First Year Pro Pics

I posted some pics that we took during Ryan's first year pro pic session, but here's the link to the actual pro pics.  I think they turned out really good considering the really bad mood Ryan was in while we were taking the pictures!  

http://virtuphotography.com/Client/Tang/

More Birthday Pics

I know it seems a little late to still be doing birthday pics, but I really wanted to take pictures of Ryan tearing into a giant cupcake wearing only his diaper. We finally coordinated baking and icing the cake along with the lighting, etc to actually take some decent pictures. Who cares that it almost took a month? :) These pictures are totally worth it! Yes, he's squatting like a good little Asian baby. :)

I Am Too Cool

Ryan dug into the backpack that we used for the Rodeo on Saturday and picked out his sunglasses. To our amazement, he "asked" us to put it on him and he actually wore them around the house! I guess he knows how cute he looks!

More Rodeo Pics

The first pic is of Steven and Ryan in front of the largest smoker that I've ever seen. You really can't tell the size from this picture, but that thing was HUGE!

The next picture is of me and Ryan in front of the Purina Incredible Dog Challenge. Ryan said that he wants that dog for Christmas next year. We'll see if Carrie and Button like it first.

The last two pictures are of me at the petting zoo. Unfortunately, Ryan fell asleep and missed the petting zoo, but we didn't think that that should stop us from feeding a petting a few of them. :) I love llamas, they're so soft! The deer were very friendly too.

Rodeo Pics

Saturday was our first time at the Austin Rodeo. We had such a great time and it probably was due to it being bbq cookoff weekend. Seriously, why would you go at any other time?

The first pic is of Ryan all decked out in his shades and UT ski cap. I gotta say, my baby looks good in shades!

The second pic is of Ryan and Steven watching the sheep herding competition. Ryan actually sat still and watched. For a baby that refuses to watch tv, we were impressed. I've tried to explain sheep hearding to our fine dogs at home to no avail, but I did get licked in the face. Oh well, what can you do?

The next pic is of Steven and Ryan with the Grand Reserve Champion Steer (or something like that). Steven thought the reserve steer was cuter than the champion steer, so we took a pic.

The last picture is of Steven and Ryan cheering on the agility dogs. We saw a lot of the Purina Extreme Dog Challenge which is being televised on ESPN. We saw the small and large dog agility, 60 pole weave, Jack Russell races, and frisbee dogs. We missed the diving dog competition. We'll have something to look forward to for next year.

We found Steven's co-workers' bbq team for the bbq cook off and ate lunch at their trailer. It was so incredibly good. I really hope that they won the brisket and ribs competition. Their brisket was so good that even Ryan ate it. Ryan's not really much of a meat eater, but he kept on grabbing my hand so I would feed him more brisket. Yep, that's my little Texan. I was also surprised by how sweet their ribs were. Seriously, it was some of the best bbq that I've ever tasted. Those lucky judges! I wonder how they get picked!

Fun Pics

Here are some random pics that I took over the weekend.

In the first picture, Ryan has a ball in the front pocket of his overalls. He LOVES when we put toys into his pockets. We think that he thinks that it's the neatest thing to have a toy at his disposable that he doesn't actually have to use a hand holding. Whenever we took it out of his front pocket, he'd grab it and try to put it back in. The moment that we helped him place the ball back into his pocket, he would smile the sweetest smile of satisfaction. Now I need to go out and buy lots of shirts with pockets on them!

The second pic is of Ryan playing with a box that once housed the Mrs. Field's cookies that I got from Carolyn and Josie after I had Ryan. I always thought it was a neat box because the ribbon comes out from under the lid to be tied on top. I kept it thinking that it'd be fun for Ryan to play with one day. Lo and behold, on Saturday morning, Ryan went into his closet, picked up the box and wouldn't let go for the next hour. It sure bought us a lot of time while we were packing up for the rodeo. Talk about a gift that keeps on giving!

The last picture is of Ryan's new discovery of the step stool. I amazed to walk into the kitchen and see Ryan standing on it I took this picture the moment before he fell off. It was cute while it lasted. :)

Serious Reader

I took some pics of Ryan while he was "reading" one of his books last Friday because it just amazed me how serious he looked. Talk about concentration! He loves to just turn the pages of his books, and of course chew on them too. Whenever I actually try to read one to him, he just cuts me off by turning the page. Oh well. One of these days, I'm sure he'll actually enjoy story time. There are times when he spends more time with his books than the rest of his toys. His favorite author by far is Karen Katz. He loves Where is Baby's Belly Button and Toes, Ears and Nose. He loves lift the flap books and singing books. Are we raising a total nerd or what? :)

Lunch with K Ry

We had lunch with K Ry on Friday and of course, a good time was guaranteed. Here are just a few pics of K Ry and Ryan, who she likes to call Mikey (go figure!). Yes, in the last picture, Ryan's hand is down her shirt. I've heard that baby boys who are breastfed are boob men. I guess it's true. :)

Ride 'Em Cowboy!

We got this bounce and spin zebra for Ryan when he was around 9 months old and it's really just sat in the corner until lately. Ryan has figured out how to get on and off and of course, enjoy the ride!

Fun Stuff

We've been having way too much fun lately. :) Now that things have calmed down a bit commitment-wise, I think that I've been trying to find things to do to fill up our time. Besides all of the things mentioned in my earlier posts, we've done a few other fun noteable things.

We went to Fogo de Chao a couple of weekends ago. The last time we went to a Churasscuria, I was still in school and I think it was over OU weekend one year. Ever since then, we've talked about going back. This time we decided to try the new Fogo de Chao (the last one we went to was Texas de Brazil) that just opened up in Austin late last year. I swear that I don't remember it being that good! If I remembered it was that good, we wouldn't have waited so long to go again! The salad bar was awesome. The service and the selection of meats was incredible. We had such a great time. It was fun to dress up and eat at a fancy restaurant. The great thing about Fogo de Chao was that we pretty much got to eat right away, so there wasn't a lot of down time waiting for our food to come which was great since we had Ryan with us. Those waiters come quick once they see green. It kind of reminded me of dim sum with all of the different types of food being carried around which is really funny because next door is the Melting Pot which is pretty much hot pot. I guess these observations is what happens when you marry a Chinese guy. :)

Another fun thing that we did last week was go see Michael Buble. We've had tickets for what seems like forever, so it was really exciting to actually go see him. I know they're not comparable, but Josh Groban is a way better singer to see in concert, but you can tell that he's really dorky. Michael Buble was so incredibly funny. Who knew? He's one of those people who are good at impressions. He kept on singing with a Texas twang and made fun of the Mayor who was in the front row. The opening act was Naturally 7. They were amazing. Their genre is what they like to call vocal harmony because they don't use any instruments or background music. Overall, it was a fun night. I now own practically own all of Buble's music.

Today Ryan and I decided to check out the Baby Bloomers program at the Austin Children's Museum. It was so much fun. The Baby Bloomers program is where the museum only allows children aged 0-3 to come in and there's special programs geared towards that age group. There was story time at 9:30 that Ryan wouldn't sit still for and music at 10:30. The music session was like a mini session of Music Together that I was thinking of enrolling Ryan in. It was really crowded, but still a lot of fun. Ryan is not a shy kid. He grabbed onto and hugged the legs of a few women, he flirted with the staff, he decided to hold a grandmother's hand, and of course got some loving from his favorite Sheila. It cracked me up how Ryan would not sit still for the music part, yet he could stand in front of the giant lite brite and play with that for at least 10minutes straight. Ryan also liked taking the balls out of one exhibit and throwing them on the floor. He really liked the giant slinky piano and the echo tube. We ended up leaving around 11 because 2 hours was pretty much Ryan's limit. We missed the science lab part, but next time we're planning to go a little later so we won't miss it. We're probably going to go back again next week, I can't wait!

Ryan's New Theme Song

I Am Baby
by Joe McDermott

I fall down on my bottom
And it doesn't even hurt
Gonna find a house plant
Gonna eat some dirt
Gonna run around all over this house
Gonna find an old dusty thing
Put in in my mouth

Chorus
I am baby
I am trouble
I can walk

I know everything to do to make the doggie jump
I know everything to pull to make the lamp go thump
I know everything to do to make Daddy say, "Oh no!"
I know 25 words and 24 of them are, "Uh oh!"

Chorus

Well, hey there kitty
How are you?
Mind if I give your tail a little chew?
And who spilled juice on Daddy's new suit?
Well it couldn't be meI'm so little and……cute
Well hey there Mama
What do you know
I just put the keys
Where the diapers go
And I do the watusi like the "tusi's" do
Eat some peanut butter
Spread it on your shoe

Chorus

Ryan's Fifth Concert

You just gotta love living in Austin, the live music capital of the world. :) At one year old, Ryan's already been to five concerts! His first was when he was 5 months old and we went to see the Remus Lupins a.k.a Wizard Rock. I can't really say that he was a fan though, maybe when he's a little older. Then, we went to go see Joe McDermott at Pottery Barn Kids and we were hooked! We've also seen Miss Staci there too. Ryan's other concert was at City Hall. At certain times during the year, the Austin City Hall hosts live musicians during lunch time. I can't remember who we saw perform, but they're on an animal CD that Ryan got for his birthday. It was some time of world music, it was very groovy.

Here a pics of Ryan at his second Joe McDermott concert at PBK. Yes, as you can see, he wasn't really into the music this time around, he was more into eating! Ryan is a big foodie. :)

The second pic is of Joe performing. The last two pics are of Ryan and his friend Ryan playing during the concert. They are so cute together!

First Year Pics

We took Ryan's first year pics a week and a half after his first birthday. We don't have the link to the online gallery just yet, so I thought that I'd post a few that we took ourselves. We took the pictures at Bella Mar, the newest park in our neighborhood. Ryan was in a really bad mood, so I'm surprised that we even got a few good shots. I'll the link to the pro pics as soon as I get them!

Head First
Ryan's newest favorite thing to do is jump into the ball pit head first. Yes, that is a foot in the second picture. :) Ever since Ryan started walking, he has an opinion about everything, especially where he's going. At the gym, Ryan likes to climb up the steps to the ball pit, jump in head first, manuever his way back into a standing position, look up at me so I take him out of the ball pit and place him on the ground and back up the steps he goes to jump back in head first. He's turned into such a crazy baby!

Zilker Park Kite Festival

We finally got to go to the Zilker Park Kite Festival yesterday. Every single year, I always tell Steven that we need to go, but for some reason or other, we've never been able to make it until this year. It was the perfect day to fly a kite. It was extrememly windy and it was neither too cold or too hot. We had a lot of fun just being out and being part of the mass kite flying chaos. We got to watch some cool demostrations like a kite flying team performing in sequence with music. Then we saw a guy who flew 10 kites at once. After snacking on some bratwurst with kraut and funnel cake, we took a stab at flying our new dragon kite from Costco. Costco really did time their kite sale because half the people there had Costco kites! Our dragon kite was really hard to fly (I nicknamed it Eeyore becuase it didn't seem to want to move), but once it was up, it flew pretty well. The last pic is only a glimpse of all of the kites being flown at one time. It was a lot of fun, but you had to watch out in case a kite landed on your head!