Happy Father's Day!!!

Father's Day 2011

Even though Ryan was only 16 when we started dating I knew early on that he was going to be a great father.  Fast forward 11 years and I have seen every day since James arrived that my early assessment was correct.  James loves his Daddy SO much.  One of my favorite moments of the day is when I hear the garage open and James and I go to meet Ryan.  As soon as he sees his dad’s face James starts grinning, kicking, and going crazy.  No matter how long his day has been or how many times he got paged the night before Ryan always makes time to play and spend special time with his son.  I also must say that by Ryan being such a great dad he makes me a better mom as well.  He encourages me, calms my many fears, makes me laugh every day, and leads our family in a godly manner.  He brings many wonderful qualities to our family, and I am so thankful to have him help me figure out this “parenting” thing.   Thank you Ryan for loving James and I so much.  Happy Father’s Day!

First time holding James

 I wanted to do a special present from JT to his dad.  I have no idea what I was thinking when I decided to put paint on my 10 month old child’s foot.  In my mind I was going to print off a sweet poem, put JT’s footprints painted on it, and frame it.  Well after about 10 attempts I scratched that idea and made a smaller copy to put in a magnet frame.  It’s the thought that counts, right?

Getting ready

A little bit of paint went a long way all over the kitchen!

Father's Day lunch at Yeero Yeero!

This is to keep JT in one place :)

Watching the US Open together

Watching Daddy mow the grass out the window

Holding onto Daddy's hand

This is the book I gave Ryan last year for Father's Day when I was pregnant with JT

I have been triple blessed to have not only Ryan as a wonderful father to my child but to also have an amazing dad of my own and an awesome father-in-law.  My dad  and Ryan’s dad have both set the bar high for what a father should be and have been wonderful examples for their children throughout the years.  Wish we could have been in NC to celebrate Father’s Day with both of you!!!  

The Tenth Month

Stats: no doctor's appointment this month, but you are so heavy! You wear some 12 month clothes but mostly 18 months and are in a size 4 diaper.  

Likes:  sticking your tongue out at your dad, food, milk, playing with your toys, waving to people, talking as loud as possible, climbing all over everything and everyone, pulling on the blinds, taking the trash out of the trashcan, playing with your toys (especially balls and your ring stacker), grinding your teeth (which drives your mom crazy!) all food but especially Italian

Dislikes: being told to feed yourself, drinking from a cup, teething, having to take a nap, not being given an unlimited amount of Italian food

I cannot believe we have a ten month old!  That sounds so old, and I can't believe my sweet baby will be one in just a short while.  James, this has been the month of mobility.  You started crawling just a few days after your nine month birthday and haven't stopped moving since.  You are into everything and can crawl fast.  You normally crawl the fastest when you want to go see your Daddy, but when you want your mom you just sit still and scream for her.  You also are pulling up on anything you can find and have started walking when holding onto furniture.  The sweetest sound you make is when you call for Mama, and I love to hear it!  You love to eat and I can't believe the amount of food you consume each day.  So far you have 8 teeth and the drool associated with teething has been unbelievable! You get excited when we say, "milk, breakfast, lunch, and dinner" and start kicking and laughing with excitement. Every morning you wake up bright and early so you can hang out with your Daddy while he gets ready for work. Your dad and I love you more than you will ever know, and the time we get to spend together all three of us is both memorable and precious. We love you James!

Here are some of the memories from the past month. We have been trying to stay busy during the hot summer months here in Louisiana.  One of our new activities is going to story time each Wednesday at the library.  The kids do sign language, sing song, read stories, watch puppets, blow bubbles, etc.  James loves looking at the other kids and trying to participate.  Ryan got out of surgery early one day and got to meet us at the library.  We were so surprised! 

Story time

We also went to Barnes and Noble to try to beat the heat and read some books.  After destroying one area of the store and JT throwing up on the floor I decided it was time to move on. 

Ryan has had a little bit more flexible schedule this past month so we got to go meet him for lunch in between surgery and clinic one day at the hospital.  James and I went to clinic to meet all of his nurses.  James was the talk of the clinic!

We also had our first play date with our neighbor's twins.  We tried to take a walk, but we started to melt from the heat and Jack decided he was not so happy.  Instead the kids just played on the floor and had a great time.

I don't let JT watch television yet, but one day I was desperate.  I really needed a little break. I finally caved and let him watch a Baby Einstein.  However the joke was on me because after 5 minutes he was done being interested! So much for that plan.  

TV time!

One of our issues this past month has been what to do about the car being hot.  Since James is rear facing and we don't have vents in the back of the car, it is really hot.  It also has been almost 100 degrees or over the entire month of June so far!  So....this was Ryan's solution.  James was pretty surprised the first day, but he likes his fan now. 

As mentioned earlier James is officially into everything, and our house will never recover.  Here is some of the evidence of that!

Taking out the spices

The fireplace is a cool toy

 

 

We continue to have a strong-willed child who will touch, pick up, and put food on floor but refuse to put in mouth!

A few other memories from the tenth month:

Breakfast at Chick-fil-a

Taking a break from playing

Life is tiring around here!

Super Saturday

I wanted to title this blog entry “the market, a makeover, and a meal” but Ryan informed me that boys don’t get “makeovers”. So anyway today was a special, jam packed Saturday. Ryan was off work which is always a great thing and we decided our game plan for the day. We were going to go to the Farmer’s Market as soon as JT got up from his nap and then I was going to get dropped off at the gym for Zumba while Ryan and JT went to Home Depot. Well…things didn’t go exactly as we planned. We got to the Farmer’s Market and it was packed!!! It was about 3 times the size from last year and there were no close parking spots. We ended up parking about as far away as possible and due to the fact that we got a later than planned start it was baking outside! I also had the bright idea that since James hates his stroller Ryan should carry him in the backpack carrier for the first time. Have we mentioned that our child is in the 90^th percentile for weight? I put him on Ryan’s back and I though Ryan was about to fall out. The market had all sorts of neat food and things to purchase. Ryan got an awesome breakfast burrito and I bought the world’s largest zucchini. After walking to all the booths we were sweltering and still had the mile long hike back to the car. By the time we got there it felt like we had run a marathon. We were all sweaty…even James and he wasn’t even doing anything! I turned my car on and the thermometer read 109 degrees. At that point I knew I had to scratch the gym and somehow we talked ourselves into going to the boardwalk for pizza.

Starting the walk to the market

Finally back to the car

Is it time for lunch?

We finally made it back home and it was time for a monumental step in our life: JT’s first haircut. Honestly I did not want to cut it. For some reason I was sentimental about it, and it made me sad that my little baby was grown up enough to have to have a haircut. But here are some of the reasons why I caved in:

1. His front hair reached his mouth when wet and combed down

2. His side burns reached below his ears

3. He was developing a cross

between a mullet and a rat tail in the back

4. From the time he was little

everyone has thought he was a girl.

Maybe shorter hair will help this issue!

5. He was running into things

because his hair was blocking his vision

Since moving from NC I have not found anyone I trust to cut my hair which sounds ridiculous but my hair is not easy to cut and I have had the same hairdresser since I was 7. Most places won’t even cut a baby’s hair until they are 1 so Ryan and I decided he would just cut it. My main goal was for it to NOT look like a big boy haircut. Just a little tiny trim. We had to bribe James with a bottle to stay still but we got it done.

Before:

Getting ready...



After



The attempt at a mohawk

James showing off his new haircut and his new trick: the wave
Ryan got a haircut too- but not by me!
Finally we decided to grill up some of the veggies we got today along with shrimp kabobs. I also made some sweet potato chips. The veggies were awesome!!! Too bad we don’t have anyone to come eat with us- we had way too much!


In between all this excitement today I also managed to go to the grocery store, do laundry, unload and load the dishwasher twice, made a coffee cake, Ryan got a haircut, remounted the video monitor, and I got a nap! All in all it was a fun, somewhat productive, family day. A "super Saturday" indeed! :)

5 years

Wow- how has it already been 5 years?!?!? That’s half a decade- crazy!!! Well, its 8:00 at night on our anniversary and Ryan isn’t even home from work yet. Needless to say we aren’t celebrating tonight, but luckily we already got to have a special date. When I saw Ryan’s schedule for the month and realized he would be working I secretly got a babysitter signed up to come the night before our anniversary. This was pretty special because we never get babysitters since a) we don’t know anyone here and b) they are expensive! It was funny to be on the other side and be the parent instead of the sitter. In high school/college it was always me who was doing the babysitting and I always drug Ryan along with me. We even paid for a huge chunk of our honeymoon from our babysitting “fund”. I realized last night that of the five years we have been married so far Ryan has something work or school related 4 out of the 5 years. Oh well! So we got the babysitter and I had gotten a Living Social coupon to Ristorante Giuseppe. We had a nice leisurely dinner and stayed out till almost 10:00 which is major late for us! (Now before anyone makes fun of us for being old folks and not staying out late and going to bed so early remember that Ryan is often gone by 6:00 and James wakes up at 5:30…on a good day!) We had a great time, and James slept for the babysitter the whole time we were gone.


Thank goodness for the self-timer


Our annual picture- this way we always know what year it was!

I feel blessed to say that after 5 years of marriage and 11 years of dating I am more in love with Ryan than I have ever been. Every day I appreciate him more for how he takes care of James and me and often sacrifices so much for us. When I think back to our wedding day I always get a little emotional because it was truly one of the most special days in our lives spent with the people closest to us. Thank you Ryan for continuing to love me in spite of my many imperfections and for inspiring me to become a better person each day. Thank you God for allowing me the privilege of being married to my best friend and for the years we have had together. Happy Anniversary!

Found this one when browsing and just had to include it. Is Hayden cute or what?!?!