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!

Bath Time!

We finally got some good bath time pics of Ryan Lion. Yes, in the last picture, he knows where to strategically place his dinosaur bath toy. :)

Yet Another Walking Video!  

Sorry folks, I just can't help myself.  Ryan walking is just too cute!  :)  

He really started walking by himself in longer distances on Wednesday evening.  To celebrate, we went big boy shoe shopping at Sandy's Shoes on Thursday.  We measured Ryan's feet in January for shoes for XinXin's wedding and he was a 5.  When we measured him at Sandy's, he was a 6!  The shoe guy said that he should be able to wear these shoes for at least 3-4 months, so let's hope that he's right.  The 6's are a bit big, so I think they'll last longer than a month.  We ended up with a pair of sneakers that are a Japanese brand.  They are gray and have velcro, which Ryan loves.  They are also machine washable.  I think they look really cute on him.  We also ended up with a pair of brown sandals that squeak!  I thought they were hilarious, so we had to get them.  When we first put them on Ryan, he started giggling when he walked and squeaked as you can see in the video.  Now we seriously need to get on the baby proofing bandwagon.  I feel so bad saying no to him all the time.  :(  

Everyone Loves the Birthday Scrapbook!  

As part of Ryan Lion's birthday party, guests got to make a scrapbook page for Ryan.  We included pics of all of the guests on their page.  We printed pics this week and I actually got a chance to sit down and scrapbook more pages yesterday.  Here's a video of Ryan looking at the scrapbook.  :)  

Definitely Walking!

Does This Officially Count as Walking?

Please don't listen to my horribly cheesy laugh at the end......  :)

Happy Belated Valentine's Day!!  

Ryan wants to wish everyone out there a happy belated Valentine's Day (belated mostly because Mommy didn't have time to blog)!  

Since the grandparents are in town, Steven and I got to spend Valentine's Day out on the town.  We haven't had a real Valentine's Day in a long time considering that we came home from the hospital on Valentine's Day last year and the years before were marred by busy season.  We went to the Alamo Drafthouse.  I know, I know, we went there for my birthday back in December, but it's such a great idea.  You get to watch a movie AND have a decent dinner, not to mention that we get home at a decent time (lame, I know).  Seriously, two birds with one stone.  We saw Fool's Gold.  I thought it would be a total chick flick, but it really wasn't.  It was more of an action comedy chick flick.  It's been the best movie I've seen in a long time, which wouldn't mean much except for the fact that I have Netflix and so that is a credible statement.  :)  If you're even the slightest bit into Matthew McConaughey, this is the movie for you.  One of my favorite parts was when he made a longhorn sign when saying the number two.  It was fabulous.  

Happy Belated Birthdays to Judy and Bristol!!

On Wednesday, February 13th, we surprised Judy with a party to celebrate her 28th birthday.  It was my first surprise party, and I have to say, it was a lot of fun.  Judy is 8 months pregnant, so we were a bit worried about what the surprise would do to her, but thankfully she didn't go into labor, although I don't think that she would have minded!  Thanks to G for organizing a fun event and of course, Vicente, who actually did all of the work.  :)  Judy and Bristol both share Valentine's Day as their birthdays.  The first pic is of the two of them blowing out the candle on the cake and the second pic is of Miss N enjoying the cake.  

Capital 10K

I've signed us up to walk the Capital 10K on March 30th.  Yay!  It's something that Steven and I have talked about doing again since we walked it almost 3 years ago right before our wedding.  We missed 2006 due to work and unfitness (is that word?  I know it's a bad excuse!), we missed 2007 due to Ryan's newness, so we're back on track for 2008.  Wish us good luck in getting back in shape enough to walk a 10K.  We've got like 40 something days left.  The last time we walked it, I felt like we were walking forever.  Let's also hope that Ryan can sit still in his stroller for that long!  

Some Pics from Saturday

The first pic is of Ryan Lion and his friend Ryan playing with Ryan's Radio Flyer walker.  I gotta say, they are too cute together!  The next pic is of the birthday boy and his birthday present from us.  It's a climbing castle.  We thought that he'd love it since he LOVES climbing, but guess what?  He doesn't even go near it!  Oh well.  That continues my tread of picking out toys that Ryan just thinks is okay.  He was sliding down the slide with Auntie Al on Sunday, so there's still hope.  The slide is a bit steep, but I think that he enjoyed it.  The next pic is of Ryan's giant cupcake.  It didn't turn out as well as the trial run, but Ryan seemed to enjoy it.  I definitely have tips for anyone who wants to make one.  The last picture is of Ryan digging into his giant cupcake.  He seemed to like the icing better than the actual cake, he even fed me some of his birthday cake.  Isn't he a sweetie?  :)  

HAPPY FIRST BIRTHDAY RYAN LION!!!

My little guy is now officially one year old.  I'm actually handling it a lot better than I thought I would.  :)  

Birthday festivities started out on Saturday with a birthday bash including all of Ryan's play group friends and our friends from high school, college and work.  Thanks to everyone who made the trip to celebrate with us.  It was nice to have all of the people that we love here to celebrate our little guy's big day.  We had guitar hero going on and a scrapbook station.  Despite everyone's comments about having to scrapbook a page for Ryan's birthday scrapbook, I think everyone really enjoyed it.  I think we definitely have some scrapbook talent in our little group of friends.  

Today we celebrated by having lunch at the Cheesecake Factory.  Kudos to our host who brought out a bread and banana tray for Ryan to munch on while we waited for our waitress.  We ended the meal with a fresh banana cheesecake.  It was really good, but can you really go wrong with a Cheesecake Factory cheesecake?  

Afterwards, we headed over to Ryan's first year doctor's appointment.  He weighed 22 pounds and 6 ounces (50th percentile) and was 30 3/4 inches tall (80th percentile).  He's turning out to be a big boy!  Ryan really did well with the doctor.  He let the doctor examine him on the table and didn't fuss too much.  The shots were a different issue.  He did the whole holding his breath thing, but started crying when he finally started to breathe.  We gave him tylenol before his shots and again before he went to bed so hopefully he'll be okay in the morning.  It seems like with each round of shots, his recovery time has gotten longer and longer, but he did do well with his flu shots, so we'll see.  

I'm still trying to figure out flickr to post pictures, so stay tuned for birthday pictures!  

Blah, Blah, Blah

Sometimes when I talk to Ryan he responds with "blah, blah, blah."  I try to not take it personally, but it sure makes me feel like one of the adults on Peanuts!