Father & Son

Dad came home between his classes today and got to hang out with Ryan. Ryan is going through a, "If I see Mommy then I need to be within 5 inches" stage and since Aaron is the only other person that can distract him this was a nice little break (that I got to get stuff done with two hands instead of one!). Aaron is already starting him learning the ropes of popular past times in the Tubb Home.

Here they are at the beginning of their play time:

Please Note that Ryan won this game with his unique strategy of eating all of dad's pieces, therefore allowing him to take over.

The next activity is one that I enjoy as well, and puts us both to sleep apparently. I guess that's what happens when your husband reads to you while you are pregnant.

Dad is reading Making Money by Terry Pratchett

Like Father, Like Son...

8 Months and counting. Yep, that's right the man child has been kept alive and fairly happy by the poor, lowly parents. However, this may not last for long as we have a new development. Ryan has decided to forgo crawling and move on to climbing. I guess he is trying to make sure he keeps up with dad's ability to climb out of his crib at nine months. We will keep you updated.

I did surround him with toys so that I could get some cleaning done, so ignore the mess. Here are more fun Pictures of the little man~!

The balloon that he got when he was born is one of his all time favorite toys. One day we will have to put a video up of that! Here's one more video:

His diet has increased so much. He eats anything and everything. Pureed foods such as yams and green beans to finger foods such as chicken, sweet peas (which he also LOVES Pureed), blueberry pancakes and NOW...CHEERIOS. We even let him try Chili at the Ward activity. All Healthy, yummy goodness and he is lovin' it!

Let's Talk about US...

Before I had the cutest kid in all the world. I use to wonder why everyone with kid's entire blog is ALL about the kid.

I take it back.

I take it all back.

But, let me give you an update on Aaron & Cecilia...

Life as parents is becoming more and more routine and we can't imagine it ever not being like this in some ways and in some ways it feels like just yesterday that we met.
It is interesting the dynamics of having a baby, we just decided that we are going to have an official date night (as before the baby was born, every night was date night and now it is filled with cleaning or other mom and dad responsibilities). We planned a bunch of stuff we could do at home such as a game or a movie but we now have joined a babysitting co-op and have started to be able to go on a date (outside the house) regularly. It is only for a few hours but it has been nice to go out and enjoy each other. We are finding amazing, free, cheap, and short things to do around town.

We love to read together and we have a favorite author Terry Prachett. We have read over 18 books in the past almost 2 years. Recently we decided to integrate improvement books between the fun books so we could talk and learn together. These books range from improving relationships to gospel principles, etc. Just a non-fiction amazing book. We are currently Reading 7 habits of highly effective people and we have learned so much. It has been so much fun to snuggle up with my favorite person in the world and try to learn how we can be better people and improve ourselves, our relationships, and everything around us. This week, we made ourselves 4th generation planners and planned out our week! Very FUN!

Anyways, all in all, we are having a good time. Life is fun and we enjoy every minute of it.

Our very own pet dinosaurs

So, for over a week, something in the maintenance room directly under us has been making all kinds of racket. It started out just making noise in the evening, and then sporadically throughout the day and eventually just constantly. I sent in a couple maintenance requests, but the maintenance crew responded that nothing was wrong both times, though they said they greased some stuff the second time anyway.

We joked that we had our very own pet dinosaurs... in the basement. Sometimes it sure sounded like it.

Sunday night, it was so darn loud, I went under us into the maintenance room and took this little video to show someone in my next maintenance request. This is the thing in the maintenance room under us that is making all the noise (watch out... it's REALLY LOUD):


This is a video taken in our apartment, to show what it sounds like in here:


Well, Monday morning the sound was gone, but we didn't have any hot water either. The response to our maintenance request was that a pump was malfunctioning and finally broke and the motor needed to be replaced. Everything seems to be back to normal, so woo yay!

Sweet Pea Oatmeal... Ingenious?

So, yesterday morning, I was up with Ryan and decided to make something for breakfast for him. We usually mix some kind of fruit with baby oatmeal and he likes that, so I got to work with that recipe in mind. Cecilia, Ryan, and I have had a cold or something the last couple days and we didn't get good sleep at all the night before, so I was probably a bit delirious when I grabbed the first thing of baby food I saw in the fridge. The end result was sweet pea oatmeal, but it actually wasn't as bad as it sounds. Cecilia was highly amused when I told her. :p

This is him enjoying some oatmeal (with peaches in it, I think):

Also, Ryan recently grew 2 teeth! Right in the middle of his bottom gum. He's been learning how to chew with them, which is pretty funny to watch.

Here's him having a drink in the bath:

And here's him enjoying himself on the swing at the play ground outside our apartment:

Oh, he must be teething

Hmmm, a mother thought:

So to everything you say, 'oh he must be teething'

When he drools a whole lot, enough to fill up a bib you say, 'oh he must be teething'

When he chews vigorously on toys you say, 'oh he must be teething'

When he is up several time a night you say, 'oh he must be teething'

When the doctor says his ears look fine but he still pulls at them you say, 'oh he must be teething'

When he is fussy or sad you say, 'oh he must be teething'

But there's no teeth...yep, that sums up the past few months.

(isn't this a required picture for parents to get of their kid?)


What he IS doing is:

1. Turning 6 Months old! Yep, that's right, today is Ryan's 1/2 birthday.
2. Starting Solids. His solid food diet now consists of Green Beans, Bananas, Carrots, Rice Cereal, & Peaches (all made by his wonderful fabulous domesticity-in-training mother)
   
3. He is sitting up, and he can now be put down and watch you without a seat, or toy to hold him up...so happy.
   
4. He is doing bath time in the bath tub. Good bye infant tub.
   

YAY for RYAN!!!!!

Life is getting much easier and I now can see how maybe people can have more than one kid. Maybe. Still a big admirer of those families with say, two or more kids. I am in love with my baby and so proud of him.

Next up: A technology diet

Another milestone in our family, we have decided to go back to a simpler time...and get rid of our cell phones. I am surprised at how liberating it is to me and that the freedoms far outweigh the drawbacks. We have eliminated yet another bill which will allow me to stay at home with my baby AND for us to graduate with very little debt. It removes more distractions in our family and helps us focus on what's important. I don't talk on the phone while driving anymore...a good thing, I assure you. Anyways, it has been liberating and 3 days into it, I am feeling great.

Vacation Time!

Aaron: So, we just got back from an 11 day "Boyd reunion/Phillip's wedding" trip to Colorado. A Boyd family adventure outing to a big cabin up in the mountains of Colorado. We were all (about 15 people at the one point) living in this one cabin, so it was kind of crazy, especially since we only had 3 cars between us. It was a lot of fun, though, and I got to spend some time with my in-laws and get to know them a bit better.

Photos from the cabin:

Cecilia: Our cabin felt like it took forever to get up. Precarious winding dirt roads that felt like you could fall off anytime. We had a few rain storms (Colorado's welcome to us southerners) and that made it worse. The first ride up was the most frightening but I don't think we ever got use to it. Aaron had to constantly assure me that we were going to be okay. The cabin, however, and the view was worth the trip. AMAZING! Aaron: The mountains are very nice up there. The Denver area is interesting in that it goes from really really flat land for as far as you can see to the quite tall (compared to the Appalachians) foothills of the Rocky mountains very distinctly. Here's some random photos of Cecilia, Ryan and me enjoying our trip (we went a little crazy with slide shows on this post; my apologies to people with slow Internet connections!):

Aaron:Ryan has had an ear ache which seemed to bother him most at night. Cecilia: Although during the day he still managed to have some fun. We brought his walker along (one of the benefits of driving) and he just toddled away all over the place. Aaron: We were hoping to be done with it by the time we left for Colorado, but alas that was not so and the elevation didn't help. It got so intense that while we were there, we found an urgent care center (a slight struggle finding someone to take his insurance) and picked him up some more medicine for his ear infection. Fortunately, he was very good during the car rides taking naps and babbling the whole way Cecilia: With a little help listening to his favorite country songs (he is adamant about listening to country which shows his obvious good taste!)

Aaron:We tried to maintain his nap/night routine all throughout the trip. We got some great bath time pics.

Cecilia:We did some of the local tourist stops in Colorado Springs, can I just tell you, it was beautiful. Here's some pics
Garden of the Gods photos:

Pike's Peak photos:

Cecilia: But the reason we were all there was for a celebration of MAWWWAIGE...My brother married a beautiful girl from Colorado. We are so happy that she is apart of our family and that we are adding yet another girl to the ranks. They got married in the Denver Colorado Temple and had a reception in a clubhouse on a lake. It was beautiful in spite of the rain. Marriage is so much fun and I hope they enjoy every minute of it. Here are a few pics we took.

Cecilia: The trip home was nice and uneventful, we just had me and Aaron and the baby which was a little less crowded than on the way up there. We stayed at a hotel just inside of MO (because KS seems like the longest state ever!) and the baby actually slept all night which made for good driving the next day. We are glad to be home and enjoying our space again.

A great letter and no mistake

Earlier today, my wife wrote me a wonderfully funny email, which I will quote here in its entirety, along with the email that I sent her first. EXPLANATION: We just finished reading a book together (Witches Abroad by Terry Pratchett), wherein one of the characters (Nanny Ogg, specifically) who is out on a long journey often writes letters home. She isn't very good with spelling and she has an interesting "stream of consciousness" style of writing; we thought her letters home were so funny we tried writing an email in the same style (my wife's is much better than my attempt was)!

Dear Cecilia and Ryan,

Well, this day has become interestin and no mistake. I ferst got all ready for my presentation on how to avoid gettin colds and such and then finds that Tim is out and there's no morning group hug this time. The roast beef sammitch and root beer are sittin in the fridge and I'm excited for lunch time! And thanks for the comp inventory last nite. I love you so much! :) The nite at the Zoo looks like to be at 5:30 in the evenin' on the 15th, so that should work out alright and that's a bee in my bonnet. Tell Our Ryan that I love him and I'm thinking of you.

With love,

-Aaron

Dear Aaron,

Me and Ryan have been indores excep when we went outside and I think he surely did enjoi himmself so much becos he laughed and laughed and only spit up a a little. Whot a life, all kinds of things goin on, what with poopy diapers and ear aches. I gave him some medicine and he only spit most of it out. Also, I shall have a story or two to tell you when you gets back and no mistake. Anywey one good thing, Ryan went to sleep right away with no arguin' or anything. I wanted to have a a bananananana for lunch but they were too ripe and desgustin' and I wish I had one for a p'nut butter banananananana sammich. Isn't it amazing the things what happen when you don't expect it, for exammple we met Liz who was at the play ground. Ryan went farst down the slide, he was so stinkin' cute. . I think he's getting better. We tried eatin' but ryan still needs a little more practise because he just spit everything onto the flor.

Givin' you all my loves,

CeciliaXXXXX