A date with Sienna (and some beaver poop)

Today, Ryan and I met my friend Chrissy and her daughter Sienna at Powder Valley Conservation Center (near I-270 and I-44). I haven't been there since I did a 6th grade science report on it in 1991. As you can imagine, it's changed quite a bit since then.

If you have kids in the STL area, it's a great (free!) place to spend some time watching fish in a giant aquarium, observing a working bee colony, gazing at deer roaming just outside the window and listening to birds chirping all around. (And there's an area where kids can learn about animal skins, tracks, and yes, even poop.) When the weather warms, they also have a few miles of trails as well.

Neither of us brought our cameras, so the trusty old blackberry filled in -- so pardon the low res images. Here's a few shots from our visit.

Ryan and Sienna pose in a bubble window overlooking an exhibit. Of course, Ryan's trying to escape. He didn't stay still for more than 3 seconds the entire time we were there. I pretty much chased him around the place. Boys will be boys, eh?

Here's Ryan checking out some beaver poop. Not real poop, of course - but gross, nonetheless.

There's a cute area with puppets that you can stick through holes in a mural -- although Ryan chose to try and climb through the holes, of course:

Here's Ryan checking out the big fish in the aquarium.

It was a fun way to get out of the house without spending any $$$ and staying warm (although maybe a little too warm - they could conserve some serious energy by lowering their thermostat about 15 degrees and people would still be comfortable). We even got a sticker of a "green stink bug" when we left as well as a calendar -- talk about a great deal! If your kids love nature, it's worth a trip!

Happy Mardi Gras!

Happy Fat Tuesday! Here's a little Mardi Gras greeting from our house to yours. :)

Stephen and I celebrated this past weekend in Soulard for the parade, including tossing beads to the masses from the Beggin' Strips float:

Ryan is celebrating today via the beads mommy and daddy brought home (and loving it):

Here's proof. Each time we put on a strand, Ryan asked for "mo?" Here he is wearing every strand we have...22 in total. :)

Happy Mardi Gras!

Curious Ryan

Ryan's little brain is working in overdrive in recent weeks. He's starting to repeat words and sounds more frequently, and he notices EVERYTHING. Every beep of the microwave, phone ring, airplane overhead, or bird chirp yields an "uh oh" or even better, an extremely serious face and an "oh no."

We went to our first Gymboree music class this week and Ryan spent most of the class exploring the classroom, trying to open every cabinet (and successfully finding one without a lock, of course), trying to pull out toys and supplies that weren't for our class, and trying to look out the classroom door to see what the kids in the lobby were doing.

The kid can now climb, open, and empty just about anything -- which means we've found him in some interesting places already, such as Nana and Papa's liquor cabinet (yikes), pushing buttons on our printer and trying to jam a baseball bat into the paper output tray, and pulling a kleenex box down so that he can "wipe" his nose and mouth about a thousand times (with a fresh tissue each time, of course).

I'll admit, his curiosity tests my patience every single day -- but it can also be so much fun to watch him explore and discover his surroundings. Enjoy a short clip of one of his new favorite morning activities -- checking out the sunlight that's reflected through our front door glass onto our walls. :)

Happy Saturday

It's a busy weekend at the Trammell house. Tomorrow is the Purina Beggin' Pet Parade in Soulard -- an event that Stephen's been putting together since this past summer. Today the whole family went to the Des Peres Schnucks to check out a live radio promotion to get people excited about and preregistered for the event.

First of all, that Schnucks is amazing. If you live in St. Louis and haven't been there, you should go -- to check out the walk-in wine and cheese cooler if nothing else. :) Go on a Tuesday evening if you can, apparently they have live music to entertain you. And no, I'm not kidding.

Second of all, it might as well have been a carnival for all Ryan knew or cared. He got to ride in (or should I say steer) a shopping cart shaped like a rocket and he even got a red helium balloon. But best of all, he met daddy's beloved "Hamlet," -- the dog on the Beggin' Strips package. Ryan was smiling, poking and waving without any hesitation...and we even grabbed a shot:


Tomorrow, nana and papa will be watching Ryan while Stephen and I staff/attend the parade, including riding the Beggin' float. We'll also be riding the same float in the big Mardi Gras parade next Saturday to toss out beads at the masses. If you're in town and looking for something fun to do tomorrow, bundle up and come enjoy hundreds of dogs in costumes walking through Soulard. :)

Cheers!

Pizza night!

So there's a Friday night tradition that my aunt Ginny and uncle Rich in Iowa hold dear...pizza nights. From what I understand, they have people over to their house and order pizza most Friday nights...friends & family alike. While I've never been to Iowa for a pizza night, whenever my aunt and uncle come to town, they bring the tradition with them.

We missed out on their recent visit to the Lou due to the plague that cursed our house for two weeks after Xmas, but their son (my cousin Brian) and his wife and kids were in town this weekend, so we got another shot at pizza night tonight.

It's always awesome to see my cousins and family that I don't get to see all that often, even though many of them do live in St. Louis -- and tonight was a really fun, but rare chance to see all 5 great grandkids together. Yes, it was chaotic...but it was so much fun watching all of them, wondering if that's what my cousins and I were like back in the day.

They were roaring, hopping like frogs, counting and even reciting spanish to each other. Ok, so Ryan just ran around and watched - but he still had fun. Best of all, we got a shot of great grandma with all of her great-grandkids. I love it. More than you can know.

From left to right, that's Haedyn, Great Grandma Jinnie, Cooper, Grace, Ryan and Natalie.

Yes, my kid's the only one not smiling...but he doesn't quite understand the idea of group photos yet. :) Regardless, it's still a great shot that we'll treasure for a long time to come.

Golden Arches

It had to happen at some point, right? Ryan has accompanied us to McDonalds a time or two in his life, but never really eaten there...until today. Stephen and I took him as a treat (after he patiently hung out with us on a few errands this morning) and today, Ryan had his very first happy meal.

Seriously, it was a very happy meal. :) Ryan was all smiles:

Let's just say that chicken nuggets were a hit:

Ok, ok, so were the fries:

Here's Ryan and daddy with the famous arches:

Ryan's favorite part of the meal? Probably the Alvin and the Chipmunks "The Squeakquel" toy - a little girl chipmunk that says "it's so beautiful" when you push her head. You can bet we heard that line about 1,000 times on the short car ride home.

All in all, Ryan went through another rite of passage to toddlerdom today -- add that to his newfound ability to spin until he's so dizzy he falls down, to "wink" (i.e. squinting both eyes like he's eating something really sour), and his slowly increasing vocabulary (i.e. saying "backpack" when he sees Dora the Explorer, "papa" anytime he sees a man in a hat, etc.) and you've got a kid who is growing up fast!

Now that things have settled down from the holidays and we're all well again after a long bout with a nasty cold virus, I hope to be posting more often. Love to you all!

Holiday-palooza

Hello, everyone! The Trammell house is recovering from our Christmas and New Year celebrations...unfortunately with nasty colds. While we're quarantined, I thought I'd post just a few pics from the last weeks to share some of our fun and excitement. Apparently I was so busy having fun that I took very few pictures. (whoops)

We celebrated Christmas with the Mungenast family on xmas eve, and the Trammell family on xmas day. Stephen's parents stayed with us over the holiday, so Ryan got some quality time with Grandma and Papa Trammell and loved every minute. Next, cousin Jayden from Tulsa came to visit, along with Aunt Jennifer, Uncle Zach and cousins Tyler and Conner from Virginia. They stayed for the week after xmas. We had a full house, but it was so much fun!

Ryan isn't quite ready to hold his own with his 8.5, 6.5 and 3.5 yr-old cousins. While he can't keep up, he still had fun watching them playing and being entertained by their funny faces, hugs and kisses. He also is beginning to work on his first set of molars, so he was extra drooly and whiny, which was awesome. Add in his cold and you've got a recipe for an extra fun toddler... :) Despite all the drool and snot, we truly enjoyed our holidays this year!

People often say that Ryan "looks like a little man," so we dressed him like a little gentleman for xmas eve:

Ryan and cousin Haedyn (22 months) had a ball on xmas eve playing with bows, new toys and each other. The vast majority of the time, they looooove each other (hence this smooch):

But sometimes, things get a little competitive, especially when they stay up waaaay past their bedtimes, hence the following shove: (I love that I caught this at the perfect moment..it makes me giggle every time I look at it, so I had to share)

Santa even paid us a visit at Nana and Papa Mungenast's house on xmas eve!

Ryan was super excited about his loot from Santa, including his new favorite lounge spot, his personalized mini arm chair.

Here's a cute shot of Ryan looking like a little elf:

Aunt Karyn, Uncle Lucas and cousin Autumn (1 day older than Ryan) joined us on xmas day, along with Grandma and Papa Trammell, and the kids had a ball playing around each other. Autumn has recently started saying "Ra Ra" when she sees Ryan (or Stephen or me for that matter), and Ryan loves it so much that he too says "Ra Ra" now.

Here's a shot of all the cousins on the Trammell side -- a rare photo opp: (from left to right - Autumn, 14 months; Jayden, 8.5; Ryan, 14 months; Conner, 3.5; and Tyler, 6.5)

Going in to the holidays, I'll admit that I was a little worried that I'd be so busy playing hostess that I wouldn't get to enjoy them as much -- and coming out of a crazy two weeks, I can honestly say that I loved every minute and I'm so grateful that we were able to spend as much time as we did with our family.

Here's to a happy, healthy 2010!