Ryan is 27 on the 24th!

While we were in St. George we celebrated Ryan's 27th birthday. I can't believe I am old enough to have a son that old! Wow! The time has really flown by. Greg and I were talking about Ryan's birth on the way home from St. George. I remember waking up at about midnight. I couldn't seem to get comfortable, so I got up and read for a little while. I then scrubbed my kitchen floor and the fronts of all my cabinets (maybe a little nesting instinct cropping up?). I finally got in the tub for awhile. At 3 or 4 in the morning, I woke Greg up because I was bored with myself, and I was wondering why I had a backache. About 5 o'clock, Greg called my mom. She asked how often my back was hurting. When we told her every 3 to 4 minutes, she told us to get to the hospital. No one had ever told me that labor pains could be in your back! Greg drove us to the hospital with the flashers going on the car. I was so glad there weren't many people out that early! I am not sure if he was really that nervous, or if he just thought he was funny. As I was taken into the delivery room, a nurse told Greg to move back against the wall because he wasn't sterile, and then commented, "Obviously". Greg thought that was hilarious. Greg and I were both so young and stupid, we were pretty clueless about the whole giving birth process. As Ryan was being born, Greg was worried they were pulling things out of me they shouldn't when his arms and legs were being delivered. We didn't realize the baby would not be a pretty pink right off the bat. Ryan weighed in at 7 lbs. 11 oz. and was 21 inches long. He was born right around 9:30 in the morning on March 24, 1982. His dad let out a whoop of joy and a "Yes!" when he found out he had a son. I thought he was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen, but looking back on his pictures, he looked a little bit like an old man. Ryan was 2 weeks early. At his 2 week check-up, he weighed 9 lb. 5 oz. and was 23 inches long. I was glad he was early! He has always looked very masculine. I never had anyone mistake him for a girl. Ryan was a snuggler. He loved being held and snuggled close. He loved sucking his thumb, and had a certain "corner" of his green and white checkered blanket he had to have to rub while sucking. My Aunt Cathy made the blanket. It had large green and white squares with a duck on the front. It had white ric-rac around the edges, and Ryan could tell where the ric-rac met on a certain corner, and that was the one he had to have. Ryan was always a really good baby. His favorite toy was always some sort of ball. Ryan has always been a very kind and compassionate person. He would constantly be worried about his friends, his brother and his sister's feelings. Ry has one blue eye, and one eye that the top half is blue and the bottom half is green. When he was in kindergarten, I could always tell when the students would draw pictures of themselves which one was my son. He would color his eyes the way they are, so I could pick him out instantly. This was a good thing, because there were 5 Ryans in his kindergarten class. Ryan's name was a compromise. Greg liked names like "Rockwell" and "Corbett", and I liked names like "Tyler". Neither one of us liked the other person's choices. I was tending our niece, Aimee, one day, and she is the one that suggested the name Ryan. Ryan's middle name is Baird which is also Greg's dad's middle name. Ryan is a great son. He is a terrific brother, a good husband, and a fabulous father. Happy Birthday son!