Ricks Siblings, East and West

The weather is turning way cold this week and I don’t know how much longer he will be able to do it, but dad has been coming down a couple of times a week to take Cayelle on a stroller ride (for running exercise) and then he takes time to read to her. He bikes most of the way here too. Yeah, that’s a lot of exercising. Cayelle has two board books that I allow her to chew on, so she gets her “chew book” and then Opa will read to her. She is getting to know him better and becoming more comfortable with him (in general, Cayelle does much worse with unfamiliar males than she does with unfamiliar females).

Opa is ready to take Cayelle on a brisk morning (note Opa’s bike in the background—he really bikes before he runs).

Cayelle’s got her chew book.

Cayelle was on the go most of today, but she loved it. In the morning she went with Ryan to run lots of errands. Then we went on a family outing. We ate at Chili’s for lunch and then we went to Barnes and Noble. Cayelle just loves her books, so we went to the children’s book section to get some books for her. We got a “Taggies” board book and two Mo Willems’ books (The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog! and Knuffle Bunny). They are all very cute and Cayelle especially loves to play with her new board book. In the evening I took Cayelle to the city center park where they have great little kid swings. She absolutely loved them. Note her two bottom teeth that came in the week she turned 6 months old.

I love being a mom. Cayelle is so much fun.

Well, today Sariah (Ryan’s brother’s wife) and I took Kason and Cayelle to get their pictures taken as a surprise for Mary on Mother’s Day. The pictures turned out great and we even got the CD of the pictures, so I get to play, play, play with the pictures and post and send them where I want. It’s tons of fun. Cayelle is pretty difficult to get to smile during photo shoots, but they were able to get some cute pictures of her. The bird’s eye picture of Cayelle and Kason is way cute. Also, there is one where we put Kason’s arm around Cayelle—we weren’t fast enough to get the candid shot where he did that on his own and leaned over toward Cayelle making it look like he was going to give her a kiss on the cheek. It was adorable. Cayelle’s got a fun rainbow-colored dress on, huh?

I was able to convince Ryan to come with Cayelle and me to the tulip festival held at the Thanksgiving Point Gardens. Rather unfortunately, it turned out to be an expensive walk (yes, you have to pay to get into their gardens) with very few tulips. I don’t know if it is just a bit too early or if it has just been too cold, but it was disappointing. It was fun to get out for a family activity, though. There were two patches of tulips in the Children’s Discovery Garden part of the gardens, so I got a picture there, but Ryan was quick to point out that taking such a picture does not reflect our experience in general. Oh, well. Cayelle was sure cute in her sun dress with matching pant and bonnet. Little girls have such adorable clothes.
We also went over to Ryan’s parents to swim last night, but it was too windy. Cayelle will definitely get a chance to swim sometime soon, though. Hopefully she’ll like it. There is no doubt about it—we’re ready for spring.

Okay, okay, so I helped ruffle Cayelle’s hair to create the “bed head” look, but I really just love these pink pajamas. They came with a matching hat, but then you wouldn’t be able to see her bed head, would you? Ryan likes the second picture better, so I thought I would add it in.

Cayelle is wearing green today, so nobody should be pinching her. She doesn’t quite fit the onesie, but we decided that St. Patrick’s Day was the perfect day for her to wear her “green babies rule!” onesie. It is also Ryan’s birthday today, so I got a picture of the two of them together. The onesie came from the gift shop at the “Wicked” musical gift shop—I couldn’t resist the shot of the back of her onesie. Sorry about the picture problems. I will have Robert teach me how to do this, so you can actually see the pictures.

 

I invited myself to dinner at mom’s house since Ryan is working tonight. Cayelle and I weren’t even late to dinner (quite a feat for the two of us ). I enjoyed mom’s dinner and mom took lots of pictures of Cayelle—she has a red and white polka dot theme today (her socks match her bow, but you just can’t see them). Enjoy the picture.   Polka Dot Cayelle