1 Year Photo Shoot

Below are the pictures from Charlie's 1 year photo shoot at Sears. I only ordered a couple of pictures because when you go to pick up the pictures they always have 4 extras printed up that they'll sell you for $20 (which is a tremendous deal). So I was hoping they'd print up 4 different poses and offer to sell them to me at their rock bottom price.

My plan sort of backfired. They printed up 2 of Charlie and Caden (my sister's baby) - 1 in black and white and 1 in sepia. Since I was already buying the color one of this pose these didn't really appeal to me. Then I'm thinking they were on to me because the other 2 were just of Caden. Which makes no sense because in our session they took like 20 pictures of Charlie and about 2 of Caden (he was a bit on the hungry side and wouldn't stop crying so Char carted him away pretty quickly).

So we left with the 3 pictures we originally ordered and nothing more. Oh well, at least the ones we originally ordered turned out good.

Tired Kitty

The firm I work for adopted a mile of the Centennial Trail. Yesterday Charlie and I went out and helped clean it up. I'm not sure how much help we were, we were basically just there to support the cause. We did manage to pull several weeds though that were growing too close to the trail. Without us in several years those 10 weeds could have spread their roots and caused the trail to crack a little. You're welcome Spokane. We got home and all I wanted to do was take a nap. Something about weeding nature really wipes me out. So Matt offered to take Charlie on a long walk so the house would be quiet for me.

They managed to walk around the neighborhood for at least an hour. Such a nice treat for mom!

Limbo Dance Elmo

So Charlie's Great-Grandma Nancy told me today that Charlie is afraid of his Limbo Dance Elmo. I didn't believe it (not that I would think she would lie to me, I just couldn't picture it). Charlie's had this doll since Christmas (thanks VanSlykes!) and I've never seen him act afraid of it. In fact, I've never really seen him act afraid of anything.

Turns out she was absolutely right. As soon as Elmo powered up and started his limbo song Charlie's eyes got really big and he slowly started to back away from it.

He crawled up onto my lap and started whimpering. Matt and I got the giggles (that's right, I said giggles), which didn't really help calm him down. We had to shut Elmo off to get Charlie to cheer up.

Hopefully this will blow over soon because I kind of like the way Elmo sings and dances when he's limboing.

Update: I forgot that Charlie's afraid of my mom's dog Quincy and our vacuum. Guess he's not as fearless as I was thinking.

Inappropriate Reading Material?

More images for our 'parenting at it's best' file.
Nothing like reading lingerie ads to get a Sunday morning started off right.

Construction Still in Progress

The swing-set is still under construction. The instructions said to estimate 6-10 hours to put it together. We've blown that estimate way out of the water, we figure we've got about 32 hours into it so far with at least 10 to go.

It's been well worth the work to see little Charlie have so much fun with it though. Worth the work from my end at least (my contribution consisted of staining some of the wood and volunteering my dad to help).

Wheel Watching Baby

So, as many of my friends and family already know, I'm a Wheel Watcher. So, naturally, I'm raising a Wheel Watching Baby. Tonight we were watching the show and Charlie was sitting in front of me reading the latest Baby Bug (thanks Pete and Vanessa for renewing his subscription!). Without looking up from his book he set the book down and clapped after the contestant spun the wheel. It was genius. He actually did it twice in a row. At the exact time that the contestants clapped, he clapped. I couldn't have been more proud.

Anna - go ahead and add this to your list of reasons why I'm really cool (my friend Anna has a running list of cool things I've done in my past...including Stitch and Stir 4-H, giving myself a black eye with an alarm clock and, of course, joining the Wheel of Fortune fan club in middle school and proudly wearing the pin on my coat). Be sure to make a special note that it's a Friday night.

View From the Stroller

It feels like its been forever since I've put up new pictures. Charlie's grandparents left this morning so life is getting back to normal now. Below are just some random pics of Matt playing b-ball and Charlie watching from his stroller.

Charlie Meets His Cousin

Charlotte and Caden just left after a whirlwind of a visit from Phoenix. Hard to say how Charlie felt about his new cousin. He spent most of his energy trying to get close to the baby so he could poke at his eyes and bite his feet.

This is Charlie salivating over Caden's bottle. We're trying to convince Charlie that moving on to a cup is a wise move, however once he saw Caden's bottle got really upset and crawled as fast as he could over to Caden. We made him his own cup of milk but it just wasn't the same and he continued to cry until Caden's bottle was out of sight.

Grandpa Anda and his 2 little grand kids. A side note on Grandpa: this is the first time he's left his tax cave before April 15 in about 30 years. Progress towards retirement is finally being made.

Construction in Progress

This weekend Matt, his dad, my dad, and our brother in law Cage set out to build Charlie a fortress of a swing-set. It's still in progress but they got the base built and the swings installed. I believe it just needs a roof, a slide, a rock wall and a few finishing touches and it will be good to go.

As you can see, swing-sets have changed over the years. I remember having a tire swing and an old metal structure with a few swings and maybe an aluminum slide. This kid is so spoiled and he's barely 1 year old!

Things I Loved About Easter 2007

By Charlie Ryan Ring

I loved getting 2 Easter baskets full of snacks, cups, books and toys.I loved riding in the van facing forward for the first time.

I loved hunting for eggs filled with quarters and treats.

I loved spending time with my mom (don't laugh, she's very cool).

I loved swinging on Great-Grandma's porch.

I loved swinging into Alanna's head (OK, I didn't actually love that, but it happened and I laughed because I wasn't sure how else to react).

The End.

Fun Dad

So I work 8 hours a week from home in my little office downstairs. Yesterday I hear Charlie in the monitor waking up from his nap. By the time I could wrap up what I was doing Matt had scooped him up out of bed and was running around upstairs with him on his shoulders. It's becoming more and more clear every day which one of us is the fun parent.

This is Matt and Charlie taking a hot tub this morning. It was a beautiful and very sunny morning over here in Spokane.

Thanks Grandma Cheryl and Grandpa Ken for the sunglasses. I promise he didn't open the rest of his Easter basket, we know the rules.

Egg Hunt at Shadle Park

Today our playgroup had a little Easter Egg Hunt at the park. The mom's that organized it filled plastic eggs with goldfish crackers and cheerios and we made the kids crawl around for them.

Charlie's got a new reputation as a chow hound. He was caught drinking another kid's bottle, eating grass, eating leaves and eating some kind of nut that had fallen from the tree. I had to keep filling his cup to keep him occupied.

This is our attempt at a group photo. Basically the two babies who don't crawl or walk yet were the only ones that would hold still for the picture.

We finally decided if we wanted them all in 1 picture we were going to have to hold them and actually be in it ourselves.

From left to right is: Charlie, Austin, Lily, Jace, Blake and Cameron.

All in all it was a great way to spend Charlie's birthday. We also met a couple of our other friends, Michelle and Rikki, and their babies for a walk this morning so Charlie was able to see basically every Spokane baby he knows on his birthday.