Look Who's 1 Month Old!

Tyler turned 1 month old last week! I can't believe it has been one month already! He has fit into our family seamlessly. Tyler is a wonderful baby! He has such a laid back and sweet demeanor. He loves to cuddle on your chest, which is one of my favorite things! I still cannot tell if he looks like Ryan. He has certain expressions that remind me exactly of Ryan but he is definitely his own little person.

Look Who's 2!

Ryan had great fun on his 2nd birthday! The day of his birthday we celebrated by going to Choo Choo Johnny's restaurant. The restaurant is train themed. The meals are delivered by train and there are model trains throughout the restaurant. There is an extensive model train, running through a city and mountains, that the kids can start and stop by pushing a big red button. Ryan seemed to have the time of his life. It was so much fun watching his excitement. We sat by the motorized train, which was a big mistake! He wouldn't get off the ride! When the train delivering our food came by for the first time, Ryan yelled, "Come back train!" He has never been more vocal in public than he was at the restaurant.

Here is the train delivering Ryan's birthday ice cream...


Ryan riding the train and pointing out all the other trains in the restaurant...


We had a family birthday party on Saturday night with a firetruck theme. Again, he had the time of his life. He couldn't stop jumping up and down! We feel blessed to be able to surround Ryan with such loving people.

Halloween 2010

We had a fun Halloween season this year. We took Ryan to a pumpkin or monkin (as Ryan would say it) patch while Tyler stayed home with Nana and Boppa. He had a terrific time. We rode on a hayrack ride, train, jumped on the huge air pillow, and picked out pumpkins for the family. It was a beautiful day and it was great to spend some one on one time with Ryan since the previous 2 weeks were so busy with a new Tyler to the home.





We also had lots of fun on Halloween! Ryan was Grover for Halloween and he did not like wearing the costume. We have been working for weeks to get him to wear his costume. Luckily, on the day of Halloween he was excited to wear Grover and even wanted to give him a kiss. We made Ryan's costume and it turned out cute but many people thought we was Cookie Monster...I was so disappointed. It was the eyes on the costume that made it seem like Cookie Monster. Tyler was our little skeleton. My girlfriend, Kim, sent us her Bert and Ernie costumes that Marc and I wore during trick-or-treating. We were quite the group! Ryan didn't quite grasp the trick-or-treating concept but he had a great time handing out candy at the house. I don't think he realized that every house was handing out candy because when he saw kids across the street, he would yell out "Candy here!" It was so much fun to see the joy in him!

Our New Addition

We welcomed Tyler Jackson O'Neal into our family on Saturday October 9th! He has been a pleasant baby! He has been sleeping well...so well, in fact, that I have to set an alarm to wake us up to feed him at night. Tyler has survived his first week at home with his big brother. Ryan is an excellent big brother. He was shocked for the first hour we were all home but warmed up quickly. Now, he cannot keep his hands and kisses off Tyler. Ryan wants to sit in the car seat or chair with (or on) Tyler, he is constantly kissing Tyler's head or hands or feet and he wants to help with everything from changing diapers to carrying the baby to comforting the baby.

Baby Tyler...


An excited big brother Ryan...


All my boys...

My Muscle Man with Listening Ears

One of the attributes I love about Ryan is that he is so independent. He wants to do everything and I mean everything on his own. Lately though we have had a little trouble listening to what needs to be done and what is asked of us. We have been working on "turning on" our listening ears. The way it works is that I look Ryan in the eyes and ask him to turn on his listening ears. He proceeds to place his fingertips on his forehead or face and tell me his listening ears are on. I can then give him his directions and he will immediately do what is asked of him. I'm not sure how he found the button on his face to turn on his listening ears but I hope it continues working for a long time to come.


Ryan has also learned to show us his muscles. I'm pretty sure he learned this one from daddy :)

Rock the Block!

We had our block party this past weekend. It was themed Rock the Block! We had a great time, especially Ryan! Our block party is a big deal...we have a visit from the fire department, inflatables, crafts, bike decorating with a parade, a DJ, a talent show, food and drinks. Ryan participated in all of the above. Here are some pictures from our afternoon...
Climbing in the fire engine...


Jumping in the inflatable...


Bike decorating with balloons...


Dancing in the talent show to Rockin' in the USA...

"Ig Tractors" (Big tractors)

This past weekend we went to the Quad Cities for the Bix Festival. While we were there we had the chance to visit the John Deere Tractor Museum. The museum lets everyone climb in the tractors. Ryan had a blast! He ran from tractor to tractor and kept saying "Ig tractors" (translated - big tractors). I had more that one person stop me and say they had never seen a boy so excited. Here are some pictures of our trip to the tractor museum.

Iowa Boy and other Tidbits

We had some delicious sweet corn for dinner last night and since Ryan only wants to eat what we are eating, he ate his corn off the cob too! I just love this picture! Marc was so proud of his son..."a true Iowa boy" he said.


Other tidbits about Ryan at age 20 months...
* Loves to talk - he talks constantly and will repeat anything and everything. He has even started saying 2 word phrases quite often. My favorite time is when he sings/talks while we are in the car. Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star is his favorite.
* Loves being outside (Ow-siiiiiide)
* Loves to be helpful - he will help me set the table, carry the laundry basket (the laundry basket is "heaby" though - translated heavy), or do just about anything you ask of him.
* Is our great sleeper! I am so thankful for this :)
* Has the occasional temper tantrum - especially when we make him come inside.
* Is "Da-Dee's" biggest fan but wants to cuddle with "MaMa" before bed...one of my favorite times of day.

Backyard fun!

Last weekend we had a backyard makeover. We finally had our patio put in and finished. They were suppposed to start at the beginning of June but had to wait for all of the rain to pass. Oh well! We are really pleased with how it turned out. So last weekend we spent the whole weekend outside fixing up our backyard. We landscaped around the patio and in the back corner of our yard to hide the utility boxes, covered everything in mulch, Marc built Ryan a sandbox and filled it with 1 ton of sand, and our neighbors across the street gave us their swingset that was set up last weekend in our yard. We set up Ryan's pool so that he and I could hang out while Marc worked hard. But...Ryan is "da-dee's" boy and would rather help Marc than play his own thing. He helped set up his pool, shoveled the dirt to plant the bushes and then spent over 1 hour running up and down our yard getting wheelbarrows full of mulch with Marc.

Fun with Ryan

This past Friday night Ryan was in full swing. He was wound up from playing with his Nana and Boppa for 3 days and had 2 good naps that day. I just love this video...he has taken a liking to his safety goggles from his workbench. Before he would give them to us to wear but now he hands them to you and says, "Ryan." He will keep the goggles on for quite some time. Another favorite toy is his grill set. He likes to roll it out onto the deck when Marc is grilling dinner so they can grill together. He also pushes it all around the house. In this particular video he is wearing his safety goggles while pushing his grill.

Life with Ryan

The past week in our house has been interesting. I believe it is because we have a toddler boy running around the house :) Just wanted to share a couple of pictures from the past week.

As I was cooking dinner the other night, Ryan was playing with the items in the cabinets as usual. Pretty soon, he sounded more muffled than normal. As I came around the island to look for him he was appearing out of the cabinet below the island. He had hidden himself in the island cabinets and was having a blast!


Ryan's favorite time of day is probably the 15 minutes after his bath. It is at this time that he gets to run around his bedroom naked. Well, on this particular evening he decided to go downstairs after his bath. I followed him into the kitchen and scooped him up. There just happened to be an electrical cord for my electric skillet on the island. His go-go gadget hands reached out and grabbed the cord as he was lifted by the counter. We paused for a moment so the naked boy could stand on the countertop and this is what we got...not the safest thing to do with an electrical cord.


Wednesdays are chore day at the O'Neal household. Ryan and I go grocery shopping in the morning and spend the day doing laundry. This past Wednesday, I was putting the groceries away and Ryan was playing. I reached into the grocery bag and pulled out my eggs. As I set them into the refrigerator, I thought to myself, "I'm sure I had a couple of eggs left in here." Just then, it became way too quiet in the house and Ryan was no where in sight. I called his name and came around the corner to find the egg carton open with one egg placed nicely on the floor and the other in his hand. I very calmly said, "Ryan, what did you find?" I did not want to startle him or let him believe he was in trouble because he had a raw egg in his hand. Didn't work...as soon as he saw me he threw the egg to the ground as if it were a baseball. Oh well! It was chore day, so why not add cleaning the floors to the list.

Ryan's Secret

Ryan is excited to share his secret with you all...






His new sibling is to arrive on 10/10/10! We are excited!

A Day at the Zoo!

Wow! I knew it had been a long time since my last blog but I didn't realize it has been over a month! This past week, Marc had a couple of days off work and the weather was beautiful - in the 80's! For Christmas I got a family membership to Brookfield Zoo, so we decided to take a trip there on Wednesday. The membership is great because it is all "free" so we feel we can spend as much or as little time there as we would like. Ryan was somewhat interested in the animals on this visit. The giraffes and all the bears are getting new habitats so they were not out but we saw most of the other animals. Here are a few pics from our day.



We also decided to ride to Carousel. Ryan and I rode while Marc took some pictures of us. Ryan was very hesitant when he first sat on the gorilla but he sat nicely for about 3 seconds.


Soon, he became scared and started grasping at me to get off. So, I held him...


And at the end...he had enough! We had a great day!

A Real Sled & Snowman

On Sunday night we received quite a bit of wet snow and then it snowed more this morning. Since seeing our blog and make-shift sled, my parents gave us a sled that was in their garage. They came up for the weekend last weekend and brought the sled with them. Since we didn't have much snow over the weekend, Ryan enjoyed being pulled around the kitchen, dining room, living room and entryway but as of this morning Marc has shown him a whole other world of sledding. The two of them went out this morning while I was at work and had a blast. When I arrived home from work they were dressed up and ready to head out again. By the afternoon, the snow was starting to melt and the ride down the hill was not as fast but still a good time. After the sledding Marc made a snowman in the front yard. We had fun!

Playing in the Snow!

Our generous neighbors recently gave Ryan a brand new pair of snow pants that her son had never worn! So after all our snow this past week we put them on and headed outside to play! On Tuesday, Ryan and I dressed up and sat in the snow to play. This weekend, Marc made a make-shift sled (we couldn't find any sleds in the store) from the lid of a tupperware and rope to pull around the yard. Unfortunately quite a bit of the snow had melted on our hill at the side of the house but we made the best of it. Ryan had a good time but was a little unsure about accelerating down the hill at the side of our house.
Getting dressed for the snow...

Playing in the snow...

Sledding in the front yard...

Sliding down the hill...

What fun!!

Happy Valentine's Day

This blog has nothing to do with Valentine's Day besides it is Valentine's Day when I am writing this... I just thought I would post a couple of new videos of Ryan. He is officially walking now-a-days! He assumes the standing position takes off with his arms up high and out at his sides with high stepping knees. He is very proud of himself when he walks and his facial expression shows his pride. I would say he is walking about 50%of the time now. Crawling continues to be significantly faster but like I said, he is proud of his new skill.

I am also amazed each day at how kind and helpful Ryan is, even at his young age. He is constantly trying to share his food with us when we act interested in what he is eating. He has also been known to pick up his shoes and place them on the bakers rack (where they live when not in use) if I leave them on the floor. Here is a short video of Ryan helping me with the laundry this past week.

Tree Down!

So last weekend I learned something new. I can send a picture from my phone to my email account just as if I was sending a text message! Thanks dad for the new info! Because of this new knowledge I can post a picture of my Christmas tree laying on its side. Here it is...

Fun at Home

I am amazed each and every day at Ryan's little (or big) personality! He is at such a fun age and makes us smile and laugh all day. Just wanted to share some pictures of our good times at home...
He continues to enjoy the dishwasher. This is the toy of choice after most meals while I am cleaning up. Yes, I know that is a butter knife in his hand. He empties the silverware compartment and then puts the silverware back into place.

The diaper box has been a big hit. Marc taught him safety first...so he must wear his safety goggles while riding in the box. As soon as the box stops, the goggles come off.

Again, what fun! Ryan has also learned to climb into the box himself. This is more entertainment for Marc and I than fun for Ryan. Ryan tries very diligently to hang onto the top of the box and lift his leg up and over. Usually, after several minutes of trying unsuccessfully (because his leg is normally caught on his arm), he just dives head first into the box, turns himself around and waits for the ride.

Fun with Friends!

We had a fun weekend last weekend! On Saturday Kim and Lauren came up to visit and play! We had a great time. I think every toy in the house was played with. Ryan even walked for the first time! I think he took a cue from Lauren who was running circles around him. We were sitting around talking and suddenly from the corner of our eyes, Ryan was up on two feet walking toward a toy, even without any coaxing. He probably walked about 8 feet and we were very happy. Here a few pictures of the kids playing...it was tough to get them to both stand still and smile at the same time.


On Sunday, we took a drive to see Aunt Libby, Uncle Art and cousin Joaquin. The boys had fun together and it was good to see them. Again, it was rather difficult to capture a good picture but here is Ryan sharing his snacks with Joaquin!