Those golden locks got a trimming!

This morning was the big FIRST HAIRCUT! We all jumped in the car and headed to Pigtails & Crewcuts in East Cobb.

Ryland was very excited and ready to go.



He got to sit in a red firetruck and he was such a big boy. I was prepared for screaming and crying but there was hardly any of that. He was entertained by the cartoons, snacks and the firetruck that he was sitting in.

Towards the end of the haircut he was getting ready for it to be over.

All done!

What a handsome boy. I love it!

After his haircut he got to play with the train set.

And then we attempted mom/son pictures but we all know how those went ...

After we got home it was time for some snacks.

Look at that cute haircut!

He looks like such a big boy and not a little baby boy anymore!

Enjoying the warm weather!

The weather has been really nice lately so we are getting back in our routine of walking as a family. Ryland and Codi love our walks! There are a lot of nice parks and playgrounds within walking distance from our house which is really nice. And Teasley Elementary School that is right up the road from our house has a nice playground and a huge grass area that Codi can run around in. That is usually our "go to" location but sometimes we venture out to the other parks and playgrounds.

Below are some pictures from last weekend. It is getting really hard to take a picture of Ryland where he is actually looking at the camera ... he is so busy and there is always so much other stuff to look at.

It Has Been a Crazy and Hectic Week ...

Things have been a bit hectic around our house this week. Ryland has been fighting an ear infection for the past few days. He had a slight fever over the weekend but it finally went back down to normal. The good news is that we already had the ear infection medicine so no trip to see Dr Loventhal was needed. The tubes are allowing for his ears to drain which is their main purpose so it is good to see that they are still working. I just wish that they would eliminate his ear infections all together. I can not imagine the amount of ear infections that he would have had if he did not have tubes. I have this feeling that after these tubes fall out we will have to go back for round #2. Ear tubes typically stay in for 10-14 months before they fall out on their own. So that means that Ryland's might fall out this summer. We will have to wait and see what happens.

When we went to pick up Ryland from school on Monday we found out that he took his nap on a mat (and not in his crib)!! They said that he did great and one of the teachers sat with him on the floor and rubbed his back until he fell asleep. What a big boy!! So no more nap time in a crib for him at school. We knew that this transition would be coming at some point but it is crazy how fast it all happens.

I had to travel for work on Tuesday so I left the house at 6am to head to Charlotte for the day. Tab also had to leave for Columbia on Tuesday so my mom came out to Vinings and picked up Ryland from school and kept him that night. I got home from Charlotte late that night and Tab is coming home from Columbia tonight. Last night Ryland and I had a fun mommy/son night. We split Chick-fil-A nuggets for dinner and then played outside and around the house before bedtime. He woke up happy as can be this morning and we ate breakfast together before I took him to school.

Kari, Lindy and I are all hosting Julie's baby shower at our house this weekend. We have been doing stuff around the house to get it ready to have everyone over. I think we have 500 sweet gum balls drop in our front yard every day! So Tab is going to have the fun job of getting rid of all of those little annoying things before the shower starts on Saturday :)

February 2011 Picture Update

Here are some recent pictures of our little mister and what we have all been up to lately.

We had everyone over for dinner and a playdate last weekend. We attempted to get all of the little ones together for a picture before we put them down to sleep.

Here is Ryland waiting for Maddie and Stella to join him in the wagon.



Stella joined him and Patrick was being so funny and entertaining ...



Maddie was not excited about this picture opportunity. She started out in between them but was not happy ...



She then moved to Lindy's lap on the side. She is still not sure that she wants to be involved ...



And then she decided that picture time was over ...




Ryland and Stella ...

And then one last try with all of the kids with the moms. As you can tell this was a little difficult but here is the best picture ...

Ryland eating a snack with a mouthful of puffs (and he is asking for more) ...

This is part of our nightly routine ... taking Ryland for a ride around the house on one of his toys. Codi loves it too!

A couple of months ago we had to put up a gate between the kitchen and the mud room because Ryland loved going in there to play in Codi's food and water. He is not too happy with this gate, especially when it is closed and Codi is in there eating.

Another ride around the house before bedtime ...

Looking out the window after breakfast (with his crazy hair from just waking up) ...

You will notice that he picked up the phone and took it with him to the window ...

After we had to take the phone away from him since he was dialing random numbers. He was a little upset and had a breakdown half way down the stairs.

He is a walking machine ...

Ryland is definitely a walker now ... he is walking everywhere! And his little walk gets faster and faster every day. Before we know it we are going to have a little runner in the house! It is amazing how fast it all happened. We knew that it would be coming soon because he started taking 4 or 5 steps at once and then would fall to the ground to crawl. And then one day he just decided that walking was not that hard. He still cannot stand up from a sitting/crawling position own his own but I think that will come soon. Right now he will use something as support to stand up and then take off walking from there.

We have had a lot of "incidents" over the last week or so ... 3 within 2 days at school! He fell and busted his skin right under his eye, he fell and got a bruise under his other eye and he fell and busted the inside of his lip. But he recovered from them all fast and was back up playing and laughing in no time. The teachers in his classroom are really good at watching and keeping them as safe as possible while they are all in this learning stage. And one of the things that I love about Goddard is that they document everything and will call you during the day to let you know that Ryland fell (even when he is ok 5 minutes later). They said that at school he gets so excited about whatever he is walking towards that he will lean forward before he gets there and sometimes loses his balance.

Below are some pictures from last weekend. We all walked up to the playground at Teasley Elementary School. The weather was beautiful and Ryland loved playing on the play ground and going down the slide. If you look closely you can see all of the bumps and bruises and cuts on Ryland's face. This walking thing definitely comes with it's fair share of slips and falls!

I will add some pictures of Ryland walking soon.

WE HAVE A WALKER !!!

Ryland is officially walking! It really all started over the weekend but I have not had time to update the blog with this exciting news. More to come ...

We Heart Ryland!

Boy ... do we love our Ryland! He has such a personality and makes us laugh every day. It is amazing how much he changes every day, week and month.

For the past month or two he has been into pointing at things. Everywhere we go he points with his little fingers and talks about whatever he is pointing towards. It is the cutest thing ever! He is still talking gibberish but you can tell that in his mind he is definitely telling a story. He is still going to bed and sleeping so good at night. He puts himself to sleep after his bedtime story. And when he wakes up in the morning he plays with all of his animals in his crib. And when we go in there to get him and turn on the light he immediately turns to all of the stuffed animals in the basket next to the window and points and talks to them. We then take him out of his crib and his favorite thing to do is to get on the floor and say "good morning" to all of them.

His eating habits have definitely changed over the past few weeks. He is now on the "big boy" meal plan at school (which is really nice for us since we no longer have to pack his lunch!) and is eating great while at school. But when he comes home for dinner it takes everything that we have to get him to eat dinner. He is just not interested and is now not eating things for us that he use to love. We are hoping that this is just a phase and that soon he will be back to eating a wide variety of things. I have a feeling that all of times that he has been sick over the past month has not helped. His favorite meal of the day is breakfast and he typically starts the day off with yogurt and fruit (and a little bit of dry cereal). And it is one of our favorite times of the day because we all eat breakfast together before we all leave to start our day at work and school. This morning Tab turned the box of cereal on it's side and let Ryland reach in to get some cereal to eat. Ryland thought this was the funniest thing ever. He kept putting his hand in the box and then looking up at us and cracking up.

Ryland has 11 teeth! Yes ... that is right ... I said 11! He has 4 on top, 4 on the bottom and 3 molars. Now we are really trying to work on brushing all 11 teeth. He definitely does not like that!

He is still not "officially" walking but I think he is getting close. He will take 4 or 5 steps before falling to his knees to crawl. And when we hold his hand he does a great job of walking next to us. I really think that he feels like he can get to where ever he wants to go faster by crawling ... he is definitely a fast crawler!

I think I have mentioned this before but he has mastered crawling down the stairs and off of furniture. He is now tall enough to crawl into his Radio Flyer wagon all by himself. And whenever he wants to get down off of something he knows to turn around and crawl down backwards. He loves to climb on everything. They even told us at school that they had to move all of the chairs from around the table to under the coat racks when they were not all sitting around the table because Ryland loved to climb on the chairs and get on top of the table!

I cannot believe that Ryland is already 13 months old! And I cannot believe that this time last year I was half way through my maternity leave. It is amazing how time flies by so fast!

Snow Pictures!

Getting ready to go outside for the first time. Lots of layers! And the best part ... the first layer was his pajamas!

Tasting the snow for the first time.

Alot of snow!

Not sure what to think about how everything looks so different.

Watching all of the neighbors sled down the big hill.

He is starting to LOVE to eat snow! And there is plenty of it to go around.

Codi loved the snow!

Our house.

Hanging out inside in the warm cozy house.

Giving his doggy a kiss ... so sweet.

The Week of Snow, Ice and a Nasty Bug

The last 10 days have been interesting and full of surprises. Here is a recap of the fun and not so fun stories ...

Friday Jan 7th:

Ryland got sick right as he was going to sleep for the night. Luckily we needed to cut his fingernails so we decided to let him fall asleep in our bed so that I could cut them and then we could move him to his bed. Well, I never got to cut his fingernails. He threw up in our bed and when we got it all cleaned up and changed his clothes we put him down in his crib hoping that it was a one time thing. 10 minutes later he threw up in his crib and it was at that point that we knew something was wrong. So I ran out to Publix to get pedialyte and we made a big palate at the foot of our bed for us to all sleep on. We were up every hour with Ryland throwing up and at 3am I decided to call the Children's nurseline because we were getting worried about him becoming dehydrated. We made it through the night and after 4 loads of laundry completed during the night (we went through an entire cabinet of sheets, towels and blankets) Ryland woke up at 7am with a smile on his face. Tab and I were EXHAUSTED but happy that Ryland seemed to be feeling better.

Saturday Jan 8th:

Ryland was definitely feeling better but did not have his regular appetite back. We stayed around the house most of the day and played with toys and relaxed. Ryland and I had to cancel our plans for the neighborhood chili dinner that night but Tab was able to go over for a little bit.

Sunday Jan 9th:

Atlanta had been preparing for a big snow and ice storm that was scheduled to hit the area that night. We had already gone to the grocery store to stock up on food and prepared to be stuck in the house for a couple of days. My mom came out Sunday afternoon so that she could help us watch Ryland on Monday since we were anticipating that his school would be closed but Tab and I would still need to work from home.

After dinner Tab complained of not feeling good and decided to go to bed early. Right after he got in bed the "bug" hit him and he spent the night throwing up. It was confirmed ... Ryland's "bug" from Friday night was definitely contagious and Tab had caught it.

Monday Jan 10th:

We woke up to 5 inches of snow! It was beautiful. Ryland's school was closed. So we were all snowed in together. Tab spent most of the day recuperating from the "bug" but we were able to all go outside and play in the snow for a few minutes.

That night after dinner I started feeling the ick and what I was afraid of came true .... I had now caught the "bug". So Monday night was a long night for me.

Tuesday Jan 11th and Wednesday Jan 12th.

Schools were closed again on Tuesday and Wednesday and the snow was now covered with a thick layer of ice. We had a lot of fun quality family time in the house.

Thursday Jan 13th:

Schools were closed AGAIN! And we were all going a little stir crazy from being stuck in the house all week. The roads were getting a little bit better so we decided to get out of the house to grab lunch and my mom decided to drive back to Douglasville that afternoon.

Friday Jan 14th:

The Goddard School was finally open! So we took Ryland into school that morning and I went into the office and Tab was back to his normal routine of working from home (with no interruptions). My dad (who was back in Douglasville after being stuck in Highlands, NC all week) called to say that my mom had officially caught the "bug" and had been in bed all day. Both Tab and I went to pick up Ryland from school and he was as happy as he could be when we got there. I think he enjoyed the day out of the house and around all of his friends at school.

Saturday Jan 15th:

The day started out great. Ryland had a good night's sleep. Took a 2 hour nap and had a good lunch. We got ready to drive to Alpharetta for Jackson Conboy's 1st birthday party. As I was taking Ryland out of his car seat when we got to Charlie and Liz's house I noticed that he felt really hot. We only stayed at the birthday party for a little bit because we knew that Ryland had a fever. And when we got home and checked his temp the thermometer said ... "103.5". So we canceled our dinner plans to go over to Chuck and Lindy's and started Ryland on ibuprofen. During dinner we could tell that Ryland was not acting like himself and when we checked his temp again the thermometer now said .... "105". We called the Childrens nurseline and were able to get his temp back down to 101 and he started acting like his normal playful self again. We did check on him a few times during the night and ended up waking him up for another dosage of ibuprofen in the middle of the night.

Today ... Sunday Jan 16th:

When Ryland woke up this morning he was happy and only had a low grade fever. He had a good breakfast but within an hour his temp went back up and he was really sleepy. We let him take a nap and when he woke up from his nap his temp was back up to 105! So we all jumped in the car and went to the Childrens Hospital Immediate Care location. After 3 1/2 hours there and a lot of tests (strep throat, flu, blood work, x-rays for pneumonia, etc) we left feeling a little (and I stress ... little) bit better. They were able to rule out a lot of stuff but were not able to determine exactly what was causing the high fever. They think that he might have a "viral" infection which means that it would just need to run it's course. Ryland was exhausted when we got home and slept for a while in Tab's arms. I hope that whatever "bug" is in his little body gets out soon because it breaks my heart seeing him like this. We are going to keep him out of school tomorrow and I think my mom and/or dad might come out to visit and watch Ryland while Tab and I work.

So .... needless to say it has been a long 10 days. We hope for a good night's sleep tonight and a new and better day tomorrow!

Enjoying the new year ...

A Cowpig .... Now that is silly!!

Jack is letting Ryland borrow this farmhouse toy and Ryland loves playing with it. It will sing about the animals that you put in the barn doors and currently it is Ryland's favorite music to dance to.

This was one of the last night's that we let Ryland fall asleep in our bed after his bottle. And you can definitely tell that his hair has gotten REALLY long! We have now transitioned to reading books in his room before bedtime and then we put him in his crib and he plays with his toys until he falls asleep. I am amazed at how well the transition went and he is usually sound asleep within a few minutes of us leaving the room. What a big boy!!

HapPy NeW YeaR!

Our new years eve plans changed at the last minute so Tab, Ryland and I had a nice, relaxing, low key night. We went to dinner at the mexican restaurant and our neighbors joined us. Ryland was full of energy the entire time and was quite a handful. He was flirting with all of the tables around us and he was mesmerized with the Christmas tree that they still had up in the restaurant. He ate a lot of avocado and flour tortillas for dinner and loved every minute of being at the restaurant. I did feel bad when we left because we were those parents that left a floor a mess ... covered with chicken and tortillas!

After we got home from dinner it was bath time because he had green avocado remains all over his face and hands. We then all snuggled in the bed together and Ryland fell asleep. And Tab and I were so exhausted that we were out before midnight too!

Ryland woke us up at 6am this morning talking and playing with the stuffed animals that were in his bed. We started putting some of his stuffed animals in his bed with him a few weeks ago and he loves waking up to them. We watched him on the monitor and after 20 minutes of playing he fell back asleep and then we had to wake him up at 8:30am!

2010 was a wonderful year for us and I do have to say that it went by so fast. Ryland has changed so much over the last year and his personality continues to grow and shine. We cannot wait until the years to come with him and as a family!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

We have so much to be thankful for in 2010 and here is to a fabulous 2011!