well this last month has been pretty good. enough to do some fun things, but still the usual North Dakota life. We didnt do any major traveling or have anything major happen. no other big news or anything.
Just a regular update on everyone. Ryker is doing great. still doing great with talking and stringing words together. this little boy is so smart. He is learning how to put things together like his trucks and loves his bike with all the screws that he got for christmas. we spend a lot of time taking it apart and putting it back together. he still loves loves loves to sing and dance. if we watch anything with singing and dancing he automatically loves it. good thing we have so many disney movies. his current favorite things to watch are Despicable Me 2 which he calls minions 2. doesnt care much for the 1st one but loves the second one. We watch Mickey Mouse clubhouse Donalds hiccups every morning. and Mickeys show and tell where martian mickey brings his pet shapes. lastly in our morning round up is Space guppies with major bummer taking all the music in the galaxy. I know it doesnt make sense to most people. but these keep mom sane and from little boy from having a meltdown every morning. it sounds like a ton of TV time in the morning, but lets be honest he only watches each for maybe 15 min. When Rylie goes down for a nap we turn it off and have some no tv time. we often listen to songs and sing and dance on our own. on leap day this year ryker helped me make jello for our leap day frog pond activity. ryker is getting really good at his alphabet and shapes and colors. he at least sings the alphabet with us and loves the book chikka chikka boom boom. he got it for christmas and we read it often. his favorite books are that one, there is a monster at the end of this book, any book with puppies in it, or if you give a mouse a cookie. grandma reed has taught him well and his favorite color is currently orange. it is the only color that doesnt need any prompting to point out. that and triangles. we are really good at that shape too.
we do let him play a little on the ipad or my phone. but he has learned to exit out of adds and count through the ads when watching his fun nursery rhymes. he is definitely in a technological generation. we spend a good amount of time not playing or watching electronics, but he does some. i dont know why i feel the need to justify it to myself or whoever reads this, but oh well. anyways! he is learning a ton. I cant believe he is almost 3. oh! and for those of you still wondering, i know you are... we are still not potty training. he has a poop spot in the living room. so we know whats going on and so does he, but we are still avidly not going on the potty or trying on underwear. maybe come summertime when its warm enough to go pantsless.
Ryker is really into eating snacks. he doesnt eat much for any meal, but he loves snacks. i have tried saying no to snacks till he eats his meal but then he just doesnt eat anything. he eats breakfast the best. half a sandwich or 2-3 nuggets or 1/4 of a quesadilla is most often what he will eat for lunch. for dinner he eats maybe 2 bites if im lucky and then wont touch it. sometimes he says he is ready for dinner when we say its bed time at 7 but he doesnt eat much then either. our rule for dinner is no electronics while we (or at least the rest of us) eat. on cranky days he can sit on dads lap, but he has to eat his own food. he doesnt eat off our plates anymore. its the same thing anyway. and after dinner no snacks. if he wants to eat he has his dinner sitting out that he can have. i at least try to make the snacks healthy. he eats granola bars, fruit snacks, goldfish, apples, oranges, cheese sticks, strawberries, veggie straws, carrots, bananas. and we only have that snack once a day. he doesnt eat all of these everyday but those are his options.
Rylie is the opposite. She will eat anything and everything. ahe will finish her breakfast and rykers. she must also be fed snacks when ryker gets one. she eats great lunches and also helps ryker finish his. she wants to eat bites of all my food. i try to feed the kids first and then get myself something to eat, but they often eat what im eating too. they both love when i get some grapefruit and love the raisens in my raisen bran crunch. she eats all her dinner and we often give her second helpings of veggies to help her be happy till justin and i can finish eating our own food and clean her up. she is a bottomless pit seriously. but i guess she runs it all off! she isnt chunky at all. at least not any more than usual. its so funny to give her a bath after dinner because she is definitely full and her little belly sticks out. its so darn cute.
Rylie is doing good also. she is growing so fast too, i cant believe it. she loves to sing and dance with ryker. she loves to make noises and stick her tongue in and out. rylie thinks its so funny when we do it back to her. she loves to run around after ryker and follow wherever he goes. she can climb up and down the stairs by herself. however going down she cant get too distracted or too excited or she tends to fall. we still keep a gate up because she tends to get into trouble by herself, but she can do it! she likes to play with light switches. she loves to by whiny during church so we are always out in the hall during sunday school and relief society. last week i helped in nursery and it was fun to watch ryker, and she got to spend some time playing too.
when i first dropped ryker off at nursery for the first time there were the older kids running around and bareling through kids with their big trucks. i was terrified for him! they were going to knock him over and hurt him! ya now thats my kid.... he is the one running through people with the big trucks racing back and forth. oh man... but! he does try to avoid people. but he hasnt quite learned to avoid their trajectory of walking yet. at least the one day i was there he didnt hurt anyone. i hope he is good every other week. we havent heard any complaining. haha.
back to rylie! she can say baby. most of the time it is actually in reference to her baby doll, or her bear. we have started to call it her baby bear just to keep it different from rykers bear. she is also getting smart. it is not as easy to hide a phone or remote from her. and she is very good at crawling right up through you to get to what she wants. she loves to twirl her hair when she is tired. she loves rykers quiet book. all the pieces that come off or out quickly find her mouth. she loves to eat by herself. she doenst like it when i give her bite sizes anymore. she wants the whole thing. she hasnt choked yet, but i constantly am watching her.
Justin is doing well. still enjoying work. he has had a busy couple of weeks with some new projects and them being pretty far away. we need like a week vacation to recover. the weekends just dont seem long enough.
I am doing good. i love being home with the kids and helping them learn and play. I try to keep them busy. we go to a play group on the airforce base that is pretty fun. ryker loves the playground. i have to drag him out everytime.
baby 3 is doing good. I am having the pelvic pain that i had with rylie again. it is uncomfortable and there isnt much i can do about it. but im trying to stay positive and active and not think about how i am not even half way yet... but! we get to find out the gender on the 18th! so thats exciting.
picture time!
he is the only one with a broncos jersey. go broncos! glad they won the superbowl. thanks aunt kristi for the hand me down!
the valentine we sent both sets of grandparents. they loved it. ryker up top, rylie on the bottom. surprisingly they look similar in size.
ryker really wanted rylie on his lap. cutest thing ever. man i love these kids.
being like dad. he has his head lamp and his truck up on a jack. then using the screwdriver to fix the tires. at one point he was upside down trying to get under the truck. so cute
dad teaching gun safety with nerf guns
everyone got a turn
happy valentines day from grandma reed!
our fun valentines dress. mostly it was red so we worked with it. haha.
.they wouldnt stand still for a pic together.
rylie twieled her hair in the middel of dinner. girl needs a shower cap.
justin and i tried our hand at some crayon art. it turned out really well!
mine was a little more structured. to help remember our time in north dakota. not that we are leaving yet.
rylie likes to play on rykers push car. sometimes we get the direction a little askew.
happy sunday! ryker showing off moms flower from relief society. this didnt last the 15 min drive home. it was in pieces and half eaten.
ryker helps push her sometimes.
at the playground at the air force base playgroup. he loved all of it.
the tree slide was his favorite. there is a real playground on the other half i just didnt get any pictures.
rylie trying on rykers coat. she loves to wear his orange vest too.
snuggle time with mom! this doent happen a ton anymore but im loving it!
our apple and grape frogs on the jello pond for leap day. we played frog nursery rhymes, watched princess and the frog, played leap frog and made these treats. it was hard to get a good pic and as soon as the camera shutter went off they were quickly dismantled and eaten. ryker grabbed the grapes with the chocolate chip eyes, rylie grabbed an apple in one hand and a handful of jello in the other.
it got warm enough this last weekend we went on a few walks, then played with some chalk outside. we loved it!
super bowl weekend. we really did watch the game. ryker enjoyed running around with the players. haha
this one day he was looking for something. it was the funniest thing. this went on for like 10 min. he would pick something up, say what it is, then nope! and throw it. i didnt even mind the mess. it was just so funny!
ryker doing the hiccup polka. with how many times we watch this episode he better be good at it by now!
