Monday, November 22, 2010

16 months!

We time flies when you're having fun!  I'm already getting sad that Ryne is almost a year and a half.  Yikes!  Ryne is becoming more and more "fun!"  He's a ball of energy and learning new stuff everyday!

Ryne is by far rocking his puzzles now.  He's mastered most 2+ years puzzles that we have and he's moved on to a 3+ years puzzle of the ABC's.  He LOVES doing puzzles!  Now he will take all the pieces out by himself and then put them back in all by himself.  Hopefully we can incorporate other aspects of the puzzles like colors and shapes, but for right now, he's not very interested in that.

Ryne is also doing well with kicking a ball.  I know it seems silly, but he is very fluid in his kicking.  He can continuously run and kick the ball without stopping.  Adam and I are thinking that we may have a little soccer player in our future!  Adam hates to watch soccer, so this will be interesting if Ryne develops a talent in it!

Ryne has also learned how to undo the top harness latch on his car seat = not cool!  He will also put the latch together when we get in the car, which is helpful, but not as helpful as not undoing the latch!  I read on the companies website that the top latch is supposed to be easy enough for an adult to get the child out of the car, especially in emergencies, but requires too much dexterity for a child to undo it.  HA!  Ryne uses both thumbs to push up on one side and down on the other to pop the latch.  He knows how the crotch latch works too, but he has yet to undo it, but it's only a matter of time....

Language-wise, Ryne is learning new words everyday!  He can say "outside" now.  He told Jo Ann and Frank's dog to "stay" (with hand motion) the other day and now he says it to people in public!  Ha!  Ryne can also say "shoes" and "socks" - they are necessary for going outside, so of course he would learn those words!

We are STILL struggling with the bottle issue!  UGH!  Ryne will drink from a sippy cup or even a regular cup, if and only if, it does not contain milk.   He will only drink milk from a bottle, and since juice and water still causes him to reflux some, he drinks mostly milk.  The doctor did approve decaffeinated tea that has been watered down a bit to cut the sugar, which seems to be better than juice and water, but I don't want Ryne throwing back tea all day either.

Ryne is such a sweet little boy.  He is giving LOTS of kisses now - open-mouthed, slobbery ones, but they are the best!  Now that Adam and I have our own GOOD camera, we will be sharing more of the magical moments!  And if you want any pictures taken, let me know.  I need some practice!  Who knows...I might make a business of this...if I'm good!

Saturday, November 13, 2010

"Serving" Tray

A couple of months ago I came across an amazing blog, called Elm Street Life, from a lady Franklin, TN.  She made this super cute plaque with the words, "say grace" on it.  We always used the term "say grace" when I was growing up, so I fell in LOVE with the plaque project.  I have yet to make one for myself, but I decided to take the idea and make another craft with one of my favorite Bible verses!

I have always been fond of the verse from Joshua 24:15, "But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord."  My grandmother has a needlepoint of this Bible verse hanging next to her front door, and I've always felt it was special to me.  I also just happened to have a unfinished wood serving tray that needed a purpose other than to hold junk that needed to be thrown out a loooong time ago!

So this is what I came up with:


The concept was great, the execution needs some work!  I had and still have several issues with the outcome.  My paint pens kept breaking on me and splattering gold paint all over the tray.  Then probably the most obvious things are that the majority of the wording is too small, and for lack of a better term, crooked as a dog's leg!  It must be the font that I used.  It printed out fairly straight on paper, but when I applied it to the tray it came out with an obnoxiously obvious slant to it (aka: crooked as a dog's leg!).

I am probably going to completely redo it, because I am a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to things like this, but I wanted to share the idea!

Friday, November 12, 2010

Behind the Lens

I have found a new love - Adam and I both have!

I have been wanting a "good" camera for some time now.  Not that my Nikon Coolpix is not good - it's great - for the everyday, take a quick pic, kind of occasion.  However, Adam, Ryne and I have been having so much fun in this beautiful weather that Tennessee has been blessed with this Fall, and a "good" camera makes a BIG difference in capturing the happy moments!

Luckily for us, we know people who happen to have a "good" camera!  So we borrowed it to test it out for ourselves...and we fell in LOVE...in more ways than one!  We love the memories we are capturing!  We love being together as a family and just being ourselves!  We love photographing together!  We love the quality of pictures and quality of time we are getting while possessing the "good" camera!  We love that we are from a town (Kingston) that is such a perfect backdrop, especially this time of year!

I think this camera is about the best thing we've had/borrowed in awhile.  Ryne gets to run around in the great outdoors, where he is happiest!  Adam and I get to chase him around capturing the moments and the smiles.  And Adam and I have been working together on taking good shots from different angles, etc.  Men and women view the world so differently - literally!  I do most of the picture-taking, but I will pass the camera off to Adam and he will take a picture that I probably would have never taken or would have missed.  He has great ideas for angles, action shots, posed shots, that never would have occurred to me, and I honestly questioned some of his choices.  However, I trusted him and we indeed ended up with some amazing pictures!








I really hope Santa puts a "good" camera under our tree this year and maybe even some photography classes!

Sunday, November 7, 2010

Momma's Got a Brand New Blog!

I have decided to start another blog, in conjunction with this blog!  I want to keep this blog specific to our family, and I don't want other interests of mine to crowd out how incredibly adorable, sweet and smart our son is the happenings of our life!  So I started WAHM, SAHM, Thank You Ma'am for all things mother-(or father, grandparent, caretaker, etc.) related!

WAHM, SAHM, Thank You Ma'am is geared towards the social, financial, physical, and mental aspects of having a child in your life!  I will post deals and steals for kid-related items, fun local activities (preferably FREE ones!), adventures with my bambino, and tips, tricks and sources of info for various aspects of raising a child!  I stalk tons of blogs for all these things and I am hoping to create one-stop blog stalking!  I hope to be able to help other Moms (fathers, etc.) by sharing my knowledge and sources of info about all-things-kids!