Discovery Museum

Last weekend the three of us took advantage of the sunshine, and headed over to Sausalito to the Bay Area Discovery Museum.  An awesome place for kids to truly discover everything, with an even more awesome view.  However, on this particular day, everyone else in the bay area had the same idea, as it was packed.  Good thing a good portion of the activities are outside, so it didn't seem so claustrophobic.  Next time we go, it'll be on a weekday!

practicing putting on his own sunglasses on the car ride over there...he almost got it right

making music with washers, hours of entertainment 

giant foam shapes

Ry loved running across this replica bridge to "scare" Daddy at the other end 

construction zone 

giant nest

told you the view was awesome...that's the Golden Gate Bridge in the background 

Cousins

Some day, these two will hate me for posting this picture.  But since they still don't know what the word "hate" means, I figured I can do this.  It was just too cute of a moment not to share.  Plus, when you're older, it's not so appropriate to go running around in your skivvies with family members.  So why not celebrate being little?  Cheers to Ryan and Alexandra, and those two adorable bellies!

Sonoma bike ride

Today was a "wake up and decide what to do last minute" kind of day.  We don't often get those, or make the most of the ones we do get, but today was different.  We decided to load up the bikes on the car and head up to Sonoma to do some exploring.  Not sure if it was the fresh air, the sun that decided to peek through the clouds the minute we started riding, or the beautiful scenery.  But it was a fabulous morning. 

I started off the ride with Ryan on the back of my bike (per his request, or demand I should say), but riding with both children on board and me being in pregnancy shape made me a bit too slow for everyone's liking.  So Eddy and I switched bikes and all of us were happier.   

 We found a great little playground mid-ride, that gave Ryan a chance to stretch his legs, and gave Eddy a chance to act like a kid too.  The two of them spent a good amount of time racing Ryan's matchbox cars down the slides, and having a good laugh about it the entire time.  

tired of seeing the firetruck sweatshirt?  So am I, but he'll wear it without a fight, and that's one battle I'm not willing to deal with anymore.  So firetruck sweatshirt it will be until it no longer fits.  

 Amazingly, Ryan really didn't mind having his helmet on today, and at the end of our ride he asked to ride his own bike.   The one he got for Christmas and has refused to ride ever since.  Thankfully we brought it just in case, and so off we went through the parking lot and down the trail with Ryan leading the way on his Strider.  He had a blast, and did really well on it for a first timer.  Great success!

Valentine's Day

It was a regular work day around here, but that doesn't mean there weren't heart shaped sugar cookies and plenty of love to go around.  

Here is Ry with a post nap cookie....

those blue eyes still get me every time!

"CHEESE!"

serious bed head.  No worries, a haircut was had the very next day 

We also had our big ultrasound that day for baby #2, and found out "it" is a "SHE"!  We are thrilled about having a baby girl.  What better way to celebrate a baby girl than to be surrounded by pink and red hearts and ribbons and such.  A perfect day.  

rainy day fun

We haven't had many rainy days this winter mind you, but we did get one earlier this week.  So I took out the camera to capture the fun.

a break in the rain, so out we went in the fireman boots 

the drainage is too good in our neighborhood, no big puddles! but we tried to find them anyway

Fun with Play-do 

two and a quarter

All of a sudden our toddler has turned into a boy.  A boy who is speaking in full sentences, throwing less and less tantrums, and is overall much more reasonable.  I have learned the art of giving him choices..."Do you want to pick out a book to read, or do you want Mommy to do it for you?"  Given how independent he has become, that almost always works to get him to do what I want, as he would rather do anything by himself than have Mommy do it.  That being said, we have also started implementing the "time out" for those times when he can't quite control himself...usually when he's waiting for dinner to finish cooking.  He does well with it actually, and on occasion he's been known to ask for it.  He gets so proud of himself when he's still sitting in the same place once that timer goes off.  I'm sure it won't always be this easy.  Overall, Ryan is so much fun at this age.  He's still super excited about new things, or exciting things, or even routine things (like the Friday morning garbage truck experience).  And because he can communicate so well now, it makes it that much more fun for us to share with him.  He's a nonstop talker, but it's just so cute we can't say no.

A few more updates on our little man:

• he has become very interested in his "A, B,C's", and loves to point out the letter "R" and "B" in places that I didn't even know had letters on it...like around the rim of the disposal in our sink.  He also loves to write his name and read his name.  Not that he can really do either, but it's a start.
• he has gotten darn good at identifying most colors correctly, although he still confuses orange and red at times
• we are still working on his numbers, and counting...."one, two, seven, eight, nine" is a common order that we hear
• we have ditched the booster seat at the table.  He hated to be buckled in, and it became more of a danger than a help, so now we're struggling with getting him to sit through his meal and learning to ask to be excused.  We're making slow progress on that one.  
• his imagination has begun to take off...pretending to serve me milk, or coffee, or even mac and cheese that he pulls up off the floor.  I swear we didn't teach him that one.  
• as I said before, he really is talking in full sentences...mainly pointing out everything he observes, but there are times when he let's me know he's listening as he repeats phrases that I must say quite a bit, "Good job mommy!" 
• "Garage door going up"
• "Man riding a bike over there!"
• my personal favorite..."No say no to me mommy!"
• the other day I told him we used to call him "Birdie" when he was in my belly, and he said "No, birdies are outside.  There's a baby in your belly".  I didn't even know he understood that there was a baby on the way yet.  
• He still loves books and has begun to "read" them out loud to himself, which is so adorable to listen to
• He still has a great sense of humor, laughing at life and what comes his way.   And he still occasionally shows his sensitive side too.  
• And he still loves trucks, cars, trains, building towers from legos and blocks, running, jumping, climbing, and all things boy.

bath time "A,B,C's"

creating a traffic jam on the couch

building a cake for Mommy

singing the Happy Birthday song 

and then, in true boy fashion, demolishing the cake with his beloved back hoe

what Saturday morning would not be complete without a quick jump on the guest room bed?

Tahoe weekend

Perhaps it is because I am tired and pregnant.  Perhaps it is because we weren't in Tahoe for very long last weekend.  Or perhaps (and I think this is the real reason) it is because Ryan had not one but TWO raging ear infections for the entire weekend, while in Tahoe, that were undiagnosed at the time and which made him miserable -- very hard to sleep and therefore it was hard for mom and dad to sleep, he didn't want to play in the snow or do much of anything really, and his capacity to whine grew by about a million.  Anyway, whatever the reason may be, I took absolutely zero pictures of our weekend in Tahoe.  Sad to say.
Here is the one token shot that Cristen got from her phone at the top of the Summit Six chair at Alpine Meadows (yes, I skied on Saturday, while pregnant...shhh, don't tell)

We spent the weekend up there with my parents who stayed home with sick, whiny Ryan on Saturday so we could ski, Cristen, our good friend Stoo who flew up from San Diego, and Cristen's brother and a few of his friends who flew out from the East Coast.  Luckily the snow held up, and we got in a good day on the slopes.  No injuries, no trauma from any of us.  The weekend was a birthday celebration for myself, Cristen, and Stoo, as our birthdays are all one week apart.
All in all, it was a fun weekend for most of us.  A bit exhausting for some.  And one guilty guilty mom who took her son to the doctor on Monday morning because he just wasn't acting right...to find out he had 2 ear infections (most likely linked to his pink eye that he had 2 weeks ago!  Argh!).  Antibiotics are a miraculous thing, and about a day later Ryan was back to his normal self, aside from a pesky cough that just won't go away.  And for the kid who has hated to take medicine from day one, this guy is loving his "milk medicine" as he calls it.  It looks like milk, and he gets to "drink it all" from a little measuring cup.  Thank goodness, because I don't think I could have handled 10 more days of the eye drop experience.

We did manage to force Ry out into the snow for a brief period, when we got home from skiing my parents were itching with cabin fever.  So Eddy and I powered through our fatigue, forced Ryan into his snow jacket and boots, and forced him down the sled with us in the backyard a few times.  He cried in the beginning, and again we felt somewhat guilty making him do it, but by the time we went back inside and were taking off his snow clothes he declared "That was fun guys!".  Really Ry?  You could've fooled us.