First Day of Pre-School (*tears* from mommy!)

I absolutely cannot believe how quickly this day snuck up on us! Ryan is attending St. Peter's Lutheran Church Nursery School of Lafayette Hill (I was a member of and Mike and I were married in St. Peter's Lutheran Church in Lancaster). Among the other reasons we chose this school is that St. Peter's in Lafayette Hill is literally across the street from us and Ryan's class is on Mondays and Tuesdays from 9:30-12 so Ryan and I can make our monthly trip home to Lancaster Tuesday afternoon through Friday without having to miss class. There are 4 boys (Ryan, Dylan, Luke, Grant), 5 girls (Ella, Ava, ???) and 3 teachers (Mrs. Eadline, Mrs. Laverna, Mrs. Eplett) and we like the teacher/child ratio very much.

Ryan got excited as soon as we pulled into the parking lot when he saw all of the other kids with their backpacks on walking toward the pre-school building. I was expecting him to make me carry him but as soon as we got out of the car he grabbed my hand and led me into school. It was a moment I will never forget. As soon we got to his classroom, Ryan did was Ryan does best - he started pushing some trucks around. While some of the parents stayed the entire 2.5 hours, I decided it was best to leave after a few minutes so he does not expect me to be there with him in the future. I waited in the auditorium for about 20 minutes just in case but did not hear from his teachers so Ryan was officially left in the care of a non-family member for one of the first times in his life.

I returned to pick him up at noon and he looked very comfortable as I entered class. It was very hectic with parents and kids everywhere so I didn't get to have an in depth conversation with his teachers but the brief report was that he is a "climber". (Mike's Aunt Wendy totally called that one when Ryan was like 6 months old!) If that is the only thing that was said about him today, I'll take it! It took him about 1.5 hours to actually fall sleep for his nap in his new big boy bed and I think that has everything to do with the excitement of the day.

You have come a LONG way, Ryan - The sky is the limit, sweet pea ;) We are SO proud of you!

A little bit of this and a little bit of that

Here are a few pics from the last couple weeks:
Annual visit to the Radnor Fire Company
Visiting Daddy's office
Hanging with girlfriends Ella and Maddie
Wearing designer diapers with Cousin Lucas
Browsing through the Lego Magazine during dinner one night
Riding the mower with Grandpa
Trying on other people's shoes which he still loves to do!
Dressing up "Thomas" style to go see the trains at Morris Arboretum

Big Boy Bed

Ryan could have actually crawled out of his crib as early as a year ago if he wanted to. I had some rough nights with him before and after our move last Thanksgiving, tapping him back into his crib each time he straddled the bars to get out. And since lately he has been climbing into his crib, I knew it was just a matter of time until he climbed out and we needed to be prepared. His crib converts to a full size frame, so we had a full size mattress and box spring delivered on Wednesday. His linens were washed and the bed was ready to go last night and we were storing it in the empty nursery until the day/night he jumped out of his crib.

Today as we were getting ready for his nap I asked him to go see his big boy bed with absolutely no intentions of him sleeping in it. He asked for his pillow and I closed the door thinking that he would be out of the room in 2.2 seconds and well, he never came out! I checked on him about 1/2 hour later and he was asleep. 3 hours later I went in to wake him up because I didn't want him being too disoriented waking up on his own in an unfamiliar bed and room and I got these shots :)

Looks like mommy and daddy will be taking your crib down tonight, Ryan, and hoping that you continue this smooth sleeping payback we have received since you finally started sleeping through the night 10 long months after you were born. Sweet dreams, angel!

Hail to the Lion

I'm a little late getting Ryan's 2010 Penn State photos posted as we are already 2 games into the season! None-the-less, here is the one and only Nittany Ryan's 3 year Penn State progression :)

Ryan's first wedding

This past weekend we drove to Ithaca, NY for the wedding of Mike's cousin Matt and his bride Danielle. We got to our hotel in time for Ryan to take a descent afternoon nap and we must have done it just right because Ryan "partied" the night away until 11PM!!!! He ran circles around the dance floor showing his true energetic colors to Mike's family who have seen him in person only a few times. He enjoyed playing with Mike's younger cousins and even tried to mimic their break dancing on the dance floor. Ryan also made it to the bar with daddy for a some straight OJ :) He was so tired that he climbed up his pack and play when we got back to our room - I've seen kids climb out of them but never into them - only Ryan ;) He got 4 *huge* bug bites on his face 2 days before we left for the wedding and I say huge because Ryan has local allergic reactions to bug bites which makes them twice the size as regular bites - one of them even swelled up to the size of a quarter!!! Mommy tried her best to treat and disguise them though. Ryan was surprisingly up bright and early the next morning but caught up on a little bit of shut eye on the ride home. A great time was had by all!

Please Touch!

Oma Rodman spent the last 3 days with us in Philly which doesn't happen very often so we visited a few new places...

Yesterday we went to a local movie theater that participates in a summer program (http://www.regmovies.com/nowshowing/familyfilmfestivalschedule.aspx?state=PA) that offers free childrens' movies on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings so Ryan saw his first "big boy" movie at a real movie theater - The Muppets. It was the 1980s version and I was even bored during some scenes, so everything said, he did just fine. I am confident that Ryan will have no problem watching the next Thomas the Tank Engine movie at a movie theater (strapped in his booster seat with some snacks of course!!!)

Today we went to the Please Touch Museum (http://www.pleasetouchmuseum.org/) which is a must-see the next time you are downtown with your little ones. I have to say that I thought I was going to have to take several deep breaths while Ryan was all over any gadget he could get his little hands on along with hundreds of other kiddos, but I was pleasantly surprised that it really didn't bother me. I know Ryan's "preemieness" is long gone and I think that today proved that my MOMMY-preemieness is almost non-existent now too. Well, we did hit the Purell pump a few times but who doesn't nowadays? And I guess that going in August is a heck of a lot better than January :) Anyway, Ryan got to do a lot of cool things and after almost 3 hours we called it a day - he played so hard that I had to wake him up from his nap at 5!!!

I had to include a photo of him concentrating on his DVD player at Friendly's (because it is impossible to get a still shot of him) and playing in his art area at home with a balloon from dinner tied to his wrist :)

Summer Fun

Ryan's 2.5 year photos

After a not-so-hot 2 year photo shoot, Ryan redeemed himself today :) I am very pleased with these photos as they definitely show his personality and even a hint of strawberry blonde. Oh where oh where have the last 2.5 years gone!