Week 136

Thanksgiving.

This was another good week for Ryan.  Actually, it was an Outstanding Week for Ryan.  He only had school on Monday and Tuesday and for both days he came home with Outstanding certificates.  We could not have been happier with Ryan at school and I am glad to see that his teachers recognize his effort.

On Wednesday we had Aunt Anne, Uncle Chris, Megan, and Kate come in from Pittsburgh, PA as well as Grandma.  We are not going to see the Pittsburgh crew for Christmas so we exchanged presents on this trip.  One of the presents Ryan received was a small Cars Lego set.  He sat down and put the entire set together with very little help.  He sat down at the kitchen table and followed the directions.  He did a great job putting the set together.

On Thanksgiving day, we packed up and went to Nonna and Papa's house.  All the cousins had a great time playing together.  Ryan even participated in a small performance for all the adults in his Thanksgiving hat.

On Saturday, we had a baby shower to attend at Aunt Marg and Uncle Jim's house.  Phil's cousin is pregnant and instead of a traditional baby shower they decided to make it an after Thanksgiving family gathering.   Our only reservation about going to the party was the dogs.  They have two dogs.  Aunt Marg texted Dawn pictures of the dogs and we had been preparing Ryan for them.  For those that have forgotten, Ryan is afraid of dogs and wants to know when we go to a new house if they have a dog.  Aunt Marg and Uncle Jim kept the dogs outside and Ryan even ventured outside to throw the dog toys to the dogs.  Granted, he stayed behind the invisible fence so the dogs could not get to him but he did have fun throwing the toys to the dogs.  They also had a room set aside for all the kids to play in and both Ryan and Julia spent most of the time in this room playing.  During this party we learned that Ryan has a new skill.  He learned how to open a soda can and when he was finished he crushed it with one hand!  He told me that when you finish a can you had to crush it!  When I asked him where he learned that from he told me TV.  Not to be left out, Ryan shared his new found knowledge with his sister who was very happy to learn how to open a soda can.

Jack turned four months this week!

On Sunday, we decided to get a jump on decorating for the Christmas season.  The kids were very excited to help decorate the Barbie tree.  Dawn has been collecting Barbie ornaments for years and now has enough to fill a whole tree.  We also welcomed back our Elf on the Shelf, Andy (named after Andy from Toy Story).  We have caught Ryan going up and talking to Andy quietly about what he wants for Christmas.  It is very cute.  They are all very excited for the Christmas season!

PC