Labor Day Weekend

On Sunday of Labor Day weekend, we roamed downtown Boston with the Summerses. Rachel took some great pictures that can be found here:

http://jsummers.sugarsync.com/albums/thumb/262108_311621

Ryan and Zach LOVED the new carousel. You can't necessarily tell from the pictures, as they seem to be holding on for dear life, but they both screamed when the ride ended and we took them down.

Thanks once again to Rachel for being the photographer!

Best. Day. Ever.

About a month ago we took a trip to West Chester, PA to visit our friends Randy and Bethany and their 2 adorable girls, Kylie (5) and Sophie (2). The trip down was uneventful. We drove for a couple of hours, stopped for dinner, and then Ryan fell asleep precisely at his bedtime.

The theme for the weekend seemed to be: do what you will and Mother Nature will follow. Each day the forecast threatened to ruin all of our plans. Each day we decided to risk it and do it anyway. And each day was perfect! On Saturday we went to Longwood Gardens, a beautiful 1000+ acre mecca of gardens, fountains, and meadows. Ryan and Kylie walked hand in hand throughout the Gardens taking in all of the beautiful plant life.

Afterwards, we had a nice swim in the Hechingers' pool and followed it up with a yummy dinner and blizzards at Dairy Queen.

Despite the fun time we had on Saturday, it was nothing compared to Sunday which Justin and I think is the best day of Ryan's life to date. It started off with a bowl of Cheerios, any toddler's favorite breakfast. We then hopped in the car and went to Sesame Place. Now for those of you like me who had never heard of Sesame Place, it's like a Disneyworld with Sesame Street characters, geared for little children, and not as big. It's also probably 75% water rides/fountain areas. The first thing we did is ride the Lazy River. Then we went to Ernie's Waterworks where there were tons of cascading fountains and spraying water. Ryan was in heaven: running through the fountains, getting big buckets of water dumped on his head (why is this a problem in the bath, but not here?) and chasing his daddy around. He was disappointed to leave this area, but the promise of what was to come next made him leave peacefully.

(We had so much fun we forgot to take a single picture. Sigh.)

After lunch, we went to a showing of Elmo's World Live. It's basically a "live taping" of an Elmo's World segment on Sesame Street. Dorothy the fish is there, Mr. Noodle, and a life-size Elmo running around and doing his show. Ryan was sitting on my lap when Elmo came out, and the pure, unadulterated joy on his face almost brought me to tears. He was so ecstatic he couldn't sit still. He kept jumping back and forth between me and Justin, hugging us over and over, and pointing at Elmo with wonder in eyes. It was awesome. After Sesame Place, we went back to the Hechingers for another swim. The day was then capped off with Ryan's favorite dinner, pasta and meatballs, and some singing, dancing, and general silliness around the living room. A perfect day for Ryan.

For the ride home, we decided to casually make our way back to Boston. We stopped for lunch for about an hour, stopped at the Ikea in New Haven to check out some storage units and let Ryan run around, and stopped for an hour at Rein's Deli in Ct, one of our favorite road trip restaurants. We got stuck in about an hour of traffic on the way to Ikea which Ryan did NOT appreciate, and the whole trip took about 9.5 hours, but all in all it went fine.

Thanks to the Hechingers for a great weekend! We forgot our camera, so credit Bethany for all the photos. Click here for additional ones.

Wade Reunion in Vermont

We just got back on Saturday from a weeklong vacation in Vermont with Justin's family. Surprisingly, we've already downloaded the pictures and are ready to post!

Ryan had a great time visiting with his cousins (Jack 8, Alicia 7, Allie 6, Sarah 5, and Erica 3). They all played on the swing, sang Ring Around the Rosie and made smores. We went swimming and fishing, and had bonfires and played games - everything you could ask for on a lakehouse vacation.

Ryan learned a lot from his cousins over the week and he returned the favor by teaching them some phrases in Spanish. It was so fun watching the kids run up to their parents and say "Mom, 'mas' means 'more' in Spanish!" Ryan loved hanging out with the family and constantly hugged everyone and "pounded fists". It was clear when we got home that Ryan missed everyone terribly asking for his cousins by name.

In non-Ryan news, Justin and I had a great time hanging out with Wades from around the country, making fires and even beer bowling. Can't wait to do it again!

Click here for pictures from the trip.

Ryan's 2nd Christmas... Technically

I've finally gotten around to downloading and organizing pictures from Christmas! This year the festivities started at our house for our annual ChristmaKwaNukkahWali SolstEid party. We had to skip hosting the party last year for obvious reasons, but were happy to resume the tradition this year. Our party is a winter holiday celebration with food, music, and decorations representing Christmas, Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, Diwali, Eid, and the Winter Solstice. We try to be all inclusive although admittedly we have no Kwanzaa of Eid food at the party. Maybe next year!


We spent Christmas this year in Austin visiting Ryan's relatives on his dad's side. Ryan had a great time meeting 6 cousins, 2 aunts, 2 uncles, and 2 grandparents! Here we try to get all 7 kids to sit still for a picture:

After opening gifts over several days in Austin, we made it back for one final Christmas celebration at home.

Click here for additional pictures from Christmas and I promise we'll try to take more pictures soon.

Thanksgiving

Life seems to have gotten in the way of posting... in a good way. I finally had a chance to download pictures from November and Ryan's birthday (which I'll get to in the next post). For Thanksgiving we visited Ryan's Gi-Gi in St. Louis. Ryan did get another ear infection on the trip, but it didn't stop him from having a great time visiting with all his relatives. The trip was low-key, and exactly what we needed. Here's Ryan bonding with Gi-Gi:

There were a bunch of other things that happened in November, but frankly it was too long ago to remember. Here are a couple of photos from Baby Loves Disco, Thanksgiving, and around the house.

AHHHHH!

I decided not to use the screaming Ryan with Santa picture as our holiday card, so as promised, here's the pic. I still feel bad for laughing at him while he's being traumatized, but really, it's too funny.

Standing and Pictures

This picture pretty much encompasses everything Ryan is doing these days - gnawing on everything and standing. Ryan loves to pull himself up to standing, which is nice and all for him, but I swear it's giving me angina. See, he doesn't know how to fall yet. I've been trying to teach him to bend his knees and fall on his butt, but he doesn't get it. So no matter where you put him in the living room, he will automatically crawl over to the table, pull himself up, stand there looking all proud for long enough that you have a false sense of security, and then topple over banging his head on the floor. "What to Expect in the First Year" says to let him fall as he's learning to stand and walk but seriously, am I supposed to keep letting him bang his head? Won't he damage his brain? Justin and I can cushion his fall in the living room, but he does the same thing in his crib, and I can't stand there all night making sure he doesn't fall over. Ugh. And he's so manipulative already too. Justin swears he only cries after falling when I'm in the room. Cause I'm the sucker.

Anyway, we've been delinquent in taking and posting pictures, mostly cause we're too busy trying to catch Ryan. But here are some pictures from the last couple of months: http://picasaweb.google.com/jmwade/Ryan7And8Months. Enjoy!

Happy Father's Day!

We spent a wonderful weekend in New Hampshire with friends and took Ryan on his first hike. Here Ryan shows his appreciation for having the best dad ever with a big hug. Happy Father's Day!

We have finally posted 6 months pictures. Click here to view. Enjoy!

First Attempt at Solids

This has been a busy week for Ryan - first plane trip, Ferberization, and now the first step towards eating real food: rice cereal. As you can see by the look on Ryan's face, he didn't exactly find it appetizing. Or maybe it just freaked him out. Today we mixed it with water instead of formula and he may have swallowed a teaspoon full. Not sure since about a tablespoon went in and slightly less than a tablespoon ended up on his bib. Next week we're going to try pureed carrots and see how that goes.


Click here for more pictures from Ryan's First Solids and our recent trip to Chicago.

First Plane Ride

Ryan had his first plane trip this past weekend when we flew out to Chicago to visit family. Both the flights there and back were almost identical. The first 1+ hours were flipping between curiousity, happiness and flat out crying. Luckily each time he cried (about every 15-20 minutes) the bottle calmed him down. For the last 45 minutes it was lights out through turbulence, descent, blabbering captains and flight crew, landing and taxiing.

Overall grade: B- (mom the light grader gives a solid "B")

Fingers are Yummy!

Click here for more pictures.