Ryan Avoiding Eye Contact

Tonight Ryan was playing a game with me where he refused to look at me.  I kept trying to catch his gaze and every time I got close he'd look the opposite direction.  He was crazy fast, I couldn't keep up with the kid.  Spencer and I died laughing, what a fun little guy!

Sooo Cute!

My adorable niece Miss Hadley always says "oooh baby. baby sooo cute" whenever she sees Ryan on video chat.  I can't help but agree with her when I look down and see this...

Yummy Giraffe

Ryan has learned how to grab and hold onto things. The video shows Ryan putting his little toy giraffe into his mouth (happens fast at the beginning). He has also learned how to grab is pacifier and take it out, but hasn't yet figured out how to put it back in (unfortunately :) ).

Ryan Learning to Use His Hands!

I wasn't able to upload a second video to the last post so here is a video showing how Ryan has learned how to bat the toys on his playscape! 

Ryan Playing

It is so fun to watch little Ryan learn and grow.  He is learning so quickly and changing every day.  The most noticeable thing lately is how much he is learning about his body.  He is starting to gain some control of his limbs and can place his hands onto objects.  He LOVES his little play gym (thanks Lombardis!) and will sit there squeeling, whacking and kicking with glee as he admires himself in the mirror and plays with the dangling toys.  It is so cute to watch and I love hearing his little squeels fill our home, it is such a sweet sound.

Ryan also loves to stand and has for quite a while now.  Spencer loves to help Ryan stand up and plays with him every chance he gets.  Ryan is also SO social! We call him our little flirt, he just smiles and coos and bats his eyes at all the ladies.  We had a busy weekend of many parties and Ryan loved all of the attention as he got handed from person to person.  He is definitely his father's child and is always happy to be around people and at events.  I think we might have a mr. social on our hands.

Salmon!

I'm not a big fish eater, but Spencer loves fish.  I never cook it for dinner because then I have to touch raw, nasty, smelly fish.  But we babysat for some good friends over the weekend a couple of weeks ago and their mom brough home fresh salmon from Alaska.  Spencer was ecstatic.  I surprised him with a salmon dinner that next night which made for a very happy husband.  The fish did taste pretty good, maybe I'll come around on this whole fish thing someday...

Ryan LOVES His Daddy

Mom's good for snuggles, but Dad's the best for laughs.  Ryan just loves his daddy time and is all smiles when Spencer plays with him.

Ryan's 2-Month Stats

Ryan was a trooper at his 2-month visit where he had to get 2 shots and 1 oral vaccination.  He is growing well and staying a big guy.  We are interested to see if/when he stops being so big since neither Spencer or I are.  But we do have some random genes in there that could produce just about any size so it will be interesting to see how our "little" man turns out.  Here are his stats:

Head: 15 3/4" (50%)

Length: 24 1/2" (95%)

Weight: 12 lbs 10 oz (75%)

Happy Mother's Day!!

Ryan had just woken up and looks a little confused about the impromptu photo shoot :)

Smiles after the photo shoot

On our Walk

Happy Mother's day to all of you women out there who have a positive influence on these precious children, regardless of whether they are your own.  I am grateful for all of the wonderful examples of strong, capable, loving, nurturing and impressive women in my life.  Most importantly I am grateful for my wonderful mother who has always been such a great example to me.  I hope someday to be a mother to Ryan like she is to me.

Today was our first Mother's day with sweet baby Ryan.  I am so grateful that he has come into our family.  He is such a sweet little spirit and brings such joy into our home.  We had a great day with our little family.  We went to church this morning and then Spencer watched Ryan so I could take a nice long afternoon nap.  We followed that up with a beautiful walk down the coast and then had a great dinner made by Spencer.  For Mother's day Spencer gave me a day of diaper changes (per my request), a clean kitchen and a wonderful dinner.  Ryan "gave" me some beautiful tulips, sour gummy worms (my favorite candy) and two Disney movies!  It was a great Mother's day and my greatest gift was getting to spend it with my husband who I adore and my sweet baby Ryan who is such a sweet bundle of joy.  Thanks to my boys for making this a wonderful Mother's day!  I love you!

First Day At Church

I forgot to post this a couple of weeks ago.  Ryan went to church for the first time at 7 weeks old.  We kept him home for a while because there was some sickness circling around the children and we wanted to make sure Ryan didn't get exposed to this when he was so young.  He was a trooper and has lasted the full 3 hours each of the past 3 weeks we have been.  He has made lots of friends and is very social.  I love dressing him up for church because it is the one time each week when I put shoes on him.  I am a total sucker for little baby shoes and Ryan has some SUPER cute ones that I just love!

2 Months Old Today!

Happy 2-months to me!!

Ryan Today: Sweet Afternoon Nap

Ryan's First Time in the Ergo!

We took Ryan for his first walk in the Ergo today.  He is such a snugly guy and loved being close to dad's chest.  He fell asleep right away and was very content.

Ryan's Newborn Photoshoot: Sarah Severson Photography

We had a photo shoot with our friend Sarah when Ryan was 10 days old.  She did such a wonderful job and took some really beautiful shots of our little guy.  Below are some of my favorites from the session!

Who Does Ryan Look Like?

We think he has my eyes and nose and Spencer's mouth.

Visitor: Rochelle!

Our dear friend Rochelle Bryan came to visit Ryan.  She is a pro mom and Ryan was right at home in her arms.  He just loved her and flirted with her throwing big smiles and happy eyes.

Fun Facts About Ryan: Helper

Ryan is already such a good helper.  When we try to clean his nose and dig out those lovely boogies, he often helps out by blowing his nose on his own.  Sometimes his little blows are the little extra nudge those guys need to make their way out.

From the beginning Ryan was always funny about getting his mouth wiped after he was done feeding.  Without fail he would always pucker his lips so that it made it easier for me to wipe them off.  It always made me laugh how "polite" our little Ryan is.

Fun Facts About Ryan: Clean Bum

Ryan looooves getting his diaper changed.  He always squeals with elation when we change it, especially if it is a dirty one.  We aren't sure if it's getting out of a messy diaper, airing out or getting cleaned off that he likes, but that boy sure loves a clean bum :)!

Fun Facts About Ryan: Sounds

Ryan used to growl like crazy when we first brought him home from the hospital.  I would refer to him as our little monster because he would sit there and make the cutest growling sounds.  As he's gotten older he has become quieter in his sleep, but louder while he is awake.  He has always been very social and adept at making sounds.  He coos and babbles and yelps and squeals and gurgles and makes every other cute sound in between.  We do our best to capture them.  Here are some videos of Ryan's vocal abilities...

Videos to come soon.

Ryan's happy sounds are our most favorite sounds in the whole world.  They are just so happy and make my heart smile inside.  Spencer always says it's his favorite sound when he hears Ryan squeal out.  We both just laugh and smile whenever we hear the little guy try to express himself.  He is a very happy little boy who brings such joy to our lives.  He has such a calm and content, sweet spirit.  We just love our little guy.

Ryan's First Days

Ryan's First Visitors - Karrie and Cindy

Ryan's Delivery Story

This is a long story so I will come back and due this post justice later.

Pregnancy Placeholder...

In case I remember something else I want to go back and post about

Countdown Paper Chain with Leah

Little Miss Leah helped me make a paper chain to count down for baby Pierce's arrival with 9 weeks left until our due date.

Christmas in Austin with Annual New Year's Gingerbread House Explosion

BYU Basketball Game in Chicago with Hubby

Spencer is obsessed with BYU sports, and this is a case when obsessed is actually a completely accurate word to use not just an exaggeration. So when he found out that BYU was going to be playing in a basketball tournament remotely nearby we just had to go (Nov 25).

Austin Craig Comes to Visit

Our good friend Austin came to visit while I was pregnant with Ryan.  He was in town for a tech conference and stayed with us for a night.  It was great to see such a good friend.

Random Pregnancy Tidbits

Ryan was a very active baby in womb and the doctor often had a hard time capturing good ultrasound pictures because he was always moving.  He occasionally got hiccups.
I didn't have a lot of cravings, just a lot of anti-cravings.  I was incredibly nauseous all day long through the first trimester.  I had been on a medication the month prior to getting pregnant that made me really nauseous and then had to continue taking it through the first trimester so the double dose of nausea was a little rough.  Luckily I felt a lot better once I got through the first trimester and went off of the medication. 

The cravings I did have were for burgers and wings, my co-worker says that's how he knew Ryan was going to be a boy. I had to have a glass of orange juice every morning at least for the second half of my pregnancy, it always sounded so good when I would wake up.  I was grateful I was able to still play volleyball up through the first trimester and a little bit of the second so I was able to stay decently active which I think helped with my pregnancy.

The Bump

I'm not a huge fan of having pictures taken of me when I'm not pregnant, so you can imagine how much convincing Spencer had to do to get me to take pictures while pregnant.  He was able to snag a couple along the way.  Below are pics from about mid-way and then at the very end.

21 Weeks 5 Days

39 Weeks

21 Weeks 5 Days

Mom Visits

Grandma got to feel some kicks from her grandson during her layover in Chicago on her way to London in November.