Free Entertainment

As all of the Northern Virginians know, the weather around here was pretty crummy on Saturday. So we set off in search of some indoor fun. We found ourselves at the play area at Dulles Town Center. Ryan had a great time. Sorry that the pictures are a bit grainy - I was using the wife's camera.




As if that round of free fun wasn't enough, we ended up in the sporting goods store. Ryan manged to find one of those giant exercise balls lying around. With "ball" being one of his favorite words and running being one of his favorite activities, we knew we were in for trouble. He rolled and chased the ball around the entire store for a solid 10 minutes.



If I knew the mall would have been so much fun I would have brought my camera :)

Oh my gosh, we went to the zoo

Can you believe it? Us, of all people, going to the zoo...yeah, i know, sarcasm and the internet don't always connect. We were all up bright and early Sunday morning so we decided to get a few hours out of it before nap time. I love that the zoo is free - that way you don't feel like you need to see the whole thing every time. We targeted the Lemurs (Lisa's favorite) - who were the most active I've ever seen them and, of course, the tigers. You'll see in the obligatory animal pics below that they had raked a ton of leaves in to big piles and the tiger was just hanging out.

Lisa, being the huge animal lover spent a lot of time explaining each animal...




Never one to miss out on a chance to do some exploring, Ryan was all over the place as usual.




And now for the animals...here are two examples - the rest are over on smugmug...

New Stats and a Look Inside

For all of you parents, don't have to explain the horror and guilt that you go through when you see your child upset or in pain. Since I am at work, I'm not a part of that as often as Lisa.

The good news is that we have Ryan's stats from his 15 month check up. The bad news is that he had a really rough day. This is the email that Lisa sent to me to keep me in the loop.

RE: open enrollment
Lisa Zolandz
Sent: Tuesday, November 11, 2008 10:51 AM
To: Zolandz, Timothy W.
Attachments:

weight-25#2oz
length-31.75"
head-48.5cm

that's up 1#1oz, 1", & 1.5cm. he's down to 60th percentile for weight but around 75th for length. not sure about the head but i know its big :)
we had 4 shots and a trip to labcorp :( they pulled blood at lab corp to test for peanut and tree nut allergies. it took 2 sticks and then he was an incredibly slow bleeder. i'd say this qualifies as ryan's worst day of his life so far. i would have stopped to buy him some icecream or some sort of treat but i think he would have had a fit in the store. i think we'll do an early nap today. obviously we're not doing playgroup today. the blood draw was horrible :(


I can only imagine how rough is was on her - not to mention what the boy went through. Another day in the life on Ryan and his mom.

Battlefield Park

Saturday was pretty amusing. We went over to the Manassas Battlefield to give Ryan a chance to run around a bit. Well, after we were there for a few minutes, he started to melt down and needed a nap. So we went home. After his nap we decided to make another run at it since it's only a few minutes up the road. That's why you'll see Ryan in the same location on the same day in two different outfits.

I don't know if he was trying to show off his dirty hands or tell me to stop taking his picture....




This is Ryan's tired face. When you see this face, a nap is never far behind. We saw this face and knew that our time at the park was limited...


This is Ryan after his nap. Note the much happier, more energetic face....

15 Months

Our little daredevil turned 15 months old today. See you can see, he continues to be completely fearless...


The little sprints up the street are now an essential part of his day. It's going to get really interesting around here once the weather really turns cold.

I think his car broke down, so we had to get the hood up and see what the issue was...

According to my mom, I had curls like this when I was little too. It's crazy how long his hair really is when it gets wet...

Once he gets really tired, its time to let Mommy know that it's time for bed...

After that, he grabs a book, waves goodnight, says "bye" and it's off to sleep...

Bull Run Mountain

We took off for another fall hike on Saturday. This time Uncle Tom and Aunt Nicole came along too. The pictures you see below represent the best of Ryan's day. What you won't get from the pictures is that the child who is normally out like a light once in the carrier refused to nap, fussed almost the entire time and essentially turned what should have been a three hour hike into a five hour excursion. That being said, the weather was great, the view was wonderful and the fall colors are still incredible. We all still had fun - Ryan included. Lisa and I are realizing just how much we missed having a true Autumn when we lived on the west coast.

Not in the mood for the carrier, Ryan much preferred to stretch his legs and hike himself...


He just wanted to fit in with the rest of of us...


Here he practices his camouflage skills, becoming one with the woods...


The hose from the Camelbak became the absolute coolest thing on the trip for him. It got so bad that I had to take it out of my backpack pack and have Lisa slide it into the carrier. We even let him play with it once we got home...


All that hiking and fussing finally got to him though and he completely pooped out....



Of course that meant that he missed the best part - the view from the top...

Happy (belated) Halloween

This was Ryan's first Halloween as a mobile child so we figured we let him take a stab at trick-or-treating. In the end he managed to collect a whopping 3 pieces of candy. The highlight for him was simply being able to be outside past his bed time running up and down the street.

It took a little while to get the "bat boy" into his costume...


Ok, guys, you got me all dressed up. I am ready to go outside now!!

TRICK OR TREAT!!!!


Hang on a second, daddy, I am not done running around out here yet....

Ready for bed, making his best "bat face"

Rainy Saturday

On Saturday, the weather here in VA was absolutely horrible. We attempted to take Ryan to the play area at Fair Oaks Mall. Apparently every other parent in the area had the same idea and the place was a mad house. So, we were forced to make due with what we have at home.

We played with one of his favorite balls. Ball, by the way is one of the few words that he says that is very recognizable these days. Not quite sure what the fish face is for though.


Playing inside with Mommy and Daddy can't be all bad if we can manage smiles like this...


He decided to surf the net for a little while. This is his laptop. The goal here is to keep him from pulling the keys off ours. If you notice that some of my posts lack the letters "j" and "s" that's why.


But when its all over, Ryan will let us know. This is the universal sign for "all done", "i've had enough" or "look at this awesome mess i just made."

Ryan's Home Gets Remodeled

Well, after a little over a year I thought that the blog could use a make over. The way is was laid out before created too much dead space on the sides so we're going with something a little different here.

I also made a change to the post below this one. Instead of a few pictures I was able to drop in the whole gallery as a slide show.

I hope you all enjoy the new look. We'll see how the slide shows work out too. I love the idea of showing more pictures, but don't want you all to wait forever for the page to load. Let me know what you think!!!

Over the River and Through the Woods

So I just got home from a business trip so I can get back to updating the blog. Sunday was actually a big milestone for us. We left Ryan overnight for the first time. He had a sleepover with Grandma and Grandpa while Lisa and I enjoyed a night away. We spent the days in the mountains and on Skyline Drive and spent the night at L'Auberge Provencale. It is where we got married 4 1/2 years and we love it there. Even though the "blue room" where we had our reception is now yellow, the art work is still there and the food is still phenomenal.

Ryan had an awesome time with his grandparents and I got to take a ton of pictures of things other than him. We definitely missed him, though.

The pictures below have nothing to do with Ryan, so you are free to skip over them :)