Snow Day With Daddy!

Ryan stayed home Wednesday and we enjoyed a day snowed in together. I made buttermilk pancakes and bacon, and none of us got out of our PJs all day. It was great.

Snuggled on the couch watching "Petting Farm", Christopher's favorite video.

Christopher smiles at his animals.

"So let me get this right, a cow says "moo"? Maybe I'll make that tomorrow's word of the day."

Gircle, Turtle, MOOO!

Christopher's vocabulary is growing by about a word a day now. The other day I heard him walking around with his precious lid collection saying "Gircle, gircle, gircle". He is saying "circle", accurately describing his lids as such. Turtle was Tuesdays word, "Moo" was today. He loves to say "Cooold" quite dramatically when the front door or fridge is open. Sometimes I consider keeping a spiral notebook just to jot this stuff down.

After many weeks of practice, Christopher has finally perfected putting coins in his piggy-bank.Then he takes them out again!

Sophia wearing my birthday tiara. She doesn't need it to look like a princess though.


More pictures from my Birthday bash. Here Zachary zonks out on his Dad's lap during the Raven's game.

Yesterday Christopher was able to play in the snow for the first time. Thanks to Ryan's cousin Stephanie, who gave him a very nice snow suit. Christopher liked walking around in the white stuff, but didn't like falling face-first into it. It was fun watching him...

Christopher's Many Talents

Christopher is amazing. I think I've said this before, but he never seizes to amaze me. His vocabulary is growing, and for archiving purposes I'll list all of his words: Da-da, Momma, ball, door (most recent), dog, hot, fire, fan, light, tick-tock, good, gogurt (yogurt), fish, deer, geese (are you shocked, he is Ryan's son). Most of these words are the beginning consonant sound, but each day I've noticed him morphing the sound to be more accurate. I think there are more words, but I can't recall right now. He also has a large array of sounds that mean something to him, or are just fun to make. He makes a zerbert sound (blows through perced lips) for potty, with which he is pretty accurate. This sound is made when he walks into the bathroom, when he goes potty in his diaper, when he's about to go potty, or if he gets a hold of a fresh diaper from the changing table. I wonder how I can use his awareness to aid with potty training, but I don't know where to begin, or if its way too early. So instead, I bought him a potty chair to play with and just talk about it. He is so receptive. For instance, this morning he found his shirt from yesterday laying on the floor. He picked it up started walking around with it. I said "Christopher, that goes in your room". Once in his room I continued, "That's dirty, it goes in the hamper". The little stinker walks over to his open hamper and drops in the shirt. I've never talked about the hamper before, maybe he remembers seeing me put clothes in, and he listens to my tone and figures out what I want him to do. He has also done this with Ryan's shoes: he picks them up in the living room and walks them into our bedroom and puts them away with my instruction. If we keep this up, we will have one tidy house. At least these tasks counteract all the un-tidying he is apt to do. Last weekend Ryan told Christopher to close the door and he immediately followed instruction. A fun game we like to play is "Where is ______?" (fill in the blank). Christopher will walk around and find whatever it is, pick it up, and walk around hugging it with a great smile on his face. He also has a interactive DVD game, geared towards babies and toddlers. There is a small controller that sits on the floor and has three buttons on it. During the video there are pauses and a voice instructs "Hit the button to count more nuts". At this instruction, Christopher will very purposefully hit one of the buttons to continue the video. The first time I played this was about 2 weeks ago, I didn't expect Christopher to show any interest. I thought I would at least have to show him the process a few times. Well, he never gave me a chance because he hit the button upon the video's request before I could show him. I was SHOCKED! It was then that I realize there is little he doesn't understand. I am afraid if I don't start writing these details down, I will soon forget them!

The day after Christmas, we stopped by Ryan's Aunt Mary Ann's to see the trains.

New Year's Weekend we spent up in Pa for more family fun:

Noah, Zachary, Jonathan, Christopher and Grant stop playing for a quick photo shoot.

Julianna opens her gift from her Secret Santa.

I think Zachary likes his gift. I think he's eating the mic.

Noah checks out his gift.

I like this picture. As Emily shows off her gift, you can see Ryan's dad in the background, obviously carrying on with one of the kids. Its a glimpse of a typical family gathering.

Christopher wanted to say "Hi" to Lulu, who was walking up the driveway. As I opened the door so he could see her better, he didn't think twice about stepping outside!

Here Jay, Steve, Ryan H, and Alissa watch the Ravens work their magic. Saturday was a great day, I had a 30th Birthday party which was extra fun because the Ravens played an awesome playoff game and WON! Go Ravens!


It was a loud party, with a room full of men exploding with each great play. It was funny though, because the women and children stayed downstairs and watched the game. Well there was a 5 second delay between the two TV sets, so when we saw a favorable play downstairs, five seconds later, we'd hear the men shout and jump up and down up in the living room. Four hours of this was pretty funny.



Playing downstairs with the kiddies.




Matthew and Stephanie in their purple.


Still silly after 30 years.



Noah shows Grant how to use Christopher's new toy.

"Happy Birthday To ME!" Too bad my jersey wasn't #30, that would have been cool.

This cake is awesome. It tastes just like a giant Peppermint Patty. Lola's specialty.

Opening his Christmas tin full of goodies from Lulu and Papa.

Lately Christopher has learned what "hat" is and what to do with it. He especially loves taking Daddy's hat off and putting it on his own little head.

For those of you that received our Christmas card, here is part II and III...Honing his hand-eye coordination, he makes the swipe!

Ahh, alas the prized Snoopy ornament he's been coveting for so long.

This photo captures all of "Christopher" in recent weeks: the "ooooh" lips, his obsession with bending lids, the ring-post toy he has perfected, and his great fitting leather shoes he can keep on all day.

Looking back to see if it's ok to climb steps.

Christmas Day at Lulu and Papa's.

Sitting still for a good book.

"Rocky" the rocking horse that Christopher has grown to love.

Papa set up the train for Christopher's enjoyment.

Opening his stocking Christmas morning.