Indoor Alternatives III - Play with your brother

When all else fails, and there's nowhere else to go, you can stay home and play with your brother. With Evan learning to laugh and smile, he is even more interesting to Ryan. He loves that his antics get a reaction from his little bro.

First, a little game of peekaboo..

Then a quick lesson on toys...





And finally, some quality hugs and pictures...

Indoor Alternatives - the inflatable version

When the mall is too far and you don't mind spending a few bucks, there are some other great indoor options for the little guy. The newest one out here is Jump-N-Jimmy's - a bunch of moon bounces on an astroturf floor in a warehouse. Throw in free coffee, wifi and TV for the parents and it works out pretty well...

Indoor Alternatives

Between finding time to download the pictures off the camera and a business trip out west, I am pretty far behind on posting - two weeks as a matter of fact. So let's rewind to Valentine's weekend. It can get difficult to keep a toddler entertained when it is cold, snowing, and/or too snow covered to do anything outside.

Step one was the play area at Tyson's Corner. Clearly we were not the only parents to come up with such a brilliant idea as the place was mobbed. Ryan darted among all the other kids (as we tried to keep him from pushing his way through) managed to burn off some energy.

Occasionally he would stop to take a little break and survey the scene.



After we finished there, him and I took a few laps around the food court in the train. I have to say, this was a big deal for me as he actually chose me over his mommy to ride with. Opportunities like that a few and far between.





In part two of this series, we will explore the world of indoor bounce houses....

Evan is Two Months Old

Scary fact - since Evan's birth, we have received roughly the equivalent of an inch of snow for every day he's been with us. I don't know what he brought with him, but it has been once heck of a winter.

Evan is an awesome baby. In the past week has started to sleep through the night. He is making all sorts of fun baby noises and smiles tons. Evan is also really focusing on what is around him - especially his brother. Lisa swears he has a special cry to let her know when Ryan is pestering him :)

I didn't have much time to shoot him today but here are a couple of him asleep after dinner...check out those chubby cheeks...

He still has quite a bit of hair although some of it has fallen out. The blue eyes are still hanging in there too so I am keeping my fingers crossed...





Even from a couple weeks ago, you can tell how much hair he used to have - and how much chunkier he is getting...



As the second child, he is also quite adaptable. He gets to come along on Ryan's adventures so he has become quite comfortable being worn...




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We will get his official stats tomorrow when he goes in for his two month checkup. All in all, he is a really happy baby. Once we get over the spitting up phase we will be in even better shape!

We Got Some Snow

In case you hadn't heard, we got a little bit of snow here in Virginia last week. According to the official Bristow Snow meter, this is how much we got...

The streets in our subdivision definitely we not designed to account for this much snow. Between the plow and the shoveling most of these piles are at least my height.









It wasn't until a few days after the storm subsided that we were able to take Ryan out. He came down with a really bad chest cold as the weather rolled in. Simply getting the boys ready to play outside is a production itself. Ryan was intrigued by his snowpants whereas Evan was slightly less enthusiastic about his cold weather gear...





Once we got outside, Ryan was pretty amazed at how deep the snow was and was none too happy when he sank in up to his chest. Weighing in at a whopping ten pounds, Igor didn't fall at all.





He settled on to a nice high mound where he could engage in his two favorite snow past times - eating it, and throwing it.

Two and a Half

Well, we are half way through the terrible twos. The little buddy had his half birthday today. While the other kids in the neighborhood have been outside in the snow, poor guy has been cooped up with a nasty cold, taking a nebulizer every 4 hours. I am hoping we get a clean bill of health at our follow up appointment tomorrow so that we can go outside.

here are a couple snaps from today, and a few from the other night in the bath. He is growing up so fast, talking a mile a minute and repeats everything we say. That is going to get us in trouble pretty soon.

Driving, parking and towing get taken very seriously.


i had to put the camera down pretty soon after this one as he was charging right at me. He spent a decent amount of time doing laps around the house burning off excess energy...




Bath time is fun....

Smilin' When Your Friends Are Watching

Evan is starting to show off a few smiles these days. They are pretty tough to catch but I was able to grab one. The babbling is picking up too. We had forgotten a lot about what it is like to have a baby around - the noises, the eyes darting around. Add to that an incredibly curious toddler and you've got one hectic household.

Here is the smile that I caught, a couple others of Evan....

The Tank

What you see here is the boys' latest and greatest mode of transportation. Forgetting for a moment that Ryan is a sponge and will repeat anything, I asked him if he wanted to ride in "the tank". Well, one mention was all it took and that is now the official name of the larger-than-life, barely-fit-in-the-car, child mover. By the way, it's a Baby Jogger City Elite for those of you interested in such things...

While we are at it - the reason we piled in to the tank that day was to head off to the park. It was a snooze fest for Evan, but Ryan, as a always had a ball.

He has pretty much mastered this monkey-bar climbing system. I have to say, it is pretty scary watching your son step off with little below his feet...





Playing can be serious business....





Until a plane flies by as a distraction....