June fun

Cutest children ever


What a good big brother! It may look like William is taking Ryan's toy, but he is actually handing it to him.


Hug!


Buster is a changed dog. He is so relaxed and spends 90% of his day lazing around the house. It only took him five years to lose a little of his puppy-like craziness!


William got this airplane for his first birthday, and he still gets some use out of it. Ryan sat on it for the first time this week. This toy has some staying power.


**Flashback to his first ride on the plane!**


Ryan's mobility was only just beginning in late June. He was quite excited to have gotten his hands (gums) on this puzzle.

One fish, two fish

As suspected, Ryan took to the water just like his big brother. He was definitely a fan of the oversized bathtub populated by family members who were happy to tote him around and help him splash.



We bought the Puddle Jumper (green floatie contraption) for William last summer. He was just barely at the minimum weight for it, and I don't think we tried all that hard to get him to use it. Now he loves it! He has a little more freedom in the water and can "swim" from person to person. Don't worry - we don't leave him to his own devices. It is nice though that he doesn't have to cling to someone with a death grip in the water. It's great too that the Puddle Jumper is a Coast Guard-certified life jacket, so he could wear it on a boat or somewhere else that a life jacket was required.

Abbey's visit

We had a very special visitor right before my birthday in June. Abbey's parents recently moved to the Austin area, so she no longer comes to town by default for family holidays and visits with the nephews. While I am sad that we don't get to see her as much, it's pretty special when she does come into town to see us. She stays with us, so we get plenty of quality time together.

Abbey brought some insanely delicious cupcakes for my birthday...so thoughtful and tasty. I usually think those trendy designer cupcakes are overrated, but these were outstanding. She also brought me a thoughtful gift. Her visit was the best way to kick off my birthday week!

I am having a hard time remembering what we did on Saturday. I seem to recall sitting around, playing with kids, and flipping through magazines that Abbey brought. Oh, and I made some downright sinful cinnamon rolls. That afternoon, the girls went for pedicures at the Houstonian (thanks for the gift certificate, Mom!) and did a wee bit of damage at Old Navy. It was pretty much the perfect afternoon.



We came back home and went to dinner with Mikey and two very well-behaved little boys. It helps that we went somewhere that shows sports on TV. That always keeps William enthralled.

I took all the pictures from her visit on Sunday morning. It's unusual for me to keep my camera on the shelf for that long, but sometimes I need to just sit back and enjoy what's happening around me, as opposed to capturing it all on camera. I couldn't resist a few pictures before she left though.









Thanks for coming to see us, Abbey! We can't wait to do it again.

Starting to sit

Notice the telltale Boppy? It is the best cushion for a novice sitter. He only occasionally falls forward, flat on his cute little face.







For the record, these pictures were taken at the end of May. He has now moved on to pulling up and standing at the toy box, and doing downward-facing dog poses in his quest to crawl. He is way too close to true mobility! I am so not ready.

Food

I know, I know. No one likes to see other people's children with food grossness smeared all over them. I will keep the photos to a minimum, but I feel like I have to commemorate the first time Ryan tried solid food. His first taste of the good stuff came in the form of avocado. He liked it well enough. He was definitely ready once he figured out what he was supposed to be doing!







Since then, he has eaten bananas, sweet potatoes, green beans, applesauce, and butternut squash. Those have all gone fine. He had rice cereal several times at home, and I didn't notice a strange reaction. He had some rice cereal mixed with avocado in Connecticut, and we had a lovely puking incident on our second night there. I figured it was just a little bug, but it made me a bit gun-shy about messing with solids up there. When we got back into town, I gave him rice cereal mixed with sweet potatoes, and he puked once again in the middle of the night. UGH! I don't know what the deal is. I suspect that he has developed some sort of intolerance to rice cereal. I will try it again soon now that I know to keep an eye on it.

I think pumpkin is going to be our next food. I am going much slower with Ryan than I did with William. I am not in any rush to blow through all these milestones. He isn't going to get an award for eating the most food by eight months old, and I'll get him caught up soon enough. Also, I am a wee bit lazy. (Blame the baby who still doesn't sleep well at night!) I make his baby food, which means planning ahead and then actually making the stuff. It takes very little time, but I still have a tough time making myself do it. Now that we are back from Connecticut and have no more big trips planned, I will be sure we keep progressing with different foods. He will soon join William, who eats everything from shrimp to raw onions and bell peppers.

Back to our regularly scheduled programming...

My last post was a little peek at our trip to Connecticut. Of course I took way too many pictures while we were there, so the trip report should be nice and lengthy. Before I get to that, I have to catch up on our family fun from May and the beginning of June.

Mikey's parents and sister joined us at the Pink House the morning after my giant fish adventure. They had never been to the PH, and it was so much fun to show them what the fuss is all about. They have heard about our trips down there for years, but they had to see it for themselves.


We enjoyed beautiful blue skies. I was up at the house while Ryan slept, and of course that's when everyone caught their fish that day. No pictures were taken of Grammy, Grandpa or Amy's fish, but I assure you, they did have success.


I caught this one. William is pointing out the black spot on the redfish's tail. He knows all about redfish because he likes to read an old book of Michael's called "Old Reddy Drum."


William loves to "help" Daddy catch fish.


Isn't Aunt Amy the best?


Success!


Lovely ladies


I wanted to keep the sun off of Ryan, and this hat pretty much did the trick. I know it looks silly, but what does he know?


Just before dinner, we spent a little time watching the world go by in the front yard. Turns out not a whole lot happens out there, but it was entirely pleasant!


Don't I look like I am trying to sit on a throne? Not sure what I was thinking.


Hello, blue eyes!


It was cool enough on Sunday morning for us to wear light jackets. We lucked out!


Sometimes Ryan didn't want to wear the hat, so I would wear it and try to keep the shade over him. It didn't really work out like that here, but I can't resist a picture of me and my little guys.


We took some group pictures of everyone by propping the camera up on a railing, but they just weren't good enough for publication on this illustrious blog. So you will get two pictures with one person missing in each one.


The other one

We were so glad that everyone joined us for a trip to the Pink House. We spent the time relaxing, reading, napping, eating, fishing, watching TV, etc. It's nice to escape the big city and our houses, which require way too much work on the weekends. We didn't absolutely have to do anything while we were there, other than take care of the kids and feed ourselves. We are quite proficient at both of those tasks, so we were good to go!

Turkey burgers

We are still on vacation, but I couldn't resist a quick post! Just before we left Houston, William became obsessed with grilling "turkey burgers." His imagination is amazing - he can find objects to use as turkey burgers just about anywhere. At home, his favorites were a set of plastic stacking rings. He would line them all up on the coffee table and use a spatula to flip them while making a sizzling sound.

On our trip, he has used those round, flat tater tots (called crowns), paper, coasters, and bread. I decided to start taking pictures of his "burgers."


Coasters


Different coasters - this was taken through a window in the beach house we have been using this week. It was the best angle I could get.


My mom gets major props for thinking of this! She recently got a tiny grill that is just perfect for William. He adores it! The dog snagged a couple of "burgers" that tasted surprisingly like bread.


Time to put the cover on and let them cook for a bit.


He hands us the burgers one by one and then takes them right back.