Some New Ryan-isms

Lately Ryan is fascinated by three things: speed, strength, and age (or size). If it moves, or even if it doesn't, he wants to know how fast it goes, how strong it is, and how big it is, often in comparison to himself.

For Ryan, speed and strength come to play in nearly every task. Most places he goes, he runs, declaring along the way, "I'm faster than you, Mommy!" and "I'm going to beat you, Lucie!" Or, when we pull out of the driveway in the car, he'll call out, "Are we going to go fast? Is this the freeway?" And, he loves to talk about how strong he is, like when he recently declared, "I can carry a THOUSAND...or a HUNDRED...or a MILLION books!"

He's interested in ages too, whether it's a friend's, a new baby, an adult, or even a charcoal grill. When helping Chris prep for a BBQ recently, Ryan inquired, "I'm older than the barbeque, right Daddy? I'm three and a half, and it's only two, right?" A conversation ensued trying to determine the exact age of our grill, but neither of us could remember. Since it really seemed to matter to him, it has now been determined that Ryan is definitely older than our little Weber.

When it comes to size, Ryan is and has always been just a tad bit taller than Lucie. It's barely noticeable, but he has made a mental note of it. He likes to point out that he is "just a yittle bit" taller than his sister, and pinches his fingers together to show the exact measurement of difference.

If he's not assessing his speed on a scooter or strength behind a bat, Ryan is pretty interested in taking pictures. He has always enjoyed our camera, and has just become proficient enough to use it on his own.

You give this boy a camera, and he'll walk around the house documenting everything of interest to him. Ten minutes later, he'll hand me a camera full of images of his feet, a firetruck, my feet, Bunny, a firefighter jacket, Lucie's feet and Bunny again, all meticulously posed. It's pretty cool, like a glimpse into his mind.

Then he likes to print out the pictures, crop them with scissors, and put them in envelopes to give to Daddy at the end of the day. If we had the paper and ink supplies, he could do this over and over again. (Lucie likes to share her photos too -- she recently sent Aunt Rach a picture of the beloved tag on her green blankie, requiring a bit of explanation.)

Using Bunny as his muse is not limited to photography. Ryan also likes to do paintings of Bunny, like this one here. He set Bunny up on his outdoor play kitchen and kept glancing back at him, trying to get the ears just right. He turned out with a pretty good likeness of a once pink, now dirty gray bunny who disintegrates a bit daily from lots and lots of love (and portrait sittings).