What do you think???

Before:

(You can just ignore the goofy look on Ty's face. But check out his cute cousin, Ben, who did not want to get his picture taken)

After:

James has been bugging me forever to cut Tyler's hair a little bit shorter. I compromised and said I would get it cut enough so you could see his ears, but that the rest was staying long. However, just as the hair dresser was trimming his bangs just a little bit to finish up the haircut, Tyler flinched. Thus we had to go quite a bit shorter than I anticipated, and his bangs still are not quite even!

I'm taking a poll because I really can't decide what to do with Tyler's hair. It was fun to have it longer because I think it matched his fun, laid-back personality. Plus it was different than every other little boys hair and I didn't have to get it cut very often, which is an excruciating process with Tyler! He hates them! I also think it looks good short and might even be persuaded to take it even shorter (Don't count on it though, James!!!), even though I may have to torture Tyler a bit more often. What do you all think???

P.S. I just noticed Tyler is wearing the same outfit in both pictures! Too Funny!

Happy Birthday, Ryan!

My sweet baby is one year old today! I can hardly believe it! Luckily he seems to be content to be a baby a little bit longer until we can realize that we have a 1 year old! He is still happy to be crawling and will not have a thing to do with any food but baby food and the occasional Cheerio. I'll keep him a baby as long as I possibly can!

Dad and the Birthday Boy

Tyler and I spent a while this morning on the internet looking for a cute birthday cake to make for Ryan. We finally settled on these cute bug cupcakes that I thought looked easy to make, but I realized that there are those who are born to create and those who are not, and I am definitely the latter. I'm not sure it was worth the effort since Ryan smashed the cupcakes all over his highchair, threw the pieces on the floor and wouldn't even take a bite - like I said earlier, he is not a fan of real food. But they were fun to make and pretty entertaining to watch him go after that cupcake. One thing I did learn is that dark blue icing will stain a baby's hand and turn a bath bright blue. :)

We were not going to do much for his birthday this year since he really doesn't need anything and it would be just one more thing to pack up this summer when we move, but Tyler really wanted to get him a present. So this afternoon, Tyler and I went on a little shopping trip. I thought it was pretty sweet that Tyler wanted to get Ryan a present so badly. Of course, what did Tyler pick out??? You've got it, a Baby Einstein movie.

Tyler trying to give Ryan a hug and kiss after giving him his present.

James, Ryan and Tyler all trying to get the Elmo Remote out of the box.

Ryan was thrilled with his new remote!

Tonight one of my best friends brought over this darling blanket she made for Ryan. Thanks, Laur! He loves it! He laid in his bed tonight drinking his bottle and rubbing the soft silky edge and looked very relaxed.

Happy Birthday, Baby Boy! We love you so much!

A Little Bit About Ryan

Tyler, Ryan and I have made it back home safely from Ireland. James is still at "our Dublin house" and will be for another week. At some point I really will finish blogging about our trip, but for today, I wanted to tell you all about Ryan. He had his 9-month check-up last week and he now weighs 19 lbs. 5 oz (30th percentile) is 28 3/4 inches long (50th percentile) and his head size is in the 85th percentile. Pretty typical for a Jacobs' baby.

Here are some of the fun things about Ryan that make us love him sooo much:

1. He is truly his father's son. They look so much alike. It's almost like Heavenly Father put James' head on a baby's body.
2. I always know when he is after something that really is exciting because he will start laughing "Ach, ach, ach, aaaach" in his very growly voice as he is racing to get whatever precious item is on the floor. (Watch the video below to get a little sample of his growl - but please ignore Tyler's hacking cough in the background)
3. The precious item is usually either Tyler's Crocs or a Lightening McQueen car.
4. I have started calling him "Screech" at night because when he gets really tired, he gets really loud. And shrill.
5. I just watched him learn how to clap a few days ago. He was trying so hard to get both of his hands to stay flat long enough to make a noise. He would get one hand flat, and then use that hand to pry open the other, and CLAP! Then the other hand would close into a fist and he would start the whole process over again. He was determined to get it right and he finally did after a full 10 minutes of sincere concentration. I only hope that determination sticks with him the rest of his life.
6. He thinks that Tyler is the funniest person alive. He laughs and laughs at Tyler, which eggs Tyler on, which gets them both rolling.
7. He has no interest in baby toys. He only wants to play with what Tyler is playing with. Even if Tyler isn't home and he has the choice between Tyler's toys and baby toys, he always chooses Tyler's.
8. Ryan is such an easy baby. He is so mellow, was so good at sleeping through the night from about 6 weeks on and is so so happy 99% of the time.
9. Ryan recently graduated to a real crawl, but since he was about 6 months old, he had moved around using the "pirate crawl." The "pirate crawl" is a modified version of the army crawl where Ryan would move forward (very quickly) using his arms and only one leg. His right leg always dragged behind him and was not at all useful - kind of like a pirate's wooden peg leg.

10. Ryan will take a binky, but will also suck his thumb if he can't find one. But it's not just his thumb that he sucks. He somehow manages to get part of his sleeve or shirt over his thumb and sucks it through that. Lately he has also been grabbing a fistful of my hair and wrapping it around his thumb and then sucking it.
11. He and Tyler have the same cute dimple when they smile.

12. Ryan's first finger food was a McDonald's french fry. And yes, he loved it. It did bum him out when he would mistake his thumb for the fry though. (Here is my disclaimer for my bad mom moment. We were in Ireland, I had nothing else to feed him and he was starving and whining. The french fry solved all our problems and let Tyler have enough time on the play yard to burn off some serious energy on a rainy Dublin day.)

We love you, Ryan!

Ireland: Week 1

James started working at the hospital the first Monday we were here. Work has gone fairly well and James really likes the people he works with. He spent the first few days dealing with the HR department and various government agencies arranging things so he could work here.

I spent the first week exploring this fun city that we find ourselves in. Monday and Tuesday were filled with getting to the grocery store and doing other normal things like that. I’m finding that it takes a lot more of my time doing things like that since I have to go shopping about every other day due to the lack of space in our tiny fridge. We’ve had so much fun wondering around our neighborhood. In just about every store we see people running into people they know. It seems to be a pretty close-knit community and everyone is extremely friendly and helpful.

On Wednesday I took the boys back to Phoenix Park to play at the playground. On our way home, I impulsively jumped on the train to head to the city center. Big mistake. We got there and Tyler needed to go to the bathroom, so I managed to find a Marks & Spencer department store and we made it up to the bathroom. On our way up, Tyler was grabbing every article of clothing he could from the stroller and in general just being a pain. That shouldn’t really have surprised me since it was 3 in the afternoon and he hadn’t napped. Once we were in the bathroom, he announced that he no longer needed to go, so I started to strap him back in the stroller. As I was doing this, Ryan threw up everywhere. The poor little thing was soaking wet, the stroller was soaking wet and he was pretty miserable. So we headed back to the train where he threw up again and again. By the time we got home an hour later we were all ready for a bath and a nap.

On Saturday, James and I took the boys out into the city all day and explored. Dublin is such a fun city and there is so much to see. Here are a few pictures from the day.

Lisa and Tyler on one of the many bridges that crosses the Liffey River right in the middle of downtown Dublin.

This is how Ryan has spent much of his time the past few weeks – asleep in the stroller. I have come to love this stroller. At first I thought the stroller was two big and heavy, but it has been perfect for this trip. The boys are comfy in their seats, it’s easy to fold up, and plus it came with a boot (a warm blanket that snaps right into the stroller so you can’t lose it) that still fits Ryan, and a rain cover that we use just about every day.

We went to Trinity College where the Book of Kells is located. The campus is absolutely gorgeous. The Book of Kells is one of the oldest books in the world and contains the text of the four New Testament gospels in Latin. The amazing part about it is the extensive illustrations the monks included with the text. The top floor of the same building is called the Long Room and is lined with shelves containing over 200,000 of the library’s oldest books. It is a beautiful building architecturally and it felt almost sacred to be in the same room as all the old, beautiful, leather-bound books.

When the boys are in the stroller, Tyler loves to lounge on Ryan, pretend he is asleep and let Ryan pull his hair. Then Tyler jumps and “wakes up” and startles Ryan. Ryan also thinks this is a pretty fun game and laughs and laughs. It’s pretty cute. They are really starting to play well with each other, and Tyler is (usually) really so great with Ryan.

So Behind...

I know I am so behind on my blogging about the last month we have spent in Ireland. Please forgive me (James, that means you!) I have found that it's much more fun to read other blogs than work on my own. I am going to work on getting caught up in the next few days, so please bear with my many posts to come.

Our Dublin House

Here are a few pictures of our “Dublin House” as Tyler refers to it. As mentioned in a previous post when I was complaining about the “lift,” a.k.a. elevator, not working, we live on the 3rd floor in the corner apartment. (By the way the lift is still not working – 2 weeks later.) It has 2 relatively small bedrooms, 1 semi-nasty bathroom that I have cleaned and cleaned, a very tiny kitchen and a small family/dining room.

When we first got here, James was freaking out because he thought there was no fridge. Little did he know that our kitchen is so luxurious that we have a built-in fridge. The only downfall to this is that the fridge is the size of one lower cabinet. The only dishwasher is me (or James) and I have finally figured out how to work the oven, however, there is nothing to bake in except the broiler pan that goes in the oven.

Our nightly entertainment is provided by the church meetings in the building next door that we get to see and hear through our apartment windows – every night. We can see everything that goes on in these meetings. That means they can also see us if our windows curtains are open. This was especially funny the night Tyler got out of the bath and started jumping on his bed stark naked. I am sure they could feel the Spirit strongly at their meeting when they looked over and saw him flashing his bum at them. The weekend karaoke next door at Murry’s Pub is also pretty entertaining, but usually starts late enough that we listen to it as we fall asleep.

In all actuality, the location is pretty great. It takes James just 8 minutes to get into the hospital, so that will be nice if he is ever on-call. Right at the hospital is a stop for the light-rail, so it’s really easy to get into the city center. There is a small grocery store that takes about ten minutes to walk to, and there are plenty of convenience stores along the way. If you walk another 10 minutes past the grocery store, there are 2 huge cathedrals, tons of great restaurants and the Temple Bar district (where all the tourists go to “socialize.”)

Here's Tyler enjoying his new bed in the room he and Ryan were supposed to share. That hasn't quite worked out too well. Now we put the Pack and Play in our room around 7 - 8 pm when we put Ryan to bed, and then around 10 pm when we go to bed, we ever so carefully move him and the bed out to the family room. Usually he wakes up and wants to play, but the alternative is pretty painful.

Here is a picture from this morning of the boys in our family room. Tyler was watching Robin Hood on his little DVD player and Ryan was practicing his new trick of standing up. He was so excited when he figured out he could watch the movie with Tyler this way. He was desperately clutching the couch trying to make his little legs last a little longer so he could watch some of the show.

Some pictures from other Dublin adventures that I'll explain later...