New cousin!

It's a banner year for babies in our combined extended families. Ryan welcomed new cousin Everly Rose from afar in early May, and this week he got to welcome Leighton Elise in person.

The whole way to the hospital I was peppered with questions like "Can I sing to Leighton? Will she like my do-do-do song? What about twinkle twinkle? Can I hold her? Can I snuggle her?" Clearly we've been prepping for a baby in our house too. :) Here's a shot of the proud cousin and his new little friend.
We're hoping to add little sister to the mix here very soon, and cousin "Buddy" soon after that. This fall, Ryan will get yet another little cousin -- so that makes 5 new babies in 2011, and a whole lot of fun! Fingers crossed that our next post will be to introduce you to our new addition!

Fireman Ryan

About a week ago, Ryan got to experience something pretty amazing for a 2.5-yr old. My uncle and godfather is a firefighter and paramedic for the city of Creve Coeur, and Uncle Russ (& Aunt Gayle too) gave us the tour of a lifetime.

Ryan has a play firehouse in his room and plays with his firemen and fire truck every single day, so what a treat it was to see the real thing up close! Every single person at the fire house was so kind to us and went out of their way to make Ryan's evening there special -- the people of Creve Coeur are truly lucky to have such wonderful men taking care of them!

Here's a shot of Ryan in his new fireman hat and badge in the garage of the fire house.

Uncle Russ let Ryan explore every inch of the fire truck and ambulance. Ryan is just old enough to ask a zillion questions, so here's Uncle Russ explaining "what does the orange 'clock' do?" (a.k.a., gauges):

It took a little while to warm up to the idea of actually getting in the fire truck, but once he did, the only thing that got Ryan out of the driver's seat was an actual call where the truck was needed.

While Uncle Russ was out on a call, Fireman Scott continued the tour, even putting on his full fire gear for Ryan. (And believe me, it was H-O-T that day, so this guy is dedicated.)

Scott also helped Ryan explore the firetruck and its equipment, including an axe that was bigger than Ryan. :)

A second call came in while we were there, and Scott even let Ryan "help" push the button that activated the alarm/signal on the street to stop traffic so that the ambulance could turn out of the station. It is literally the stuff 2.5-yr old dreams are made of! Ryan also got to watch firemen slide down the pole and was even able to climb the training tower at the back of the station and look out over the city at the top (I think he would have climbed those stairs all day if we'd let him.) To top it all off, once Uncle Russ was back from his call, he took us inside and showed us the kitchen, lounge, sleeping quarters and gym.

We are so blessed to have family who share their time and talents with us, and as you'd imagine, "Uncle Rust" (as Ryan calls him) is a frequent source of conversation at our house these days, and all his firehouse goodies have been keeping us busy ever since our visit. We hope to soon deliver some sweet treats to the firemen as a thank you for letting us invade their station for so long that evening.

Until next time!