We have snow!!!

YES! The weather forcasters were right and we did get snow. Lots of it--at least for our area it's a lot. As a matter of fact, the biggest storm in 20 years! It started very early Saturday morning about 3 or 4am and didn't let up until the afternoon. I got up with Ryan in the morning and let him open the door to see the snow. That was my first mistake because then he didn't want to close the door. After explaining for a couple minutes that it was too cold and too early for the door to be open, I was able to close it without incident. After Dean got up, we ate breakfast and Dean had to go into work. He's a maintanance supervisor for apartment complexes and they were told they needed to go in to shovel the main entrances. Ryan saw his Daddy outside cleaning off the truck and getting it warmed up. Second mistake--letting him watch Daddy and telling him we can go play in the snow later. To a 2 1/2 year old all that he heard was "play" & "snow". So from then on, he was saying "outside, play outside". He even cried a little when Dean left (Because Daddy is his playmate!). Finally, Dean came home, we ate lunch and then got ready to go outside. That was a big deal in itself. Not only did I have to get myself dressed in layers but Ryan too. Mistake number three--dressing Ryan in 3 layers after I was dressed in 2 heavy layers! Talk about working up a sweat! I was considering not wearing my coat outside after that ordeal (haha!). Plus, after dressing Ryan in his 3 layers of clothing, I still had to put on his gloves, mittens over his gloves, coat, hat, & boots. I was beginning to think the snow wasn't worth it but that all changed as soon as we stepped outside. He was overjoyed to say the least.

As you can see, the snow was still coming down and the wind was blowing so it made it hard to do much of anything since it was pelting us in the face. We weren't able to stay out a long time but enough to make snow angels, try to throw some snowballs (the snow was too fluffy) and Ryan got to run off some energy.

He was so upset that we had to go back in and cried for a while. I wanted to go back out later but it was just too windy so we will make some more memories today. Last night it looked so pretty and peaceful in our backyard so I couldn't resist another picture.

Another Cold

This has become all too familiar since Ryan has started preschool last September..another cold...we think. I think I've said it before but it could be allergies since it runs in the family. I know germs are everywhere but if a child is showing signs of sickness, they are not suppose to be at preschool. The preschool Ryan attends is not a daycare. It's just a 4 hour christian based preschool and supposedly they do not tolerate when a child comes to school sick. Again, germs are everywhere and even though a child isn't showing outward signs of being sick, obviously they still can be sick. All we can do is load Ryan up with immunity booster vitamins, lots of Vitamin C and hope he gets better quickly. It seems to be working because this cold doesn't seem too bad. Of course he has a runny nose along with some congestion but today is day 5 and we're not going through but a handful of tissues an hour rather than every 5 minutes!

Last week Ryan came home from preschool and during the evening he started singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star all by himself! We were just amazed! This boy of ours who is still not stringing together 3 word phrases, other than a few here and there, was singing a song! So of course I got out my video camera, just in time for him to stop because he was tired of singing.grrrr. All weekend I tried to coax him into signing it again but he was not interested. Finally tonight he started up again. It's not all him (I had to help) because he was more interested in the stickers but at least you'll be able to see how great he's coming along with his speech.

Note: if your reading this on facebook, you'll have to click on "view original post" at the bottom of this post to be able to view the video.

He was in a good mood yesterday since he decided to take a 3 hour nap so when I got home from work I took some pictures of him in his new St. Patricks Day shirt (a little early but why leave it just sitting in his drawer) and him playing around with the Bumbo I had taken out of the closet. He still loves that seat!

The forecast is calling for snow for Saturday. That doesn't mean a hill of beans around here in Eastern Virginia though. We hardly EVER get anything more than a dusting. It was many many years ago that we saw more than a dusting or an inch. Something that we can take Ryan outside to make a snowman would be great though! Stay tuned!!

New video & pictures

I've been wanting to write a post for the past week but it seems like everytime I try, something else comes up or I feel like I don't really have anything to write about. We've been settling back into the work, therapy, school routine after having off about 10 days during the holidays (me from work & Ry from once a week preschool). Ryan loves his new playroom and has also settled in nicely to his toddler bed. This past week his naps were very sporatic (time wise & how long they were) so at night he could barely make it past 7:30. Once he hit his pillow, he was conked out right away all night. However, I suppose he got a great night's rest because he was waking up at 5:30am! Hopefully, it was just a fluke and this won't be a habit. During the week, it's not a problem since we're up getting ready for work but I would like to get a little more sleep in the morning on the weekends. The good news for me though, is that the past 2 days he did sleep until almost 7.

Ryan's been having a ball playing with all his new toys and games he got for Christmas. Having the playroom, means we can keep toys & games in there and then other toys in the family room so he doesn't get as bored or overwhelmed with everything in one room. Since the playroom is upstairs, it also gives him a different part of the house to play in. Our townhouse isn't that big, so there's only so much room to run around. Since Ryan loves puzzles, my parent's gave Ryan a 12 piece puzzle from the Melissa & Doug line. I figured it was something he would be able to do over time and maybe in a few months, be able to do it on his own. Ha! I was so wrong with that thought. Here's the video of him doing that puzzle (sorry for the darkness...only had one lamp on in the room):

I had off another day from work for the MLK holiday. I didn't have any set plans other than I wanted to get Ryan a couple more puzzles so we went shopping with a good friend of mine and ended up at the mall. They had those rides that you can pay an arm & a leg for (okay, maybe not both an arm & a leg but still...) so she paid for Ryan to ride (and I had the Purell in hand..haha). He enjoyed himself and I finally got to take some pictures since I've been slacking on that since Christmas.

After Dean got home, we went to dinner and Ry enjoyed his first ice cream cone!

And he really did enjoy the cone the best...takes after his mama on that one!

New Year, New Toddler bed

We made some changes this past week to usher in the new year. This was the best time to do it since I was off from work and Dean had a few days off as well. The first change leads into the second change..sort of. First off, we finally moved Ryan into his toddler bed. We thought the actual switching the crib to the toddler bed was going to be the easiest part, but of course, nothing is easy right? We bought a crib that is a 3-n-1, which means it converts to a toddler bed, then converts to a full size bed.  We picked up our furniture in August of 2007 while Ryan was still in the NICU. It didn't occur to us at that time, (I mean come on, we did have a few other things on our mind) to open ALL the boxes and check them out. So last week when we opened up the box that held the full sized rails, we thought the toddler rail was also suppose to be in there but apparently we were wrong. It wasn't there. So, I had to try and find the receipt--from 2 1/2 years ago!! Dean did some research and called the store that we bought the furniture from but it turns out they are relocating. Luckily, he was able to contact a store out of a different city and the lady did her research to find out how much it would cost to get a toddler rail. Well, it turns out, it was going to cost an arm and maybe 1/2 a leg to get the so called "toddler conversion kit"..which truly is just some hardware and a 1/2 rail that goes on the side of the bed-- it attaches to the side of what was the crib. If they had sold it to us when we bought the crib, no problem because we prepared for that cost at that time. Also, I couldn't see Ryan staying in his "crib" that much longer, whether or not we had the toddler rail up. Ryan is a mover when he sleeps. He likes to sleep sideways, diagonally and every other way imaginable. Converting his crib to a toddler bed would not give him any more room to sleep. So, we made the decision to buy a new bed. We knew what his room theme was going to be, so it was only appropriate that we buy a bed to match. Here he is taking a nap on his first day after Dean put it together:

Yep, we got him the Thomas the Tank Engine toddler bed. I love it! Ryan loves it! He has no problem going to sleep and staying asleep! At night. Naps are still a work in progress. He is excited about his newly found freedom of getting to walk around his room so of course he doesn't want to nap! Luckily, he still does wear himself out during the day from playing so by the afternoon, he is ready to crash. Thomas the Tank Engine accessories are hard to come by (no stores seem to carry much except the bedding), so accesorizing will be an ongoing thing for a little while. That is fine though, as we need to limit what we put in there for the time being since that will just distract him more and he really won't want to nap.

So, that leads into the second change. Since we were changes Ryan's nursery theme of Winnie the Pooh into a toddler theme of Thomas, some things had to go. Things other than just the decor. In order to do that, we needed to put the things we needed to get out of his room somewhere. The only logical place was the spare bedroom. So, Dean thought it would be a great idea to convert the spare bedroom (which only had a computer & storage totes in it) to a play room for Ryan. I wasn't sold on the idea at first, since that would mean I would have nowhere to store my junk..extra things. Dean had a plan though, so it didn't take me long to warm up to the idea. This meant we needed to move the computer into our bedroom and get the storage totes to where they needed to go--the closet or our storage unit. Once we cleaned out the room, we were able to move Ryan's bookcase in there & the rocking chair. We bought this:

 to store his books, some toys & puzzles: and then got a little television that we hooked up his Leapfrog My First Computer to so he can play his games. We will also be getting a cheap DVD player to hook up as well. My friend suggested decorating the room with the Disney Cars theme, since we still had several decorative items from his birthday party so that's what I'll be working on for the next few weeks. I've already put a few things up such as some shelves and this huge banner that we had at his birthday party:

 and I covered the pastel yellow gingham rocking chair with a large red throw. It will be a work in progress as far as I'm concerned, but Ryan could care less and so far is enjoying it.