The Barber Shop

I know there was a great deal of discussion surrounding the trimming of Ryan's curls. And, as you may recall, it was until after his second birthday that scissors touched his locks. Well, we took the next step a couple weeks ago and went to the barber shop with him. I had absolutely no idea what to expect. We went with grandpa and Ryan sat in my lap while grandpa's hair was cut. I thought that at a minimum, he would insist in staying in my lap for his trim. But, as you can see, he sat by himself and had the time of his life. It only took 2 lollipops :)

Ready for baby brother

We are in the final stages of preparation for the new arrival. One of Lisa's friends gave us a bassinet so that we can have an extra place for him to sleep. Of course, Ryan had to test drive it to make sure it is suitable for his kid brother.



I definitely think he fit into a bassinet a bit better when he was two months old, as opposed to two years old:)

A Few Free Moments

It has been a while since I had the chance to just shoot Ryan for no good reason. Saturday afternoon the lighting in the kitchen was right and I wanted to distract him from the fact that he had just busted his lip open :)

It took a little convincing, but I was finally able to get a bit of a chuckle out of him...



I've been taking tons of pictures of him for as long as he's been around. He's just now starting to talk about "Daddy camera", and with a little prodding, will actually look at the lens, instead of being more interested in seeing his picture on the back.


As for this one - laughing, singing - i am not sure. whatever it was certainly amused him at the time.

More Tricks Than Treats

I would love to tell you that Ryan looked fantastic in his fireman costume, that he loved trick or treating and that halloween is now his favorite holiday. I could tell you all of that, but none of it would be true. Our strong willed child instead opted for a firetruck shirt, romping in the leaves and visiting 1.5 houses.

We went over to Uncle Mike's house for the evening. To date, Uncle Mike is most famous to Ryan for breaking the doors off a matchbox ambulance 25 years ago when we were kids. Him and his girls had fantastic costumes. Catherine dressed as Hermione, Anna as Cinderella and my brother as some professor from Harry Potter whose name escapes me.




You would think that all of this dressing up would inspire Ryan to join in, but his Parmentier stubborness and the massive collection of Thomas trains kept him occupied for a while.





After a little bit of convincing and one of Grandma's cookies, Ryan did agree to put on his boots and head outside. He stomped in the leaves and went "flying" with grandma and grandpa...





There were two attempts at trick-or-treating. In the first aborted attempt, Ryan made it half way to the door. On the second try, Grandma got him all the way to the house to get his candy!! Another day in the life of Ryan.

More Fall Fun

After a trip to New York a few weeks ago we stayed with my parents in NJ to relax for the weekend. Unfortunately, that relaxing turned in to nasty colds for Lisa and Ryan and a case of walking pneumonia for my mom.

Before all of that set in, though, we made it to a great pumpkin patch and farm.

Ryan really wanted to pick up his own pumpkin but just wouldn't settle for one his own size...





The Farm was filled with all sorts of great animals. There were sheep and goats and cows, llamas and alpacas. There were even Zonkeys!! yes, a cross between a zebra and a donkey.







but for Ryan, the most entertaining thing around was the barn cat that he found wandering around the yard..




The trip to NY needs its own update - just imagine my 6.5 month pregnant wife taking the subway with our spirited toddler who has no problem yelling about the lady with a mole on her face. all this for a few hours at the Bronx Zoo; Or mornings in Central Park where Lisa was the only actual mom, as opposed to a nanny, there with her child....the hits just keep coming.

Fall Tradition

We made our now annual trip to Cox Farm a few weeks ago. Yes, I am that behind on the blogging. We actually went on opening day since we got free tickets as members. It was pretty remarkable - the lines to pick up free tickets were huge, but if you wanted to fork over $15 per person there was no waiting :)

The free apples and cider were great, but i think there was some false advertising going on with the cider barrels...






When it comes to slides, Cox Farm has everyone else beat. The twisty Barn slide, the long, slick volcano slide and even ones that Ryan can tackle on his own are all awesome. Speaking of the volcano slide, Ryan was so excited to go down again that at one point he got a little too far ahead of Lisa and ended up tumbling down by himself. He was sideways by the time he got to the bottom, and a little shocked, but ge got right back up and climbed the hill for more.






In one unfortunate turn of events, we found out the hard way that Ryan was not quite ready for his first pony ride. I rarely post pictures of him upset, but his fear, was actually kind of cute - in that two year old tantrum kind of way...



Kettle corn, pigs, goats, tractors and trains - that place keeps Ryan entertained for a really long time. As long as we stay in NoVa, I am sure we will be going back each year. Just watching him this year as opposed to last year was amazing. I can't wait to see what next year will have in store for him - and his baby brother.

check out the rest of the pictures here...

http://zolandzfamily.smugmug.com/Children/Cox-Farm-2009/9736226_vDWD4/1/#659117560_oYJMx-A-LB

The Other Camera

It is a very rare occasion that I look at Lisa's camera. And it is even rarer still that I find pictures of Ryan that I haven't seen in a while. Well, the stars aligned b/c of our trip to New York (more on that later) and these gems were uncovered.

These were taken a couple days after Ryan's second birthday. He was playing with his new easel and paints. The concept of using the paper hadn't quite set in yet, but it was still better than the walls....

Funnel Cakes and Police Cars

We knew that police cars were among Ryan's favorite things....funnel cakes were a wild card. Really though, can you go wrong with fried doug covered with sugar?




Ryan got to play cop and criminal sitting in both the front and back of the police car....





Even more impressive, though were the lights tucked behind the grill of the undercover cars...