Happy Birthday Grampy!

2007-11-06 Ryan 12 months

Weekend re-cap (I know I am a bit slow it is already Tuesday) We headed up North this past weekend to celebrate Grampy Fred's birthday. Unfortunately Grammy Sharon was not feeling well over the weekend but thank goodness she is on the mend:) Greg made my dad a fantastic birthday dinner- chicken Marsala, lemon broccoli and rosemary roasted potatoes (Thanks Martha!) It was delicious and instead of birthday cake we had pumpkin pie yum. My dad, Greg, his dad and his friend John all enjoyed a round of golf at the Ranch on Sunday. We had a lot of fun even though hit was a quick visit. Grammy and Grampy took out my old rocking chair that I used as a small child and Ryan just loved it. He really enjoys rocking in the big "grown up" rocking chair here and at Grammy's too. He also amused himself with the laundry basket for at least a half hour. He kept climbing in and out and wanted Grampy to push him around in the basket. It was amazing that he actually knew how to get out of the basket all by himself...we only had to hold the sides of the basket so it did not tip over. But he knew to hoist his chunky legs over the side one at a time. Oh by the way just to let you all know Ryan know how to climb to the top of the stairs and get down on his own. To get down he goes backwards on his tummy...not that we are encouraging this at all but good to know. Polina actually had a split level ranch with 4 -5 steps that he freely goes up and down with supervision of course.

Ryan and I hosted a play group with others from the neighborhood today it was a lot of fun. We joined the Fairfield mom's club and they sort of section off the chapters according to where in Fairfield you live. That places us in the North chapter. I have to say this small play group is great! But overall the moms in this club are not that friendly and some are rather snooty and they did not make Ryan and I feel welcome to the few events we tried to attend. We prefer those our age in the play group. There are so many babies Ryan's age in the area most with in walking distance to the house. We had 9 month old twins, Billy and Allie, 10 month old Tommy, and 12 month old Max. Max and Ryan were so funny...all they did the entire play date was get into trouble together and eat Cheerios! The twins were so cute they just started crawling a few weeks ago and remained stationary for the first 45 minutes I think they were scared of the bigger babies either that or they were just taking it all in. This mom is a super mom she showed up at the front door with a baby in the Bjorn one on her hip and two diaper bags one on each shoulder! I was amazed at how she managed to get out the door the same way...I had offered to help but she said she was so used to managing them on her own...wow! I can now picture this mom in my mind every time Ryan and I are having an off day. I don't know how she does it. Anyways the playgroup was a success and everyone seemed to have a good time. We will be meeting every two weeks and it is nice because we can rotate hosting the group and we are small enough not to feel overwhelmed.

So Ryan had the all American dinner tonight. Parmesan chicken fingers- baked in the oven- another Martha recipe, Mac and cheese (from a box...come on I made the chicken fingers from scratch I did not have time for the homemade mac and cheese too..hey at least it was Annie's organic)and a broccoli/cauliflower puree combo...to my surprise Ryan still prefers his veggies pureed and will eat more this way...he is very particular about the texture of his food. Then I gave him a little homemade pumpkin bread for dessert which he loved. Then it was off to bed. Surprisingly the time change has not affected Ryan too much still sleeping well (knock on wood). Sorry I have to add this too. I have been trying to brush his teeth at night the pediatrician recommended we do this to prevent cavities. Ryan does not mind this at all afterward I usually give him the toothbrush to practice with and he sees me wetting it in the sink...so today he decided to wet his tooth brush in the dog bowl and stick it back in his mouth (gasp luckily I caught him in the act before the brush hit his mouth and I had just scrubbed Dylan's water bowl) But part of me was mad that he dipped his baby Einstein tooth brush in the dog bowl and part of me was thinking wow this kid is really smart that he wanted to wet his toothbrush. hence the new title of the blog...adventures in toddler hood. Kerri like Caroline and Reese Ryan is totally obsessed with Dylan and like Reese...Dylan takes so much abuse from Ryan pulling his tail and his hair and stealing his toys...I think he puts up with it because he is so terrified and does not know what else to do but stay still and take the abuse or run like hell!

Hope you guys all enjoy the rest of the week. Miss you all and hope to see you soon.