Look How Far He's Come

As usual the summer was a blur of heat, swimming and as many indoor activities I could think of. The kids had a great time getting settled in our new home and I was glad that we had more space to play and have friends over too.

Summer is busy with mommy teaching swim lessons and the kids’ activities. We are lucky to have friends helping us think of creative – and cool – play date ideas!

Here we are making the best of what Arizona has to offer us in the summer!

Pool day at our community pool! 

Ice cream treats!
... Ryan wasn't so sure about the cone and he didn't like the nuts ..

Ellie enjoyed the entire thing ...

 Ellie loves messy fun!

 When it's 115 degrees outside ... mommy gets creative with the games ... Here's the first round of "Foil Ball" ...

Ryan started swim lessons!

We practiced at home in our "pool" ...

Baking day!

School starts at the end of July on our year round schedule. Ryan was ready and excited to start his second year of preschool. He loves to learn and play with his friends. This year has been a better year for Ryan. He’s more confident and most of the kids know that he’s a little person so there aren’t as many questions and/or social challenges as last year. His teachers tell me that there are still some incidents where kids aren’t nice. I’m working on letting it go (angry mama bear instinct!) and he’s working on communicating in these situations. The confidence gets better daily. I’m really glad that he’s in school at a young age so that he can have practice in these situations. It’s also good for me … since I also need practice … I know that if I can get over it, Ryan can too.

Here’s Ryan on his first day of school!

The end of September is a very special day for our little man! Ryan turned FOUR years old! Time goes too fast, I can’t believe that he’s already four years old. Ryan celebrated his birthday with some very special fun. We had lunch with daddy at Ryan’s favorite restaurant – Red Robin of course. And a few days later we celebrated with a Disney Planes party with some special friends!

Special lunch ... 

Birthday Boy

Special birthday gifts!

Yummy!

Ellie likes cake too ...

Party time!

At the end of October we made a trip to CA for Ryan’s annual doctor appointments. We have kept him with the same specialists he has had since birth. ALL of his doctors said that he’s doing really well! We’ve been lucky to avoid a lot of complications that achondroplasia can have. We are still watching his ears since the ear tube holes never closed. For now, it’s nice since it’s like “built in” ear tubes. But in a few years we will have to have them closed. As of now they aren’t affecting his hearing – so Ryan’s caught in a lie … he CAN hear me when I tell him to clean up his toys. Nice try Ryan! Ha ha. Ryan’s Genetic doctor doesn’t require an annual visit but I like to check in with her since she oversees new needs and ongoing things. She and I decided that he has slight bowing in one leg that should be looked at by an orthopedic doctor just in case we can manage it. I am proactive when it comes to Ryan’s medical care and I don’t want to miss anything!

The trip was fun for the kids – we had a nice visit with family and friends over the weekend. And then Ryan – a trooper as usual – had doctor appointments Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. These aren’t all easy and they are time consuming. He is a champion. We are glad to have good news overall. He’s come so far, I am stronger and so is Ryan.

Here are the kids enjoying their visit in CA.

Only a few weeks after getting back home and it’s the holidays! What a blur this year has been. We kicked off the holidays with a fantastic Halloween! It was the first time we got to know a lot of our neighbors. What a great bunch we have! 

Our "My Little Pony Ballerina Princess"! 

(she made that up all by herself)

And our Garbage Man!

 "Trick or Treat!"

After a fun Halloween we ended November with a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend! Being out of state from our family is a bummer on some accounts but we also love being able to spend time with our new friends and each other. The kids had a whirlwind of a weekend with daddy home from work and their new friends.

Already we are getting ready for Christmas! Ryan's counting down until the day Santa comes ... and in the meantime I'm looking forward to getting the kids involved in as many holiday activities that we can. There's so much more to Christmas than Santa!

Already the end of 2015. It’s been a great year for our family and for our adventures with Ryan. We look forward to continuing our success from 2015 and finding new adventures in the new year too.

… on to the next adventure!

Sweet Summertime

What a wonderful Summer we've had!  We are now officially settled in our new home!  It's a great feeling to know that we are home for good!  We've always been able to make our rentals feel like home but this is a whole new meaning to being home! 

Packing is such a process.  Most of the month of June was spent packing and getting ready for our move!  The kids were very eager to help!  Mommy got lots done during the week thanks to their help!  

... it's a tiring job though!

Another big event in June ... Ellie's birthday!  What a fast 2 years that was!  Ellie is a very strong willed and beautiful girl.  It's been a crazy and fun two years watching her develop into herself.  She's tender hearted and confident as ever!  Her vocabulary is amazing.  The girl doesn't stop talking and the things she can say ... I think I have to watch what I say around her already!

We celebrated her big day with a nice party with some of our friends at the Build a Bear Workshop!
The birthday girl all ready to go!

Birthday party time!

 In between packing and birthday parties we made sure to have some fun too ... and with the summer heat starting up we had to get creative indoors ... sometimes it can be messy ... or for Ellie at least!

We were also lucky to have some time to prep things at our new house before the moving day!

Here's daddy getting some help with our IKEA bed.  Scott says it's the last thing he's ever building from IKEA ... we will see :)

It was a long couple of days just before the move ...

But at last it was our moving weekend!  Grandpa John and Grandma Cec picked up our moving truck for us!
Grandpa is a lot of fun and let Ryan try out the driver's seat!

 Ellie is a great Co-pilot ...

Moving day started at 6am and we worked for 11 hours straight.  Grandma Nancy played with Ryan and Ellie while Grandpa John and Grandma Cec helped Scott and I load, unload and settle in!  It worked out really well and we were down to less than 10 boxes by 5pm on our first day in the house. All thanks to "Crazy Erin" with the prep weeks in advance and also our moving day help!

Cheers!  We are home!

Ryan's room

Ellie's room

Our dream kitchen ... first meal enjoyed by the kids!

 We are so excited to have a play room for the kids!

 Grandpa John helping Ryan set up his train tracks.

Ryan and Ellie showing off their news shoes ... a picture sent to our dear Auntie Sheila who was sick at the time.  She's resting in peace now and we miss her dearly.  So lucky to have her with us all these years, she never missed a thing.  She will always be in our hearts - we will always think of her and the fantastic memories she left us with ... and she sure gave us some wonderful moments.

Happy 4th of July!  We made some awesome shirts thanks to a play date with my moms group!  I'm so thankful that only a year after moving here I am busy busy with wonderful new friends and friends for the kids too!

Beautiful view from our yard.

 We were lucky to fit a basic backyard landscape into our budget!  The kids love it and we know we will use it a ton - especially once it starts to cool down!

 We even fit a pool into the budget ... well sort of ...

 ... but the kids love it regardless!

... and so do I :)

 Ryan has entered a very picky stage of eating ... we are constantly trying to find things for him to eat that will fill him up and also be somewhat nutritious.  His favorite over the summer has been an original recipe: hot dog bun with peanut butter and mandarin oranges inside.

Yum yum!

 We didn't make many changes to our house for Ryan since our take is that he needs to know how to adapt to the world around him - and what better place to practice than his own home?  (Of course if his health has changes we will adjust as needed)

 One of the items that we did do for him was the installation of a special lower banister for the stairs.  It's slightly high right now but in a few inches it will be just right and he will be safe on the stairs!  We did a handful of other adjustments but this is our favorite ... and Ryan's too.  :)

We also got this fantastic stool!  It's hard to find stools that can go straight against the counter.  Ryan is so pleased to be able to reach!

 School out here starts at the end of July!  So it's already back to school for Ryan!  He's very excited for his 2nd year of preschool!  He has the same wonderful teacher and a class with mostly new friends.  He's already made some great new friendships while we keep up with our friends from last year too.  We are so proud how he interacts with his peers.  Full of enthusiasm and after a little bit of time to get comfortable he is quite confident too!
There are a few times where someone might mistake him for a "baby" but he's getting so good at responding quickly with "I'm a boy. I'm Ryan"  I couldn't be more proud!  :)

 We have been able to enjoy our new home and community quite a bit over the summer ... here are a few things we've done!

Ryan likes too help bake ... well he's more of an ingredient sampler ...

We also love visiting our community pool too!  Ryan calls it the "standing pool" ... it is a great place for toddlers to play and cool off!

 Since our living room isn't furnished yet it's currently a basketball court ... and yes those are "foil balls" ... the things we think of to occupy our kids in the summer heat!

Ryan also started swim lessons!  He's so cautious even mommy can't get him to be brave enough to try new things in the pool ... thankfully he's loving his teacher and is getting closer and closer to putting his face in the water!  We know he'll love it once he tries it :)

... and in the meantime, he is having a great time!

 Mommy wanted to make her special family homemade cinnamon roll recipe in her new kitchen ... and Ryan was eager to help!  They turned out great and we had a wonderful time making them!

Our new home wouldn't be complete without having a housewarming party!  We had a great time planning it and even better time celebrating with our new friends!

 ... the house ready for guests of all ages ...

 Ellie is in her party dress and ready to celebrate!

 Ryan and Ellie ready to host for their first time!

Lots of yummy treats for all ...

Our new climate has so many beautiful sunsets ... here's one that is also warning us to get inside and ready for some rain ...

Here's a picture of Ryan enjoying his BIG cookie after his lab appointment.  We did some more lab work as directed by the pediatric endocrinologist who has been working on his case with the blood sugar scare.  And we recently had the follow-up.  The good news is that he doesn't have a metabolic condition.  The bad news is that he does have what is called ketotic hypoglycemia.  It's a condition where he can't go without food for long periods.  So on a day-to-day basis he is just fine.  However we have to head to the ER when he gets a tummy bug since he is likely to have a blood sugar crash if he's not keeping food down.  It's not related directly to having achondroplasia, but it is related to being small in size.  Not all kids get it, but those that do tend to be small and will grow out of it.  Unfortunately for Ryan, this will obviously take longer to grow out of!  But at least he is in good hands in the meantime!  Not fun for anyone, but we are all happy knowing that we will not get in such critical condition again!  

Whew.  What a summer!  We are one lucky happy bunch.

... on to the next adventure!