Gotta laugh

One thing about having a toddler is you just have to laugh alot of the time. For instance, here's an example from the other night.

We were riding in the car and Ryan had requested "Ryan's music". Well, I told him we were going to listen to "family music" first and then "Ryan's music". All seemed to be going well until I heard "squito bites" (which means mosquito bites and he says anytime something is itchy or uncomfortable). I look back and he has both his hands up to his ears like they hurt and announces..."Ryan's music". Wow. Thought I had a few more years left until Ryan was a teenager and refused to listen to my music. I especially liked the nice touch of insinuating my music was literally hurting his ears!

Another fun one is that Joe's mom bought Ryan a little people nativity set. It has an angel that you can put on the top. Well, Ryan is just convinced that the angel has a butterfly on it's back. He'll call it an angel and then turn it around and say "butterfly" and laugh.

Ryan also has a hand puppet that is white and fluffly. Pretty sure it's supposed to be a sheep. Ryan isn't convinced, though. He and Joe went back and forth the other night...
Joe: Look Ryan, it's a sheep.
Ryan: Doggy!
Joe: Nope, it's a sheep.
Ryan: Sheep....Doggy! (laugh, laugh)
Ryan still calls it a doggy. I personally am siding with the toddler since I play with it with Ryan more than Joe.

Ryan has a bad habit of sometimes pushing me or his daddy out of the way when he wants to get by us or wants us to do something. I usually don't let him get away with it and tell him to say "Excuse me Mommy" instead of pushing. Well, he's started saying it to us, which is really nice, but last night he saw a toy in his chair and before he scooted it out of the way he said "Excuse me" to his toy. Too funny!

And the best part for last. Ryan has a book called "Wake up!" by Sandra Boynton that talks about wiggling your nose. Somehow from our nose wiggle demonstrations Ryan decided that this is wiggling your nose...gets a great laugh from me every time!

Ryan wiggling his nose from Kim Pollard on Vimeo.

It's Raining, It's Pouring...Day 3 of Babymoon

So on our last day of our trip we tried to sleep in again (made it until about 8:45) and then spent time relaxing some more before the drive home. Joe enjoyed coffee downstairs and I took my time taking a shower and getting ready. I realized we hadn't really taken any pictures on the beach so we decided to pack up and load the car then go down to the beach for some pictures.

Well, literally as we put the last bag in the car and walk back to the beach it starts to sprinkle! And after I'd spent all this time actually styling my hair! We tried to take some pictures but literally ended up with rain spots in them. Here's the only semi-decent one, and a 27 week bellyshot at that.

This is the HUGE rain cloud we drove straight into to come home. It was an intense 5-10 minutes of driving in pouring rain, but Joe kept his calm and we made it through just fine. We made it home right after Ryan woke up from his nap and were glad to see the cute little guy. I'm pretty sure he grew up while we were gone!

Ryan is not much for taking pictures, so this is the best one I could get with him and his "Mimi". He had a great time with her and has been asking for her since she left. I'm so thankful we have parents that love our little guy and are willing to spoil him for us while we go spoil ourselves! Thanks so much!

War & Dolphins- Day 2 of Babymoon

So for day 2 of our fabulous vacation we tried to sleep in but discovered our bodies wouldn't let us go much past 8:45! Stinkin internal alarm clock...and bright sun on the beach coming through our window. We still were able to relax and take it slow, and after a great breakfast at the hotel restaurant we walked down the beach to the USS Lexington. This is the huge ship that was bombed at Pearl Harbor. It was really interesting to walk around and tour it. You could spend alot of time there, but we hit the highlights in about an hour and a half.

View of our hotel on the left from the deck of the USS Lexington

Some of the many retired planes and helicoptor on the deck of the ship

This one's for Joe's dad, a retired Army endodontist..

After leaving the USS Lexington and walking back down the beach to the hotel, it started POURING rain! Good thing we left when we did or we'd have been stuck at the boat and missed our next fun adventure. a dolphin boat tour in Port Aransas! I have to say I think that's something I've never done before, and I have traveled alot with my parents. We drove north and took the car ferry over to the little resort town of Port Aransas. I had no idea that deep sea fishing was such a big deal there, but obviously it is. And we happily discovered that LOTS of dolphins live in the area too. Here's proof we were on a boat together and that it was a tad bit windy.



Since it is the off-season there were very few people on our boat tour besides us, which was really nice. The weather was cloudy, the music was fun, and we saw lots of dolphins both near and far. We even saw some playing and jumping out of the water in front of our boat. I didn't even attempt pictures of the dolphins and just chose to enjoy it. And I did =)

A lighthouse out on the bay that is only accessible by boat

After our boat ride we were ready for a big lunch, so we ate at a local place right beside the dock for our boat tour. Of course I couldn't pass up the opportunity for MORE shrimp, and this time it was my current favorite of Coconut Shrimp. Joe drove us back to the hotel and we went up to our room to hang out around 5. Somehow while were "relaxing" in our huge king size bed we both fell asleep and took about an hour nap! It was awesome! After that we took our blanket and walked down to the beath to read some books. The weather was in the 70's the whole time and cloudy so a little cool for swimming but perfect for reading.

After a bit Joe went back up to our hotel room and I stayed out just watching the waves and having some quiet time. I had no idea Joe was taking pictures from the balcony of our room. He got some good ones. Yes, that's a very small me from 7 stories above.

After dark we just hung out and watched some baseball for awhile. I think some of my favorite time there was spent reading in the hotel room with our sliding door open so we could hear the waves from below. I loved it! So relaxing. Later that night we felt like we needed to do something so we walked along the beach and then got some hot chocolate from the gas station. We drove back to the downtown area and drove around the bay front and night, which was pretty. Of course the place was totally dead on a Sunday night, but that's ok. Oh, and we did fog up the windows..haha. It was definitely humid there.

After that we were ready to call it a night and ready to head home the next day to our own bed and our own kid =) Just the right length of vacation!

The Butterfly Massacre- Day 1 of our Babymoon

Joe and I are had a great time on our "babymoon"! For the record, a babymoon is a last chance vacation you take to have some special time with your spouse before the exhausting period of a having a newborn. I think now that I've been through the newborn phase this vacation was even more important to me to take since I know what it will be like!

On Saturday we woke up and had a restful fun morning with Ryan and Joe's mom before taking off on our drive to Corpus Christi. Neither of us had actually been there before. We had a very fancy lunch at a Dairy Queen in the middle of nowhere, and about 30 miles from Corpus entered the "butterfly massacre" portion of our drive. Yes, I was driving, but there were tons of them! And they kept hitting the windshield! Joe did his best to make me feel bad about hitting each and every one of them, and even rubbed it in after the fact, as you can see.

We checked into our nice hotel on Corpus Christi beach, and went up to our room to find 2 double beds. Hmm....option 1, snuggle in one double bed when we're used to a queen and I'm flipping and flopping alot due to pregnancy, option 2 (Joe's idea) is to each have our own bed, or option 3 was to complain at the front desk that we'd booked an ocean view room with a King. I overruled Joe and chose option 3 but unfortunately they didn't have any ocean view rooms left with a king (even thought that's what I'd booked online), but they did give us a mostly ocean view with a king bed and a jacuzzi tub instead. So it all worked out =)

We rested in the hotel and then went shopping at a downtown shopping area that friends had recommended and saw the surfer museum. We had some great seafood at a place called Water Street and didn't have to even consider what Ryan would eat. Trust me, it was nice to bring a small purse and not have to worry about food/entertainment items for my sweet toddler! I also spent a crazy amount of time deciding what to eat because I had time to really focus on the menu rather than multitasking. We had a shrimp appetizer, shrimp quesodillas, and shrimp enchiladas. Turns out shrimp is our favorite seafood =) After dinner we walked down to the bay area and saw lots of sailboats and the Nina replica (think Christopher Columbus). We somehow timed it perfect and were there at sunset. Very relaxing and fun!

After that we walked along the beach at our hotel in the moonlight and put our feet in the water. Definitely a great end to a great first day of vacation! Here's some pictures of the bay downtown.

And finally, I'll leave you with this fine collage that I'll name "The many faces of Joe". Amazing how much fun you can have with a borrowed camera and too much time on your hands!

Outside fun

Several of my friends have been making collages in Picasa, so I thought I'd join in the fun. I have to admit, these things are pretty fun and super easy. So here you go!

The first few pictures are from a camping trip Joe, Ryan and I took to Lake Georgetown right after our Orlando trip. Unfortunately it was colder than we expected so Ryan's little hands were pretty chilly most of the time, but thankfully it didn't rain much while we were there. I think my favorite part was Saturday morning when we all climbed back in the tent and just laid around on the air mattress being lazy. Since we were in a tent we always knew where Ryan was! I think Ryan's favorite part was drinking out of his special juice box.

There's also some pictures of us out on a walk and at the neighborhood playground. And of course finally some pictures of Joe and Ryan on their bikes. Ryan LOVES to go on bike rides with Joe and asks multiple times for a "bike ride" every single day. Lots of fun! Click on the picture collage to zoom in and see all the individual pictures better.

Orlando fun

A couple weeks ago Ryan and I took a trip to Orlando to see Myra and Morgandy at her parents house. She invited us to come for a "girls & kids" weekend. I think Joe might have been a little offended that he wasn't invited! He got over it though =) Thanks so much to Myra's super sweet parents who spoiled us and our kids the whole time. It really felt like vacation even though I was there without Joe. I think it's just getting easier to travel again with Ryan since he'll let me out of his sight (sometimes!) I had such a great time catching up with Myra and Morgandy and getting to know her other friend Lindsey and son and Myra's parents.

Myra's parents have a great house with a salt water pool, so we chose to hang out at the pool instead of driving to the beach. I'm so glad we did that! Overall we just hung out, relaxed, ate lots of yummy food, and spent time catching up. I loved it! Now for a few pictures I took.

Ryan loved running around on this little path just outside their covered pool area and going through the "tree tunnel". At one point Ryan and Morgandy were chasing each other back and forth. Very fun!




On Monday we somehow all got ready and our 3 kids ready and went to Downtown Disney. We'll wait until the kids are older and the hubbies are present to fork over the money and energy for Disney World. For this trip Downtown Disney was perfect! I didn't take many pictures on the trip but I did pull out the camera this day.

Myra and Morgandy on the carousel


He has no idea who they are, but I still thought it was cute.

Yes, he did have fun despite the frown. Morgandy of course was hamming it up for the camera!

We put the kids on these fun animal barstools at Rainforest Cafe while we waited to be seated. Ryan LOVED the cafe and all the animal sounds. He even noticed the stars on the ceiling and pointed them out to me. The fish were a big hit too.

They had a fake "tunnel" that we ran through to kill some time and burn some energy. I think that was his favorite part! Luckily the place was pretty empty.

Our attempt to get a picture of all 3 kids together

And finally, lots of Lego pictures!

This one is for Joe...

These window displays even had some moving parts. Ryan loved the cars and truck display, of course.

As a side note, flying with a toddler went really well, except for the blowout diaper as we were on the runway taking off! Thank goodness I'd brought extra clothes, but I was singing the "be patient" song to myself for quite awhile until I could get up and change it! It actually does help...a little bit =)

The Countdown Continues...

....until Ryan turns 2 years old in less than 3 months! And our new little one will arrive around the same time. Crazy! No wonder I've been feeling emotional the past few days.

I've got lots of pictures but little motivation to sort through them, so here's a few things about Ryan at 21 months and then a few pictures.

• He's talking in sentences! The most common are "I got it!" "Catch the ball" and "I know". He's also learned the phrases "Ryan's turn" and "Mommy's turn" and "Ryan's music". I guess we use those words alot.
• Ryan can recognize and count 2 similar objects. While camping he saw his pacifiers in his bed while he was playing by himself and said "Paci's. One, two paci's." He also likes to count his cups and his shoes. He often can tell you which numbers come next when you count to 10.
• I think the kid has all of his books at least partly memorized. Guess I do read to him alot even if I don't feel like I do =) Or maybe we just need new books!
• He's started trying to sing "ABC's" and "Twinkle twinkle". He also came home from preschool talking about something and making motions. Took a few weeks but I'm pretty sure he had learned the song"God made the big round sun" and was telling us about it because when I sang that song his face was like "Good, they finally got it!" Tonight he requested "The Wise Man" and "If you're happy and you know it". And he always claps and says "Yay!!" every time a song is over.
• We've definitely entered a phase where sometimes he just wants to be cranky and says "No!" to anything and everything. I'm still praying and trying to figure my way through this one. I know it's normal, but that doesn't make it easier sometimes!
  
• He's adjusting so well to preschool and really enjoys going. He's fine when I leave as long as I take him in, find a toy to interest him, and tell him I'm leaving. He'll look up at me, say "Bye!" and wave, and then go back to playing. He's also weaning himself off of his comfort items at school which is a big deal. I'm so thankful he has such a good teacher!
• Ryan seems to be going through a developmental adjustment period/teething/just doesn't feel well and wants more comforting right now. He'll come up to me or Joe and request "Carry", which means pick me up please. It's made walks and getting things done a little bit harder, but we're enjoying the extra cuddle time with our sweet boy.

Here's to hoping I can find the energy to enjoy the next 3 months, cause I know it will be gone before I know it!

This is Ryan's first hand picked "bouquet" for Mommy. He spent about 10 minutes while Joe was mowing finding these individual small pieces of grass, picking one, and then bringing it to me. I felt very special! There's at least 10-15 individual blades in there that he picked one by one.

His favorite thing to do with stickers is put them on and peel them back off, even if they're glued, so I bought him a book with lots of reusable train stickers. He thought it was fun for about 2 minutes, but we'll try again later.



Here he is throwing his bread to the ducks at the pond. Doesn't he look so grown up?

And finally a fun picture with Daddy after they were playing with the camera and "watching" videos of Ryan on it.