Summer already?

This weekend, temperatures hit the mid 90's here in Baltimore and we got our first taste of summer. We have had a wonderful weekend enjoying the weather and the city. Saturday morning, we went to our first playgroup! It is not always easy to meet other families in the city since I work full time, but we discovered that our neighbors in the house directly behind us have a 17 month old daughter, Ava. They invited Ryan and I to meet up with some other working moms and kids at a local playground. Ryan had a great time playing with Ava, Jake, Olivia and Emily and I enjoyed chatting with their moms. Hopefully we will play with them again soon. After a long nap, our friends Mike D, Mike and Amanda came over to cook out and hang out. Ryan joined us on the back patio in his new table and chair.

After dinner and Ryan got cleaned up, he sat with his favorite buddy, Mike D, and wanted him to read Parents magazine to him, kind of funny for any of you that know Mike!

This morning, Ryan read the newspaper with Daddy before we got ready for the day...
Then we met the Gerardi family in the Inner Harbor for a family fun fest, where the kids were able to look at animals in a petting zoo, and dance around to some kids music.

Ryan and Annie checking out the animals

Hope you all had a great weekend too! Next weekend we're off to Massachusetts to visit family and go to a wedding. I'm sure we will have lots of pictures and stories to share!

Happy Year and a Half Birthday Ryan!

Ryan is 18 months old today! I can't believe how quickly the time has passed. Some days I want to turn back the clock to when he was a newborn and savor those times with him, and then I realize how fun and exciting each new day is with him NOW. He is doing different things all the the time and constantly amazes me. HIs latest trick is singing "Row, Row Row your Boat." Well, he actually just yells "ROW ROW ROW" really loud over and over again while pretending to row a boat, but I know what he means :)

He still babbles non stop, speaking complete sentences of gibberish, with a very determined look on his face, as if he knows exactly what he is telling us, and why the heck can't we figure it out? But now there are some words mixed in there too - All Done takes the lead with Mama and Dada following closely behind. Was it me who was sad he hadn't said "Mama" yet? I think now he is making up for lost time, as it seems to be uttered constantly. Other words he has been saying: Nana, Car, Truck, Boat, Socks, Dog, Duck, Nose, Eyes and Ears. Some of these words sound the same, and I am sure that most of them are only understood by us, but he's trying. His partner in crime at daycare is named Abe, and Ryan's teacher and Abe's Dad both have heard Ryan say Abe's name, but I have yet to hear it. Abe and Ryan have been in the same class since they were only 12 weeks old and it is so cute to see the two of them together, I think Ryan has his first best friend.

In May he will likely be transitioning to the next room at daycare, which is bittersweet for me. I know he is ready, as he and Abe are the oldest in their class and are both ready to move on. Luckily they will move together to the same classroom, and can stay together. But it means he will no longer be in the Infant/Todder Suite and will be in a Toddler room on the other side of the center, where he will be one of the youngest. I'm sure I will shed a few tears on his first day in his new classroom. Forget starting kindergarten and graduating from high school, I can't even handle him moving up to hang out with the 2 year olds!

We are very excited that the weather is getting warm so we can go on plenty of walks with Ryan and take him to the many parks and playgrounds that we are so lucky to have within walking distance. We are truly blessed with an amazing group of friends who are happy to include Ryan in almost everything we do so we know this spring and summer will bring lots of fun times for us with Ryan and everyone. And of course he loves being the mascot of the group and center of attention. I can't imagine who he takes after!

Happy 18 month Birthday Ryan and thanks for giving us the best 18 months we could have asked for :) We love you very much!

Like Grandfather, like Grandson

Ryan and Grandpa D'Agostino, April 2009

Ryan and Grandpa D'Agostino, October 28, 2007 -

Celebrating Red Sox World Series Win

Hello Spring!

Red Sox Nation

This morning after Ryan got dressed, he pointed to a Red Sox hat hanging on the wall in his room. I had bought the hat last year at Target because it was a great price, but it really is too big for him, and meant for older kids. However, he insisted on wearing it today. Maybe he knows the Red Sox are playing the O's and he wanted to show his allegiance to the other kids at school. I put on his Red Sox jacket and Tim said he looked like a coach - He even called him "Grady Little." Hmm, maybe if he had been in Grady Little's shoes, Pedro would have been yanked in the 8th inning of THAT game BEFORE giving up doubles to Matsui and Posada....But that's a topic for another day :)

Mornings

Weekday mornings in our house can be...a little hairy sometimes. Ryan isn't always a morning person and if we wake him up before he is "ready," watch out! Lucky for us, he loves his sleep! We let him sleep as long as possible until we wake him to get ready for the day and going to school. I can usually tell when we open the door to his room if it is going to be a good morning or a bad one. If he is already somewhat awake and starts talking right away -> Good Morning!! If he is still laying down, sound asleep -> Bad Morning!

This morning I could tell right away it was going to be a good one. Tim opened the door to Ryan's room and I immediately heard Ryan pop up and say "Dada!!!!" We talked to him for awhile in the crib, then got him out onto the floor. I asked him if he wanted to get dressed. Now usually if we try and get him dressed too soon after waking (or sometimes at all!), it is not fun. Even mentioning it can cause a fit. Today he ran over to his toybox, where I have piled up a ton of clothes that no longer fit him. I saw him looking through the clothes very intently, as if choosing what to wear. He first grabbed a pajama top with baseballs and basketballs all over them. He put it aside and kept looking. Eventually he found the matching pajama pants and brought them both over to me. He handed me the pants, then started trying to put the top on. I have to say it made my morning to see him pick out his own outfit for the first time! Yes, it might have been pajamas ,but to see him concentrating so hard was too funny. At least they matched! And for the record, I didn't let him wear his PJs to school :)

Hope you are all having a great morning too!

Easter 2009

This year we continued our recent Easter tradition of celebrating the holiday in Baltimore. For the past few years we have hosted at our house for family visiting from out of town, and Baltimore friends. This year my parents spent the weekend with us, and our friends Mike and Kim joined us all for Easter dinner on Sunday. After dinner, my cousin Diana visited us for dessert. We had a nice and relaxing holiday. Very relaxing for me because I was lucky enough that my WONDERFUL mom did all the work! For the first time ever, we did not have our traditional lasagna. Instead, we had antipasto and breaded eggplant, then ham, mashed potatoes and squash, with several yummy desserts to choose from. There were even special egg free cupcakes for Ryan, which caused a major sugar high. Ryan was lucky enough that the Easter Bunny brought him 2 baskets with some new fun legos, cars, bubbles, pajamas, a monkey bank and books. His favorite part were the plastic eggs he got shaped like a baseball, soccer and basketball, he loved opening and closing them. I didn't take as many pictures as I usually do, so I hope to later post the ones on my parents' camera once they upload them. Here are a few pictures from Easter:

Ryan in the Easter outfit given to him by his Nana

Ryan, Mommy and Nana
The whole crew

Ryan with his Nana and Grandpa, on our way to church

Thanks to my parents for making the trip down for the weekend, and taking us out to dinner Friday night, and watching Ryan on Saturday so Tim and I could go shopping and to a party at a friend's house. Not to mention all the cleaning, cooking and organizing that my mom did while she was here! We already miss them and can't wait for them to visit again. I hope you all had a great Easter weekend too!

Blogging

I read a lot of blogs. Blogs of both people I know in real life, and people I have never met. Several of my friends have blogs devoted to their children, and I love that I can follow their lives in this way, especially the friends who I do not see often enough. I have discovered blogs devoted to parenting, cooking, traveling, excercise, photography, just about any subject you can imagine. Reading these blogs can get addictive. Most bloggers link you to other blogs, who link you to other blogs, who link you to...well, you get the picture. A few cups of coffee and 500 clicks later, I find myself crying in front of my laptop reading about a mom in Texas whose husband died unexpectedly, leaving her to raise their children alone. A few clicks later and I am laughing at anecdotes titled as "bad mommy moments" from another mom who tells it like it is. I have a few select blogs that I follow on a daily basis, and others that I stumble upon from time to time. Reading other blogs have given me a sense of what I want my blog to be and I think it's time for some minor changes.

For all of my faithful blog readers (all 5 of you!), I'm going to start writing more. Most of you that check in on this on a regular basis are friends and relatives who live far away. We don't see you all as often as we would like. You may log in and see pictures of Ryan in a special Christmas outfit, or at a Super Bowl Party, or playing in the park, but you don't get to hear the stories. You don't know that he now yells "D'OH!" when he sees water (Homer Simpson, watch out). Well, he's actually trying to say "Boat" and he is now confusing boats in the water with the water itself, but that's another story! You don't know that when we walk through the grocery store, he says "Hi" to every person we see until they respond. Then he promotly ignores them (I taught him to play hard to get :)). These are the types of things I hope to post more on this blog.

I definetley struggle with putting TOO much out there. I've never been a particularly private person but sometimes I forget how public the internet is and need to reel myself back in a bit. I also don't want it to seem like I am bragging about Ryan, or "in your face" about him and our life. I can't help it, I have always worried what people think a little too much. Then I remember that the people reading this are reading it because they WANT to. They are friends and relatives who are truly interested in our lives and want to hear these stories. If they didn't, they wouldn't and don't have to read. And that's ok with me too.

I am also hoping that writing more of these day to day stories will help me remember. I can look back years from now and remind myself of Ryan's funny antics, because I know I'm not going to remember every moment. And they all pass by so quickly. So this is partly for me too. A public diary of sorts.

Anyway, this got to be a lot longer than I originally intended. Some entries will be longer than others. Some will bore you, some will make you laugh, there may even be a few that make you cry. I guess that's what life is all about - the fun times, the boring times, the happy and not so happy times. Hopefully you join us for the ride on our ups and downs on the rolloercoaster we call life.

Stay tuned :)

Play Ball!

Opening Day 2009

Can this be comfortable?