Floating but no crawling...

Well, as of yet, Ryan is not crawling around... but he is floating. :) For the last week Ryan has begun taking swim (floating) lessons as a safety precaution against drowning and, although he isn't happy about them, he is doing really well. A link to the YouTube video can be found here.

Anyway, things in the Spence family are crazy as always. We visited Grandma Russell at MD Anderson over Spring Break where she was recuperating from surgery. She came through it with flying colors and the hardest part of the whole thing was seeing her grandbabies without being able to pick them up. But she is home now and is on the road to recovery. We'll get to see her again on Easter and she can help Ryan and Tygan hunt for Easter eggs.

Mommy and Daddy got a break this past weekend as Aunt Rita and Uncle Preston volunteered to keep Ryan overnight Saturday night. (Thank you to both of them). We got to go out and have dinner with Steve and his new girlfriend, Alicia, and hang out with friends who we haven't had a chance to visit with in awhile. Although we had a great night out, and we definitely needed it, the first thing we both thought when we opened our eyes was "Let's go get our baby." But it was fun while it lasted.

Ryan still only has two teeth but at the rate he is drooling, I expect a few more to poke through any day now. Hopefully he'll be up crawling soon although then we'll have to get a baby gate and begin baby-proofing everything.

We're getting into the busy season now with Michael starting baseball this week and my indoor and outdoor soccer games, not to mention Ryan's swim lessons everyday and my work events in the Spring, so we'll be busy but we'd still love to hear from our friends and try to find time to get together for dinners or something.

Hope everyone enjoys the pictures and I'll try to get more pics and journal entries up here more often. (But let's be realistic - once a month is probably my best attempt.)

We have teeth!

Ryan is getting so big. Everytime I look at pictures I can't believe how much he's grown. Even since Christmas he seems to have grown and matured. While we were in Corpus two weeks ago my Aunt Elva was holding him and she yelled "Ouch! He bit me!" I told her to quit being a baby as it was just gums, although he did like to chomp down with his gums pretty hard, and she told me that it wasn't just gums - there was a tooth there. I ran to the bathroom to wash my hands and when I got back, sure enough, there was a sharp point of a tooth poking through. Surprisingly he didn't act like he was in too much pain when it came in but he's been drooling for the past three months. Anyhow, in the last two weeks, his other front bottom tooth has started to come in so he now has two bottom front teeth that are visible and very sharp.

He's also sitting up by himself now. Occasionally he teeters over but by and large he's sitting up and playing with his toys. So I decided it was time to stop bathing him like a little baby and I went to WalMart and got him a big boy ducky bathtub. As you can see from the pictures, he really enjoyed his bathtub and now loves to splash mommy when she's bathing him. Last night after I finished bathing him I just refilled the tub with clean warm water so he could play for another 15 minutes and I don't think he was ready to get out even then. He's so cute!

And... he started saying "Da-da" a few weeks ago, right around when his first tooth came in. It was a big weekend for us. He now calls everything Da-da, but Michael still gets excited when he hears it. He just lays around saying "da-da-da-da-da" but it's cute. Now if we could only get him to say Mama. Oh well, maybe next month.

Christmas 2009

Well, our first Christmas with the little guy was a good one, but he spent part of the holiday sick. He got RSV from someone at daycare and that was difficult for a little while because it's always hard when he's sick since he can't tell us what hurts. But he's doing much better now and we've FINALLY got him back on schedule I think.

He was completely spoiled at Christmas by Grandma and Grandpa Russell. He got so many toys that Michael and I were happy we have a suburban to bring them all home in. We're still trying to make sure that he uses all the toys he had (although some of them won't be used until he gets a little older). He also got some cute clothes from Uncle Brian and Aunt Dawn for Christmas which was very good since he's growing like a weed and we were worried about having enough clothes he could fit into. It's no longer a problem as he now has more clothes than either Michael or myself (regardless of what Michael says about my wardrobe). He also got a cute pair of dental scrubs and soft blanket monogramed with his name on them from Grandpa and Grandma Spence. All in all, the kid took in a good haul and we took many pictures to document it so he can look back and remember it since he won't remember.

He also got baptized on Dec. 21 at the Round Rock First United Methodist Church and we had lots of family and friends in attendance. Ryan was so cute in his baptism outfit and I was very proud of him for not crying, even when the pastor dropped water on his head. He was so funny and had the congregation laughing when the pastor picked him up to display him to the audience, he started flapping his arms and his legs were doing a jumping motion. The pastor had to hold onto him tightly to keep him still. :)

Anyway, we made it through our first Christmas and it was as wonderful as we anticipated. I know next year's will be even more fun as he will be able to help open his many presents. We are truly blessed to have such a treasure in our lives and I thank God everyday for every moment we get with our smiling angel. Even his day care teacher just told me today that we are lucky to have such a good and happy baby - and we are aware. Michael and I both are excited about the idea of another child, but we both are worried that after having such an angel boy that our next one will be a terror! :)

Well, I hope this gets everyone up to date on our very busy lives but we don't want to lose touch with all our friends just because our lives revolve around a 2-foot human. :) So if we haven't seen you in a while, give us a shout and we'll try to do dinner or something.

Blog at you later.