Girls

Mom says she loves her girls. She wishes she could freeze time, or at least slow it down. Suddenly I'm a big girl. 

And just look at the sweet old face on Maggie, 11 years young. 

January

What's so great about January?  Sitting outside in our summer clothes! 

A spontaneous chalk party is always fun, especially when Mom lets us make footprints on the porch. 

Ryan decided that he really likes hanging out with us,

and getting some Dad time.

Pirate Parade

In retrospect, dragging us out to see the pirates on this tired Saturday probably wasn't a great idea.  No amount of beads could snap me out of the grumpies.

Then Ryan was traumatized by the abduction of Lightning McQueen.  

He was briefly distracted by an older woman. 

I'd say there is definite Cougar potential.  We'll have to keep a close watch on these two.

At the end of the day, we were grateful for the chance to be outside with friends.

Personality

 These pictures were taken while waiting for Ryan's shots at the doctor's office.  They really capture the spirit of our little maniac! 

 

 

 

Ryan at 18 Months

Child development books should call 18 months The Epiphany. Suddenly he understands everything we say and wants to copy everything we do.

He is busy from the moment he wakes up and shouts a simple, demanding "MAMA!", until bedtime when he slams himself down onto his favorite blanket and shouts "BYE BYE!".   He starts the day with a series of demands and protests: "Waffle?! No diaper. No poo poo. No socks. No pants. No shirt. Waffle!".  He greets the family: "No Dada. No Te-Say. Hi Buddy (Moxie). Hi Ma-Day (Maggie)."  

 His teachers confirm that he is a little dictator at school, parroting their disciplinary comments to his classmates: "No Coe-ton! Not Nice!", and "Come on guys!".  He tries to tell me what to do, and I just reply "You're not the boss, applesauce".  At naptime they frequently catch him walking around, trying to wake up his friends to play, and when they scold him, he doesn't even look, he just RUNS back to his cot, slamming into sleep position with his bottom in the air. He repeats everything we say, too, and keeps us laughing:  Call Me Maybe.

 
He sometimes catches us off guard with his boy-ness, landing a painful football style tackle or throwing his head back trying  to break our noses.  He is still very affectionate, giving lots of spontaneous hugs and kisses.  He shouted "LUB YOU" out of the blue to Dad as he left for work this week.  He also has a soft spot for sweet girls.  His teachers said he punches all of his friends, but gently hugs "Li-peth" (Elizabeth).  We lub him.

Sick Day

Poor Little Man just got over 5 days of awful fever.  His only symptoms were puffy eyes and the need to be cuddled 24/7.  We were happy to give him lots of TLC.

Mom was secretly giggling because he only wanted to cuddle with her. One time Dad tried to comfort him and Ryan shouted "No! Mama!" and literally tried to punch him.  Mom said she will cherish this time because Ryan will probably only want to hang out with Dad when he grows up.

New Year's Resolutions

Happy 2013!  We've been talking about our New Year's resolutions. We like to stick with the Mind, Body, and Spirit themes, so mine are: Learn more sight words and get psyched for reading in Kindergarten.  Learn how to do a cartwheel.  Stop taking crap from the witchy girls at school. 

Ryan decided on a few:  Learn to use more words and try saying them as loudly as possible.  Learn how to climb and jump from random high places when Mom and Dad aren't looking.  Perfect manipulation of grown ups with charismatic smile.

Dad wants to get better at playing the guitar this year, so he is constantly practicing Brett Micheal's Every Rose Has It's Thorn in spite of Mom begging him to stop.  Mom just wants to finish reading the 6 books on her nightstand that she started for last year's resolution.

No Night Night

Fasten your seat belts, Ryan is heading into the Terrible Twos!

No Night Night

Georgia

We haven't seen my crazy cousins in a whole year, so it was time to plug in the mobile movie players and drive up to refreshing winter weather in Georgia!  Sweet Keeley turned 4 on the day after Christmas,

and I was thrilled to help her celebrate!

Ryan wasn't sure what was going on, but he's always up for a party.

He got to see his adorable cousin buddy, Brady.

 

The boys are at an age where they don't really play together, but their acknowledgement of each other with blank-faced stares was a great sign for fun times in the future.

It was nice to catch up with Mawmaw.  She didn't mind the chaos of kids all around her. 

 

 Jack Jack was the highlight of the trip.  Marmee let us help feed him, Poppy reluctantly let us play with him inside the house, in the basement. 

 

Joli and Jakob drove to the beach in Florida the next day, so we squeezed in as much fun as possible into one night.  Raow!

 Poppy took our annual girls picture on the stairs.  Look how big we are getting!  Now I understand why my Mom has a picture-taking obsession, it runs in the family!

Mom can't stop laughing at Joli's spicy personality.

Sadly, our play date plans were thrown out when Keeley and her family got hit with the stomach bug (no fair on her birthday!).  We managed to dodge the germs, but they got to Marmee.  We still had some quality time, and left more excited than ever for our next visit with them! 

Christmas

This year we celebrated our first Christmas at home.

We're still working out what we want our family traditions to be.

So we started with the Christmas Eve program and family service at church.  I got to be a sheep in the Nativity Scene!

Next year, when I'm 5, I get to be an angel.  They get to do a special dance that celebrates Jesus's birthday.

All of the rehearsals were fun, we sang about Joseph, Mary, baby Jesus, and the angels and shepherds.

Ryan wasn't too impressed with my acting debut.  Mom says I am a natural:  Christmas Program Rehearsal.

Then, when it was finally time for the real service when everyone was invited to come to the altar to take pictures, I was totally over it.  To be honest, every kid in the church was totally over it.  Sitting still for 30 minutes at 5:00 in the afternoon doesn't quite work for the 4 and under set.  

I think it was just fatigue from all the fun we had during the day decorating Murmel's gingerbread house.

Ryan couldn't participate because all the candy was a wicked choking hazard, so he got chocolate pudding as a consolation.  He seemed okay with that.

It was a pretty awesome day, capped off with baking cookies for Santa and putting out carrots for Rudolph!