Exploring

Ronan has discovered how much fun the backyard is. He loves to explore the patio and crawl up and down the pathway.  We were enjoying a beautiful Sunday morning before church and I had to abandon my first sips of coffee to capture these sweet photos. There is nothing I love more than those cute little buns just shaking side to side as he crawls away waiting to be chased. Chase is his favorite game right now. He turns and waits to see if we're coming, like this first photo shows.

come catch me mom!

loves this spot squished between the path and the fence

Going after the dog, who most often walks away

Today he mastered the stairs. Going up at least.

I turned the sprinklers on before we headed inside for naptime.  First photo: being hit with the water (really didn't mind). Second photo: what's a little water? Third photo: NOT happy to be rescued and cleaned up.

 

Random photo, just because I like it :) I spray painted a few spent allium flower heads. I think I'm going to paint some more when the weather turns.

Mom-1, Baby- 0

Completely zonked post-tantrum.  We disagreed on whether a 5 minute car nap was adequate.   ;)



Summer Summer

We love summer. Who doesn't really? I have possibly been maybe just a little, teeny bit, semi-obsessed with squeezing in as much sunshine as we can this summer.  Last week, 4 out of 7 days were spent at a lake, preceded by a great weekend in Kennewick lounging by the pool.  We've gone to Coeur d'Alene at least 4 times and boated as many.  We're blessed. I have to admit, if 2 days go by without an outing that includes water or a least a park, I start getting cabin fever. :)  I'm working on being content with time at home, making sure I get outside for part of the day (really, why is this so hard sometimes) and loving the satisfaction of getting some projects done.  Patrick is fulfilled by working on and fixing things - much in the same way I am when I'm out having coffee or just outside somewhere.  This was a huge discovery in our marriage! While we are very similar in some ways, we are very different in this way. So, we've managed to strike some sort of balance this summer. A few days a week home working on projects, a few days a week out and about. And hey, I'm getting some things crossed off my list! But tomorrow, we're out of here...we're going on day 3 at home :)

Here is a huge compilation of some summer fun. Cheers!

Honeysuckle Beach with Julia and Cole:

       

Splash pad with Kali and her girls:

One of our trips to the beach

We spent an amazing weekend celebrating our friend Tyler's birthday at his family's cabin. We had a great time hanging out with great friends. Ronan loved the sandy beaches and watching the big boys play. 

Favorite picture of the weekend. Love this kid

Sweet treats while we gassed up. When Ali came out of the store with an armful of popsicles, oh man, I felt like a little kid again!

Sandy buns. Couldn't resist ;)

9 Months!

[so this is being posted a little late:) I wrote it and took the pictures a couple of weeks ago]

9 months. Wow. I feel like we're inching closer and closer to a year. Well we are I guess. Each month passes so quickly. But it is so fun!

This month seems to be full of changes. Do I say that every month? Ronan is so close to crawling! He gets up on all fours, sometimes in a plank position, some time rocking back and forth on his knees.  He gets very frustrated at his inability to get to a toy or person out of his reach. We know someday soon he will be on the move and we will have some serious babyproofing to do. 
As I've mentioned before, Ronan will eat just about anything. He really isn't a fan of banana's (odd, I thought every baby loves bananas) but he'll eat almost anything else: cheerios, fish, beets, egg, broccoli, beans, lots of applesauce, cheese, yogurt, bites of our sandwhich (really just the bread). He must have set some kind of teething record because he got a new tooth almost every week this month. Ouch! Luckily it seems to have slowed down and we're back onto a good sleep schedule this last week.

He is an incredibly social kid. Loves, LOVES all of my bible study gals. Loves his family and of course LOVES his daddy.  That's a lot of love.  People really seem to make him happy.  He enjoys interacting with everyone and almost seems put out if a stranger in the store ignores him. So he likes attention, but who doesn't right...

So here are some pictures we took on our Manito picnic.  We just love this little guy and how much fun he is.  We get comments all the time about how happy he is. It's true. We are blessed with a very adaptable, loving, happy baby. Combined with great health, I really couldn't ask for anything more!





We found this great rock wall below the rose garden. There was one last sliver of the setting sun. Ronan liked feeling the texture and also gave some great smiles for daddy.

 

Classic wrinkle-nose smile





Watermelon!

We have a watermelon lover! We've been waiting all summer for Ronan to like watermelon, but until yesterday he was pretty disgusted by it.  Now he can't get enough! I love it.  We took a silly amount of pictures, but how could we help it? Look at all of these expressions!