Our sweet, soon-to-be middle baby boy turned two and a half the same day Finn turned four, so I didn't want to let too much time go by before posting this. Ryder. Rydee. Rydee Bear. Tiny tubs. You are our sweet, funny, free-dancing, pancake-loving baby boy. The way you smile with all of your teeth and your eyes get really big when you're excited about something might be one of my favorite things ever. You definitely have more of an introverted personality like me, but you are absolutely obsessed with your big brother who brings out your high energy spunk.
You love to play outside, but are also the first to come in on your own when you're too hot or sweaty or hungry (also from me). You love playing with "choo choo's", kicking balls, doing puzzles, coloring, looking at books and watching Mickey Mouse or Daniel Tiger.
Within the past 6 months, we started using your light-up clock which has been a life-saver for all of us. Before it, you would consistently wake up by 5:30 everyday. With it, you now sleep until 7:15 (it's a miracle). You're our little creature of habit (also mommy) and eat a "wogurt cup" every morning and usually ask for strawberry. But breakfast is also still your favorite meal so you usually end up eating yogurt, a waffle, cereal or anything else you see mommy or daddy eat. I'm pretty positive you could eat a dozen doughnuts if we let you. You came close at Finn's birthday party and the result was not good. Along with doughnuts, you've never met a muffin, cupcake, cookie or bread you didn't like (also mommy). You typically eat lunch and really only tolerate dinner unless it's noodles or hot dogs.
You love going to church and playing in your Waumba Land class and are always eager to show us the craft you made. You're not in school yet, but every time we drop brother off, you ask if we're going to "my cass" next, so I'm pretty sure you would love it if we sent you. I do love our mornings together while brother is as school, because I get to watch you try and decide what you want to play without big brother telling you what we're doing next. You're also pretty easy to tote around and run with errands too.
You love story time at the library and music class a church nearby. You loved going to the pool this summer and really love the animals at the zoo. As soon as mama is able to walk again and the temp drops below 90, we will certainly be back.
You love airplanes, diggers, trains and the trash truck. You love going to the "pay-gowand" (playground). You love when daddy does something silly with loud noises and usually ask to "tye agin" (try again). You are just smitten with Finn and call him "bubber". You both can fight all day long, but when it comes to trying to separate you two, you refuse to play in another room away from him. You are each other's best friend and it's so fun to watch your little interactions where you both say something and then bust out laughing- usually something I don't even understand.
You do seem to have your mommy's patience and can get easily frustrated when something or someone isn't doing what you want. This usually brings out some hitting or yelling and while, not appropriate at all, it's pretty hard to keep from laughing to see so much aggression come out of something so small.
You are our tiny little guy at just 26lbs, but pack a whole lot of energy and fun into a tiny little frame. We just love you to pieces, Ryder boy and it is such a joy to be your mommy and daddy!
This post is really to wrap up our summer before our newest little man arrives and I go back to blogging about once a year. Kidding. Sort of. Someone did mention to me the other day that I hadn't posted a recipe recently and one reason is lack of time, but the other is that there really is not much involved with heating up Trader Joe's vegetable fried rice...But really this summer has been about trying soak up our first summer in our new home/neighborhood. We didn't take any trips or do anything super exciting, but our days were mostly filled with playground trips, zoo visits, playing in the pool and a very pregnant mama trying to survive with a two and a three year old.
So anyway, here is a look at what we've been up to as we finished out the summer...
We had ice cream sundaes in the driveway for National Ice Cream Day.
We celebrated our friend, Ryan's birthday with a pool party at his house. Complete with cupcakes.
Thank goodness for cute church crafts, because mama was not feeling crafty much at all this summer.
We took some trips to the mall when it got too hot to do anything outside.
And obviously Target.
We ate a lot of pancakes.
And tagged along with mommy to the doctor's office.
And got doughnuts as a reward for being so good at said doctor's appointments.
FOUR. It is so hard to believe our sweet, first baby boy is four years old. We had no idea of the adventure we were beginning when God chose us to be your mommy and daddy; however, we do know for a fact that He had that planned from Day 1. You were absolutely meant to be ours and we are so thankful!
You are sweet and spunky and full of joy. You have two speeds- 100mph and asleep. You love anything having to do with Cars or Lightning McQueen right now, which goes hand in hand with your need for speed. You have always been our "runner" and one of the things you say the most now is "want to see how fast I am?!" I have been the mom at the park sprinting full speed after you more times than I can count and I can still barely catch you. You have your own way of doing things and love to figure it out for yourself. I just have the hardest time remembering to let you. You can get your own water from the fridge, snacks from the pantry, dress yourself, brush your teeth and use the potty. You can also buckle and unbuckle yourself in the car which has graduated you to big boy status in that you now sit in the third row. You love helping me clean and unload groceries. You love helping daddy in the yard or really just doing anything outside with daddy. Your favorite sports are soccer and golf, but love watching the Clemson tigers on TV.
You love to sing and play guitar. Often times throughout the day you just want to "play one more song" on your guitar. You love to listen to music and name the instruments you hear "guitar, fiddle, banjo, piano, drums". If we're all in the car together, you want to "throw" us instruments so that we'll play along with you.
It's taken nearly 4 years, but you finally love to sit and look at books. Now that you're in a big boy bed, you'll ask us through the monitor in the morning if you can turn your light on and read books before your clock turns green. You like to lead story time with Ryder and always want to make sure he's sitting on the carpet before you start. He doesn't always understand this.
You love to play with your cars, trucks and trains. We got a free train table back in the Spring and I'm not sure how we would've survived the summer without it. With hot temps and a very pregnant mama, it's consistently the only thing that's kept both of you occupied all summer long.
Ryder is your absolute best buddy. I forget how much of a baby you really were when he was born at just 18 mos yourself, so you really don't know life without him. You both can fight like crazy, but when I try to separate you in the house, you don't know what to do without each other. We moved into our new house to have more space and you both consistently play in the same room- usually on top of one another. If Ryder's sad, you want to go make sure he's ok. You love to sing him songs at bedtime and make sure he has his lovie. Bath time together is one of your favorites usually followed by trying to race from one end of the house to the other upstairs.
You run to the door when the trash truck comes on Thursday mornings and usually have your guitar in hand to play them a song.
You are our great eater and great sleeper- always have been. You always tell me "this is a yummy dinner mommy!" One of my favorites is when you say "who made this?!" When I say "I did". You say "give me snuggles!!" I love how Ryder now does this too.
You love being a "big helper" to Ryder and I just know that will only grow when your new baby brother arrives. You love to talk to my belly and ask me constantly "mommy, is the baby asleep or awake?" If I say he's awake, you run up and pat my belly and say "hi baby!" You say "when the baby's here, he's going to be really loud and sleep and poop". Hopefully, this means I've been successful in teaching you that he won't come out ready to play in the driveway with you and Ryder yet.
Your favorite shows are Thomas the Train, Daniel Tiger, Mickey Mouse, Paw Patrol, Chuggington, Curious George and most recently- anything to do with Cars.
You are still our tiny little guy at just 29lbs and 38in. You're wearing 4T shirts and 2T shorts.
This year has brought a lot of firsts for you and you have handled them all very well and usually with a lot of excitement. From your first trip to Disney World to moving to a new house to a big boy bed, potty training and a new school. You treat everyday like it's a brand new adventure and ask me every morning "what are we doing today, mommy?"
You are our little feeler and feel all emotions really big. You're really great at identifying how you're feeling and also how you think someone else is feeling. With this, you are incredibly strong-willed and determined. While this can be hard to harness in a four year old, I know that these qualities will take you really far in life.
With my pregnancy this time around, you know a lot more of what's happening that you did with Ryder. This has brought some really sweet conversations that we hope will one day lead into talking about your adoption. We want you to know that God chose you from day 1 to be our firstborn baby boy, even though it wasn't in mommy's tummy. This is something we want you to be proud of and for it to always be a part of you. It's never been something we want to try and hide or "spring on you" as a teenager when the repercussions would be far worse. Right now, you just know that God chose to put this baby in mommy's tummy and Ryder in mommy's tummy, but God chose to put you in mommy's heart. While, we don't expect you to fully understand what the means yet, we hope and pray it's a good starting place.
If I could take away one thing from you, it would be your asthma. We knew from the beginning that this would likely be an issue from you based on family history and the fact that you could have been born as early as 34 wks. From 10 days in the NICU at birth to your first ER visit at 8 mos old to 6 days at Texas Children's with RSV over Christmas, you've been a little fighter. You are used to your daily inhaler and know exactly how to set up your nebulizer. Thankfully, it's never seemed to slow you down at all.
Happy birthday, sweet boy! We love you so much and are so thankful we get to watch you grow into such a fun little boy!
Planning for Finn's party was the most fun this year, as this seemed to be the year he really "got it". All previous years, he loved his parties but this year he's been asking for a party since Ryder had his back in March. We had it this past weekend, since I'm about 87 weeks pregnant at this point and didn't want to wait one more week even though his birthday wasn't until Tuesday. He's been super into Cars recently and everything has been "Lighting McQueen" or what he calls his "fast car", so we had a simple Cars birthday party at our neighborhood playground with some close friends and family.
