Christmas Ryan-isms

As usual, Ryan provided many entertaining one-liners today. I wish I would have written them all down, but here are a few that I can remember. It was a really big day for him and I'm shocked we made it through without a single tantrum. We came close, but were able to talk him down off the ceiling prior to a full eruption.

- Last night at my mom's house, we all went around and said a quick prayer before dinner (all 20 something of us!) and most of us thanked God for family, health, stuff like that. But when it came to Ryan's turn, this was his prayer, "Dear Jesus, I just love you and I pray that you would help me not to pee pee in my diaper [at night]. In Jesus' name. Amen."

- We opened presents fairly sporadically throughout the morning today. Part of this was by design, but it was also partly because Ryan would become so excited about a new toy (or that everyone he loves most was in the same house) that he would need to stop and play for a bit. I've noticed over the years that he tends to get overwhelmed when there are lots of people or too much activity going on. After playing with a remote control helicopter for almost an hour, the battery went dead and we suggested he start opening the gifts from Mike's parents. He was completely disinterested. I ended up asking him to sit on my lap and that seemed to ground him for a little while and calm him down enough to open the rest of his presents. Initially, I had to explain that we look for his name on the tag, then he had to actually see what it was before tossing it aside. (there were some puzzles, Dr. Suess books and other non-battery operated gifts that may not seem interesting at first, but that I know he'll come to love!)

- With all of the great new toys the kids have, I'm going to officially start instituting time for them to play alone. I haven't done this since I had Kaylin and they don't play by themselves for very long anymore. But man, with all of the new-ness today, I hardly saw them! I read my new scrapbooking book in the family room for 45 minutes straight tonight while they played in the play room, together and separately. So every day, they'll get a new toy or two and we'll work up to a good amount of daily time that they play together without Mommy while I make dinner or do chores around the house. I had Ryan content for almost an hour alone when we first moved into the house. He got some much-needed down time and was able to play independently like a big boy. Then I ruined it by potty training him and following him around the house to make sure he wasn't having an accident!