A pretty typical morning in the Ring household

Shoes and poop.

Easter egg hunt 2009

This Easter, all of the East Grand Rapids Play Group moms decided that it would be really fun to have an Easter Egg Hunt for their little kids. They were right, it was a lot of fun. It happened the morning of Good Friday in the back yard of our friends and old next-door-neighbors, Andy and Mandy. All in all about a bazillion people showed up and it kind of was chaotic, what with thousands upon thousands of under-two year olds milling about everywhere I tried to step.

But it was cute to see the kids chase after eggs, to see which kids "got" the concept and which didn't. For me, I really enjoyed seeing Lyla hunt for the eggs. She definitely picked up on the concept and knew when she saw an egg to pick it up and put it in her basket. (It helped that we had practiced the day before in our living room.)

After the egg hunt, we went inside for lunch... also chaotic... but good. It definitely was a lot of fun and there's a good chance that it will be come and annual tradition... except that eight of the moms in the group (including Katherine) are either pregnant or just gave birth to their second child. Will is the first of this new group and I fear that the addition of a second kid to the mix will change the dynamics of the group and it's questionable whether or not the group will be able to hold together. I hope the moms are able to figure it out...

Lyla planning out her strategy:
Ian on the hunt.
Kind of overwhelming...
Liam had a disadvantage not walking yet.
Sadie stopping to enjoy the spoils of her labors... while Lyla moves in for a hug.
And Sadie's off again.
Charlie looking sharp.
Charlie trying not to get distracted by the slide.
Julianna cleaning up.
The moms of East Grand Rapids. (imagine trying to get all the adults and children looking in a single direction for a picture... quite comical).
The lunch after... that's Lyla standing in the center.
Rockin' the double ponytail. Nice.
Oh yeah, QT with Daddy!
And Will. Slept through the whole thing. All the moms fawned over him (this being our first trip out since he was born) and he missed it. Probably for the better, don't want him getting full of himself.

Happy belated Easter everyone!!!

And then there is this.

She's been capable of this for weeks, if not months. Of course she chooses today, while Katherine is upstairs resting to do it. Fortunately, she was more than willing to take the show upstairs for Katherine to see. Before Will was born, Katherine and I had commented that Lyla was probably going to start walking the same day Will was born. I'm glad she waited a couple days so that we could be there.

She went from this:

To this:

To this... all in a matter of minutes.

She is awesome. I can't wait to see her tomorrow as she begins to explore her world on two legs. I am a very proud father right now.

Don't forget Lyla!!

She's a super star!!... I honestly don't know how she got up on that counter.



Refusing to walk (though she is fully capable) in the cutest way possible.

Stairs? No problem

Snow days

So, last year was a record year of snow fall in Grand Rapids. This year is headed toward equal (if not greater) amounts of snow. Our friend commented the other day that we've already seen the same amount of snow in November and December that GR would typically see in an entire winter (November through March)!

That, combined with the sub-frigid temperatures, combined with the fact that Katherine is 32 weeks pregnant are all forces conspiring to keep us inside. So we've been making a serious effort to get outside on days that we're able in order to take walks. We spend equal amounts of time getting ready as we do actually outside. All in all it is quite an ordeal, but it's also been a lot of fun and totally worth it.

Here's pictures of Lyla putting on her snowsuit:




Here's pictures of me and Lyla waiting for Katherine to come out:




Here we are walking in the snow! Happy winter, everyone!

Not quite ready to walk.

I whole-heartedly believe that Lyla is able to walk, but she just isn't ready yet. She walks just fine, in fact quite enthusiastically, so long as she's holding on to someone's hand. It doesn't have to be two hands either, we went for quite the stroll the other day with her holding my one hand (it was totally one of those "Oh my! She's growing up so fast!!" moments). I have mixed feelings about her walking, I'm excited because she's so close and I think it will be slightly easier for her to get places without having to crawl or be carried. On the other hand, my baby is growing up so fast!! We've been looking through our over 2000 pictures we've taken of her and Katherine and I repeatedly say, "Remember when she was so little!" or "Who's that tiny baby?" or "I can't believe she was that small!"

The other day I was folding laundry and there were a bunch of her pajamas in there. She wears size 18 month because she's so long. Well, Katherine had put this old pair in that were size 3 month and the difference in size was drastic. They grow so fast.

Anyway, here are videos of Katherine and me trying to coax the little girl to walk. Enjoy!

Lyla is eight months old!!

Lyla turns eight months old today, which is hard to believe. I just discovered that I'm already forgetting some of the cute things she's done, so I'm going to make more of an effort to record them here. As of this point, Lyla has complete control of her pacifier. She can pass it from hand to hand, pick it up when she drops it, sometimes without looking. And if she's feeling generous, sometimes she pops it into my mouth while I'm talking to her. It's super cute :) She also gets a big smile on her face when we do "This Little Piggy" and sing "B-I-N-G-O".
She is eating Stage 2 foods now (sort of mushy/chunky) and loving them. Applesauce is a favorite, and bananas. The only thing she hasn't liked at all so far is apricots. She can drink out of a sippy cup and eat Cheerios. She would try to eat everything we do if we would let her. Lyla is very interested in food at all times. She has her bottom front teeth, and I've been expecting the top ones for a few weeks now, but no real signs of them yet.
She loves other kids, and gets very excited when she sees them. We play the most with our next-door-neighbor Ian, and Abbie and Josh from church. Peek-a-boo and pulling hair are the favored games.
Her favorite book right now is Hello Bee. She loves looking at books and banging things together. She responds to her name, and says Mama and Dada, occasionally in the right context. Her absolute favorite thing is to pull herself up on our hands and "walk" around the apartment. She is so proud of herself when she does that, even though she walks like a drunken sailor.
And the newest development is that she crawls!! She put everything together for the first time last week, and is getting more confident by the day. We are loving every minute of this.

Pictures will come tomorrow, and maybe some video. Happy Eighth Month Lyla!!

update: this video was taken a few days ago and shows Lyla at the first stage of crawling (i.e. getting up on her hands and knees). More video of actual crawling to come soon.