Birthday Celebrations

Birthday celebrations for Ryder man... a birthday party with good friends, cars cupcakes, a donut for breakfast (which he completely devoured), cousin hangout for lunch, and then a first time bowling experience. All in all a good birthday for a 2-year-old. All of his favorite things and favorite people to spend it with.

and then my baby turned 2

2 years old. That's real. I can't believe we officially have a 2-year-old running around these parts. I don't know who told him he was allowed to grow up and get to be so big, but he went and did it anyway. Here are some of my favorite things about our little 2-year-old that make him the happy go lucky Ryder man we all love:

• OBSESSED with all things basketball, soccer, & football. Mostly basketball though. He shoots hoops in his little basketball hoop at least every day and has gotten really good at making baskets consistently.
• Drools like a fool. Seriously, the drool is unreal. He gets a new shirt at least twice, if not three times a day. He'll be getting his tonsils and adenoids out later this month, so hopefully that will help with that situation.
• Loves tunnels; loves to drive through them in the car, build them out of legos, and create them with parental appendages.
• Is still a picky eater, but we're working on it. He pretty much lives off of peanut butter sandwiches, yogurt, toast, graham crackers with peanut butter, grilled cheese, fruit snacks, squeeze packs, crackers & cheese, pirate's booty, and all things sweet.
• Everytime we see a truck, he asks, "Papa's truck?" Everytime. Clearly his time spent with Papa playing in his big white truck over Christmas has stuck with him and cannot be forgotten.
• Chad taught him a fun trick. When we ask him what the mama says, he will shake his finger and say, "no, no, no..". Perfect.
• Wants to spend as much time as possible outside, even in the cold and snow. We have been known to go to the park in our snow clothes just to play, even if that means tromping through the snow to do so.
• Loves to wear his boots and insists on pronouncing them as, "poop".
• Got a pair of grey, converse high tops for his birthday and calls them his, "cool shoes". He throws a fit any time we try to put him in his other pair of tennis shoes. And so it begins.
• Loves to go to church and gets excited to put on his church clothes on Sunday morning. Whenever we drive by the church he always asks, "church, mama?"
• Wants to do the upper buckle on his car seat by himself and refuses any help from Chad or I. Turning into Mr. Independent.
• LOVES to spend time cooking with mama. He will go into the pantry and get his stool out so he can stand by me and help me cook. Some of his culinary skills include grating cheese (ineffectively), skewering fruits/veggies with his little plastic knife, mixing up bowls of water like a pro, and pouring small amounts of ingredients into whatever we're cooking. He could stand and help me with "cooking" for a good hour. I love his enthusiasm but it does make it hard to actually get anything done. Such is mommy life.
• #1 fan of "Buzz, Cowboy, Dinosaur, Dog, Pig, Potato show". "Buzz & Cowboy show" for short. It's a really good thing there are 3 Toy Story movies to shake things up a bit.
• His cousins are some of his favorite people in the world. He loves to go to the "girl's house" to "tay". Also a little obsessed with Uncle Dan and will list off the girl cousins with "and Dan" in between each of their names.
• Still a good sleeper, which his parents are very grateful for. Will sleep from 8:30-9 pm to about 7:30-8 am. Then takes a 2-3 hour nap in the afternoon. He now insists on sleeping every night with his dinosaur, dog, Cars blanket, and bike blanket.
• Loves reading books, especially with a "pullo" in mom and dad's bed.
• Is a skyping fiend and will skype with anyone who wants to talk to him/entertain him.
• Still Mr. Social, loves to play with friends and meet new people.
• Can recognize his 3 favorite stores by sight: Costco, Target, and Wal-Mart. Costco his still his #1 though.

It's a....

BOY!!!!

That's right, Ryder man is going to have a little brother! We're still trying to teach him how to say "brother" and that the baby is actually in Mom's tummy and not his own. We're working on it. I was kind of excited about having a girl, but had this suspicion that it was a boy. Sure enough, it's a boy!! Since we found out, I've gotten really excited about having 2 little boys running around. I even found some matching jammies for next winter and I can't wait to dress them in coordinating outfits. Yep, I'm going to be that mom. Hooray for BOYS!

of course my child is cupcake obsessed.

Really, did he have a choice? He does have me as a mother and my mother is his grandmother. The kid is bound to love all things cake. Especially when they are in cute, little cupcake form. When I make cupcakes, this kid seems to have a sixth sense that they are around. On this particular day, I was making red velvet cupcakes for Laci's birthday and they were out cooling on the counter. Ryder man climbed his way up to the counter and then proceeded to stare at them longingly while saying, "mmmm", "mmmmm", "mmmmmm" repeatedly. Each time with more emotion. I finally sat him down in his high chair with a cupcake and he then licked off all of the frosting with immense satisfaction and called it good. I knew then that he is undeniably my child. Cake is good stuff, but really its all about the frosting. So there you go, my child is cupcake obsessed.

Halloween 2013: Harley dude.

This year for Halloween we kind of went the easy route when it came to putting together a costume for Ryder man. We inherited a super awesome Harley Davidson jacket from my little brother (he wore it 12 years ago!) and decided to make a costume out of it. Throw on some black pants, his skull t-shirt, and black tennis shoes and we were good to go! We tried to get him to wear a bandana on his head, but he wouldn't keep it on to save his life. Even 2 seconds was asking too much, he would rip it off and throw it on the ground. Oh well, you can only do so much.

Unfortunately I had to work on Halloween, so I missed the beginning of the festivities, but I managed to make it home by 7 pm to join in on the trick-or-treating. Chad came home from work a little early and the boys headed over to eat dinner at Aunt Kimber and Uncle Dan's house. They did a little trick-or-treating in their neighborhood to get warmed up and Ryder embraced the idea with open arms. He had a blast running from house to house, following his cousins, and getting candy in his pumpkin bucket. At first he didn't quite understand that he was getting candy, but as soon as he saw a smartie (he knows these well), the concept sunk in and he starting yelling, "candy! candy! candy!" The group then headed up to our neighborhood for a little trick-or-treating. By this time, Ryder started to get a little tired and was more distracted by everyone's Halloween decorations than actually going to get candy. So there you go. Our little Harley dude had a great time trick-or-treating!

Pumpkin Carving

Pumpkin carving is a Halloween tradition that I'm so much more excited for now that we have a little monster who likes it too. Ryder man wasn't really too thrilled about the whole "scraping out the guts" part, but he thought that it was pretty funny to poke a pencil through the jack-o-lantern's face. Probably his favorite part was putting the candle inside and then lighting up the jack-o-lantern. He was pretty sure he should be allowed to handle the lighter. Also that clothes are pretty much optional for this activity. Happy Halloween!