Friday Funnies

1. Last week, Jay's day off was Tuesday and he spent the day with Ryan. When I came home, Jay told me that Ryan was a really good boy so when they went to the store to buy dinner, he told Ryan he could pick out whatever snack he wanted - he chose a loaf of oat bread.

2. The same day, Jay said Ryan ate all day long. Ryan is now strong enough to open the refrigerator and if we do not keep the kitchen door closed, he will go in there and take whatever he wants. As soon as I walked in the door after work, he said "dinner mommy, come" and led me to the kitchen and opened the fridge. Our conversation:

Ryan: "Cheese please" and handed me a ball of fresh mozzarella that was for our dinner. I don't think that Ryan has ever eaten mozzarella before
Me: "Ryan, I don't think you like that cheese, how about this cheese" and handed him a slice of American cheese

Ryan: "NO, this cheese" and pointed to the mozzarella.

So I cut him a piece and as soon as he finished he said "More please. Cut faster"

3. We have a new routine anytime I leave for work (or anyone else leaves our house). Ryan walks whoever is leaving to the elevator, we all have to karate chop the down button which he finds totally hilarious, then everyone gets a high five. After you get your high five, he yells "Down low, too Slow".

4. Not funny but an update of Ryan's five current favorite things:
- Food: A-cots (apricots) and "white" donuts (the powdered kind)

- Any tv show on Noggin (Max and Ruby, Blues Clues, Dora and Diego) (check back later for a video of him dancing to Diego)

- The expressions "Don't worry", "Be right back" (with his hand help up saying wait) and "Faster".

- Anything Thomas (he loves his trains and could play with them ALL DAY LONG, especially linking them together so he can carry all of them easily at one time). video of trains to follow also

-sleeping on "mommy pillow" when he gets up in the middle of the night

5. As I have mentioned before, Ryan and Grandma walk me to the bus every Friday. Each Friday, we stop at Lenz's Deli to get Ryan a poppy seed muffin and then go to the bus stop. Some mornings, we end up having to run to the bus so I don't miss it but other mornings, we have time to sit together and wait. There are three seats at the bus stop and usually Ryan sits in the middle (for 3 seconds), Grandma sits on one side and I sit on the other. For the past two times, someone has been sitting in one of the seats and Ryan has walked right up to them saying " 'cuse me. mommy seat." as as he tries to push them off the bench. Who knew you could be polite and rude all at the same time?

Playdate fun

Ryan's friend Katie and her mom Colleen came over to play with us today and we had so much fun. Before Katie came over, I explained to Ryan that they were coming and that Katie would probably like to play with Ryan's trains too. We had a big talk about them since Ryan doesn't really like to share them, but I told him that since Katie didn't have many trains, Ryan would have to teach her all about them and when it was time for Katie to go home, Ryan could have all of his trains back and Katie wouldn't take any, as long as he shared. I still can not get over how good Ryan was about sharing (even Elizabeth said he has been better about sharing at Gymboree too). As soon as Katie got to our house Ryan walked right over to her and said "Come Katie, see trains? This Percy, this Thomas" etc. We bought Katie some trains for Christmas and Ryan could not wait to give Katie her present and even demanded she open them right away so they could "go puffin on the track". He didn't even try to steal them from her and said "Katie, now you trains" which I think meant "now you have trains too". Most of the day was spent playing with the trains, coloring with our new crayons from Katie, and eating. At one point, Katie said she wanted to take a nap in Ryan's bed, so the 2 of them ran off, hand in hand, to Ryan's room and they jumped on the bed. While Colleen and I hoped that they would take a nap, all they wanted to do was lie under the covers and read books.


When they got bored after a few books, we decided it was time for lunch!!

The kids were so cute sitting at the table, with their juice boxes, pasta (ronis as Ryan would say), and apples, but I can't believe how big they are getting. It seems like not that long ago when their lunches were made of pureed apples and we had to put them in car seats to feed them. Time flies when you are having fun I guess. I really wish that Katie and Colleen lived closer so we could see them more often - Thanks guys for a really fun day!

Who is a big boy?

Ryan is!! Last night was Ryan's first night out of a crib and in his big boy bed and much to our surprise, he did great!!! Jay and I decided in November that we wanted to get Ryan in to a bed so that sometime early in January, we would make the transition and he would have a few months to get used to it before our new baby came and needed the crib. We looked for a long time at toddler beds and then my parents got a queen bed for my old room and we decided to take the twin bed from there after we found this:

As soon as we brought the mattress in to the house yesterday, Ryan started jumping up and down on the bed and then pretended to sleep.

Little did he know that the best part was not even set up yet! While he was eating dinner, Jay set up the "Thomas" bed so that we could surprise Ryan when it was time to get ready for our bedtime routine. He sure was surprised!!

Ryan spent the next half hour running back and forth on the bed, getting off to talk to Thomas's "face", putting his trains in Thomas's smoke stack and kept screaming "What that noise? I hear whistle". At one point, he got off the bed, went to the front and yelled "Thomas, I so happy!".

Ryan is a little rough with the bed though but I think that will get better over time - he keeps forgetting that the train is just a tent, not a hard wall so twice he has pushed on the tend too hard and he has fallen in between the tent and the bed. Both times he just laughed and said "uh oh, I stuck". When it was finally time for books, we got under the covers of the new bed and read them there so Ryan would have more time adjusting to the bed before lights off.

When we were finished reading, I said "ok, bed time" and Ryan jumped out of the bed and tried to get into his crib. Jay and I explained that he does not need to sleep in the crib anymore, he can sleep in the Thomas bed now because that is his big boy bed and the new baby will sleep in the crib. He got in the bed and kept saying "I big boy, I big boy". He did stay awake for about an hour just talking to himself (or maybe Thomas) but didn't try to get out of the bed at all. Much to our surprise, Ryan slept straight thought the night and didn't wake up until 6 this morning - he even waited in the bed for me to come get him, although the second he saw me, he jumped out of bed and started talking to me about his bed, haha.

I really hope that the transition continues to be easy and we are so happy that Ryan loves his new bed!

Winter fun

We had our first snow of the year this weekend and luckily, we brought Ryan's snow gear up to Westchester so we were able to go out and play. It only took about 45 minutes to get ready to go out - while Ryan looked adorable in his new snow pants, I did miss the ease of putting him in a snowsuit with attached mittens and by the time we got outside, I was totally sweating. When we got outside, Ryan stopped dead in his tracks when he saw/heard the snow blower and would not let go of my hand saying "it coming to get you" and pointing at the snow blower. When I finally convinced him that the snow blower was not coming to get us, he finally ventured off the porch and started running (aka waddling) to a snow pile and jumped right in.

After giving Ryan some time to get used to the snow, we were going to try to make a snowman, but the snow was too icy for that and instead, we went sleigh riding on the side hill at Omi and Poppy's house. At first, we could not find a sled so Jay thought we could make do with a plastic tray.

Luckily, the neighbors saw us and brought out a sled for Ryan that was perfect. For Ryan's first run down the hill, Jay stood at the top and I stood at the bottom ready to catch him - he went down all by himself, laughing the whole time, even when he whizzed right by me and when I ran over to see if he was ok, he said "Try again" and started to walk back up the hill. Eventually, he realized that it took too much effort to climb up the hill and was able to sway us with his cuteness to bring him back up each time - as we would drag him up the hill, he would lay back and simply enjoy the ride.

After Ryan took enough slides down the hill that each of us was tired from dragging him back up, we decided to head inside to warm up. We had a fun day and I am sure Ryan can't wait to go sledding again.

Here are some videos of Ryan on his sled:

Five Friday Funnies

I think this Friday entry will be my new addition to the blog for 2009. Rather than having multiple posts of random "Funny Rhino" stories, I will save them all and post them on every other Friday, or more frequently if Ryan continues to be super funny.

Five Funnies

1. My parents and Uncle Michael came over on the 3rd for lunch. While they were all there, Ryan was running around like a nut and threw a tambourine at me. He knew right away that he did something bad and put his head down. When he looked up and saw we were all still staring at him, he said "Sorry Mommy". I said, "Ok, thank you Ryan. We do not throw our toys" and he started talking a mile a minute, hand gestures included and said "Gamma.......throw......" Yeah mom, I am pretty sure he just blamed you.

Doesn't he look like he is thinking "Don't you dare think about touching MY pizza"?

2. "Freeze" is Ryan's new favorite command. He says freeze when it is bed time and I am getting ready to leave his room.

3. Anytime Ryan hears a noise but can't see where it is coming from he says "Listen, what that noise?" and does this:

4. The other day, Ryan woke up at 4 and Jay went to bring him in our room. When he got in the bed, he kept saying to Jay "Daddy, go, get out, go" (today, he tried to kick me out). Eventually getting sick of getting kicked in the head, Jay left the room and Ryan turned to me and we had this conversation:

Ryan: "Mommy, where daddy go? Daddy go work?"

Me: "No Ryan, he went to sleep in the other room because you told him to get out. That was not nice"

Ryan: "Daddy sad?"

Me: "Yes, Daddy is sad because you were mean"

Ryan: "I sorry Daddy"

5. Latest excuse to not sleep: "Mommy, come back. Feet got out cover. No door lock". Well Ryan, of course your feet got out of the cover, since I heard you kick the blanket off as I was leaving the room. And no, the door is not locked, it is just closed.

Big Apple Circus

At the last minute, I was given 4 tickets to the Big Apple Circus for today so Grandma and Uncle Michael came with Ryan and me because Jay wouldn't be able to make it in time. We took the subway up to Lincoln Center and I think that would have been enough excitement for Ryan since he loves trains so much.

The circus is in a tent and there are only 16 rows so all of the seats are pretty close to the ring which makes is much easier for little kids to see. Ryan was pretty well behaved and did pay attention to the circus for much of the time (his favorite act seemed to be the trapeze lady, because she could "swing faster"), but after intermission, he kind of lost interest. That might have to do with the fact that it was getting close to his bed time but it probably had more to do with the fact that Grandma snuck in to a private party and came back with a clown nose and a fruit ka-bob (which Ryan flung around more than he ate and by the end, only ended up with one piece of fruit on the stick). I think Ryan would have enjoyed it more if he was a little bit older, but we had a great time anyway.

On a side note unrelated to the circus, look at how big my belly is!! Only 2 months left until the new baby is here, yippee!