Ethan Helps Ryan Use a Sippy Cup

Although all of their interactions are not lovingly motivated, overall Ethan and Ryan get along really well. Ethan jumps at the chance to help Ryan with various things. Tonight that included helping him drink from a sippy cup! Ryan can drink easily from a sippy if you tip it back for him, but he is still learning that the cup needs to be tilted back to drink from it. Ethan wanted us to scoot him right next to Ryan so that he could help out. They both thought that this cooperative effort was great fun.

Milestones for Ryan

It seems like Ryan has been growing and reaching milestones especially rapidly the last few weeks! Today Ryan achieved the milestone of pulling himself to standing for the first time. He was very excited about it! His second tooth also popped through his gumline (he now has two middle lower teeth).

Christmas Day

Ryan opened a gift from Grandma Q. on Christmas Day. He was excited to try out his new TAG Jr.

Our family does a puzzle together every Christmas. This year we completed two. One was a 3-D puzzle that Mom found on clearance, the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Dan put nearly all of it together by himself.

Ethan, Daddy, and Grandpa worked together on Ethan's new United States puzzle

We all worked together on Dad's new photo puzzle with Ethan and Sasha

We attempted to get a photo of the boys together in their matching pajamas, but they weren't being very cooperative. Here are our best shots.

It is funny to see how different Ethan and Ryan's complexions are. Ethan is super pale like me, and Ryan has more orange-toned skin (his coloring favors Dan)Ryan hanging out in his pack n' playEthan received some new Leapster games and was glued to his video game system for quite awhile

Ryan enjoyed playing with his new toys too

Christmas Eve

WARNING: This post contains a ridiculous amount of photos :)
So I am finally getting around to posting our Christmas Eve and Christmas Day photos. I probably should have put them in a slideshow format instead of including so many in one post, but I'm determined to get caught up on our blog and this was the quickest way to add photos!
Sometime through the years our family went from each of us selecting one gift to open on Christmas Eve to everyone opening everything on Christmas Eve. So, tonight the boys were allowed to open all of their gifts. Ryan napped briefly on Dan's lap before the festivities of gift-opening began.

Ryan enjoyed playing with his Taggie football while he waited for us to pass out the presents to everyone.
A ride on Daddy's shoulders is always fun!

One of the first gifts that Ethan opened was for our Christmas tree at home...A Thomas the Train ornament with Thomas, James, and Percy
Mom likes her Bath and Body Works soaps
Since his (second) hospital stay, Ethan has been fascinated with the tools that doctors use to do their job
A gift for Grandpa G. was a puzzle of him with Ethan and Sasha
Dan received a Christian music CD (apparently Ryan was quite interested in it)
Ryan did a great job helping open his gifts
His giraffe toy has been a ton of fun
Dad opening gifts
Ethan was very excited about a crayon holder that a family friend made
Ryan was anxious to open his retro chatter telephone
Ethan opening gifts
Ethan opened a set of 4 Cars puzzles!
Uncle Mike enjoying the festivitiesEthan and Ryan received matching Christmas jammies. Here Ethan is modeling his new jammies along with a santa hat.

A Better Video of Ryan Crawling

On Christmas Eve I was able to capture a better video of Ryan crawling. He loves that crawling enables him to see where he's going while in motion (as opposed to when he rolled everywhere). It also allows him to have a better view of Ethan's toys that he can't wait to get his hands on!

Christmas Gifts from Grandpa and Grandma A.

The boys received a package from Grandpa and Grandma A. in the mail today and were very excited to open their first Christmas gifts.

Ethan eagerly awaiting our permission to open his gifts

Ethan loves doing puzzles

He was anxious to open the box and get started on itPlaydoh!Ready to use his Playdoh and accessories Ethan tried to instruct Ryan how to open his giftsA Taggies football!

Ryan is fascinated with tags and is now in tag heaven ;) He also really likes his new lullaby CD.Thank you so much (and for the yummy Chick-Fil-A too) Grandpa and Grandma A.!!