Baseball training.

I've already posted blogs about Craig trying out golf and soccer. Well, Craig is a baseball fan too. Here is a poorly lit video of Craig taking batting practice of sorts. The setup is we were at Tania's parents for dinner and TV (I think the VP Debate was on). It was probably during the MLB playoffs, so baseball was on the mind. Craig had picked up a wiffle ball bat and was swinging it around a little too enthusiastically.

So I took Craig in the garage where he proceeded to take batting practice on a plastic apple that hangs from the ceiling so you know how far to pull the car in. We did this for almost a half hour. Good times.

Also, a blessed Christmas/Holiday season to all of you from Ricky, Tania, Craig and Jeremy!

Catching up with Jeremy

Jeremy is 3 1/2 months old now, and he has gone from a tiny baby with no neck to a growing baby who will smile at everyone. Here are some pics to catch up with our littliest man.

Here I am holding Craig holding Jeremy.



Tania was taking pictures of Jeremy in his "i'm new here" outfit and Craig had to get in the action.



Another pic of Jeremy in one of Tania's favorite outfits.



Dad and Grandpa are giving Jeremy a bath. It took a little longer than expected.



This video proves how smiley Jeremy is. He does this to everyone, and we love it.

The most awesomest cookie cake.

This is the cookie cake that makes Mrs. Fields cry in a dark corner. Tania baked it for Craig's birthday. I am still eating it. It represents the good in all things considered cookie and cake. Bask in its awesomeness!

Trick or Treat! Now gimme your candy.....

There is nothing more entertaining than a two-year-old trick or treating for the first time. The whole time I was wondering what was going through Craig's brain: "Hmmm...it seems every house has an excess of candy and they want me to take as much as I can. Score!" (Craig has a great vocab apparently)

Our day started....with my car getting worked on. So we took a trip to the mall. Since it was a long day, I dressed the kids up and put Craig in the Gator costume to start.



Jeremy in his stroller. He was a pumpkin. I guess technically a jack-o-lantern.



Here is Craig as a Giraffe. I think the antler nubs make the costume.



Here I am with Craig. Tania wore a football jersey a student gave her. I went as a soccer player, which looks nothing like what I wear on Saturdays.



Our strategy for trick or treating was to have Craig 1) walk on his own 2) Ring the doorbell 3) Say please 4) Accept candy and move on. Well, he did great walking. And ringing the doorbell.



As for the saying please and getting candy.....well the video will speak for itself.



I'm not sure what Craig was planning on doing inside the house. Also, if there were a few kids at a house Craig would just walk up to the bowl and help himself! It was awesome, something his parents and grandparents will not forget.

Poll: Which Halloween Costume do you like better?

Halloween is around the corner, and we have 2 super-awesome Halloween costumes that Craig could wear. So we thought we could get your opinion on things. So, do you prefer Craig as:

A Gator?



Or a Giraffe?



Jeremy already grew out of his Pumpkin Halloween costume (he is 13 pounds already!) So he might just have to go as Captain Adorable.



Let us know your thoughts!

FORE!

I checked all the pics and videos we have, and I need to get a move on! So here is a video of Craig playing golf in the backyard. Remember, he is only 22 months in this video! Which (of course) makes him the next Tiger Tiger Woods Y'all.

The last days of Summer

As goes the Cardinals playoff chances, so too does summer disappear. We had a busy first month of Jeremy's life, mostly hanging out with peeps who wanted to meet the little guy.

Craig dressed up as a Giraffe with his cousin Lily. There was a dragon outfit too, but we couldn't get them both to sit still with the costumes on at the same time.



Great-Grandma Lawler holding Jeremy the first time, and Uncle Tom being....well....Uncle Tom. Way to bring honor to your family there. Proud Day.



Jeremy awake and with his eyes open. They are still that gray color before they become their real eye color.



Dad and his boys.



Craig with Tania's Godson Julian. They had a blast together. They saw each other and went "You like to run around and cause havok? Me too!"



Tania and Craig with Noah and Madeline Cerneka. The Cernekas (Craig's Godparents) got last minute tickets to the Cards game. That might be the last one they've won at this point. Anyways, we were glad to watch them and the Little People got a workout. Please note the paint job in Craig's room I've mentioned before yet never photographed.

Jeremy Ryan and family

Here are some pics from Jeremy's first week of life. Ummm....it's hard to get a good picture of a newborn, so mostly its just of Jeremy joining the family.



Jeremy Willmann literally only a few minutes old.



Mom and the boys during Craig's first visit. He did ok in the hostpital. The best part was during his final visit he grabbed Mom's hand, lead her out of the room and to the elevators and pressed the down button. His way of saying "You're coming home with me!"



Jeremy in the Willmann take-home-outfit. This outfit was used to take my father home from the hostpital, myself, my sister, Craig and Jeremy. Maybe more, but those are the ones I know off the top of my head. It was made by my Great-Grandmother.



The new addition ready to come home.



Mom helping Craig hold Jeremy. Craig has been great with Jeremy. He gives Jeremy kisses and wants to hold him alot. He likes checking him in the crib and is always willing to offer you a diaper during a change. Sometimes 5 of them.



This picture is beautiful. (it wasn't posed!)



Craig holding Jeremy solo. It lasted for 25 minutes until Jeremy needed a change. Craig pouted when he had to give him up.



Daddy and Jeremy watching the Olympics. We are still adjusting to a newborn's feeding schedule, but each day seems easier than the last, which is about all we can hope for!

The Eagle has landed.

Jeremy Ryan Willmann was born at 10:30pm last night, August 14th 2008. He is 7 pounds 12oz and 20 inches in length. I can't upload pictures yet, but I can tell you he looks much like his older brother Craig exept Jeremy has a much more pronounced chin (at least at the current time.)

The labor and delivery went well (I would say, but I think Tania agrees). We got to our room to be induced at 1:30pm (due to high blood pressure and history of pre-eclampsia) and were expecting to be delivering at 1:30am. Well, Jeremy tried his best to see Michael Phelps because Tania dialated from 5 to 9 inches in just over 1 hour. Tania only had to push twice and Jeremy was born right smack in the middle of the Woman's All-Around Gymnastics final. He scored an 8-9 on his APGAR....why I don't know. I didn't really care. He was finally here.

Of course, leading up to the birth we made things interesting. Tania and I both got poison ivy!!!!! We were doing some yard work last Monday which involved cleaning off the vines from our fence. Those vines were fine. It was the giant hairy vine on the tree in the corner that got us. Only after getting itchy did I find the dreaded leaves-of-three on the vine. Craig is itch free, but I am in long sleeves and pants for the rest of the week. I am also on steroids, the only reason I am not the Olympics. (Failed drug tests look bad........) ; )

So I will get pics up when I can, but for now know that baby and Mom are great. in fact they are both sleeping right now......

Grant's Farm

Earlier this summer (before InBev) we took a trip to Grant's Farm. There are lots of cool things to do, but the highlight for a toddler is feeding the goats. A quick thought on those goats: They are needy little fellas. They have one job: drink milk. Everyday, all day, they drink milk from bottles presented by humans. Despite this occupation they treat every bottle like it is the last bottle on Earth. They certainly try to jump up and get the bottle before the other ones. But they will even head-butt other goats to get milk. They need to take lessons from the penguins. "Cute and cuddly boys. Cute and cuddly."

Here is Craig with the goats. He is certainly not afraid of them.



DANGER! Surrounded by goats with no milk!



Dad shows him how to do it.



Now he is a professional goat feeder.

Picnics, weddings and more.

I finally downloaded our pics from May and June. First was Tania's cousin Timmy's wedding.


Tania and I looking crooked at the wedding.



Tania and her sisters.



Craig on a carriage ride at the St. Anselm Parish picnic.



Craig had the entire Moon Bounce to himself for close to 30 minutes. He would have lived there if given the chance.



Here is Craig eating Cheerios off the end of the crayons he gets at restaurants. This is much better than when he eats the crayons and spits them out because they taste bad.



Baby, you can drive my car.



Here's Craig helping us paint his room. The room turned out great, but alas I didn't take any pictures! Next time I suppose.



Craig has figured out his Little People and loves them. Although he tends to put too many cars on the track causing it not to rotate. Whatever, that's traffic for you.

I will get the July pictures up soon as well. Unless we have the baby, then I will have lots of new baby pictures to put up! We are 4 weeks away from the due date, so it really could be any day, although I'm betting on the second week of August.

Mid Summer update

Wow, summer is flying by. Here is what we have been up to:
- Ricky spent a week on Christ Power and is focusing on his Wed Night prayer group at work.
- Tania is enjoying her summer as a teacher and likes all her Craig time
- We are both still unpacking and preparing for the baby. We have been putting up storage shelves and even painted Craig's room last week. We still have to actually finish the baby's room.....
- Tania is due August 21st, which puts her somewhere in her third trimester. She is feeling it, both from being tired and the baby kicking.
- Craig is picking up words and wants to be either a)watching PBS(Curious George especially) or b) playing outside. Outside trumps PBS. He loves water and any pool as is noted in the picture below.



That's about it. We have a wedding we are a part of next month, but otherwise we are focused on our new arrival.

The St. Louis Zoo for Mother's Day

For Mother's Day we went to the zoo (on Saturday) with Grandma and Grandpa Willmann and Aunt Maureen. Craig has been to the zoo a few times and already has his favorites. It was crowded and had the threat of rain so we couldn't see everything. Here are some photos of the day.

Grandpa and Craig with the giraffe.



Craig loves the bird house at the zoo. Whenever a bird calls, Craig calls back. We couldn't get any footage of that, but we did get a picture of a bird that jumped on a railing about a foot from where Tania was standing.



Craig is very good at holding your hand while walking....until he sees something interesting, but overall he is quite good.



I believe we are examining the prairie dogs in this picture.



Here is a video of Craig feeding the ducks. The highlight of the day. We left right after this and good thing we did because it stormed on the way home.

He's gonna be a soccer player!

I just took inventory of my pics and videos, and I am excited about the next few blogs. First I have some documentation of our back yard. Craig loves it. He feels he should spend every moment of everyday outside.

The video is Craig playing soccer on his own. Even back in high school everyone had a suspicion my children would be soccer players. Don't worry, I have all summer to work on baseball too.

First-Quarter pics

Here is a random selection of pics from the first quarter of this year. I wish I could call them springtime pictures but there is nothing spring about them.

Here is Craig in his PJ's apparently drifting off to sleep while standing up.



Chocolate goatee! My favorite!



Craig at an arcade driving game with his Aunt Maureen. He loves to get behind the wheel and push any button he sees, even if you don't know what it does.



Craig playing outside in the last snow of the year. I think he used Mom taking a picture as his chance to escape!