Fun in the Sun

Sun is a big thing around us this time of year. It's not that we are sun bunnies (we are so white we're pale blue) but living in Arizona, well, you can't avoid the sun! And the sun in Arizona is pretty powerful so we have to play it safe when we expose our Zane with his delicate skin to the almighty star. He goes outside ("ow shide") each day at school and on the weekends, we take him outside usually after breakfast so we can beat the heat. He loves to ride his truck, play ball and play with bubbles. He's even been known to give the bubbles a severe whacking with on of his many baseball bats!

Recently, we decided to have a little water fun. We met up with Zane's cousins and played in water fountains. Zane hesitated for all of 5 seconds after he realized these contraptions shooting water out of the ground were really fun. He is fearless!

But the fun in the sun didn't stop there! For the 4th of July, our great friends the Silvas invited us over. We had a nice cookout (the "weird burgers" were a success) and some pool time. As usual, the twins YaYa and MiMi had a blast flipping around in the pool and Zane showed some serious slide talent! It was a great time - thanks Silvas! :)

And just because we could sit and look at our little boy for hours and hours, we think you should too. Enjoy!

Back in the Saddle...

Hi everyone -- Courtney here. So it's been a while! Mike has carried the burden of updating this blog since its' inception so I've decided to try and help out. Now, I'm not as charming or witty as Mike. My ears don't talk to each other and I've never wanted to Simpsonize myself. But my main topic of conversation is always Zane so that should keep you captivated enough to read my ramblings!! We've been busy being parents to a very active 18 month old. Not only is he 18 months old...but he's a boy. Need we say more?

The last few months have brought so many changes! Z is now running, talking and yes -- he even throws the occasional temper tantrum. He LOVES going "ow shide" and blowing bubbles. But nothing, and I mean nothing, compares to his desire to dance. What music moves Zane you ask? Well, he enjoys Bluegrass Junction and Willie's Place on DirecTV music. But there is one song that no other can compare to: the theme song to Two and a Half Men. He even sings along with it. Blonde hair, blue eyes, can sing AND dance?? Yeah, chicks dig it. Check it out:



Take THAT Tony Manero!! (Look it up!) Gloria Estefan was right - - eventually the rhythm is going to get you.

Zane also knows how to relax. After a good meal when your belly is full, you really should prop your feet up and take a load off. No matter where you are.

We've also noticed how Zane is "growing up". Now anyone who knows Zane knows that he is constant movement. He doesn't stop. He's either sleeping, eating or running at full speed. Recently though things have begun to capture his attention. One thing in particular can bring Zane to a screeching halt. What is it you ask? Why, it's

KUNG FU PANDA

Zane walks into the family room and immediately asks for "more". If we turn on something other than Kung Fu Panda, Zane just sits there and asks for "more" not understanding why we won't give him what he wants. Mom and Dad have tried other movies. Finding Nemo, Wall-E but nothing satisfies Zane like a little Jack Black. We think Zane just might go blind from over-exposure to pure awesomeness! Ok so can you tell we've seen Kung Fu Panda way too much? Even though we can quote just about any line from the movie at this point ("noodles, don't noodles"), we're happy to see Zane show a dedicated interest in something. We're just hoping he adds a little variety to it soon.

Zane has also expanded his vocabulary. "Ow shide" is my current favorite. But Zane and Daddy worked really hard on a special word for me and Zane now proudly says "baseball". That's right, he needs to learn the importance of the greatest sport known to man. It's only right that baseball is his first sports word. Here's a sample of a few of Zane's verbal offerings:



Well, that's it for this little update. I'm hoping that between Mike and me we can be diligent enough to update the blog on a regular basis. Feel free to harp on us if we fail!!



Skadoosh.

I guess Zane will have to learn to share...

LA Story...

WARNING...a really long post, with lots of pictures:

So THGP took a road trip recently to Los Angeles. Las Feliz, more specifically. Atwater Village, to drill down further. Or the Gar/Rebecca/Cameron/Mae Ryness house, to be exact.

This was Zane's first roadtrip, so we weren't sure what to expect. Going to LA we figured wouldn't be an issue. We left at 7pm, which corresponded with Zane's bedtime...fun how that worked out, don't ya think? The trip there took about 6 hours, and I think Zane slept for about half of it. For the first time in his life he was facing forward in the truck. We thought it was a bit mean for him to face backwards for 6 hours. I think he thoroughly enjoyed looking forward and seeing all the cars and trucks. He didn't really fuss much, which made everyone in the truck happy.

On Friday, Zane gets up and is in heaven. A new house to explore and most importantly...NO GATES! He was free to roam most of the house at will. The bathroom was a no go for him. For good reason...



It was good to see the Ryness Clan, especially Cameron & Mae. We last saw them in May 2008. If there is one thing we've learned with Zane it's that kids change month by month, day by day. Mae has transformed from a toddler to a little person. And Cameron, now 8. had become an independent, self-confident young lady. Very cool.



The weird thing about visiting the Ryness family is encountering the circle of friends and neighbors they have. For example: Across the street from us lives a game programmer. Across from the Ryness family is an actress who on Friday got a part in a pilot series, and had a major part in the show The Shield. We have a friend over for dinner and it might be a teacher or someone in the legal field. They have a friend over and it's the drummer for a band called Rival Sons, who just signed with a major record label.

In our world Zane plays with our two dogs and the kids at daycare. In Ryness World, Zane played with an actor from the shows Arrested Development & Chuck, and an Emmy winning make-up artist.



The Ryness house resides in a very nice neighborhood. Lots of friendly people, lots of green grass, and a very nice suburban feel. Zane, Cameron, Mae and other kids from the neighborhood enjoyed the yard.





After much playing, a few parents gathered around and started talking. Well this bored the other kids to tears (some figuratively, some literally). So they bugged out and decided it was best to zone out. The funny thing with this next picture is that the parents would pop in periodically and talk to the child...and the child had no clue that the parent was there much less talking to them. The all-mighty TV had grabbed their souls....


Zane, who at this age can't really be bothered to watch TV simply zoomed around the house, playing with whatever he could get into...


...or wearing whatever the girls decided to dress him up as.


I think Cameron and Mae liked having Zane around, as long as Z-man wasn't too annoying towards Mae.

Cameron has been playing soccer for a few years now, and is actually quite good. And saying she is "fast" doesn't give her enough credit. Let's call her the 'Appleton Street Blur.' Yeah, let's go with that.



Dad, aka Gar, coaches in the league. So when we went to tryouts he was one of the evaluators. His job was to evaluate the kids for the upcoming draft, and to make sure all the teams are equal in ability and strength.

Summoning up all his years of sports wisdom, Gar gave Cameron a pep talk before her tryout....



Saturday night Court and her sister Rebecca went to party thrown by an interior designer, where Court saw Molly Shannon, of Saturday Night Live fame.

All in all it was a great trip. We went to a few famous places like Amoeba Records, Pink's Hotdogs, and many other places.

One thing is for certain, there's always someone to see, someplace to go, or something to do.

Thank Ryness Family for your hospitality! Everything was wonderful...the accommodations, the company, the food (MAC & CHEESE!!!!), everything!

Thank you so much!




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MASTERED?

They say the thing that separates man from animals is our ability to use tools. So far Zane hasn't done much to separate himself from the apes in this area. But he keeps trying. Last week he wasn't sure which end of the fork to use...this week was a whole new ballgame!

Websters defines a fork as:

FORK - an instrument having two or more prongs or tines, for holding, lifting, etc., as an implement for handling food or any of us agricultural tools.

So I will submit that following photos and let you decide if Zane has mastered the use of this tool. Now remember, he's 15-months old. Granted the "after shot" might look like a dog that just ate a bowl of spaghetti so you might be tempted to lean another direction...but keep focused on the fork.








Now in the spirit of full disclosure, he lost patience about ten bites into dinner and abandoned the fork. Ravioli gets shoveled much faster when using hands. In Z's world it's just a plain fact.

Now you might be asking yourself, "Hey, what about the spoon?" Weeeeelllll....the spoon might take a while. With the fork the food stays mostly stuck to it regardless of how you twist the fork around. With the spoon it's a whole other story. When he uses a spoon about 99.9999999% of the food ends up in his lap. He simply can't quite hold the spoon level to keep the food in it.

Maybe next week, Zane!

WAIT!!! I'VE GOT A GREAT IDEA...

Vocabulary

Zane's vocabulary is starting to grow, and his verbal skills are becoming quite apparent. As of this weekend he can say with relative clarity:

• Momma
• Dada
• Baby - It's great when he sees old pictures of himself and says 'Baby'
  
• Uhoh - Yes, I am counting this as a word!
• Thank you - and he mostly uses it in the correct context
  
• Mimi - This is what he calls grandma on Court's side, and the nickname of one of the twins across the street
• Yaya - the other twin
• Hi! - This usually comes in groups. He'll say HI once, then proceed to say HI to the next 25 people he sees.
• All done! - He usually couples this with the sign for "All done"
• More - Also used in conjunction with the sign
• No - He's heard that so many times I can't believe it's taken this long for him to pick up on it.
  

He recently added 'Papa' to the list, but I need him to say it a few more times to make sure he can say it well enough to make the list. Hey! I have a strict, clear-cut criteria, and if the little guy can't hit the highly set bar, tough luck!

We expect these words to become clear enough to make the list within the next month:

• Papa - Greatgrand father
• Car - His current fixation
• Dog
  
• Ball
  
• Pop - this usually gets coupled with lots of spit, so it's hard to hear it.
  

And he's becoming quite the parrot. If you catch him at the right moment, you can get him to parrot back to you, to the best of his abilities, any 2 or 3 syllable word. It's usually quite hilarious.

And now, for your viewing pleasure, I give you:

MILK - The splashing.

(Important: liberal goofball Sean Penn does not appear in this offering)

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Our world is shrinking.

The world that Court and I live in without Z-man is shrinking. Little by little.

He used to just lie in the middle of the floor on a blanket and never leave the blanket. The he could roll over,scoot, and crawl...so Zane took the floor from us. Then he learned to pull himself up...so he claimed the first two or three feet from the ground up.

Then he started walking. So he claimed the kitchen and family room from us. We put up gates to keep him from racing around the house destroying everything. Then the little guy went off and got tall on us. We lost the end tables, the next level of the bookshelf, and the drawers in the kitchen.

Now we are losing the kitchen table. The other day the three of us were having dinner. Mom & dad were at the kitchen table while Zane was in his highchair. Zane ate all his dinner and gave us the "all done" sign. In case some of you don't know, we've been teaching Zane sign language over the last 6-8 months, before he could talk. So anyway, he gives us the all done sign. And in typical 14-month old fashion, his patience for sitting there lasted 3 minutes. Court was finished eating so she got up, cleaned him up and turned him loose. Court then when off to do something leaving me and Zane alone in the kitchen.

I got up to fill my plate up again, and I hear a noise that I instantly recognize. It's the sound of a plate scraping along the top of a table. I spin around and see Zane holding mom's dinner plate aloft by one hand. He was able to reach up onto the kitchen table and reach a plate that was at least 6-inches from the edge. How he did it, I have no idea.

I yelled at Zane, "No, no, no, no!!!" ...but it was too late. He smashed the plate onto the floor shattering it into hundreds of pieces. I ran over and snatched Zane up. I expected him to be scared by what happened. I was wrong. He was all happy and giving me the sign for 'more.' He had thoroughly enjoyed himself, the little rascal.

Court & I had just lost a little more ground.

But our little climber is just getting started. Check what he uses the drawing desk my mom (Ooma) gave him for Christmas. It's certainly not drawing!

Once again I will probably get the "Bad Dad of the Year Award" or have CPS called on me. If you read this blog over the last two years you know I tend to grab my camera first THEN be a parent.

Case in point:












Yes, yes, yes, I was ready to snatch him up in case he started to waver. And YES I caught lots of grief from mom for these photos.

And last but not least, we were watching TV the other day while he played with stuff on the floor. The next thing we know, he's sitting right next to mom on the couch. The little monkey had climbed right up onto the couch with such ease we didn't notice until he was done.

More ground lost.

We knew it was inevitable, we just didn't think it would happen so fast!

So what's new? Yeah, I know...I've been away

Wow, did I underestimate the small yet vocal group of readers this blog has! I have people on Facebook harassing me, people sending me emails harassing me, people on the phone harassing me, Grandparents harassing me; friends, relatives, co-workers, etc. all harassing me.

You are a very persistent bunch! Some of you were downright grouchy!!!

So it's probably been a while since you saw The Human Glynn Project. He's around 31.5 inches tall, around 24lbs, extremely mobile, talking a bit, and getting into everything inside the house. And if he had his way, he'd include the outside as part of his exploratory domain.

The saying goes "that a picture is worth 1000 words." If ever a picture defined that phrase, this is it:


When I snapped this photo even I was amazed at how big he has gotten. He desperately wants to go out back all the time. I think he just wants to go where ever his sissies (Pola & Theda, in case you forgot) go. I couldn't believe when he reached up on his tippy-toes and started actually pulling on the handle. Fortunately he can't grip the handle or do much more than flick the handle a tiny bit.

I think we are going to be very glad for two things. 1) The door lock in 10 inches above the door handle. This might buy us another year. 2) That our alarm "beeps" every time the door opens.

Oh man do I have a bunch of stories for you! This little guy is 110% boy!

Stay tuned everyone.... IIIIII'mmmmm baaaaaack!!!

P.S. Here's a preview...



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An afternoon at the park.

Zane got a new wagon for his birthday. So we decided to load him up in it last week and head down to the park. Now this is the first time Zane has been to the park since he started walking.

Also coming along on the walk was Ooma (my mom, Marilyn) who was in charge of Pola and Theda who insisted on coming along.

It was fun couple of hours. Zane got to push the wagon around (I know, shocker!), run around at full speed, try to eat grass, and any of the other stuff you do at the park.




One of Z's favorite games is when you chase him...



We think we see a little bit of daddy in this picture...


Sometimes the best course of action is to rest up a bit...


Pola and Theda had a fun time sniffing around...


Zane's favorite activity: Pushing things....


Someone, not named momma, hasn't grasped the concept of "pulling"...


Run Zane, run! Run like the wind!...


It's always a good day when your little boy runs into your arms...

Zane's First Birthday

Wow, we can't believe it has been one year. Lots of parents told us that the time would fly by, and fly by it did.

Zane has this infatuation with trucks, so we decided the "theme" to his party was trucks/construction. I put theme in quotations because his party didn't really have a theme, maybe emphasis would be a better word.

We had quite the turnout. Family, friends, co-workers, neighbors, etc all came out to play with the Z-man. I'll probably have to break this entry into 2 or 3 posts because all total we took 300+ photos. YIKES!

First up. the assembly of Mom & Dad's gift to Zane:


"Dad, I don't think this is working right. It doesn't go anywhere!"

"Is it ready? How 'bout now? ...... Now?........NOW???"


"DAD! You're doing it wroooooong!"


"Yes, push that through there, then do that, bang on that...yup, just as I would do it!"


We had tons of food, and of course some cake for everyone not named Zane. Zane had his own cake. We figured things would go one of two ways. He'd either tear into the cake making a holy mess, or he'd hate that the icing was sticking to his hands.


Zane's very own birthday cake.

"This is strange looking thing? Can I touch it?"

"WHAT THE???? ...it's attacking me! Just like the vacuum cleaner! IT'S STICKING TO ME!!!!"

Yeah, he hated it. He wasn't fond of the icing on his hands.

Mom to the rescue! All is well.

Lot and lots more pictures to come!