Ryan, what are you doing?

"I think I may try my hand at quilting."

"Aunt Jenn is so nice to let me quilt."

"Ohh this is getting fun. I actually get to hold the needle all by myself."

"I'm sitting on my new blanket made just for me by my Aunt Jenn. I really like it. So pretty!"

"I'm such a good boy helping Momma do the laundry. I use my finger to make the washer go."

"Now I'm moving on to the dryer. I'm such a good helper. Better than my Daddy."

"Into the basket all the clothes go."

"More fun stuff. I'm dusting the bookshelf. It sure is dusty."

"I've got to dust the rest of the house. This is too much fun."

This post is provided to you by Tyler. Ryan is such a good helper. He does the washing, drying, and dusting. If only he would take out the trash, clean the kitchen floor, and hang up my clothes then I would be set. I hope you enjoyed the pictures.

Casey, what are you doing?

Wow, time really flies!! My baby is turning 1 in 9 days!! I don't even think Casey realizes that he's growing. We have a learning/activity table that he keeps trying to crawl under and gets stuck every single time. In the picture below I had just gotten him "unstuck" and grabbed the camera to try to lure him back in for a picture. I didn't succeed (maybe he is learning) but you can tell that it's quite a squeeze.

This happened a few weeks ago, but is still cute so I had to share. Tyler, Ryan and I were in the habit at the time of playing Mario Cart before going to bed. Casey always likes to get in on the action by messing with the cords. Then he crawled over to Tyler and laid down like this, so Tyler starts rubbing his tummy.

He must have been quite comfortable, even though it doesn't look like it. He stayed there for quite a long time.

Casey LOVES to push whatever he can find. In this particular instance it was a package of diapers.

He also pushes chairs, plastic bowls turned upside down, cars, stools turned upside down, and laundry baskets. He tried to push one of my plastic storage tubs, but it has a non-skid bottom. He was not very happy about that.

What a cute expression!

Did he say volcano?

I love it! My little boy is growing up so fast.
Ryan's vocabulary and ability to create sentences are ever increasing. Some of my favorite exchanges as of late are as follows:
1. I'm trying to remember the words to a song from Peter Pan that I hadn't seen in ages and I'm fumbling through it when Ryan turns to me and says "Mommy, you don't know the words to that song." I reply, "You're right, Ryan I don't."
2. Tyler says "Ryan it's time to get ready for bed." Ryan replies, "No thanks Daddy, I'm just playing."
3. Ryan and I have had a reoccurring argument lately that goes something like this:
I say, "I love you."
Ryan says, "No, I love you!"
I say, "No, I love you!"
Ryan says, "No, I love you!"
I say "No, I love you!" Then he throws out, "No, You love me!" and the argument continues.
After having this argument over several days he adds, "No, I love Casey."
4. "Ryan it's time for bed." Ryan relies, "No Daddy, there's plenty of time."
5. I had just finished getting ready for church, I was attending by myself because all of my boys were sick, and I walked out of the bathroom and Ryan says, "Oh Mommy, so pretty." Oh my goodness, so adorable. And, No, Mom, he didn't want anything from me. :)

The following video is by far my favorite, and still makes me laugh. He is only 2 so a lot of the words he pronounces don't come out quite right, usually he's pretty close but this one is coming out of left field. My niece Payton has recently discovered "The Backyardigans," on Nick Jr. and has shared her new found obsession with Ryan (since we are to cheap to even pay for basic cable, go bunny ears!). So, while at my parents over conference weekend Ryan got his first taste of the Backyardigans. I won't say anything more, I don't want to spoil it for you, enjoy. Sorry about the lighting, I didn't notice it until now.

On the Move....

I walked into the living room from the kitchen yesterday and found Casey doing this. I'm pretty sure this is the first time he has tried it. We have a walker toy that I have tried to get him to push recently but he won't have anything to do with it, he just sits down. Maybe this one gives him more support and flexibility. Enjoy!

Isn't that the cutest thing!! I love the talking, my baby is growing up so fast. I'm giving it another month before he ventures off on his own. Casey's been letting go of the furniture or toys and sitting down very slowly lately. He's also been doing laps around his learning table, while holding on of course. It's so cute to watch him go around and around, over and over, and he's so proud of himself too. I'll try to get a video of that next.

Little Shopper...

We recently received the new Fisher Price Easter Catalog in the mail. Ryan quickly found it and made it his new favorite "book."

"Mommy, toy book? Where'd it go?"

On every page he asked, "Who's that?" Apparently all toys need to have a name.

He was very excited about the Geo Trax page, especially since he received the Grand Central Station for Christmas. "Ryan has that, it's right there." He would point to the picture and then to his train box.

This is Ryan saying "Mommy, want it, PLLLEEEAAASSSEEE." I say "No," and he says, "but I want it." Too bad Grandma wasn't around at the time, she's the one that bought him a shirt that says "Saw it, wanted it, asked Grandma, GOT IT."

Together at last...

We finally did it! We bought Ryan a big boy bed (hooray for tax refunds)! So, now Ryan and Casey are officially roommates! I realize that Casey is 10 months old and we could have made the change a while ago, but this is just the way things worked out.

Ryan has made the transition quite well, and has enjoyed having Casey in his, wait, their room. On Sunday Tyler came home from church early with our sick boys and put them both down to nap in their room. He says that Casey was sleeping before Ryan went down. About 10 minutes after putting Ryan down, Tyler hears giggling over the monitor. He peeks in the room and Casey is running his bink over the bars and then throwing it out of the crib. Ryan giggles and gets the bink, gives it back to Casey (who giggles) and starts the process over again. Tyler watched this for a few minutes before deciding to grab the camera. As he started to record, the boys heard the beep and the magic was gone. Maybe we can catch them on camera next time.

We actually had the bed for a week before letting him sleep in it because we didn't have his bed rails yet. I would lay him on the bed and say it wasn't ready because he could fall off, then I'd roll him off the bed and catch him before he hit the floor (he thought that was pretty fun). So, every night at bedtime he would say "big boy bed not ready, Ryan fall off."
Funny Story: He was very excited about his trains, trucks, and airplane sheets and pillows. When he picked them out at the store and wouldn't let go of them. On the way home he was holding them while sitting in his car seat. When we were stopped at a red light, a very long red light, Ryan started saying "big boy bed, trains, airplane, trucks, yeah, look it." He does stuff like this a lot so I didn't think anything of it. Then I looked over at the car next to us, on the driver's side where Ryan's car seat is, and these two women, a mother and daughter, were laughing hysterically and keep looking in our back seat. It turns out that Ryan was showing these women his new sheets and telling them all about his big boy bed. He was holding them up to the window and pointing to all of the vehicles. Ryan waved goodbye when the light turned green and continued to tell us about his new train sheets.

I let Casey play in the crib a couple of times before actually letting him sleep there so the novelty wore off and he wouldn't be inclined/tempted to play instead of sleep. Our only problem is he likes to throw his bink out of the crib before he falls asleep, but he won't fall asleep without it. So, I have to sneak in and throw it back in. I tried putting in more than one, but that just means there are more on the floor in the end. It has definitely been nice for Tyler and I to have our room back, and actually turn a light on and talk in a normal voice before we go to bed.

Bath time fun and more...

Casey has grown to really LOVE bath time, as you can tell. He gets really excited when he is standing by the tub waiting to get in. He is almost impatient. :) There are quite a few pics here mainly because I like all of the different expressions on the boys faces.

Oh, so happy.

So much for trying to get both boys to smile at the same time.

Casey enjoys carrying things around in his mouth these days without the use of his hands. He recently discovered that this frog fit in there quite nicely. I also like Ryan's face in the background.

Monkey see monkey do. It didn't take very much coaxing for Ryan to join in on the fun.

I think Ryan is growling or Rarrrring (as he calls it).

Another cute expression of Casey's, during this time Ryan kept trying to grab the frog and put it back in Casey's mouth.

This is typically what I get when I ask Ryan to sit by Casey trying to quickly catch a cute moment. Ryan is in position and then Casey sees the camera and makes a mad dash for it.

Now I think he's just trying to get away from Ryan, such a loving brother-most of the time. A few days ago Casey was playing with one of DVD cases that Ryan was playing with, Ryan likes to line them up and then pick them up and do it all over again, Ryan apparently wasn't too keen on sharing and proceeded to walk up, pull Casey's hair and say "No Casey, don't touch." :)

This is Casey's new favorite location. Since he likes to spend quite a bit of time here, he has discovered all of the buttons. Just in case you don't recognize the picture on the screen it's "The Incredibles," A current favorite of Ryans.