SPEEDY!!

Ryder is getting fast! I mean, the kid can really move, either that, or I have been seriously underestimating his mobility skills.
Today, I took Ryder to the "Mane Event," a big event surrounding horses. There are clinics, Trainers Challenges, demonstrations, lectures, and shopping, lots and lots of shopping. I have attended the Mane Event every year that it has come to our neck of the woods. I meet my Mom there (the location of the event is between our two towns) and I always see a few of my other good friends from the horse world there. I look forward to the shopping, the trainer's challenge and the visiting. I've been there single, married, pregnant, with a new born and this year, I went with a one year old! This year, I didn't shop, I didn't watch the Trainers Challenge and I barely got to visit. This year, I was busy. Busy, chasing an adorable, very mobil one year old, all over the event site.  Ryder is fast! He could push his way through strangers legs faster than I could push the stroller he refused to sit in, that's for sure.  I could always tell where he'd been though, by the smiles on people's faces and I could tell which way he was headed by the direction of people's stares and the sounds of "oh, look how cute he is...what a cute little red head, awww."  It seemed he was always heading towards the tractors. No matter where I drug him, at first opportunity, he would take off, straight back to the tractors..he's like a homing pigeon, but instead of going home (to his mama) he always ended up at the tractors!! Luckily, the guys selling the big machines, had great senses of humor and got a real kick out of putting Ryder up in the seats, letting him push and pull the levers.
Ryder also made friends with the driver of a team of Heavy Horses. He just stood pointing and waving at the guy until he invited Ryder to come over and pet, "Marty" and "Jim."  Can you believe that? The horses had the same names as Ryder's Dad and Grandpa!

After about 3 hours, I was exhausted! I decided our trip to this Year's Mane Event was done.  I loaded up my little man and drove him home where we picked up Scout and headed to the farm to visit our own horse.  Uncle Dirt was happy to see us, especially when we filled his feed tub with sweet feed.  I am pretty sure he hadn't anticipated sharing that sweet feed with both Ryder and Scout, but he begrudgingly did.  I tried to convince Ryder to feed the oats he picked up to Dirt, but most of it went into his own mouth.  Scout always stands by, ready to lick up anything that spills or gets left behind.  AFter the feast, I set out to brush my shedding pony.  I had set Ryder up with a big dump truck and some shovels. However, apparently, he was more interested in my brush caddy. These are the things in the brush caddy, I have not emptied in years, that he found to put in his mouth:
-a can of "Off" mosquito repellant
-scissors
-some mini elastics
-several brushes filled with horse hair
-a hankerchief
-tub of vaseline

It had never crossed my mind that all of that "dangerous" stuff was in my caddy.

It also never crossed my mind that Ryder might just go ahead and walk right under Dirt's belly, but before I could stop him, that's exactly what he did!! Good God!
I mean we used to do that all the time, walk under our 4-H horses, but they were bomb proof and we were not ONE years old!!! Thank God, Dirt was oblivious!  I need to get this kid a helmet and get him ON TOP of the horse where he'll stay out of trouble!! LOL

COOKIE DOUGH!

You know what I love? Watching someone learn. I mean, seeing it happen right before my eyes.  As a teacher, I've been lucky enough to witness this more than a few times in my life, but it has never been as special as being there at the exact moment that my own son discovers something brand new that he can do!!! 

Tonight, he helped me bake cookies. Chocolate chip ofcorse! We used a scoop to get the flour, sugar and chocolate chips out of their containers. When we were done scooping, I set the scoop on the counter. Ryder picked it up and began trying to reach into the bag of flour with it! He had learned the process and was eager to try by himself!!! When he couldn't fit the scoop into the chocolate chip container, he reached into it with his hands, but rather than stuff the chips into his mouth, like I thought he'd do, he dropped them into the mixing bowl! Soooo exciting! (Not sure if it was more exciting to me that he dropped them into the bowl, or that he didn't eat them, he puts everything into his mouth!) He had learned what to do with the chocolate chips!! Soooo adorable!!

I still am not ready to give him a whole chocolate chip cookie (especially, not just before bed time,) but I did let him lick the spatula!  Yummmy!!!

FAT LIP

Ryder has been waking up before my alarm lately. Not just a few minutes before, but an hour, sometimes two, before.  Marty and I have been taking turns getting up to change his diaper. We both know the quickest way to for all of us to get back to sleep is to get him a little milk, just a couple of ounces and everyone gets back to their zzzs.  We also both know, that this is NOT a habit we want to encourage....Lastnight, we had a strategy in place. It was my turn, and Plan A was to change the diaper, then give him his soother, put him back in his crib and walk away, closing both his door and ours before jumping back into bed.  Here's what really happened:
I heard him just after 5. He wasn't crying (there is no way, I can listen to him cry without getting up,) he was just "talking" and grunting.  Eventually, he started wimpering a little and by 5:30am, I couldn't stand it anymore. I went into his room, picked him up out of his crib, layed him down on the change table, looked into his adorable eyes and got sucked in by his smile. I picked him up off the table, he snuggled into me and I just couldn't put him down.  I snuck him into bed with me. He rested his head on my chest and was snoring just as loud as Marty in no time. Perfect! My heart was so happy, but there was no way I could actually fall asleep in this position.  Once I was sure, Ryder was souns asleep, I gently rolled him off of me onto the mattress between Marty and I.  Immediately he woke up. He was ready to play, to start his day!! He began rolling around, climbing on Marty, then me. I rolled him off of me, but he swung back towards me with his giant, hard head and head butted me in the face. The head butt was so hard it split my lip! I was bleeding and swelling! Ryder didn't feel a thing and I''m glad. If he hurt even half as much as I did he would have been wailing!!
It is 9:34pm and my lip is still purple and hamburgery!

Ok, so you can't see anything I was trying to show ya in this pic. But what I wanted you to see is my purple, split lip and Ryder's purple eye...neither showed up in this pic, but I posted it anyway!

13 MONTHS OLD

Ryder shared his 13 month birthday with one of my best friend's 40th birthday. We drove to Red Deer to celebrate with Connie and her family.  Ryder just loves Brooke, Connie's son.  We were there, partying past Ryder's bed time.  I knew he'd fall asleep on the way home, so before we left, I changed him out of his party clothes into his jammies. He hung out on Brooke's lap, trying hard not to fall asleep.  ADORABLE!!

Finally, this weekend, the sun shone. Like really came out and shone. It shone so much that we could actually enjoy being outside!  For the first time since Ryder was born, we put some good solid effort into cleaning up our lawn.  Ryder spent a lot of the day "organizing rocks." It is soo fun to watch him figure things out. He's really into putting things "in." In anything. He'll move his rocks from one pail to another, to a bowl, to the stairs, then back to his bucket. He has also discovered dropping things and loves to drop rocks off the deck.  Up in his room, he's discovered he can lift the lid to his diaper genie. His favorite thing to do, is to open his sock drawer, reach in and feel around (he can't see into the drawer, it is too high, grab a pair of socks, then drop them into the diaper genie. He doesn't actually push the socks thru the genie into the bag full of dirty diapers, that's what I do, when I don't realize there are socks sitting there and just push the diaper and the socks into the garbage.  I have had to fish around, among the shitty, musty pampers for tiny, little socks!

This morning, Ryder, Scout and I got to spend some time out at the farm, visiting Uncle Dirt.  Ryder has taken an interest in "brushing" Dirt. Dirt's knees have never been soo well brushed.  Dirt has learned that if he keeps his head down low he'll get lots of treats.  Ryder giggles and giggles every time Dirt licks the treats off his little fingers.  

This afternoon, one of Ryder's little buddy's had his first birthday. It was held at Gymboree. We've never been to Gymboree before. Wow, what fun!! One giant padded room, lots of mats, bridges, tunnels, bubbles and good times!!

 Love the bubbles. This is one happy, happy boy!

 Pushin' the air roller!

The beautiful, sunny weekend ended with the Canucks game.  Marty and Ryder were hopeful fans...looks like the Canucks will be getting out of dark locker rooms and into the sunshiney golf courses sooner than their fans had hoped!

BABY BIRTHDAY PARTY

Today one of the Family's hosted a "Baby Birthday Party" for all the babies from our Maternity class.  All of the babies are now 1 years old and damn they are cute!!! 11 are mobile, three are walking, a couple can do some "baby sign," there's a few that have one or two words and they all have their Moms and Dads wrapped around their fingers!!!

It has been really fun watching all of the babies grow and having other Mommies to share this journey with. Although the group (there were 12 of us) is starting to grow apart, I can see new lasting friendships being built with some of the girls. 

This was the cake she had made for our little cuties.

FRIDAY THE 13TH!!

Today is Friday the 13th, but it wasn't unlucky for me at all! It was the end to a pretty exciting week, my first week back at work after my year long Maternity leave. I was anxious about going back. I've really enjoyed my year of easy going mornings, big cups of coffee, pyjama pants, flip flops, face book, chasing around one cute, adorable, busy little red head! I wan't sure I was ready to give it all up in exchange for crazy, rushed mornings, cold cups of staffroom coffee, dress pants, high heel boots and work emails just to chase around a paycheck..and I wasn't. I'm not. But chasing that paycheck is why I have to...anyway, it wasn't all that bad. 

In fact, the whole week had a kind of "first day of school" excitement about it for me.  The kids seemed sooo happy to see me, and surprisingly, so did the staff! I was welcomed back in a way that made me feel like a rock star!!!  All in all a pretty great first week back in the classroom! Lots of singing in French,game playing and even some Recorder Karate (more on that later!)

Ryder has adjusted well to his Day Home. Infact, Amanda, the Day Home lady, told me that he, himself is the "Rock Star" of the day home. He's the youngest child there and the others love the little "baby!" He only cries and reaches for me until the door closes, then he turns to Amanda and basically asks, "what's for breakfast?"  Today when, Amanda, reached for Ryder, he actually reached back towards her and no tears, not even a sad face when I left!!  

So far, so good!!!!!

 I have become a hockey widow. Not only is Marty's own team in the throws of playoffs, so is the NHL! If Marty isn't playing hockey, then he is watching it and when he isn't watching it, he's talking about it, watching talk shows about it and teaching Ryder about it!!!!



It snowed yesterday! ALOT!!!!!!!!!!!  If it hadn't been April, it would have been beautiful, magical even!!  I have never seen such hugs snowflakes!! It was warm and beautiful outside. If only winter could always be like that, warm enough to enjoy the beautiful, fluffy, perfect for snowman building snow!!!

 It's April!!!!!

 This much snow in April!! What????????

 Ryder's obsessions have varied as he's grown. Right now, he is obsessed with a few things, including drawers and toothbrushes and apparently panty liners!! LOL

APRIL

April is only 8 days in and already it has been a crazy busy month!!! First it was Marty's birthday. We went for sushi! Marty laughs and says we eat at "Senior Hour" because it is always us and old people eating in the 5's!! They always get a kick out of Ryder though and he is getting good at eating in public...even messy foods.

 After Marty's birthday dinner we went for ice cream and then stopped at a park.

Ryder is really starting to get the "hang" of going down slides. He leans forward in anticipation now, which is sooo cute!!

The weather keeps playing tricks on us. Going from sunny and springy to freak snow stormy! On one of the nice days in early April. We went for a walk. Ryder has discovered the joy of sticks!! (I swear he learned that from Scout!)

 Ofcorse, I bought bunny ears for Scout and Ryder and had visions of a fun photo shoot (notice the bunny and flowers as props.....yeah, not so fun. Neither of my subjects were amused...) LOL

I wanted to make magnets for Marty's Family and those who we are not able to celebrate with in person, but...I didn't really get any good pics. My apologies. Please know, I had good intentions.....

 

Good Friday, we headed to Mom's for a big Easter feast with Nic and Troy too! We got to Mom's early enough to enjoy some outside time. We even got to feed the horses. Ryder got sooo good at giving Maverick one treat at a time. He'd feed the treat, then head right over to the crunchie bin for more! Adorable!! Mom has all of those pics on her camera though.....

 Ryder, rockin' the rubber boots!

I know, I know, some people are offended by pics of babies pretending to drink beer, but every family lets them suck on the bottle and everyone there, in the moment thinks it's funny. It was!! Ryder is all dressed for dinner, having a beer with Dad!! (ofcorse he just loves to suck on the COLD bottle, probably feels good on his gums. He did not drink any beer..... that I am aware of.....  :)

Ryder's sleeping through the night has become a normal thing now, finally and he had a great sleep at Mom's. Probably helped that he didn't understand how exciting it is that the Easter Bunny was planning to come the next day...before the egg hunt though, we had a quick photo op.  

Mom and Dad had taken a pic of me standing with a Texas Mickey when I was about Ryder's age. Since Mom still had the giant bottle in her shed, we decided it would be fun to take a pic of Ryder standing with it tooo.....

AFter that though, it was all business as we got ready for Ryder's first egg hunt!

 Ryder made an adorable little bunny!! The hat actually didn't bother him at all!! He would have worn it all day, had his auntie and his father not felt sorry for him and taken it off....me? I thought it was irrisistably cute!!!

 Gramma chewing on Ryder's socks...ah, what we'll do to get a laugh!! ;)

The Easter Bunny agreed to show up at Mom's a day early so that we could all be together for Ryder's first official egg hunt!! Sooo fun!!!

Home again! The weather was pretty nice, so we took our pail and shovel to the park...

Turns out I carried the pail and shovel around more than Ryder. All he needs for a good time is his 

BFF, Scout! He had no interest in anything, except climbing all over her...she is sooo patient!! 

I LIKE SCHOOL

Well, it is Spring Break and when it's over, so is my maternity leave. I will be back at work as a French Teacher.  Well, that is what I am supposed to return to school as, however, it seems that in my absence, my job description has changed slightly. Oh, I still have FSL 4, 5, 6 and 8, but someone else is teaching FSL 7.  I still have gr.8 Foods, but added to my plate are gr.8 PE and gr.6 PE. as well as 4 classes a week of....gr.3 music!! What????
I don't read a single musical note!!! I am the one who got kicked out of Adult guitar lessons!! I am NOT qualified to teach this at all!!! I have no doubts that I could fumble through the next three months, taking on more of an "appreciation for music," or a "great camp songs" theme, but it is expected that I actually teach these little 8 year olds to play the Recorder!!! Ahhhh!!

I have spent the last two days in the school (while everyone else is at home, or on holidays for the break) trying to make myself feel "ready" to take on the rest of the school year as a working mom.  Part of my "preparing" has involved me dropping, Ryder, off at a Day Home from 8-3pm.  I cannot describe how weird it feels to be "alone" for so many waking hours in a row. I feel an emptiness I cannot describe, but I know this is just the beginning of me learning to "let him go." 

I have not had much time to mope around as  I've been busy at the school, trying to teach myself to play the Recorder I found in the school's lost and found.  Yep, I plucked it out of the sweaty gym clothes tucked in the lost and found box, brought it to my room (also the "Foods" room,) boiled the parts, in an attempt to sterilize the little kid germs off of it and have been sitting at my desk with the "Recorder Karate" teacher's book, squeaking out sounds.  This is gonna be an adventure! I will keep you posted.

I have spent a lot of time walking the halls, between my classroom, the music room and the lost n' found.  I realized, I may have actually missed this place... a little. I think I actually like it here, at school. It's a happy place with bright walls, inspiring words written on posters and my classroom actually feels strangely like "home" to me! I am surprised by this as after one whole year at my real home with the cutest kid attached to my hip 24/7, I thought there was no place else I'd rather be. I don't think there actually is, but since staying home is no longer an option for me, I have to admit, there are worse placed I could have to go....

True, I've only spent two days here and both of them were quiet days with NO STUDENTS! I will let you know if I still love school as much once I've spent two whole days with the kids!! LOL