Ryan's Nicknames

For some reason, Dan and I always end up creating lots of silly nicknames (for each other, our boys, our dog, etc.) I remember writing a blog entry a long time ago listing some of the nicknames that had evolved for Ethan during his first few months ("little boo-bah" being one of them, which is where our blog's URL originally came from). We decided that we should also record the nicknames that we've, for whatever reason, consistently used for Ryan so far:

Little One
Little Man
Smiley
Mr. Goo (He says "goo" and "gaa" a lot)
Mr. Goober (of course naturally came from "Mr. Goo" ;)
Uber goober
Chub legs (affectionately :) Ethan always had long skinny legs, but Ryan actually has some meat on his bones, so his legs are a tiny bit chubby
Mr. Chubs

So, there you have it, the silly nicknames that we call Ryan. Oh, and we do actually call him Ryan sometimes too!

Smiley Guy

Since Ryan was 4 months old or so, he has become quite the smiley guy. He is nearly always grinning from ear to ear, and sadly I have not been able to capture this in photos much. He's not a fan of the red-eye reduction feature on my camera, so he usually starts out beaming, frowns or furrows his eyebrows at the red-eye reduction light, and then the photo is taken. Tonight I managed to capture a good example of his big smiles :)

Horton Hears a Who

I love the fact that a nearby theater (located just down the street) offers free family movies every summer. Each Tuesday and Wednesday during the summer one or two family-friendly movies are shown completely free of charge. We went to two of them last year, and it was a lot of fun. This summer we are planning to go to three of them, the first of which was Horton Hears a Who. Ethan was somewhat familiar with the story, but preferred watching it on the big screen as opposed to listening to me read it to him. We enjoyed the company of lots of friends (Chris, Sam, Lori, Caelyn, Elise, Sam, and Quinn), and all of the kiddos did really well! We're looking forward to seeing Charlotte's Web and The Tale of Despereaux later this month.

Overly Generous Brother and Visit to the Park

Ethan is a fantastic big brother, and he is always looking out for Ryan. He is quick to help him and to share toys with him. In fact, instead of having issues of him not wanting to share with Ryan, we have problems with him being overly generous with him. Case in point, Ethan wanted to share the soft blocks with Ryan today. Instead of placing two or three on the tray of his swing, he basically covered Ryan in them ;) Fortunately it doesn't bother Ryan in the slightest as you can see from his huge grin.


Dan was off of work today and stayed home with Ryan while Ethan and I explored a new park with our friends Will and Nan. The park itself is not new, but it is new to us. Thanks Beth for letting me know about it! This local park has a wonderful, enormous set of playground equipment just right for toddlers.
Ethan had SO much fun which, unfortunately, resulted in a complete meltdown when it was time to leave. We'll definitely visit this park many more times this summer and fall!

Will and Ethan

Ethan went down some big spiral slides

What a fun morning!

A Day Out With Thomas

We took Ethan to the Day Out With Thomas event last year, and he loved it. We were sure that he would have even more fun this year, as his knowledge and enjoyment of Thomas the Train and his engine friends has grown so much since then. He knows all of the engines' names, colors, and numbers, and has a lot of Thomas trivia memorized. He was thrilled to see the engine decked out like Thomas again. He got to meet Sir Topham Hatt (last year he was really skeptical of him, but this year he eagerly high-fived and hugged him).
Instead of riding in a passenger car pulled by Thomas, this year we decided to ride the caboose train consisting of 6 authentic cabooses. The caboose train provides a longer ride than the Thomas train, and we got to stop twice, stand just outside the caboose, and wave as the Thomas train passed by. Since we took the earliest caboose train ride on a Sunday, we practically had the train to ourselves. There were only 2 other families onboard the entire train. Inside the caboose, you could climb up to the top and look out the windows. Ethan thought that was really neat.
After the train ride we visited the petting zoo, Ethan got to ride a pony, we played with various train sets, rode the barrel train twice, and then grabbed some lunch. It was a fun-filled day!

Ethan was thrilled to ride a pony

Belated Father's Day Celebration

Since on Father's Day Dan was recovering from jet-lag after his long car/train/plane trip, we decided to delay our Father's Day celebration until the following weekend. We spent the day at my parent's house and enjoyed relaxing, eating dinner, and some quality family time. Here are a couple of photos of our boys with Dan and Grandpa G.

Just a Funny Naptime Photo

I went into Ethan's room to wake him from his nap this afternoon, and I found him like this:

Roly Poly- My Little Boy is Mobile!

Ryan has been rolling back-to-tummy and tummy-to-back for awhile now, but today he rolled 3 times in a row completely off of his activity mat. This is the first time that either of our boys have rolled consecutively. Ethan started crawling shortly after he rolled, so he never learned to move around by rolling. Now I have to be careful where I lay Ryan down, because he doesn't stay there for long!

He finally stopped rolling in front of our coffee table (the weird angle of this photo makes his head look enormous. Don't worry, it isn't really that large!)

Ryan just heard the news that Michael Jackson passed away. Just kidding, but doesn't he look surprised/upset? (I'm writing this in retrospect, so that explains why this entry pre-dates MJ's death)

Just hanging out, watchin' some TV :)

Yay! Dan is Home :)

As I mentioned in the previous post, Dan was in the Netherlands on a business trip from last Saturday until today. We missed him a lot and were very excited to go to the airport to greet him when his flight came in this evening. Thankfully he had safe travels, and his flight even arrived early. Ethan and I made a "Welcome Home Daddy" sign for Dan that Ethan proudly held up at the airport. Ethan is really into stickers right now, so his sign wouldn't be complete without a random array of Thomas the Train and Disney stickers :) It is now displayed on our refrigerator:
We are thankful to have Dan home, and just in time for Father's Day too!

We had a couple of funny miscommunications with Ethan while we were at the airport. We rode the elevator to get down to the baggage claim area, and even though he's been in many before, I was telling him again what they were called. When Dan arrived, Ethan kept asking him to look at the "alligators". I thought that he had seen them on a sign or something, but after his repeated pointing, we realized that he was actually calling the elevators alligators. I also asked Dan how the airline's food had been and what he ate. He said that he had teriyaki chicken, and Ethan said, "Very yucky chicken?" which probably isn't too far off-the-mark for most airline food!

Vacation Bible School

Phew! What a fun, busy, and wonderful week! Our church hosted their outdoors/camping-themed Vacation Bible School this week, and there were 995 kids in attendance. Amazing, huh? It's incredible to see the dedicated core team and hundreds upon hundreds of adult and student volunteers who make the week possible and successful. This year 160 of the kids were bussed in from an inner city program, and 50 kids joined us from another local church. My role was to work with my friends Lori and Chris on nametags for the kids and volunteers, labels, and mailings for the week as well as to assist at the Help Desk. Ethan had a great time in the childcare where he got to listen to Bible stories, play, have recreation time, make crafts, attend "big worship", and eat snacks. He made a lot of fun crafts and was thrilled to share them with me everyday. His favorite parts of VBS were attending worship in "big church" (sanctuary) and hugging the Children's Ministry Pastor who dressed up as Flower the Skunk. He learned the lyrics to a lot of the week's songs and sings along when we play the CD in our van. I wish I would have thought to bring my camera, but I had my hands full during the week as Dan was in the Netherlands for work all week, and it was the first time I had to get all 3 of us fed, dressed, ready, and out the door at a decent time 5 days in a row. I kept Ryan with me as I was hesitant to put him in the nursery when he's this little, especially for over 3 hours a day for 5 days in a row. He did very well! He slept most of the time, and when he was awake, he played happily in his stroller. He was only fussy briefly a couple of times when he was hungry. This morning I carried Ryan around in the Baby Bjorn for awhile, and he loved it! We spied on Ethan's class in "big church" worship, and it was fun to see him dancing and trying to do the hand motions for songs. Next year Ethan will be old enough to take part in the actual VBS programming which I'm sure he will be thrilled about.

Aren't Sleeping Babies Cute?

There's no real reason for this blog entry other than I took Ryan's picture today while he napped in his swing and just thought he looked so precious. It's funny how, even in his sleep, he's got a tight grip on his toy links. He loves playing with and gnawing on them (when he's awake, obviously!)

Future So You Think You Can Dance Finalist?

I really enjoy watching So You Think You Can Dance. Dan could take it or leave it, but I've found this season that I have another fan in the house, Ethan. He LOVES watching it and is constantly asking if I can play the dance show on DVR. During each dance he selects a partner (big Elmo, his Cabbage Patch doll, bunny, bear, etc.) and proceeds to dance along with the pair on TV. He usually pauses and says, "We look just like them on TV, don't we?" Dan and I agree, and then he continues his dancing. It's really cute to see him spin and toss his partners around to copy what he sees on the show. I tried to capture his dancing on video, but our camera's memory card was too full. There are still many episodes left in this season, so hopefully I'll have another opportunity to record and share Ethan's dance moves.

Finding Feet Photos

I finally got around to capturing a few photos of Ryan "finding" his feet. He especially likes to play with them when he's on his changing table (part of his pack n' play). I included the middle, somewhat blurry picture since I caught a little smile :)

Lunchtime Smiley Faces

I was cleaning up the kitchen while Ethan was eating his lunch today, and he called me over to show me his lunchtime "art project". He had used pieces of his Ritz crackers to create a smiley face on his tray- Too cute!

Ethan "Feeding" His Bear

Since *thankfully* nursing has worked out with Ryan (it didn't with Ethan), I invested in a nursing pillow that was recommended by several friends. I keep this one downstairs for daytime feedings and a Boppy upstairs. Recently Ethan has been really into playing with toy food and "feeding" his various stuffed animals and even Thomas the Train engines. He usually will bring them toy food on a plate or in a bowl. However, tonight when he announced that he was going to feed his stuffed bear, we were surprised that he grabbed my nursing pillow and proceeded to pretend to nurse his bear (from his belly button). Dan and I stifled our giggles and took his picture.

Bouncin' Around

Ethan and his buddy, Sam, had a BLAST today at a local bounce (inflatable slides, moonwalks, etc.) business. For awhile the boys enjoyed playing in the toddler room that houses smaller inflatables and is restricted to kids 4 years old and under, but they also braved the "big kids'" room that has some huge inflatables. They surprised me and Chris by scaling some of the gigantic "ladders" and going down really high slides without hesitation. It was fun to see them enjoying all of the inflatables and also a sign that they are getting to be so grown up! I've taken Ethan to this place twice before (when he was much younger), and it's amazing how much more he could do and explore this time. We'll definitely be making many more trips here in the future!

Ethan and Sam (It was difficult to get them to sit still and pose!)
Ethan going down a slide in the toddler room (holding a kickball)

Playing with soccer balls

and footballs

Thanks so much to Chris for taking the photos of the boys!

Crying it Out

After managing to function with severe sleep deprivation for several months, we decided to follow our pediatrician's advice and to let Ryan cry it out. He is very stubborn and persistent (wonder where he got that from? ;), so when our pediatrician said that it would take a week or less for him to sleep through the night, I was doubtful. We took the same approach that we had for Ethan (taking away the pacifier) so that Ryan could learn how to self-soothe back to sleep. Interestingly, both boys were exactly 4 mos. 3 days old when we started the "cry it out" method. The first night was really rough, and Ryan cried for hours and hours (literally) on end. We stuck with it though and saw gradual improvement each of the following nights until he was sleeping 8-9 hours. Our pediatrician was correct; It took about 6 days. We are now thoroughly enjoying solid nights of sleep, yay!

What is a Co-Sleeper?

Several people have asked me for further information when I told them that (before Ryan's birth) I purchased a co-sleeper for him to sleep in as a newborn. The main reason that I bought one is because we didn't have something like this for Ethan when we brought him home from the hospital and wish that we had. After having stopped breathing in the newborn nursery and all of the other medical issues that Ethan had in the NICU, when we were finally discharged from the hospital I initially did not sleep at all or was constantly waking at night and going to check on him in his crib (to ensure he was breathing and all was well). Even though we didn't anticipate any health issues with Ryan, I wanted to be able to see him easily during the night to assure me that he was fine. I saw an ad on Craigslist for an Arm's Reach co-sleeper that provides a newborn with his own, safe sleeping area viewable from our bed. It gave me peace of mind to know that when I woke up, I would be able to just glance over at him, be reassured that he was fine, and easily return to sleep. Little did I know that Ryan would also experience a NICU stay. So, this proved to be all the more valuable to me upon his discharge from the hospital. The co-sleeper is very similar to a pack and play, except there is a nylon strap that runs from the co-sleeper under your mattress to a metal plate on the other side to keep the co-sleeper firmly pushed against the mattress (this is important for safety because the side of the co-sleeper that is toward the bed is lower than the other 3 sides, about equal to the height of the mattress). The "bassinette" part of the co-sleeper is pretty firm, so it provides a safe sleeping environment. It was nice that, not only could we keep tabs on him easily without leaving our bed, he was within arm's reach when it was time to nurse him. Once the co-sleeper function is no longer needed (now Ryan is sleeping in his own crib), it converts to a pack and play that I'll keep upstairs as a place for Ryan to play in the morning while I shower. I am really glad that we bought this for Ryan; It was well worth the cost for the peace of mind and ease of nursing. The full-sized ones (like our's) retail for $250, and I paid $50. Yay for Craigslist!

The co-sleeper set up next to our bed

A closer-up view of the bassinette (we're using a sleep positioner that elevates Ryan's head to help with reflux)

Ryan's First Taste of Rice Cereal

Ethan loves having his picture taken with baby Ryan, so he wanted us to take another picture of the two of them in their high chairs this evening :) Ryan looks SO tiny next to Ethan.
Ryan had his first taste of "solid" foods tonight. I couldn't remember how dilute I had made Ethan's first try at rice cereal, so I followed the instructions on the Gerber box, and boy was it runny. I'm planning to make it quite a bit thicker next time, as it was dribbling all over the place even before I got the spoon to his mouth! He did a really good job for his first attempt. It was kind of funny because he was hungry so would begin to cry (AHHHHHHH!), and as soon as we got the spoon to his mouth, he would calm down and make a cute little "content" sound. We went back and forth between the AHHH! and content sounds most of the meal, but he began to figure out that we were going to keep refilling the spoon, and he settled down. He also kept crossing his eyes as he tried to watch the spoon approach his mouth.

Caught him in mid-blink. This is a good photo to show how long Ryan's fingers are. All of the nurses in the NICU remarked on his long fingers and said that he'll play piano when he grows up

Pinning, Poons, and Pit-Up

Ethan enunciates pretty well for a two-year-old, but one recurring speech quirk that we've noticed is that he doesn't really say the "s" in words that being with "sp". We first heard this when he would spin himself silly around in circles. He would tell us, "I'm pinning, I'm pinning". When he began using silverware, he would ask for a fork and a "poon". The cutest time I noticed this is just after Ethan learned what spit-up means (Ryan spat up profusely when we first brought him home from the hospital and still spits up frequently). Ryan was in his swing and Ethan was watching him when he began to spit up. Ethan ran over to Dan and me and alerted us, "He pit-up, he pit-up!"

I Have Feet!

Ryan "found" his feet this morning. He has been able to bring his hands together and suck on his fingers for awhile now, but he hadn't quite figured out that his feet belonged to him too :) I was changing his diaper this morning, and he grabbed one foot, smiled really big, and then grabbed the other. He was so excited about this new discovery that it was difficult to get him to let go so that I could finish fastening his diaper! I will take a picture of him demonstrating his new foot-holding ability soon and add it to this post.

Fantastic Garage Sale Finds

My friend (Emily) and I met for lunch today, and since the restaurant that we wanted to eat at didn't open until a half hour after we had arranged to meet, we decided to drive around and do a little garage saleing before lunch. We ended up happening upon an awesome garage sale. The family was very nice, and all of their items were extremely well-cared for with super reasonable prices. I ended up buying a really nice gender neutral wooden dollhouse with tons of accessories ($35, ~$250 retail) and a like-new Maclaren Quest stroller with carrying/storage bag ($15, ~$220 retail) from them along with a puzzle and lots of books. They had a ton of learn-to-read type books for a quarter each that we are excited about reading with Ethan to encourage his word recognition. Emily also found some great push-toys for her daughter as well as some books.
I took the boys garage saleing for a little while yesterday too and found a really nice wooden art easel (dry erase on one side and chalkboard on the other) for $10. It needed a little TLC as there was marker on the wood and also the chalkboard, but after trying various cleaning solutions, I found that fingernail polish remover did the trick. It looks pretty good now! It also has a rod for an art paper roll, so I've been researching where to buy a spool of paper for the easel. I have not been able to clean all of the dry erase marker off of the whiteboard yet, so if anyone has a suggestion of a cleaner that might help, please let me know.
What a great weekend for garage saleing!

Ethan's Crafts from Church

As I've mentioned many times before, Ethan LOVES the childcare at our church, especially their music/worship time and craft time. The last few weeks at church Ethan has enjoyed making a crown and a horn, and tonight he made a stick puppet of Goliath. It's interesting to find out what he gleans from the Bible stories that he hears at church. We weren't sure at first who the puppet was, but Ethan kept saying "He was hit in the face with a rock", so we were quickly clued in to the answer. Guess he really was listening as the volunteers in his childcare room shared the story of David and Goliath!

Ryan's First Highchair Adventure

At Ryan's 4 month check-up our pediatrician gave us the go-ahead to start solids with Ryan anytime. We haven't started him with cereal quite yet, but we plan to very soon. We put him in his high chair for the first time tonight so that he could get accustomed to it (before he would hang out in his bouncy seat, swing, or on his activity mat while we ate). He seemed to really like his new perspective, and Ethan was so excited that he and Ryan were side-by-side in matching highchairs for the meal.

Grasping Objects

In the last two weeks or so, Ryan has really improved his ability to focus on, reach for, and grasp objects. He loves his activity mat and constantly grabs the animals that dangle above him. It kind of cracked me up today when I noticed that he had a really strong, white-knuckled grip on the tray of his swing- Almost as if he were holding on for dear life!

Looking fearful with his tight grip on the tray

All better! Not so scary after all

Almost Rolling from Back to Tummy

Ryan is so, so close to being able to fully roll from his back to his tummy. If it weren't for that pesky arm getting stuck under him, he'd be there! We thought for sure that he would make it all the way over today, so I grabbed my camera and starting taking pictures, but after a couple of unsuccessful attempts Ryan lost his patience with the whole thing and started crying. I'm sure that he'll reach this milestone any day now!

Hey mom, how do I get this arm out from under me?!?

Almost there

Ryan's 4 Month Check-Up

I can hardly believe that Ryan is already almost 4 months old! The time seems to have flown by despite being somewhat house-ridden during his first several months to protect him from respiratory viruses. I took him to our pediatrician for his 4 month check-up today, and he did really well! At his 2 month check-up there were a few developmental milestones that he should have been able to do, but he had not yet begun to (due to his prematurity). I am happy to report that he has "caught up" and has met all of the expected developmental milestones and then some for his 4 month visit. The doctor was really impressed with his muscle tone and head/neck control. He weighed 12lbs 13oz (10th percentile) and is 25 inches long (~50th percentile). He dropped from the 25th to the 10th percentile in weight, but our pediatrician said that he is not really concerned about that at this point. We were given the okay to start solid foods, so we'll try rice cereal with him in the next few days. Unfortunately something that he has in common with is brother is partially clogged tear ducts (Ethan had one, but both of Ryan's eyes are affected). We're hoping that the issue resolves itself as he grows. If goopy eyes are still a problem at 6 months of age, then the clogged ducts are not likely to resolve on their own and will require placement of tubes under anesthesia after he is a year old like Ethan had done. Ryan has been a lot more vocal than Ethan was at this age, and we enjoy listening to him make all sorts of fun little sounds. He says "hi, goo, gaa, ooo" and is very interactive. He loves it when you echo the sound that he has just made. His smile just melts my heart.

Ethan's "Grassy Guy" and Playing with Ryan

The last project that the kids did during my Mom's group at church was to plant some grass seed in a styrofoam smiley cup. Ethan has really enjoyed the responsibility of watering the grass seed, and we've discussed how the grass needs water and sunlight to grow. Ethan's little "grassy guy" has grown very well!
Dan insisted that Ethan's grassy guy needed a haircut since his blades were getting to be very long and unruly, so after this photo was taken, he and Ethan gave him a haircut. Here's his new 'do:
We have been thrilled with how accepting and loving Ethan has been toward his little brother, and he is really looking forward to the time when Ryan is big enough to truly play with him. He always says "When Ryan gets bigger, we'll play together". He is anxious to interact with him and enjoys "playing" with Ryan on his activity mat by making the animals that dangle above Ryan talk to him. It is so cute to see Ethan move the giraffes and elephant so that they face Ryan and then he has them say "Hello baby Ryan!"

Memorial Day Cookout

Thanks so much to Angela, Loren, and Jackson for hosting a fun Memorial Day weekend get together and cookout! It had been a little while since the families from our previous small group from church had been able to get together, and it was so nice to catch up with everyone and to see what a blast the kids had playing together. Sonia and Michael had welcomed an addition to their family just a week before Ryan was born. Reid and Ryan not only are just 1 week apart in age, but have matching carseats too ;) Tim captured some fun photos of the kids:

Ryan (with furrowed brows) and Reid

Jackson and Ethan had fun playing together on the steps

Ethan's buddy, Annie, taught the boys how to jump off the stairs.
Here Ethan is in mid-air

Spelling Ethan's Name, a Craft from Church, and Target Bargains

Pretty random array of topics to cover in today's blog entry, huh?
Ethan has a Thomas the Train alphabet floor puzzle made out of foam that has 8 large pieces each containing letters of the alphabet. The puzzle is basically twofold, putting the letters in the correct places in the 8 large pieces and then connecting the large pieces in the correct order. Ethan enjoys poking the letter pieces out and working on spelling words. Today (all by himself) he collected the letters in "Ethan" and spelled out his name on the floor. It was so cute to see his pride in his accomplishment! He did a great job. He has also learned how to spell outloud "Mommy", "Daddy", and almost "Ryan" (sometimes he leaves out the the letter Y).
Another craft that Ethan made at church while my Mom's group met is shown below. Jesus is in the center, and the wooden pieces represent children. When the flaps are closed, Jesus is "hugging" the children.

I am starting to get more into the habit of grocery (not just CVS) couponing, and recently Kraft foods came out with some high value coupons that, in conjunction with Target store coupons, made for some really great deals. For a little over $3 at Target, I purchased: 4 bottles of barbecue sauce, 4 Kraft salad dressings, 3 100-calorie pack snack boxes, 1 travel-sized deodorant, 4 travel-sized sunscreens, 2 boxes of Ritz crackers, 4 Bliss candy bars, and 2 large squeezeable containers of mayonnaise.

Happy Mother's Day!

We had a great time today celebrating Mother's Day with my family! My camera's memory card was full and it was low on battery, so I didn't get to capture as many photos as I would have liked. Sadly, I didn't even get a picture of me with my boys. I think that my Dad may have though, so hopefully I can update this post later with one of the photos that he took.

Mom and Ryan

Ryan was all smiles for Mother's Day

I had purchased a stepping stone craft kit for my mom last year to use to preserve Ethan's handprint. We had never gotten around to creating the stone, and we were determined to get it done today! I mixed the cement, Ethan had a lot of fun squishing his handprint in the center, and we decorated the stone. It has to harden/dry for 2 days before we can remove it from the mold. Mom is excited to see the final product! Here is a photo of it after we moved it to the garage to dry (it was messy business, so we made it on the back patio):

My Little Boy is Growing up: Preschool!

With Ryan's unexpected early arrival and the NICU rollercoaster that ensued, I totally missed the boat on preschool registration for Ethan. I had planned to research area preschools in the 4 weeks that I thought I had remaining in my pregnancy, but those plans were obviously derailed. Although I had planned to research preschools, I hadn't realized that registration actually occurred in January/early February.
After things settled down with Ryan, our household regained some semblance of order, and RSV was no longer a major threat for Ryan, I started looking into preschools for Ethan. Unfortunately several that have wonderful reputations already have extensive waitlists, but we were able to find some great ones that still have spots available. We visited 6 preschools in 2 weeks- phew! Thankfully Ryan slept through each visit so I was able to ask the directors all of my questions and Ethan could enjoy checking out the classrooms and activities. He is so excited about going to school, and I was really impressed with most of the schools that we visited. We decided on one that is located just 2 miles from our house and meets from 9 to 11:15am on Mondays and Wednesdays. Ethan can't wait to go! One major thing that we need to accomplish by the end of the summer though is potty training. All of the schools required that the kids be potty-trained. We have been working with Ethan the last few weeks and have seen some progress but still have a ways to go. At least we have until September!

Weighing In

I took Ethan to the pediatrician today because he has had a pesky nighttime cough for the last several days. It is bothersome enough that it has caused him to wake during the night, so I wanted to have it checked out and make sure that he didn't have an ear infection. Thankfully Ethan's exam showed that he is completely fine, and we were told that the cough would improve with just a little more time. While we were there, both of the boys were weighed for the first time in awhile. Ethan now weighs 31 pounds! I could hardly believe it. I looked it up in the growth chart for boys, and he is just above the 50th percentile. As a baby his weight was always on the very low end of normal. When he was little he was an extremely difficult baby to feed, but as a toddler he has developed a healthy appetite. He LOVES veggies, amongst his favorites are broccoli, cucumbers, tomatoes, green beans, carrots, peas, and corn. I find it funny that one of the few veggies he does not like is mashed potatoes as that is my favorite and one of the few veggies that I enjoy.
While we were there I decided to have Ryan's weight checked as well. He weighed 12 lbs. 3oz. and is tracking at the same percentile as previous visits which is great news.

Dinosaurs and Winking

For the past several months Ethan has been really into doing puzzles all by himself. I recently purchased many puzzles (all with at least 24 pieces) from a consignment sale, and he breezed through all of them except those with more than 65 pieces by himself. Grandma Q. gave him this puzzle, and it has really sparked his interest in dinosaurs. It has 40 pieces, and Ethan put it together completely by himself for the first time today.

Ethan also recently discovered that he can wink either eye.

Ryan's Photo Session

I can't believe that Ryan is already 3 months old! It's about time that I get on the ball and take some decent photos of him that I can use to create a birth announcement. I took a ton of photos today trying to capture a great smile, and it was hilarious to see all of the different facial expressions that I got during this little photo shoot. Here are some that I thought were funny or cute but were not selected for the birth announcement:

Stunned?

Cracking up

Surprised

Just chillin'

Sad

Mischievous

Smiley

Wide-eyed

Doing an old school New Kids on the Block dance move?

Concerned

What a sweet little guy!

By the way, yes, I later realized that I should have laid him on a solid-colored blanket or at least ensured that the clouds were oriented in the correct direction! :)