Annual Rhodes Reunion Trip

Embarking on the always-way-longer-than-it-should-take drive to Hilton Head!

The middle boys - Theo, Mac & Bo

Water toys as swords

Dessert Time! Bo, Mac, Tucker, Miller & Livvy

Movie & Popcorn in Uncle Jim's bed...

dancing - - -

dancing

Movie on the Ipad date!

Seconds before Tucker fell on the toy to the right resulting in a bizarre passing out incident and emergency room trip. The Ryan brothers do love the out of town ER!

Final bedtime reading with Uncle Rob!

Many cute pictures to come that were not on my camera...

Mostly Charlie

He loves "tummy time" but just rolled over for the first time today and now he won't stay this way for more than a few seconds!

Sweet, sweet outfit from Mimi...

What you can find Tucker doing MOST waking hours... drawing airplanes, airports, maps, aircraft carriers and more airplanes (he knows what nearly every commercial airline looks like very specifically and includes the smallest details of the symbols, makes/models, etc.)

In Other News

Mac is 150 times better around Charlie. There is still the extremely close "talking" and laying on him and squeezing the hand but it is now out of LOVE and not hatred.

Charlie turned 3 months. As you can see from these pictures he is quite jolly! He smiles and coos and talks most of the day when not sleeping. And he started sleeping through the night a couple weeks ago. Yay!
I've been slacking on taking pictures because our camera lens is broken and takes rather bad pictures right now... but even if they aren't great quality I'm at least documenting life!

Kyle ran the Breast Cancer Half Marathon in honor of Carol Teague in February. He decided to run on the Friday before and did incredibly well. So annoying to those of us that trained for many months last year to run that same race! But we were all VERY proud of him. He ran so fast that we missed him at the spot down at the beach we were going to watch the race so we headed to the finish line!

Opening Day!

The Texas Rangers had a great game this morning. Our slugger is MUCH more in to t-ball this year than last year. Thank goodness!

...and Tucker got a haircut this afternoon!

River Run

The most fun race in Jacksonville is the River Run 15K through downtown and San Marco. Kyle, yet again, did great though he didn't feel that great. We went to watch early this time so we wouldn't miss him. Then off to t-ball.

Daddio seeing the boys!

Ladies & Gentlemen! The Circus!

The three oldest classes at Tuck's preschool put on this fun circus every year. Tucker did NOT want to participate (he was asked to be the Ring Master and he would have none of it!) So... the compromise was that he would be the program/popcorn guy. He loved that.

It was adorable! Below is his "best friend" at school, Christian. He was the Ring Master! The picture at the bottom is the two of them greeting people and doing programs at the beginning of the show.

Tucker's Dream Day

One of the teachers at Tucker's school knew about Tucker's great love for all things involving commercial airlines and she got him special access yesterday at the airport. It makes me weepy that people love our boy so much. This was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. I'll attach her email to the bottom of this because it was hilarious how much he knew about the planes and how many questions he asked!

Driving the jetbridge! When he plays airplanes all day a big part of his pretend play revolves around making something that will extend and contract like a jetbridge!

A conveyer belt! Another favorite thing!

He is probably having a heart attack while taking this picture this close!

Yet another favorite... the "push back thing" that gets the planes out on the runway.

He had a special badge so he went straight through security with the employees.

This is from the teacher (she works for American Airlines on the weekends):

"Your little guy is a gem! He has such a mature knowledge and an amazing attention span. His manners were impecable. You should be very proud of him. First Officer Ellis requested his assistance with her pre-flight walk around and Captain Eric let Tucker "fly" the plane from his seat! They were part of the outbound AA crew to DFW, flight 2001 I think. Tucker also met several of my co-workers... including Lawanda who loaned him her "mickey mouse ears" so we could stand within 10 feet of an MD-80 as it was marshalled in to the gate. We had a great day and I saw things I have never seen.

Tucker entered the secured area as an employee today. He did not go through security, but was "badged" in and out of secure doors. He said he really liked driving the jetbridge!

It was my pleaseure to take Tucker around the airport. He was so enthusiastic and asked questions. We were all impressed with his knowledge of EVERY air carrier by tail logo! Thank you for allowing me to do this for him. When he becomes CEO of a commercial airline, tell him to remember me! I think he is beyond a pilot... he wants to know the entire airport operation.

ps. We also saw F-15s coming in for their security check prior to heading over to the hangar. We were within 50 yards of those! He got to listen to the tower communicate with all the airplanes pushing back from the gate and all the inbound aircraft coming into JAX to land, through the radio in the truck."

From the brain of our 5 year old...

Mac is going through a phase where he will not stay at the table for dinner without a fight. The other night Kyle said "Mac, come here and eat your dinner" and Tucker says "That child is going to be hungry."


"Mama, do you feed me tomatoes while I sleep at night?... Daddio says you do." [He refuses all vegetables and most fruits]


The airplane obsession is alive & well. Day. after. day. He missed two days of school last week and when he returned his friend Vinnie declared to the class "Tucker is back... Now we've gotta talk airplanes all day!"



We were driving aroundUniversity of Florida a couple weeks ago and he asked if we went to college there. I said "no - remember we went to Rhodes in Memphis."

Short pause before he said "Well, speaking of Memphis, do you remember flying through there on our way to St.Louis?" I just love how he said "speaking of Memphis..."

Just like Daddio...

JMR

A little update on our cutie patootie Mac-man!

He is really fiesty! He spends a lot of time trying to wrestle or hit Tucker but he is improving in his interaction with Charlie. We caught a sweet moment above when he wanted to get in the pictures I was taking of the baby. He is absolutely hilarious when he is not being agressive. He teases all the time and acts out what things that have happened earlier in dramatic fashion and he is LOUD. He has figured out how to communicate without talking to us. We can't wait for him to start talking!
He loves his new Cozy Coupe and he loves to eat! When he gets hungry we find him in the kitchen on the floor with whatever he could reach on the counter or in the pantry!

Happy!

I'm trying hard to take pictures of Charlie like I did with Tucker and Mac. He loves the camera so he is making it easier. Tucker was like this -- he would always ham it up for the camera, but Mac was much more serious. These were taken at 7 weeks.

Happy 2 Month Birthday to ME!!

Charlie!

He sleeps well (we had an 8 hour night this week - yay!)

He eats well!

He loves to coo and talk and smile!

He is sweet, sweet, sweet...

Cloned again.

Tucker - 2005

Mac - early 2009

Charlie - early 2011

Real life with 3 children

a.) Watching more TV than they should because I need them to be still while I nurse Charlie.

b.) Laying on a pillow with no pillow case because getting laundry back to where it needs to be seems totally unrealistic.

c.) Mac always climbing in Charlie's baby gear.

d.) Catching a few minutes of sleep while cuddling Mac at 5:30am (thankfully he has miraculously started sleeping later in the last month!)

e.) Hmmm.. watching another show while Charlie sleeps and Mama catches another minute of sleep.

Laughing Cow

Tucker has been begging me for 3 months for Laughing Cow cheese after seeing a commercial. I have seen their commercial and cannot figure out what about this commercial captured him, but this IS Tucker we are talking about. You never know.

So I've searched for this cheese (not that hard... it's not like I've asked a Publix employee to walk me there or anything.) I found it randomly yesterday -- on the end of an aisle?? Because it isn't refridgerated?? Any dairy product that doesn't need to be refridgerated totally freaks me out.

Can someone clue me in to how this can happen? What is Laughing Cow "Creamy Swiss"?? I don't even know if it actually claims to be cheese. Someone help me not be grossed out as my son makes his 10th "Laughing Cow sandwich" (between two crackers) to the right of me!

Awake!

Charlie at 4 weeks in my favorite day gown...