Life with Ryan: Summer 2014

Monday, August 11th - Day 55

My last official Monday at home with my sweet Ryan! We started the day by building towers and trains.

We went for a run in the jog stroller - it was pretty muggy outside and I was hoping that we would be able to go to the pool today, but the weather report pretty much nixed that idea. Oh well! We met up with a friend for lunch today and Ryan got to see the fountains in the daytime, which he was really excited about:

After dinner, we took Ryan to YOLO for a special treat. Needless to say, I think he enjoyed it :)

Making sure he gets every last drop!

So Ryan is definitely in the "negotiator" stage of childhood. He barters about everything (2 cookies instead of 1, 2 more videos instead of 1, 50 seconds of brushing his own teeth instead of 20, 1 more sip of water instead of 3 sips). Sometimes he'll pick an arbitrary number to negotiate (7 more times down the slide instead of 2); other times, you can tell he is very selective in what he wants or how much of something he wants. Prime example - when it's time to get out of the bathtub. Sometimes I have to countdown because he won't get out when I say it's time to get out. Sometimes, he lays down and says "I'M SWIMMING, I'M SWIMMING" and try to pretend he's "busy". Or, I'll say "you have one more minute" and he'll say "no, I have TWO more minutes". Lately, he has been waiting until alllllll the water is out of the bathtub before even considering getting out of the tub. Even though this definitely delays his bedtime, it's still super cute that he's learning how to control the world around him and he's voicing his opinions. I know the day will come where I have to tell him to get his smelly butt into the bath/shower (all adolescent boys are like this), so really I should savor these moments where he wants to be clean and splash and play in the water.

You want me to get out? How about no? I'm very busy with my letters.

I'm just messing with you, Mommy. I'll get out once all the water is down the drain and all the letters and numbers are back in their bath bag. I'll put them in one by one, very very slowly.

Tuesday, August 12th - Day 56

I woke up early this morning to get a run in before Ryan woke up. We needed to get a move on things this morning since I decided to take him to the 6 and under bounce time at Defy Gravity. He, of course, had a great time minus the buckling his knee at one point and kind of sending me into a panic that I would need to take him to the doctor and/or hospital for an MRI or something. Fortunately, I think he's ok because after about 5 minutes of icing his knee, he decided that was enough and continued to bounce and hasn't mentioned any kind of knee-pain since.

Super excited to start bouncing today!

Perfecting his form :) but seriously, my boy can bounce HIGH!

Just a blur because he's bouncing bouncing bouncing nonstop

Loving life at Defy Gravity

Planning his attack of the basketball goal

Taking a small break - but having so much fun!

Testing out the foam pit

My happy little boy!

In awe of the foam pit

We came home for about an hour and then decided to go to Marbles! I called Oma and she said that she would LOVE to come with us, so we scooped her up on our way over there. Usually when we go towards the afternoon (we got there at around 12:30), the crowds are usually beginning to thin out a little bit and there's more room to play. This wasn't the case today and there were way more older kids than I've ever seen there before. Nevertheless, Ryan had a great time and Opa ended up meeting us there towards the end of our Marbles time!

Watching the pennies roll

Can I get the penny back out, Oma?

I think I see it down there, Oma!

Ooooh, BIG blocks to build towers with!

This construction hat is way too big. It was way too big for me, too. Who do they think is playing with the toys, a kid with a head the size of ET's?

What's more fun than building towers at home? Building towers at Marbles!

Building "the tallest tower in the world"

Who needs drivers ed? Not this guy!

Oma, I'm going to make you breakfast!

He's passed security...now, on to operating the nuclear reactor.

Opa's here with MORE COINS to roll!

See how it went all the way down to the bottom, Opa?

We walked to a nearby ice cream shoppe (Crema on Fayetteville) and Opa treated Ryan to an ice cream cone. It was such a sweet moment! Yes, I'm fully aware that this means that Ryan got ice cream two days in a row (I guess yesterday's treat was technically frozen yogurt, but still the same) - but I know that this is a rare treat and once I go back to work, these after dinner trips to YOLO and daytime trips to Marbles are going to be few and far between. BTW - the waffle cones are AWESOME at Crema!