Milestones

This is a big week around here! While Mikey and I have been together for about 8,000 years now, our family officially began five years ago tomorrow. I can't believe all the changes in our lives since then! Back in 2006, we lived in the Heights, Buster was our one and only baby, I worked for Newtype USA, and Mikey worked for Enterprise. A mere five years later, and we are out in the boonies, driving a minivan, raising two precious boys, and I stay home with them. Mikey started a new job just this week. Whew! It's been an unbelievable ride, and one that I could never dream of going on with anyone else. I don't care what you say about your husband or dad - he is hands down the best of both. No doubt in my mind! Happy Anniversary, Mikey!

And now for a trip down memory lane (thanks to Abbey for all the scans done for our slide show!)...


This is one of the first photos we took together. It's the MHS bonfire the night before the Stratford game, and for those of you that are familiar with it - Brian is holding the beloved "Ghetto Rap Volume 1" mix tape. Good times.


Here we are at my mom's 40th birthday party in January 1998. I don't feel bad about saying what birthday it was because she is so ridiculously young!


Senior prom time! It's funny that the most vivid memory I have is at IHOP the next morning. We hadn't slept and were all acting a little nutty. We had a blast though.


Off to DDD formal! We tried to re-create this photo every year, and all the other ones were terrible. I think this one's a keeper though.


One of our trips to New Orleans with the Pikapps. Debauchery ensued, I can assure you.


Finally! I actually did something for Spring Break. It was our last one ever, and we went skiing in Breckenridge with a bunch of Mikey's fraternity brothers. "Sweet Caroline" was sung multiple times a day, every day.


Can we go back here? Please! This was taken when my family chartered a boat in the Grenadines. I am determined to charter a boat someday. It is just the best vacation. Every night you decide where you'll sail the next day or if you'll stay put and enjoy whatever heavenly locale you basked in that day.


Just five years ago!


I think Mikey was glaring at his mom because she chunked the flower petals at his head. :)


Here we are at Easter. My how times have changed. What the heck did we do with our time before we had children? I can't even imagine! Oh, and I don't know that we have taken a picture of just the two of us in the last year. We need to be better about that! The kids are so much cuter though!

And not to be outdone, Ryan is six months old today. It is such a cliche, but where does the time go?! I can't believe he is halfway to a year old. It has been so fun to watch him grow and to see all the ways that he is similar to and different from his big brother. I have to say that my absolute favorite time with Ryan is when he is tired, and he puts his head on my shoulder and sticks his left index and middle fingers in his mouth while grabbing on to and twirling my hair. Oh my goodness, it melts my heart. He seems so comforted by the combo of his fingers, my arms, and my hair.



Ryan is such a good, easy baby! I feel like he is much easier than William was, but that has to be because of naptimes. William had to be bounced, shushed, sung to sleep for every nap for quite some time. It took a lot of time, and he cried quite a bit. I'm sure the problem was our inexperienced selves not ever giving him a chance to fall asleep on his own. But it made for very stressful days. We didn't have a chance to coddle Ryan's sleeping like that, and he puts himself to sleep. It is heavenly to just lay him down, turn on the sound machine, and walk out of the room. We will need to break the swaddle soon, but it just works so very well! <---Never again will I say a word about that child's good sleep. I wrote this part last night, and he had a HORRIBLE nap, if you can even call it that. I should have known better! Notice that I did not brag about his nighttime sleep because it still stinks. Good thing he's so adorable.



At six months old, Ryan is rolling belly to back no problem. He is thisclose to rolling back to belly, but his 97th percentile noggin seems to be weighing him down. I expect him to figure it out any day now. He is not yet sitting up on his own. This is the milestone I am most looking forward to him reaching. It's so much easier for him to play and for us to play with him when he can sit up. He'll do it in his own time - this I know from watching William do some things early and others late.



Today was William's last day of Mother's Day Out until the end of August. Listen closely, and you will hear me crying myself to sleep tonight. :) MDO has been an absolute blessing for all of us. After a few tough weeks, William thrived in his class. His teachers were simply amazing. I never once worried that he wasn't in the best hands. They cared for him with so much love, and they handled my nerves and sadness at seeing him bawl at drop-off with grace and poise. William learned so much this year. I can't wait to see what he gets to learn next year.


Here's the big boy on his last day of school. I dressed him in the same outfit as his first day. I can't believe he can still wear it! He has really thinned out over the school year.


Here's the first day picture. He doesn't know what's about to hit him!