Ryan's Toddler Year

Flashback Ryan

I just came across this video by accident and I loved it and had to add it to the blog.  Ryan at 18 months!

Jasmine, Craig and Suzanne come up for a visit

We had so much fun with Craig,Suzanne and Jasmine during their visit.  But out of all of us I think Ryan had the most fun.  He absolutely loved having Jasmine here – he looked up to her and wanted to learn how to do ever…

Ryan visits Los Angeles for an early birthday

After our fun Hawaii trip we stopped by Los Angeles for a quick visit.  We celebrated Mother’s Day and Grace, Jasper & Ryan’s birthday all together.

Hawaii was a blast!

As I am sure many of you had heard – we went to Hawaii.  This was our fourth trip to Hawaii and one of our best trips.  First up, this vacation helped cure Ryan of his terrible twos.  Before we left Ryan was quite fussy …

Barber Ryan

It’s only fair if daddy cuts Ryan’s hair that Ryan should be allowed to cut daddy’s hair.  Last year when Ryan tried to cut daddy’s hair it was a bit difficult.  It sort of worked better this year.  I have to admit that …

Happy Birthday Daddy

Today started off with a nice surprise from Ryan – an early morning card, and the day ended with a nice Happy Birthday song from Ryan.  After daycare Mommy, Daddy and Ryan all went out to eat a nice dinner, then we went …

Ryan’s haircut

Ryan has not allowed us to take him in for a haircut.  He has been freaking out and doesn’t want some strange lady to put scissors  close to his head, face, neck or ears.  So, needless to say he hasn’t had a haircut late…

Ryan’s favourite videos

Ryan likes to be a big boy and enjoys big boy things.  Here are two videos that Ryan loves to watch.  The scary things about these videos is what the workers must have thought seeing a grown man hang out the window with …

Zach’s Birthday Party

Zach– one of Ryan’s friends had his second birthday party.  They both went to each other’s birthday party last year and have known each other forever.  They both had a great time and Ryan sang happy birthday to Zach.  Ry…

Jean Desmarais comes for a visit

It was really great to have Jean come in for a visit.  Daddy hadn’t seen Jean in many many years so it was great to hang out.  We didn’t have too much time so Jean just came over to our house to meet Ryan and Grace and d…

A big change

It really has been a long time since the blog has been updated.  Ryan can now talk – not just a word here and there but he can tell you what he wants, what he did or what he would like to do.  When daddy came back Ryan w…

Long Time Away

Daddy took off for his longest concert tour in a long time.  He went on a concert tour around Toronto with his trio –Triple Forte from Feb 25 until March 7.  And then to make things even crazier he took off on March 10th…

Sing with me

One of the big changes in Ryan from when daddy left on tour is that now Ryan likes to sing.  His favourite songs are Twinkle Twinkle and ABC.  We have a couple of videos to show you.

Ryan goes for the alphabet Olympic experience

As we posted a while ago that Ryan really liked his fridge alphabet game.  He likes to get up in the morning and test himself.  Lately, he has been asking me to test him on his alphabet.

Canada wins GOLD!!

We were eating dinner during the race, and kept the tv on for the downhill moguls.  It was very exiting to watch.  We saw the race that won the gold medal after dinner and we both cheered like mad crazy.  After that race…

Happy Valentine’s Day

Who are you talking to daddy?  Let’s go play!!

Date Night

Mommy and Daddy wanted to have a date night right before Valentine’s Day.  We asked Reanne (from Coho, his last daycare place) to come over and take care of Ryan for the evening.  Ryan absolutely loves Reanne and they ha…

Potty training can be fun

Ryan has started peeing in his potty.  It’s not like he is potty trained yet but he will pee in the potty, or let us know when he wants to pee in the potty.  He is especially good at peeing in the potty right before bed …

What’s a Tuesday without daddy?

Daddy has been doing daddy daycare on Tuesday as we only have daycare for 4 days a week.  Well, that all changes starting this week.  Ryan will now be back to full time at daycare.  If you are wondering why we switched t…

Manly Weekend

This past weekend has been all about daddy and Ryan.  In 2 1/2 weeks Daddy needs to take off on tour leaving Mommy and Ryan together for almost  a month.  So, in preparation for that Mommy decided to take a ‘personal’ we…

ABC’s

Ryan has been talking up a storm lately – lots of new words everyday, including things we didn’t teach him.  Just tonight, I had the hockey game on and Ryan runs over and points and says “Hockey!”.  I was pretty impresse…

The warmest winter ever!

I will start off this blog by saying that the Olympics are a royal pain.  They have started road closures and I think in the next few weeks we won’t even be allowed to drive to day care because they will have so many roa…

Train me!

Ever since Christmas Ryan has been going nuts with his new train set.  He loves all of his trains –Thomas, Percy and Patrick (although we haven’t seen Patrick in almost a week).  We have a short video to show you of Ryan…

Happy New Year!!

On New Years eve we went to a street festival to check out some local fun stuff.  It was pretty cool and they had some fun things for kids.  Ryan especially liked riding on the Thomas train and of course seeing a full mo…

What to do in California?

We had some amazing weather in LA for Christmas.  Out of all of the trips there celebrating Christmas this was the best weather ever!  It was sunny every day except one.  Ryan loved pointing out that the sun was shining …

Ryan’s Second Christmas

It was a very fun Christmas for Ryan and everyone.  On Christmas eve we left out a brownie and milk for Santa – it wasn’t easy for Ryan to part with a brownie.  He had just had his first bite of a brownie earlier in the …

Ryan’s last day at COHO

I know that it is hard to believe but Ryan has graduated from his daycare.  He is no longer in the infant center and has moved up to the toddler age group.  For Coho, Ryan was the first graduate ever.  In case you don’t …

First Snowfall

In typical Vancouver fashion – we were forecast for a major blizzard (for us that is 10-20 cm).   But, of course, they got it wrong.  It did snow but only for about an hour – just enough to get a bit of snow on the groun…

Easter Bunny Visits Santa

We went to a really cool Christmas party at Maddie’s tonight.  Ryan was a really good boy saying hi to everyone and blowing lots of kisses to all of the pretty women.  Of course, Ryan was showing off all of his dance mov…

A little espresso can’t hurt anyone

Ryan has been trying to copy mommy and daddy more and more.  And as you probably already know – we love espresso!  Ryan keeps asking for a cup of java, so we finally gave in.  We figured he didn’t have enough energy to k…

Some fun in the tent

Here is a short video of Ryan having some fun in the tent.  Check out his hair at the end!

Device Driver Could Not Be Installed

I am sure you know what a USB Cable is – if not here is what it looks like.

A little update

Ryan is starting to talk a lot more and will now imitate us (if he’s in a good mood).  I think he can say more words than I can remember –things like ‘chin, eyes, ears, hair, toes, boots, Santa, more, up, down, stairs, d…

Chihuahua!

In case you forgot that Ryan was a dancing machine – here you go.  We still have no idea where he learns his moves – we still have to capture his freaky slow dance for you.  It is just wrong to see an 18 month old groove…

Puzzled? I’m not puzzled, are you puzzled?

We have some shape sorters that Ryan has enjoyed playing with in the past.   We were at Chapters the other day trying to get some new books for Ryan – we  wanted to get some Christmas books to teach him about Santa Claus…

No more DUS!

For as long as I can remember (at least 3 months now) Ryan has been saying Dus instead of Bus.  We were convinced that he knew he was doing it, too.  We tried to correct him at least 1000 times – most of the time he woul…

Ethel

Ryan has two puppet friends – Everett and Ethel.  You have probably seen Ryan playing with Everett.  If you forgot you cancheck out his video here.

P90X

For those of you who know what P90X is, this is self-explanatory.  For those of you that don’t know what P90X is, it is an intense workout video (very cool!)

Ryan starts to earn his keep

You might think that we are easy parents but this video will show us in a new light.  We are now making Ryan clean his own room to earn his keep here.  Today, he started off by vacuuming his rug.

Family photo

Here is a photo we took of the family today (Remembrance day).  Ryan thought it was pretty cool to see 5 planes flying overhead this morning in formation.  Daddy thought it was cool too.

Ryan starts his terrible twos early

Ryan has not been his usual self lately.  He’s been really testing our patience with his behavior.  He thinks that being bad and naughty is funny.  His newest thing is as soon as he has had enough water to spit it out al…

Ryan turns over (again!)

For those of you that follow Obaki’s progress you might rememberthis postingof Ryan turning over for the first time at 3 months.  Well Ryan has learned to do it again!!

A Trip to the Zoo

During our LA trip we went to the zoo. This was Ryan’s first trip to the zoo and he had a blast. We went with his uncle Bunny and Aunt Shrek and his cousin Tyler. It was unbelievably hot that day but we were able to g…

Trick or Treat

Ryan had a fantastic Halloween.  We traveled down to LA for the weekend –left on Friday and returned on Monday.  For the first two nights we stayed at Bunny & Shrek’s house with their son (Ryan’s cousin) Tyler who is 7 w…

New way of playing

Here are a few videos to show you Ryan’s new way of playing and doing silly things.

Full Moon

Ryan has been pretty obsessed with the moon recently.  He will go out of his way (and usual with a lot of excitement) to show you where the moon is.  Ryan didn’t really get to see the moon very much because either he was…

Going to the farm

This morning we met up with some friends to check out the UBC Farm.  It’s a small farm with a farmer’s market on the weekend.  We ended up seeing some really cool stuff.  It was a perfect fall day –slightly cold but brig…

Stanley who?

It has begun.  NHL season has returned and this year they have a new fan – OBAKI

A little walk in mommy’s boots and daddy’s shoes

Ryan has certainly started imitating us more and more.  Just today, he decided to take a little walk in daddy’s shoes.  He has already taken a few walks in mommy’s boots last week.  In the video of him trying on mommy’s …

Ryan builds stuff

I left my toolbox unlocked in the closet today.  Ryan now knows how to open up our closet so he opened the closet, then opened my toolbox and proceeded to try and reassemble a toy that I put together for him yesterday.  …

Old Barn Raising Party!

The Old Barn Community Centre (the place where Ryan goes to play just behind our house) had a block party today – free hot dogs, chips, pop, live band, horse drawn carriage, balloons, face painting etc…

..hide and seek, playing in boxes and new pjs

Block – Block – Block – a – Block

For whatever reason we haven’t let Ryan play with blocks in a long time – I think they were stuck in a drawer somewhere.  Anyway, I found them today and let Ryan play with them.  It caught me completely by surprise that …

Ryan shows off!

We tried testing Ryan the other night on how many words he could understand.  We were absolutely amazed at how many words he understood.  It was kind of scary – like as if he has been listening to us all of this time and…

Does Ryan have curly hair?

Mammi recently got a perm for her hair (it looks great by the way!).   Anyway, in order to keep her perma looking pretty she bought some curlers to keep in her hair.  Ryan loves to play with them!  We got a few pictures …

Ryan gets to watch some tv

We have been letting Ryan watch a little tv here and there.  Mostly Baby Einstein videos and they are few and far between.  It’s not something we want him to get used to.  We let him watch them on long road trips and if …

Captain Obaki

On Saturday, one of my students (Llowyn Ball) who works on the ferry invited us down for a ride on the ferry on Granville Island.  We were very excited to check it out.  It was going to be Ryan’s first ride on a boat.

Mike Westwood comes for a visit

My old roommate Mike Westwood came to Vancouver for a visit.  It had been a long time since he was in Vancouver.   It was Mike’s first time to meet Ryan and they got along great.  The funny thing was Ryan tried to impres…

I hate cleaning….and I am ugly!!

Ryan didn’t like the fact that it was his turn to clean the floor.  He also quickly learned that cleaning made him feel ugly and dirty.

Ryan learns very quickly how to open a door

Actually, Ryan has been opening and closing doors for some time now but sometimes he just needs a little advice or else he gets frustrated.

Baba’s first visit!

Last week we had a great visit from Baba.  She stayed for almost a week so we had lots of time to visit and get caught up on things.  It was at the same time as the ending of YAE (Young Artist Experience) so mum came to …

Ryan meets David Jalbert

The first week of YAE (Young Artist Experience) started with a blast and David Jalbert was one of our guest artists. It was great to have him here in Vancouver. Jasper and David played lots of tennis and hung out quite…

Check out Ryan’s bedtime routine

I just wanted to start this blog off with a disclaimer.  He can be an angel at bedtime.

Meow!

It goes without saying that Ryan’s favorite word these days is Meow.  He can tell the difference between a lot of animals and points out every time a dog passes by.  He also knows about a horse, lion, giraffe, elephant a…

Spaghetti monster

The past few days Ryan hasn’t been eating very well.  He was sick at the beginning of the week but his appetite just hasn’t returned.  We’re not worried but he isn’t the little voracious eating machine he usually is.  Th…

Growing up so fast!

I am amazed at just how fast babies grow up.  I swear it was just the other day when I was so excited that Ryan could roll over.  Here are two things that Ryan started doing that made me realize that he is growing up too…

Ryan discovers how to spin

This morning when Ryan was enjoying a good dance (as he loves to do) he was watching daddy dance up his own storm.  In daddy’s wonderful dance, he included a spin.  Ryan loved it, and had to copy!

Splish Splash I love a BBQ

Tonight we went out for a yummy BBQ and a swim at the local park.  We had some yummy Sockeye salmon (mostly Ryan) and some Steak.  We also had some portabella mushrooms and asparagus.  We were quite surprised to find out…

From Tricycle to Car in 30 seconds.

Ryan would really love to be able to ride his tricycle – we leave it around the house for him to check out but he can’t ride it yet.  But he can ride in his red car.  Here is a video of him getting on his tricycle and th…

Ryan’s first haircut.

You might have noticed that Ryan’s hair was starting to get out of control. We loved it that way, but it was starting to get a bit too hot for him. We decided that it was about time to get his hair cut.

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This video will explain better than I can but I will let you know a little history from this day.

What violinist doesn’t love a juicy slide?

Well…that may be true for daddy but when it comes to Ryan, he loves a different kind of slide.  The real thing!!!

Bloch

I bet you didn’t get the music joke, did you?

….preparing for the rainy season.

Eunice sent Ryan a wonderful package in the mail yesterday.  He was very excited to come home and get to open something.  In the package was rain boots, a rain jacket, a lunch bag, backpack and sunglasses.  As usual, Rya…

Monkeyman Monkeyman…does whatever a monkey can.

Ryan is a monkey.  I would have thought he was half mommy and half daddy.  Nope, he is a monkey.

Who doesn’t love watermelon?

As you probably already saw from the video posted yesterday, Ryan loves corn on the cob.  Today, we cut open a new watermelon.  We’ve always known that Ryan loves watermelon.  We actually need to be careful not to turn o…

This is a corny heading!

The other day when we had some beautiful weather we had a BBQ on our balcony.  And what BBQ would be complete without corn on the cob?  Anyway, Grace and I were munching down on our corn on the cob and Ryan kept pointing…

A little walk in the woods

I posted a little while ago about this nice backpack for carrying Ryan that a friend gave us.  I have been using it to take Ryan on little hikes (in the woods and to the nude beach).  Today, Ryan was very excited to get …

Ryan gets in trouble!!

This is unbelievable but needs a little story to lead into it.

Finally… Ryan allows us to put sunglasses on him

The Aquarium

We got a phone call the other day – it kind of surprised us.  Ryan got into daycare!!  He starts on July 1st.  It was very sudden and totally unexpected but we are counting our blessings.

Busy Bussy

We have had our hands full lately.  I can’t believe how much energy this little guy has – he just seems to go and go all day long.  Pretty crazy.  Ryan has learned how to crawl up on things like his learning table, our o…

The big change…..

I mean…daddy day care.  Mommy went back to work and daddy has taken over.  Let’s just say that it wasn’t easy but also it wasn’t as hard as I thought.  Ryan took it kind of hard not to see mommy all of the time.  The fir…

Ouch!

I have come to learn from Ryan that it isn’t easy to learn how to walk.  Sure, it doesn’t take too long but when you are impatient and want to run around, you will have accidents.

The many visitors

The last two weeks have been very exciting for us.  Ryan’s Uncle David and Aunt Justine came to visit and stayed with us for 5 days – it was a blast!  It was very nice to have them up for Ryan’s first birthday too.

Birthday video

Here is a video of things Ryan did on his birthday.

THE BIG DAY!! BIRTHDAY #1

Ryan had a really fun first birthday.  He invited over all of his friends and we threw him the best party we could.  We baked him a light chocolate cake and since daddy hates the sugary frosting on most cakes we made him…