Impromptu Photoshoot

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While we were in Galveston, GiGi tested out her new lens/camera on Ryan. He wore his sweet Aggie Letterman's jacket that she made for him, and I just love how the pics turned out!

Thanksgiving 2012

This past week was so relaxing. Wes was off for 5 whole days, which is probably the most time we have had together over the past month combined! We spent Wednesday working on the nursery and getting the house back together. We still aren't finished, but I feel much better about where we stand right now than I did a week ago! That evening we had dinner in Sugarland to visit with some of Wes' family that was in town.

Thanksgiving was much more relaxing this year, as we just spent one day with each family rather than cramming it all into one day. We went over my parent's on Thursday and had a wonderful lunch (No turkey this year at either Thanksgiving, as we had vetoed it! Maybe this will be a new tradition.).

Our attempt at a few family pics

 My brother and sweet sister in-law

 The boy loves to try and pick-up leaves to clean the yard.....it's a lost cause

While Ryan napped, we all relaxed and watched a ton of football. After he got up, we went back outside to enjoy the nice weather and watch Ryan play baseball and do a ton of dancing. He's getting quite good with the hand-eye coordination and may even be a switch hitter for the moment!

 Love this pic of Uncle Scoot and Ryan.

We ate a light dinner then headed home to sleep off all of the food :) Friday morning, we woke up and headed to Galveston. GiGi had a beach house for the weekend, so it was a nice little 24 hour getaway for us. When we got there, the weather was awesome and the house was located on a really nice, clean beach. Since it was basically 80 degrees, Ryan was able to play in the sand and even get his feet in the water! He had a blast, especially since there was no seaweed in sight!!!

 He loved rolling up balls of mud/sand and throwing them into the ocean.

 He was really into his mud pies as well....

 Hanging out at the beach house

After his nap, he demanded to back to the beach but this time they played soccer. I'm thinking this may be his next activity/sport to try in the spring.

Playing cars with Uncle Jon 

We had a nice Prime Rib dinner, played cards and Mexican train, and just relaxed that evening. This was his first time to sleep in our room, so we were interested to see how he would do. He actually slept on an air mattress at the foot of our bed. I told Wes we should bring extra pillows to block him in, so we did, but he decided to not really use them. About 10pm we here this huge thud above us while we were downstairs watching a movie. Sure enough, he fell off the 18 inch bed onto the wood floor! Luckily, it didn't really wake him up. So, we got in bed around midnight, and just as we were falling asleep we hear another loud sound. This time he had rolled to the other side and was wedged between our bed and his, oops! We all slept fine until about 3:30 am when he woke up wanting to his covers to be adjusted. Wes instinctively thought something was wrong and trying not to wake him too much, put him in our bed!!!! Needless to say the rest of the night was pretty restless as Ryan is a big snuggler and was all cozied up to us. He was bright-eyed and bushy-tailed by 7am, so I was as well! It definitely went better than expected and luckily, he hasn't mentioned sleeping with us at all since then!

 

Good thing they got a lot of beach time in Friday because when we woke up Saturday, it was in the 50's! We headed out around lunch, first stopping to eat at a really cute cafe then headed back to Houston. We dropped him off at my parents so that we could have a date night, which was much needed. We saw our first movie in months and had a wonderful dinner at Zelko Bistro. To top it off, I was asleep by 9:30pm and slept until almost 8am on Sunday! We capped off the weekend by visiting some of our best friends, Nancy and Manuel, and their new sweet baby, Lucia. It was such a nice break and much needed considering Bradley will be here in 3 weeks!!!

 

Fall Wrap-Up

We've had a pretty busy fall between Wes' school and crazy work schedule, the remodel, pregnancy, and a crazy 2.5 year old to chase around. I feel like between all of that, I forgot to document just some normal everyday fun. These are probably pics and activities over the last two months.

Ryan is still "enjoying" swim class. I wouldn't say it is his favorite thing to do, but once we get there and get going, he doesn't seem to mind it too much. He has really improved on his floating over the past couple of weeks. As of September, the moms were no longer allowed in the water and I think that has helped him tremendously with his confidence and his focus. He knows now that once he jumps in, falls in, etc. to flip over on his back and can float for a pretty long period of time.

He loves Miss Eileen. It's so nice that the class is made up of only he and Elijah. It's like a private lesson!

 He loves the milkshakes from Smashburger!

Ryan "earning his keep" while we lived at my parents during the remodel. He loves to swiffer. Little does he know, Santa may be delivering a swiffer in just his size. Not sure who will like this more, me or him!!

 We also played with sidewalk chalk while we stayed there as well...

 Ryan and Dad playing catch!

Red donuts from Shipley's are a favorite weekend treat!

 As well as light lemonade from Whataburger :)

 Enjoying our first Starbucks of the fall after picking up Ryan from school.

He loves to march around in his big boy undies while playing the guitar. And no, we are not potty trained.

We kind of started training before the remodel in September. He had showed decent interest as well as all of the signs, but once we moved out for 5 weeks, we decided it was just too much. Well, his teachers at school have taken it upon themselves to continue to push the issue. It's fine that they are trying so hard, but it makes it a little difficult at home. Now, with Bradley coming in a few weeks, we just aren't sure if it is the best time to force this change. He has definitely reverted back to wanting to act like a "baby" as he calls it and tells us how he would rather do his business in his diaper. So, we have taken a more relaxed approach and created a sticker chart with prizes to reward him for going every XX amount of times. We'll see if this has any effect on him because he definitely knows when he needs to go. He'll actually tell us what he is about to do and runaway before we can catch him. Just a typical defiant 2 year old. In other news, we finally converted his crib to a toddler bed about 3 weeks ago. Not because he tried to climb out, but we needed to switch it to another room which forced us to take it apart. We figured while it was disassembled, to go ahead and make the change. We weren't sure if we were making the best decision so close to having a new baby, but knock on wood, it has gone so smoothly. He sleeps the same amount and has not once tried to get out. We just told him to call for us when he wakes up and we will come to get him. We'll see how long this lasts!!

 

We went to Ryan's second cousin, Scotty's birthday party earlier this month, and it is all he has talked about for weeks. He keeps asking if we are going back soon. It was a really neat gym and had some new things for him to try. Maybe because dad was there, but for some reason, he was willing to try more things than he does at his gymnastics class each week.

Exhibit A.....jumping off a 3 foot block into the ball pit. He will barely set foot in our ball pit, much less jump from something into it.

 He loved it!

 Future fireman?!

 Scotty and Ryan about to show off their forward rolls.

It has definitely been a jam packed couple of weeks, but we've had a lot of fun trying to soak up as much one on one time with the lil guy before Bradley joins us next month!

Trick or Treat

This was the first year we actually took Ryan trick or treating. Unfortunately, last year he got pretty sick the day of Halloween and his first year he was so just little so we didn't even bother. My friend, Jennifer, had told me about what our neighborhood does for the kids and it sounded perfect for Ryan. Wes had class that evening, but luckily the grandparents were able to join in on the fun and help keep up with the crazy man. He actually wore the same costume that I bought him for last year because it was so big last year and he never ended up wearing it. It BARELY fit this year, but he didn't seem to mind.

With all of the remodeling and little trips here and there, we weren't able to do a whole lot of festive Halloween things this year, but after having his MDO party and getting to go see pumpkins everywhere, I started talking up Halloween, trick-or-treating, costumes, etc. the days leading up to it. It didn't take long at all for him to realize what he would be wearing and what that would actually get him if he said Trick or Treat to the neighbors. So, he seemed pretty on board when I had him put his costume on Wednesday. We took some pics before heading out since I knew once we got started, it would be next to impossible.

Our neighborhood puts together a little parade by blocking off a few streets where the neighbors all sit at the foot of their driveway and hand out candy. At the end of the parade, they set-up an outdoor movie with snacks (we didn't make it that long, but I imagine it will be much more fun for Ryan in the coming years). We met up with our friends Jennifer, Elijah, and her family to walk around together. At the very first house, Ryan clung to my leg and cried. That lasted for about 30 seconds until he realized he did in fact get real candy and then he was good to go. He was very well mannered and said "Happy Halloween" and "Thank you" to everyone. Sometimes he took more than his share and we even visited a few houses more than once, but he is still talking about how much fun he had "treating," even today. He lasted a full hour, which was definitely enough for this mommy.

 

We needed the occasional break.

 Ryan and his buddy, Elijah. This was the best I could get of them both looking in the same direction.

When we got home, he wanted to sort through all of his loot. His favorites, of course, were all of the lollipops. They have been a great resource for our recent potty training adventure that we started unexpectedly. More to come on that later.

We let him have a few pieces after dinner and I think with all of the excitement, he ended up tossing and turning in bed until 10:20!!! Oh well, at least we know he had fun!