Lazy Sunday

Grandma and Grandpa came down from New Jersey this weekend. Grandpa and I installed new kitchen counters while Grandma had the difficult task of playing with Ryan. After a busy Saturday, we all decided to take it easy today.

Where's Grandma????PEEK-A-BOO!!!
Ryan stopped cruising around the living room long enough to grab a snack from Mommy...Only to have some of it get stuck between his tiny little teeth.
He's getting quite the mop of hair. It almost reaches the base of his neck when it's wet. It looks even funnier when he dangles upside down.

J.W. Tumbles

Ryan started classes at JW Tumbles yesterday. I wasn't able to make it, but I was there for the grand opening last Saturday. It is amazing how many parents and kids come out of the woodwork when one of these places opens for free all day.

It was a little too crowded for Ryan to get much time on the toys - he was pretty much the youngest one there. But the wall length mirror was interesting.
He is really good at giving people kisses these days - seeing his own reflection is no exception.

Today was a very rare treat for me. First, I had some time after work with Ryan to just do a little impromtu photo session. I strapped on the 50mm/f1.4 and went to town. Fixed focal length is always interesting because you can only shoot what you see. No zoom allowed. The 1.4 makes for much better lowlight shooting and fun depth of field. Another rarity these days - I'm posting pictures the same day I took them :)

He definitely has a grasp on what happens when i have the camera out....He'd grab it out of my hand if I let him.
This one shows off the depth of field I mentioned. He is standing without holding on to things every so often now.
There's a problem though. When he gets sleepy, he gets a little clumsy. Somehow he managed to topple the Leapfrog table. He was a little shocked, but no tears.
Grandma and Grandpa got Ryan this cool shirt when we were in Florida. To the right is Ryan's piano. Notice that he has toppled that over too.
Concentration....

First Father Day

I have to say, my first father's day was pretty cool. I got an awesome card that Ryan handmade for me (gotta love non-toxic finger paint) as well as a digital photo frame to keep on my desk at work. Now I have 4 GB of my favorite pictures with me all the time. But the real treat for the day was the 4 hours of extra sleep that I got. I didn't wake up until Ryan was done with his first nap!!!

Tom and Nicole were kind enough to host dinner for all the dads for father's day. Ryan engaged in one of his favorite pastimes with Grandpa - grabbing the pen out of the pocket. I suppose that Lisa and I are partly to blame for this since we brought the pen back from Paris with us.
If you remember the earlier post, Lilli schooled Ryan in the art of stair climbing at Tom and Nicole's. With no one else in his way, Ryan had time to practice for the rematch.
Uncle Tom is starting to practice his baby holding skills...Ryan is a pretty laid back subject. We'll have Tom stop by right before one of Ryan's naps to give him a taste of the real fun.

Cockadoodle Zoo

There is a pretty cool perk to being a member of FONZ (Friends of the National Zoo) - you get to visit the zoo when it's closed to the general public. The drawback - that time is 7:30 to 10 on a Saturday morning. Still, we made the trip from Bristow this morning to check it out. There are two types of people that attend this event - parents w/ their kids, and photographers. Oddly enough, I fit both categories. The photographers, though, put me to shame. Any of you who have looked at me funny, or though, my gosh, why is he carrying that gigantic thing with him - wouldn't believe the gear that folks had in there today. I was jealous. Still, we had a great time. The most active animals, and most interesting to Ryan were the Gibbons. Ryan got a kick out of watching them swing around.
As you can see, the bucket hat has become a summer fixture. It's almost too small though so we're going to be on the lookout for a new one. There were also free snacks - coffee, juice and Krispy Kremes...yum...Of course, no zoo trip would have been complete without a visit to my buddies. I actually got Lisa to agree to give me 5 minutes w/ them just for pictures. Not bad when you consider that Ryan had been up for almost 5 hours without a nap...

7 months - two oceans

Back in November, I posted this picture of Ryan on the shores of the Pacific in Carmel...Well, on Monday he got his first taste of the Atlantic on the beach at the hotel. As you can see, this ocean experience was more interactive for him...

The sand was much more interesting than the surf - the moving water scared him a little at first. The only problem with the sand was that he tried to make it a snack...

10 months old

I am a little late in posting these, but they were actually taken on Ryan's ten month "birthday" while we were in Vero Beach. He had a great time swimming in the pool with Mom, Dad, Grandpa and Aunt Jane.

Florida Family Fiesta

We took to the skies last weekend for the first time since our move back to the East Coast. It was a little less hectic without the pets, but still a bit of a challenge. I don't plug a lot of things here on the blog, but here's a tip for those of you flying with kids under two - on Southwest, if you don't buy a seat for the little one, you can still bring your car seat to the gate. If there are any unsold seats, you can bring your seat on board and strap the child in. We got lucky and were able to do that both ways with Ryan....I wish I could tell you that this was a typical image of him on the flights, but alas, this only lasted for about half an hour each way.

We made the trip down to celebrate my grandfather's 80th birthday. The party was a blast and Ryan got to meet all of his Florida relatives (and a few New Jersey ones too). This one is Ryan and his great-grandparents. In the chair is the birthday boy with my grandmother behind him. I thought it was pretty amusing that Ryan is the only one actually looking at the camera.This little girl is Brianna. She is being held by her older sister, Alyssa. They are both cousins. To add a little more perspective to Ryan's current size, Brianna is 15 months old.
My brother made it to the party too. This is us with my Uncle Bill - Brianna's dad.
My cousin Billy, my Uncle Bill's little hell-raiser, absolutely loves babies. He is always watching out for his little sister and was more than willing to show Ryan the ropes at our Granparents' house.
I think that my mom and dad held Ryan more than Lisa and I did this weekend. In the back is my Aunt Mary - one of Ryan's loyal readers. This was her first chance to meet him but she told me that she already felt like she knew him. I really appreciated that - with family and friends scattered all over, that was my whole goal with this blog.
This was our first trip to Vero Beach in almost 5 years. It was wonderful to see everyone, introduce Ryan and celebrate someone who means so much to all of us. Happy Birthday, Grandpa.

More New Friends

We spent Saturday evening at Uncle Tom and Aunt Nicole's house. Their friends, Matt and Sarah, brought their daughter, Lilli, with them. Her and Ryan had a great time playing together.

As you can see here, they got into a little contest to see who could eat their Mom's keys first...Aunt Nicole volunteered to wrangle to two of them after a series of races up the stairs. We thought Ryan was good, but Lilli left him in the dust...The other treat was being able to play with another little dog. This is RYan getting up close and personal with Duncan.And to top it off, today is Lilli's first birthday. Happy Birthday, kiddo!!!

Farmer Ryan

Over the Memorial Day weekend, my Dad and I built two planter beds in the yard for Lisa's garden. Last week she got all the dirt and plants and set out to start growing our veggies...Little did she know that we have an aspiring farmer in the family....First, he checked out the difference between grass, and the ever intriguing dirt...From there he jumped in with both feet (and legs, arms, face and anything else he could get dirty) to help out his mommy...Such a good little helper...