Silly Quiz

You are Belle from Beauty and the Beast!

Okay it's a silly quiz with totally unrealistic questions, but I've always wanted to be a Disney Princess and now I am, see? ;-)

What Disney Princess are you?
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So Many Cute Moments Today!

We had so many cute moments today that I couldn't just pick one. Ryan has been sitting in anything that he could for the past few weeks. This is one of his favorites. He looked so cute I had to take some pictures. Really it's a table that has 2 sides, a lego side and an activity side. He takes out the flipable part and sits in the bin. I took the legs off when he fell over onto a table and hit his head. He still likes to sit in it. I keep thinking how much he needs a chair, but I put a little sofa on his Christmas list. I don't want to go out and buy a chair if someone is getting him the sofa, so we are just going to wait until Christmas. Maybe I'll get a couple bean bags chairs for the play room for Christmas. I've thought of a couple things to add to his Christmas list just by watching him today. Like a portable musical device of some kind. He loves to carry around the Leap Frog Fridge Farm that Erin and Ben gave him for his birthday. He will make it play a song and he holds it and dances. I should write these things down as I think of them because I know there are some I can't remember now.
I was busy thinking about blogging about the table/chair when a package arrived from my mom. Boy was that a big hit! First I got out the very cute, soft bear and Ryan got a huge grin on his face. Apparently one of Mom's German friends made the bear. How cool is that? I've gotten some really great gifts that mom's friends have made. He cuddled the bear for a while. Again, out came the camera. I just missed an adorable kiss that he gave the bear. We went back to the rest of the gift. Ryan grabbed a book from the package and plopped down in my lap to read. After reading the two books I started uploading the pictures. I should have known better because he got the box and put it on his head and started playing peek-a-boo! Duh- The box is always their favorite part! The instant the photos were uploaded I unplugged the camera and took some pictures of his peek-a-boo game. It was a fun day!

In case you don't know-CLICK ON THE PICTURES FOR BETTER RESOLUTION. And if you move the mouse over the better picture's bottom right corner a small square will appear to expand the picture even more!
This boy so needs a chair!

Soft bear

Where's Ryan?


Peek-a-boo!

Long, Busy Weekend

It was a long busy weekend, hence the lack of blogging. Thursday of course we had thanksgiving dinner with the Dunnings, but you knew that because of the Happy Thanksgiving Picture:-) Dinner was delicious as always. Ryan did well, but he liked exploring all the different places in the house. It got very tiring chasing him around that big old place! Zach read the blessing for the meal and helped serve dessert. We should have thought about pictures earlier because that turkey really took a toll on everyone in our family. The boys did all right in spite of the tiredness. They were real troopers;-)
Friday Lindsay and I had a massages thanks to my very thoughtful husband:-) It was very nice to hang out with someone and not worry about the kids for a while. Then it was back home to get everyone ready for our family pictures. That actually went very well. We had a good photographer that was able to keep Zach and Ryan to look at the camera at the same time. We spent way too much money because we liked most of the pictures so much. I think we both think it was worth it to have some really good family pictures especially since we had never done it before. Plus I think we might be able to get a few good Christmas gifts out of the deal. Friday night Ben came over and hung out. He read Ryan stories and then he and Jay went out to rent a movie. This is something I may never let happen again. They rented Chronicles of Riddick(the sequel to Pitch Black). In all fairness they thought we would all like it because we all liked Pitch Black. However it was totally different from the first movie and quite cultish and strange. Oh well, at least we had an interesting discussion about it after.
Most of Saturday was spent running errands and cleaning in preparation for Sunday.
Sunday was Ryan's Dedication. It went fine. I felt very self conscious up on stage in front of the whole church. I think everything was amplified by the tremendous amount of stress I was feeling. We were supposed to be lined up backstage, but since we had not told everyone where to sit we had to wait for them. We never found one person we were supposed to find and I was just hoping she wasn't lost. This might sound really crazy, but I was worried that the house was going to catch fire while we were at church because we left the oven on warm to keep the chili hot. It just seemed like the next logical thing to happen since nothing seemed to be going right. There were many other factors contributing to my stress. Among them hosting people at my house after the service. I felt like I had no control since I wasn't there yet. There were so many things I wanted to have ready that I didn't get to before hand. I don't know why I stressed myself out so much about it. Everything really worked out fine. Ryan behaved beautifully the whole time. I just kept focusing on every little thing that was wrong instead of being in the moment and enjoying myself. This is probably why I don't like to be the center of attention. I can't think of anything except what might be wrong. I think I might be a little to focused on other people's perceptions. Perhaps so focused on it that I make a fool of myself and give the very opposite impression of what I want because I don't want anything to go wrong. Wow this has been like a mini-therapy session;-) All in all the dedication went pretty well I think. If I focus on the good things instead of the bad I might even say it was good;-) The get together after was nice. Grandma and the Dunnings all came over. It was a pleasant party. Everyone seemed to enjoy the white chili, sandwiches and dip I made for the occasion. It was really great to get to talk to everyone. Especially my grandma since I have not seen her in so long. Ryan was down for his nap for most of the time people were there, but when he woke up he really enjoyed all the attention. He was all smiles and giggles. The rest of Sunday was spent relaxing and recovering from the busy weekend. Jay seemed to sense how much I needed a break so he did all the dishes from the party and took care of the kids while I took a bath.
Today I ordered some Christmas presents and played with Ryan per the advice of our sermon on Sunday-'Slow down and enjoy things' was the basic message. It was a really great message. I definitely needed it after this weekend!

A Better Time at Picture People

We went to Picture People to get family pictures. The photographer ws much better at getting Ryan to smile this time. I was left with the decision of what pictures to get because I liked them all instead of what picture to get because none of them were that great. So we used our coupon and got 5 "poses" for the price of 3. At least we will be able to use them as Christmas gifts! I really didn't plan on spending that much money! Well we've never done family pictures before, so I feel like it was worth it to get some nice pictures to preserve images of our family just the way we are now. I don't think Jay knows this, but I really want to make a yearly event out of this. I think next year we will try JC Penney; They seem to have better prices.
Family Photo 

Zach and Ryan 

Mommy and Ryan 

Daddy and Zach 

Close up Family Picture 

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

I hope everyone had a wonderful day!

Happy Thanksgiving! 

One Step Forward and Two Steps Back

Ryan's new favorite thing to do is walk around backwards. At first I thought he was trying to catch his balance. Then I realized he was doing it again and again, grinning ear to ear. It's actually quite amusing to watch; he gets such a kick out of himself and his new talent.

Zach Video

Today; between striping beds, doing laundry, and putting it away and a little trip to the emergency room; I made a video of Zach's summer escapades. It is up on my website now.

About our little(3 hour) trip to the emergency room, Ryan fell and split his lip on the inside. I thought he would need stitches and so did the nurse across the street. After looking pretty hard(and I think debating in his head) the PA decided it would heal on it's own. Ryan seems fine. The lip bleeds every now and then, but he doesn't seem to notice it now. He screamed really hard when it happened, but about 15 minutes later he wanted to go about his business of exploring and climbing again. I think I was more upset about the whole thing than Ryan. I didn't know if I would be able to watch them stitch up my baby:-( Jay started figuring out how to come home as soon as I called since he takes the bus from here to the city. Thanks to Mr. Dunning picking him up and getting him to us he was there by the time we were seen(well, he was in the cafeteria when we went back to the room, but by the time the PA arrived he was there). So we are all fine and home now.

Fall Fun

Today I started raking the leaves in our front yard. I only got about half way done because Ryan kept running down the sidewalk. It seemed futile when as soon as I made one swipe with the rake Ryan was off down the sidewalk. He would turn back and look at me with a big smile on his face that seemed to say 'I love our fun game of chase, mom. Aren't you going to come get me now?' He's pretty cute when he's being mischievous. I'm going to have to watch out for that!
He played in one of the leaf piles for a little while, but he didn't have the enthusiasm for it that I know Zach will have when he gets back from seeing 'The Incredibles' with Jay.

Yea for leaves!

Baby Dedication

We are dedicating Ryan to the Lord next Sunday. As it is not as big a deal in our church as a Christening is in some other churches we did not feel we should invite people without telling them that. It's not as personal as a Christening because there will be many families dedicating their babies at the same time. Of course all are welcome to come celebrate with us. We will probably have anyone who comes back to the house, but it won't be a big deal. This event is important to us for the meaning. We are promising before God and everyone to raise our little boy in a Christian home. If you would like to come please e-mail me or call me to let me know. I will send out an e-mail with the information since it's late notice. We just had our meeting about it at the church.

Flu Shot

Ryan got his flu shot today, well at least the first half. I was pretty conflicted about giving him a vaccine that he didn't NEED since he hates the shots so much. In the end I decided it was best to protect him especially with Zach in his first year of school getting exposed to all those new germs. Ick. It was especially hard since the moment we walked into the exam room he started crying. I guess he realizes what's coming now. Poor little guy:-( Hopefully he won't have too many more visits with shots and he'll be a bit less scared when we visit the doctor.

Copy Cat

Ryan is doing some of the cutest things. There is a Wiggles song "Rock-a-bye Your Bear" that has movements that go with it. The words go with the movements-Everybody clap-he puts his hands together; sing-says "lala"; turn around-spins around; hands in the air-puts his hands up; rock-a-bye your bear-makes a cradle with his arms and turns his whole body back and forth; bear is now asleep(sh-sh-sh)-he puts the tip of his finger in his mouth and blows(he is supposed to put his finger in front of his mouth and make the sound "sh- sh-sh"). He will usually copy the movements from me or Zach. I tried to get it on tape because it's so cute, but when the video camera is out he gets interested in other things(especially the camera!) and doesn't do the dance. :-( I have a whole song of Zach doing the dance. Ryan comes in and out of the picture sometimes he turns around, but he doesn't do the movements. Maybe this weekend we can try Ryan doing the dance with me and Jay can record. Trust me though, it's VERY cute.
This morning I changed the paper towels and I made a noise in the tube. Ryan thought it was great. So I gave him the tube and told him say "ahhhhhhh". He put the tube on his mouth and made his noise and laughed. Then he held it up for me to do my noise and we took turns. It was fun and cute, so again I get out the camera and again the little monkey thinks it is more interesting to try to get the camera.
He did the same thing at Picture People. He was more interested in the camera and the props behind it than sitting on the background, looking at the feather duster and smiling. Erin's baby, Ben, however is a little cutie who did a great job smiling for the camera and looking adorable.
Oh, well. Maybe some day Ryan will perform for the camera.

It's in the Genes

Ryan loves to play the keyboard. Check out his first performance. I'm so glad he has Daddy's love and talent for music;-)
You can get this movie from my website as well. I've also updated the Christmas list page if anyone needs ideas.

No One is Blogging

I keep checking, but none of my favorite blogs have been updated:-( I'm bored. This is what I do after the bus stop and there is nothing to read. No e-mail, no blogs entries, no comments. I'm not sure what to do with myself. Maybe I'll start online shopping, but I might get too into that and not get offline very soon. Then poor Ryan will have to amuse himself for a very long time. Blog time is perfect because it usually doesn't take too long, but it's enough to make me feel like I have an idea what's going on outside my little world of cleaning and kids. You would think Christina would have plenty of time to blog since it snowed in Boston, but I guess Boston doesn't shut down like Baltimore when it snows.
Ryan is happily sorting his shapes, so I guess I'll try to look for some Christmas presents for a while.

Emily Rose Davies

Welcome to the world, Emily Rose!

Landon and Katie with their new baby girl, Emily Rose.

We went to the hospital to visit the new and improved Davies family today. She is so precious and small! It's funny to imagine she and Ryan will be close enough in age to be great friends. He is so much bigger and does so many more things than she does now, but in elementary school they will only be one grade apart! Katie and Landon seem so happy to have their very own precious bundle. Landon is already learning the ropes. He is apparently an expert swaddler;-) God Bless, Davies Family:-)

Congratulations Davies Family!

Congrats to our friends Katie and Landon Davies on the birth of their new baby. I just found out.

Emily Rose Davies was born yesterday at 11:16am
She was 8 lbs 7 oz and 19 ¾ inches long

Hopefully we will be able to visit soon if Mommy and Daddy are up for it. I'll post pictures of the happy family when I get some:-)

Never Again!

Remind me never to brag about Ryan's night time sleep successes again! Yesterday he wouldn't take his second nap and last night he woke up twice. At 5:30 he decided it was time to get up and I couldn't get him back to sleep until I gave him something to drink and some food. Just the drink didn't help. Finally around 6:30 he went back to sleep and I got to get a little sleep before I had to be up to get Zach off to school. I'm soooooooo tired!

Hooray for a Full Night's Sleep!

Ryan has slept completely through the night 3 out of the past 4 nights! I didn't want to write about it earlier because I thought it wouldn't happen again. 3 nights is a pretty good streak though and I thought it deserved attention. I actually feel like I got almost enough sleep last night. It's a strange feeling. I don't think I've felt it for a year and a half! Last night I went to bed at 9:30 and it's a lucky thing I did because Ryan did get up a little early this morning. 6:30 doesn't seem as early when you went to bed at 9:30. Don't get me wrong I still didn't want to get up, but it was a lot easier than it would have been if I had stayed up later;-) Yea for a good night's sleep!!!

Very Bad Daughter

Yesterday was my mom's birthday. I am a very bad daughter. I didn't even get to call her on her birthday! I wanted to, but the morning and early afternoon kind of slipped away from me with Zach's teacher conference and errands. Mrs. Dunning was kind enough to stay and watch the boys so I could go to the grocery store all by myself. I guess I got a little carried away with the freedom. By the time I realized I hadn't called it was too late over there. It's hard for me to remember to call before it's too late in Belgium. Sorry mom! I did try to call today, but no one was home. I also forgot to mail her birthday gift. ::smacking self in head:: So since there was so much anticipation about what I got her from the Decoy Festival I thought I'd at least post a picture. Then I will stick it in the mail. It's a carving of a mouse on an apple. A cute little pin perfect for my mouse loving mom:-) I thought it was adorable and had to get it.
Happy Birthday, Mom! 

Teacher Conference

We had a meeting with Zach's first grade teacher this morning. She had many glowing things to say about him. She was very confident that we made the right decision to put him in first grade. That was more than a little bit of a relief. We are very glad he is in the right place and thriving. He loves first grade and is doing very well in all his subjects. Thanks to everyone who prayed for wisdom for our decision and a smooth transition for Zach. It seems to have paid off!

Promised Pictures

Here are the pictures I bought at Picture People. Not my favorite pictures of him, but they look professional and they are not bad pictures. I wanted to have professional 1st birthday pictures and now I do.
1 Year Old Picture 

Ryan is 1! 

Zach's Game

They lost, but they had fun:-) Sorry the picture of Zach playing is fuzzy, but it's the only one I got where someone was not in front of him:-(

Soccer player, Zach

Zach is in red with blue pants and sleeves

Zach's Soccer Game

Zach has a soccer game tomorrow at 12:30 if anyone wants to come call or e-mail me for directions:-) It's going to be his only "game", so it's your only chance to see him in action.

"One Year Old" Pictures

I went to Picture People to get Ryan's "one year old" pictures because I had a coupon for a free print. If you ever decide to go there make an appointment first! They say you don't need one, but I was at the mall for 3 hours and when you are trying to work it in between naps that is a LONG time. We got there a little before 1:00 and they said they could fit us in around 1:40. In the moment it didn't seem like a long time to me. Erin opted to go another time because she didn't think Ben would last that long. She did stick around for me though. That was really sweet of her. So we wondered around the mall for a little while. When we got back they were ready for Ryan. The photographer expected that Ryan would stay in one place when I put him down. This was her first mistake. I put him down and she started shaking a colorful duster at him. This puzzled him I think. He looked at it for a minute, but was more interested in the camera equipment and the props that were behind her. He actually had some really cute moments with the props in the "backstage area" too bad the photographer didn't move them to the backdrop area before he got bored with them. He was interested in a gingerbread man after he had moved on she decided to put that over on the backdrop. Too late. There were more interesting things. He had already seen that. She was very set on one thing. Second mistake, toddler's attention span is about that of a housefly. So I asked if I could put something new on the backdrop even though it said props will be used at the sole digression of the photographer. If she had been ready to take a picture as soon as I put it down she could have gotten something. After a few seconds Ryan just pushed the prop(a gift box) to the edge of the mat. Grrr. Then we tried a snowflake and she was still shaking that stupid duster at him. He didn't smile much, but when he did she totally missed it. Then they tell me that the pictures will be ready to look at in an hour. Ben was really ready for his nap, so Erin went home. Ryan and I hung out, but he started getting fussy. I went back to tell them that I was going to have to leave and they said the pictures were ready. They had printed out a 10x13, 5x7 and wallet sheet of every pose. The lady said, "You can have everything on this table for two ninety-seven." $297! Who has $300 to spend on photos that are not even that good?! Then she said, "Will that be enough photos for you today?" I wanted to take my free photo and run, but I caved under the high pressure sales. Really not that as much as I wanted to get copies for my parents and Jay's parents. So I picked the two poses that I liked the best. I got the free 10x13 and I was going to buy the sheet of 5x7s. Of course the sheets are $18 a piece. That seems like a lot to me, but I don't know. I've never done professional pictures except for the wedding and those seemed expensive to me too. Then she presented me with a deal that seemed good at the time, but now I'm not so sure. You can join the portrait club and get free sittings for a year plus 3 free sheets. Of course the next two free sheets have to be used on the next two visits, but that didn't seem like a huge deal at the time. I figure I'll take both the boys and get them done together and maybe do the whole family another time. The portrait club is $39.95, so basically I would get 3 free sheets and only spend $20 more than I was planning on spending. Hmmm. Seems like a good deal. Plus I could use a coupon for a free 10x13 every time too, so I'd get even more for my money. So I went for it. Now I'm not sure it is such a good deal. Maybe other places don't charge $18 per sheet and I could get more pictures anyway. I don't know! Anyone with experience in this area have some advice?!
I'll post the pictures that I bought this weekend even though it may ruin the surprise for the grandparents;-) Jay told me he would reinstall the scanner for me today:-) He's such a good Jay:-)

God Bless America!

God Bless America!
A statement. A prayer. A praise!

Zach's Vote

Zach's class had a mock election. He brought home the booklet that had the ballot on it. I noticed he voted for Kerry. I asked him why he voted for Kerry(not in a mean way, simply for the information). He said, "Because he hasn't had a turn yet." I thought it was pretty cute. I did explain to him that when we grow up we decide who to vote for in different ways. We find out what they believe in and the candidate who believes in what we believe in is the one we would vote for. I still think it's a pretty nice thing that he wants to be fair. Maybe some more politicians should follow his example of fairness. Not that they should take turns, just be fair and honest.

Ryan's Fun Day

We took a little trip to Reisterstown to vote and visit great-grandparents today. The voting didn't go so well. Since I'm no longer a resident of Baltimore county I couldn't vote there. I found this out after getting my voting card and changing all the information. I go to sign the back and it says you have to be a current county resident. After talking to about 5 people someone knew what I had to do. Apparently they have something called a provisional ballot. I had no idea. What I really needed to do is drive 5 minutes down the street Zach's school and fill out a provisional ballot with my new and old information. At least the trip wasn't a waste. Ryan and I went to visit my grandparents. They loved watching him play and explore. Pop really had a good time with him talking, feeding squirrels and showing him the ceiling fan. It was fun for me to watch too:-) I really loved watching the love between Ryan and his great-grandparents grow as he begins to remember people and build real mutual relationships. I'm thankful that Ryan will know at least 3 of his great-grandparents and will have met another one(she lives in Michigan, so he may not get to see her a lot). I had 3 great-grandparents live until I was a teenager and I felt so blessed to know them that well. I do have some memory of 2 of my other great-grandparents, but I was much younger when I got to see them and they didn't live as close. I have been very blessed with a strong family and I'm so glad Ryan will have that too.

After we got home Ryan had some more fun. He found a new place to play. He has always liked taking the pots and pitchers out of our corner cabinet, but today he thought it would be fun to climb in and play. It's a good thing he's so cute because the trail of stuff he leaves behind everywhere he goes is getting bigger and bigger. It's hard to walk in my kitchen without stepping on a gladware bowl or another random plastic object that we keep within Ryan's reach! As soon as I pick one up he's already pulled out 5 more.
This looks like a fun cave to explore!