Cruisin'

Today was a beautiful day for a drive, and we did just that with Gigi and Pop Pop in their convertible. We put on our sunglasses, turned on the tunes, and sat back and enjoyed the wind blowing through our hair. It is getting a little windy in our world!

21 Months Old

So from what we understand 21 months is no big feat...I'm mean we don't celebrate it or anything like that (does ice cream count?). Although this may be true, we thought we'd share a little bit of what we've been up to since everyone keeps telling us how much we've grown up in the last two months. Our biggest change is the amount of words we know. I think Mommy has lost count by now, but trust us it's a lot. I would have to agree with Mom that our favorite word is "no", but we are capable of using others. Lily tends to label things and she repeats everything you say. The scary thing is, is that she usually remembers it and spits it back out a few days later. I on the other hand am not a labeler. I speak usually in short phrases or sentences with my favorite lately being "read a book". Due to my ability to use so many words at once Mommy and Daddy have a harder time understanding me and I don't always get what I want, but it really doesn't bother me all that much. Both Lily and I are counting to 10 although we both tend to skip 4 and 7 now and then. We also love to sing our ABC's with J through Q being hit or miss, although we have the end of the song down..."Now I know my ABC's next time won't you sing with ME" (we love the "me" part)! We're getting there on the letters though and now we've started learning our colors and shapes too. Lily has pink down pat...go figure she's a girl. We're also learning some Spanish thanks to Gigi and Pop Pop. We definitely understand it a little better than we speak it, but we're not giving up yet. Another big change is that I have reached my terrible twos a few months early...at least that's what people are telling me. I will admit I hate getting my diaper changed, I hate getting dressed, I hate wearing a bib, I hate it when Lily tries to play with our toys, and I hate it when people try to help feed me, but other than that I'm a pretty easy guy to get along with. Things can't be all that bad though because we have really taken to helping out around the house. We love watering Pop Pop's plants, feeding Wrigley, and we're pretty cooperative when it comes to cleaning up our toys. All in all I'd say we're growing up fast in our world!

Our Busy Weekend

We were busy all weekend visiting friends and family. Saturday we spent the afternoon at our cousin, Ava's, house. We tested out all of her toys as well as a desk chair that spins...so cool! Sunday we drove up to McHenry, Illinois, to visit Lily's godparents, Mark and Mollie, and our friends, Kyra, Owen, and Will. We drank from Sesame Street cups and played with more great toys. We never knew we had so many friends in the Midwest, and Mom and Dad said we haven't even met them all yet. We're staying crazy busy in our world!

Indiana

Today we visited another fun state...Indiana. We got to see our friend, Jack, and our friends from Milwaukee, Lacey and London, met us there as well. We had lots of fun at the park and running around Jack's house. We slept the whole way home so I think we wore ourselves out...no, I know we wore ourselves out. We were a little bummed that we didn't get to go swimming while we were there, but Mommy made up for it by letting us go once we got home. Pop Pop even set up our sprinkler, which I'm still a little unsure of, but Lily enjoyed herself. Wrigley taught us a new trick too...drinking from the pool. Mom wasn't too happy we learned that one. We're sure enjoying our journeys in our world!

Potty Update

Lily here. Things haven't been very lively on the potty front in our world. Today was the first day I actually went at Gigi and Pop Pop's house. I think that makes 3 times total that I've actually gone since beginning this adventure in early June. I try a lot, but it usually results in nothing. As you can see Ryan's potty chair is empty, and that's how it usually is. He has tried a few times with no luck, and I think the only reason he tries is because I'm doing it. Mom and Dad even bought us a potty ring for downstairs, but we haven't been any more successful with that. It is fun to sit on though and we love washing our hands when we're done. That part is even better then actually going potty. Oh well at least we can say we try.

Bye Bye Marcus

We had a good-bye party for our third cousin, Marcus, today since he has to go back to Texas. We had tons of fun trying all sorts of new things. I played a game called Bags and blew bubbles with my cousins Michele and Ava, and my friend, Jalen. Lily and I also got to eat pulled pork sandwiches and eat corn on the cob. Mom and Dad even let us eat it right off of the cob which was great! We'll miss you Marcus!

Shedd Aquarium

We took our first choo-choo ride today (or train ride as Mom and Dad would say). It was a blast taking the Metra into Chicago to go to the Shedd Aquarium, but I missed part of it because I snuck a catnap in before we got to the aquarium. The aquarium was huge and we walked around for hours. Lily's favorite animals were all of the turtles they had, and trust me they had a lot of turtles...some even bigger than us. My favorite thing was the giant circular fish tank right when you first walked in. They had so many different animals in there it was crazy. We also got to sit in a canoe and play in the water. After we were done we stopped by the gift shop for a little souvenir and of course Lily found a cool stuffed turtle. I found new plates with all sorts of sea animals on them. Leave it to me to pick something related to food while at an aquarium. The choo-choo ride home was even more fun than the ride into the city, and Mom and Dad said we'll get to do it again soon. We're just chugging along in our world!

The Fourth Of July

We waited all day for the rain to stop so that we could go outside and celebrate the Fourth of July, but that never happened. Instead, we found lots of ways to entertain ourselves in the house and garage. We had a blast trying to eat bubbles with Titi Molly, and we practiced our gymnastics skills with her too. Uncle Craig set up my choo-choo track, and I think he secretly had as much fun as I did playing with it. Gigi let me play dominoes with her, and Titi Maria bought us big kid underwear which we decided to wear on our heads. Guess what, mine was even Thomas the Train underwear so this potty chair thing isn't looking so bad after all. Mom and Dad bought us balloons to play with, and everyone, including Great-Grandma Ruiz, or Great Gigi as we like to call her, wanted to squeeze us. The squeezing we could do without, but we loved all of the attention everyone gave us, and we can't wait to do it again next year. Unfortunately we didn't stay up long enough to see any fireworks, but we heard them all day long, which is good enough for us. Boom boom from our world!