A Few Of My Favorite Things

These are a few of my favorite things...or Blake's favorite things...

1. Jungle Bouncer - This is Blake's new toy. His feet aren't exactly long enough to touch the ground yet, but with some assistance, he LOVES to bounce in it!



2. Tongues Out - Blake has discovered his tongue. So now he sticks it out all the time. Who else do we know that does this?!? Hmm...Ryan!!



3. Simple Things - We learned that Blake loves the color red. Hence, this red plastic cup is awesome! He also knows that you put the cup to your mouth. Smarty Pants.



4. Swimming - He is now all decked out in his new monkey pirate swim trunks and board shirt. Now he will get in all the way (if the water is warm) and splash around!



Fathers Day

Ryan just celebrated his first Father's Day!! He got his gift a little early...a cover for the bed of his truck. What can we say?! He needed it for the rain! :)

So, for Father's Day, Blake and I wanted to make the day all about him! We began by letting him sleep until 8:00. For an Army man and a new dad, that is equal to sleeping until noon for many people. Haha. Then we fixed him his favorite breakfast casserole and relaxed! Ryan hasn't been bowling since before Blake was born, so I surprised him with a family trip to the bowling alley. It was great! Blake played and laughed in his stroller while he watched Ryan and I bowl 3 games! Don't worry, nothing has changed in Ryan's time away...he still beat me pretty bad. :)

Finally we ended the day with Skype time to both of our families. After Blake went to bed Ryan and I watched a movie and made brownies. Basically it was an amazing day for our little family.

Being a dad is a VERY important role in life. I know that Ryan and I have been raised by amazing fathers in our lives. In fact, I think we can agree that many of our life lessons have been taught by them. In addition, I am very grateful for not only my father figures, but for the father that Ryan has become. There is such joy in my heart to see that Blake has a dad that is so involved in his life. I can just see Ryan being so eager to play with Blake..to teach him about sports...to take him off roading...to let him help with the grill...all the fun boy stuff. I am so excited to see their relationship grow!

Happy Father's Day!

Move It Like Madagascar

One of the new kids movies coming out is Madagascar 3. It's a movie series about zoo animals that have escaped from the zoo and go on all kinds of silly adventures. The movie really became famous for it's redention of the song "Move It".

Blake has his eyes glued on the TV everytime the movie preview comes on. He also likes to watch the little "Move It" video on Youtube. It's always a quick fix if he is fussy for no reason. So, I guess we will be getting all 3 Madagascar movies ASAP! :)

Click here for the link to the music video. Maybe you will get a kick out of it like Blake does. Haha.

GDaddy Visits

GDaddy and Heather came to visit Blake this past week. And I guess they wanted to see Ryan and I too... Haha. Ryan was gone on a training rotation most of the time they were here, so it was nice to have the extra hands to help with Blake. I can't tell if they tired Blake out or if Blake tired them out. Let's just say that at the end of the day everyone was wiped out!

We did lot's of things while they were here. We went to lunch at Cecil's in DeRidder for some Cajun food, we went to the Alligator Park (duh!), we even went to the place were Steel Magnolias was filmed back in 1989. Watch Steel Magnolia's if you haven't already! It's a classic!

So, there is a beautiful park in the movie Steel Magnolia's. It goes right by a huge river and it has an amazing open lawn. Well, we found that park in Natchitoches, LA and we enjoyed a lovely afternoon relaxing there. Here are some of the pictures of our gorgeous day.

Blake loved having his GDaddy here. They giggled and played..and even snuggled when Blake would sit still long enough. Also, Ryan got an ice cream maker from them for his birthday! Fun times! We always love when family comes to visit!

Happy Birthday, Daddy

Happy Birthday to you....

It's Ryan's 27th birthday and we are..... not together. :( As we have learned, sometimes the Army gets in the way of special days. Sadly for Ryan, the Army has gotten in the way of his birthday for the past 5 years. BUT, that will not stop us from celebrating! Before he left for this rotation we ate his birthday cake and he got his gift from Blake and I. We gave him a gift certificate to go get a 1 hour deep tissue/hot rock massage! Ryan has never had a real massage and he always talks about his body hurting from work, so we thought this would be a great way to reward him! Hopefully he will get some relaxation out of this too. He works so hard to support our family. He really deserves the best!

We love him to the moon and back. Ryan comes home on Sunday and we can't wait to celebrate with him more...and he gets some vacation time soon too! Yay!! 

4 Months

  

Our handsome little man is 4 months old!!!!! We had his doctors appointment today and his second round of shots. Yikes!

Blake now weights 13lbs 8oz...4 pounds more than his 2 month appointment! At this 2 month appointment he was in the 7th percentile for his age. Lol. Itty Bitty! Now he is in the 23rd percentile. Woohoo, moving on up! He was so freaking cute at the visit because he couldn't stop smiling at the doctors...until he got his shots.

Just like last time, he cried only during the actually injection of the shots. Then he just whined a little until he fell asleep. Today should be a pretty lazy day...In fact he is still passed out as I write this. :)

Ok. Here is our traditional Blake update for 4 months old!

• His favorite thing to do now is talk! Lots of "goos", :"aahhhs", and "ooouuus" :)
• He actually enjoys tummy time now
• He is constantly trying to stand up
• He likes to bounce
• He loves water...but only on his legs. Water on the tummy freaks him out sometimes.
• He is exploring the touch of different textures.
• Petting Maggie puts a smile on his face.
• He loves to smile at everyone.
• He is sleeping MUCH better at night and wakes up sideways every morning.
• Tickle time with daddy is fun! He has started to giggle!
• He still isn't a fan of loud noises.
• He is starting to be more independent...not sure if I am ready for all that.
• Couch Potato...he loves to watch TV!
• Rolling over is still somewhat of a challenge...but is super fun when it works!
• He is now attempting to sit on his own (usually lasts for 2 seconds. haha)

 

Army Love

First of all...Blake is 4 months old today! We will do his 4 month post after his doctors appointment on Monday. :)

Now...on to this Army love stuff. Blake, myself, and Maggie had to say goodbye to Ryan this morning. He will be doing a training rotation for the next 10 days which requires him to be away from us the whole time - no communication at all.

I thought that once we made it through his deployment and the long distance, while he was in Italy, that this whole Army thing would calm down. It hasn't...an Army kind of love is a special thing. It is always a challenge. It means that your family is separated a lot. It means that the Army controls your time. It means that you have to have lots of strength in your family to survive it.

You would think that Ryan and I would be pro's at this Army love, but we aren't. I still cry when he leaves for more than a day. He still gets stressed about leaving me (and now Blake). We both miss out on things such as birthdays, anniversaries, and holidays. Basically our plans are often ruined by the Army. To be honest, Ryan is always the strong one in this type of situation. I always hate stuff like this so much. However, no matter what the Army requires of us right now, I know that we are stronger because of it. We only have 7-10 months left of it. So I know that our love can remain Army strong until them. :)

This week we will miss Ryan a lot! We will miss his birthday (on the 5th) and he will miss Blake's doctors appointment. Little Blake and I are already counting down the days until next Sunday. We can't wait to have him back with us!! Until then, we will just keep doing what we do!