Hi all,
Ryan is no 3.5 months and the time is moving so quickly. He seems to hit a new milestone every time we turn around! Max had his first Baseball tournament yesterday (1 loss, 1 tie, but overall the team shows promise). And I have been back at work for 2 weeks now. We have a great sitter that comes to the house, Jenny, and Ryan and her seem to have really hit it off. It's so nice to not have to back him up on the mornings I work. Walking through the door at the end of the day is the best. Ryan is usually in his seat playing, but always happy to see me.

Thursday Max leaves for a 10 day spring training trip to Florida with his team. I am excited for him to have the time with the team, but a little apprehensive about doing the parenting thing without him. Max is missing Ryan already! Also, tomorrow my Grandma (dad's mom) is having open heart surgery. She's in her late 80's so please pray that all goes well and that she can rest comfortably after surgery.

Here's what's new in Ryan's world:
- He's holding toys and passing them between hands.
- He tries to put his entire fist in his mouth
- He's sleeping lot better. Some nights he has gone 5.5 hours. Other nights its only 1.5 hours! But he's napping a lot during the day too. He's figuring it all out.
- He's close to giggling and loves to have conversations with us. The cooing is too cute.
- He sits up propped on pillows and does great work outs for tummy time.
- He no longer needs the shield for nursing, so that's a big relief and the feedings are going faster.
- He loves going for walks.

Check out some of his other milestones below!

Some of you may have seen our previous post with Ryan and Hendy. Well Ryan is catching up. Ryan's legs are about twice the width of Henry....so I think we definetly have one Basketball player and one football layer on our hands. We think Ryan is well over 16 pounds now (that's the approximation from Max, and since he teaches weights, I can't argues).
During our play date, the boys were holding hands....that is, when Ryan wasn't holding Henry's ear!
Conked out last night. He's in his little swaddling straigh-jacket. If hes not wrapped tight, he wakes himself up constantly with his "conductors hands".
Here's Ryan playing 70's bachelor with his shirt open to is navel relaxing on his "monkey skin rug". The girls I used to babysit for (now in college...wow!) sent the cutest package yesterday. Thank you Jennifer, Julie and Brittnay.
Ryan now spends most of his time looking like this, rather than colicy crying!
Ryan is a great cook and likes to help me when I make dinner.
A glimpse of our boy's very red hair.
Tummy time with daddy. Or maybe Max is making his do push ups!
Proof that he is holding his toys!

Ryan trying to get his fist into his mouth!

3 Months!

Hey all,
This week has been an exciting, but draining week. We have an acute awareness that time is literally flying by, marked by the fact that our little one is now 3 months old! Shocking. Life before him seems to never have existed, though 3 months feels like it just whipped by us.

Max started baseball this week, his second year as NVHS Head JV coach. In addition he had parent teacher conferences at the end of last week and just an hour ago did a final presentation for his grad class. Tomorrow is his concluding final for that course. Last night he had a 16 hour day and didn't get home until nearly 11pm. I don't know how he does it.

This week has been a lot of preparation for me to start back to work next Tuesday. I spent yesterday in the office in meetings and was there again today learning about my new client mix and how my new part-time schedule is going to work. We also took Ryan to meet Max's staff at Northview today.

Thursday was also Ryan's first time with his new sitter, Jenny. She'll be caring for him Tuesdays and Thursdays with my mom picking up Wednesday afternoons to round out my work week. Jenny is a perfect fit for Ryan and they had a better than expected afternoon together. She has a degree from Hope college in Early Childhood education and is waiting on a teaching position while working the remainder of her week at a preschool. Jenny is the cousin of my best friend from college (Staci) and we share lots of mutual connections, so we feel really comfortable with her. Her spirit is very calm and gentle and she's got the energy to walk this little guy for hours (in our tiny house!)....a great fit all around.

Ryan is changing so much. My dad sees him once a week and helps me realize all the changes we take for granted spending so much time with him. So here's Ryan's list of amazing feats:
- started to drool (see below) and blow bubbles
- cooing alot and has started to laugh here and there
- smiling that isn't just tied to gas!
- standing up with very little support from us
- tummy time with his head up and about for 5 minutes+
- sleeping about 3 hours at a time on his own in his Moses basket, though he's nearly outgrown it
- wearing 3-6 month clothes
- is able to track people and objects and turns when he hears our voices
- is barely what we'd call colicy any more...he just needs a constant change of scenery

He's just amazing and we feel so blessed to be his parents. Hope each of you has had as great a week as we have.

Love Court, Max and Ryan





This is Ryan in standing position.

Weeks 9 -11

We must officially be parents since the days are shorter, the nights are longer and we have had NO time to blog! So to that end, we'll again let the pictures do the talking. Thanks for indulging us...we know there are lots!

Yesterday Ryan was accused of being a hippie...wonder why? The night before he slept for 5 consecutive hours! It's a new record and something we hope will be the norm (unfortunately, Saturday all he could muster was 2.5 hours in a row.)

Ryan had a pizza party with his new buddy Henry. It was so cute as they reached out for one another and were mesmerized by a like-minded soul. Henry's parents, Carrie and Dan, built a wood stove on their patio and helped us produce the most amazing meal.

This is for all those out there teasing our son for having a pink binkie...he also has purple, though we're not sure that it's much better. Some days he enjoys it, other days he wants nothing to do with it. In truth, we're somewhat relieved that he's not too reliant on it.

This is becoming a familiar scene at our house. During the work week, Max heads to bed no later than 10pm and then awakes at 4am so I can get an hour of sleep or so before he heads to school. Needless to say, around 6pm, both my guys crash.

Max's dad and stepmom were able to fly out to Michigan last week. This is Grandpa Kerry holding his first grandchild, for the first time. It was a great visit!

Grandma Patti with her new little buddy. The visit was awesome and we were so thankful for her delicious meals....she kept us eating all weekend.

Ryan had a bit too much fun with both sets of Grandparents Saturday night. Drunkard! Actually, while holding him, he finally fell asleep on the table as I was leaning on it for support.

Our sweet boy!



Asleep in the sunshine!
Ryan has just started to enjoy sleeping on his stomach when I can watch him during the day. Here he is propped up on his boppy.
Grandpa Stevens made it over for a night to hang out with Ryan and Court. As always, he did a great job feeding the little man while I made us homemade pizza.
Like father, like son! Do you see a theme?