Cookin'

Rhys loves to cook.  Before I got pregnant and thus wasn't repulsed by the idea of preparing meat, I was very diligent in my efforts to come home after work and make a nice dinner.  Rhys would "help" in whatever way he could and he loved it.  He's continued to love it even over the last two months when we've pretty much just made scrambled eggs or grilled cheese sandwiches every night.

Given his affinity for cooking, Brian and I got him a play kitchen for his birthday.  It is as big of a hit as we'd hoped.  It's the only "toy" that he consistently plays with and is willing to play with by himself.

On another note, this is one of the cool motorcycle shirts that Rhys got for his birthday. Unfortunately, it's just a tad too small...we couldn't help but think of Chris Farley when we put it on him...big boy in a little shirt.

Saturday Morning

Most of our Saturday mornings involve a walk to Starbucks and the nearby park.  Here are a couple of pics from a recent morning that was particularly beautiful.

I love the sweet way Rhys is resting his hand on Dada's leg.

I'm kind of shocked we were able to get a decent pic of the three of us!

A different Saturday morning, a different walk - same cute boy.

Undies!

On most nights, the last thing I do before I put Rhys in his crib is list for him all of the people that love him.  If I forget, or try to skip this step, he reminds me.  He says "talk people".  This means "let's talk about all of the people that love me."  So, we go down the list...

Mama loves Rhys
Dada loves Rhys
Grandpa loves Rhys
Grandma Donna loves Rhys
Grandma Ann loves Rhys
Nanna loves Rhys
Papa loves Rhys

etc, etc, etc

After each person he repeats me, except that he leaves out "loves."  It goes like this:

Me:  Auntie Audrey loves Rhys
Rhys:  Auntie Aud-da-da-da Rhys

Last night, our routine took a funny twist.  The last book we read was The Potty Book, so that topic was on the brain.  The very last page in that book says "undies" and we talked about how he'll get to wear undies, like Mama and Dada, when he goes to the bathroom in the potty.  And then our "talk people" routine turned into this:

Me:  Katie loves Rhys
Rhys:  Katie wear undies

Me:  Debra loves Rhys
Rhys:  Debra wear undies

And so we went down the list.  It was quite funny.


 

Discovery Park

Our Thanksgiving weekend has been lovely.  We spent a very nice day with family on Thursday and, for the first time in ten years, I did not have to work on Friday.  We took advantage of the extra day and ventured to Discovery Park for a long, leisurely walk.  Rhys did a fantastic job.  We were out there for close to two hours and he just kept going and going and going!

Early on in the hike we got distracted by some cool trees that demanded our attention.

 
Rhys' walking mojo really got going when we found little "goat trails" to follow.

Time for a snack break!  Rhys generously shared his muffin with Dada.

A view from the top...

I'm sure you can imagine how much fun Rhys had playing in this hollowed out tree trunk.

A pit stop to check out a tug boat on the water.

It was such a fun outing.  We completed the adventure with a trip to fisherman's terminal for some lunch and to buy some seafood for dinner.

We certainly don't have to look very hard to find things to be grateful for.

Scrapple

Scrapple.  I really don't know what it is.  It's a food dish of some sort.  I think it involves polenta and a meat product.  It's prepared by the one and only John Wynne and, truth be told, not a lot of people are big fans.  My husband, and now son, comprise the short list of admirers.

Two

Today was Rhys' second birthday.  We had a really fun little party for him on Saturday, which I will post about later.  Today Brian and I both took the day off of work so we could hang with our little man.  (Well, I took most of the day off.  I had to go in from 8 to 9:30 for a pseudo-important meeting.)

Events of the day...

Exchange too-small but very-cool M's hat from Auntie Dawn and Uncle Pat:

 

Go to doc for 2-year check-up:

Stats:

Weight - 35lb (98th percentile)

Height - 36" (88th percentile)

Head circumference - 52cm (99th percentile)

Take naps:

:)  :)  :)  :)

Play in the rain:

 

 Eat special treat for dinner:

All-in-all, an excellent day.  

Happy birthday, Rhys.  We love you so very, very much.

Rain Boots

We took Rhys last weekend to get some rain boots.  Every time we've been shoe shopping with him, we've had a female saleperson and she's always been very "gentle" when telling us that Rhys needs a wide-sized shoe.

Saleswoman: "Ok, so he's a size 7 and (whispering in hushed tones) we'll probably need to get him in a wide."

Last weekend when we went, our sales person was a very cool, young guy.  He had Rhys stand on the sizer thing and said:

"This kid has got some pork chop feet!  He'll need a wide size 8."

 It was hilarious.

We could barely convince Rhys to try on the boots at the store and he wasn't too excited again today when we went to put them on, but we convinced him to wear them on our walk and boy did he look cute!

 

Hiya Mama, Hiya Dada

Having a nanny is great for so many reasons.  Getting video texts like this while at work is one of them.

I have no idea what that face at the end is all about...but it's totally Rhys.  From laughing to frowning in less than a second.

I can tell you that he was not frowning about his shirt.  He has two motorcycle shirts and he asks to wear one of them EVERY day.  He just really, really loves motorcycles.

Genius

We've gotten a few scholarship offers so far (Stanford, Harvard) and I'm sure more are coming.

Credit to Auntie Audrey for the film.  Isn't it crazy how often she randomly shows up in these parts and takes great pics and videos of our kid?

Football

Brian and I don't buy Rhys toys very often.  He loses interest in things so quickly that it just seems like a waste.  We're hopeful that someday he'll actually entertain himself with his toys, at which point we'll probably buy him whatever he wants, but right now all he wants to do is be with us doing whatever we're doing.  A perfect example...we have a little hand vac that we use to dust up crumbs, cat hair, etc. and whenever I pull it out, Rhys wants it immediately.  Until recently, he wasn't strong or coordinated enough to manage it.  Now, though, he can work the thing, so I let him go to town.  Why buy your a kid a toy when you can get him to vacuum for you?!?

All that being said, we did recently buy him a football.  It was actually just a placeholder until we could find him a right-sized basketball but he really took to it.  The best (funniest) part for us is that he can't quite say "foot" so his pronunciation of it is "poop. ball."  (He tends to pronounce two syllable words as if they are two different words).     

Cool action series, huh?  I'd like to take credit for it, but really it was just me doing the typical thing when trying to get a picture...hiding the phone, then begging for a smile, then chasing after him, etc.  Good times! 

Best Birthday Ever

It wasn't his birthday and he probably couldn't have picked the birthday boy out of the crowd, but Rhys could not have had a better time at Uncle Pat's party.  Why?  Well, because Uncle Pat's house has motorcycles, tractors, cop cars and cool dogs.  What more could a little man want?!

The helmet weighed a bunch, but it just about fit our gigantic-headed kid.

Rhys has always liked Dave.  Now, though?  Now that Dave helped him ride a motorcycle?  Now Dave's right up there with iPads and cheese.

He kept saying "push, push" as in, come on people, let's get this thing moving!

Alright, Mama, you can sit up here as long as I get to drive!

No pics of the dogs or cop car, but I can assure you he was in hog heaven with both.

For Rhys, the day was pure bliss.  For me and Brian, it was tinged with sadness as it was the anniversary of Mat's death.  We miss you, Mat, and promise that you'll never be forgotten.

Dancing in the Streets

I think I've mentioned that Rhys loves to dance (which I love).  The cutest thing is when we're outside and he stops whatever he is doing to dance to music pouring from a car driving by.  It's the absolute best when the car is a total "thug" car and the driver can't resist smiling when he's sees our sweet little white boy shaking his booty.

In other news, I think you'd all appreciate knowing that Elliott is always by my side helping write blog posts.  He deserves at least 50% of the credit - he's a surprisingly good editor.

Go Hawks!

Today, we joined Katie and Debra invited for some huevos racheros and Seahawk watchin'.

You can't really tell because of the angle of the picture, but these are Katie's shoes.  Rhys was having a blast putting them on and "walking" around.

It gives me such joy seeing how much these two love each other.  (This is Katie).

Rhys adores Katie's partner, Debra.  Every morning when Katie comes to our house, Rhys hears the key in the door and says "Debra?"

New Shoes

What is noteworthy about these shoes?  Well, they had to be purchased because Rhys threw his one and only pair of shoes out the car window. 

We were driving home from Ballard and he was being pretty annoying so we were just ignoring him.  He eventually got quiet and, not wanting to rock the boat, we continued to ignore him...until we heard him say "shoes, shoes."  At that point, I turned around saw his bare feet and saw him pointing out the window saying, again, "shoes, shoes." 

Needless to say, he only gets the window half down now and the moment we hear velcro it's all the way up! 

Family Weekend Part II

I'd like to say that last weekend was all about me since it was my 34th birthday, but that would be a lie.  While we did raise a toast to me at dinner, the real stars of the weekend were Rhys and an unexpected guest, cousin Hailey.  We knew Grandpa Tom and Grandma Donna were coming, but we didn't know until they were on their way that Donna's 11-year-old granddaughter was with them.  We were a little nervous about finding activities that would suit two kids with such a big age gap, but we needn't have worried a bit.  Hailey was totally game for whatever and, as she quickly became the apple of Rhys' eye, he was game for whatever as long as "Hay-hay" was there.

I think raising a daughter would be tough.  If I ever have to face that task, I'll get some advice from Hailey's parents - clearly they're doing something right.  She is a great kid.

Auntie Audrey wasn't around to take a million pictures, but since I wasn't the star of the day I went ahead and snapped a few shots.

The recurring theme in these pictures is "how cute are these kids?!"  I'll try to think of something more creative to say...but, seriously, how cute are these kids?!

Every time Hailey tried to get out of this play firetruck, Rhys commanded her to "sit! sit"!  She sweetly obliged every time.

You can't see Hailey in the picture, but she is the subject of Rhys' intense stare.

 

Dada's presence gave Hailey an opening to escape, so she could check out the big kid toys.

She scaled this thing about 5 seconds flat - wearing flip flops nonetheless.

Just hangin' out...

Coffee break with grandpa.

Grandpa looks happy because most of the time Rhys was up there, he was giving Grandpa a nice head rub.  The man is a real sucker for head rubs (not to mention cute grandsons).

This picture sums up the weekend perfectly.  And, by the way, how cute are these kids?!

Family Weekend Part 1

Last weekend Rhys had six adults doting on him - Mama, Dada, Auntie Audrey, Auntie Sara, Grandma Ann and Uncle Carl.  He was in hog heaven.  We didn't do anything extraordinary, but it was a lovely time.

I'm pretty tired tonight (I'm now 34), but luckily I don't have to write a long post as our resident documentarian (Auntie Audrey) took lots of great photos.

The man of the hour (and day and weekend).

UncCa!  The man of the hour from Rhys' perspective.  Uncle Carl was the clear favorite of the weekend.

Auntie Audrey was mostly behind the camera so this is only one of two pics with her in it.  Too bad Rhys wasn't more cooperative, but of course he wanted to be behind the lens...

...which Auntie Audrey let him be quite often.  The kid needs to learn that putting his finger in the shot doesn't help frame his subject.

This photo opp brought to you by Rhys' commands to "sit, sit!"  Note Brian's attire.  That's the result of his lost bet with Uncle Carl.  He had to wear it all weekend.

Of course we asked Rhys to show off his hanging skills, which he was more than happy to do with such an engaged audience at the ready.

It didn't seem like we were going to have great weather, but Seattle summer came through for us, so we took ourselves to the beach!  (Beach is one of Rhys' favorite words.  When he first started saying it, it sounded an awful lot like b*tch.  We're grateful it now sounds like beach.)

Grandma Ann with four of her babies.

I'm not sure how we convinced him to leave his adoring fans and take a walk with us, but we did and it was nice.

Check me out!

Happy is one of Rhys' latest words.  He can say it and sign it.  I think he was feeling pretty happy at the beach.

At some point, UncCa had some important business to attend to.

Buy!  Sell! Fire that guy!  Get me a flight today!

A rare, rare snuggle moment captured on film!

Still wearing the jersey...

Who needs a license when you're this cute?

A lovely, final, family photo.