video. Check this out...

He is so much fun!

Fathers Day Weekend

Since it was Fathers Day Weekend, Dan got to pick whatever he wanted to do. I have to admit that I was a bit skeptical about our plans, but I was pleasantly surprised.

We started the morning by visiting the Aerospace Museum.



The museum was a hit because of a room full of airplane related toys. Tyler had a fabulous time loading pilots, passengers and baggage into the airplanes. He was sure to find appropriate toys for Ryan as well. After being in the room over an hour, we had to promise to bring him back in order to convince him to leave.

We then moved on to the Transportation Museum. Tyler was tired and hungry by the time we go there so we didn't spend a ton of time wandering around. Ryan, on the other hand, was his usual agreeable self. Here he is chillin'! He did this completely on his own.

We ended our day at Chef's! Yummy! This area has amazing food. I hadn't ever had Spaghetti Parmesan before I moved here. Mmmm. I'm already ready for next time.

I asked Tyler to pose for me in his bib. He had a case of the sillies so this turned out to be a difficult task.

Here he is trying to be serious... it's not working very well.

Ta Da! He's ready to eat!

Tyler did a great job finishing his meal. I was impressed. He didn't make too much of a mess.

Ryan also did well at the restaurant. He got a lot of attention and a new nickname... chubkins... I wonder where that came from?? And, we discovered that he is a fan of canoli. Shocker!

I'm still trying to capture Ryan's laugh on film. Here's my latest effort. This video has a bonus feature... Tyler's latest noise! Both of our boys have the gift of odd noises. Tyler can make the best engine noises around and Ryan has some sort of alien, Darth Vader thing going on. I have no idea how these noises are created and why they don't hurt. One thing is for certain, one or both boys are making noise every waking moment of every day. I swear that Tyler was "on" all weekend. Even when he wasn't talking incessantly, he was making noise. Dan has a theory that all parents were sane before children. Slowly over time we are being sucked into their bizarre world. Crazy!

Is that strange or what?? They certainly get a kick out of each other.

Yay Tyler!

After weeks of waking up dry in his pull-up, Tyler made the decision not to wear one last night. He woke up dry again. Woo Hoo! He announced that now he's "just like Ava!" He's so proud of himself and so am I. I'm sure we'll have accidents, but I'm very hopeful that we've left diapers behind. We're doing the happy dance!

Here's Tyler this morning in his PJs! He's growing up so fast. Sob :(

Tyler is dancing this morning... literally. He must be learning a dance at school because he's "sliding to the right" and then "sliding to the left." Too cute!

Whenever he uses his right and left it makes me smile remembering the day he let me know he had learned the difference. He pointed to a spot on his arm and said "Mama, is this right?" Not having any idea what he was talking about I asked "is what right?" He repeated "is this right?" Still not having any clue I said "Tyler, I don't know what you mean." Clearly frustrated, he repeated "is this right!?" So, I said "sure Tyler, that is right." Then he held up his other arm, the left one, and said "is this left?" Click! Ha! Who knew??

Tyler always keeps us on our toes. Whenever he says something that doesn't click with us right away, we know it will eventually because he's always right and there is always a connection to something! If there isn't, it's probably because we missed it, not because he was wrong. On our way to Grandma's two weeks ago Tyler asked where we were. I told him that we were in Syracuse. He paused and then said "does that mean we're near Sara?" Too funny! I will not be surprised when at some point in the future he says "we're in Syracuse and Syracuse is a place, not a person." We'll probably be in the exact same spot on the way to Grandma's when it happens.

Well, it's time to start our day. We've got plans to explore downtown with the boys on this dreary day.

Boys Will Be Boys!

Dan just returned from the Hot Rod Power Tour which means the boys and I just returned from a visit to Grandma and Grandpa Ws!


In between Tyler's injuries, we had a nice time. Unfortunately the visit started out with a bang as Tyler smacked his forehead on the coffee table. He had a nice goose egg with all sorts of wonderful colors! Then he managed to bite his tongue before having a close encounter with the side walk resulting in a nice scrape on his nose. Those injuries plus his regular bruised legs made for a great look! Luckily the healing process is moving along nicely... just in time for another encounter with the side walk tonight! I'm going to buy stock in band-aid!

Even banged up Tyler is an endless source of entertainment.

One day last week we arrived back at the house and Tyler was picking at his pants as he walked in from the car. Grandma asked him what was wrong and Tyler informed her that "his pee pee sprayer was stuck to his leg!" Ha! Pee Pee Sprayer! Just thinking about it cracks me up. That night we had a little anatomy lesson. Unfortunately he's now testing out that new word. Goodness... I don't know what is worse.

Tyler's favorite number over the last few weeks is 89. I have no idea why that number in particular is fascinating, but everything is 89. He can even count to 89... "one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eighty-nine!" Ha! His tricycle goes 89 mph... Things are 89 feet long... I can't wait to see how the number 89 can be used tomorrow...

Wednesday evening we spent on the boat. It was a perfect night for a cruise.

Tyler spent time looking out over the lake. Doesn't he look like a big boy in this picture! I swear he's grown in the last week.

His favorite part of the boat is the cabin. It's like his own fort.

Here's Ryan on the boat for the first time! He enjoyed playing with Tyler's life vest.

Isn't he adorable in his little life vest??

We came home on Thursday and spent time that afternoon at the bounce house with friends before heading to another friends house for pizza! Yummy! It was another beautiful night. I love Ryan's expression in this picture. His hair is really starting to fill in.

Ryan had another first... a ride in a wagon! His first girlfriend joined him! She's two months older, but Ryan's got her in size! They are both adorable.

Every kid has to have a baseball cap and I think this one is just perfect for our little guy. He seems to like it as well.

I can't believe how good Ryan still is. He's just a happy kid as long as he's fed and clean. Who could ask for more??

Ryan has turned into Mr. Grabby. You really have to be careful when setting things down because he's got quite a reach. I was putting groceries away Friday morning and the next thing I knew, Ryan had the eggs! Aaaahhh! Of all things...

One last shot of our happy boy...

Busy, Busy, Busy

The last few weeks has been a blur. We've done so much that it's hard to remember it all. Dan alone has done an incredible amount of work just in the last week or so. He has cut down two trees, hung a cabinet over the potty upstairs, moved the old TV upstairs, hung the curtains I made over a year ago, raised the cabinets in the kitchen to accommodate the new fridge, trimmed two windows on the garage... phew, I get tired just thinking about it.


Here are are the curtains. I'm pleased with how they turned out. Now I've got to figure out what color to paint the room. I'm thinking a soft moss color, similar to the pillows.

We did get a new fridge and while I love it, the freezer is actually smaller than the old one! Check this out...

I have one shelf on the door and one small area inside the freezer for actual food. The rest is frozen milk. But, there will be no more milk avalanches with head injury potential. Now any milk that falls can only land on feet! Only 5 more months to go!

The boys are doing well. Over the last couple of weeks Tyler has been getting up in the middle of the night to go potty. It is exciting to hope he's night training, but it is exhausting getting up with him in the wee hours. At 2am I find myself wondering how Dan "knew" to take the side of the bed away from the door when we picked sides well before children. Ryan has discovered his voice and has become very demanding at meal time. He's doing a lot more with his hands and shows interest in things. It's very cool to watch.

I realized that I haven't blogged about our trip to visit Sara a few weeks ago. Grandma and Grandpa W were also there. We had a great time.

I tried all week to get a picture of all 4 kids together. It gets harder and harder to get a decent picture as we add more children! Here's an example of the problems I was having. NORA!! This picture makes me smile.

This picture is decent, but it makes me wonder if my kids have cooties... could you get a little closer girls?

Here was another attempt. I thought that maybe if they were lying down and couldn't see each other I'd have better luck. I couldn't get them lined up right and check out the pouty face!

One more try... doesn't Tyler look thrilled?

While in Virginia, they guys took Tyler and Ava to the aerospace museum. The girls went shopping! I got my clearance fix. Here they are in the cockpit at the museum.

They also got to go to the Army Transportation Museum. This is one big tire!

I really wanted to go to the beach while we were there. It's been a while since I put my feet in the ocean so we picked the best day for weather and made the trip. It was a beautiful day, but it was WINDY! Sand can hurt when it pelts you in the legs.

Luckily there was a great playground at the beach and the kids had a fantastic time. Here's Tyler at the top of the twisty slide.

Here they are humoring me for a second.

Dan was having a great time on the alligator with Tyler.

And, Tyler with Ava. Aren't they sweet?

Back at Aunt Sara's, Ryan gave Grandma a good workout. He was having a blast... and I think Grandma was as well.

We're looking forward to the 4th of July when we can see the whole gang again... this time minus the 10 hour drive. (for us at least...)