Weathering

Saturday, September 27, 2008

Auntie Em's visit


This week my sister Emily was in town. She had a conference Tuesday and Wednesday in Philadelphia and took a few extra days to spend with us, which was very nice. She even watched the boys Thursday night so that Matt and I could go to a fancy university social event. This was particularly generous of her since both boys have colds and have been pretty fussy this week as a result. Above Em is reading to Will and Ryan.

Today Debbie, Eric, and Dylan stopped by our house en route to their new place in Virginia. It was really nice to see them, and we wish them good luck with their move!

Today we also did a bit of shopping since neither boy has all that much to wear now that the weather is turning cold. Below Ryan is wearing a sleeper that I bought for him not at all because he needed it, but only because I thought it was about the cutest thing I'd ever seen. It was cheap, too, and I'm considering going back and getting another one in the next size up. I don't anticipate this one will fit him for many more days.

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Brothers


This weekend we went to Pittsburgh for Megan and Paul's baby shower. Friday's drive was long but not bad, and we loved our hotel. We got a two-room suite so that Will could have his own room. And best of all for me, I went out for coffee with Jess while Matt put the boys to bed. Well, sort of. When I got back to the hotel Matt was holding a screaming Ryan in the bathroom to minimize the chances that the crying would wake Will up. This was very unlike Ryan, who generally goes to bed peacefully and willingly, but I think his system was off from the drive and being in a strange place. Plus we put his crib as far into the closet as it would fit to give all of us some privacy, and nobody likes to sleep in a closet. So eventually we calmed him down and he went to sleep a couple of hours later than usual.

The next morning Will woke up at the stroke of 7:00 (Ryan was already up) and marched directly into our bedroom, which was just about the cutest thing I've ever experienced. I've heard parents talk about when their toddlers get out of bed on their own and come into their bedroom, but Will never leaves his bed on his own in the mornings and his bedroom is downstairs while ours is upstairs, so we've never had this experience before. It was nice, and showed us that we didn't actually have to worry about all the stuff we worried that he'd get into, like the oven, refrigerator, and garbage disposal.

So we hit the continental breakfast and continued on to Squirrel Hill to visit Robbie, Jess, and Henry. Henry is getting to be such a big kid now and is still as smiley and happy as always. We then met Megan, Paul, Lizzie, and Megan's mom for a very nice picnic at a playground, where Paul played with Will and thus proved himself to be just as cool as Will remembered. We then decided to head back for some downtime at the hotel before the shower. Ryan hadn't really napped all day and Will was fading fast. Well, napping happened for nobody, but at least we tried.

On to the shower, which was hosted by two of Megan's friends in Pittsburgh. There were two games, and I'm proud to announce that I won both of them. And I hate games, but these were pretty fun. (Plus I got to ride home the entire way on Sunday with a gorgeous hardy mum at my feet, since that was the prize for the second game.) There was dinner, which was very good, and dessert, which was awesome. And there were presents and good company, and lots of kind people who helped to entertain Will, who had a very good time. It was really a very nice shower.

The next day we hung out at Megan and Paul's place for a couple of hours before picking up Chinese food and heading back to Robbie, Jess, and Henry's house for lunch. The drive home seemed way shorter for some reason, even though I think it took almost the same amount of time.

Anyway, I didn't take a single picture over the weekend, so here's one of Will and Ryan together from a couple of weeks ago. You can see that I've relaxed a bit and now let them within two feet of each other relatively unsupervised.

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

I can't help it--I think my baby is cute.



"Go, Big Green!"


Dartmouth outfit courtesy of Mark Wenzel, purchased at our ten-year reunion. I cannot believe it's been ten years...


Tummy time! Working hard, he is.

Saturday, September 13, 2008

Two years old!


This is the best birthday picture of Will that I have, so I'm counting on Meagan to have some better ones. I'm sure she does. But I took so few pictures because we were so busy having fun at his party! We invited Will's friends Layla, Samantha, and Landon over for some baby-toddler fun, and I feel comfortable asserting that a good time was had by all. The kids played like crazy even though it was raining and we had to stay inside. Then they ate chicken nuggets, potato smilies, and peas, though based upon the condition of the floor after dinner I think they mostly dropped and then stepped on peas. And then we sang to Will and he got to blow out his two candles and we ate cake and ice cream and Will opened some presents. Will was incredibly hyper for the whole party, which was pretty amusing. And I must say, he got some awesome presents this year, one of which will be a subject of its own blog entry in the coming days, I'm sure.

Sunday, September 07, 2008

Spotlight on Will

I thought Will looked awfully cute today in what is pretty much the last of his "baby" clothes, meaning those whose size ends with "months" instead of "T." So I took some pictures. The last one shows Ryan staring adoringly at everything his big brother is doing.




Thursday, September 04, 2008

Three months old

It stuns me that Ryan is already three months old, as of yesterday. But at the same time it feels like he's always been a part of our family. In any case, we decided it was time to stop babying him and expect him to sit at the table with us for meals.




I also got the exersaucer up from the cellar yesterday thinking that Ryan was probably big enough for it. He is two weeks younger than Will was when he got it as a Christmas present two years ago, but he is also quite a bit bigger than Will was at age five months, so I figured it would probably work. And it did! He is an exersaucer prodigy. He gave me a nice grin (not pictured) the second I put him in it.



Here is a picture of Ryan fascinated by the orange balloon that Will got when we went out for dinner last week. Ryan seriously couldn't get enough of the thing. Will was pretty taken by it too, but luckily he hasn't asked for it in the last few days since I threw it away.


Speaking of Will, does that kid ever wear clothes to eat? Not when peach-blueberry crisp is on the menu.


And here's the big guy in the exersaucer. He's almost two!



And now let us stroll down memory lane to Christmas 2006 and Will's first exersaucer experience.