Son Chips

Ryan is in a phase of life where he wants to imitate *EVERYTHING* we do. Recently I grabbed a bag of Sun Chips (my favorite chip) and started eating. Over my left shoulder I caught sight of Ryan staring me down. He was intrigued by the crunch the bag made and the crunch my mouth made. Being a typical man, I thought nothing more of it, finished the bag of chips and threw it away.

A few minutes later I again looked over my shoulder and Ryan had retrieved the bag from the garbage. He managed to find some crumbs in the bag and was eating them just as I had done. I know think of that bag of Sun Chips as "Son Chips."

Who will squish the moth first?

This morning I was walking around with Ryan by the french doors in the kitchen when we saw a moth. I left Ryan for a minute while I went for a tissue. I intended to squish the little thing, and was a little worried about how Ryan would take it. When I got back to the window, Ryan was poking the moth. He'd touch the moth, and it would take flight then land on the window. He touched it like this another two or three times. Then he decided to pick it up and squish it between his fingers. Guess I didn't have to worry about his tender sensitivities...

Ryan's First Fourth of July Celebration

We were excited about making Ryan's first Forth of July special. The day before, I took him shopping at Walmart where we bought his first wading pool along with a big box of fireworks. I thought for the 4th, Ryan would enjoy time in the pool and a few fireworks. As it worked out I didn't take him out in the pool, but that was okay because I let him play in the pool the night before. By the time I got him ready for the day, he had a nap. When he woke up, it was super hot. I thought I'd put him in the pool after dinner, but then he went back down for a nap. That was the strangest part of the story. Historically, Ryan pushes himself to the brink of exhaustion before he'll settle for a nap. If Ryan had a motto it would be, "Sleep is for the weak". The forth of July was no different. He had a short one hour nap in the morning, then pushed himself through the rest of the day. When Mom and Dad came over for dinner, I could tell Ryan was pretty tired. I gave him a bottle after dinner and he finally crashed. He doesn't usually sleep at 7:00, but under the circumstances I thought the nap was perfect. He'd be all rested and ready to go by the time we started the fireworks. While he slept, I played Scrabble with Mom while Steve and Dad visited in the front room. After Dad went downstairs for a little snooze, Steve joined us for a few rounds of Boggle. One hour went by, then an hour and a half. Still no sound from Ryan. We decided it was probably time for him to wake up, so we started shaking the Boggle box of cubes rather loudly. Still no sound from Ryan. It was starting to get dark, so Steve and I went in to check on Ryan. I rubbed his back and his head. He was out like a light. Steve and I started a conversation right there at his crib, but he didn't stir. I figured if he was that tired, we should let him rest. Maybe he was experiencing a growth spurt. I hoped he would wake up when we started the fireworks. We took our chairs out to the sidewalk. I had Ryan's monitor receiver with me so I would hear him when he woke, which I was sure he would do, after the first couple of fireworks. I lit the fireworks, which popped and screamed like fireworks do. We listened at the monitor, and all I could hear was the steady tick, tick, tick from the clock in Ryan's room. We lit firework after firework and regularly ooohed and aaahed. Steve took lots of pictures with his fancy camera. All four of the neighbor boys came out in their PJs to watch the show. After what must have been at least a half an hour, we had our finale. The monitor was still silent except for the tick, tick, tic, from Ryan's clock. I saved a few fireworks to show Ryan the next day. After our show, we watched either the Draper City or Riverton City fireworks from the front porch. We had a great view. Between our small street fireworks and the show we could see from the porch, we had the best of both worlds. After the last firework popped in the sky, we cleaned up our things, said our goodbyes and headed off to bed. I was sorry that Ryan missed the show, but was glad he was getting some much needed sleep. I brushed my teeth, got my PJs on, had my prayer and laid my weary head on my pillow. Suddenly, Ryan woke up with a cry. Steve said I should entitle this "It was not Bombs Bursting in Air, but Pillow Hitting Hair that Awoke Ryan."

One question runs through my mind. Do you think he would be smiling like this if he knew the lizard was on top of his head? I mean, I knew that lizards like red rocks, but I didn't know they liked red hair. :-)

A couple of Concerts

We love going to outdoor concerts. Our favorite place for outdoor concerts is currently the Sandy Amphitheater. Maybe once a year or so we hit the Concert in the Parks series downtown at the Brigham Young Memorial Park. Last week, we went to see a band called Fire on the Mountain. They call what they play "mountain music", I guess I would call it more in the blue-grass arena but that's just because I'm not a music aficionado. They were good entertainers. You can tell they were used to crowds and working them over. It was a nice evening out. The landscape photo of the water and lit stone is an example of the scenery in the park where the concert was held. I actually got out of my seat in the middle of the song when I saw this lighting. I just had to shoot the picture. This will make a nice calendar print for next year's calendar.

Last night at the Sandy Amphitheater we saw Richard Marx in concert. By far he is the best act we have seen there in the last couple of years. He still has his A-game, he still produces new music rather than riding on just hits of yesteryear and he works with the audience like calling us out for just sitting on our kiesters instead of getting on with the music. The only downside is our little Ryan who we left with a baby-sitter and who had only slept 30 minutes all day would not go to sleep so we had to leave about 30 minutes before the end of the concert to take care of him. That's okay, because the concert was still great and we love our little guy. We would go see Richard Marx again if he came to the Amphitheater. Oh, as an example of his presence, he mentioned that he doesn't mind if people take photos of him because he said that's what all entertainers want is to be paid attention to (nice candor). When he said this the guy in the picture to the left came running down like he just run the Showcase Showdown on the Price is Right and Richard Marx stopped to pose for him. Ha! Funny stuff.

Bath time with Ryan

Thursday, June 12th, 2008

Bath time this morning was worthy of a journal entry. Ryan got up around 6:30 am. He was all excited to start his day. I fed him oatmeal with pears and pineapple for breakfast. He kept opening his mouth, so I fed him the whole bowl. He ate a big breakfast. After having a bowl of cereal myself, I took Ryan into the bathroom for bath time.

To keep him busy while I got his wash rags, clean diaper and clothes together, I gave him a bath toy to play with. Right now Ryan is working on three new teeth and has a cold that won't seem to go away. As a result, he leaves a snail trail of slobber and snot wherever he goes. While getting his clothes and such, Ryan took the bath toy out to the hall where he sucked on it and left a pool of slime. I made a mental note of it's location, and figured I'd clean it after his bath.

By this time, I smell a stinky diaper smell that lets me know Ryan needs to be cleaned up before getting into the bath. I grabbed his wipes and changing mat and brought them into the bathroom. Ryan doesn't like having his diaper changed, especially when it requires a lot of wiping. As a result, I've learned to change his diaper while he's standing next to something or crawling away as fast as his naked bum can take him. It takes a great deal of skill, I assure you. Ryan was leaning over on his hands and knees pulling wipes out of the wipes dispenser. I decided I would try cleaning him in that position. About 10 wipes later, and some weeping and wailing from Ryan, I got him cleaned up. I whisked the garbage can away as soon as I could. Ryan loves to pull dirty diapers out of the trash can liner. While whisking, Ryan stood up next to the toilet. I noticed he spit up a goodly amount of pears and oatmeal on the rug. No worries. I went to get a washcloth. I had no sooner wiped the rug clean when a stream of pee hits the side of the toilet and soaks into the rug, about where I had just cleaned it. I soaked up the pee with my rag, and decided I would wash the rug later.

Into the tub Ryan went. He had good times chewing on the rags, chewing the bath toys, playing in the running water, trying to catch the floating soap bottle. After finally catching, then sucking on a bar of soap the day before, I noticed Ryan wasn't that interested in the soap today. With fingers and toes shriveled from being in the water, I pulled Ryan out and stood him next to the tub to pat him dry. That's when he became engrossed in the shower curtain. I've had that shower curtain for three years, and never thought about washing it. Now that Ryan was wrapping, with glee, the dusty thing around his previously clean body, I was determined that the curtain, along with the peed on rug, would be washed today.

As I write this, Ryan is taking a nap, the washing machine is going, and I can't help but smile. I love our little bug.

The Power of the Many

This is a before and after picture (about 5 hour time difference) of putting up fence slats. What's the significance of that?

The addage of many hands make light work is true. Over the last few weeks, my wife and I and several siblings have been helping my in-laws rebuild their wooden fence. In the matter of a maybe 5 work-days we took the existing fence down, put in new posts, treated the slats and attached them to the fence frame. Working on this with one or two people and this project could have gone on for months because of lack of dedicated time or paralysis of where to begin.

It's more than just putting more people at a problem to get it done faster. What makes us all unique is our set of strengths and weakneses. In combination, it makes the work go faster because chances are that someone else's strength is one of your weaknesses. I'm just an office worker so I'm not very good at building things--especially wood things. However, I can use a drill and I can screw in many of the 1200+ screws (12 lbs) to hold all of the fence slats. Lesson learned. Working together on an endeavor is a good thing.