teeth brushing funny

The other night, we were both in the bathroom when Ryan was brushing his teeth. He does pretty well on his own, so we just help him a bit at the end to make sure he didn't miss anything. He will say "ahhhhh" when he opens his mouth wide and "eeeee" with his teeth together when we brush the front of his teeth - he seems to have fun with it!

Anyway, he had done well but didn't brush his back molars. So we said something like "don't forget to brush in the back" and he proceeded to take the brush out of his mouth, and brush the back of his diaper, LOL. It took us a second to realize what he was doing before we burst out laughing. He laughed with us but was very confused about our odd request :-)

open mouth, insert foot

literally, LOL. Yes, Katie has finally gotten a taste of her toes :-) She was such a cutie with her foot in her mouth for the 1st time yesterday, 9/29. She has also been enthralled with her hands. She'll hold her hand up in front of her face and just stare and slowly move her fingers. It's so much fun to watch!

Ryan has been LOVING his GeoTrax - an early birthday present from Mommy and Daddy. He is obsessed. We got him a small set to start with and he's having a blast playing with it. Marc had showed him some videos on youtube and he kept saying "more choo choo" every time he got near the computer. So, on Sunday night, we went out and got him some since I'd rather he play with trains than watch them on videos! It turns out that this is a good learning opportunity since he has to control himself and deal with the disappointment of not being able to be attached to the GeoTrax 24/7. We have done a lot of time-outs lately, LOL.

He's so funny playing with them - he actually loves pushing the train without it running on the batteries - and I love watching him carefully walk around the track, sometimes going on his toes to avoid stepping on it or knocking anything over. Today I told him to push the button to turn the train on (he forgets and wonders why the controller isn't working) and he said "no" and then (nicely) took the controller and put it all the way across the room so that I wouldn't use it :-) We spent quite a lot of time rearranging track today - and I heard a lot of "no no no no no no" if I tried a configuration he didn't like, LOL. He is already really good at putting the pieces together even though he doesn't quite get the elevation parts and makes things that don't quite work at times. It's also been fun to talk to him about the train - practicing words like "down," "bridge," "under," etc. We are having lots of fun enjoying this with him! I'll have to post some pictures or video - we love watching our little engineer. (You know, a person that runs a train. Hi Russ.)

unfortunate toddlerisms

Today, as we were having some mini pizza bagels for lunch, I was trying to help Ryan say "pizza." Well, the first syllable of pizza sounds like pee, so his attempt at the word (since he knows it is two syllables but he can't quite say "zzzzzzza") is "pee pee." Now I'm all for having affectionate nicknames for pizza, but this is not one that I can embrace, LOL!

Mommy: "pizza"
Ryan: "pee pee"
Mommy: "peeee - zzzzzzza"
Ryan: "peeeee - pee"
and on and on . . .

Then Kate was sitting on my lap and Ryan decided she should have a lesson too, LOL! He was so adorable pointing to the pizza on his plate, getting right in her face, eye-to-eye, and saying slowly and repeatedly - "pee pee."

Hmmmm, I wonder if this is going to interfere with potty training somehow?

our little man is growing up so fast!

Ryan peed on the potty for the first time tonight!!! We were sitting at the table eating dinner, and it seemed like he was going, so we asked him if he had to go "potty" and he signed "potty" - so Daddy got him out of his chair, and they both went into the bathroom. Daddy took Ryan's diaper off, and he sat down on his little potty and went - we were so excited and proud of him!

mirror mirror . . .

I think Katie is pretty sure about who is the fairest of them all, LOL. She LOVES talking and smiling at the adorable baby that she sees in the mirror above her swing. If she is in her swing and not sleeping, she is almost always gazing at her reflection in awe. I guess I can't blame her :-)

sprinkler fun

Ryan spent a good part of the day helping Daddy outside - raking, watering, digging, and all sorts of other fun toddler activities :-) Despite all the hard work that Daddy did, I think both boys had quite a lot of fun! Here's a video of Ryan playing in the sprinkler - he was completely soaked!

And here is a picture of him with an ice pop to cool off before his nap (and before his trip through the sprinkler in the evening)

footie pajamas = bathing suit?

Apparently Ryan thinks so :-) This morning, after getting me up by saying "mama" about 20 times he of course ran to Katie's door and was so upset when I wouldn't let him wake her. Speaking of him calling me from his room - sometimes he'll actually get down on his belly and put his little mouth right by the floor and the door - so that he is talking under the door. It's so funny - I don't know where he got this idea. I guess he knows that is the opening, so it makes sense. I'll go in and the carpet will be all wet from his face being there - right by the door.

Anyway, moving on to the footie pj story - he then ran into our room and into our bathroom where Daddy was getting a shower. Ryan loves showers - so he got right in and pulled the door closed behind himself - pjs and all. He was so happy though he did seem a little disturbed that his feet were getting wet. He was NOT happy when I took him out!

When we got downstairs and I got him in some dry clothes, he was having fun running around and was really jumping for the first time. He has been loving jumping lately - but this was the first time we saw him really able to jump with both feet at the same time instead of one foot followed closely by the other. Hopefully I'll get the jumping on video soon - he's pretty cute and is so proud of himself!

maaaaaaa maaaaaaa

I have quite an adorable alarm clock. "Mama, mama, mama, maaaaaaa ma . . . . . daaaaaaaaaaa." LOL. It's so sweet to hear him calling me. Of course the snooze button needs some work. It's highly intermittent, and using it is at my own risk. I have found him in his room with his pjs unzipped a few times lately (once with his diaper also open), so it's usually in my best interest to get him promptly. So far he hasn't really made a mess, except for needing a bath one morning.

**I am editing this because I forgot that one morning he greeted me at the door completely naked - not even wearing a diaper! LOL, how did I forget that? Anyway, usually the pjs are still on, but just unzipped :-)

This morning as soon as I opened his door, he started saying "Dtee teeee, Dtee teeee" and ran across the hall to Katie's room. She had been making noise and he was so excited to see her. He ran right over to her crib and put his arm through to touch her hand. I actually put him in her crib with her, and after giving her a hug and kiss, he was very happy to look at her crib soother toy (we call it her "princess lights"). He has the same kind of soother, but his are birds and is more gender neutral - they both play music and have little things that move with lights - and shine a light show on the ceiling. They both LOVE them!!

a few new pics

a common sight - me grabbing for Ryan grabbing for Kate :-)

last chance summer activities

Sunday before Labor day we went to the drive-in movies. I was kind of panicked to do some last minute summer things before it was too late. We missed going to see the local baseball team, but at least we got to the movies. We saw Horton Hears a Who - Ryan loved it. We really should have gotten Horton (his stuffed animal that also visited the drive-in) in the picture! Speaking of his Horton toy - Ryan thinks his trunk is some sort of vacuum cleaner, LOL. He will use the trunk in his room along the floor and baseboards while making a vacuum sound - so funny.


So the picture above is from August 2008. Below is Ryan at the drive-in movies in July 2007. Where did my baby go??? Awwwww! Of course, Ryan got bigger, but the popcorn got smaller :-) This year we went to a different place and they didn't have the big tubs.


This is the best picture that we managed to get of Kate with the popcorn - poor girl :-)


Continuing with our summer activity theme, we went to Rita's on Labor Day - somehow we managed to not do that all summer! Here is Ryan with his Rita's - doing his best baby bird impression. Rita's is GOOD and it was worth it for him to let us feed him our flavors in between shoveling it in himself. He couldn't say "more" fast enough. I really need to piece together some of the video from that night - we have a good one of a brain freeze reaction.

He didn't turn out nearly as red as I thought he would!