New York, New York

A few weeks ago, my two best friends, Sarah and Kristen, and I headed to New York for a girl's trip but also in celebration of Kir getting married later this year. With Sarah living in Dallas, and Kristen heading to Chicago in a month, we haven't had much time with just the 3 of us for more than a day here and there. The last time we all took a trip was the summer of 2005 in which we went to Vegas.

 Here we are in Vegas nearly 6 years ago!

 ... and now today, still best friends!

We did a lot of fun things while in New York, but also relaxed and just caught up with each other which was even more fun. The first night there, we had dinner at the Shake Shack near Times Square. We definitely pigged out :)

We walked around Times Square for a bit before we had to head to our show. You can definitely tell it was summertime, due to the massive amounts of tourists (us included).

We headed to the Shubert Theatre to see Memphis, which won the Tony in 2010 and did not disappoint. Kir mastered her "up shot" with the camera, as seen below!

Before the show, Sarah and I purchased our "sippy cups" of wine. We thought we should document the event.

We were sitting on the 4th row, which at first seemed a little close, but we ended up loving it. You could literally see the sweat flying off of their faces. We had such a good time, that the next day we decided to purchase discount tickets for another show since it was rainy. It was such a gross day, we hardly took one picture. We did go see Catch Me if You Can, and it was just alright. Still needs a little work and I think it is always hard to adapt a movie like that into a Broadway show. It was still fun though. That evening we headed to the Stanton Social for a dinner of fancy tapas and cocktails.

 Afterward, we found a cute little wine bar to stop in for a drink before continuing our "crazy" night out :)

After heading into a different bar, we went to get in line for the Jazz Club we had tickets to that night. Needless to say, it was a little chilly outside and I was not prepared. Kir kept me warm and we had a mini photo shoot!

Waiting for the "Jazz" performance. It was an interesting experience. Mind you it also didn't even start til 1 am, so we were struggling to stay awake at this point.

Sunday, we got some lunch in Grand Central Terminal and then decided to just walk around and shop all the different street vendors for the day. That evening, we ate at Otto which was a cute little pizzeria and then headed back to the hotel room to watch the NBA finals because we were so pooped from the weekend.

We had so much fun and I already look forward to the next time the three of us will be able to do something like this again!!

15 months

Well, I am a few days late on this update, but Ryan has been keeping me on my toes over the past few weeks. He has gone from an unsteady walker to full on running. Which results in quite a few trips and falls and little bobos here and there. When he gets really excited, he throws both arms out in front of him like a zombie and just charges at me. He is also loving being chased around the house right now.

Some of his other interests at the moment include his books and toys. He has really become more independent when it comes to playing by himself and just loves to flip his books, point to the pictures, and talk to himself. He loves Hop on Pop, The Wheels on the Bus, and his Colors book. He will just "ohhhh" and "ahhhh" at all of the pictures. When he wants to be read to, he will pick up a book and bring it over for one of us to read to him. He is also just absolutely obsessed with the gate between our living room and the hallway to our bedrooms. He will just walk in and out of it, swing it back and forth, lock himself in on one side of it while screaming for us to come open it back up, and then repeat.

He loves his Cozy Coupe and taking rides around our house in it. When he wants to drive around, he'll walk over to it and just moan until someone will push him around.

He also DEMANDS that music be playing at ALL times now. We have our IPod dock in our living room, and he will go over to it, point at it, and grunt until we turn it on. He is so impatient, that when there is a break between songs, he will run over there and get angry until the next song comes on. So needless to say, there is music playing all day long at out house. He seems to love the Black Eyed Peas, Michael Jackson, and James Brown. He also is quickly becoming an expert dancer. I know I have said this before, but he LOVES to dance and actually has pretty decent rhythm. He really gets crazy when he is in the mood to dance - shaking his head, bouncing up and down, waving his hands around and just acting like a complete nut.

We've recently given him a snack cup and after one day, he knows exactly what it means and that it is his. He loves to run around the house, holding his cup, and eating his snacks. When it is empty, he will go sit by the pantry, sometimes open it, and begin to pull out things he can reach - demanding that we refill his cup.

This has quickly led to some bad habits which we have now had to break. He was eating so many snacks (his favorite being Goldfish and Nilla Wafers), that he was becoming a terror at dinner time, not wanting to eat his food. So we have cut back in the afternoon, trying to introduce healthier snacks, but they haven't caught on too well as of yet. I am also proud to say, he has eaten all 3 meals in his highchair for the past 4 days. If you knew the struggle we have gone through (mainly at dinner time), to try and feed him in his chair, you would understand what a huge accomplishment this is for us. He is just so antsy, he would rather eat while playing and running around, but his Doc said we need to nip this in the bud and quickly, so we are working on it, by playing LOUD music and giving him whatever toy he desires to play with while in his chair.

We are also moving closer and closer to drinking out of sippy cups on a full time basis. Hopefully, by next month's update he will be off the bottle (cross our fingers). He surprisingly will drink his milk cold now as well (also a HUGE relief!). Next up for his homework will be to ween off the pacifier :) I am sure he would say he feels a little like this when it comes to giving up his binky.

He is just so attached to both his puppy and his pacifier, it will be a hard one to break I think.

He is turning into quite the mimicker and loves to repeat any sounds that we make. His full words are still limited to MaMa, Bye Bye, Buppy (Puppy) and sometimes DaDa, Hi, and Ball. Now that he has finally achieved the attention span to sit and watch a few minutes of TV at a time, maybe his vocabulary will expand. His two favorite shows are SuperWhy and Sesame Street. He is still loving the pool and has actually learned to kick pretty well. He really is a sweet little boy, we have more fun with him each and everyday.

He is napping twice a day for about 1.5-2 hours each (yay!!), but that is due to the fact that he likes to stay up LATE at night. We try and have him in his crib by 8 or 8:15, but sometimes he will stay awake until 10 pm just playing around, not upset or anything. A night owl just like his parents!

His doctor's appt went very well this past week. His current stats are:

Height - 33 inches (94%)
Weight - 24 lbs 13 oz (55%)
Head - 19.5 inches (96%)

Once again, his head takes the cake, which is no surprise seeing how putting clothes over his head is always such a struggle. We love you buddy, Happy 15 Months!

1st Haircut

This past Saturday we finally broke down and took Ryan to get his first haircut. As much as I was loving his curly locks, the rat tail was getting to be a bit much. We found a Cool Cuts 4 Kids in Town & Country, packed up the camera, video camera, snacks, pacifier, the works, and headed out for what I knew would be a little challenging experience. I never expected it to be this traumatizing. While we waited, I snapped a few quick shots to capture how long his hair actually had gotten.

 Love the cute curly locks!

 Completely oblivious as to what is coming next!

 I was also able to snap a few shots of his favorite activities these days. He points at absolutely EVERYTHING. It was cute at first, but along with the pointing comes a long and somewhat annoying grunting sound! So we now just name everything he points to and that seems to satisfy him for the time being.

 Just making some calls

Well, since we were not responsible parents and forgot socks and shoes (he HATES wearing them), we were not allowed to put him in the fun airplane and fire truck chairs since it was against state code, ha! Guess it turned out okay, because there was no way he would have stayed put once the trimming began. So, Ryan and Wes put their smocks on and took a seat!

And then the massacre started! I felt like such a bad parent trying to film and take pictures of my little boy while he is just bawling and trying to get out so that I will hold him. He was definitely drawing attention our way. Once he started dry heaving, I thought it was best to give it a break and try to comfort him!

 Don't touch my hair!

 He seriously started turning purple!

The final product. We left it just a little long in the back (even though I still think she cut almost 2 inches!!!), so he would have a little bit of curl left. I think next time, we will have to come up with some sort of alternative to cut his hair :) He looks like a little boy now and not my baby anymore, it was a little bit sad but it definitely looks like we are better parents and care about his hygiene and grooming! By the time we left, he had bounced back and was his normal self again.

Pool Rat

Our son is definitely a water baby. All three days this past Memorial Weekend, Ryan was in the water. Saturday, we blew up our little kiddie pool in the backyard and let Ryan splash around. He apparently loves to drink ground water out of a real cup more than anything else while he was in the pool.

 He was worn out after about 30 minutes in the water!

On Sunday, we headed over to my parents to grill out and hang out in the pool all day. It was very relaxing and Ryan absolutely loved getting in the pool. They got him a little Police Car float for Easter and he had a great time cruising around in it. Since he is also very lazy, it served as a perfect headreast for him! He REFUSES to wear any sort of cap or sunglasses, so we have to keep him in the shade as much as possible.

Sometimes, we try and sneak a cap on him, but it doesn't take long before he figures it out and immediately rips it off.

On Monday, we headed over to Sugarland to Wes' aunt and uncles house for some hot dogs and more pool time.

 His classic face :)

 Loves to drink the pool water!

Well, we definitely know how to keep him entertained this summer. He is just so relaxed and can actually keep him happy for a couple hours. Yesterday, he even started kicking in his float when I would tell him "kick, kick, kick!"