I taught Ryan to high five today. It amazes me how quickly he's able to learn stuff. I have told several people recently that with Addison, I watched her every move and could see the long process of her mind developing and learning as I taught her animal sounds, how to play with toys, how to wave bye bye, etc. With Ryan, I am so busy that he constantly surprises me with how much he can do! He puts food on his fork and tries to feed himself. He brushes his hair with the doll brush and tries to put hats on. He will try to feed me Cheerios, and covers up his toys with the blanket so he can pull it off and laugh. A funny thing he does is crawl with the top of his head on the floor, so he can look under and between his legs as he goes. He laughs the whole time and frequently runs into things because he can't see where he's going.


I put shoes on him for the first time about 4 days ago. He hated them and clunked around, falling every step and getting angry, but after just a few minutes, he was able to move fairly well. I have some heavy, wide tennies that were hand me downs, and that's what he's been wearing, so I don't know if it would be better or worse to get some thinner, more flexible shoes for him.


Addie was invited to our friend's daughter's 4th birthday party yesterday. It began at 4:30, and our small group was meeting at our house at that time too, but there were going to be pony rides, so I just had to take her. I was planning on staying for just 30 minutes and then heading home (it's in our neighborhood). Well, the ponies weren't quite set up when we got there, and as it was nearing time to leave, I mentioned to my friend that we were going to head out, but she said I should just leave Addie there and they'd bring her home later. There were kids of all ages and lots of adults, and pizza, juice, snacks, an amazing pony cake, games outside, and the ponies, who came complete with little unicorn horn attachments on their halters. Another friends agreed with Amber and said to leave Addie and they'd all keep an eye on her. I've never left her in a big group like that, and a million things were running through my head - what if she has to potty - will she know who to tell? What if a bigger kid goes outside and Addie sneaks out - who is going to really be watching? What if she doesn't get food? Will someone be sure she gets a plate? If she wanders upstairs, who would notice? But I know Amber very well and she's a great person, and her friend Laura is awesome too, so I swallowed some of my mommy fears (like I did the first time I left Addie at MOPS for 3 hours last year - her first time alone in a classroom for that long with other random kids and adults she didn't know), and came back for our Bible study. At about 7:30, Laura brought Addie home (she has extra carseats in the car) and told me all about the fun things Addie did at the party, including multiple pony rides! Addie was all hyped up on sugar and fun, but I was thrilled she had a good time and was still alive. This is another one of those mommy milestones that you never quite know if you or your baby are ready for - you just do it, because everyone else is doing it and their kids are all fine, so yours will be too. And she was. So this is her first official birthday party without Mommy hovering.

I missed seeing her on the pony, but I'm so glad she got to do it!