We Missed Our Daddy!

Jason's rotation for January is Community Health, which includes a week working at a rural pediatric clinic in Nebraska. Jason was assigned to work in Kearney, about three hours away. When we realized he would be gone for Ryan's birthday, we decided to celebrate a few days early, hoping that we would get a chance to maybe meet in the middle for a quick birthday dinner or ice cream or something fun. Well, Jason convinced me not to drive out to Kearney but surprised us by popping in to McDonald's as the kids played as a treat on Ryan's actual birthday! That was such a fun surprise to see him pull into the parking lot and come into the play place! He had dinner with us and hung out for a few hours and then had to hop back in the car and drive back. What a nice daddy!

He brought us home some flowers! (On a yummy cookie!)

The best birthday present -- a visit from Daddy!

Verdict? He still likes pediatrics! (Thank goodness he didn't change his mind after his first real week of working like a "real" pediatrician.)

We missed you, Jason, and we're glad you're home again!

Ryan is Three!

Ryan is such a fun little guy! His current loves are trains, Star Wars, Lightning McQueen, playing in the sandbox, and throwing balls. Puzzles are by far his favorite activity -- he can even do our 63-piece I-Spy puzzle all by himself! He loves to play with toys by himself (especially his sisters' toys) but is usually pretty willing to share. Every morning we wake up to him singing at the top of his lungs varying songs, usually made up, but you can always hear a line or two from two songs: "I Am a Child of God" and "Elmo's World." When I ask him his favorite food, he says (really fast), "bananas, strawberries, apples, and yogurt," but I'm pretty sure it is tacos! That's his request whenever I ask what I should make for dinner. He loves nursery and going to playgroups with Mommy. He listens very carefully every afternoon for the rumble of the garage door and announces very excitedly to everyone when Daddy comes home. He is a joy in our family and we love him very much. Happy Birthday, Ry-Guy!

Ryan's "Choo-Choo" Train Cake

A blizzard thwarted our plans to pick up the rest of the candy we needed to complete the cake --the licorice and gumdrops-- but we improvised with what we had on hand! (Pattern is found here.)

So happy as we sing "Happy Birthday!"

It took several tries, but he finally spit....I mean, blew them out!

And before we could stop it, he had all three candles licked clean!

Enjoying His New Toys

From the previous post, I think you can tell that Ryan was so excited for his birthday!

A Lightning McQueen computer...

...and some new tools!

His tools in action -- "fixing" his new computer