Ryan and her Animals!

Grandma bought Ryan her Little People Zoo for Christmas and it was cute and Ryan loves the animals, but I wasnt really sure if she was too young to really understand the educational part of the toy. Until one day she came over dumping her animals on the floor, and on a whim I asked her where her monkey went, pointing to the letter "M" on the mat. She found it and put the monkey on the "M". Hmmm...fluke? Lets try this again, "Ryan, here is the dolphin. It starts with a D, where is the D?" She looks around the mat, finds the D. Oooookkkk...coincidence? One more, "Ryan, here is the bear. Can you find the B for bear?" OMG- SHE IS A GENIUS!!!!!!
Now granted she does get bored with this game after about 8 animals, and for some crazy reason, the poor flamingo can never make it to the mat (he ends up on the swing, or slide), and the hippo ends up in the rhino's spot (in her defense, they do look alike) but for those precious minutes my child is brilliant!!! :)

Here is PROOF (copy & paste this link):
http://www.youtube.com/user/Arjuna3131?feature=mhw4#p/a/u/0/vWUC-HLk1js

What Ryan, Leah is EASY?!?! Ok, you try!

I sit Leah in the recliner and let her try to "sit up" on her own. She falls over, and we try again, she falls again and this time starts to cry. Ryan comes over all "concerned" and pushes me out of the way and climbs up onto the chair. Fine Ryan, you hold her and try to calm her down. She sat next to her, put her arm around her, and within seconds Leah starts to get upset. Well, as you can see from the pictures Ryan is fed up, I mean she can clearly only take 30 seconds worth of caring! She looks like a 36 year old mother of two babies under two who is about at her wits end! Hilarious!
I decided to let Ryan off the hook before she did something stupid like push Leah off the chair or something. She had that look in her eye! :)

Eagles and Snakes and Frogs OH MY!!!!!

Took Ryan to the Wildlife After Dark party Sat night at Georgia Southern University's Wildlife Center. Not really knowing what to expect, the first thing we encounter-THE EAGLE! Crazy cool. Not sure how many of you have ever seen this magnificent bird up close, but they are spectacular! Ryan was, however, unimpressed. There were turrrtels near by and they are waaayyy cooler according to her. I got her away from them to try to again dazzle her with the eagle and its 90inch wingspan, but alas, she saw the snake cages. I didnt have the heart to tell her that the eagle picks up those sorry snakes and eats em like a snack-but again, whatever Ryan wants...we toured around outside and some nice men pulled out some snakes for Ryan to touch-HA-lets see how much she likes snakes now, now that they are not behind glass! Oh, wait, you want to touch them, you want to hold them, you want to SQUEEZE them ...uh oh..we are in some trouble. I personally do not mind snakes, but Jamey was keeping his distance for sure (he claims it was for Leah's safety...yeah right!).
After running from snake to snake to frog to porcupines (yup a porcupine), she was ready to go and we heading back through the gift shop (such smart configuration-making us exit through the gift shop). I showed her the cutest stuffed turtle-all I got was a head shake and a "no". Ok, how about a cute stuffed eagle, "No". I turn around and she has a handful of rubber snakes! Alright, but dad is NOT going to happy about this! As we left through the lobby, all the workers who were lined up welcoming people asked what Ryan had-she proudly lifted her fistful of snakes into the air...and said, SAKES!!!". I'm a lucky mommy! :)

Slip em on and Rock em Right, Ryan!

Grandma got Ryan the COOLEST shoes-ShellToe adidas! Just like mommy has! Now, back in the day (a history lesson for all you youngsters), RUN DMC (so cool, so fly) used to wear their adidas with no laces and the tongue hanging out. I heard someone ask Run one time how they keep their adidas on and he replied, "We just slip em on and rock em right!". BRILLIANT! So first thing I did when Ryan got her new shoes was take the laces out, so she could "rock em right." And you know what happened-she fell down....A LOT! And frankly, as cool as Ryan is, I wasnt totally convinced she could pull off this look-cardigan sweater, hippie flared jeans, and her gangster adidas?! Despite the scrapes and bruises (where did I put those stupid laces anyway?) these are still her favorite pair of shoes-she wears them daily. I think she "rocks em" in her own Ryanbug stylee-which lets face it, is cute as hell!

WHAT IS THAT?!

I am going to try to tell this story as delicately as I can without being totally grotesque. But it is one of those stories that has to be told, and one I can hopefully use against her one day!
She usually tells us AFTER she has gone poo...She explains, "I go poo-poo!?" Usually phrased as a question, sounding almost french...weird. Anyway, just prior to her bath, she said, "I go poo-poo?!" So I went to change her and she was clean-weird-she never proclaims a dirty diaper unless she IS dirty. Being the wonderful, perceptive mom that I am, I ignored this and put her in her tub for her bath. She was fine for about 15 minutes...coloring happily, blowing bubbles, what-have-you...when I noticed something floating in the tub. Using Ryans words, "Awwwww man!"....its poo. She wasnt telling me she HAD gone, for the first time she was telling me she NEEDED to go. So as gross as that lesson was, it was a step in the right direction! :) Somehow I am thinking there is a more sanitary way of making that point-but whatever! :)
Why is it that everyday I feel like I should be teaching my daughter life lessons, when as it turns out, I am the one who is learning-daily!

"But Ryan, You're a Big Girl!"

Not to brag, but I think Ryan has done exceptionally well with adjusting to Leah. We got rid of the bottles that she was so fond of, she never tries to take Leah's paci's (even though she is a paci fiend!), there has been no hitting or kicking (on purpose) of any kind. And I was warned, I was warned that in the worse case scenario, Ryan would abuse her new sister, and in the best case, she would revert back to "baby" like activities. Ryan, in her infinite coolness, has done NONE of those-until yesterday. Since we brought down the bouncy chair for Leah, Ryan has climbed in it a few times, probably more out of nostalgia, or curiosity more than anything, but never full on chilled out in it. Well, it was nap time for all (fingers crossed) and I put on Elmo in an attempt to get Ryan to take a nap. Which worked, but sadly, she fell a sleep in Leah's bouncer. Now, in her defense (why am I always defending my children?) it looked fairly comfortable to me, even though her feet didn't even touch the floor! I was, not under any circumstance, about to wake this child up to take her upstairs to her crib to nap! My motto of the year...maybe 2 years...hell, maybe even a lifetime-WHATEVER WORKS!!!! Lets just keep our fingers crossed that I dont do any permanent damage with that theory!

All Smiles!!!!!

I am such a weirdo when it comes to naps. If I were to happen to have an afternoon off with the girls in daycare, ALL I can think about is getting home and taking a nice long nap (ahhh, it pleases me to just think about). But inevitably, once I get there and get into bed-I CANT sleep. Maybe my mind drifts to all the crap I have to do, and CAN do with the girls away, that my body betrays me and gives in to my brain (wimp). Now here is where it gets weird-if I do happen to fall asleep, even a little bit, and I am woken up-I am a TERROR! I will stomp around the house like Godzilla. You are probably asking yourself why I am telling you this odd piece of my persona.Well, because it leads into this story:
All three of us got to sleep (Remember Ryan in Leah's bouncer chair-same nap)-which is a miracle in and of itself. Only after 20 minutes Leah started to wake up (in her defense, she was probably a sleep long before Ryan and I went down). But she was stirring and it woke me up from my blissful slumber. I was so upset, so angry, so very very tired. Once I opened my eyes, this is what I saw-a beautiful, smiling, happy, well rested baby and I instantly became at ease. I double dare someone to look at that gummy grin and NOT smile!!! Come on-I TRIPLE DOG dare ya!