Happy St. Patrick's Day

Happy St. Patrick's Day, especially to Patricia and Leighton, my two most Irish friends! Ryan did his own hair this morning, can you tell? With his nose, Ryan really does look like he could be a part of the "Fighting Irish"

My sand castle is better than your sand castle

I was told by a four year old yesterday that I am not very good at making sand castles. It was so nice out yesterday so Ryan and I went to find something fun to do outside. I found a great park right between the river and the West Side highway and one of the best things about it was the big sand box. Ryan has only been in a sand box once before, but he jumped right in and started shoveling. He has never held a shovel before and somehow knew exactly what to do (ok, he was holding the shovel upside down at first but knew what he was supposed to do with it). We must have played in the sand for more than an hour, filling up the buckets and making a castle. I was shocked that Ryan didn't kick the castle down, but instead put leaves on top of it to decorate it.

After spending the whole day outside, I can't wait for Spring.

First Boo boo

On Friday, I started a post called "No Fear" and decided not to post it because I had no good picture for the story. It was all about how stubborn and fearless Ryan is, all the daredevil things he does, and how he really does not act like a 1 1/2 year old. Examples: Ryan wants to go down the slide on his belly and when he gets to the bottom, wants to walk back up; he wants to climb from one piece of furniture to the other and jump off; he only wants to play with the big kids at the park; he insists on pushing his shopping cart up the street, not on the sidewalk but only on the cobblestones. The list goes on and on but this post is about Ryan's interest in pushing his own stroller. The stroller weighs 30 pounds and the basket in the back comes up to about chest-level on Ryan so he leans on that and pushes it. I have seen him do it many times, both in the apartment and outside and he can push for a pretty long time before he tires out (I am talking 20 minutes, not 5). On Friday, Ryan was pushing his stroller around for a long time and did not want to go inside - he threw a tantrum and ended up getting his first boo boo. I have a feeling this kid is going to get a lot of boo boos.













He is so tough - he cried for less than a minute and by that night, he was trying to figure out what daring task to perform next.

Sportime USA

There is a place not far from where Jay and I grew up called Sportime USA. We both went there as kids for the batting cages, video games and the excitement of trading in your tickets for some junk that at the time seemed like a real prize. Now, the place has a rock-climbing wall, laser tag, bumper cars and much more than it used to have. We took Ryan there Sunday, just for something to do. Our first stop was the Soft Adventure Zone, designed for kids 5 and under. It had climbing tunnels, rope nets, and a ball pit. Ryan had never been in a ball pit before and he loved it. As he sank deeper and deeper in to the balls, I would get more nervous and he would laugh harder and harder.

We played some games but Ryan really didn't understand them and was afraid of the Whack-a-mole, but he did love the bowling. He is much better at throwing than rolling as you can see from his form.

For anyone interested, we won 44 tickets during our adventure. With our prize tickets, Ryan got a whistle and Jay got some green Vampire teeth which he wore the whole way home. Fun times!!

Play Nice with the Doggies

Jay's parents have 2 Westies, Katie and Maggie, and Ryan truly loves them. The second we pull up to Omi and Poppy's house, Ryan's starts yelling "woo, woo" (his version of barking) and runs in to the house looking for the dogs. Ryan has gotten better at petting them nicely but sometimes he gets so excited he forgets: Then he tries to ride them, squeeze them or pull their hair. I guess he kind of makes up for torturing them though by trying to feed them every chance he gets - throwing food to them off his high chair, feeding them his cookies etc. This weekend Ryan gave one of the dogs his cookie and then spent the next 10 minutes following the dog around with his hand out - I don't think Katie (or Maggie) realized she was only supposed to take one bite and give Ryan his cookie back.
Ryan really likes to play ball with the dogs too. Katie and Maggie get pegged with the ball more often then they have the opportunity to "go fetch", but they still play with Ryan. I think they are just thinking "If we put up with this kid a little bit longer, he will give us some snacks".

I wish that the videos were clearer and I could make them bigger.

Crybaby

We are trying to teach Ryan not to bite or hit. Besides telling him "No", we try to explain to him that what he is doing hurts. Sometimes, I will fake cry and Jay will say something along the lines of "Look Ryan, you hurt mommy and she is crying. Go give her a hug and kiss and say you are sorry". I didn't think our lesson was working but one day in music class, a little girl bumped her head and started crying - to the oohs of the other moms in the class, Ryan walked over to the girl and gave her a big hug. I was so proud of him that he realized the little girl was hurt and he wanted to make her feel better. We did see a different side of "Sympathetic Ryan" this weekend. My mom and I took Ryan to the mall and while we were there, Grandma and Ryan were sitting in the food court having some fries. A little girl at the table next to them started to cry and Ryan got right in her face and started fake crying. While I am guessing he was trying to acknowledge that she was crying, it was almost like he was making fun of her. I really shouldn't laugh about it, but hearing my mom laugh about it and seeing Ryan show me later, it really was pretty funny.

Happy Birthday Grandpa

Happy Birthday to Grandpa!!! In honor of Grandpa's birthday, here is one of my favorite pictures of Ryan with Grandpa, who Ryan is now calling PaPa.
This picture was taken in July of 2007 at the Bronx Zoo.