Mommy and Ryan Day

Today, Ryan and I spent practically the entire day together, which has been what I think has been the first time this has happened since Cole was born- 19 months ago.

My mom is in “the big city” for a visit, so we met up with her, and my sister for some last minute shopping.  My mom also didn’t do any Christmas shopping before she arrived, since she didn’t want to pack all that stuff! 

Ryan told me before we left, that he really “needed some mama time.”  We met my mom, sister, sister-in-law, and niece, at a pretty cool toy store.

Our local toy store has a train table set up, but this toy store, “downtown in the big city,” had a train table, a Lego table, a pirate ship table, and a doll house set up.  Ryan was so happy just playing.  Of course, it was crazy busy, and I didn’t venture away from where he was playing, so I didn’t get to look around too much, but did manage to find this neat, realistic toy trumpet for him, that I know he will love for his birthday.  I even managed to “sneak” back and have it beautifully gift wrapped.

My mom and I wanted to get some play food for Cole, since he will be receiving a cash register from Santa 🙂 , and a shopping cart from my brother and sister-in-law.  I had seen a play food set from Melissa & Doug at our local toy store about a month ago, and when I went in yesterday, they were completely sold out.  I even tried a few more stores in my town with no luck.

So my mom and I weren’t very optimistic we would find the set we were looking for, but we were thrilled when we saw this: the set we were looking for.  It even had 12 pieces, and the set I had seen previously, only had 10 pieces.  I know this says for ages 3 and up, but I can’t for the life of me figure out what could be a choking hazard.  Each piece is solid wood construction, and there aren’t any lids that come off, and the pieces are big.  Maybe it is something on the crate.  At any rate, I know Cole will just love playing with these.

Back to Ryan…we had so much fun together.  He kept kissing me, holding my hand, and thanking me for bringing him along.  He told me he was having a fun day.  He was so good too- he didn’t cry, or otherwise fuss when it was time to leave the toy store.  I told him we would go to Jamba Juice and get a smoothie, since that is his favorite treat. 

We stopped where we thought there was one, but it had closed.  So he had to wait, until we got to another mall, and he didn’t whine or fuss.  He fell asleep on the way to the mall, so I stayed in the car for 15 minutes or so, and let him sleep a bit.  When I woke him up, he was fine, and we went to get our smoothie.

He climbed up to a tall table, and kneeled on his knees, and just grinned from ear-to-ear.  He would sip his smoothie, and smile at me.  At one point he said, “I love you Mommy…this is the best day ever.”  That just melted my heart. 

Before we left to meet back up with our group, I realized how much I love this little boy.  He means everything to me.  As he grows, he doesn’t need me as much as he did, or even as much as Cole needs me now, but I am so happy that he can tell me when he does want to spend time with me.  It is nice to be reminded that he still does need me, but now it is in different ways, and it is so fun to enjoy him as a little person- as a little boy now, instead of a baby.

I realized how much I miss us just having time one-on-one.  We will definitely have to have another Mommy and Ryan day soon, but today was the highlight of the entire holiday season for me.  Spending quality time, with my sweet boy- it doesn’t get better than that!