Ryan turns 1

Ryan turned 1 almost two weeks ago, but I'm really only a week behind because we didn't celebrate until last Saturday, after we'd had a week to get settled into the new house.

Ryan was happy to get his very own coloring book he could tear apart without his sisters getting mad at him. He carried this one around for a while, pages marking where he had been in the house.

We got him lame presents like a new car seat and clothes, so the day before his "party" I saw this water table at Costco and decided we should get him a fun toy (which the girls would also love). They'll get TONS of use out of it this summer. They've just had it for a week and played with it almost every day. A good way to pass the 80+ degree days we've been having. I love Ryan's face in this one:

I used a cake tin we've had for years and never used. Those cupcakes are supposed to be puffs of clouds and in real life looked like they said choo choo, not choe chio.

 With the girls their experience with cake when they turned one was one of their first cake/super sugar experience. Not so with Ryan. He's an experienced cake/sugar eater. He puts it away real fast.

mad that it's all gone?

Opening his presents:

Then back outside to play with the fun one. How convenient, water to drink.

He's getting a sense of humor and knows when he makes us laugh. He thinks he's hilarious.

About a week before he turned one I saw him standing up in the middle of the rocks in our front yard, for the first time having figured out how to get to standing without having something around to help him up. I told Jake that he'd be walking for real soon, and sure enough, the next day he started walking everywhere. He walks like a drunken sailor. Or a penguin. Sometimes a drunken penguin.

We're happy to have our little guy in our family. He's still falling barely below the curve for weight, coming in at 18 lbs 6 oz. He's about 30th percentile for height and growing right along both curves, so he's fine. If he hadn't had a week and a half of diarrhea and no appetite just before his 1-year doctor's appointment he probably would have weighed a bit more and maybe even hit the 3rd percentile mark to be officially back on the charts. Oh well. He's a happy child and we're happy to have him around. (Well, most of us are. Annie still beats him up pretty regularly, but occasionally says something like "I love my bruduh (brother)." that makes me think there's hope.) Ryan's favorite things include his blanket (which he carries around everywhere, and if he sees it after having left it behind for a while, he'll hurry over to it, lay down on it, and give it a big hug), his binky, and his mommy (if he notices me walk by him without picking him up he usually has a meltdown). He also really likes forks, spoons and cups. Especially if they belong to someone else. He also thinks Rachel and Annie are pretty cool (despite the occasional whack or bucket of water over his head from Annie). He'll laugh at them and follow them around, especially loving to play chase. He's a joy in our family. It's been a fun year with him around.

Moving with kids

Here are some picture from the last two weeks: packing up the house, and unpacking at the new house. Or more like what the kids were up to while I was slaving away hard at work packing/unpacking.

 

Rachel (just before dance class), so proud of Ryan for climbing up on his FisherPrice garage.

Annie wanted me to wear a princess crown, too.

Watching a scary part of a movie Rachel decided she needed to comfort Annie.

I walked in to find Ryan trying his best to fall head first out of this green chair.

 

Ryan's new favorite thing to climb is this raised garden bed. Because it has dirt he can eat.

 

Annie "helped" make Ryan's birthday cake. Here she is enjoying the spoils: one of the mixing whisks covered in chocolate. Or at least it was before her hands and face got covered in chocolate.

New house

A week ago Saturday we moved to our new house. We've had a week and have been able to unpack most everything except a few less important boxes of garage stuff and office stuff. I thought I'd post some before/after shots of the house. We've still got to get some curtains and hang more pictures, but overall we're happy to be pretty much moved in.

Before:

We sold the above ground pool on craigslist to save our little climbers from drowning. We'll put some after pictures of the back yard in Ryan's b-day post.

The previous owners had some "interesting" color choices. There were the turquoise accents, but even more exciting was that arch that was turquoise, then sponged with coral paint on top. The epitome of ugly. We repainted.

 

 

After:

The arch looks much better in a light tan color.

Before:

 

After:

 Living room/formal dining room.

We hit our head often on that chandelier. Maybe we need to get a table to put there.

Upstairs I didn't take any before pictures, but this is what it looks like now. From left to right is Ryan's room, the bathroom, the girls' room, and the playroom.

I LOVE having a playroom. Most of the toys stay in there instead of all over the house and if when it's a disaster (every day by the end of the day) I can just close the door on it. 

Rachel really wanted pink in her room, so she got it.

 It's a bit of pink overkill, but she likes it. I think I'll repaint their dresser all white, though, to offset the pink a little.

Ryan's room:

Master bedroom:

 

It's a little brighter blue than I'd planned, but I'm getting used to it. With some stuff on the wall I think it'll be even better.

Master bath:

 Office:

 This is the last room to finish unpacking. I'm not sure how we fit everything that was on that desk into the desk before. It fills 4 boxes. We'll see if I can fit everything back in again.

Overall we're really happy with the house. It's nice having more storage room and more rooms in general. Of course I may change my tune once I realize how much more I have to keep clean. But that's what kids are for, right? ;)

Crazies

We had a solid two weeks of sickness that is finally over. Hallelujah! And now the sitting around and waiting period of house-buying is finally over. We close today on our new house, then we have 2 1/2 weeks to get out of our current house before it closes. So tomorrow the painting and cleaning and moving of small stuff begins, then a week from tomorrow is the big moving day. I figured I'd better get these pictures on the blog now or it may be a while before I get around to it. 

Ryan, ever the climber, at it again. Yesterday he actually broke the side of the dollhouse that is closer to the camera here. See how it's already bent, and missing one of its support legs? That's from Annie's climbing shenanigans. Ryan finished off the job.

 

The girls being silly:

 

 

 

You can't see it very well, but Ryan's feet are both on the seat of his little car as he crouches down on top. Not the safest way to ride the car, but he hasn't been hurt too badly yet, so he keeps doing it.

 

These next two pictures were one after another and I thought it was funny that both Ryan and Annie had the nearly same face going on.

 

 Annie has taken to eating standing up, using her chair as her table occasionally. She left her oatmeal there the other day and Ryan was happy to find it and take care of it for her.

The crib is apparently the hot new play place. At least once a day Rachel climbs in there, or Annie asks to be put in there. Apparently being in a cage is fun.

One more of the doll house climber:

And Annie with her lovely "helmet."