Dancing Boy

Rylan got a Frig Farm for his birthday and he absolutely loves it! It has provided endless hours of entertainment! Rylan has always loved music which is what makes this toy such a hit. He loves to push the buttons and hear the animals make noises and listen to the farm songs. Here he is kicking up his heels!

I don't know about you but I can't help but laugh hysterically when I see him dance. He is just too cute! By the way, I know it looks like he took a tumble at the end of the video, but don't worry, he landed safely in Mama's lap. Within seconds, he was up dancing again!

Fun on the Farm

I just love fall when the air is crisp and the leaves are turning color! We've had such beautiful fall weather lately that we thought it would be fun to take Rylan to Greenbluff. Picking our own pumpkins and drinking warm apple cider made for a perfect day! Rylan loved riding in the wagon all around the pumpkin patch. He seemed to think it was most fun to stand while riding!

"I found one! This is the one I want! Will you cut it Dada?"
This is a total Charlie Brown pumpkin, but that's what makes it so special. Children find perfection and beauty in the most imperfect things. I wish we were all like this!

Here's Bryon cutting one of our pumpkins off the vine!

Rylan helped us find three pumpkins; a big one, a medium sized one and a small one. We'll each have one to carve and plenty of roasted seeds to eat!

Rylan had a hayday (no pun intended) crawling through the bales of hay and the pumpkins. It was like one giant maze!

That same week, we got to see our friend Laurie's baby sheep. I thought they were goats when I first saw them, but they are actually called hairless sheep. Aren't they cute? Grammy is helping Rylan bottle feed the babies. Their mother rejected them at birth, so they've had to be bottle fed to stay alive.

This little one sure is hungry. I've never seen anyone love animals more than Rylan. Every time he sees any kind of animal he immediately points at it and starts giggling with delight. It is so cute to watch how excited he gets!

"They are so soft, I just want to grab one and snuggle with it. Thanks for helping me feed them Grammy! You're the best!"

Happy 1st Birthday Rylan!

Rylan turned 1 year old on October 13th! I can't believe it has been a year already! I spent a lot of the day thinking about exactly what I was doing at specific times just one year ago. Here are just a few of the special times I enjoyed reminiscing about: 7:00am-started feeling contractions, 3:00pm-arrived at the hospital, 9:30pm-he arrived! Oh, it brings tears to my eyes!

We celebrated Rylan's birthday by having a party with family and friends on Sunday (Rylan's actual birthday was on Monday). I must say that the party was a success! Most of our family was there! We also invited several of Rylan's little friends and their parents too. It was so fun to see all the little ones playing together. Rylan has been really into cars and trucks the past several months, so we decided to have that be the theme of his party. Everything from the cake to the balloons to the party favors was cars and trucks related. Even some of the food was served out of dump trucks. I had a fun time planning and decorating! Thanks Suanne (my mother-in-law) for all of your help too!

Here are just a few of the guests chatting away and enjoying some of Rylan's favorite foods that we served at the party.

Rylan is getting a little extra help from Kariya on opening this present. She was pretty good at ripping that paper off. She must have had plenty of practice at her first birthday party. Thanks for jumping in there Kariya! You must have known that Rylan wasn't extactly sure what to do! What a helper!

"Oh boy! A new fire engine that I can actually ride! I only dreamed that this existed! Thanks Grammy and Grampy!"
Mom and Dad, I want you to know that Rylan plays that song on his new fire truck so often that I find myself out in public singing "I see a firetruck, a big red shiny firetruck. I see a firetruck coming down the street." At least I can count on Rylan enjoying my singing.

We got two cakes for Rylan's birthday; I made him his very own personal cake (backhoe loader) with the help of my mother-in-law and a Costco cake for everyone else to enjoy. Oh, I guess I should mention that Bryon and his step dad Mike did help out a little bit with the homemade cake. Using their knowledge of backhoe loaders, we were able to assemble the cake to look as real as possible. Thanks for the advice guys!

Here we are singing "Happy Birthday" to Rylan! If I were to guess what Rylan was thinking at this moment, it would be..."I don't care about that stupid song everyone is singing. Just put me in my high chair and let me dig into that cake already!"

And...what you've all been wondering. Did Rylan like his cake? Of course he did! I thought I'd show you some sequential pictures of this glorious event! So, here's the before picture. Rylan is about to dig in!

During: "Forget the spoon...that takes too long. It's much faster to get this delicious cake into my mouth by using my hands! Oh, so tasty! How did my parents know I'd want chocolate cake with cheesecake filling, and buttercream frosting and Birthday Cake ice cream to top it off? I'm in heaven!"

After: "Whew, I'm stuffed! I know I'm an eater, but this time I really outdid myself. I ate that whole piece of cake and all that ice cream all by myself! Aren't you impressed? Is is time for a nap yet?"
I have to tell you that Rylan actually did start to nod off shortly after finishing. He laid his head down on the tray of his high chair and was ready to take a snooze and probably would have if I hadn't startled him by turning on the camera. I hate it when I miss good photo opportunities like that!

On Monday (Rylan's actual birthday), our family of three celebrated again! Daddy made him a really yummy breakfast of eggs, sausage, toast and fruit, he got to open more presents from Mama and Dada, and he got to eat his truck cake. You can tell how much he likes it from this video! What a fun birthday! Thank you friends and family for joining us in celebrating Rylan's first year of life. It meant so much to have you all there! We hope that you'll be celebrating his birthday with us for many years to come!

So Active!!!

Rylan wakes up each day ready to go and maintains this momentum until bed time (even then he still bounces around in his crib for awhile before falling asleep). He is one big ball of energy! Better yet, he's the Energizer bunny! He definitely keeps me on my toes and certainly gives me a good workout every day by constantly chasing him around the house.

Rylan loves to walk around underneath our kitchen table. He thinks that cruising from chair to chair is pretty fun! Maybe I should drape some blankets over the table to create some sort of fort! What do you think Ry?

The baby swing at the park has been quite a hit. Visiting the park has become a frequent outing for us. We've had fun walking there and back with our friends Katie and baby Emma. Thanks for the fun times ladies!

As you can see, our coffee table has provided endless entertainment for Rylan. He spends countless hours cruising around it pulling out every basket and exploring its contents. He has a special basket just for his cars and trucks which are his most prized possessions. When we ask him where his cars and trucks are, he crawls as quickly as possible over to his basket and pulls them out with a big smile on his face!

Rylan has discovered how to crawl out of the dog door. If I turn my back for one second, it seems to be his cue to escape. He likes to follow Libby and the kitties in and out the door. Needless to say, the dog door may have to go. I can't have my child disappearing now, can I?

This week Rylan transitioned from his small inflatable tub to the "big boy" tub. It only took about one minute for him to get used to such a big space before he was crawling around all over the place. He wasn't able to crawl around in his last tub, so he thought that this was quite a treat! We even got Sesame Street Wild Watermelon bubble bath for him as an added bonus for his first "big boy" bathing experience. He didn't want to sit still and almost slipped a few times while curiously exploring all that there was to offer. I guess it's time to buy a grip pad too.

Rylan seems to think that Libby was made to be his jungle gym. He gets quite the thrill from climbing over her on one side and sliding down the other. Because Libby loves him so much, she's willing to put up with some abuse. I don't know what either of them would do without the other. They keep each other so entertained!

For several weeks now Rylan has been climbing our entire staircase. For those of you that have not been to our house, our staircase consists of fifteen steps. He climbs them so fast that you would think he was going for some kind of world record. Unfortunately, I can't seem to capture this all out race to the top on video camera, so this was the best I could do for now.

Rylan is constantly on the go (and he's not even walking yet) and I don't think he'll be slowing down any time soon! As tired as I am at the end of each day, I wouldn't want it any other way. Every day is one exciting adventure for both of us!