Mayo Family Blog

Another boy, another birthday. Another day off work. Another fun-filled, action-packed day! Of course we started the day off with presents. Ryan is really a pro at unwrapping the gifts. He tore into the presents before any of us was even around to watch. I just heard him screaming, “I got rain boots, Mama!!” and by the time I was on the scene he was already wearing them.

He also got sunglasses (amongst other things) which he also wore most of the day as you will see in these pictures!

After gifts, Ryan quickly realized that he was the luckiest boy ever to have a birthday on the best day of the whole week… garbage day! He and Nathan spent a half hour sitting at Ryan’s bedroom window watching the garbage trucks drive through the neighborhood. Nathan gave a thorough commentary on the details of the trucks and the driver’s ability to load the garbage properly and they both squealed when the big dumpster was lifted and emptied into the truck (there are probably more technical terms for all that which Nathan could educate me on, but he’s in bed).

Then, since Ryan loves to go for rides in the trailer behind our bike, we planned to take a bike ride to a nearby park. Nathan being the helpful kid he is, managed to lock us out of the house, so we proceeded with our bike ride, but then spent much of the afternoon dealing with being locked out of the house. Thankfully, our house gets cleaned a couple times a month and this just happened to be the day, so the cleaners let us in to our own house, but not until after 3:00. Then we loaded up our stuff and visited a local water park where both boys enjoyed an evening of swimming, soaking, sliding and lazy river-ing.

When Michael asked Ryan what he wanted for his birthday dinner, Ryan answered, “bread, cheese.” So we went out for pizza, where Ryan ate off everyone’s plate except his own.

We were supposed to have a pediatrician appointment this afternoon, but that had to be canceled when we realized our car keys were locked in the house. So those stats will have to be presented at a later time. I can tell you that Ryan is talking like crazy. He says whole sentences, much of which we can understand. Some of his favorite phrases include, I did it!, Give it back! (a product of being a second child, I think!), and I pooped! (which does not necessarily mean his diaper is dirty). He has recently started jumping and getting both feet off the ground. He has an amazing ability to find dead or nearly-dead flies around the house and proudly bring them to me (Ick! Ick! Ick!). Maybe we should have gotten him some chop sticks to practice catching flies Mr. Miyagi-style. He also loves coloring, mostly on paper, but a little on the table, random toys and a bit on the couch… who knew crayons would show up on a navy blue couch?!?!  He’s a happy, mischievous little guy who keeps us on our toes.  I can’t believe he joined our family only two years ago and yet, it seems like he’s always been here.  We asked Nathan tonight if he could remember life before Ryan and he said yes, it was much better.  When we asked why, he said, “Because then I didn’t have to do so much tattling.”  It’s tough having a little brother around