Da Da

After "hi Ryan" the first thing Todd usually says to him is "da da, can you say da da?" Well, Wednesday night when Todd asked this of him, he repeated back "Da da da da da!" It was the cutest thing ever. Ryan was so proud of his new skill that when we put him to bed he laid in his crib for at least 10 minutes saying "da da" like a broken record.

Plaza Art Fair and Bark at the K

This weekend was our favorite of the year, the annual Plaza Art Fair. We spent Friday and Saturday night there with friends while Ryan stayed home with a sitter and took Ryan and Callie down during the day Saturday. Callie can't make it 5 feet without getting stopped by strangers for pets so she's in dog heaven there. It turned out that Sunday was a special promotion at Kauffman Stadium for dogs and it also happened to be the last home game of the year. We met up with the Koons' there then cut out a little early to go back to the Art Fair for cheap "end of Fair" food and drinks. Ryan's allergies cause him to have a lot of congestion which has given him a sinus infection and another mild ear infection so he's on antibiotics once again. If it continues we'll see an allergist.

Callie and Ryan at the last Royals' home game of the year which was also Bark at the K

Henry Koons and Callie

Note that Ryan's head is wider than mine:)

At the Plaza Art Fair with Kelli & Henry Koons and Meghan & Charlie Collins

Hillbilly Fair

The small town near us at the lake was having their annual Hillbilly Festival last weekend while we were there so we visited and got ourselves a little slice of Americana. It was a pretty big event for such a little town and we enjoyed the trip with Grandma and Grandpa A, the Lutz's and the Collins family. Charlie Collins is almost two and had a great time riding the little kids train, going down the jumbo slide and, most of all, giving hugs to baby Ryan. It will be so fun to watch our boys grow up together at the lake. While at the lake, we celebrated Jane's birthday and had a nice relaxing weekend. Ryan's been a little under the weather and it turns out that his congestion has given him a sinus infection and mild ear infection. We went to the doctor this morning so hopefully he'll be back to his usual smiley, happy self in time for the Plaza Art Fair this weekend.

Love My Flowers

The Wanamaker Family gave these musical flowers to Ryan and they're one of his favorite toys. He's anything but gentle these days so here he is treating them like drums.

Labor Day Vacation

We just returned home from a good, long vacation at the lake last Thursday through early Wednesday morning. Todd and I spent a day over at Jeff and Kelli's lake house so it was nice to enjoy some adult time, too. It rained quite a bit so we relaxed inside and found other indoor activities but it finally cleared up Monday so we were able to squeeze in a couple boat rides. On Tuesday we boated up to the dam then walked around the old original Lake Ozark strip (old is an understatement). It was a fun little adventure that began with Todd beating me at skee ball, ended with getting rained on during the boat ride home and included some quality people-watching in between.

We're on life jacket #3 this summer and have found a winner.

The Collins' loaned us Kelsey's old life jacket that's 25+ years old,

and Ryan likes it the best of all of them. That, combined with his

shades makes boating quite enjoyable for us all now.

He was more interested in the texture of the rope than actually swinging with me.

posing in front of the "funny" mirror at Lake Ozark...

Christmas card pic perhaps:)

Last week Todd and I celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary. It's hard to believe it's been 9 years since we've met! Ryan has had lots of firsts recently and continues to be so interested in the little things around him. This past week he got in his two bottom teeth and went swinging at a local park. I also picked up his Halloween costume over the weekend and there is one cute monkey at our house:) He doesn't seem to mind the get-up but I'm sure that will change by the end of October when it actually matters.