Catching Up

ALOT has happened over the past 2 months.  Let me see if I can remember it all ...

- We transitioned Ryland into his big boy bed!  And he did great.  I finally found his bedding at Pottery Barn Kids which was a huge accomplishment because I have been looking forever - it is so cute with trains and cars!  And then my parent's took Ryland up to Highlands one weekend and while he was gone we transitioned his room.  His crib is now his full size big boy bed - we skipped the toddler bed.  He was excited about it when he got home.  And the transition to him sleeping in it was a breeze.  He loves for us to lay down in it with him ... and I have to admit - it is really cozy being able to lay in  his room with him.  He typically gets out of his bed by himself when he wakes up in the morning and comes out of his room to find us.  He is a late sleeper most mornings so we are usually already awake when he gets up.  I keep stressing to him that he always has to find us when he wakes up vs going downstairs without us.  He has been good about that for the most part. 

- He is FINALLY potty training!!! Woohoo!!!  It started right before Thanksgiving when he started wearing big boy underwear during the day at school.  He was having accidents but quickly realized that he did not want to pee in his big boy underwear.  And then over the past few weeks he has been wearing big boy underwear all day except at night.  He will hold in his pee until we can't anymore and then finally pee on the potty.  He is getting better about going more throughout the day.  And is good about telling his when he needs to go.  It just takes a few times of him sitting on the potty for him to actually let it out :)

- He no longer gets to keep a water cup in his bed.  Pretty much since he started drinking out of cups we have let him keep a water cup in his bed.  And he LOVES to drink water right before he goes to bed.  We started this transition in early November in preparation for potty training because we knew that he could not have that much liquid in his body at night and not pee while sleeping.  And then when we transitioned him to his big boy bed the rule was that his water cup had to  always stay downstairs.  And that he could only have 1 sip of daddy's water before going to bed. 

- He turned 3 years old!!  I will have a separate post for his birthday party but I still cannot believe that he is 3 years old!  Where does the time go.  We had his 3 year old check up earlier this week.  And he got a great report.  He did not pee in the cup like they wanted (crazy request for a 3 yr old that just started potty training!) and would not let them complete the vision test but the rest of the visit was great.  He racked up on stickers during his visit because he got a sticker for everything that they asked him to do ... stand on the scale, stand up straight to get his height measured, take his blood pressure, etc.  But he did have to give one sticker back when he did not pee in the cup - and he was ok with that :)  He is around the 20th percentile for height and 50th percetile for weight.  He is still our little mister and I think most of his weight is in his belly and head!

- His vocabulary expands every day!  It is crazy how many words he knows.  And how he can put them all in a sentence and have a conversation.  He understands everything that we say to him.  And it is so cute when he responds with his "ok" when you are talking to him about doing something or going somewhere.  His little "ok"s are so sweet and innocent.

- We went to Disney Live at Philips Arena on Sunday Dec 16th for his birthday.  The MacPhee's and Govan's met us there and all of the kids had so much fun.  We gave Ryland a Buzz Lightyear and Woody for his birthday present and he took them with him to the show.  And then Buzz and Woody came out on stage he went nuts and danced with them to all of their songs.  I will post pictures soon.

- He is really into Christmas and Santa this year.  Dash (his personal elf) been flying back to our house every morning and Ryland loves finding him and talking to him.  Dash even created a birthday sign for him and hung it up in the kitchen for his birthday!

- He had a growth spurt over the past couple of months and his 18 month pants are finally too short for him!  He is now officially in 2T pants and they fit perfectly!

- He recently fell and hit the metal chair that we keep in the living room (that is where Big Bear sits).  He hit his mouth and immediately starting crying and bleeding.  Luckily it only it and busted his gums right above his two front teeth and did not knock any of his teeth loose!  I was so afraid that he had knocked his front tooth loose again .. which happened almost exactly 1 year ago.  They were sore for a few days and he could not eat anything too hard.  But they are all better now.  Phew .... close call!

Halloween ... 2 months late

It has been WAY to long since I have added a new post and we have a lot to catch up on.

Halloween was so much fun this year.  Ryland dressed up as Woody from Toy Story.  And he actually wore most of his costume which was surprising!  He wore normal jeans and a plaid button up shirt.  And then put on his Woody cow print vest and Sheriff badge.  His hat did not really fit but he carried it around. 

We walked down to the neighborhood Halloween parade and followed the Cobb Couty Fire Truck up the street and around the neighborhood.  He was still a little scared of the fire truck and would not get close but thought it was so cool.  After the parade he went trick-or-treating and racked up on a lot of candy.  He really got into Halloween this year and knew what to do.

It was a great night and Ryland had a lot of fun!

Handsome ...

We recently got all of our pictures back from our photo session with Kim Rahn. 

I love them all! 

Below are a few.  Look how handsome our little mister is ... :)

Stella's 3rd Birthday

A couple of weeks ago we went to Stella's 3rd birthday party at Gymboree.  It was lot of fun.  Ryland still did not participate in the "group activities" but had a blast running around and playing with everything.

I did not get a lot of pictures but here are a few.

The birthday girl!

More Pumpkin Farm Pictures

Woody and Buzz Lightyear

Lindy sent me a picture of Ryland from the UGA/Tenn football game.  

He was in LOVE with Maddie's Woody and Buss Lightyear.  Luckily Maddie was very nice about sharing them with him all day and letting him carry them around.   

Sharing is Caring

Scene: All of us were eating cereal at the breakfast table.  Ryland picked out his 2 boxes of cereal (Kix and Cheerios) and was on his first bowl.  Tab is eating Honey Combs.  We keep Ryland away from the "sugar" cereal so he is not allowed to eat Honey Combs.

Ryland: "Daddy, can I have some of your cereal?"
Tab: "No, this is daddy's cereal.  You have your 2 boxes of cereal that you picked out"
Ryland: "Daddy, sharing is caring.  Can I have some of your cereal?"
Tab: "No, this is daddy's cereal."
Ryland: "My teacher said 'sharing is caring'."
Tab: "Yes, sharing is caring.  So you can have one bite of daddy's cereal."

I guess they have been working on sharing at school.  We have never heard Ryland say "sharing is caring" and he held it until the perfect opportunity.  And how can you say no to that request :)

Lately ...

I cannot even begin to document everything that has been going on lately but I will try ... Our little mister is growing up so fast.

His personality is the best.  He is such his own little person.  I am sure that all moms say that about their kids but Ryland really has a great personality and is so funny.  He makes us laugh all the time :)

He still loves all sports ... loves to play them and loves to watch them on tv. Loves to kick balls, loves to swing a golf club, loves to catch balls, loves to bounce balls.

Breakfast is his favorite meal of the day.  I think he eats enough at breakfast to last for the entire day.  During the week he eats cereal most of the time.  He ALWAYS has to eat 2 types of cereal.  He will pick his 2 boxes of cereal out of the pantry each morning and then take them over to his chair.  He has been eating 4 or 5 small bowls of cereal every morning.  But now we are trying to get him to only eat 1 big bowl of each cereal (2 total) so that we can get through breakfast time a little quicker.  On the weekends he loves to make blueberry muffins.  We have an animal muffin pan with 8 animal shapes.  Ryland picks out 4 of them for himself and then he gives me 2 and Tab 2.

Ryland loves his routine!  This morning I drove "daddy's big truck" into work so that I could get it cleaned and he was not happy about it at first because that was the car that he was "supposed" to go to school in.  And Codi could not ride in my car with them (yes - Codi goes to school every morning with them in daddy's big truck!)

Ryland has been pushing the limits with not listening and pitching your typical 2 year fit.  It is hard for Ryland to unwind after he starts throwing a fit ... nothing is right even if you give him what he is asking for.  Time outs are hard because he does not want to stay in his time out spot.  Got to love the terrible twos!  Lets hope this stops when he turns three in December!!

Ryland has zero interest in potty training.  All of the excitement that we had back in the summer is gone.  Lets hope he is ready soon.

Ryland is already excited about his 3rd birthday!  We talk a lot about it.  And he tells us what kind of cake he wants.  Originally it was Sponge Bob (ummm - no!) and now it is Lightning McQueen (much better).  One time I asked him what he wanted to do for his birthday party and he said that he wanted to take his friends to Publix to get sprinkle cookies.  Now that would be easy!!  We still have not decided on the birthday party details but I need to get them confirmed so that I can order and send the invites.  December is going to be here before we know it!

Ryland is going to die when Dash (elf on the shelf) reappears next month.  He is starting to talk about him and Santa Clause again and how they are in the north pole together.

Ryland is really into counting stuff right now.  Counting cars, road signs, chicken nuggets, anything!

Ryland is getting really good at recognizing all of his letters.  We are working on him being able to spell his name.

He LOVES his "tennis shoes".  He has moved from wanting to wear his crocs every day to now wanting to wear his tennis shoes every day.  They allow him to run faster and jump higher :)  I am a little picky about shoes for him and I do not like most tennis shoes that are out there for toddler boys.  But I love the gray New Balance tennis shoes so that is what he has.  And after they started falling apart from being worn so much and being washed so many times in the washer I got online to order a new pair and found out that they were sold out of his size!  Luckily my mom was at the outlet last week and was able to find them in the New Balance outlet store so now he has a brand new pair.  Ryland was so excited!  The first night that he had his new shoes he had to put them on and go outside to see how high he could kick the ball!

Food loves ... apples, grapes, chick-fil-a, cereal, muffins, cookies from publix, avocados (he is back to loving these!), grilled cheese sandwich dipped in tomato soup, marsh mellows & raisins, sauces to "dip" his food in and cheese pizza (he has started to not like toppings on this pizza).

Most of the time he has to have shoes on.  He does not like to go barefoot unless it is bed time.

He loves to whisper secrets or when he is sneaking up on something. 

He loves to hide and have us find him.

He loves Cars and Toy Story!

Got to love our Ryland!

Pumpkin Farm

We met the Fabregas' at Big Springs Farm yesterday and had so much fun!  There were donkeys, goats, pigs and sheep there.  And Ryland got to feed them - which he LOVED. 

After hanging out at the farm for a while we all went to lunch.  The weather was beautiful and it was grant to hang out with Jorge, Kari, little Jorge and Estella!

Ryland was not the best "listener" while we were there which is always fun (he is definitely going through that phase right now)!

I will post more pictures soon but here is a quick preview ...

Eating a "Frankenstein Rice Krispie Treat" ...

October Fun

Kissing the frog on the way to lunch.

Eating his first ice cream sandwich in the car ... making a mess :)

Playing outside with Easton ... they both came out in their Superman tshirt.  2 of the balls from the picture below were lost 5 minutes after this picture was taken - they now live somewhere in the Honeysuckle Street drains or ivy covered areas! 

On a side note:

Ryland came into our bedroom yesterday morning after climbing out of his bed (yes - he is still in a crib.  he loves his crib too much for us to move him so we have not been a rush).  Tab and I were still sound asleep and did not hear him climb out of his bed or close his bedroom door.  He walked over to my side of the bed and "plopped" 2 things on the bed ... (1) his water cup and (2) his entire Saturday football outfit that he dug out of his dirty clothes basket.  As he put them all next to me on the bed he said "Dont put it away".  He was upset that I had thrown his football shirt, pants and socks in the dirty clothes - He wanted to put them all back on.  Can you tell that he loves his new football shirt for this season :) 

Lindsey and Jim's Wedding Fun

Kim sent me some pictures from Lindsey and Jim's wedding back in May. 

The ones of Tab dancing are too cute not to post on the blog. 

What a great night and great wedding ...

Goooooooooo DAWGS ...

Ryland went to the UGA vs Tenn football game with us on Saturday.  He has been talking about going to it for weeks and was really excited!  Chuck and Lindy brought Maddie and Lainey for tailgating so it was perfect.  Ryland and Maddie played together and on the drive up Ryland wanted to make sure that his friend Maddie was wearing her "football" shirt too.  I did not get any pictures of them together but they were really cute running around together.  And luckily Maddie brought her Buzz Lightyear and Woody from Toy Story ... Ryland carried them around all afternoon :) 

On the drive up .. holding his "Georgia" football for the entire trip.

Ryland was so good in the game.  Kickoff was at 3:30pm and he was exhausted from all of the tailgating fun.  He ended up passing out in my arms in the first quarter and slept for around 30 - 45 minutes.   He then woke up and got right back into the game.  His favorite part was watching "Harry Dog" on the field.  And watching the bands at halftime.  And he did not like it when we cheered ... I think it scared him so we were not allowed to yell or clap :)

After a long and very stressful game Georgia ended up winning! 

Go Dawgs!

Preview ...

I cannot wait to see them all!

I love this boy and our family!

Little Georgia Bulldog

Ryland L-O-V-E-S his Georgia football shirt. 

Below are some pictures from the last few gamedays at our house.