Two Years Old

Ridley Dexter turned two on Friday! I can't believe how quickly the last two years have gone by, and how time has turned my perfect tiny baby into an adorable and silly toddler. Ridley had first celebrated his birthday a week prior with my mom and her husband while they were in town, and then Josh and a had a party for him on his actual birthday with Grandma Heidi, Grandpa Steve, Auntie Stacey, Uncley Scott, Auntie Char, Grandpa Jeff and Nana! Josh made juicy Lucy's, and we had ice cream cake for dessert. Ridley loves ice cream cake. Here are some pictures from his party.

Ice cream cake - there were no leftovers.

Mommy (and baby), Uncley Scott, Grandpa Steve and Grandma Heidi enjoying dinner.

Auntie Char enjoying cake.

Ridley and Nana sharing ice cream cake - yes, it's all over his face!

Learning to slam dunk with help from Grandpa Jeff!

Halloween Party!

On Saturday October 30, Ridley went to a Halloween party! It was at Josh's cousin's house, and since Josh didn't have to work until 5 p.m. that day, he was able to join us for a while.

Ridley and Daddy dressed as Spock and Captain Kirk. Ridley's costume came with a hat with Spock hair and ears on it, but he REFUSED to wear it Saturday (yes, he wore it Sunday, and pictures will come later of that). He wasn't thrilled about wearing a costume in general at first, but once he got used to having it on he was fine.

Here is Ridley and Mommy with Steph and cousin Kellen. Cousin Kellen is almost seven months old, and he dressed up as a bat!

Ridley's favorite thing at the party was the veggie platter, which had cherry tomatoes. He ate about 15 of them, which ended up making him sick later that night. But he loved them!

Three Day Weekend!

Josh and I had decided a while back to take a three-day weekend together in October to try to accomplish a handful of things. We both took off October 15-17 and had a great weekend.

On Friday morning, we got up early and headed down to Windom, Minnesota to visit my grandparents. It was Ridley's first trip down there and a long car ride for him, but he handled it wonderfully! He had a great time visiting his Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa Reid. They have a cuckoo clock, which he immediately fell in love with. We also went for a walk to the local park and played on the playground there before having ice cream treats and heading home. We had a smooth drive home and made it back in time to go to Josh's parents' house to watch most of the playoff game before bringing Ridley home for bed.

The next morning we got up and headed out right away to bring Ridley back over to Josh's parents' to hang out with his grandma, grandpa and Auntie Stacey for the morning so Josh and I could go test drive a few cars. With Ridley getting bigger and his little sister due in a few months, it was getting to be time to look into upgrading from Josh's Saturn into something with a little more space. We'd decided to look at crossover SUVs and wanted to check out the Ford Edge and Explorer, Mazda CX-7 and a few others. We just wanted to see what was out there, but we didn't have any intention of buying anything.

Well, funny how things happen.... we bought the first vehicle we test drove at the first (and only) dealership we went to. They had a Volvo CX90 that was in our price range and had everything we were looking for - and more. The picture below is the same color and year as ours, but isn't ours specifically. We love it, and the additional space will be nice not only for the two kids, but also for Josh's work when he needs to bring supplies to and from the different Punch restaurants. It is so much easier to get Ridley in and out of - especially as my belly is rapidly growing! We are also both much more comfortable riding in it.

After buying the car, we spent the rest of the day celebrating birthdays! First we had a late birthday lunch with Jeff and Diane to celebrate both Josh and Jeff's birthdays, which are the 13th and 12th, respectively. We went to the Highland Punch Pizza (Josh's old store), and it was delicious and nice to see several of his former co-workers.

We had a brief break at home, then headed over to Josh's parents' house to celebrate his birthday with his parents, Stacey, Scott and some family friends. Josh's mom and sister made eggrolls and cream cheese wontons and they were delicious!

Sunday was a slightly calmer day. Josh and two of his friends have a semi-annual tradition of taking a day out of October to celebrate the fall with pumpkin pancakes, a trip to the apple orchard, a scary movie and haunted hayride. Ridley and Josh enjoyed a breakfast of pumpkin pancakes at his friend Jake's house (I stayed home as I abhor anything pumpkin flavored or scented), then they came and picked me up and we met up with everyone else at Pine Tree Apple Orchard.

We went through the corn maze... Ridley was insistent on being carried by me almost the entire time....

But he did get down to walk on his own for a little bit.

We also went into the pumpkin patch there...

Ridley enjoyed it much more than the corn maze.

We stocked up on apple rollovers, apple butter, apple cider and a strawberry rhubarb pie at their gift shop area.

After the orchard, Ridley and I headed home so Ridley could take a nap. He took a nice long nap, and we had a little downtime before Josh's friends came over to meet up for dinner. Josh made juicy Lucy's, which turned out great. After dinner, Josh and friends made a trip up to the haunted hayride, which wasn't too busy for the season yet, so he got home not too long after Ridley went to bed.

It was a very busy weekend, but good all around!

Best Target Trip Ever!!

Ridley and I picked up a few groceries this morning at Target. They
were giving out free samples of vanilla ice cream with chocolate
syrup. Ridley sat in the cart (on a package of diapers) and ate his
ice cream through the whole grocery section of the store, and only got
a little bit on his nose!

An exciting day

On Thursday, September 2, Josh and I had the 20 week ultrasound for
Baby Holland 2 and found out that we are expecting a baby girl! She is
due January 20 and everything looks great!

On our way to pick up Ridley from Josh's parents' house after the
ultrasound, we could see flashing emergency lights at the end of their
street. The "end of the street" is a sharp turn two houses away from
theirs, so as we pulled up we were very close to the police cars,
firetruck and ambulance that had accumulated there. Josh's dad and
Ridley were sitting in the screened-in garage watching the excitement,
and filled us in on what happened: a car was being chased by several
police vehicles - marked and unmarked - as well as a helicoper. The
driver of the car didn't slow down enough for the bend in the road and
ended up sliding off the road sideways into a large pine tree. We
found out on the news that night that the suspects were being followed
for shoplifting. The link to the story on Channel 5 news in below.

http://kstp.com/news/stories/S1727539.shtml?cat=1

Ridley's Favorite Treat

Ridley has discovered the joy of ice cream. It was only a matter of
time before he picked up on this dietary staple of Grandpa Jeff...

At least he has good taste; that is Ben and Jerry's.

Daddy Joins Us in DC (or, Vacation Part 2)

Josh joined us in DC on Friday morning after taking the train down from New York. Ridley was happy to see his daddy! After having some lunch and letting Josh rest a little bit we left Robin's apartment to go into the city.

My pictures posted in the reverse order that I wanted them to, so here's our afternoon in reverse :)

After lots of walking in the warm weather, we ended the afternoon hanging out by a fountain in the Smithsonian Art Museum's Sculpture Garden. It was dirctly across the street from the National Archives (pictured below).

You could sit on the edge of the fountain and dip your feet in, so I took advantage of that, and it was an exellent way to cool off a little bit. Ridley cooled off by dumping his water cup over his head (accidentally).

We spent a good part of the afternoon wandering through the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum (the one on the Mall, not the one near Dulles Airport). After much searching, we found the Enterprise! (It's in the lower level of the giftshop).

This is the Van Ness-UDC Metro stop. It's the closest one to Robin's apartment, so we were coming and going from here quite frequently.

A Trip to See Uncle Robin and Auntie Nora! (or, Vacation Part One)

In May, we took our first family vacation! Josh headed out to New York on May 11, and the next day, Ridley and I flew out to Washington DC (where Josh would join us two days later) to see Robin and Nora!

Tweakie-cat wanted to come with us and tried to fit in our carry-on bag. He was just a little too fluffy though!

RIdley behaved very well on both our flights (MN to Milwaukee for a brief layover, then Milwaukee to DC) - he slept most of the second flight even!

It was raining as we landed in DC, but as we flew in we saw Watergate, the Kennedy Center, the Washington, Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials, as well as the Capitol. When we landed in DC, Uncle Robin came to meet us at the airport!

We took the Metro to get to Robin and Nora's apartment an spent the evening hanging out with them. Ridley and I both went to bed early - we were tired from all our travels!

The next morning, Ridley, Robin and I went in to Bethesda, MD with Uncle Robin to visit the National Institute of Health (where he works), and to check out the city a little. We checked out a toy store, and a Barnes and Noble, then had some lunch and headed back to DC for the afternoon. Ridley fell asleep on the Metro (surprising to me since they are LOUD!). Then we went to the DC Aquarium. They had alligators and an octopus. Very cool!

After the aquarium, we walked down the street to The White House. We couldn't get too close (obviously - although we were closer when we walked around to the Lafayette Park side). It was fun to see though. After the White House, we went back to Robin and Nora's place and gave Ridley a chance to run around in their building's backyard/courtyard/picnic area. An excellent day in DC!

First Sandbox!

Ridley now has a turtle sandbox at Josh's parejts' house! He likes to
stand by it and use his shovels to move sand around and put it in
buckets, but he isn't too sure about actually climbing in it yet. The
sand feels funny on his feet!

Tweakie Love

Ridley loves both his kitties so much. He loves to snuggle his face in
their fur and give them kisses. He is very gentle and sweet with them
too!

Reminds me of someone else I know...

Ridley, wearing his baseball hat while he sleeps, just like his uncle
Robin used to.

Easter

~ some pictures from Easter Sunday ~

Hanging out at Grandma Holland's with the cousins

Daddy blowing bubbles

Grandpa Jeff and the bubble wand

Learning to make bubbles!!

Playing with the mini-fountain!

A Springtime Saturday in Stillwater

Last Saturday, Ridley and I spent most of the day in Stillwater.

Ridley and Grandpa Jeff found one of Ridley's hats from last summer, and they both had fun wearing it. It was almost too small for Ridley, but it seems to fit Grandpa Jeff just fine!

Ridley always has lots of fun exploring Nana's kitchen cupboards - he knows there are snacks for him up there!

Part of our plan for the day in Stillwater included getting a carseat to keep in Grandpa Jeff's car - not his motorcycle (though, they are the same color, so I think Grandpa Jeff hopes that mommy gets confused about which one he takes Ridley for a ride on!)

We had our first grill-out of the season, well Ridley and mine anyway - I think Nana and Grandpa Jeff had aready used the grill that week!

Ridley has his own little rake and shovel at Nana's house so he is learning to help her out in the garden! Hopefully he can distinguish between the plants and the weeds!!

Sandals!

Since the weather was so nice last week, I was inspired to get Ridley
some sandals. We found a pair with sharks on them :)

We had a wonderful Easter weekend and I have pictures to share, as
soon as they are loaded onto the computer.

Springtime for Shoreview and Ridley

It's springtime and Ridley LOVES to play outside! We are so glad that this year we have our own backyard and deck for him to play on. Last week Ridley and I spent a little time in the backyard in the late afternoon.

He loved walking in the grass and exploring. There is a hill in our backyard he wasn't sure about on this particular day - another day we were outside we climbed it though.

He helped mommy sweep the deck using his favorite toy, the broom.

And he played with his other favorite toy, the huge blue bouncy ball. Sadly, last Monday, he threw the bouncy ball and it popped on a stick. So last Tuesday we made a special trip to the Target store and he picked out a new ball. The new one is bright red and seems to have sufficiently replaced the old blue one.

Gettin' in the Game

Last weekend Ridley got into the baseball spirit and pulled out his
Twins shirt. He had to celebrate Joe Mauer getting signed on for the
next eight years!