First Words...Thank you??

Other than mama and dada, apparently "thank you" is Rylie's first word (or so we thought). My mom heard it last weekend when we were in town for Oktoberfest (those pictures yet to be posted). She says it both when you give her something that she shouldn't have and also when she hands something to us because our response is always "thank you". And since then we've started hearing all kinds of other words (Rylie's version anyway) that we've likely been missing because we just haven't been listening close enough. It's not likely that "thank you" was actually the first word...it's just the first one that was clear enough to understand. Now that we're paying closer attention, we've found that she also says: hi, bye bye ("bye ya" is her version), all done, counts one and two (she and Grandma count as they climb the stairs at their house over and over), and milk (mmmmeh) courtesy of Grr Mom.

Here are a couple of "thank you" videos:

Dan's Birthday and Rylie's New Play Space

Dan requested "wings and beer" to celebrate his 33rd birthday. So we met the family at Buffalo Wild Wings on Friday night where he ate wings and drank beer. Birthday wish fulfilled.

Rylie and the birthday boy

Rylie and her Godmother

The NASCAR cake

Rylie and Sophie sharing their dinner

Dan's gift made by Michael

Bobby (Christa and Tommy's little guy) can't take any more!

The Play Room:
What started as our dining room when we bought this house has now served 3 purposes for us, which is the most of any room. When I was pregnant, the office became Rylie's room; the dining room became our office and the den became our dining room. It became obvious, after Rylie's birthday party, that we need a play area for her. The toys had taken over our entire living room. We're trying to make the best use out of the space we have in this house, so we made another change. The office has now become Rylie's new play room. We moved the desk downstairs, which works out well because on days that Trudy is watching Rylie at our house and Dan is working from home, there are less distractions for him.

The dining room (making wedding invites)

The office

Finally, the play room

We think she likes it!

Rylie even helped build it

Labor Day Weekend

I decided to take the week after Labor Day off work. I had hoped to take a week sometime in August to catch a little more of the summer weather, but it didn't work out. We headed to La Crosse for the weekend as we have the past couple of years to celebrate our Anniversary with dinner at the Freight House and spend a night out together. Rylie and I decided to extend our stay since I had the week off and spend a little extra time with Grandpa and Grandma since she won't see them as often this time of year.

Things we did at Grandpa and Grandma's:

Walked and walked and walked. Rylie had taken several steps at a time the past few weeks. Just this past week, she started walking all over the place. And often had to be carrying something in each hand...not a little something...a big something.



Rocked and rocked and rocked.


Climbed the stairs over and over to mommy's old bedroom to look at all the books in the toy bench. Had a fashion show of mommy's old clothes...and some of Grandma's bead necklaces.

Went to visit Great Grandpa and Grandma Jenks and Great Grandma Kearns while daddy and Grandpa mowed both of their lawns. Then saw Great Grandpa and Grandma the next day at Sloopy's...and did some dancing there.

Rylie pretty much eats anything we eat now and isn't really interested in being fed with a spoon, unless she can do it herself, which is a crazy mess.

She went for a couple walks through the neighborhood with Grandpa on a fussy day, which we later found out was due to one of her top front teeth popping through.

She did a lot of playing with rocks...filling a container and throwing them back out.

Reaches for everything she's not supposed to have. Makes the cutest little face while holding out her hand and reaching for what she wants.

Wanted to do "this little piggy" over and over again. Grandma did it once while she was sitting in the rocking chair and every time she sat there, she pointed at her big toe.

Helped Grandma fill her wine cork holder.

The best picture of the weekend...captured by my mom. This is about 10 minutes (if that) after we got home from our big date night out. We are clearly out of practice.

Hopefully he wasn't drooling on me.