Oreo Truffles

Oreo Truffle anyone?

Ryann the Explorer

Ryann loves to try new things and copy people. She recently learned how to undo the chest buckle on her car seat. Yes, you read that right, our 20 month old daughter figured out how to undo a car seat chest buckle. Luckily we had a back up car seat that has a buckle that is harder to undo. So I switched out the buckle, so I could keep the cute pink and brown car seat in my car, and now she is stuck and safe.
On one particular day Ryann kept climbing beside the couch and getting herself stuck. I would pull her out and straight back in she went.

I have no idea why she was doing it. There weren't any toys that had fallen down there, who knows what she was thinking.

Eventually I got tired of pulling her out so I just let her stay stuck and try to figure out how to get herself out. She couldn't get out, got upset, and of course mommy came to the rescue.
When I am getting ready in the morning I just shut the bedroom door and turn on cartoons for Ryann to try to keep her occupied. Of course that doesn't work for long and she wanders into the bathroom and begins pulling apart all the drawers. One time I thought she was just being so good because she hadn't come in the bathroom and pulled it apart. When I got out of the shower, I found this in the bedroom...

She had climbed into the box and was stuck. She wasn't upset at all. I pulled her out and she carried the box around the room...

and got back in and got stuck again. Silly girl!

Boxes are just too tempting, Ryann can't stay out of them. Luckily she doesn't get stuck in all of them. Most of the time she climbs into things that are big enough for her to move around in and get out.
Ryann found a new push toy...

her high chair. She will pull it out from the wall and push it around the kitchen. She puts her dolls in the opening in the back and pushes them around. She also climbs under it too. Amazing how many things you can think of to do with a high chair.
I'm not to excited Ryann figured this out...

She figured out if she stands on the step stool she can reach even higher. I could have done without her figuring that out.

Who know that under the rug was such a great place to sit and to put all your toys!

So if you come over to our house and the rug is lumpy, you'll know why.

Our ever curious Ryann, trying to lay/sit on her helium balloon.
Sometimes Ryann's curiosity makes a really big mess...

like when she decides she needs to pull out all the diapers.
Ryann recently started to be mean when she is mad or doesn't like something. She will hit, pull hair, pull the dog's fur, swat at me with her nails (like a cat), and/or bite. She doesn't bit people, yet and hopefully never, but she bites the couch, toys, blankets, and...

my clothes. It makes me so nervous that she is going to bite me!

Of course these actions aren't allowed and she ends up in time out.

She is so sad, but still so dang cute!

Through all the curiosity that leads to mess and sometimes her getting in trouble, I just can't stop loving that cute face...

even when her forehead has a bruise or two on it.

Yeah, the mess is certainly worth it.

Little Girly-Girl

Ryann loves her purse. She will put her toys in it and carry it around on her arm.

Recently Ryann has started to want to put on jewelry. She also loves to wear my headbands. Now wearing her headbands, nope.

Grandma Greene knew just what Christmas pajamas to get Ryann.

Ryann is not particular about what she wears. The only thing she has an opinion about is when she finds one of her Minnie shirts she has to wear it. We have left the house with Ryann in two shirts because she wanted to wear her Minnie shirt. The red shirt around Ryann's neck is, of course, a Minnie shirt on top of her Minnie pajamas.

Apparently anything with wheels is something Ryann can ride. She does put her toys and dolls in the stroller and push them around.

Snuggles with her puppies.

Ryann loads up the shopping cart at her Grandma Greene's with her toys. She also pushes the shopping cart over and sits/rides in it.

Minnie is not Ryann's only love. She loves "Melmo" (Elmo) too.

Ryann's two loves: "Melmo" (Elmo) and "Ninnie" (Minnie)

Clint got Ryann a big Minnie that she sleeps with every night. She snuggled up to her Minnie and wanted her under the blanket too. Every night I go into her room and just watch her sleep. I love this girl so much! You know she must have been pretty tired that night, that she slept through her mom taking pictures of her with the flash going off.

Poor Maggie has lost her bed. Ryann has claimed Maggie's bed as her own. Don't feel too sorry for Maggie though. I felt bad that Ryann was always messing with her when she was on the floor and always steeling her bed, so I put a blanket on the couch and now allow Maggie to lay on the blanket on the couch.

Ryann has her little plastic Minnie wrapped up in a wet wash cloth. She always want her "bebe" (babies) wrapped in a blanket. Well, not a blanket. I've tried to give her little doll blankets but she wants her dolls wrapped up in hand towels and wash clothes. The wash clothes cannot be dry, they have to be wet. I've tried to give her dry wash clothes but she won't have anything to do with them. I've even see her go pick up a wash cloth that she left on the floor, felt that it was dry, and dropped it.

This Minnie's hand were sewn together. It bothered Ryann so much that they were together that I cut the string holding them together.

Minnie in her hand while she is drinking. Yeah, this girl loves her Minnies.

She loves her "bebe" too. In this case "bebe" means her silky blanket.

This picture had to have been taken before the Minnie obsession started. I love watching her pick up her dolls/stuffed animals and snuggle with them. I keep her dolls next to her crib and she will stand up and pull them in the crib with her.

Ryann is very motherly to her dolls. Her dolls never go thirsty or hungry. She will snuggle her dolls and pat them on the back. When I hold her, she will pat me on the back. Love it! Whole afternoons are spent wrapping up things in blankets for her to carry around. All her toys kiss.
Ryann is our little girly-girl.

Chores

Ryann loves to help me around the house. She copies what I do when I clean. If I am cleaning with a Clorox wipe, she wants one, so I give her a diaper wipe. She will wipe right where I wipe. If I am dusting, she needs a rag too. Yeah, it takes me longer to clean when she is helping, but it is so cute!

She got "puppy" and "Ninnie" involved in decorating for Christmas.

She is always more the happy to help me pull things out of the box. Of course, she is also more than happy to climb into the box too.

Ryann loves to help cook. I'm not as talented as her Grandma Greene, I can't hold her and cook at the same time. So I put her in her high chair, gave her her pots and pans and let her "cook" Cheerios. She loves her pots so much she has even eaten dinner out of them.

Carefully inspecting the laundry.
I was pulling clothes out of the washer and when I go to put them in the dryer I find this. Ryann threw Minnie in the bath with her, so when she put Minnie in the dryer with her I figured it was the perfect opportunity to dry Minnie. When Ryann got out of the dryer she left Minnie in there. I shut the door and turned the dryer on...Ryann freaked out! She did not want Minnie left in there. Needless to say, Minnie did not get dry until Ryann was asleep.

Helping fold the clothes.
Ryann loves the laundry basket. She will climb on the clothes in the basket, throw some of them out, try to put them on. I don't fold laundry until she is asleep, otherwise I end up doing it twice.

Ryann LOVES the broom! She will try to pull open the door to get the broom. I got her a little broom and she will try to sweep with me.

Doing all those chores it hard work. She earned her snacks and drink.

Christmas

It didn't feel too much like Christmas since Clint wasn't home, but we just did Facetime so he could see Ryann enjoy her Christmas.

When Ryann woke up I had her walk down the hallway towards her chair with her stocking on it. In her stocking she got a purple car, a Elmo sippy cup, Gerber Banana Cookies, mini M&Ms, and SweetTarts.

Of course Ryann wanted to eat her candy first, but her mean mom made her eat some breakfast first.

Luckily she was excited about her Elmo sippy cup and ate her breakfast without fighting me.

Even though we really celebrated Christmas in Texas, Ryann still needed something to open on Christmas day. I had put three presents from me and Clint under the tree for her. Ryan didn't even pay any attention to the gifts at first, but then I heard paper tearing. She had picked up a present and was getting started with the opening. I made her wait to finish opening it until I got Clint on Facetime to watch her. I put up the other presents so she could open them with her Grandma and Grandpa Greene.

Before we went up to Clint's parent's house we went to church. I decided that the wedding dress would also be Ryann's Christmas dress. I had to snap a picture quick to catch her with her headband on.

At her grandparent's, Ryann was more than happy to finish opening her presents.

Ryann wouldn't tear the paper and pull the present out, she would rip every piece of wrapping paper off the present and then investigate the present.

Ryann had already opened most her presents from Grandma and Grandpa Greene. About three weeks before Christmas Jeannie had a big box of stuff she ordered online. The box was covered with brown shipping paper. Inside the box was another box that had a Cabbage Patch baby inside. Well, Ryann found that box that was buried inside the box under all the shipping paper. She took the box up to her Grandma saying, "Bebe, bebe". Of course her Grandma let her open it. Then about a week before Christmas there was a doll stroller in a box that hadn't been wrapped yet from her Grandma and Grandma Greene. One night when Jeannie and Stan were watching Ryann while I was at work, she found that box and pushed it around the kitchen saying "bebe, bebe" until her Grandpa put it together for her. Good thing she doesn't know what Christmas is, and that she opened all her presents. The only present left with clothes inside just wasn't that interesting to her, but she still enjoyed tearing the paper.

Whew, opening presents is hard work.

After presents it was time to play with her new puzzle with Grandpa.

Ryann loved watching her cousins, Jackson and McKay, show off all their Christmas presents on Skype.
Last year Ryann was grateful for the paper her presents came in, this year she actually liked what was inside. It turned out to be a pretty good Christmas.