Playing at Home

How great is my husband?! Well, aside from the surprise post he left me on the blog a couple days ago, he recently provided our family with fantastic new toys. Here is how it went down:

I came home from teaching piano lessons, walked into the living room and saw these cars scattered on our coffee table.
Me: Where did these cars come from?
Great Husband: I bought them.
Me: You bought these? Why? They are trashy looking.
Great Husband: Our old neighbor, Dave, came by.
Me: Dave came by to sell you these cars? How much did you spend?!
Great Husband: I just gave him five bucks.
Me: Five bucks for these trashy things?! Seriously?
Great Husband: proceeds to explain why they are cool and how he talked with Dave for thirty minutes (an act of kindness all by itself) and how he was trying to help the guy out. They are from England, after all, and are so old and authentic that they probably have lead paint on them. Great. Just great.

Turns out Rooke LOVES them. Loves them. He woke up the next morning and they were still on the coffee table. Total time spent playing with them that day: probably 2 hours.

What a great daddy! He knew all along.

We also played with playdough last week. It was a hit. I'll share the recipe I used below.

2 cups flour
2 tablespoons of cream of tartar
2 tablespoons of cooking oil
1 cup salt
2 cups boiling water
food coloring

Mix together the first four ingredients in a bowl. Pour in boiling water over it and stir with the strong wooden spoon. Once cool enough to handle, knead well. You can add a few drops of food coloring if you want .

A Shout Out to My Wifey...Hao De!

I don't have as many opportunities to dote on my wife in public as I would like, so I will take up cyber space to do so. If you are reading this you probably follow this blog regularly. And, this blog is all about our round face, round belly boy. However, Angela is the driving force behind this blog, that boy, and her husband. She makes this family go, and she is getting me through law school with great love and support and a lot of good home cooked meals. I have a lot less stress in my life because of my wife and she deserves a little public tribute.

Ang, You make me better. You are exactly what Rooke needs, and all blog watchers are thankful for your many updates! Much love to you! --Ryan

These pictures are from our days in China. I have enjoyed looking at these lately.

Sunshine!

We had a few BEAUTIFUL days of sunshine this past week. Rooke and I were racing to get outside!

With sunshine comes T-shirts! Our special friend, Kelly, sent this cute shirt for Rooke. Way back when I mentioned that I wanted something for Rooke that said "Made in China" (because he was!). This is the second "something" she's sent! It says "All American Boy . . . Made in China". We love it!

Enjoying the sun on our little balcony

Sunshine = sunglasses = super cool kid

Feeding the ducks for the first time. Rooke is still working on his throwing skills, so mostly he just stood there with a piece of bread in his hand saying, "duck, duck, duck".

His first ice cream! Well, technically, it was sorbet. We met some friends at Ben & Jerry's for their free scoop day and Rooke, of course, loved it. I actually wasn't planning on giving him any, but earlier we had a little drama with some sunscreen in his eyes and I felt sorry for him. Nothing like a spoonful(s) of sugar to make things ok.

Ladies' Man

Rooke has a way with the ladies. I think it's the red hair/blue eye combination.

This is Hazel. We were leaving our friend's house and she wanted to give Rooke a hug good-bye. He wasn't so sure about it.

This blurry picture was taken after a more passionate kiss. After the hug, Hazel decided a kiss was more appropriate for good-bye. She planted one smack on Rooke's lips and he just stood there. They held their lip-lock for at least 7 seconds. It's just a good thing that he's still young enough for me to think it's cute!

Another one of Rooke's lady-friends is Averie.


Rooke took a little snack break from playing at the park and Averie wanted in on the action.

Rooke was so excited to share his snack with Averie, he went so far as to actually feed her!

Averie's mom suggested that she feed Rooke some of her snack. But Averie was content to let Rooke feed her and enjoyed her own snack. Smart girl!

Hangin' Out

Just a few pictures from our week:

We met friends from my moms group at the zoo. Here is some of the group checking out the sea otters.

Just chillin' at home, playing with our massage thingy

Trying out the massage for himself. I love his expression!

We were supposed to share these muffins (click on the link for the recipe, they were so yummy!), but I think I only ended up getting half of one. Have I ever mentioned how much Rooke loves to eat?!

Our Zoo

Rooke is talking a lot these days. It seems like he picks up a new word every day. Here is a little video of us practicing some of our animal sounds. I say "us" because I didn't realize until watching this that I repeat his noises! My current favorite is the fish. What's yours?!

Easter

We had a fantastic weekend, celebrating Easter! Sunday morning was a special time at church as we witnessed both planned and spontaneous baptisms. It was a true celebration of Christ defeating death! Then some friends joined us for lunch. And, in keeping with tradition, Rooke got a new outfit to wear. We'll start with Easter '08:

And here he is this year. Too handsome, if I do say so myself.

His baby blues melt me.

Once Rooke found out there were raisins inside the plastic eggs, he was motivated to find them all (which were basically just scattered on the floor and sofas)

Squirt

Rooke found the squirt bottle this week. It provided at least thirty minutes of entertainment once he learned how to squirt it and then figured out he could suck the water from the nozzle.

He kept squirting himself in the face, but didn't seem to mind.

Rooke was glad to have James over to play this week.

This is our friend, Elijah (the little guy). We were playing at the park with him and his sister and this (older) guy busted out his violin to do some practicing. Elijah was testing out his own skills with a couple sticks. It was just too cute not to share. I love how his feet don't even touch the ground.

The Sun!

We recently enjoyed a glorious break from the overcast rain with several days of sunshine! The parks were calling our name . . .

He ran up and down the hill several times

Rooke's affectionate side saw the need to kiss the rocks before throwing them in the water.

"See this little crevice right here? It looks like the perfect place for my tongue."

"Yep. It fits perfectly."

We were glad to have Gus & Erin over for a bit before heading to our favorite neighborhood park with them.

If you spend any time with Rooke these days, you will quickly learn about his fascination/obsession with wheels. This is, by far, his favorite place at the playground.

You know you're a new mom when . . .

. . . you decide to put your baby in the snuggly facing out, but do it the wrong way (picture: baby's arms awkwardly sticking straight up and out of front flap which hasn't been connected correctly) and mistake peoples smiles and giggles for, what must be, admiration of your super-cute son. A couple weeks later, you meet a friend at a park and she asks you, "Do you use the snuggly like that because it's more comfortable for Rooke?" Nope. I'm just a new mom.

A year later, you know you are still a new mom when . . . . you decide that having squash soup for lunch is a good time to let your son try and feed himself with a spoon. At first, you don't use the plastic catch-all bib or roll up the sleeves. You just give your son a spoon and a small bowl of soup and let him go at it wearing no more than a basic cloth bib. This really isn't a problem if you don't mind using carpet cleaner, stain remover on pants and shirt, and practically giving your son an extra bath in the middle of the day.

The picture doesn't do my story justice because you can't see the soup on the floor, shirt, jeans, chair, arms . . .

Other stuff from this week:

He is really into sunglasses right now.

Some of the best two dollars I've ever spent. Goodwill is my friend.

Another stellar Goodwill find: an alphabet book of Bibleless people by Wycliffe. Yeah, so it was printed in 1986 and hopefully some of the peoples mentioned have a Bible in their language now, but Rooke doesn't have to know that yet!

He loves it. I promise.

one I forgot to include from our Oklahoma trip, but was just too cute to leave out

some early morning reading