Ryder is very much in a phase where he knows what he wants and when he wants it and good luck to you if you get in the way of that. It usually involves yelling and sometimes a full blown tantrum. When we tell him what he needs to do, he will respond to us "I'm in charge!" He seems to really believe it too!
My favorite thing he said this month was a funny analogy that he made at dinner one night. We had recently watched a Dinosaur Train special about the center of the Earth that explained about the different layers of the Earth. We were having tacos that night and Ryder picks up his taco and announced "This taco is like the Earth." I asked him to explain what he meant, because I had no idea what he was trying to say, and he told me that the taco had a hard crust like the Earth and that the hot fillings were like the hot lava in the center of the Earth. Then he ate the Earth, I mean his taco.
Though Ryder still loves dinosaurs, we are back in mostly fire fighter mode around here. After a couple of months of neglect, the fire fighters and trucks are back out in force. Whenever the kids are outside, Ryder is playing some kind of fire fighter game. Sometimes it involves the back of Janda's truck, sometimes it involves the swingset and clubhouse and unfortunately sometimes it involves the actual hose. Occasionally we find him outside using the hose to fight some imaginary fire.
The most fun thing that we did this month was take the commuter rail to Boston to go to the Public Gardens and see the ducks. The train ride was an event in and of itself. Ryder was absolutely pumped to get on the train, to see the conductor, and to see the sights out of the window. For a while, he enjoyed the view and then he started testing out other seats. He really like sitting in the small seat across the aisle from us.When we got to Boston, we walked to the Common. On the way, Ryder has to play with every single fire hydrant that he saw. Somehow, some way, Ryder managed to get the cap off of one of the fire hydrants across the street from the State House. That was probably the highlight of the trip for him because he thought that it meant that he's a real fire fighter!
After we got to the Common we had a quick picnic and then started exploring and heading to the Swanboats. On the way, Ryder started chasing a squirrel, they had a stand-off and then the squirrel jumped at Ryder and chased him! Ryder thought that was hysterical. Ryder liked the Swanboats and the duck statues, but we had to hightail it away from the duck pond because we were worried that Ryder was going to fall in while he was trying to pet the ducks. We had a little time left before we went back to the train, so we stopped at a playground do Ryder could go down the fire pole a million times. Then on the train on the way home, Ryder played conductor. He found a bunch of tickets on the floor of the train car and then was handing them out and yelling just like the conductor. Luckily it was Sunday and the train wasn't that full!
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Enjoying the view
He liked to have his own seat
On the Swanboats
"Feeding" a duck
Catching a ride on Mama Duck
Sitting on a little duck
Mama Duck again
Checking out every fire hydrant in Boston
Having a seat at the playground
