The Ritners are on Vacation for the Week

We are getting some sun at Wrigley and enjoying Deep Dish with Kristyn's Family in Chicago. Thankfully the Boyers are making the most of our Williamsburg pad for a week getaway of their own. So if you see the house knocking...its not us.

See you online next Monday.

Pic of the Week: Addy in her Outfit from Uncle Dan and Aunt Kristin

Bathtime Surprise

Addy got a little too comfortable in the Bath Thursday night and decided it seemed as good a time as any to relieve herself. Of course, we let her play before we wash her, so we had to start the whole bath process over again after cleaning out the tub. We laughed through the whole thing. I don't think she had any idea what was going on!

A Classic Experiment

The old Pavlov experiment says that you dont have to even show a dog food to make them salivate, all you have to do is ring a bell that you have trained them to associate with food and they will go nuts. Watch a mild mannered child go nuts when she gets the bib put on her. Then watch as we try to take her meal away! Dont mess with Addy's soy.

Bad Hair Day

Check out the mop on Addy's head that she woke up with on Sunday. Somebody had to have an unscheduled Sunday morning bath!.

Addy Learns to Dance

Making New Friends

Mom and Addy had lunch on Friday at Debbie McKinnon's house with some of her family that was in town. Tex and Debbie have been family ever since Jon was an intern at WCC and they live in the adjacent neighborhood so the girls took a long walk over there. Here are some pictures of the day, and Addy's scowl at Mom for taking too many of them when she wanted to go home and take a nap!

Pics of the Weekend

Chillin' in the Tub: Addy has taken to lounging in the tub now. She can actually swing her legs over the edge and sit sideways in their. It sure doesnt look comfortable, but she loves it. Here is her Sunday morning bath.

Daddy and Addy watching Game 7 of the Pistons and Cavs Sunday afternoon.

Saturday is Kristyn's Birthday

Williamsburg's best new mother is turning 28 tomorrow, and kind of feeling old. Please let her know how much she is loved. Her email is kritner@cox.net, or you can call her at 757-645-0801 on her work number. All voicemails on that number get converted to voice-emails for her. Lets see if we can flood her inbox tomorrow! Here is my photo montage to how young and fun my wonderful wife is.

Decoding the Da Vinci Code

For the last three months Jon has been working with LeeStrobel.com to cut 30 hours of video clips about the Da Vinci Code into 3-7 minute clips for the website. With this weekend's launch of the movie, we are expecting huge numbers of Google searches and direct link hits from church websites as well as major publicity from a national satellite broadcast Sunday night featuring Erwin Lutzer and Lee Strobel about the "historical" claims of the book. A recent survey of churches reported that more than 70% of them were planning on giving some sort of Christian response to the fictional claims of the book about Jesus.

Just so you know where Kristyn and I are on the controversy about the book...I have been rereading it, or re-listening to it on audio form, on my headphones when I mow the lawn each week, and we are going to see the movie tomorrow night. I hope the national press leads people to question the ridiculous nature of the claims of Dan Brown, but man is it a page turner!

Here is one clip from the website that we uploaded onto You Tube.

One Last Picture from Last Weekend

You can see, Addy was definitely taken aback by Clay's advances. This picture is from Scott and Lisa's Blog of Clay. You can visit them here.

Happy Mother's Day

Addy and Daddy took Mom out to brunch after church on Sunday for Mother's Day. Mom got a new watch with a stopwatch timer (so she can time Addy as she grows older), some baby bath lotions for when Mom gives Addy her massages, and some children's books about mothers and daughters. Here are the two of them wearing their Sunday best. Addy has slept through the night, two full nights in a row now, what a Mother's Day gift!

Pic of the Weekend: Addy and Daddy Blogging Together

Finally Some Good Advertisements on the Intersection

Well, don't look now, but we finally got Katrina Relief removed and an Apple Convention Banner in its place. Remember, if you like reading and watching Addy's adventures, please click on her ads on the right hand bar and run a quick search of whatever word comes to your mind at that moment. Then click on one of the links inside the Google results page. We get credit for each so don't be afraid to take that extra second to do both as you visit. Thanks for all the support! Over 3000 visitors and climbing!

Addy and Clay Finally Meet

Scott and Lisa Boyer came through town on Saturday on their way to a wedding in North Carolina. It was the first time we had each seen the kids. Clay and Addy seemed to get along swimmingly as you can see in these videos, although they did get a little too close for our liking towards the end. Looking forward to our first Mother's Day tomorrow morning as a family. Addy picked out some fun presents for Mom.

We are going to try to break Addy of a her new habit of waking back up at 5 AM wanting, not to eat, but just to be repacified (is that a word?). Hoping it is not too long a night. We will report in on Monday.

Supervised Dating for Toddlers

Its All About MEEE!

Clay Gets Frisky and Then Gets Slapped

Addy Learns to Roll...With a Little Help

Addy Tells About Her Dream

Pics of the Week

Proof that Addy is a Daddy's Girl

Well, as many of you probally know, Dad has kind of a thing about sleeping with wind blowing on him. He has had a fan in his bedroom since as long as he can remember and his bedroom was once referred to as the "Wind Tunnell". Part of it is the noise, part of it is the cold air, but it has just become accepted in the Ritner home. In fact our first purchase as an engaged couple was a set of matching fans for our bedside tables in seminary so Kristyn could get used to the sleeping conditions that would come with married life. All that to say, Dad has been slowly breaking Addy into the love of cold air on her face and she has come to love it! Here is a clip of Jon blowing on her face. Once she gets over the instinctual startle reflex all kids have, watch how much she enjoys it.

Addy Speaks

Addy has been grunting this past week every time she gets an audience. Of course that comes as no surprise when you hear how attentive and encouraging Mom is as a listener!

Pick of the Weekend: Little Pink Riding Hood

Addy's Big Play Date

Hudson Sylvester came over Friday night to hang out with Addy. Jon has known Hudson's Dad, Rich, since High School and now they work together at the Chapel and the two little ones have been getting very friendly recently in the nursery. Once again, Addy didn't seem nearly as interested in Hudson and he was in her, but I think that is because she was a little intimidated that he can sit up on his own. You can read Hudson's blog here.

Playing Footsies with Addy

Crazy weekend ahead, thankfully we are all healthy to enjoy it. We have a Family Conference at the Chapel this weekend (Fri-Sat morning), Jon has a wedding Saturday, we have a going away party for the Falwells who are moving to CO, then church and a groundbreaking ceremony on Sunday. But the best part-Jon's sister Caroline will be here the whole time!

Pic of the Week: Super Girl!

Sleeping Like A Healthy Baby

Addy has made a bedtime buddy, Bunny. The magic formula it seems for putting Addy to sleep is pacifier in mouth, blanket in hands and Bunny in her eye line. Grandma McKendrick gave it to her and she loves staring at it as she falls asleep each nigth. Addy continues to sleep from 7:30-10:30 and then can go without a bottle until 7Am, but has been fussing a little at 4 or so and wanting her pacifier back in her mouth. Now that the whole family is healthy, we are going to try to break her of that this week.

Signs of Intelligent Life

Mom has been working with Addy to be able to reach out and grab the rings that hang over her changing station (aka washing machine) downstairs. Just this weekend she was able to grab the rings for the first time. These are from this morning. You can see her gaining coordination with her hands. She finally grabbed on to them while I was changing her, so I didn't get that moment on tape, but now I have a blog project for the week!

A Star in the Making

This Weekend's Happiness Brought to You by Desitin Creamy

Addy developed quite diaper rash over the weekend that didn't seem to be going away until another mother in town told us we needed to "slather the Desitin on like it was cream cheese." Well Jon, being from the home of the bagel, New York, took that advice to heart. A couple of good schmeers of Desitin and Addy has overcome her deep seated problem.

QPT: Quality Parenting Time

Here is Daddy and Addy during their quality time weekend together. 72 hours of feeding, sleeping, and cuddling while Mom slept off her sickness. The verdict is in, Addy's definitely has Dad's blue eyes and Mom's love language of Physical Touch. Kristyn gave her a long baby massage session Sunday night with smelly lotions and soothing music. She loved it!