Ryders 1st Haircut was yesterday, Aug 21st 2010

Look at the range of emotions!!!
-Uncertainty-
-Fear-
-Panic-
-And... Acceptance-




And... the finished product:
Before:










After:

I'm sitting w/ Zoe while she eats dessert, she looks at me in all sincerity and says: "Daddy, when are you gonna win the lottery so I can be a real princess and you can get me a castle???".

Also: Today Zoe got sent to her room all day for pushing Ryder. She has been occasionally pushing and hitting him lately so we decided to up the punishment.

On August 2nd, Zoe brushed her teeth entirely on her own; meaning, she got the toothpaste, opened it and put it on her toothbrush and brushed em.



Ryder is beginning to put 2 words together. This morning he said "Bye daddy" as I was heading to work.

Ryder has also begun to master the stairs. We were at Uncle Rays house yesterday and he was able to go up and down the stairs on his own; which was nice because prior visits one of had to hover over him the entire time while he went up/down.

Over the past few days, Ryder seems to be weening himself off of his nighttime bottle of milk before bed.

About a month or so ago, Kias girlfriends from San Francisco came to visit:


Autie Tiana got Zoe a Giraffe and Auntie Andrea got her a dress. In the below picture, Zoe is posing w/ the Giraffe while wearing the dress:




Here they are in their matching National Zoo t-shirts:


Finally, July 5th we had dinner at Grandmas:

*Happy now Payan?

Ryder caught a bug of some sort last week and was running fevers in the 104 range for a few days. As a result, he was as cranky as possible. NOTHING made him happy and he cried over any/everything. It was brutal. His fever finally dropped and it was like Dr. Jeckyl/Mr. Hyde. It was like we got our boy back. He is once again happy and smiley.

We went to the National Zoo yesterday and had a great time.
We brought our 2 kid stroller only to wind up carrying both kids most of the way. The kids crashed hard on our way home nonethless.


Bonus Pics of Ryder chowing down on an ice cream sandwich:

Ryder at 16 months:

Ryder is beginning to repeat words.

For example, yesterady I told him to say "puppy" and he did a pretty good job of repeating it.

Although he can't yet talk, he understands a ton of the things we say to him. For example, if we say "do you want to eat?", he'll say "yah" and make his way to the kitchen table. If we say "are you ready for bed?" he'll say "yah" and make his way to his bedroom.

Zoe and Ryder are beginning to play better together as well.

Zoe can read!
Last Monday the 21st of June, we were watching some kids show and the word "Howdy" appeared on the screen. Out of nowhere, we overheard Zoe say "Howdy".
The next thing we know, she opens a book and begins to read it! Her first books were the Dick and Jane books. She is now on to reading Green Eggs and Ham.

Zoe's 1st Ballet Recital:

-Ryder @ 15 Months-
Yes, I'm late posting it... if you'd sleep through the night, maybe I'd have more time/energy to devote to ya'lls blog!

Ryder has been saying "mommy" of late. He used to say "mamma" and has switched to "mommy".

We decided to put Ryder in a toddler bed. Kia saw him trying to climb up/over his crib so we decided it was time; before he succeeds and crashes to the floor. Anyway, I build his bed and we got it squared away. After 2 nights of fighting for hours to get him to go to bed, we decided to re-build his crib and put him back in it. Heres hoping he never succeeds in climbing out!

Zoe is learning to read. She has ALWAYS loved to read and seeing her beginning to figure it out is great.

I took Zoe to Grandmas house for dinner this past Tuesday night. We had a great time. Grandpa Steve (Pop-pop) built an awesome pond in the back yard and Zoe christened it by throwing in the 1st pennies (and 1 nickel).

Zoe also had her 4th Birthday:
So far she's had 2 parties and we owe her a 3rd. Its a Birdsong thing....















Me and Ryder at the park:













Current Events:

• The BP oil spill in the Gulf Coast - maybe it will be cleaned up by the time Zoe and Ryder graduate from College.
  
• Lakers vs. Celtics in the NBA finals. Its currently tied at 2-2. Rajon Rondo has emerged as a legitimate star. Kobe Bryant has answered any questions as to who is the reigning best player in the NBA... it's NOT Lebron James, not yet at least.
  

-In The Moment-
This past Sunday, I took Zoe to see “How to Train Your Dragon”. I wasn’t sure what to expect considering our last attempt at going to a movie (see HERE). The experience was amazing! We had an incredible time.
I have often thought, but never verbalized, that one of the challenges to being a parent is trying to be “in the moment”. And, I didn’t think it was possible. I thought that being in the moment was like the proverbial carrot being dangled in front of the horse… unattainable. From the moment they are born, it seems you are always trying to catch up and slow things down.

However, I theorized, if you constantly attempt to be in the moment, you’ll have brushes with it and that's the best you can ask for. Taking Zoe to the movie disproved my theory. You CAN be in the moment, if for only fleeting moments.
To Zoe, it was just a fun time at the movie. To me, it was a rare occasion where I was in the moment. And by that I mean, I was fully able to appreciate, embrace and bask in fatherhood. I left the theater thinking “this is what its all about”.

OK, I know its been a long time since I've posted...

Lots has happened since the last post...

Some milestones:

• Ryder is now able to climb onto and off of our couch
  
• I may have mentioned this before... but Ryder LOVES bananas. He calls them "Nana".
  
• He is super fast so we have to keep our eyes on him at all times.
  
• He like sot sing... in the mornings we put on BackYardigans while he eats breakfast and when the song comes on, he starts singing in his out of tune voice...
  
• We've put Zoe in a new Montessori and she seems to like it way more than her old school.
  

Here are some pics:
Here are the kids in their Easter outfits:



And here they are with the Easter Bunny:



and a bonus Zoe pic:

And the kids hunting for Easter Eggs at Uncle Rays house:




****
Incidentally, in the place we live there is a family of squirrels that has nested behind our kitchen cabinets. Our landlords have named him "Ole one eye" cuz one of his eyes is damaged. They also call him Nutkin. At any rate, they are burrowing further and further into our home and we've asked the landlords to come handle it. They are attempting to use "humane" means to catch and relocate Nutkin.

So there is a trap in the back yard with food inside it. Here is a picture of Nutkin and the trap (note the food in Nutkins mouth):

Zoe takes a spill and really hurts her nose!
Kia took her over to Uncle Ray and Aunt Leahs to babysit Jaydon and Riley. As they were playing, Zoe fell face first into a corner of a wall.

Here are pics:

Last night, Ryder was up from 1am to 5:30am, after sleeping through the night the night before. GET IT TOGETHER RYDER!!!

Anyway, he finally fell asleep at 5:30 and woke up at 7:30am. When I went in to his room to get him, he was standing in his crib. I turned on the light and before any words are spoken, he's in his crib pointing at his diaper bin. So I check his diaper and sure enough he had pooped.

Kia mentioned the night before that when putting him to bed she asked him "do you need a new diaper?" and he responded by pointing at his diaper bin.

Pretty cool stuff... If you're into that sort of thing (babies and poop).

Also... yesterday morning as I was leaving for work, Zoe wanted to give me a "hug and kiss" just like we do every morning. This particular morning, she ran over to me with open arms, and as we were going to hug, she stuck her pinky in my eye. It really, really hurt! In fact, it hurt all day.

Current Events:
The House of Reps has passed "Universal Health Care" bill. Its not quite universal, but a step in the right direction.

Last night, Ryder slept through the night and didnt wake up until 5:45! A big deal.

When I got up with him, it seemed as though he had crossed a new plateau as far as his development. He just seemed to be more confident and sure of himself. We used to notice these "leaps" with Zoe. You wake up one day and have a "new" kid.

For example, for the 1st time, we were able to put him and Zoe upstairs by themselves and they played together without us needing to be there. Normally, Ryder flips out and screams at us. But we were able to enjoy our coffee in peace.

Charlton and Deb stopped by today with their 3 month old twins. Wesley and Samantha:
Super cute babies who slept the entire time! Kia and I commented that our kids NEVER did that.

Ryder was Mr. Personality during the visit. They brought him a belated birthday pressent (a Spider Man ride along thingy) and Ryder loves it.

Ryder is beginning to form words.

For example, he and I were in the bathtub last night and he began to "knock" on the bathtub tile. I said "Say Knock, knock", to which he replied "kno, kno".

He will also repeat Momma and Dadda.

He will also sing. I'll make one of his musical toys play a song and he'll begin humming completely off tune, but its very cute.

He LOVES to dance too. When watching Yo Gabba Gabba, when they do a song, he starts getting his groove on.

Zoe just told me the following:
"You're my best Daddy, in my heart".

So sweet.

So for the past couple of weeks, Zoe has been occasionally asking me if she can shave her face like I shave mine. My usual response is, "Honey, girls don't shave their faces, only boys shave and only when they grow up"; and she ponders my answer and moves on to something else...

Well, yesterday Zoe decided to take matters into her own hands. She went into our bathroom (which is normal for her at this point) and proceeded to grab my razor and attempt to shave her chin. As you can imagine, it didn't go so well.

She took one "stroke", apparently sideways as opposed to down and cut her chin pretty badly. To make matters worse, my Razor is the type that has a button you push to enable the "vibration" feature (a useless feature in my opinion, I NEVER use it). So at some point she pushes the button and that freaks her out even more.

According to Kia, the fallout was terrible. Below is a picture of her cut, the day after:



Lesson learned: I need to put my Razor out of reach from now on.












Other news:

• Ryder is beginning to wean himself from nursing.
  
• It appears the worst of our 1st Winter back in the DC area is coming to an end. Temps are nearing 60 degrees, thank GOD.
  
• We have put Zoe in a new school. Its a Montessori and she likes it 100 times better than the old daycare we had her in. To use her words: "No more stinky Daniel and Abel!!!"... No offense Daniel and Abel, whoever you are.
  

Thought I'd post this for comparison.

Ryder @ 1 Year old


Zoe @ 1 Year old

Ryder is 1 Year Old!!!


Ryders Birthday was Feb. 26th. We celebrated it Feb. 27th.

Grandma came over to help celebrate.

Some notes:

• Ryder signed "Potty" the other day. I was trying to put him down for a nap and he wouldn't fall asleep. I'd give him his pacifier and leave the room and he'd take his pacifier and toss it out of his crib. This happened at least 7 times. Finally I went in to his room and he was laying down looking up at me signing "Potty". I looked and low and behold, he had gone potty.
  
• Ryder refers to his Sister Zoe as "Yaya". He'll scream out Yaya!!! When he wants to see her.
  
• We have Ryder and Zoe in daycare 1 day a week. Ryders "overseer" is a woman named Miss Fran. He seems to have taken to her well. It took a few weeks, but he seems to like her.
  
• Ryder has observed us all talking on the phone so much that he likes to imitate us talking on the phone. He'll grab his toy phone, put it up to his ear and start babbling into it.

Current Events:

• Kia and I went to see the movie Avatar today; we saw it in 3D/iMax. It was an incredible experience. The movie was fantastic and both Kia and I were blown away.
  
• The US lost to Canada in OT in the Olympic Hockey Gold medal match. Booo!!!
  
• A monster earthquake rocked the country of Chile. It was 8.9 on the Richter scale.

As I type this, I'm feeding Ryder his favorite thing in the world... Bananas.

He'll pretty much eat an entire banana. He's also a big fan of mac and cheese.