All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth... oh wait, I already have those!

Yes, this little squirt got teeth about a few weeks ago. One night at dinner we noticed a pool of liquid under the Bumbo where he was sitting and thought one of the glasses was leaking water. Upon examining them, we realized that wasn't the case and it must be drool. Todd said he wondered if he was teething already to which I said surely not. The next day we got an email from Jane that said, "guess who has a tooth?" The next day I sent her one that said "guess who's tooth has a friend?" While he wasn't fussy before hand, he most certainly was after they broke the skin but he's better now and there's no signs of the top two teeth yet.

Thomas had his four month appointment last week and weighed 17 pounds (80%) and was 26.5 inches (95%). He had his first cold that came home from Ryan's school - Ryan and I had it too - but it was no biggie. Just the crud and runny noses. That's yet another bonus of having Jane and Steve watch the little guy. When he's got a slight fever from teething or a cold, I'm not in a bind trying to figure out what to do because he can't go to daycare.

Ryan continues to be a hoot. He's excited for Christmas and has an Elf on the Shelf this year. He named it Angry Birds. We finally convinced him that wasn't a good name since it was angry. When I said he needed to find a nice name, he settled on Ryan Elf. Oh so creative. I took him shopping for a present for Todd on his birthday and he picked out a nice James engine because "Daddy likes to play with toys."

Ryan and Thomas adore each other and we couldn't be more thankful. We're off to our first Christmas celebration this weekend with my dad, then with my mom the weekend before Christmas, then with Todd's family on the actual holiday.

I save all my pictures from my phone to the computer and forgot to uncheck the "delete my pictures from the source" box so I don't have any on hand to post. Check out my FB page though for the recent ones we had taken. My profile picture captures classic brothers - Thomas sweet and unsuspecting and Ryan in the background looking oh so ornery.

Happy holidays!

Rolly Poly

Let the games begin. Thomas rolled over from front to back yesterday.

Life as a Family of Four

I'd say we've officially adjusted to being a family of four. Not that we have it down by any stretch, we've just come to terms with our new reality. 

The first 6 weeks Thomas pretty much ate constantly and didn't sleep for more than a 1-2 hours at a time. Fortunately though, just as I was heading back to work, he figured out his days and nights and completely turned a corner. He's even slept through the night several times, but he still has a healthy appetite. At his 2 month appointment he was 24 inches long (91.7%) and 13.75 pounds (86.4%). 

After insisting his name was Rocky at first, Ryan started referring to him as Rocky Thomas briefly then he pretty much became "my baby." Ryan continues to be a loving, sweet, gentle, adoring big brother. For someone as active and rambunctious as him, we've been pleasantly surprised at how well he's taken to big brotherhood. Ryan also moved to a new preschool which is right by our new house. He's doing really well there and the school is very well-suited to manage him:) 

I headed back to work after six weeks and we're exceedingly fortunate to have Mimi Jane and Pop Pop Steve watching Thomas during the day. It's been so incredibly helpful and made it much easier to return to work knowing he's with family. We didn't anticipate being in such a fog for the first six weeks but once Thomas got the hang of this sleeping thing, we've been more social lately. We were able to do our usual round of fall festivals after Labor Day: Cole Camp Fair, then Laurie Hillbilly Festival, then the Plaza Art Fair, then Clay Center's Piotique, then the Weston Applefest. Todd and I wrapped up the season with the Fall Harbor Hop sans kiddos. 

with Kelli and Henry

with cousin Jack

with cousin Olivia

with Aunt Ali

at Daddy's office

with a very proud big brother

I left him drying after a bath and came back to find the towels shifted with just a little nose poking out. 

bedtime books are a family affair

his first boat ride

our little inch worm loves sleeping on his tummy

Thomas took Ryan's "room" at the lake so Ryan moved into the den and got a bunk bed leaving enough room for BOTH he and the giant catfish

very proud of his letter "Y"

at the Cole Camp Fair

with Charlie at the Fair

they had zebras instead of ponies at this year's Hillbilly Festival in Laurie

playing on Uncle Grant's ranger at the farm

decorating the human statue at the Weston Applefest

with Henry at the Applefest - we took the same picture of them 2 years ago:)

Thomas Grant Abplanalp

After a brief break from keeping up with the blog, I'm happy to be back with the wonderful news that we welcomed Thomas Grant Abplanalp on August 1st at 8:08pm. He weighed 8lbs 2ozs and was 21 inches long. Ryan was the sweetest big brother ever when he met him giving him a hug and saying, "he loves me!"

More pics will follow as will some past photos of Ryan and the new house, but here's a glimpse of our new bundle of joy.

Happy 3rd Birthday & March Madness

My apologies for being so absent lately. The past month has brought my busiest work time of the year, Todd's busiest work time of the year, Ryan's 3rd birthday, surgery for Ryan, selling our house, hopefully buying another and learning the sex of baby #2!

Happy 3rd birthday to the most energetic, adventurous, curious, fun little boy we know. He celebrated on his actual birthday (Feb. 23rd) at school with Thomas the Train balloons and train cookies that he helped make. I can't believe how grown up he looks in the first picture! He's still about 3 feet and 35 pounds, but he's stretching out and now that he's potty trained and doesn't have a bulky diaper on, he appears even older.

The weekend after his birthday we celebrated with family and friends at a Finding Nemo pool party at Matt Ross Community Center. The kids could have cared less about the cake and just wanted to hurry up so they could go swim:). It was so sweet to watch Ryan blow his candles out this year because he actually understood what was going on.

March Madness has a new meaning for our family and is in full swing for us. The week following Ryan's 3rd birthday, he was scheduled to have his tonsils and adenoids out (if you're older than 3 it's outpatient surgery and you don't have to stay overnight). We visited the hospital a couple days prior for a pre-op tour which helped us all better prepare for the events that day (not to mention, it was interesting for me to be on the patient side of things at Children's Mercy), then we returned on Friday the 2nd for his surgery. They let him take one "comfort item" so Scruffy (the stuffed dog he has permanently borrowed from his cousins Jack and Olivia) got to go into surgery with him and got an ID bracelet just like Ryan's, which is still on as his collar. He was a trooper up until he came out of anesthesia when he went from real crying to the a constant drone of fake crying for a good 15 minutes until he fell asleep in my arms. Once he was under and the surgeon got in his throat she discovered that his adenoids were enormous and we learned that was the cause of his "Darth Vader breathing." He's already feeling much better and after a week at home with me and getting more sleep than usual, he returns to school tomorrow. It will take several weeks for any results to fully set in but we can already tell he's starting to snore less and we're hopeful that being able to breath through his nose will help him sleep better, talk clearer and generally be in a better mood.

Daddy, Ryan and Scruffy before going into surgery.

Since we had lots of time together at home this last week, we learned about bugs and made some crafts. I don't think it matters what the craft is, as long as it includes googly eyes:)

I wrapped up my big event at work and busiest time of the year on Feb. 11th in time for Todd to start his busiest time of the year from February through April. We were planning to put our house on the market for sale by owner at the end of February to see how it faired and were under contract within one day. We did the showing the night of Ryan's birthday and began house hunting immediately and are in the process of negotiating a deal on a house but it's far from final so we're keeping our fingers crossed it works out on the new place.

Somewhere in the middle of our March Madness, we learned that baby number 2 is a boy, and our due date is still August 2nd. Todd and I are both very excited to have another boy however Ryan still asks for a baby sister so we'll see how that pans out.

Other fun pictures from the past couple months...

My cousin Mandy and her family were in KC to celebrate Bell's birthday and we met up at Union Station where the kids had a blast playing hands-on with everything. It was so good to see their family, and we're glad the kiddos got to play together.

digging fossils

exploring the helicopter with Bell, Brad and Daddy

Just being silly with Mommy. He found the Scotch tape, brought it to me, and told me we needed to make piggies. We had done this once months ago and I had no idea he'd remember.

Lots of good, silly fun, but oh so flattering:)

Our little squirt loves to slide, and the surface doesn't even have to be slick. But when he discovered the long, slippery hallway at Aunt Kelli's house, there was no stopping him.

Happy New Year

We brought in the New Year at the lake with lots of friends - the Koons, Riggins and Collins. There were 5 little boys and one sweet little girl trying to keep up with the big boys. The weather was gorgeous and unseasonably warm so they spent lots of time outside playing and we enjoyed a bon fire for New Year's Eve. Kelli bought party favors and sparkling juice for the boys and taught them how to celebrate the New Year (at about 9:00 of course). It was hilarious. They all counted down but when we said Happy New Year they just stared at us in confusion. We tried it a second time and they picked up on it then. The funnier part was probably the adults outnumbering them all holding their various electronic devices jockeying for the best angle to capture the moment.

Anna Collins and Ryan in front then Cade Riggin, Charlie Collins, Jake Riggin and Henry Koons in back.

Henry giving Ryan a ride on the John Deere. Henry is so good with him and is such a good big brother figure. Charlie has a battery-operated Jeep and there are a couple other riding toys so it was great watching all the little boys driving around together.

Which led to the big boys feeling left out so they got out their own toy and wedged 3 grown men and 5 little boys into one regular-sized Jeep for a ride around the property.

We exchanged Christmas gifts with Henry and Ryan received a Lightning and Mater costume that make noise which were a big hit!

Who doesn't love a good bath time mo-hawk picture?