Friday, January 4, 2008

Ryan: Providing 21 Months of Love and Laughter

"Baby Ry" is one of the cutest, smartest and spunkiest kids I've ever met. She holds the attention of her Mom, Dad, and 2 sisters almost constantly.

Tags and her thumb are what soothe her--and of course Mommy is always the cherry on top. But she doesn't just like the tag on her blankie, she will take any tag--shirt tag, stuffed toy tag, hat tag. She finds one and cruises with it.

She talks way too much for a kid her age. Our favorite phrase from her (that we totally should not provoke but we do) is "what the heck?!" with the perfect voice rise on "heck." Recently she let Dad help her with her first family prayer. She understands so much that when Cory was having her repeat the names of each of us ("thankful for Lorin, Izzy....") and when he got to "Ryan" she just stopped and looked at him thinking he was saying her name to get her attention. Then at the end she articulated "Jesus Chist" (no "r") almost perfectly. Izzy and Lorin couldn't stop giggling the whole prayer because of how cute it was.

Other favorite phrases:
--"Dot Mom" (when fixing her hair while tyring to knock my hand away--learned from Lorin);
--"Help me out?" (instead of just "help"--so cute.)
--"no want to"
--"mo" (more) and "all done" with sign language thanks to Grandma Costley bootcamp this summer while she was in Utah with Lorin, I was here with Izzy and Cancer Center stuff, and Cory was in Dallas doing his internship. she also puts her blanket under her highchair automatically and no longer takes a bottle, and sleeps through the night--thank you Grandma Costley!
--screaming "no" at Cory when asked if he can squeeze her guts.

FUNNY STORY:
We had hamsters for a few months. Well, Lorin started putting them on Ryan's head (actually Cory started it I believe). At first she wasn't sure about it. Then she started putting them on her own head and preferring to keep them there. The problem was her arms couldn't quite reach them most of the time, but when she did snag one, her fine-motor skills weren't refined enough to convince me they weren't getting squished by those chubby little hands--eek! (of course she had already fallen and squished one of them when it was a tiny pink baby.)

More Baby-Ry:
She has become extremely independent with all this cancer business. When she's hungry she goes to the cupboard, finds a snack, finds a bowl, puts a few in it and vwala!

She loves helping. When Izzy isn't feeling well she will say "Ohhhhh" (with great voice inflection) while patting her. She pushes Izzy on the little Pooh Train. She loves saying "Izzy shot....ochie" (not owie like normal, more like awchie) referring to Izzy's blood-thinning shots.

Finally, she is a little diva. She requires her own room. Yes, she pushed Izzy and Lolo out of their rooms and onto the floor in our room. What can she say...light sleeper :) With her cute little face and flashy blond hair she walks through this world like a super star! We can't get enough of her!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I can't believe how old she is. The kids are getting so big. We love you guys!
She is a Doll!!!!