Best Friends

I just had to share one of my proudest moments as a mom so far....Today, I was holding Ryan and Colin came running up to give him a hug while saying "My best friend Baby Ryan."  Granted, I am not sure he knows what that means, it has to be one of my biggest hopes....that Colin and Ryan will be best friends (but not forget about their mama!)

Lake Chelan

We had a wonderful few weekends in Lake Chelan this summer.  Colin loves the "Yake House" and all the exciting things he gets to do there....flashlight hide and seek, golf, picking apples, watching the horses, walking Mookie and so much more.  What an amazing place to have some family memories....I love the memories I have of Chelan as a child and I really hope Colin and Ryan love it just as much!

Baby Ryan!

Well, this is only 3 months late, but at least it is being posted!

Ryan Andrew Sullivan joined the world on July 9, 2012.  He weighed 8lbs 4oz and was 21.5" long!  A quick recap of the story (and no this isn't edited to sound easier since it is so late, it really was an "easy" process!)

On Saturday, July 7th, I started feeling some interesting feelings and timed these contractions, but they were still at least 8-10 minutes apart and once I went to sleep, they seemed to go away.  Well, on Sunday the 8th, Matt had a softball game and we decided to go to the game and let Colin play with Drew and let Matt play a little ball.  As I was sitting with a friend watching the kids and watching the game, I noticed more and more contractions, but they never really hurt.  That continued and after the game, we decided to go to dinner to celebrate Matt's birthday a day early.  Good thing we did because....

By 8pm, we decided to head to the hospital and once they checked me in we realized this was happening sooner rather than later!  Babysitters came for Colin and after a seemingly short night of labor (short after I got the epidural) Baby Ryan Andrew Sullivan joined our family.

His name is the middle names of my brothers and we just loved him from the minute he joined us!

The Happiest Place on Earth

We decided to one last trip before the new baby would arrive, so we booked a trip to California with my parents.  Colin was excited to go on the airplane and we were excited that he had his own seat on the plane! We stayed at the Marriott Newport Villas which is a great resort and very family friendly, I hope we can go back.  Colin loved playing golf on the putting green.  Of course we had to make a trip to Disneyland!

Marking his ball

Future pro?

Walking on the beach with Nana and Papa 

Chubby pregnant face

Dumbo ride!

Does everyone come back from Disneyland with a picture like this?

Yes, we put our almost 2 year old on a roller coaster!

Not sure if he liked it or not....

Where have I been?

Somewhere between Colin moving from his highchair (see last post) to having a new baby, I guess I decided blogging had to take a backseat.  Funny how time flies!  Well, since it has been almost exactly a year, I thought I would add some pictures.  We had a Halloween, Christmas, 2nd birthday party and so much more.    Just a few pictures....

Thank you to Jonah for taking family pictures!

Christmas Ships!

2nd birthday party at Touch a Truck 

Nana made a truck cake!

Who's the Boss?

Yesterday, when I was on my hands and knees picking up goldfish crackers while Colin was devilishly (is that a word?) laughing in his high chair I realized something....we like to think as parents that we are "in charge" there is just no way that is true.

Did you ever read the book "Seinlanguage"? There is a chapter where Seinfeld writes that if aliens are looking down at us, they will think dogs run the world since they lead us around by their leashes and pick up their poo. Well, I would like to propose a change...the aliens would think dogs and babies run the world. Like the dogs, we clean up their poo, but in addition, we make ourselves look silly by singing funny songs, making funny faces and picking up food that they throw on the ground while laughing at us.

That is all - I will try to write a more serious update soon!

Thoughts on 9/11 for the next generation

There are a lot of images today; pictures and video of the tragedy and the heros from that day, 10 years ago. I have been reflecting on how we will explain this to Colin when he is old enough to understand a little more and one thing became clear. Of course it is important to remember the actual event and every 9/11 we will say a prayer for the lives lost that day. The thing that I really hope to show him though was the unity in the hours and days after. I was away from my family at Gonzaga, but was able to have a candlelight vigil with my Zag family. There was an obvious connection that you could feel with everyone around you. Remember how people just tried to look each other in the eye and smile a little more?
There is no way our generation's children will ever fully understand the feeling that day (to be honest, there is no way I can fully understand how it felt to be directly impacted by the events) but I guess my hope is that when Colin sees my tearing up when we are watching the memorials on TV - we can have a conversation about not waiting for a tragedy to want to look strangers in the eye and give them a smile; that we don't have to wait for a tragic event to say thank you to the firefighters, police and serrvice men and women.