I've been busy

OK, so I haven't been too busy. Just Ryan thinks he belongs on my hip all the time, this would include sleeping time. He now thinks he needs to sleep in bed with me. So when I lay him down he wakes up and cries until I put him on my pillow. He settles right down, as long as I stay right there. As you can imaging this does not work so well with Melissa. Melissa thinks it is her duty to wake Ryan up. She says to him "UP UP!" Then shakes the crib or pulls my pillow out from underneath. Er. I try to get them to sleep at the same time to avoid this fiasco.

Melissa turned two. We could hardly believe it! TWO!! I keep thinking of her as this little 18 month kid. But like my Dad used to say, "You know you are old when time goes by too fast." I used to think he was full of it. Funny how time does go by too fast. We took Melissa to Build a Bear in the mall. She loved it until they stuffed the bear. This was a bad idea. It was the same as last year, all fun until the machine came on. We bought her a cake, which was successfully smashed in the car. So rather than replace it, we ate it, tastes the same as non smashed cake.

My parents came for a visit we ran them to the ground. We took them places everyday they were here. And while they were here Ron and I got to go out. Good fun. We went to the casino and spent the night. We are not big gamble people but we put our $10 in and had fun. We also went to the movie, as in a REAL ADULT movie, with no animation and big words. HA HA! We went and saw Star Trek, it was really good. A pleasant surprise for me, since I am not a "Trekie". We took my parents to the zoo with the kids. There were lots of "zoo babies" there. My Dad picked up a duckie for Melissa to pet. Well the little one quacked hard for Mom and she came running. It was pretty funny. No petting the duckies! Caleb and my Dad went to the Aquatic Center. No pics on this one because we dropped them off. But I think they had fun. We also had a "pre" party for Melissa. Since her birthday wasn't until the week after they left, we celebrated early. I don't think Melissa minded.

Ryan has learned to crawl, pull himself up and is all over the place! He is so cute and so clingy with me. Melissa had some separation issues but Ryan has exceeded her standard. He likes to chase the new kitten, Max. We named him Max because we are Max'ed out here. Max'ed out on pets, space, and kids. :) Ryan will try to pull Max's fur out, Max just takes it. He is a funny cat. He likes to play chase with Caleb. Yes he chases Caleb like he is a dog. Melissa packs Max around, poor cat. Max takes this too without complaint. Or at least as long as she isn't choking him. He is cute and was my present for my birthday.

So Ryan is now screaming (again) because I am 6 feet away. Sign. I am posting lots and lots of pics and not labeling any of them...too much effort.