Giggly Boy

Reason #101 that we love Ryan: he thinks I'm hilarious!

Giggly Boy

Yellow Friday

Calling the day after Thanksgiving "Black Friday" seems too dark and scary to me, so I renamed it Yellow Friday. My parents' favorite part of Yellow Friday was finishing off Dad's annual apple pie, but my favorite was pulling all the Christmas bins out of storage and picking up a Christmas tree... right after calling AAA to bring us a new car battery. We spent the afternoon running through mangrove trails in a nature preserve, and pointing out every single pile of raccoon scat along the way.Even Ryan thought it was a perfectly peaceful day!
Since Ryan goes to bed at 6:30 now, he missed the fun of decorating our tree that night. It was a good time with my Mom and Dad, we talked about Rudolph and my new boyfriend, Gavin With The Yellow Hair. He's an older boy, in the pre-K class across the hall. We play in the sandbox outside together. Dad tolerates my talking about Gavin, but inside is thinking "she's too young for this!".

Happy Thanksgiving!

We hope you and your family had a wonderful Thanksgiving! This year I am thankful for my loving Mom, Dad, Baby Ryan, Georgia family, and Boston family (via Skype).
We started the day with the Turkey Trot, or what I like to think is an extended game of Red Light, Green Light. My support vehicle was called in to help on the last mile.
Next was careful scrutiny of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade while Mom cooked yummy stuff.
Ryan was so excited by the activities that he refused to nap all day... until literally 15 minutes before the Big Meal.Even Maggie and Moxie were happy to have the windows open, kids laughing, and a kitchen full of new smells (plus, Mom promised to save the National Dog Show for them on the DVR). It was a perfect day, and perfect chance to count our blessings!

Fangs

Such an innocent face. Who would guess that it contains 2 tiny daggers?
We think Mox has been secretly teaching Ryan how to sharpen them.

Happy Feet

Little Man found his feet!
He loves showing them off, and is so proud of himself for being able to reach them.
He loves grabbing those 10 little piggies and freeing them from suffocating socks.
But mostly he likes jumping on them: Happy Feet

Tennis Clinic

This weekend my coaches had a super fun clinic at a real tennis court. I got to show Mom and Dad how much I love to hit the ball.Our parents got pointers on how to throw the ball for us, and how to help with our swings. Tiger Dad says we are going to start doing drills every morning at 5am.The best part was seeing my friends, because after tennis we all went to a birthday party with an awesome bounce house. Every Saturday should be this fun!

My Gee Gee

Being 3 and a half years old means flexing my hilarious attitude and drama on a daily basis. Mom and Dad love checking on me at night to see what surprises I brought into bed, and what clothing or shoes I put on myself. My playful imagination has amazed my parents, especially the pretend storytelling. Around the time I turned 3, I began talking about a new friend in many of my stories, "My Gee Gee". After a few comments like "My Gee Gee is my grandmother", Mom and Dad started joking that she was actually the ghost of Mom's sweet mother who lives in heaven now. They would smile when I talked about My Gee Gee, especially when I said a few things that were actually true about my grandmother like "My Gee Gee lives on a big farm and she has lots and lots of chickens", or "My Gee Gee has 2 black dogs". Mom thought these were just lucky coincidences because we haven't talked about my grandmother yet. But the thing that stopped Mom in her tracks was when I announced "My Gee Gee has another daughter named Casey". That is Mom's sister, who I don't know because we haven't met yet. Maybe it's all coincidence, but Mom likes to think that my grandmother really is here with me as a friend and angel.

Ryan at 4 Months

The best description for Ryan at this age? Steam roller! He can roll from his back to his tummy, check himself out in the mirror, give us a smile, then keep rolling right off the mat. Mom says this is no easy task, since Ryan inherited our Frankenstein head. Dad has always complimented Mom's generously sized head with all of its knobs and dents. This same head is now beautifully displayed with a halo of pale blond fuzz on our little man. He is a busy baby- we are constantly moving him back onto the mat! We've even tried body guards-Moxie at one end and new friend, Lion at the other.
Mox has been a loyal furry big brother, shadowing Mom and Ryan wherever they go in the house. He is thrilled that Ryan actually notices him now. He loves to sniff him and let him grab those soft floppy ears. We are all smitten with this mellow boy and his easy smiles!