"No" means "go right ahead"

Ryan is growing up so fast, and now that he's walking it's amazing to see how interested he is in the world around him. He's always on the go, always exploring, always putting things in his mouth and always crashing into something. The more exploratory he becomes, the more we are working on "no," or "stop" or "ah, ah" like we did with the dog so he learns he can't play in the fireplace, get in the toilet or walk down the stairs forward-facing. "No" seems to have little effect on this boy. If my family members don't read this entry, I can say that I have no idea where he gets this obstinate behavior. He really is fun though, and we've enjoyed more quality time playing with him lately.

Please disregard the bruises on his forehead in the pictures. They're from the usual spills he takes, he's just been taking more lately. Needless to say, we'll be waiting to take his one-year-old pictures until they clear up:)

he loves playing at Grandma and Grandpa's house
and this soccer ball was a huge hit

playing with Tupperware at the Super Bowl party

Walking!

Ryan has been changing by leaps and bounds. He started taking steps a few weeks ago and is walking now like such a big boy. He also says "dog" and "dada" fairly reliably, and will neigh like a horse, clap or wave good bye if you ask him. Then again he's also fairly reliable at eating toilet paper, putting his fingers in outlets and beginning each day by head-butting something:) He stopped wanting his bottle this last week and eating solids as if he has a hollow leg. He likes to chew on the sippy but unfortunately won't drink from it yet so we're working on trying to get enough liquid in him each day.

After a brief hiatus from the lake in December, we've made it back down the past three weekends. It was beautiful down there with all the snow and was warm enough this past weekend that we enjoyed a fair bit of time outside. We also got to see our friends the Riggins and Collins's and it was fun to watch all our little boys play together. Ryan absolutely loves bath time so we hope his affinity for water continues and he enjoys being a lake baby this summer.

here's Ryan walking over at the Riggins' (with a lego in his mouth)

I was having trouble uploading the video so if you can't view it, it's also posted on FB at http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/video/video.php?v=1328309375921.

Happy New Year

taking advantage of all the snow and free time

standing - while playing with my phone

Maggie, Olivia, Katie, Ryan, Jack and Jon

Our child care was closed the majority of the last two weeks and fortunately my office was too so Ryan and I were able to spend several days together. We kept busy and enjoyed the time together, although we're ready to return to our normal schedule tomorrow. We started offf our vacation by going to Lawrence to take my nieces and nephews bowling for their Christmas present. They're so well-behaved that they make it possible to do such an activity with six kids. The next day Ryan and I went swimming at a local community center with a nice indoor zero-entry pool. He absolutely loves the water and had a ball so we'll definitely be returning sometime this winter. Before our family arrived for the holidays, Ryan and I visited all the Horton kids and grandkids, many of whom I haven't seen in several years.

After celebrating Christmas with the Abplanalp side here in KC we got another week of vacation which was wonderful. Since the snow was plentiful, Ryan went sledding for the first time. He was so stinking cute all bundled up, but couldn't move in his suit so when he tried to crawl he just face-planted in the snow. Since I'm not nearly as entertaining as his little friends at child care we squeezed in a play date for some toddler interaction. Then my mom came to town for a couple days to car shop so Ryan got to enjoy some spoiling from Nana. We celebrated New Year's Eve in town at the Morrison's new home. They graciously let us bring Ryan and stay over since sitters are impossible to get on NYE. We had a really good time and are glad we got to stay over so that we could enjoy the entire party. New Year's Day our friend Ryan Kiliany's dad Dennis was in town and hosted a pizza party which hit the spot after NYE. He used to work at a Chicago pizzaria back in the day and makes a mean pizza - and even sends you with a to-go pie.

We wrapped up the vacation by heading to the lake for the weekend. Ryan barely left his pj's the entire weekend, and we did lots of playing together. He's standing and capable of walking but doesn't have the motivation to take any steps yet (which is okay by us because he's hard enough to keep up with as it is). Ryan is a very busy child who is always on the move trying to get into whatever he can get his little hands on. He also knows how to clap now and excites himself when he gets going. It's hard to believe he's 10 months old already but we're loving watching the little guy grow and change everyday.

Merry Christmas

We've had a wonderful week celebrating the holiday with family. We traveled to Clifton last weekend to celebrate with Dad and Marcia and had a nice time with everyone. There were 10 grandkids, 3 of whom are between 9 months and 12 months old. The kids had a wonderful time playing together and the older kids were especially good and helpful with the little ones. We celebrated Tessa's first birthday while we there and Ryan got to enjoy his first cupcake - no shock, it was a hit. There were some riding toys there that were perfect for Ryan, Parker and Tessa so they spent a lot of time getting pushed around by the older cousins.

(back) Dad, Ryan, Marcia, Finley, Katie, Tessa
(front) Parker, Maggie, Jack, Jon, Olivia, Isaac


Ryan, Katie and Tessa

getting a ride from Jack

using the toy as a stool to climb on
to get a little closer to the TV

Upon returning to KC, we had a couple days to unpack and gear up for the next celebration with Todd's family. His sister Ali flew in from San Antonio Wednesday afternoon and we've had a great time together with another couple days to enjoy before she heads back. In addition to lots of love and attention from his Aunt Ali (who we don't get to see as often as we'd like) Ryan got a rocking horse which he loves to ride, however his dismount still needs some work. We're going on a tour of the Boulevard Brewery today and meeting up with my brother Grant and his family and our friends Melissa and Nichole Mudd for dinner. It's been a wonderful holiday, and we're thankful to have such great, generous families to share it with.

Every baby needs an embroidered butt-flap don't they?


riding my new pony!

enjoying our first Christmas with Ryan

Mom's Birthday Weekend

I finally got the pictures from our new camera downloaded! The difference is amazing and we love that we're able to capture all of Ryan's expressions... especially the ornery ones. We're enjoying a great weekend at home in KC to celebrate my birthday and having fun spending quality time with Ryan. Todd completely surprised me by getting all our close friends to celebrate with me at our favorite spot on the Plaza. It was a wonderful evening and I'm very thankful our friends took time out of their busy holiday schedules to make it such a special celebration. We followed it up with a trip to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art today which was Ryan's first visit and apparently so exciting that he fell asleep:)

Thank you to Kelli for passing down the Santa suit.
And thank you Callie for letting me dress you up and being so cooperative.

One ornery little boy after bathtime.

Just doin' some walking with Grandma and Grandpa A.

Our first child:)

Dad's Birthday Weekend

The good news is we got a new camera as an early Christmas present! It arrived Friday afternoon so we took it to the lake to test out and it takes amazing photos and is quick enough to capture Ryan's expressions before he moves. The bad news is, I haven't downloaded the software yet to be able to actually get the pictures we took. So I don't have any new pictures this week but promise to soon.

We had a nice weekend at the lake celebrating Todd's birthday. We saw our friends the Riggins who are living there for the winter and have two little boys. Ryan is one mobile kid who wants to play with everything he's not supposed to. He will bypass a dozen of the coolest toys to get to an outlet that he's sure was meant for his little fingers. At one point this weekend he let go of the ottoman and stood by himself for a couple seconds until he decided it was time to go check something else out. We'll see if that was a fluke or a sign of what's to come. He's also repeating sounds and associating them with us, the dog and the bottle. He was evening saying dog this weekend which we thought was awesome. Then we woke up this morning and he was saying dog to everything in sight so perhaps it wasn't that great of an achievement after all:) He's a sweet little guy who is always on the move so we treasure the rare moments when he sits still long enough for us to snuggle him. He loves the edge of rugs, outlets, Callie, and bath or shower time. He hates lying still so diaper changes and clothing changes are a struggle everytime. He changes every minute so we can't wait to see what he's up to next week.