The Color Red

So I think Ryan's favorite color is red. It all started with his "jacket" coloring last November (see below). He was very focused on his coloring that day. He started the coloring at daycare, but he didn't get a chance to finish it so when he got home he wanted to continue working on it right away. He even borrowed the specific red crayon he was using at daycare. He worked really hard to color every inch of it, and he tried so hard to stay within the lines. Sometimes he gets pretty upset if he goes outside the lines, so we try to reassure him that doesn't matter and it's okay. Sometimes that works, sometimes it doesn't. Anyway, since last November we've heard him mention several times that his favorite color is red. And I think he proves that by some of his other recent colorings.

Wii Master (almost)

We got a Wii for Christmas and it's fun to watch Ryan get into it. We've never had video games in the house for him before (Scott, of course, has his stash of football, baseball and golf games) but now that he's getting old enough to understand how the control buttons work, we thought we'd see how he would do at the Wii sports games (tennis, baseball, bowling, golf, and boxing). I love tennis, so I have a lot of fun playing a 2-player game with Ry when we get a chance. In this picture he's probably smokin' a serve in tennis. For whatever reason, Ryan has figured out how to seriously smoke the serves while Scott and I struggle to figure out how to get the same speed that he does.

Indoor Snow Bunny

Yesterday I found Grace playing with her boots and outdoor gear, so I asked her, "Do you want me to put your boots on?" And she can't talk obviously, but she motioned for me to do so, and then she picked up her mittens for me to put on, and then her hat. Then she crawled around the house like that for about 20 minutes. It was pretty funny.

Edward Scissorhands

Every so often Ryan likes to cut up paper. Today was one of those days. And before he took his nap he said, "Mom, I have to clean this up after I sleep because it's my mess." I won't argue. :)

Ryan Gets a Big Bed!

Ryan has been sleeping in a toddler bed (the mattress is the same size as a crib mattress) since a few months before Grace was born... so it's been well over a year. The bed worked really well for awhile, but over the past 6 months I've really noticed that it's time - and he's ready - for a bigger bed. Scott's parents were kind enough to let us take his old twin bed (from when he was growing up in their house) and we got it set up in Ryan's room over New Year's week. Awhile back Ryan and I went shopping for new bedding and I let him pick out his sheets. He chose Spiderman and he was so excited when those sheets got placed on his new bed! And more than anything, he was just EXCITED in general to have a new (bigger) bed. For the first couple days he kept saying, "I love my new bed!" It was fun for us to give that to him. And even more fun for us is we can actually lay down with him and cuddle when we want. Last night he wasn't feeling very well and he woke up scared, so I went in there and laid down for awhile. But I ended up falling asleep until the morning! Oh well. Doesn't matter. I won't get to cuddle like that with him forever, so I'll take what I can get now and try to cherish it. The picture below was taken during his daytime nap yesterday. By the way, he's had that yellow blanket since he was born. We used to swaddle him in it. He loves his "blankie". It's thinned out, grungy and has a hole, but he doesn't care.

Seeing Is Believing

So the other day I talked about how Grace has been getting herself into a standing position without our help. And today she's been doing it like crazy. I'm so happy for her. Here's a short little video clip. Seeing is believing! :)

Out Like a Light

I've never seen Grace do this, so I was pretty amused today when I found her sleeping on the livingroom floor. I was working on the computer and I didn't hear many sounds coming from the other room. So I decided to check on the kids. Ryan was laying down watching a show. And Grace was laying close by, out like a light!

Grace is Making Strides

Grace is 15 months old now, and she still doesn't walk. I'm not entirely concerned about it, since Ryan didn't walk until he was 16 months old. But we did begin Grace on a physical therapy program a couple weeks ago (just like Ryan went through). The evaluator said her muscle tone isn't strong and she sits in a W position, which isn't good for her hip joints. We're supposed to work with her at home and focus on two things: (1) to get her up on her knees, and out of the W position, and (2) to help her overcome the fear of getting down to the floor from a standing position. With the holidays we didn't spend a lot of time working with her yet, so I'm happy to say that Grace started making progress on her own. Before this week she would stand just fine on her two legs, as long as we put her in that position, and as long as she was hanging onto something. But this past Friday, January 2nd, we went to Scott's parent's house to visit and when no one was looking, Grace got herself into a standing position on the little step between their livingroom and kitchen dining area... and then she got up onto the step all by herself. I only realized she had done this when I noticed she was crawling towards the kitchen. After that, she repeated this a couple times and even got herself down from the step (face first, but it still worked). We were all very impressed by her new accomplishment. However, I was even more impressed today when she surprised me again! I wasn't paying attention, but I happened to look over and notice that she was standing next to our large ottoman. She got herself into the standing position all on her own, and the reason I'm impressed is because the ottoman is much higher than the little step in Scott's parent's house. And throughout the day today, she got herself into a standing position over and over again. Yeah Gracie!! :)

Gimme a Kiss

I don't want to forget what was going on in this picture, so I'm writing it down quick tonight. I was taking a few pictures of Grace while she was playing with some books. I kept trying to make sounds or call her name, just to get her to look up at me, but she was too busy with the books. So I decided to say, "Gimme a kiss." I didn't expect her to respond, but as soon as I said that she stopped in her tracks, looked up at me, and leaned forward to give me a kiss. And I don't get kisses from her very often these days, so I thought that was cute.