Wait, what? Our baby is almost THREE!

Well, a gigantic hello from the great blogging hole I've been hiding in!  Our friends were here visiting last week, and I was reminded that not only should I get back to my blog, but that my last post was about Ryan being 18 months old!  18 months old.  Get out of town!  18 months is like a huge, distant memory.  Ryan is turning three next month!  That means he's 35 months old!  Oh my gosh.  Just for an idea, here's a comparison:

Yup, he's doubled in age and boy, what a difference.

As we are closing out two, I have to admit, I have truly loved the two's.  For me, the one's were rough.  Ryan was, and still is, a complete daredevil.  Either I've learned to relax a bit, or he now has a little reasoning, or both, but the daredevil is a lot easier to take.  That super-cutie on the left always had a bump or a bruise somewhere on his face, just as one would heal, another would appear.

Ryan has since grown into a very loving, open, and chatty little boy.  He approaches the world with enthusiasm and wonder.  Ryan's favorite phrases now are, "tell me about that, Mommy," "I see today" when he wakes up in the morning, and "its not snack time" when I want to nibble his toes.  Ryan is so vibrant.  When he tells a story, his eyes light up, and his whole body gets in to the story.  The two's brought an incredible language explosion.  While he started really talking around 18 months, the early twos marked Ryan's time to shine linguistically.  He retold a story a few weeks ago, and it was in the completely correct order.  Ryan talks from the second he wakes up, when he first says, "I see today," until the second before he goes to sleep "the end" after our 5th book of the evening.  Its been so incredibly fun to watch his language grow, and to have absolutely hilarious conversations with this kid!

Two has also been spectacular because of all we have done together, and how we now enjoy experiences together.   Ryan has always enjoyed going places and doing things, but now, he relates new experiences to old ones, or to things he has learned in books.  We can talk about things we did in the past, and he still remembers it all.

We have some big changes happening and coming up soon.  Ryan has started Kindergarten, and I will be going back to work in December.  I'm hoping to try to get into a better blogging rythm soon.  Wish me luck!