{ No-No Ryan …Yes-Yes Ryan}

I am still slowly catching up on all the Christmas stuff, but I am kind of burnt out a bit, so I thought I would post a few more recent things to keep me motivated.

When I was little we loved reading the Family Circus comics. We got the old-fashioned real paper newspaper back then, and it was always the first one I would read when I opened up the comics page. We had tons of the comic books too. I remember my sister and I would read them at night before going to sleep. They were so funny, maybe because they had lots of kids that caused mischief like we did. I remember this one where the girl Dolly thought that her younger brother’s name was “No-No PJ” because that was what the mom always said to him. I thought it was funny then because it had all these pictures leading up to it with naughty things that the little baby had done. Now, my laughs sometimes turn to tears as I realize I have my own real life “No-No Ryan”.

Ryan is 16 months old, and this kid is sure giving me a run for my money. All my kids are smart, but this one..he is SUPER smart. The old out-tricking, outsmarting, distracting games that worked for my other kids don’t even phase him. And with a face like this-

..I have a hard time even wanting to. I can see why the younger kids get away with everything now.

Some of his tricks he likes to pull now:

1. This one seems almost obvious since he is almost always shirtless in every picture I take of him. This kid refuses to wear a bib to eat in. All of the other kids didn’t really mind at all-they were much more interested in the food, but Ryan-he manages to be interested in the food and not wanting to wear a bib all at the same time. The funny part is, everyday I still try. It goes a little something like this-I put on the bib and walk to the island to get his cereal bowl, I look over and he has a mischievous grin on his face and his bib off and in his hands, he waits for me to react, then he laughs his naughty little Ryan laugh, drops the bib on the floor-and so the game goes. Pretty soon, I am tired after the third or fourth time and I just strip off his shirt in hopes of saving it to be clean for at least half of the day.
2. He loves to climb! All my kids have been climbers, but I haven’t seen a better climber since Brooke was little-and now he is surpassing her. Brooke’s tricks topped off at pushing something over to the tall bar stools, climbing on them, climbing over the counter top, walking along the counter to the treat cupboard, opening the cupboard, and eating marshmallows. It seemed to be a fully planned out mission with good treaty rewards. Now Ryan on the other hand, I think he just likes to see me run across the house to get him down from somewhere-it must be some secret 1 year old extreme thrill game he made up, because he sure likes to play it-and most times he wins at it. It started with him learning to climb up on the window seats by the computer by pulling out the file drawers and climbing on them to get to the window seat. Not a bad problem, but the window seat attaches to the computer desk which houses our new iMac. What could be funner that pounding on the keyboard or sitting on the mouse/trackpad? Nothing could get better for him. Less than 3 weeks after we got it, he sat on the trackpad and cracked it. So,… locks were installed on the file cabinets (and not regular locks, he figures those out, but we have to get special ones that can only be unlocked with a special magnet). We thought that would solve our problems. No. Now he goes to get big plastic bowls out of the bowl drawer in the kitchen to stand on to get on the window seat and get to the computer. Locks on the bowl drawers seem to be in my not to distant future. He not only tries bowls, but foil pie pans, toy baskets, books, anything that looks like it has climbing potential he gets to. Needless to say, the is NO computer time most days between the hours of 7:30am and 8pm for me, with the exception of naptime. Definitely not a bad thing, except when I would really love to get caught up blogging.
3. Toothpaste. All the kids have loved the taste of toothpaste. It practically counted as a food group for some of them for the second year of their life-so the fact he loves it is not so unusual, but the ways he goes about getting to it is exhausting. Before we start any FHE or family prayer time, or basically anytime where someone isn’t upstairs with him, we have to do a “door lock down”. Not as severe as it sounds-we basically just have to do through and shut every single door in the house. If not, the bathrooms are the first place we look. He almost always has as many toothbrushes as he can carry and the kids flavor toothpaste in his fist. We already have quite a few blue toothpaste marks on the upstairs carpet from him. Little stinker. He sure loves that toothpaste.
4. Running away. Not unusual-just one I wanted to remember. Ryan can run so fast! It becomes quite comical in the church hallway watching me try to catch this tiny little kid who most days can get away from me.
5. With all his little tricks we have started saying this to him (from kid history which my kids discovered over Christmas. So funny!) “Randy! (pronounce Ran Day in a deep old mom voice) What are you doing?” He thinks it’s so funny. I think it’s so funny. The other kids think it’s so old. Oh well. All day long it’s mostly me, and him, and Scott, so we’ll have our fun without them. Ryan will look at me, and then grin and run away. After I have said it to him many times, and I pick him up, he will do this little hum making his voice mimic the “Randy sounds”, and shake his head to the side.
6. Sometimes when we say, “No-No Ryan”, he gives us this look with one of his eyes brows up really high and one down. It is so funny. I have tried to catch it with my camera too many times to count, but this is usually the look I get-one of more like, “Mom, I can figure out how to get everything I want, do you really  think I’m going to be tricked into having you catch me with my “sly eye”? I’m still determined-it’s such a cute trick.
7. Ryan loves fruit snacks. Every day around 10am we have snack time, and am I usually convinced with a few grunts at the pantry for a pack of fruit snacks. He runs to the table, climbs on the bench, and eats his little snacks one by one. That’s not the “No-No” part. It’s when he gobbles his down, and then starts on Scott’s snacks. Scott starts screaming, and Ryan starts running. His chubby little hands grab those snacks and off he runs through the kitchen giggling and waddling as fast as his little legs can go. He thinks it is SO funny. Scott is always less amused. Once we catch him, return the goods, and say “No more Ry, Ry”, he usually goes to the pantry and pleads some more. He has learned that an open pantry door provides almost as much fun as the open bathroom door, and watches carefully for when it’s left open. He climbs up on our little stool and points to whatever he wants-that’s the ideal. Unfortunately, many times, he just helps himself to what he can reach-chips, the syrup, or the big oatmeal bin.

Aaron and I love this age-we love lots of ages, but this age is so fun. The ironic part is that most of our “no-no Ryan’s” things are the things we love most about our kids-the creativity, the drive, the determination, the humor, the giggles, the constant going, and the big grins! I hope I never get too tired of the “No-No’s” because I know it’s what all the “Yes-Yes’s” are built upon.

Yes-Yes Ryan keep on trying-never give up

Yes-Yes Ryan keep on thinking of new ways to accomplish your goals

Yes-Yes Ryan keep on smiling and bring laughter to those around you

Yes-Yes Ryan keep on bring us so much joy!