:: FIVE ::

This kid! Oh my goodness has he grown up this year. He is killing it at his final year of preschool, and he is SO EXCITED to be a whole hand old. He has this sassy, know-it-all attitude a lot of the time that I can't help but chuckle at. He's absolutely hilarious, and is so friendly and just gets along with most everyone. He's just such a big kid, and even his big brothers would agree.

Physical Development

Ryan jumped two sizes this year, and is fitting well into his size 7 clothes, even if some of the pants slide down a bit on his tiny little waist since he has no butt to hold them up. He is wearing size 13 shoes and boots. He no longer wears pull ups at all (woot woot!) and stays dry all night, with a handful of exceptions over the past 6 months. He is still my little runt, weighing in at a whopping 48lbs (92nd percentile) and is 44.5inches tall (88th percentile).

Sleep Habits

I might find a snuggling Ryan in my bed a couple times a month these days, but for the most part, he's an excellent sleeper! He gave up naps this year pretty much completely, and can still hang until 8pm, which feels like a whole new level of life for us. He's usually the second one down for the night, which puts him sleeping from usually around 8pm-6:20am, for around 10-10.5 hours of sleep a night. He decided he was going to be one of the big boys by only wearing pants to bed, and no longer the jammie tops, and it's so adorable.

Speech Development

Ryan is a little chatterbox still, and doesn't appear to have any sort of delays, thankfully! He could easily talk your ear off, and he is so, so, so expressive, which is fun! He is losing all of his little Ryan-isms from his "baby" days, which is good, but hard for this Mama. The one he hung on for the longest was using "my" in place of "I". Like "My tired, Mommy" or "My like it". He's such a big kid now!

Eating

Ryan has started to become a lot less picky about his food, and he's eating more regular meals now, hallelujah! His favorite food is probably pizza right now, but he also really loves mac and cheese and hot dogs. He's not a big breakfast guy (at least not for me, anyway), but usually if he does, it's later in the morning, and then he doesn't eat lunch well. I'm trying to learn to let them lead the way as far as timing is concerned. I'm beginning to learn as an ADULT that if I would just eat when I was hungry instead of when it is the set time, I'd probably not have these extra 40lbs hanging on lol

Toddler Behaviors and Discipline

Ryan has grown tremendously as far as behaviors are concerned. While a year ago, we were having regular issues with hitting and throwing things and throwing tantrums, I'm seeing this a LOT less lately. He and Kinsley are so, so cute together, and they are definitely BFFs. They're so close to the same level developmentally that it's crazy. He typically is a lot better at trying to find ways to barter his way to get what he wants, but there are times where he still just takes something from one of his siblings and starts WW3. He participated in the SEED program this past year, and that has been SO good for him to help with managing his body and learning more about emotions and how to express them effectively. He'll be finished with that this summer, which is bittersweet, but I know he'll adapt awesome to Kindergarten this fall.

Likes

• Scooby Doo, Ryan's Toy Review, Team Umizoomi, Peppa Pig
  
• Mama's hair and those two fingers
  
• Our bedtime routine - he loves being read to.
• Hot dogs and mac and cheese
• Sunday School and AWANA
• Going to Daycare!! This has been such a blessing in the midst of this chaotic year, as a year ago, he HATED going, and it was a fight every morning.
  
• Eating entire sticks of butter when left unattended - oy! Also, helping Mommy cook or bake.
  
• Snuggles with his Kins Jo
  
• Playing games and visiting Daddy
  

Dislikes

• Not being able to ride his bike in the street.
• The days we don't have enough snuggle time.
• When things aren't fair.
• Being interrupted
• When tablet time is over
• Not getting to see Daddy as much

Turning 4: Birthday Festivities

We had quite the celebrations lined up for your 4th birthday, little man! You got lots of fun stuff that you wanted, as well as just the right cake (an animal cake with rainbow cake), and got to spend it with all the people. Thankfully, it snuck in JUST before the Coronavirus pandemic set in (SO thankful!), so not only were you able to celebrate at daycare and preschool, but also with both Uncle Daniel and Grandma Diane, but also with Grandpa and Grandma Pam and Aunt Jess.

We started the day with a birthday crown and letting you open one of your gifts right away: A new Blaze sweatshirt! You LOVED it! It happened to be pajama day at preschool, so you obliged ;)

It was a quick morning, but you enjoyed taking treats to your daycare and preschool and celebrating there as well with "party cakes".

You had been telling me all day that you wanted tacos for your birthday supper, but that changed quickly after daycare to hot dogs and mac and cheese, so that's what we had.

Cashel and Kendrick became really obsessed with blowing up enormous balloons, which meant lots of weeping and gnashing of teeth when they all popped.

Uncle Daniel and Grandma Diane joined the party too shortly before cake and ice cream!

We're a bunch of party animals!

That wraps up Ryan's actual birthday day, but we also celebrated that coming Saturday with Grandpa, Grandma Pam and Aunt Jess! Ryan specifically wanted an animal cake, so I picked up this little pick for the cake and decorated it up. He wanted it to be a rainbow swirl, so we made one layer with reds and pinks and oranges and another layer with blues and greens. He was very, very pleased!

He ripped open his gifts way too fast for me to get a picture of him, but he LOVED them! He had to put on his Blaze and the Monster Machines jammies right away.

In the past, I used to feel like we had to do this big, drawn out birthday party for each kid, but it really has been a huge blessing with so many kiddos of my own to not feel that obligation. It's so nice to have it be just our family celebrating: I don't feel nearly as great a need to clean so in-depth and have everything perfect, and the kids honestly don't seem to care or notice at all.

Ryan said he had just the BEST birthday, and I'm so glad, because a week after his birthday, the whole country got hit with the COVID-19 pandemic, and things got pretty crazy! I'm grateful that we have no more immediate birthdays until early August, when we can hopefully celebrate together with Mark again!

:: THREE ::

Physical Development

Well, we've stepped into the 4T realm, and the clothes aren't too big :( We're going to eternally have the issue with his pants falling off, since he has such a tiny waist, but otherwise, he's growing perfectly! At his 3 Year well child check, he was 36lbs and 3'4" (40"), so quite a bit smaller than his big brothers, which seems crazy since he started out so much bigger than him!

Sleep Habits

Ryan still naps most days, but the naps are getting shorter and shorter, and I was just not prepared mentally for that. Also, on those days he naps, bedtime tends to get stretched out a bit.

He's still not a huge fan of bedtime, which is frustrating, but once we start reading, he snuggles right in. Every night, after 3 books, 2 songs and a prayer, he says, "I'm just going to play with your hair for a little bit, okay?" in the most adorable voice. I wish I could capture it, but when I've tried, he won't say it. It's so cute.

Speech Development

So.many.words. Oh my goodness does he like to hear himself talk. He's funny and very articulate and uses these words I don't even know where he could have gotten them from. He likes to uses phrases like "seriously, guys" or "oh my goodness" or "that's what I'm talking about", and I have no idea where he got them from. #HeGotThemFromHisMama

Eating

Ugh, the milk and snacks dilema continues. I'm so freaking tired of him asking for milk and snacks. I simply don't have the stamina or energy to enforce the "you must eat supper" thing, so I just try to keep all the possible snacks in the house healthier, like fruit or veggies or beef sticks or cheese or maybe an applesauce pouch or something, so that when he DOES snack, he's at least getting something from at least one of the food groups.

He is really getting a heck of a lot better about not being so messy while he eats. He still gets it on his face, but he otherwise keeps it mostly on his plate, which is SO helpful!

Toddler Behaviors and Discipline

We're delving straight into the world of the threenager, and while I am prepared, I'm not sure I'm prepared enough. ::sigh:: This is the age where all those rules you thought you had for all these imaginary kids goes out the window half the time.

Discipline is HARD at three, because it's so freaking constant. And they have SO much energy. And they're SO determined to break all the rules they used to follow. Three is hard. And hilarious too. And adorable. But also so, so very hard.

Likes

• Mama is where it's at for this kid. He wants to be touching me at ALL TIMES. The second I sit down (and even sometimes if I'm not sitting down), he'll be all over my back, climbing and acting all crazy like, playing with my hair and sucking on those two fingers.
  
• Speaking of finger sucking...thinking this is getting worse. It definitely seems to peak when I'm more stressed out, and well, let's just say I've been stressed out a lot more lately.
  
• Sissypants Jo Johnson - she is, hands' down, his favorite person. These two are fire and ice, but also just the most adorable in the world. They are together probably 95% of the day, and as of late, they've been sharing a room (until we can get the carpet replaced in her bedroom)
  
• School! He started his preschool prep program on his 3rd birthday, and he had an AWESOME time!
  
• His best pal at daycare! They are both going to school, along with another of his favorite friends (who isn't fond of taking pictures haha - we tried!)
  
• Snow! The snow this winter has been EPIC! It's melting now and causing flooding in ALL the places. Entire roads are washed out and all that. But the snow before melting... that was pretty intense! The kids loved playing out in it!
  
• Being 3! He talks about it a LOT. He says he's officially a "big kid" now, and I'd have to agree!
  
• Celebrating! And his siblings ♥
  
• Puddles! Something tells me this spring is going to be EPIC.
  

Dislikes

• Not getting to watch a "moonie [movie]" when he wants to.
• Not getting a "milky cup" fast enough. This kid is IMPATIENT!
• Having to go to bed.
• Mama taking to long to get him a snack.
• Anyone accusing him of NOT being a big kid.

:: ONE ::

Overall...

How in the world are we here? Today we're celebrating our littlest baby turning a whole year old. I'm going to be honest: I wasn't so sure we'd make it through this first year, but we're just beginning to not just survive, but thrive these days.

How Baby is Doing

Ryan is sugar and spice and everything nice most of the time...unless he's hungry, overly tired, or feeling overwhelmed. In that case, he's clingy, whiny and sucks his two fingers a LOT. We're still dealing with separation anxiety, although mostly just on the weekends.

Speaking of sucking on those two fingers: I'm growing more and more concerned about how this transition is going to go eventually when he has to stop doing this. He has grown more and more attached to them than ever before.

Ryan is walking a good 95% of the time now, and oh my goodness is he ever getting faster! I still blink in disbelief when I look across the room and he's toddling over to look at something, or from one piece of furniture to another one. He looks so much bigger when he's standing up.

We're finally down to just the two naps, and hoping that before long we can turn that into one long one and call it good! The kid likes to sleep a lot on the weekends if we're not busy and he can. However, I wasn't expecting the nap he would cut would be his MORNING one first, but that seems to be the trend. We catch him on the weekends like this a LOT haha

I'm afraid to even say it, but he's sleeping through the night without waking for a bottle finally! It has been about two weeks now, and I'm loving it! He does still wake and fidget occasionally, and I'm hoping that doesn't transition into trouble when we switch him to his big boy bed this coming month. He hasn't allowed us to put him in the crib for longer than a 45 minute nap since he was about 4 months old, and we figure that we can either fight that and let him cry it out (which I have never done well with) or just let him nap and sleep in our bed, in which case he sleeps through the night and naps for 2 hours or more at a time.

Ryan is extremely opinionated right now, and he wants to do what he wants to do when he wants to do it. If not, we see this face a LOT! This particular incident was due to him wanting my vanilla chai latte right before his nap time haha

He's really just the perfect addition to our family, and I'm excited to see how he adjusts to being a big brother in the last half of 2017. Nervous, yes, but excited :) He just adds a dimension to our family that we didn't know we needed! Man are little boys so fun!

How Mama is Doing

I told Mark a couple weeks ago that I suppose the waking in the night to feed a baby phase has collided pretty well with the need to wake in the night to pee thing while pregnant, so at least I get to kill 2 birds with 1 stone, right? This year has been one of the best and one of the worst, if that makes any sense. It has been emotionally a really hard year for me in many ways, but I just adore my little family. I'm glad we're past the worst part of the sleepless nights with Ryan, because I know they'll be here before I know it with the newest little one.

I'm certainly weary by the end of the day most of the time. I regularly will doze off while finishing up bedtime with the big boys, and end up soaking in an epsom salt bath before bed a good chunk of the week days. Sleep at night has been REALLY tough with being pregnant again. I don't regularly wake to use the bathroom, but I just randomly wake up and it takes me a bit to go back to sleep. I'm always grateful for the few nights a week when that first wakeup isn't until 4am or later, because then at least I just

I love Ryan's little quirks, like how when he gets tired, he has to suck on his fingers while tugging on my hair. And it has to be MY hair or else he gets all whiny.

If he hears my voice at all, he's not satisfied being with anyone else. Even at daycare drop off just recently he has been struggling BIG time and fusses when we drop him off. I haven't been to church beyond the nursery in months now due to his severe separation anxiety. It's heartwarming at times, but other times I'm just so ready for him to get over it. I'm beginning to worry that people must think Mark and I are having troubles, because he's usually in church and Sunday School by himself while I am in the nursery.

I know the separation anxiety has been a thing with all of my kids at this age, but I forget how exhausting it can be for a while.

How Daddy is Doing

We're all enjoying having Mark home, as we know just a handful of weeks from now we'll likely be in the midst of planting season again, and that's always a tinge more challenging for the rest of us. We just can't wait for the weather to get nicer so we can get outside and enjoy more time DOING things beyond sitting around at home all the time.

Daddy and Ryan love to snuggle together on the weekends and evenings when I need to make supper or go to the gym or the like. He tends to nap the longest and best when it's with Daddy. I suppose that's because Daddy never puts him down to get things done like I do haha :) (In fairness, he never complains when I ask him to do something around the house)

Ryan's little face just lights up when he sees Daddy, and when Daddy is gone, he has started to ask for him, even if he only says a couple words. Mark likes to say, "Boo" and Ryan just laughs and laughs and laughs.

Mark is getting really bored of watching cartoons lately, so he tends to not join us as much anymore for snuggles and show times, but the rest of the day he still enjoys interacting with the kiddos a lot. We're all so ready for spring to come and STAY so we can get outside more and enjoy the weather.

How Big Brothers are Doing

Cashel and Kendrick just absolutely adore their little brother, even if the two of them don't get along that great a lot of the time. I have a feeling our kiddos are all going to end up being REALLY close, which is really sweet. They always like to include Ryan in whatever they're doing (even if Ryan has no desire to do what they're doing). It's adorable to watch their little dance parties, and to watch their excitement when Ryan learns to do something new, like crawl, stand up by himself, and now walk.

They have all been SO EXCITED for Ryan's birthday party, and have been so eager to help out. I mean, decorating cupcakes have been at the VERY top of their list for a few days now haha We can only hope they all are just as in love with their new baby sibling when he or she arrives in late July or early August!