Ryan, 2 years old...

This little boy brings so much joy to our family. We are so grateful to have him. Here are a couple of things I want to remember about him as he is beginning his third year of life.

He won't go to sleep without socks on. If I forget, you can believe before his bedroom door has been closed for 5 minutes, he will be calling for his socks.

Apple juice is banned from our house because he won't eat or drink anything else if it is around. He has been  drinking milk a lot better since I tried giving it to him in a regular cup with no lid, but after two spills at lunch today he got the sippy cup back.

The girls call him a parrot because he tries to repeat EVERYTHING he hears. He can't say the "s" sound yet, and well, he actually has an aversion to most consonants. Sometimes he'll repeat a word and completely leave out all the consonants. It's enough to usually get his point across, though.

He's got the cutest smile, gets so excited over the smallest things, and will laugh at the tiniest provocation. When he gets tickled with something he has done, he will break out in this really funny George McFly "ah, ah, ah." I wish I knew how to type that sound. I can't help but laugh every time I hear it.

His favorite movie is Baby Galileo, no matter how much Nikki tries to convince him otherwise. He also likes watching Pink Panther cartoons on hulu.com.


If he wakes up from a nap grumpy, I can either offer him chocolate or take him outside, and he'll perk right up.

Even though he is sleeping in a "big bed" now (and still loving it), he won't get off of the bed by himself. He calls for us until we come to get him.

He loves going to Nursery at church, but he gets really upset if I try to take him or pick him up. It has to be Nate. He's so funny about his little routines.

The other day he walked up to me with his hand out and said, "Here you are." So I opened my hand, and he proceeded to drop in a wounded fly. I only had enough time to see that it was a black living thing before I screamed and dropped it. I almost scared him, but when I saw what it was I laughed so hard, which made him think he did something really great. Can you believe he caught a fly? What a boy!

15-Minute Makeover

Well, taking down the wallpaper in the kitchen led to texturing and painting the walls. But after that I didn't walk into my kitchen feeling like things were fresh and new enough, so that led to taking down the nasty chandelier. I haven't decided what chandelier I want to put there yet, so I just temporarily installed the fixture that will eventually go in the living room (when I pick out the chandelier I want). But that still didn't produce a nice enough feeling in the kitchen because I still need to paint the trim, and then I realized that it never would be enough because of my awful cabinets. SO, I'm now in the middle of painting the cabinets in the kitchen, and I think it will make me feel really good to have it done. I would feel great if I could just replace the cabinets, but the voice of reason has finally won in my mind and I'll paint these and wait for a couple of years for what I really want.

All of that, just to explain why I needed a quick project to make me feel like I actually accomplished at least ONE thing last week. Okay, I'll admit this really isn't finished either because I want to paint the fireplace a dark brown... when I'm finished with the kitchen. :) You know, I haven't completely finished a single room in this house yet. I think maybe some of Hannah's ADHD is either rubbing off on me, or she got it from me!

Anyway, I wonder if you can even see the difference in these before & after shots!

Can't see it? Well, I painted the screen in front of the fireplace. I think these pictures just illustrate so clearly how much decorating help I need! What am I supposed to do with all of those cords? (Get rid of the TV!!) I'm hoping the dark brown will hide them a little bit.

Typical evening at our house...

Here's Hannah, willing and happy to do the dishes after supper.

And here's Nikki ...

claiming she has reading homework to finish (on a Sunday evening), so she can't help in the kitchen. Sorry, Nikki, I know you don't have any homework tonight!

Finally...

Three days before she started 2nd grade, this girl finally lost her first tooth! She couldn't have been more excited. Unfortunately, she wasn't so impressed with the tooth fairy. Of course it took a few days for the tooth fairy to find time in her busy schedule (or maybe room in her crazy brain to remember) to come. Then, I think Nikki was hoping for a little bit more in response to her note. But she asked the tooth fairy to bring her gum and dollars. Since when did she have the right to make requests from the tooth fairy? Well, maybe since she took such good care of her teeth that they wouldn't fall out she probably did deserve a little better treatment. Well, there will be plenty more opportunities for her to worm out something good from the tooth fairy in the future.

So much that I could blog about......but so much sleep that I need to catch up on!

Happy birthday, Ryan!!

Ryan's birthday was yesterday, and we had his party tonight. Can you guess how old he is?

His cousin, Lexi, also has a birthday this week, and she was sweet enough to agree to having their parties together. I love birthdays with the cousins! So easy to plan, and the kids have so much fun together!

I'm still not sure why he didn't want to eat his cake and ice cream on the table. Can't you hear him saying, "Cheese!" Oh, he's a cutie.

Staycation

Nate took this last week of work off, and we enjoyed a vacation at home, or a "stay-cation" as Nate called it. :) Not long ago we were reading "The Millionaire Next Door" together, and one of the questions this author said all self-made millionaires answer alike is -- Who is more frugal, you or your spouse? (The millionaire answer is that the millionaire husband can't get his wife to spend money) Nate's immediate response was, "Well, we know the answer to that one in this house." What?! He thinks I'm not as frugal as he is?! Well, we laughed about it, but I'm still out to prove him wrong. We had been planning a trip to Asheville for a couple of days for our anniversary, but when he had the idea to just stay home and do things locally for our vacation I went right along -- I was not about to suggest we spend more money than he was suggesting. :) All kidding aside, we had a great week. There was a trip to the zoo, Marbles (a really cool kids museum here in Raleigh that we just hadn't been to yet), swimming, snoballs, the girls took their money to Claire's at the mall and each picked something out, and of course the library. And, Nate was such a hero and actually took the kids on all of these adventures while I got time at home to get some things done without little ones pulling me three different ways. Wow, his mama sure did a good job with him!

Then, we sent the kids to my brother's for the last couple of days of the week and enjoyed being just the two of us for a while. We went to the cannery and restocked some of our food storage. I had never been, and it was a really fun experience. We went to the Melting Pot for dessert -- delish! The temple. Redbox. Shopping. A matinee that cost more than movies in the evening used to cost (it's been a long time since I've been to the theater). Friday night high school football game (final score was 3-0, but it was still fun anyway). It was just a quiet, relaxing couple of days. Thanks, Mike and Sherrie for the great babysitting service! And thatnks, Nate, for the great company!

When we were getting ready for bed last night, Nate commented on how when the kids are gone for a couple of days, you really remember why you have them. It was strange coming home to a quiet, dark home. I really missed those bedtime hugs and kisses! It was great sending them away, and it's great having them home again.

This makes me feel a lot better...

Replacements, Ltd. most certainly does have everything I broke from Mom's china set. I can't wait to finish painting all my kitchen cabinets and actually organize them well enough to get the whole set in the spot where I want them. Then I can see what exactly I need to fill out the set.

Well, really I can't wait to finish painting my kitchen cabinets so I can have my kitchen back! I think Nate can't wait for me to finish painting so I'll actually cook dinner again. :)

On a Monday...

I broke two plates of my mom's china this afternoon. It shouldn't matter. They are just things. It just didn't make me feel any happier, though. Maybe Tuesday will be a little better.

Big Bed

Ryan slept in his real bed for the first time last night. He was so excited about his "big bed" that he could hardly wait for prayers to be over before he was running full-steam into his room. No crying or begging for more kisses when I tried to leave. The only problem: he fell out three times in the night. He doesn't look any worse for the wear, though.

Cute help

I haven't gotten the kitchen painted yet, but I did finish painting the foyer and hallway. Ryan loves watching what is going on. Amazingly enough, he hasn't really gotten into too much trouble in these projects. He's such a boy, salivating whenever the toolbox opens.