RYDER'S BIRTHDAY!

 Saturday, March 23r was 3 days after Ryder's real 2nd birthday, but that was the day, we decided to hold Ryder's party..I use the term "party" loosely.  In reality, I was feeling just too tired and too fat (preggers) to organize a big party like the one we had for his first birthday....We invited just a couple of friends (a handful of kids he sees often) and planned to meet them at Tommy K Play. I didn't rent any birthday rooms, or pay any "group fee." We just planned to meet our buddies there and then come back to our house for pizza and cake and ice cream.  Mom and Nic made an awesome School Bus birthday cake (Ryder is obsessed with school busses) and I bought a few bus decorations.  Some of the grade 8 girls at school made a huge School Bus Photo Prop for the party, they are awesome!
I wasn't organized enough to plan big "treat bags" so I bought every kid a pinwheel and a little school bus to take home. I hung the pinwheels at the front door in Ryder's most favorite bus (one he got for his very first Christmas, thank-you Uncle Terry.)

In order to find School Bus decorations, I hit up the Teacher Store near my house. Most of these are bulletin board cut outs, but they worked for our party!

 This was the snack/cake table, before any food got put on it.

 

I drew a road on the table cloth and put the little "take home" busses on the table for the kids to drive around...simple, but fun!

 

The photo prop made by the grade 8 girls who finished their French Project early!

The cake Mom and Nic made.  Nic ended up getting sick and not being able to make it to the party, but Mom came and brought the cake! Thank you! Thank you!!
Nic, we missed you!!!!!!

 

My Big Boy

 

The big moment!!

All aboard the birthday bus!!

 Yep, it was my birthday last week too, but the big celebration for me, was hitting 36 weeks! Only a few more to go! Yippee! Lil Peanut, I am sooo ready to meet you!

Kiss your babies, count your blessings and jump aboard the birthday bus!!!

35 WEEKS

I am now 35 weeks preggers! I am feeling huge though everyone, except Marty, keeps telling me I'm soo smal and am all belly.  I am ready to meet Peanut, but not until Peanut is ready to meet me! 

 

Ryder turns 2 tomorrow and my birthday is the next day!  In order to prepare for Ryder's big day, we took him for his second hair cut ever on the weekend. He was sooo excited about going, but once we got there, he showed no signs of excitement.  He sat sooo quietly and so seriously the whole ten minutes it took. He never cried or got upset. He just got quiet. Weird for me to see him so quiet.  Once the scissors were put down, like magic, he turned into his excited self again, excited to sit on all the car, train and pony chairs in the salon.  Melon Heads is a fun place to get your hair cut!! :)

 So serious!

 Hair cut over, cape off, riding the motorcycle. Happy and relaxed!

We went for a Booster Juice after the hair cut.  It was getting late so we decided to have our juice to go.  From the backseat, we heard, "uh oh, Mommy." Never a good sign. We turned around to see that Ryder had somehow poked a hole in the side of his foam cup and chunks of strawberries and juice were spilling out all over his lap, his jacket, the car seat, the floor, everywhere.  Like what? How the heck did he manage that little trick?? Messy, but delicious.  It only got messier though as that Booster Juice contributed heavily to the prolonged diarrehea Ryder had been battling for the last couple days.  Ooops, I later read online that juice is the worst thing for diarrhea.  Who knew?? Anyway, I paid for that bit of Mom stupidity, I'll tell ya, but sadly so did Ryder!  (He's all good now though.) :)

Waiting for Booster Juice with Daddy.

The weather here, over the weekend was brutal. Blowing, snowing and cold. We only ventured out for hair cuts and to walk Scout.  There was lots of time for building leggos with Daddy and for fixing stuff.

Yesterday, it finally sort of started to feel a little warmer. Ryder was determined to be outside for a while. He wanted to shovel and he wanted to play with his sandbox toys.  I am a big believer in fresh air and being outside, so we bundled up and made the most of it. I was cold before he was, but eventually, he wanted to come in to warm up his fingers. At least getting him to put the mittens on in the first place wasn't a battle. I think he's finally learned that lesson. Yay!

 The way I took this pic, it looks like he's shoveled all of that path, but in reality, the only snow he actually shoveled is the stuff on the sidewalk. He actually put it all back there! LOL  Toddlers are soo helpful! ha ha ha!

 The sand in the sandbox was frozen solid. Instead, Ryder drove his loader in the snow. He loved this! Now that he can actually drive his "big trucks" in the snow, it's way more fun to be outside!!!

Kiss your babies, count your blessings and don't be afraid to drive your sandbox toys in the snow, if you live somewhere that has way more snow weather than sand weather!

PUDDLES AND SNOW?

The last couple of weeks have been crazy busy! It's been report card time, so I've been spending my evenings and most spare time coming up with creative ways to tell parents how great their kids are doing...or not! The other day, I realized I was spending more time trying to come up with creative phrases to convince my almost two year old that, Yes it is time to change that poopy diaper NOW, than I was spending on creating phrases for my professional job! Yep, negotiating a diaper changes has become very challenging around here. It almost always includes tears. What I can't figure out is, why is the toddler crying when it is I that has to get that close to someone else's poo?? LOL 
Anyway, aside from the diaper change tantrums, we've been doing pretty good lately. There are still a few good ones, like the other day when the sun was actually shining and we decided to go play in our sandbox. We have not been in the sandbox or seen the sandbox diggers and dumper trucks since September. It was a big deal! Ryder was pumped!!! He has gotten significantly better at shoveling sand (the stuff that was loose enough to scoop) and driving his trucks through the mostly frozen sand.  When it was time to come in the house, an epic tantrum began. I could tell that Ryder's hands were frozen, that he has sand in his pants, shoes, socks and everywhere else, but he did NOT want to come in the house!!  It was bath time, so he had too, but it was a LOUD, ugly process.  The next morning, he showed up at my bedside at 5:30am, yelling: "Wake up Mommy! Sandbox! diggers!!! Wake up, Mommy!!" Hilarious...well it would have been if it had not been 5:30am!!! I wish I could wake up that excited to start my day!!  Unfortunately that night it snowed and our sandbox visits have been SHORT since then, but he's come inside without a fight everynight since the epic tantrum! Yay!

Night one: kinda chilly out, but sooo excited to be in the sandbox!

 

Shoveling! If only the sand weren't so frozen!

 

Sandbox toys we haven't seen in sooo long!

 Night two...wanting badly to be outside even though it started snowing just after this pic was taken!

Scout, loving having the family outside to play with!

 Around here, it's pretty common to go from snowy days to sunny days to puddle hopping days to snow suit days and some days are a combo of all of the above!

On our walk the other day, we saw a snowdog!

 We have to bring a truck on every walk. Sometimes it's a big truck, sometimes not, but Ryder insists on being the one to carry it almost the whole time!

 Puddles!!! We need to see more of these more often. Ice sucks, Puddles are awesome!

 Stopping to drive his hummer on the brick wall.

 

Saint Patrick's day began with a blizzard, but ended with sunshine! We wore green and bounced on "bouncy horse!"

Kiss your babies, count your blessings and splash in as many puddles as you can find, even if you are wearing a snow suit and winter boots!!

IN LIKE A LION

The end of February was mild and beautiful. We took a drive one of the last Sundays in February, just to get out of the city and to soak up some mountain air.  I was 32 weeks preggers and since it was sooo nice out, we decided to get a belly pic in the snowy sunshine.

 32 weeks

It stormed last weekend! A huge, winter storm! I guess that must mean, March is coming in like a lion and hopefully, going out like a lamb! 

  

The first week of March, I was 33 weeks preggers.

33 weeks preggers or not, snow storm or not, Scout still needed a walk!

The wind was blowing the falling snow around so hard that I decided to wear my ski goggles for eye protection!!

The rest of the week was pretty snowy and cold. We had to find some things to do inside. We had actually gotten used to going for our little after dinner walks...around here, you gotta be flexible with routine.

 

 Much to Marty's horror (seriously, I thought he was going to have an anurism) I busted out a tub of rice and invited Ryder to play with his diggers and trucks in it. I even invited him to play with it in the living room, on the train table. Remember, there are no tracks or trains on our train table, only trucks and busses and diggers.

 Yep, it made a giant mess. Yep, Scout ate more raw rice than is probably recommended for dogs.  Yep, so did Ryder. Yep, I got some work done on my report cards. Yep, Ryder had a blast. Yep, Marty couldn't take his eyes off the mess in front of him.  Yep, the Dyson cleaned up every last piece of rice...I think. :)

Snow storms do not affect hockey at all, not in Canada anyway, so of corse Marty, after surviving the rice in the living room trauma, headed out to play in his senior, no hit hockey league. Ha!! He came home after midnight, looking like this:

 The wait at the hospital for stitches was too long, so he left and came home with dried blood and a steri strip over his cut. Ewwwww!

Apparently, Ryder has given up his "suckie" at the Day Home. He's always only had it for naps there, but according to Amanda (his care giver, whom I adore,) Ryder said, he didn't need his suckie anymore. She asked him if he wanted to put it in the garbage. (That's how she got her own kids to finally get rid of theirs.) Ryder said, "yep." She explained that if he tossed it, he couldn't get it back.  He agreed. So, Thursday, yesterday, he had his first nap "sans" suckie.  My big boy is growing up!! At our house, the suckie stays upstairs. He can have it at night, in the morning, at naps and whenever he is upstairs. When he gets himself all worked into a tizzy, or if he's "loosing" it, he often goes upstairs on his own, gets his blankie and his suckie and he calms right down.  I like that he has his own self soothing vices.  

When we got his "big boy bed" we thought we'd give him until Easter with his suckie, so that he'd have a month to adjust to his bed with his self soothing device.  Lately though, we've decided we are not in a hurry to make him give it up, especially since he only has it upstairs and since Peanut's arrival could make him regress anyway.  I do wish he'd give it up though...he's sooo much cuter in pics without it!!

One of my favorite passtimes (snow storm or otherwise) is to take pics of my favorite subjects.  I have been practicing using some new editing apps...these are a few of my favorite shots from the other day...I LOVE the adorable subjects and the editing, I just wish I had moved the lysol wipes and the rubber made tub from the background! Ha ha ha!

Pretend the wipes and rubber made bin arn't there!!!! LOL

ALMOST TWO

I cannot believe that Ryder is almost two!!  In 19 days, he will be officially a "Two Year Old!" I know it's cliche, but it really is hard to remember life before him.  I certainly cannot remember not being tired! LOL
Lately, it's been hard to ignore the fact that Ryder is turning into more of a "boy" and less of a "baby." He is talking more and more. He continues to name every truck, car, city bus, school bus and van we pass along with it's color.  He is not afraid to yell from the back seat, "hey car go!" If a car is infront of us (he is already picking up my road rage, thank God, I keep my rage PG when he is with me...at least most of the time.)   It amazes me that he has a memory like he does.  There were scarecrows at the entrance to our community in the fall.  Everyday as we drove past, Ryder would say, "hi Scarecrows." Then one day, they were gone.  He started saying, "no scarecrows."  I explained that maybe there would be reindeer in a few weeks (I was expecting them to put up something for the Christmas season, but nothing ever got put up.)  Every day, Ryder continued to say, "no scarecrows" when we got to that spot, then he started adding, "no scarecrows, no reindeer" and he still says it every time we drive by!!! 
Marty drove over rumble strips on the side of the highway last weekend and Ryder started laughing and laughing, saying, "Van tooted!!!"  Yep, he has a sense of humor!!!  Tonight was the first time he ever "stalled" before bed time.  We had gone for a walk after dinner, once in the house he asked for a drink of water. I gave him a cup and he took it over to his play kitchen drinking it like he'd never had water before. When he finally put the cup down and started playing, I asked if he was ready to go upstairs, he picked the cup back up, saying, "still drinking mommmy, still drinking." Hilarious! He kept saying it until finally the cup was empty and he had no more excuse.  Sooo cute (at least for now.) 
Ryder, like his Auntie Dic, loves to spontaneously burst into song. Often I wake up to him singing in the morning from his bed. His songs range from The Wheels on the Bus (his fav) to "Always a Good time" to the Lumineers "Ho Hey" to Taylor Swift "Never Ever" to "This Girl is on Fire"  Last weekend, he even came up with lyrics to his own song (this was the first time I'd heard him do this.) He had been given a plastic ziplock bag full of playdough at a friend's house. On the way home I told him he couldn't open it, but he could hold on to it.  Wasn't long before, coming from the back seat, I heard him singing (there was a definite tune) these words: "Open the playdough, open the playdough, open the playdough, open the playdough!"  Then just recently he's added his own verse to The Wheels on the Bus.  He likes to sing (I never once gave him this idea, it is his own) "The truck on the bus goes vroom, vroom vroom." 
Ok, I am totally that Mom bragging, thinking my kid is the smartest, most adorable one out there, but that's what Mom's get to do right??  Actually, I just want to write this all down so I don't forget it.  All of these things make me smile, so I want to remember them forever!!  Speaking of smiling. Do you know the highlight of my day??? Knocking on the door of the Day HOme and hearing, before the door is open Ryder's little voice yelling with excitement, "Mommy, mommy, mommmy" That along with his quick little footsteps erases any stress I am carrying from work and fills my heart and head with nothing but happiness and love....then he gets into the carseat and wines for juice all the way home....Ha hahaha
Ofcorse with every diaper change, I am reminded that yes, he is still my lil baby, but pretty soon there will be another little baby and "Baby Ryder" will become "Big Boy Ryder" and Peanut will be the new "Baby."

 Still loves to "help" with dishes.

 Always has a truck or "Po po" (the police car) with him wherever he goes.

 He likes to set Po po down and say, "Po Po parking Mommy."

Stalling before bed time...still soo cute!

Kiss your babies, count your blessings and try to enjoy every stage from baby to beyond!