July 4th is definitely Kaitlyn’s holiday! She is so independent! Her new thing to say if you ask her if she needs help is, “No, I got this.” Thanks to her Daddy. 
July 4th was a nice day. We spent the day with Papito, Mimi, Aunt Veronica, Uncle T, & Aunt Valerie. She had a pedicure by her Aunt Valerie & mommy. Aunt Valerie got some bubbles for her feet that ended up turning them pink! Most of it came off. Now she is sporting pink toenails with white polka dots. We also went to a local festival where Uncle T played his trumpet, and she enjpyed it. After the festival we bought some fireworks and Uncle T & Daddy put on a show for everyone.
As for other things going on, Kaitlyn’s vocabulary has exploded! She talks so much now! She tells stories, and carries on pretty good conversations. It’s still hard to believe she’s getting so big! Bottles are finally a thing of the past. We weren’t sure we were going to survive that one, but we did! Kaitlyn loves summertime. She is a total water baby. She loves the beach & the pool. Tomorrow she is going to try a dance class. The class is only a month long and includes tap & ballet. The tricky part is that she is going in the class all by herself… for an hour! I hope she enjoys it!
Other than that we are all the same. Enjoying all of the fun times she brings to us and looking forward to many more. If you are on Facebook, make sure you become friends with me (Mommy), so you can see more pictures of Kaitlyn! We hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!
Kaitlyn saw her 1st snow this past weekend! We’ve had warnings a couple of times this year, but nothing ever came of it. Well, the news said it would snow around 6:00pm, and at 6:04 it started snowing! We took Kaitlyn out briefly that evening, but decided to wake her up early the next morning to play. We bundled her up and let her go. It was cute seeing her try to walk in the snow. She wasn’t too sure of it at first, but then she took off. We threw snow at each other, made a couple of snowmen, and Kaitlyn made her 1st snow angel!
Not too much has gone on the past month. We celebrated New Year’s, and yes, we all stayed up (even Kaitlyn)! Kaitlyn had another follow up appointment at MUSC’s High Risk Clinic. They like to see how she is developing since she was premature, and she is ahead of the game! Who would have ever thought you wouldn’t be able to tell she was 8 weeks early! She acts like any other two year old. We celebrated Sean’s birthday and Kaitlyn sang Happy Birthday. She was practicing for two weeks before his birthday. Now she’s singing Happy Birthday Onica, since she is next.
Next Tuesday is Veronica’s birthday, and next Friday will be her big Quince. We have family and friends coming in from all over to celebrate with us. Kaitlyn is going to wear her dress from Uncle Anthony & Aunt Katie’s wedding. We’ll share pictures once it is over. We hope all of our family and friends are having a wonderful 2010! So far, so good for us!
So this year was Kaitlyn’s 3rd Christmas! It is fun seeing how different each year is as she grows. This year her main gift was a train set. She LOVES it! She also got a piano, some clothes (which she wasn’t impressed with), puzzles, a stroller, babies, and more. We enjoyed celebrating Christmas with our family and friends! I love getting together with everyone!
Kaitlyn is continuing to amaze us on a daily basis! Her vocabulary has grown so much, she definitely isn’t a baby anymore. She carries on conversations with us and definitely makes sure we know what she wants. Our goals for 2010 are for Kaitlyn to be potty trained and to get rid of bottles (she still has about 2 a day – in the morning and before bed).
We do not really have any plans as to how we are going to ring in the new year, but we’ll see if we all stay up until midnight. Somehow I do not think Kaitlyn will have a problem. 
Thank you to all of our family and friends for making 2009 a wonderful year. We are looking forward to the new adventures 2010 will bring!
So I always say I’ll do better about posting, but I know that isn’t going to happen, so here is another update. Since my last post we took our trip to New York City and Anthony & Katie got married!
Our trip to New York City was amazing! The plane ride there was great. Kaitlyn loved being on a plane. Getting off however was another story. We had to make a connection in Atlanta, and she cried all the way off the plane to the next terminal. She eventually calmed down, but wasn’t happy about getting off when we landed in NY either. Our hotel was great too. We stayed right in Time Square! Our first day there we visited Toys R Us and rode the ferris wheel inside the store, went to FAO Schwartz, went to Whole Foods, and ate at Roxy’s. The next day Sean had to attend a conference for work so Kaitlyn, Papito and I explored NYC. We walked to Central Park, went to the Central Park Zoo, visited St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Rockefeller Center, and just took in everything around us. That night, while on our way to dinner, we passed a theater where “In The Heights” was playing. There was a lady that worked for them that asked if we were interested in entering the lottery. My cousin Sandy told me about this. Different shows offer a lottery, where you can discounted front row tickets, a few hours before a show. We entered and won 2 seats for a great price. So for dinner, we grabbed a pizza and headed back to the hotel to eat then Sean and I went to the show. The show was fantastic! While Sean and I were at the broadway show, Papito and Kaitlyn ate some NY Cheesecake and lounged in the hotel. Kaitlyn had cheesecake each night we were there! The next day (Tuesday) Papito, Kaitlyn and I walked to the American Museum of Natural History. It was a long walk! The museum was very nice. Kaitlyn had fun looking at all of the animals, hanging on the railings, and posing for pictures. After walking around the museum for a couple of hours, we met Sean in Central Park then headed to the Apple store where he picked himself up an early Christmas present. Sean had to head back to his conference, so the three of us walked down 5th Avenue. We walked through Macy’s and saw the Christmas windows at Lord Taylor. We then headed back to the hotel, waited for Sean, and ate at an Irish pub right around the corner from our hotel. It was great by the way! Now onto Wednesday… the three of us ventured onto the Subway this time! We took the subway to the Staten Island Ferry. We rode the ferry both ways and saw the Statue of Liberty, Brooklyn Bridge, and the city skyline. Kaitlyn enjoyed the ferry. We then took the subway to Little Italy. I must say Little Italy was definitely Little! Chinatown is taking over! Papito enjoyed it though! He was able to get some Italian cookies he’s been longing for. We ate lunch at a little Italian restaurant, which was delicious, then heading back to the hotel. Thursday was our last day there. We ate breakfast, bought some last minute gifts, participated in the Duracell’s Power the Decade (see a photo of us http://powerlab.duracell.com/?p=80), then checked out of the hotel and waited to head to the airport. Our flight was a little delayed due to a power outage earlier that morning, but we eventually made it home! So all in all, we had an amazing trip! Definitely something we will do again.
Now on to the Wedding!!! December 12th, Uncle Anthony and Aunt Katie were married! It was an amazing day! Family and friends started arriving the Tuesday before and helped with flowers, favors, and any other last minute details that popped up. I spent the morning of the wedding with the beautiful bride. She was so happy and calm the whole morning. We got our hair done, make up done, then once the photographer arrived, she got dressed. Se was beautiful! Sean spent the morning with Kaitlyn then met up with Anthony to fulfill his duties as Best Man. I have to say, being in the bridal party was definitely more stressful than being the bride! We ran into a few bumps that day, but made sure the bride and groom knew nothing of them and just enjoyed their day! The ceremony was beautiful, the reception was a blast, and the next day was filled with much needed rest! Anthony and Katie headed off to their honeymoon the day after the wedding. They stopped in Savannah, Daytona Beach then Disney World! Needless to say, we couldn’t wait for them to come home. As soon as their photographer posts pictures, we will be sure to share the link so those of you who could not make it can have a glimpse of their special day.
Well tomorrow is Christmas Eve, and I definitely cannot believe Christmas came so quickly! The tree is up, presents are wrapped, and family plans are made. We wish everyone a Very Merry Christmas! Love you all! – The Ryan Family
Fall is here! Well, Fall as it is in the South. 60 degrees one day, 80 the next. Our little 2 year old is fantastic! Her vocabulary is expanding daily. Her new favorite word is “OK.” If you ask her to do something, she’ll say “OK!” of course that’s when she chooses to not say “NO!” The NeNe’s (Uncle Anthony, Aunt Veronica & Aunt Katie) have also taught her “Woah Baby!” If she trips or something falls, that usually results with a “Woah Baby” response from Kaitlyn. It’s pretty cute. She is also starting to link more words together to form sentences which is exciting but scary. I love that she is able to talk to us more, but that also means that she is growing up and I don’t think I like that. She is no longer a baby, definitely a toddler!
Her 2 year check up went well. She does Not like going to the Dr’s! She now knows as soon as we turn into the parking lot and starts saying NO! Then we get inside and she’s very clingy. And once the nurse opens the door and calls her name, you can forget about it. She immediately starts saying NO and crying the whole way to the exam room. Kaitlyn is well known by the staff because she just cries at the sight of someone in the medical profession. She usually calms down once in the exam room while we wait for the nurse to come get us again to get weighed, and then it starts all over again. She cries the whole time on the scale, which by the way, she went on the big girl scale last time (the normal standing up scale). She weighed 25lbs! She is in about the 25th percentile for height & weight, and the 75th percentile for her head size. Of course there were shots, seems like every appointment comes with shots, but the best news was that she is all caught up with her peers! You can no longer tell she was a preemie! We have a high risk appointment at MUSC next month, where they follow her progress. I’m excited to see what the Dr.’s there say.
Another piece of big news is that we are heading to New York City! Sean is going for a work conference so Kaitlyn, Papito and I will be joining him. I am super excited as it is going to be my 1st trip to NYC! We are going the week before Thanksgiving so I can’t wait to see everything decorated. If you have any tips and/or suggestions on places to go, please share. I will definitely share our experience when we come back.
We had a wonderful day today! Had a nice party with family and friends. Kaitlyn is getting so big. Her vocabulary has expanded so much over the past few months. She is linking between 3 and 4 words together, tells us stories about her day, and is just so much fun. We are so lucky to have such a wonderful little girl!
Sorry again for the lack of posts. I promise our lives aren’t that busy, it just always slips my mind to post on here. Kaitlyn has been doing great, as always! She’s getting bigger and bigger each day, and her vocabulary is just expanding so much. She loves to relive moments and tell us about them. I love the way she uses hand gestures to try to tell us what she’s saying. She also is getting much better at linking words together like Down Please, Thank You Daddy, Hi Mommy, I Need That (and of course she needs everything!), and a few more. I really just need to sit down one day and write down all of the words she can say now.
Have I mentioned she can run fast?!? She loves to be chased and she really takes off when we chase her. As most of you know I work at The Little Gym. Kaitlyn takes classes there Thursdays with Sean and has already learned a lot. Her new favorite thing to do is hang off of the parallel bars. Her love for hanging on the bars has come too. The other day she decided to grip onto Papito’s countertops and hang from there, and she also grabbed onto the grocery cart handle and hung from there too.
Kaitlyn is obsessed with Elmo. She has known who Elmo is for a while now even though she never really watched Sesame Street. Papito bought Kaitlyn an Elmo Goes Potty DVD as well as one of Elmo’s movies and she always asks to watch Elmo. She also enjoys singing. We bought her a Playhouse Disney CD to play while we’re in the car and she LOVES the Ooh Ooh & Aah Aah song. It’s adorable listening to her singing the song. She’s always loved music though! She still enjoys watching the Baby Einstein DVDs and listening to all of that classical music. Oh, have we mentioned Kaitlyn can play the trumpet? Uncle Anthony taught her how to blow into the trumpet and she actually gets a pretty good sound out of it! We have one of Sean’s old ones from college at our house that is with her toys and she plays every couple of days. Who knows, maybe she’ll be a professional trumpet player?
So the next big event is Kaitlyn’s 2nd Birthday! It is hard to believe that in only 19 days, our little baby girl will be 2! She has grown so much lately, you can definitely see the transition into becoming a toddler! It is exciting that she becoming a toddler only because she is starting to do more things, but boy do I miss my little baby. Speaking of birthday, I need to start ordering her decorations. I already have her birthday outfit ordered and her invitations sent, but I still have a lot to do. So on that note, sorry again for the lack of posts but for those of you that still read this just email me when I start getting lazy again! We love you all!
Sorry for the lack of posts, we have been pretty busy lately. As Sean mentioned, Kaitlyn is now an owner of a Big Girl Bed! She has been doing great sleeping in her own bed in her own room too! She tends to wake up around the 2am hour most nights, but last night she slept in there the whole night! Needless to say, Sean and I have been sleeping better.
And again, as Sean mentioned, her ears are pierced! One of the earrings actually came out the first night in her big girl bed, but thankfully I got it back in. She looks so grown up now!
Her vocabulary is getting bigger too! She really wants to carry on conversations with us. She uses hand gestures when telling us stories, it’s so cute. Her two most recent words are “Ow” and “No.”
Eating is about the same. Kaitlyn likes to munch more than sit down for a meal, but we’re working on it. She is a fan of almost all fruits, rice, pizza, cheese, pretzels, and some not so good snacks.
Hope you all had a wonderful Father’s Day!
Two big events in Kaitlyn’s life, all within the last 48 hours.
Number 1 – She is now sporting a nice pair of earrings! Mom took her on Friday to get her ears pierced, though I do believe it was a bit of a spur of the moment kind of thing. Pictures will follow shortly, but they are pink tourmaline studs (one of her birthstones).
It is definitely weird to see my little girl with earrings. Next thing you know she is going to be going out on dates with the little boy next door. I suppose this is all part of growing up, but – and I never thought I would say this – I like her as she is now. Yes, it would be nice if I could translate “A da may,” which seems to have limitless applications for her, but means nothing to most of us. But overall, I like the little girl, and with her ears the way they are now, I feel like we just took the first step away from that.
Number 2 – She is sleeping in her own bed, in her own room!
For those who don’t know, since she came home a year and a half ago, she has been sleeping in our bed with us. This wasn’t a big deal when she was itty bitty, but being the 24 pound whirlwind that she is now became just about unbearable for Mom and I. So we finally bit the bullet and bought her a nice twin bed and put it in her room.
And as of tonight – at least for the last 2 hours – she is officially sleeping in her own room in her own bed! Pictures will be up of this as well.
Now I know what you all are thinking, that this won’t last. But it will. We have made a commitment to make this work, no matter how difficult it becomes.
And, if for some reason we break down…well, at least we have another bed now!
We decided to go on another trip to Disney! Mimi, Papito and Aunt Veronica were going to Orlando for cheerleading and said they were going to go to a park one of the days. I had the time off, so I decided to take Kaitlyn and crash the party. I am so happy we went! While we missed Sean, we had a wonderful time! We stayed at the Coronado Springs resort, very nice by the way, and ended up going to Disney’s Hollywood Studios & Epcot! We really lucked out at Epcot! We were walking around trying to find something kid friendly for Kaitlyn, when we noticed Epcot’s character spot with 5 characters there to meet! The line was a little long, but I didn’t want to pass up the chance for Kaitlyn to see Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Goofy, and Donald! I wasn’t sure how she was going to act since less than a month before that we were in Orlando and had breakfast with the characters. She was not a fan of getting close to the characters at all! I expected the same reaction, but this time was completely different. Once she saw Mickey Mouse, the first character of the 5 to see, she was so excited!!! She did not want to wait her turn, she just wanted to run up to him. I went up to the first two with her, but she did the last three all by herself! She was so sweet too, gave them all a big hug and a kiss. After that character meet, we ended up seeing Chip & Dale, Winnie the Pooh, Tigger, Eeyore, and the Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland. We really lucked out with the characters in Epcot! You can see more pictures on my flickr site (http://www.flickr.com/photos/tori_ryan/).