Mac & Cheese….

It’s a favorite in our household. It doesn’t matter what time of day or for what meal I ask Ryan “What would you like for breakfast today?” His response is always “Mac Cheese!” with the biggest smile you have ever seen. And he gives a bashful little shrug of the shoulders with the smile because he knows he won’t get mac & cheese for breakfast.

Mommy: “Silly! You know you can’t have mac cheese for breakfast.”

Ryan (in question format): “hot dog?”

Mommy: “Goofy! No hot dogs either. How about about pancakes?”

Ryan: “Yesssss! Pancakes! O-wee, you want pancakes?”

And before Owen can response, Ryan will add: “Yeah, yeah you do.”

Well I think Owen is following in his brothers footsteps because he absolutely loves mac and cheese too! He was shoveling it into his mouth.

Look how excited he is with daddy’s choice for dinner….

And of course, since most of the mac & cheese ended up on O-wee, it required an immediate bath following dinner. What didn’t end up in Owen or on Owen ended up on the floor which made Delta about the happiest dog ever.

Great night for everyone! Except mommy who was working late and at a meeting till bedtime. Good thing mommy likes her job.

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Loving Delta….

Owen is absolutely intrigued with Delta lately. He will follow her all around the house saying “da-ta, da-ta” and laugh and clap.

Delta seems to like Owen more around meal times, but puts up with him during the other times of the day. Delta is a very easy going pup and lets both kids climb all over her and hold her tail and pet her. The boys are so good with Delta as well and both like to make sure she is well fed (especially Owen).

This morning Owen, Ryan and Delta were all playing together. Delta was giving lots of kisses and loving all the attention from “her” boys.

Owen was even throwing the tennis ball for Delta! Her favorite game second to golfing.

When Delta was done with all the attention and loving she put herself in her house as if to escape. Not sure this worked as Delta had planned…

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A Toddler, An Infant and PAINT?!

Seriously, what was I thinking?

I asked Ryan several times if he wanted to go with me to the fabric store and his response each time was “No.” It was in a very matter of fact tone of voice and he had no interest whatsoever.

But then I mentioned “Horton’s in the car” and he jumped up and looked at Jim and said “Bye daddy! I need my shoes on.” Yep, I had him with Horton again. I love that elephant! So off to the fabric store we went. And yes, we watched Horton Hears a Who AGAIN!

While walking around the store getting swatches for the new curtains and headboard I plan to make for the office slash spare bedroom (after it gets painted), we came across bird houses. I asked Ryan if he thought it would be a good idea to paint some new houses for the birds in our yard and he jumped up and down clapping “Yah! I paint bird houses!! Birdies need new home. Tweet tweet” And of course the “tweet tweet” was accompanied with a tilt of the head and flapping of the wings to demonstrate how a bird does it.

Ryan also insisted that Owen paint one too so after much thought into which birdhouses to get, he decided on the same one for both him and O-wee. We also picked up some wooden frogs to paint and display in the flower garden. He said the flowers needed something too. “Oh momma. Flowers need new frogs too” I’m assuming he didn’t want the flowers to be left out since the birds were getting new houses. I love a two year old mind!

Later in the afternoon after naps and much needed rest time (for mommy of course!) we decided to get the paint supplies out. Owen was amazed and in awe of how excited Ryan was. He just stared at him with a confused look on his face since he didn’t know what the fuss was all about.

Ryan of course was focused and concentrated on painting using all the various colors.

Owen dug right in, smeared the paint all over the house, the tray, his clothes and his face. He had a blast! I only stopped him when he wanted to smear it on his teeth and tongue. Otherwise, who cares! Let them have some fun!!

And the final products: birdhouses and flower garden frogs!

The next morning after they all dried we hung the houses in the tree and put the frogs by the flowers. Ryan was seriously so proud of himself and O-wee. He told me numerous times “O-wee and Ryan awesome! Good job O-wee!”

These are phrases that we say often to the boys and Ryan has now picked up on it and will be sure to acknowledge Owen, mommy and daddy with the phrases as well. Delta still will usually get the “Delta naughty” phrase, but Delta is working on being a better listener 🙂

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Umm… Mrs. Yahres….

Does Ryan always talk this much at home too?!

The other night when I went to pick Ryan up in his room at school, one of the teachers very politely said to me “Ummm… Mrs. Yahres?” to which I answered in a slightly panicked voice “Yes?” to which she said “Does Ryan talk this much at home too? He just doesn’t stop talking all day long.” to which I of course answered “YEP! The kid does not stop talking ever.”
And we both laughed.

She said that he talks about everything he is doing; about everything he did the night before; about dropping O-wee off in his room that morning; about what the other kids are all doing. She said that he lays on his little cot and talks himself to sleep at naptime saying “Mo-gan (Morgan) needs to yay (lay) down and go seep.” and “Mac naughty. Mac need go nite-nite.” Ummm… not sure why Mac is naughty since obviously Ryan isn’t sleeping yet either! Or “I yay down and need cose eyes.” or “Ryan seep in big boy bed.” And the list goes on…..

His old teachers told me that after he moved out of their room and they were doing flashcards, they all looked at each other and got a sad look on their face. They all missed Ryan blurting out what was on the card and how it related to him. For instance…. when they got to the flashcard of a bed, Ryan would jump up out of his seat in the most excited voice you could imagine, exclaiming “Big boy bed!! Ryan have a big boy bed!! Ryan a big boy!!! Yah, Ryan have a big boy bed!!”

His old teachers didn’t realize how often of an occurance this was (with other cards as well) until Ryan wasn’t in their class anymore and they missed his little excited outburts!

So yes. I have a chatterbox on my hands that asks questions non-stop. And I’m not kidding either. The kid does not stop asking questions. “What are YOU doing?” and “Momma. What dat?” and “Momma. What O-wee doing?” or “What daddy doing?” or “Where Delta go?” and then repeat, repeat and repeat again. The exact same questions resulting in the exact same answers since the previous round of questions was just asked 10 seconds prior.

But I have to admit. I wouldn’t change any part of Ryan and his million questions. It makes him who he is with such an inquistive little mind. I love him exactly as he is. Even when my answers may be in an annoyed tone because I’m sooooo tired and just answered the same question several times already in the last 2 minutes. Even then, I love him exactly as he is.

I just fear that Owen will be the same way and I’ll have double the questions to be answering. Oh, help me.

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Delta Loves to Golf!

Delta’s favorite game in the entire world is golfing in the backyard with a little whiffle ball. She freaks out when she sees the bright orange ball and starts running around the house whiny and crying.

I don’t remember how/why we started playing this game with her last summer, but now she is addicted. Every night after I put the boys to bed she meets me at the bottom of the stairs crying and whiny wanting to go out and “golf” in the backyard.

This particular night the whole family went out to enjoy the hot Atlanta weather. Ryan hit a few golf balls for Delta and laughed histerically when he’d swing and miss and Delta would take off running for the ball anyway. Then she’d realize Ryan missed and would come running back to him full speed ahead barking the whole way!

Delta was getting a little frustrated because after only a few hits Ryan decided “I need use lawn mower yike daddy does.” and so off he’d go pushing the lawn mower while Delta would sit and wait extremely impatiently.

Ryan would come back for a few more swings of the golf club and laugh and laugh at Delta. Ryan doesn’t realize how seriously Delta takes this game. It’s all business when she plays “golf” in the backyard.

At one point Ryan decided to switch to baseball (using a tennis ball) and Delta wasn’t real thrilled with this decision.

Daddy even got into the action and hit a few balls for Delta!

Owen just sat on the blanket and laughed at Delta and Ryan. He doesn’t care much for the feel of the grass so he just chills on the blanket and watches everything happening around him.

After several games of golf, baseball and lawn mowing, Delta was tuckered out and decided she needed to chill a bit too…….but not once did she let the ball drop out of her mouth. Because if she had she knew that someone would “golf” the ball again and off she’d go to chase it!

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Ryan’s Many Faces….

Ryan and Owen both have very distinct personalities and are very expressive. You can read their moods clearly in their facial expressions and tonight at dinner Ryan decided to be goofy and wanted me to take pictures of him doing different faces so that he could see them on the camera. Not sure how dinner time turned to this direction, but it was fun! Sometimes you just need to go with the flow. And this coming from a planner. Yep, I’m the one who struggles most with the unplanned activities, but after having two kids I’ve learned to let go of certain things (well I kind of have!).

This is Ryan trying to be serious. I’m not sure he knew what the word serious meant when I told him to be that though.

This one was Ryan’s idea and he wanted me to take a picture of him shaking his head. I’m not sure what he expected to see in the photo since I don’t have the Nikon D90 which is able to take video clips. Hint, hint to anyone wanting to donate one to me!! ha ha!

Happy Ryan. This is my sweet, sweet boy who smiles and laughs and is goofy most of the time. He does have his moments of tempertantrums; doesn’t listen and is all around naughty. But when we have those moments, it’s this smile that gets me through it.

So, so sad Ryan. He wanted to show a sad face like O-wee does when he sticks out his bottom lip. Nobody can do the bottom lip like O-wee though.

This is Ryan doing fishie-face. It needed several photos to accomplish the fishie look though. Especially because he kept laughing through doing it.

This is Ryan growling like a grizzly bear. We read “Bear Snores On” everynight and we growl and sneeze and blubber on like the grizzly bear does. This was Ryan immitating that bear.

And here is Ryan being silly and sticking out his tongue. What a goofy little kid. He loves doing faces and acting silly and who wouldn’t with a little brother who laughs histerically at you? A full time audience that thinks you’re the greatest thing ever!!

Enjoy all of life’s little moments. Take a few minutes to appreciate each and every face of your family, friends and little ones. Even the four legged kind have expressions! Ours is telling us she’s hot and wants to come in and clean up the mess the kids made at dinner…..

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Summer is Here and It’s Time to BBQ!

The boys were party animals on Saturday night and stayed up WAY past their bedtime. Owen typically starts melting down around 6:40pm and is sound asleep in bed by 7:00pm. I’m not sure the boy has ever seen the night past 7:30pm. He is like clockwork and likes to snuggle up and cozy down early for a good night’s rest. Ryan typically goes down between 7:30pm and 8:00pm, but can make it later if needed.

Well on Saturday night the boys were up until after 10:00pm!! Even O-wee was still going at that time with zero melt downs for either boy.

We went over to “Gace house for cheeseburgers” as Ryan repeated to us all day long because he was so excited. He would tell Owen, “O-wee we go see Gace and eat cheeseburgers dinner night”

All of this translates to us going over to Malinda, Drew & Grace’s house to BBQ and have a few drinks. What a great night it turned out to be! The boys had a blast playing with Grace and I believe Grace had an equally fun time with the boys.

She was very gentle and sweet to Owen and wanted to take care of him all night; I think she’s ready to be a big sister (hint, hint Malinda!!).

Owen LOVED the apple pie and ice cream. After the first bite we received a look that basically said “Why have you been holding out on me parents? This stuff is yummy!”

The kids blew bubbles, played with Gumbo (the dog) and made a mess! They ran around inside and outside and went up and down. Of course they were all icky and sticky and dirty by the end of the night (see dirty bananas post for another sampling of dirty) so we ended up throwing all the kids in the tub together for a little scrubbing before heading home for bed.

Grace and Ryan read a few stories in Grace’s big girl bed (we told them this is going to be unexceptable in a few years, but for now it’s still cute).

On the way home, Ryan said “Momma. I go home and I tell De-ta ‘ De-ta, I play Umbo night.’ And momma. I tell De-ta ‘De-ta, I play Gace and eat cheeseburgers night too.” I warned Ryan that Delta wasn’t going to be too happy to hear that he was playing with Grace’s dog Gumbo while she was locked in her crate for the evening. But Ryan didn’t seem to care. He was really excited to tell Delta what he did that night. And when we got home, he did just that. And as I warned, Delta wasn’t too excited and spent most of the night sniffing and licking us trying to figure out why “her” family cheated on her. Poor Delta.

The boys were finally tucked into bed (Owen in his crib and Ryan in his big boy bed!) and sound asleep and it was 10:20pm! What kind of parents are we?! But boy did they have fun. And so did Jim and I. It had been awhile since we had seen Malinda and Drew and we always have a great time with them. Whenever we do get together we always say that we need to do this more often and yet time gets away in between and too many weeks go by before we do it again. This time, I mean it though. We are going to do it again soon!! That’s my warning to you Malinda 🙂

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Good Dinner Choice??

This post is for my friend Dee who recently wondered on her blog (Our Sweet Baby Girl) what it would be like to feed Ava (her little girl) pasta with red sauce. Well Dee… here you go!

It’s been a particularly rough 2+ weeks with work, transitions to new rooms at daycare for both boys, Owen’s tubes, ear infections and colds. Today was no exception. Every unplanned thing that could have happened today, happened at 4:15pm as I was trying to leave. I left late, was crabby and stressed and wasn’t so happy to pick up an extremely cranky and emotional 2 year old from school. He started out fine, but by the time we got to the van, Ryan was in tears for no reason. Owen on the other hand was all smiles and laughing at everything for no reason.

While Ryan thought that a good dinner for the evening should consist of dinosaurs (aka fruit snacks), a rice krispie treat and dry Fruit Loops, mommy and daddy thought spaghetti was more appropriate.

Several emotional crying tantrum breakdowns later (from Ryan; not mommy), we were sitting down to dinner. Well everyone except for Ryan since he absolutely refused to eat spaghetti since mommy said he needed to take his uniform shirt off and change into something else or stay “nake” (aka naked). He stood in the laundry room alone sobbing. He wouldn’t talk to anyone or let anyone look at him; he just stood there sobbing.

But back to Dee and the results of red sauce and an infant….

Owen absolutely LOVED spaghetti!! I went ahead and stripped him down to his diaper (he was nake) and let him go at the spaghetti on his own. He gobbled it up, would suck each noodle and then would smack his lips together after each bite. He was hilarious!

So while Ryan was throwing his emotional fit, Owen was thoroughly enjoying his first taste of spaghetti. And while it was extremely messy and we had noodles and red sauce everywhere from the floor to the high chair to Owen and even a little on the trash can and some on the wall, I would give it to him again in a heartbeat! Well, at least on a bath night I would…. following dinner he went straight from highchair to bathtub with Delta following behind as noodles fell off of him.

Even though the day was a tough one and mommy had little to no patience tonight, it all changed when watching O-wee eat (and enjoy!) his dinner. He really is such a cutie pie!! When he’s not throwing a temper tantrum anyway 😉

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25 Of My Favorite Things About Owen

1. He is extremely stubborn too. I’m sensing a pattern here with our kids.

2. He has a contagious smile that lights up his face.

3. He has the biggest (and I mean biggest) pouty lip you have ever seen. And he’s not afraid to use it. If he is unhappy about something, he will stick that bottom lip out and scrunch up his face. It makes everyone jumpt to his need. Not necessarily a good thing!

4. He loves to watch his big brother and will laugh histerically at him for no reason.

5. He is a tv addict already. And he doesn’t care what it is that is on tv; he will watch it.

6. He is a snuggler. And a good one!

7. He loves to play “SOOOO BIG!” and peek a boo and laughs over and over again.

8. He loves to eat real food. He doesn’t care so much for bottles and baby food, but boy can he devour pasta!

9. He loves to play!

10. He is learning to like the feel of grass. He’s not quite sure yet, but he’s trying 🙂

11. He is very determined.

12. He isn’t good with the whole “cry it out” theory. It does not work for him because he doesn’t stop or give in; we do. But as soon as you pick him up he’s out cold.

13. He keeps the house running on “Owen time” and when he wants something, he typically wants it RIGHT now.

14. He loves Milo and laughs and smiles and babbles when Milo walks past him. Right now Milo thinks Owen is “safe” because he’s not moving much yet and can’t capture Milo. But Owen is on the verge of crawling so watch out Milo!!

15. Delta scares Owen most of the time. Delta is quick and barks and Owen isn’t a fan of quick abrupt movements nor loud noises if they are too close to him. I don’t blame him since Delta is bigger than he is!

16. He hates to get dressed and undressed and I have no idea why.

17. He loves bathtime and splashes and kicks and babbles and laughs nonstop in the tub.

18. He loves to play ball and knows how to roll it back and forth to someone and he gets all excited and claps for himself when he does it correctly.

19. He loves to wear hats. He knows it’s there and he just smiles and touches the top of his head with his hat on it. He looks so proud to be wearing them.

20. He will not wear socks. We put them on him everyday and the first thing he does is grab on and pull them both off. He likes to chew on them for some reason?!

21. He loves his two silky soft blankets and his Grover. He snuggles up with them each night and it settles him right to sleep.

22. He smiles huge and kicks his legs in the morning with excitement when we walk in his bedroom and turn on the light. He loves mornings! He doesn’t get this from either Jim or I; he’s on his own on this one.

23. He loves cheerios and puffs.

24. He loves to do what Ryan does. And he gets a very proud look when he does whatever it is that he’s trying to do.

25. He has the sweetest most bashful face when he sees you. He will bury his head into your shoulder and kick his legs in excitement. It doesn’t matter how bad of a day I’ve had, but when I walk into daycare and he gives me this reaction, it turns everything around.

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25 Of My Favorite Things About Ryan

1. He is very, VERY stubborn. This was reconfirmed today at school when his current teacher (Ms. Tywanna) said that she warned his next teachers that when he gets into one of his moods it is best to just let him be. He will come out of it; however, he needs to do so on his own.

2. He likes order and routine and things to be in their spot. He definitely gets this from mommy.

3. He is a big helper. He will go get diapers, wipes, toys, bottles, blankets or whatever else you could possibly need. He will throw things in the trash; he will pick up toys and he will put remotes away. Sometimes in places where it takes us a LONG time to find them again.

4. He announces when he goes poop and he will back up to me so that I can check his diaper. Apparently I have said one too many times to “Come here and let me check to see if you pooped” because now he just comes over to show me before I can ask.

5. He loves to discipline and boss Delta around. “Get on bed Delta!” “In house Delta.” “You naughty!” “No Delta!”

6. He is learning to go pee-pee in the potty and if you offer him a lollipop if he goes, he will sit on the potty for 30 minutes trying! He will not give up because he knows he won’t get the lollipop if he doesn’t actually go.

7. He is very opinionated. It’s extremely difficult to persuade him to do something different than what he wants to. We always have to make the “idea” his “idea”… he gets this from daddy 🙂 He will argue and argue and argue with you about which shoes he is wearing to school. I typically want him to wear his cute summer sandals and he typically wants to wear his Spiderman water shoes. Sometimes you have to pick and choose your battles and he ends up at school in water shoes!!

8. He loves to read books. He will sit and read quietly by himself for a long time!!

9. He loves to be a BIG BOY! And he will tell O-wee over and over again “Ryan a big boy O-wee.”

10. He likes to try to send Owen to “time out” any chance he has. “O-wee you drop a-gan and you go time out.” Owen is yet to actually go to time out, but Ryan definitely trys to send him there.

11. He likes to ski on Wii Fit. He is actually pretty good too!

12. He already has a girlfriend, Addie.

13. He loves to sing “Happy Birthday!”

14. He has quite the arm on him and can throw a ball like you wouldn’t believe. I haven’t decided if this is good or bad yet because on one hand he could make a really good baseball pitcher, but on the other hand I may end up with a few broken windows over the years.

15. He likes to plant flowers with mommy. Well I think he likes the digging in the dirt part the best, but it’s still quality time together.

16. He likes to eat “dinosaurs” which are actually fruit snacks. He “NEEDS” them 24/7 and would eat them for every meal if we allowed him to.

17. He is really good at eating corn on the cob and doesn’t leave many spare kernels. It’s the cutest thing to hear him crunch as he bites into it!

18. He loves Elmo and Ela-shant (Horton Hears a Who).

19. He knows that Wednesday is trash truck day and it’s the only day of the week that he will hurry to get dressed and get downstairs so he doesn’t miss the “Men drive trash trucks”. Every week we go outside and wave to them.

20. If he gets in trouble for something I will kneel down next to him and make him look at me so I can explain what he did that sent him to time out. I will tell him “Ryan, you hit mommy and that’s why you went to time out. Are you supposed to hit?” and his response is “Yeeees….” and I will quickly say “No, you’re not supopsed to hit” so then he will quickly change his response and say “nooooo.” It’s really cute when you have two sad blue eyes and a pouty lip looking at you answering the questions incorrectly.

21. He loves Strawberry milk. And he asks for it 24/7 along with the dinosaurs.

22. He mimicks everything we say or do and then looks at us with the big proud smile.

23. He loves to do art projects including coloring, painting and playing “pay bo” which translates to playdough. He will sit at his art center and concentrate so hard on his project.

24. He loves to snuggle as long as it’s on his terms. At night he will cuddle in with us and read a million books in his big boy bed if we let him. We usually limit it to 3-4, but he would definitely stay snuggled for a million more.

25. He quite often will tell me “I need momma” and then will come over and wrap his little 2 year old arms around me. Seriously, how does that not melt your heart?!

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