He's 30

Happy Birthday John Michael!  He turned 30 on Friday!

So, first thing Friday morning, JM was begging for his gifts.  He said he couldn't possibly wait until after work.  So I forced him to wait until Ryder woke up because I knew Ryder would get a kick out of helping.  He wasn't as interested in helping open gifts as I had thought.

He would rather watch.

Towards the end of the day, I broke down and made a doctor's appointment for Ryder because he's had a really bad cough and runny nose for a couple weeks, but never any fever.  The doctor decided he had bronchitis, which isn't contageous, but I'm sure it's just not very comfortable on the throat from all the coughing.  For stats:  At a few days short of 15 months, he weighed 23.4 lbs and was 32 1/2 inches.  He's 50% in weight, 75% in height, and as always, the big 9-0% in the head.

That night, we went to dinner with JM's parents for his birthday.  Afterwards, a few friends came over to play games and have cake.

JM's Bop's cake that he didn't eat one bite of.  Nice.

Saturday we had the Clinton Christmas Parade.  Organizing this parade is one of my biggest responsibilities at work so it was nice to get to sit back and watch.  Well, I did have to take pictures of the entries, but that wasn't too bad.  Ryder was nice and festive, but not extremely excited about it, probably still felt a little under the weather. 

He started to pep up when the fire trucks started coming and their sirens were blaring.

Mom and George were keeping Sellers, so they decided to bring him to the parade.  He and Ryder had fun clapping at the cars and floats as they passed.

Then, Ryder decided he would rather be IN the parade, instead of a viewer.  Good thing the parade was at a hault when he decided to zoom off into the street.

Afterwards, there were pictures with Santa.  Ryder and Sellers had fun playing while we waited in line.

He wasn't feeling it...

This is hilarious.  They look as though they are being tortured.

When we finally got home, Ryder went through his usual routine of turning the tree lights off with his clicker.

Sunday, we got up and headed for church, Ryder was all smiles. 

Why?  Probably because that Diaper Genie you see in the background is out of his room:   Why is it out of his room?  Because something DIED in there.  And I did all I could to save it.  I clorox wiped it, scrubbed it and took it apart to clean it.  I don't know what happened, but everytime we stepped on that pedal to open it, the most gosh awful smell filled the room and stayed there.  So I broke down and bought a new one and put the old one out by the curb this morning.  Well, when I looked outside I noticed all our trash was still out there, but the Genie was gone.  God bless you, whoever took it.  I'll probably know who you are on Friday, which is when the trash runs again and I see it at the end of your driveway. 

"Mom, I know you just put my shoes on as we were about to head out the door for church, but I took them off... Please don't be mad!  Please don't be mad!"

After church, we went to the National Guard Family Day, which was honoring George for his retirement in the guard.  Ryder and Sellers got to hang out again, they love eachother!

Then it was time for the dreaded Santa again.  Oh no!  Not two days in a row!

Sellers is mad, Santa has fallen asleep, and Ryder is too busy picking the arm hairs off Santa to notice he's supposed to be scared.

George being recognized for his service, and they brought mom up there too to give her a necklace.

It was a nice weekend, I'll say!

And now, it's Tuesday and I stayed home with Ryder today because he woke up with fever.  It stayed down pretty good throughout the day and then spiked again after his afternoon nap.  I called the doctor but it was almost 5:00 before they called back and said if he wakes up with fever tomorrow, to make another appointment to make sure it's not a virus on top of the bronchitis.  We shall see.  I'll be keeping him again half day tomorrow, and am looking forward to it!