Ryan's First Haircut

Before . . .

We took Ryan to get his first haircut yesterday afternoon. He was starting to have a lot of bad hair days, so I decided it was time to tame the mop. I tried to get some before pictures to show justification for his first haircut, but his hair was actually good the day we got it cut!

From the side, you can kind of see how it was sticking up at the top and the back.

From the front, you can see how his hair was sticking out over his ears, and a bit uneven on the forehead. (By the way, isn't that a great smile? You can really see his teeth!)

After . . .

We took Ryan to the Fantastic Sam's where Daddy and the kids get their hair cut. Ryan sat on my lap while the lady cut his hair. I had a hard time knowing what to ask for, since this was his first haircut, so she ended up buzzing him like Kevin!

The ladies there know us well, so they were very excited to do Ryan's first haircut. They even gave him a special certificate. He did extremely well! He was all smiles and curiosity at first, and then he only fussed a little when we had to hold his head still so she could trim around his ears with the scissors.

"I'm getting used to it."

(Mommy's getting used to it, too. He looks so different! I think I won't let them do it quite so short next time.)

"Yay! I got my first big-boy haircut!"

I could see Ryan adjusting to the new hairdo last night. One of the sleepy-habits he has is reaching up and running his fingers through his hair. I could see his confusion when he tried to do this, but couldn't get a handful. ;)

My Boys are Silly!

Ryan has the cheesiest grins sometimes. They are too funny! In this picture, I was getting him to show off his first pair of jeans (fall weather is here!).

Here's Ryan laughing again. This time he was wiggling around on the floor to play with some balloons, but he kept pulling up his shirt to show off his belly! (Actually, it was more like he was trying to chew on his shirt--teething, you know.)

Ryan has also developed a funny way of soothing himself to sleep. He used to do this little head roll from side to side, once in a while, as he was falling asleep. Now, he does it for minutes at a time--quite vigorously--anytime and anywhere he's trying to fall asleep! He does it in his crib, in the swing, and even in our arms! The best was the other night when he started smiling as he did the sleepy head roll--very silly!

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You know, Kevin never played with his Diego doll/pillow too much until recently. Actually, he kept trying to take Andrea's Dora one, but she wouldn't let him have it, and kept reminding him he has a Diego for himself. Finally, Kevin reluctantly gave up and started using his Diego. Now, Diego is frequently Kevin's companion when it's time to relax on the couch. He even shares his blankie with Diego! The other day, he was sharing his "picnic" with Diego, too.

Right now, my kids are fascinated with the large cardboard boxes that I receive my Nutrisystem food in each month. They use them for decoration, toy storage, vehicles, hideouts, etc. This month, I turned their boxes into little houses with "roofs" and "doors". Kevin made me laugh by suddenly popping out of his roof with a rendition of "Pop Goes the Weasel"! (When I laughed the first time, he did it about 20 more times in a row, of course.)

Papa's Birthday 2010

We went to Papa and Gram's house for dinner, to celebrate Papa's birthday. Ryan was the first to wish him a Happy Birthday!

The kids quickly made themselves at home, and pulled out the various toys they know are available for them at Gram and Papa's. Kevin likes this talking garbage truck.

Here, Kevin arranged the Dora chairs like rows on a bus. (He and Andrea like to play this game at home, too.)
After a delicious roast beef dinner, it was cake time! The older girls helped put the candles on the cake, and the kids joined Papa to help blow out the candles (but Ryan was busy eating his dinner).


Andrea wanted to give Papa his gift from our family.

After dessert, we decided to take some group photos of the kids because they all looked so cute.

Hannah (20 months), Kevin (3), Isabelle (4), Ryan (7 months), and Andrea (5)

My Babies

Andrea using Izzy as a pillow!

Kevin pulled down some of the birthday decorations. It looks like the punishment fits the crime! The garland worked as an effective Kevin restraint . . . for about 10 seconds.
Izzy and Andrea had a princess dress-up dance party in the kitchen.

Kevin was playing by the TV stand and bumped his head. He was okay, but he wanted a bandage. Little Nurse Isabelle wanted to help him feel better, so while Papa cuddled Kevin, Izzy gave him some "medicine" (candies from the party). We thought she looked like a mini Florence Nightingale in her dress-up costume!

Lucky Kevin and Hannah also got to have their special sleep-over night with Gram and Papa that night, so they got to stay all night!

Chatty Ryan

Ryan can get really chatty when he's in the mood. He'll babble away about nothing in particular, practicing different sounds and little words, and testing his vocal range. For the past few weeks, there were lots of "mama" sounds, but Daddy will be happy to hear that "dada" has become the predominant sound this week. Ryan also likes to say "baba" and "wawa" and "rara."

He comes out with the occasional "boo," "didi," or "aja" (which Andrea insists is Ryan trying to say her name!), too.

Random Ryan Photos--from August

I realized there are a bunch of photos of Ryan from this month that I may have posted elsewhere, but not on the blog . . . so, here they are!

This picture makes me laugh because they look so shocked, but I simply caught them unaware.

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Ryan LOVES balloons. Any time we have some, he gets very excited. He loves to hold them, and also to watch them float overhead.

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Ryan was sleepy after a morning visiting with Gram and Papa. Notice that Gram spiked his hair!

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Ryan has been tyring to sit on his own for a while. He does pretty well for a few seconds, but then he starts to tip over! Poor little guy, I think he has inherited his siblings' low muscle tone. His progress in the next few months will tell us for sure.

"Mama, you're gonna catch me, right?"

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Ryan's face after trying a new food

Ryan's "Munchkin Face" that he makes when Mama is silly

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getting him started early?

Nah, just a fun photo for my work colleagues.

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Ryan is trying to grab the fish on the swing's mobile (and he did succeed). Each of my kids have done this at about 6-7 months old. (see here)