Happy 2nd Birthday, Ryan!

Dear Ryan,

We can't believe you are TWO whole years old now!  TWO!  This past second year has really flown by, and you have made it so exciting, so happy, so complete.  You are such a joy to be around, and we can't imagine life without you!  We say all the time that you are THE BEST little boy ever because you are so wonderful and make us so proud!

We love you so much!  We love the way you wake up in the mornings, already being silly and ready for the day.  We love how you are completely full of energy and ready to move as soon as you get up.  There isn't a slow wake-up process for you!

We love that you love swings, slides, parks, and open fields.  The world really is your playground and you want to have fun as much as possible.  We love that you love your lawnmower and enjoy pushing up and down the sidewalk, like you're taking a nice afternoon stroll.   We love that you love being outside and being active!

We love your budding independence - how you try so hard to buckle yourself into the carseat, how you try to put on your own socks and shoes, how you want to zip up your own jacket, how you want to brush your own teeth, how you want to feed yourself all the time now.  We savor doing these little things for you because we know we won't be able to do them much longer for you.  "Ryan do it" and "all by self" are now frequent phrases of yours and while we're so proud that you want to do things for yourself, it hurts our heart a little because it's a daily reminder that you are growing up.  You are so focused and so determined at times!

We love that you are so good-natured and so happy.  We love that you love bouncing all around, constantly moving, and you never seem to want to stop.  You love to take every opportunity to bounce - on beds, on the floor, on the couch, on chairs, ANYWHERE you can!  And you laugh - OH, how you laugh! We love hearing you laugh all the time - it really is one of the best sounds in the world to us, and it fills our hearts everytime we hear it.  We love your sense of humor and your happy-go-lucky nature.  We love that you find so many things funny, and it seems that all you want to do is laugh and laugh and laugh.  We love your "funny face" and that you give a fake smile in some pictures when we ask you to smile :) 

We love that you love reading and will read books over and over again with us.  We love that you never tire from hearing the same story over and over again - and we also love when you try to read it yourself at times :)  We love that you "get your needle stuck" on certain things, just like your parents. 

We love that you have manners, and especially when you say "plea" and the occasional "peas" instead of please :)  We love that you'll say "thank you" all on your own, without any prompting at times.  You worry when someone else is sad or upset and on your own will offer a hug to someone in need.  We love that you have such a big heart!  You are such a generous and loving little boy - always wanting cuddles and hugs, always willing to share whatever you have, always wanting to make sure that other people have what they need.  You want other people to be as happy as you!

We love that you love your family, and always want to spend time with others.  We hope that you continue that love and let it grow bigger and deeper throughout the years.  Family is so important, and we're so happy that you have been able to spend lots of time with everyone.

You are by far the best and most important thing in our life, and you make every day so special for us.  Yes, you are a complete handful, but in the best possible way.  You are the sweetest, most precious thing we have and we are so blessed that you're in our life!  We wouldn't trade anything about you and we love you just the way you are.  You make the worst of days so much better, and the best of days that much brighter.  You have made us so happy and we are so lucky that you are our son and that chose us to be your parents.  We can't thank you enough for the past two years - all the laughs, the tears, the funnies, the sillies, the snuggles, the cuddles, the hugs, the kisses, and ALL the love you've shared with us.

We love you to the moon and back!

Love,
Mommy and Daddy

Almost 2 years old

It's amazing how quickly my baby boy has grown up.  Looking back on this last year, I really feel like time is already slipping away!  Those first few months (let's be honest, that first year) took FOREVER.  Often times, I felt like I was watching paint dry.  But now, I blinked and days/weeks/months have gone by. 

 

So, since April, we took another trip to the west coast to see one of Joe's childhood friends get married in Portland.  We hopped down to Santa Barbara and spent some time with family there (we absolutely love CA).  I earned my "brave momma" badge and flew back with Ryan on my own from San Francisco to Raleigh.  Yes, I dealt with a 21 month old in a confined space for 5+ hours.  I survived, too!

 

Ryan on 9/10/2013

Ryan is a talking machine these days and repeats things that we say all the time.  It makes life more interesting now - little ears are always listening!  Ryan is becoming more and more conversational (you can definitely tell a difference just within the past 2 months).  He's beginning to interact with other little kids his age, and it's so cute to see his personality coming out more and more!

 

This video is from 11/2/2013.

 

Some of Ryan's favorite things these days: anything construction related (excavators, bulldozers, impact hammers, front end loaders, backhoes, dump trucks).  He loves watching videos of himself, too :)  He's beginning to learn how to navigate our phones, voice-search for things on YouTube (I'm not kidding), make voicenotes of himself saying various things, and watching Rebecca Black's "Friday" video.  He loves reading books - and once you read it to him, he'll start it all over and repeat as much as he remembers from the pages or will imitate us reading to him.  He loves going to the park, swinging, sliding down the slide, and running running running around.

He is the best little boy ever!

The past 4 months

Lots of things have happened over the past 4 months!  It's amazing how quickly Ryan is becoming such a big boy!

Ryan is such a talker now!  He is picking up on words SO quickly now and is becoming a little chatterbox.

Back in March, Ryan celebrated his 2nd Easter and the Easter Bunny was good to him!  He went on an Easter Egg hunt, which he enjoyed and even found some eggs all by himself!

Ryan took his first airplane ride to California in April.  We spent a few days in San Francisco (we absolutely loved it there!) and then flew down to Santa Barbara to spend some time with his Aunt Deniz ("Auntie"), Uncle Bobby ("uncle"), Robert ("Rah-rah"), and Alex ("bay-BEE A-wah").  We had such a fantastic time and can't wait to see them again!

I'll upload some pictures soon.

First haircut!

Ryan (finally!) got his first haircut on Christmas Eve.  We figured we couldn't have him looking disheveled for all the Christmas pictures :)

Before:

During:

Get those scissors away from me!

Yes, take a little more off the top, please!

After:

WHAT HAVE YOU DONE??

THIS IS NOT WHAT I WANTED!

Ok, ok, maybe it's not so bad.....

Yeah, I think the ladies will dig this

Oh yes, I think they will..... 

Such a handsome little man!!

Happy 1st Birthday, Ryan!!

Well friends, we made it!  Ryan is officially a TODDLER now!

We woke up in the morning (who am I kidding, I woke up at 4:30 and barely slept after that because I wanted Ryan to hurry up and wake up--this is DEFINITELY a first!).  Ryan finally woke up around 6:15.  We went in, sang happy birthday, gave him extra birthday cuddles and hugs, got him dressed, and brought him downstairs.

He opened up his two big presents from us:

He rode in the wagon a little bit and absolutely LOVED it (as you can tell) :)

We pushed his first nap until after 11, so he would be awake for his birthday party and not have to take another nap at like 2:30 or anything.



He had a GREAT time yesterday at his big birthday party (minus getting his birthday bruises from falling down the front porch stairs).  He got to eat some birthday cake icing:

He wasn't very sold on the cake/icing.  I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm sure he liked it, but he was definitely skeptical about it.  He made quite the mess out of his smash cake though:

We feel very blessed and thankful that so many people were able to celebrate this important milestone with Ryan.  It's been a year of ups and downs, lots of cuddles, lots of awesome memories, lots of tears, lots of learning (for both us and Ryan), but most of all, lots and lots and lots of love.  It's crazy to think how much has occurred over the past year, how much we have accomplished, how much we have grown, and how much our worlds have changed because of Ryan, and all for the better.  We are really looking forward to this holiday season and giving Ryan the best childhood we can.  

We can't wait to see what's in store for us for the next year!

(T minus 8 days until his birthday)

Here is a picture of my sweet angel the other day, napping while we were in the car:

I can't believe Ryan's about to have his first birthday.  One whole year old.  It's crazy.  It's crazy how quickly time has passed, particularly in the past few months.  Those first few months seemed to take forever and time trickled by so slowly.  Then, something clicked and all of a sudden, Ryan is 6 months old...8 months old...10 months old...having his first Halloween, first Thanksgiving, and now he's about to be a year old.  My sweet baby is not a "baby" anymore.  He's a full-blown toddler, constantly running from one thing to another, rarely stopping.  He just goes goes goes goes all day long.  He (sometimes) crashes for his naps, and then he's up, ready to investigate and examine everything around him.  He's amazing!

Ryan playing with the Dino-"roar".  He LOVES this toy.

The Dino-"roar" is one of Ryan's favorite toys.  He pushes these plastic balls into the top, and they roll in different directions, and music plays and lights flash.  He does this all day long.  He also has figured out that if he just pushes the ball in halfway, it will trigger the lights and music, and he's perfectly content doing that, too.

He's beginning to understand so much too!  We'll ask him where various things are, and he'll point at them.  He's beginning to say a couple of words and will try to say more words when prompted.  It's awesome to listen to him try to communicate with us.  Even when he falls down or hurts himself, in the middle of crying, he'll sometimes try to put together all of these jumbled syllables and sounds that don't make a bit of sense, but it's like he's trying to explain what happened.  It's adorable!

11 months...only one more to go!

Happy 11 months to our favorite little boy!

So much has happened since the last post!  Ryan is now a seasoned walker--he goes everywhere he wants to and even to places he knows he's not supposed to go!  He learned how to walk backwards and to the side just within the past week. 

He's learned how to clap his hands:

He's learned how to point to things and he's learned how to consistently wave hello and goodbye, too!

He's learned how to say "UH OH", and he loves to say that when he intentionally drops his spoon when he's eating dinner.  Super cute!  He also loves to smile mischievously when we tell him "no" to something and he continues to do it (note: he WILL drop this behavior sooner than later).

He's learned that some of his toys can move all on their own (I guess, with the help of batteries, but I think that's an advanced concept for him right now):

We celebrated Halloween (Ryan was a bat):

We walked him to the houses on our street (only 3), and he got some awesome loot!  One of our neighbors even gave him some applesauce instead of candy, which I thought was really sweet :)

I can't believe he's going to turn ONE YEAR OLD soon.....this year has been the fastest and the slowest year (if that's possible).  When I look back at everything that Joe, Ryan, and I have been through, all that we've learned, all the hugs and kisses we've given and received, and how much our lives have changed for the better, it makes me get all teary and emotional (surprise surprise).

We're going to savor this last month of infancy!!