You can breathe easy about Tyler's hair...or can you?

Did you hear that Ryan is sleeping through the night now? He has his last bottle around 7 or 8 pm, and then doesn't eat again until 8:30 am. He will occasionally wake up between 5 and 7 am, sometimes I hold him for a minute and sometimes he puts himself back to sleep. But you won't hear me complaining about that. It took him 9 months to sleep through the night, so I figure I've got no room to complain about some minor detail. Actually, if you have a baby (or any children) in your life, you have no room to be complaining about anything at all. (Though that doesn't always stop me...)

So, since I'm getting all kinds of sleep now, I feel like a new woman. The fog has lifted and I feel like the most productive person on the planet! I do a better job at keeping up my house, I've been reading more, I'm teaching myself how to knit, and I'm learning lots about nutrition and healthier eating. But most importantly, I'm more patient with my kids again! I knew I wasn't really that monster that was showing up around here fairly often over the past 9 months.

(I hope I haven't jinxed myself by going on and on about the positive side effects of Ryan sleeping.)

So, we cut Tyler's hair.

I put up a good fight against the mullet, and Jeremy put up a good fight for the mullet. So this is how it ended up:
Is a rat's tail better, worse, or just as bad as a mullet? It won't be around forever and I'm pretty sure it's less noticeable, so I'm okay with it for now. I just knew that if we cut a mullet I would be embarrassed and so would Tyler. He would catch on that people were laughing at his hair, and he's sensitive enough as it is. For the record, Tyler was also anti-mullet, but mainly because he wanted to get rid of his curls--he thinks they aren't cool. I told him that whatever he does is cool, even growing curly hair.

Also, this weekend the kids cousin, Mason, came over for a sleepover. They had a lot of fun with him and at one point were watching a movie all scrunched together on the couch like this:
And they all wanted to sleep together on the floor, so I laid out some foam pads and they slept like this:
They stayed awake until 10 pm talking about crazy kid stuff, and then as soon as they woke up in the morning they were singing the song from the Pillow Pet commercial. I was listening to it from my room and it made me feel like a kid again. Sleepovers can be fun! But they can also be a big pain in the butt, which is why we won't be doing them often. (This one wasn't, though.)

And this morning, before Alexis went to school, Tyler told her that after school they would celebrate his toy dinosaurs birthdays by (pretend) eating a cake picture that he drew in primary yesterday. But because I'm a new woman (see above) I told them they could even bake a cake in Alexis' Easy Bake Oven.
So they did, and we sang "Happy Birthday" to 3 little dinosaurs. Then they blew out the candles. The best part of having toy dinosaur birthday parties is that they don't have much interest in cake, so they share it all with their human friends.
They did dip their heads in the cake a time or two though.

Now some cute pictures, just for fun.

Alexis, wearing my boots

Ryan, just after a nap

And, just to clarify. I was VERY excited about the steps Ryan took in that last video. I just had something on the stove that couldn't burn so I didn't go running in to see. Each milestone for each kid is just as important as they were for the first. Unless they are the middle child, then they just don't matter!

(That was a joke, in case you couldn't tell.)

trouble

Today I feel like talking about politics. And religion. And the state of the public school system in America. And Charlie Sheen.

Just kidding. I'm not even going to go there. I'm just going to show you a video.

Yesterday I turned on a Baby Einstein movie for Ryan so I could try and make dinner without him pulling himself to stand on my legs every time I turn around. He doesn't watch these movies often, but he gets pretty excited over certain parts when he does watch them. So Jeremy took the video camera out there to tape him watching a movie. Sounds boring? Fast forward to about 1:40 and watch something exciting happen. I promise, it's pretty cool. (Maybe I'm the only one that finds it cool...but hey, it's my blog.)




Also, my older two kids are equally captivated by those movies.

The Nine (Month) Wonder of the World

"Duuuuuhhhhh...you talking about me?"

I'm aware that this blog has turned into a Blog All About Ryan, but I'm confident that if you had Ryan for a baby you would do the same thing.

Today marks nine months of this child's living, breathing air, life.


I'm scratching my head over how we got here. Wasn't he just born? Wasn't he just sleeping all day in his swing in the living room? And now he crawls all around that same living room, looking for trouble? It can't be the same baby!

This picture was taken yesterday...right?

The thought of Ryan getting older makes me pretty sad. I just looked through some pictures taken the month he was born and it was making me too emotional, I had to stop. I'm trying my VERY hardest to enjoy every moment with these children, and live in the moment instead of looking back and wishing, but the moments are moving too fast for me. No one ever told me that the more kids I had, the faster time would fly.


Ryan as a nine month old is a pure delight. I'm not exaggerating, and while I may be biased, I'm not blind. His smiles are freely given, he makes absolutely cute sounds and funny faces, and he rarely gets upset. Also, even though he's thinning out some, you still can't help but smile at all his fat.


He's freestanding in the middle of a room, walking along furniture, and crawls at a quick pace. He gets into things he's not supposed to get into, and watching him eat a graham cracker is one of my life's greatest pleasures.


He thinks his brother is the funniest person he's ever met, he loves to see his sister when she comes home from school, his face lights up when his dad walks into the room, and fortunately he still looks at me as though the sun rises and sets with me.


It's hard to remember what life was like before Ryan came along. In these short months he has wormed his way into all our hearts and is the center of our world. To say we love him would be a severe understatement! We are enamored, enchanted, and engrossed!


P.S. Did you hear? Tyler is Awesome--his shirt says so.