Tom and Nicole's Big Day

Ryan got to go to his first wedding yesterday. He had an absolute blast and was really well behaved - even though he was up more than 2 hours past his bedtime. Tom and Nicole picked a great location - 2941 in Falls Church and kept the ceremony and dinner very intimate with just over 20 people. I did the photography for them and had a blast with it. Once the pictures are done (so far i've made the cut from 550 to 350 - processing is next) they'll be over on smugmug.

This is the beautiful place where they had the ceremony...
I turned the camera over to the best man so that I could be in a few pictures. I think I can count on one hand the number of pictures of us as a family. Luckily, since we were all dressed up this was a great opportunity.
Ryan is definitely one of the guys now. First gets into the "guys" picture, then he started gazing longingly and Grandpa's beer. I didn't have the heart to tell him that it was non-alcoholic.

Here's one of the whole family. On the ends are Ryan's great-grandparents who flew in from Detroit. In the middle, of course is his new Aunt, Nicole.
Nicole is one of the biggest fans of kids that I have ever met. While there was no shortage of attention paid to Ryan, since it was Nicole's party, she wanted to make sure he had a good time.

The Life of Ryan

It's not easy being 8 months old. Ryan (and as a result Lisa) has a pretty full schedule now. On Monday he started swim class. That's going to be twice a week for the next month. I may need to take some time off from work to get some pictures of him in the pool. There's a new play group on Mondays too. The kid's going to need his own Outlook calendar before we know it.

There was big excitement today too. Ryan's great-grandparents (on Lisa's mother's side) arrived from Detroit last night for Tom and Nicole's wedding. Ryan met them for the first time today. No pictures yet, but there will definitely be a ton after Saturday.

Great weather, great fun

Today may have been a gloomy mess, but yesterday was absolutely gorgeous. We went to Uncle Mike and Aunt Kristy's house for a birthday party for Ryan's cousins Anna and Catherine. Grandma and Grandpa were here from New Jersey and Mike and Kristy have a great backyard.
Grandpa helped Ryan stretch his legs after the car ride to Arlington...
Then Grandma got him bouncing on the big blue ball.
He surrended the ball to Anna, the birthday girl. She just turned 1 but I think Ryan outweighs her by a couple pounds. She stands up to him well though.
We managed to avoid the silly string fight. The other birthday girl, Catherine didn't though.Once the six year olds moved on, Ryan got to play in the mini Moon Bounce. He was a little unsure of it at first, but after Mommy helped him move around he was happy.
I kept thinking that Grandpa was going to try to take Ryan home with him. The two of them had a great time together. Getting kisses is always fun, but adding a scruffy beard to the mix is even more amusing.Ryan always says good night to the "baby in the mirror" after his bath. Yesterday he got to say hello to one during the party.

Well, this turned out to be a long post, but there was a lot going on. We all had a great time and it definitely made Lisa and I think about Ryan's first birthday coming up this summer. Time definitely flies.

More milestones

Today we are wishing our niece, Catherine, a very happy 6th birthday. That's right, my brother's daughters were born a day apart.

Also, Ryan's second tooth has poked through the gums right next to the first one. You'll see the photos as soon as we have them.

Messy Dinner

Before we get into the pictures today, there are a couple of important milestones I wanted to point out today.

First, I want to say Happy 4th Anniversary to my beautiful wife and the mother of our son. He should be thanking us too but we'll give him some time.

Next - a very Happy 1st Birthday to Ryan's cousin Anna. At this time last year we were in Emeryville wondering whether or not she would be born on our anniversary. If I remember correctly she made it out with a couple hours to spare. We are looking forward to celebrating with everyone this weekend.

On to today's events - when I got home from work tonight I was greeted by the smiling face of Ryan, doing his best impersonation of Grimmace from the old McDonald's commercials. Apparently, eating blueberries in a mesh feeder will do that to you. He even managed to turn his hands a lovely shade of purple.

By the time dinner was over, he had added some cottage cheese and beef stew to the party. His attempts at "painting" with the feeder led to the lovely pattern on the highchair tray as well as the rather artistic swipe across his head.

I can't wait to see what we end up with when he starts self feeding.

Big Boy Bubble Bath

Ryan has outgrown the kiddie tub that we had for him. Bath time has now moved to the real-deal full-sized adult version. Last night we added bubbles to the mix for the first time.

Just before both Mom and baby got tired of me taking pictures, I managed to get Ryan's hair into a faux-hawk. It's only recently become long enough to pull this off. I am probably the most excited out of all of us.

Snapshots

Here are a couple from yesterday. Relaxing at home before a shopping trip. By the way, if anyone knows a good place to buy a suit for a baby we're all ears.

In this one, what you don't see is Lisa sitting on the couch having a snack. Igor holds the advantage here since he can get all the way on to the couch himself.

Summer Comes Early

OK, after a week away I am going to do some catching up on the blog. We got an early taste of summer this week so Lisa let Ryan cool off by romping around the house in his diaper.

Standing up is the hobby of the moment now. He'll move around from this ottoman to the couches all on his own. It's become so second nature that he can even have a hand free to munch on :)

My First Tonka Truck

Lisa picked this up for Ryan while I was in Alabama. He can walk behind it and push now. I guess he just needs those chubby legs to get a bit longer. If you look closely (or click on the image for a larger size) you can see Ryan's lone tooth making its way in.

8 Months - sort of

On Monday Ryan will be 8 months old. Unfortunately, I will be out of town for work so I can't take or post my monthly photos. So, before I head out of town I wanted to leave you all with some food for thought. A lot people have weighed in on who they think Ryan looks like. Well, with a little help from my mom, we have some more clues....take a look
The first one is, of course, Ryan from Easter. Below that we have one of my brother and me. I am a few months younger in it than Ryan is now. My absurd size aside, I think we have a good idea of some of Ryan's features.

nom nom nom

It was only a matter of time until I got the visual proof...here's Ryan's first tooth poking through. It was no easy task - getting him to smile after dinner, before his bath when he's pretty tired. Lisa amused him while I got the shot. Sorry for the mess on his cheeks. It was just that kind of night.

Frying Pan Park

OK, so I am a little behind in posting pictures from the weekend. We braved a little bit of cold weather and went to Frying Pan Park where they have a little farm. Ryan was pretty intrigued by the cows, a little scared of horses and largely unimpressed with the pigs.

Last year in California, we were packing for our move back on Thanksgiving so we celebrated with a Pizza (from Cheeseboard for the locals - it was awesome). So this was Ryan's first encounter with a turkey.

The sheep were just as interested in the boy as he was in them. Though it's not in the picture, he did actually pet the sheep.

Hazel? green? brown? blue?

I know that kids' eye color takes a little while to settle in, but Ryan's has really been keeping us guessing. Any combination of light, outfit, angle, etc., makes them look quite a bit different.