Reading with the girls

I love reading with Erica and Mary Lane. Erica has started wanting to share books with Mary Lane, and she will sometimes surround her completely with more than 20 books. This Christmas Eve I cuddled up on the couch and Russell took a picture. It is so much fun to see what we looked like, because I know it was a real joy for me to sit with my arms around each of them and read.

When I was pregnant with Erica, Russell and I decided to read to her in the womb. We bought a copy of The Jesus Storybook Bible and read one story each night. Near the end of my pregnancy with Mary Lane, we realized that Russell should probably put Erica to bed regularly since that is what he would have to do once the baby came. So now for over six months Russell has been reading and tucking Erica in every night. I can hear them reading and singing, and tonight I heard their conversation about finishing the Bible. Erica had a lot of questions about what she and Daddy would read together after finishing all the stories in this Bible. It was just really cute.

I started reading Jane Eyre in preparation for a book club I am attending. Erica was very curious about the book, asking if it was my Bible and saying it was very pretty. I think it will be a lot of fun to continue reading with the girls even when they get to higher reading levels like novels and classics.

For now, I love reading with the girls because it is usually a calm, snuggly time with the girls within safe reach and allowing me to S-I-T!

Funny Things Erica Says #2

One of the Christmas traditions on Jeanette's side of the family is that on Christmas Eve, the children get a new pair of pajamas to wear to bed for Christmas morning. This year, Erica and Mary Lane got matching footie pajamas which Mary Lane models here.
Now before she got these pjs, she had one footies pjs that had monkeys on them, which she called "monkey pjs". Now she calls all footie pjs "monkey pjs," which really confused us the first night, especially since her real monkey pjs are really to small for her.

Funny Things Erica Says

Erica knows that Russell likes cauliflower. I have mentioned it to her many times when grocery shopping or cooking. There is a plastic cauliflower included in some of her play food. Since getting her kitchen yesterday, she has been cutting up lots of fruits and vegetables with her pretend knife. Her favorite vegetable so far is the cauliflower. "Daddy loves cauliflower." "Cauliflower is Daddy's FAVE-orite!" and then this morning, "Mary Lane? Do you want some cauliflower?" She brought the plastic vegetable over to Mary Lane in the exersaucer and offered it to her. Mary Lane grabs anything you offer her and puts it immediately into her mouth, so Erica said with great surprise, "Mary Lane ate it!"

OK here we are again

No guarantees that today's blog post means that there will be regular posts coming up. BUT i often have little stories or comments about the girls that are just too "mommy-fied" for Facebook. I wonder, "who would want to read this?" and then I realized if you want to read stories about my girls, you will read this blog. So there you have it. Please do not ask me when I will post again. That doesn't make me want to write any more often. Times are crazy around here.

Mary Lane is the cutest, funniest little thing. Her hair goes everywhere and she just hangs out with us watching whatever we're doing. Today her new favorite thing is reading books! Erica will bring her a book and she looks at it for one second before it goes straight into her mouth. Her interest in toys seems greater every day. I can sit her in the bumbo seat while I take a shower and she entertains herself for the whole 10 minutes or so.

Erica is talking more and cracking us up more every day. She is potty training and whenever she goes in the potty, she acts really surprised. Then she waits until you look surprised too! She asks funny questions and says hilarious complete sentences, too. The other day I stopped at McDonald's for a drink on the way to work. I never think to get her anything, but of course she said she was thirsty. I told her I would give her a cup of milk when we got to school. "This is Diet Coke. Kids don't like Diet Coke." She immediately said, "Well I like Diet Coke!"

Of course now that I'm finally here blogging I can't think of all my funny stories. I'll try again another time.

Introduction and The Name of Mary Lane

This is Mary Lane. She was born on Wednesday, July 7 at 8:27am.

We have received many comments on her name and Jeanette wanted to post this name description in the very first text, e-mail, and Facebook announcements we made last week about the arrival of Mary Lane, but it wasn't practical. Her name is very special to us and it was a great joy to announce it to our family and friends.

Mary is from Russell's grandmother, and also is the name of Jeanette's cousin.



Lane comes from DeLane, Jeanette's father.

DeLane was named for a dear friend of the Ryals family: Dorothy Lane Netherton (Aunt Dot). It is also special to us that Mary Lane shares a middle name with her cousin Daniel.
For now, we will call our baby Mary Lane. (Though Erica can only say Lane right now).

We love both names individually as well, so when she is older we will be happy with whatever individual or double combination she prefers.

Cute Pictures of Erica

Here are random cute pictures of Erica because I can post them.

Our (Uneventful) Flood Experience

Nashville underwent a major cataclysm this weekend with torrential rain and flooding. I think it was the first time I have lived in a designated disaster area. Interstates and other roads were closed and people were being evacuated from their homes. But if you walked out our door and around our neighborhood (which I did Saturday afternoon), and you weren't watching the news, you would think it was just a spring rain. No standing water, no flooded streets, no water rescues, nothing. I can't say I'm disappointed. It's nice to live up on a hill. Here are some pictures from our neighborhood exploration.
Erica inspected and approved of the local sewage situation

Across the street from my in-laws was flooded pretty badly, so it was close to us, but not too close. This is close to where the guy caught the carp. The first time I saw this car, it was practically under water, but the water had gone down a little bit when took the shot.

This lake is usually a soccer field.

Fashionista

BUBBLES!!!!

After narrowly avoiding a potentially catastrophic brain injury and a dubiously restful nap, Erica enjoyed one of her favorite pastimes with Elijah, the little boy next door. His parents were nice enough to let Erica play with their bubbles stuff and she also used a wand that PaPaw got her the last time they were here.

Erica doesn't quite get that you blow on the wand to make it blow bubbles. She tends to put her mouth on it. She also enjoyed spraying herself with the spray bottle. She was so soapy and wet afterwards, she needed a bath. Yes, we all understood the irony of that.

We Have a Toddler and She Has Opinions #1

This is the first of a series of posts entitled: We have a toddler and she has opinions. In this series, we will share with you some of Erica's opinions about life, sports, family, friends, and anything else that comes to her mind. This is mainly for your edification as if you come in contact with her, you will need to know these things.

Erica likes to be in the middle of everything. If you are involved in something, then you need to make room for her. This includes
cooking- one of the things she really enjoys looking in the oven
reading the newspaper
shelling beans

Pictures of that other baby

Obviously, right now most of the pictures are going to be of Erica for several reasons. For one, she's more photogenic at this time. Also, she is much more accessible. It's a little messy to get pictures of Baby Girl #2. But here is what we have so far. This ultrasound was done March 31st.
Actually, I can't tell the difference between these ultrasound pictures and Erica's ultrasound pictures at the same time. How do we know they don't just give all parents the same pictures and say, "Here is a picture of your baby! You can't tell the difference between this one and another one, but trust us, that's your kid." We'll have another picture one that looks just like this in a couple of weeks.

Off On

First Post

Ok, this is at least our fourth try at a blog and we are going to try and stay up with it. We will see.
Here is our update. Erica is 19 months old, talking and walking all over the place. Jeanette is 6 months pregnant with baby girl #2(whom we will call Tob- short for That Other Baby), due on July 8. As you can imagine, this blog will focus on the adventures of Erica and Tob. In the comments you are encouraged to write about how cute and funny the girls are.
Just as a hint of what is to come, here is some pictures of Erica being cute.