the tweet heard 'round the world: a few words about segregation and educational options
Mon, Aug 23 2010 09:04 AM
| christen, general life, personal, little rock, olive, christian subculture, theology, arkansas, lucy, family, popular culture, children, current events, max, politics
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By the rude bridge that arched the flood,
Their flag to April's breeze unfurled;
Here once the embattled farmers stood,
And fired the shot heard 'round the world.
so begin's ralph waldo's emerson 1837 masterpiece, concord hymn. the line that closes the stanza, of course, has become a cultural idiom. the shot heard 'round the world is in reference to the american revolutionary war, specifically the battles of lexington and concord. indeed, those shots reverberated around the globe and set our nation on a new course.
and then—on august 21, 2010—there was this:
worth not just a read, but extended reflection for LR people / RT @GOOD: Are students pre-segregated before high school? http://su.pr/9msbx1
ryanByrd
ryanbyrd
which was immediately followed by this:
in addition to what the @GOOD article says, it's also worth reflecting on "self-segregation" (parents who put their kids in private school).ryanByrd
ryanbyrd
ah yes, the tweet heard 'round the world.
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one month down: new pictures of max
Wed, Jul 7 2010 07:58 AM
| christen, general life, personal, olive, lucy, family, children, max
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better late than never, right?
it's hard to believe, but tomorrow, july 8, max will be one month old. wow. at the risk of total cliché, time has flown by. it really does seem like yesterday that we were going to the hospital to prepare for his arrival. and now, fast forward a month…and we're just now taking pictures of him. yes, in the household of a photographer (christen), we're just now getting around to it. i guess that's just how it goes at this point…
it's hard to believe, but tomorrow, july 8, max will be one month old. wow. at the risk of total cliché, time has flown by. it really does seem like yesterday that we were going to the hospital to prepare for his arrival. and now, fast forward a month…and we're just now taking pictures of him. yes, in the household of a photographer (christen), we're just now getting around to it. i guess that's just how it goes at this point…
of max and men: teaching a boy to be a man
Sat, Jun 12 2010 08:53 AM
| christen, general life, personal, olive, lucy, christian subculture, theology, family, popular culture, children, max
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in the event that you've slept through the last several days or haven't read my blog (or decided to unfollow me in the midst of gratuitous labor tweeting…), baby byrd #3–max ryan byrd–squirted into this world on tuesday afternoon. weighing in just slightly under the minimum tonnage for aspiring sumo wrestlers, all 9 lbs, 3 oz of max has spent the last couple days acclimating to his new home. big sister olive and even bigger sister lucy have also been acclimating to having a new human being in their home, especially for the fact that this new human being is a little boy.
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the new baby byrd has arrived: first pictures of max
Wed, Jun 9 2010 08:58 AM
| christen, general life, photography, personal, olive, lucy, family, children, max
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well, he's here…
yes, max ryan byrd made his triumphant arrival yesterday at 1:16 p.m. if you weren't aware, we were scheduled to induce yesterday morning (on the awesomely, numerically nerdy 6/8/10) and things went very smoothly. christen was incredible and literally up to the point of pushing, she was calm and really didn't experience too much pain (relatively speaking, of course). the pushing went well and all 9 lbs, 3 oz (!) came plopping out just like he ruled the joint. :)
yes, max ryan byrd made his triumphant arrival yesterday at 1:16 p.m. if you weren't aware, we were scheduled to induce yesterday morning (on the awesomely, numerically nerdy 6/8/10) and things went very smoothly. christen was incredible and literally up to the point of pushing, she was calm and really didn't experience too much pain (relatively speaking, of course). the pushing went well and all 9 lbs, 3 oz (!) came plopping out just like he ruled the joint. :)
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pre-max: a lucy and olive photo retrospective
Mon, Jun 7 2010 09:38 AM
| christen, general life, photography, personal, olive, lucy, family, children, max
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tomorrow—tuesday, june 8, 2010—max ryan byrd will be born. we've been scheduled to induce and while we're not big fans of inducement, it's definitely a relief after what has been a month of constant anticipation. it's a little strange knowing the exact date of your child's birth, but it certainly does allow for a little planning that we didn't have when lucy and olive decided to pop out a couple weeks early.
with max's impending birth, the focus will largely shift to his arrival. for older children, it can be a difficult adjustment. lucy did pretty well with olive and i expect olive to do alright, but i thought i'd give lucy and olive the spotlight one last time before max jumps into the scene (and subsequently steals it).
with max's impending birth, the focus will largely shift to his arrival. for older children, it can be a difficult adjustment. lucy did pretty well with olive and i expect olive to do alright, but i thought i'd give lucy and olive the spotlight one last time before max jumps into the scene (and subsequently steals it).
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baby watch 2010: lucy lu turns 3 and a free max mix
Tue, May 18 2010 09:02 AM
| christen, general life, personal, lucy, music, family, children, max
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ok, which cliché do you want? how about time flies when you're having fun? or maybe it seems just like yesterday that she born? of course, there's she'll be all grown up before we know it. there's plenty others i could throw at you and quite frankly, many are true. the fact is, our little lucy lu turns 3 years old today and many of the age-old sayings that seem a little worn out ring true for me today.
a final farewell from Fat Ryan -OR- my plan to lose the equivalent of a 10-yr old
Sat, Jan 23 2010 02:26 PM
| christen, general life, personal, humor, weight loss, family, popular culture, children, food
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hello friends,
Fat Ryan here. yes, this is the same ryan that's been bringing you this stunning blog content since the year of our lord 2007. yes, this is the same ryan that you see every day or that you interact with on twitter every day or that you think longingly of each day. but i'm now referring to that guy as Fat Ryan.
and the Fat Ryan is singing.
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our sweet little olive turns 1
one year. wow.
it's nearly impossible to avoid all the necessary clichés with this type of post. it feels like yesterday... time flies... she'll be a teenager before you know it. blah blah blah. the reality, though, is that all the clichés are true, really.
it does seem like just yesterday that we were taking off for the hospital at 1:30 in the morning and seeing olive for the first time just a little after 5 a.m. (you can read the overview of those events here). time does fly when you have a sweet little girl that turns 1 without you realizing that even a day or a week has passed. and yes, the reality that she'll be all grown up very soon sets in when you begin making plans for that first birthday party.
father's day pictures
Sun, Jun 21 2009 09:59 PM
| christen, photography, personal, olive, lucy, family, children
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ok, christen told me my previous post about father's day was "depressing" and "weird." in fact, i believe she read it and then said, "wah waaaaahhh". so, i'm going to redeem it with a couple pictures she shot today in our backyard.despite the fact that lucy was being a grade-A terd, we managed to get at least one semi-usable one (although she demanded she hold an old rusty hose nozzle she found). olive
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father's day thoughts: count your blessings...or curses...
let's talk a little father's day theology.today is a great day. as stated, it's father's day. for me, as the father of two beautiful little girls, this day is less about being honored and recognized and more about me stopping to think about how beautiful and incredible my daughters are and the impact they have on my life. i've certainly done that today.one thing i notice, though, is that days like
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lucy lu: summertime on the farm
Sat, Jun 20 2009 12:56 AM
| christen, photography, lucy, children
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christen took the girls to her grandma's house last week and shot a bunch of photos. i'm experimenting with some various photo techniques and textures, so here's just one i messed around with a little bit.lucy tends to turn off the usual lucy hilariousness and charm, but for these, she decided to show the smile. so, here ya go. (click to see larger)
lucy and olive hit the pool
Wed, Jun 10 2009 05:33 PM
| christen, photography, personal, olive, lucy, family, children
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we hit the pool a couple days ago and needless to say, lucy and olive had a blast. christen blogged about it over at babybyrds.com (where she's put a couple updates as of late) and i thought i'd throw up a couple quick pics of the girls here.
a quick pic of lucy lu
in a lot of ways, this really captures the essence of lucy, so i thought i'd share it.
to lucy: birthday two
it's 11:56 p.m.4 minutes left in lucy's 2nd birthday.for me, blogging is an extension of my brain. it's what stirs internally coming out in an external platform. it's easy. and fluid.in this case, though, i've been sitting here for awhile trying to think of the best way to write this. it isn't that i don't know what to say. it's more that i don't know what not to say. as you well know, i can be notoriously
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new pics of olive
Mon, Dec 29 2008 11:22 PM
| photography, olive, family, children
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olive played model today, so i thought i would share. she keeps getting more and more beautiful...i'm sure you'll agree... :)
merry christmas from olive
ok, just disregard the slight blurriness and just accept the shear cuteness. her christmas present to herself is holding her big neck melon up by herself...while it's not lucy's giant head, it's still very impressive at 1 month old...
WARNING: gratuitous proud poop pictures ahead. :)
to emphasis the "WARNING" part of the title, i'm just gonna keep it real and say that i'm about to drop a serious pooping story on you. if you are gagging just reading the word, "pooping", then you may want to call it quits now. :)with that said...file this blog post under two categories:1. only a parent would actually be excited about something this, or2. embarrassing pictures just waiting for lucy
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happy birthday, olive!
ok...that's if you count months as birthday opportunities...which, of course, we do. so...happy birthday, olive!today, i can't believe it, but olive is 1 month old. just four(ish) shorts weeks ago, olive came into the world and we already can't remember what life was like without her.now, i'm not going to be sappy, cry-er dad here (which would be typical...), but i just wanted to take a minute to put
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oh! christmas tree
these days, we're on a little slower schedule than what we used to be. last weekend, we bought a christmas tree. tonight, a full week later, we decorated it. it took us a week to muster enough energy to actually throw some freakin' balls and lights on our goofy tree. needless to say, it's been a little hectic around the byrd household as of late.anyway, the tree stands, in all its glory, decorated
a quick olive pic from the iphone
current olive stats: 2 weeks, 2 days old. beefing it up at almost 7 pounds. quickly learning defensive skills from lucy's regular big sister beatings. more beautiful than ever. here's the (grainy iphone) pic:
new olive pics!
Tue, Dec 2 2008 11:22 PM
| christen, photography, personal, olive, lucy, family, children
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we finally got a chance (read: olive was awake, lucy was being nice and me & christen felt like doing it) to shoot some more pictures of olive (and lucy) today. these are the first ones we've done beyond the hospital pics, so we were excited to finally do them. also, as you can see, we did some with lucy and olive together. they turned out really great. (don't worry, although there were a couple
olive's first (real) trip out of the house
tonight, lucy went and hung out with aunt ann while christen and i took olive out to dinner. thanks to the ol' iphone and the great app, camerabag (itunes store link), we got this photo:
more pics of olive: day 5 (already!)
update time:i fee like time is flying. it's almost been a week! this is my first blog since saturday, so that may give you a little insight as to my time availability for blogging... i finally have a few minutes, so i thought i would offer a few updates and put up a few new pics.olive: she's looking more and more beautiful each day. her skin is gorgeous, her hair is shiny and beautiful and she's starting
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a quick pic from olive's first night home
notes on an olive
hopefully you all have had a chance to read, a couple posts back, about the process by which we have welcomed olive into the world. if not, take a minute to read it...christen was on the brink of telling me to remove some stuff when she got a chance to read it, so that lets you know it's worth the read. :)i thought i would follow up the long account and the initial pics (which i hope to have more
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come see the olive
i shot a zillion pictures as soon as she popped out, but since it's been a crazy day and an exhausting day, i just decided to edit a few of the ones that stood out as i quickly glanced through the shots. here some of them are (you can see a few more at christen's flickr page). (click to see images larger)
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gone in 60 seconds: the story of olive grace
alright people, i'm finally getting around to it. olive grace, as teased in the previous post, made her illustrious world debut this morning at 5:06 a.m. here's the story:8 p.m.: christen returns from visiting one of her best friends who is giving birth at baptist hospital. she tells me—before going to bed—that she thinks she could have this baby tonight.8 p.m. and a couple seconds: i think to
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scratch that last post...
...yeah, forget everything i said in that last post...it's 3 a.m.we're at the hospital.i'm predicting baby within the hour...more details and pictures to come...
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olives available next tuesday...
...ok, not so much olives in the plural form... more like the singular olive...olive, in the baby form, will make her triumphant arrival next tuesday, november 25. after several weeks of slow dilation and olive shimmying down into the lower nether-regions of the birth canal, our doctor put forth the option to induce. although we're not huge fans of the idea of being induced, christen would have had
hell freezes: my wife's a blogger!
Sun, Nov 16 2008 03:32 PM
| recommendations, christen, family, children, websites, blog stuff
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as i told you all yesterday, babybyrds.com is up and running (and some improvements have already been made from the time i posted it). i posted the first little ditty on there, but today, christen has entered the blogosphere! indeed, hell has frozen (because of all the months that christen has made fun of me for be a goofy blogger).she posted a humorous/horrifying story that you should definitely go
babybyrds.com!
Sat, Nov 15 2008 10:55 PM
| christen, personal, olive, lucy, family, children, websites, blog stuff
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i'm excited to let you guys know that we got babybyrds.com up and running tonight! this will be the home for all things christen and ryan offspring: namely, lucy and olive (but we're sure there will be more to come down the road...). primarily, this will be the place that christen blogs, but i'll hop on from time to time. we'll be putting pictures, updates, video and whatever else seems to be entertaining
lucy lu: sans parents
lucy spent a couple days at grandma and grandpa's house, which meant the following:1. she got to stay up really late2. she could get away with not taking naps3. she generally got what she wanted, and4. she got to go to day care with grandma and aunt bethanythe former of this list is by far her favorite part. the times in the past that she's gone to cradle care, she's had a blast. lucy loves other kids
baby byrd #2: very close...
i got to thinking today and realized that the thing that is currently the most important matter in my life has gotten very little face time here on the ol' blog. that thing, of course, is the impending birth of our second sweet little girl, olive.first of all, once upon a time i believe i promised to let everybody know the name we've chosen. (broken promises could be the theme of this blog...sorry,
lucy lu @ the pumpkin patch
on saturday, we went, along with our best friends rob and stephanie and their kids, to the schaefers and collins pumpkin patch and farm in the fine and bustling city of mayflower. we really had a good time watching lucy run around fearlessly on the big kid playground and in and out of all the pumpkins. it's hilarious how fearless she is (especially zipping down the big slides).this trip called for
the most profound mystery
parenting is a profoundly mysterious thing.after missing a couple naps today and having a rough night last night, lucy's eyes began to droop at about 7:30 (she usually goes to bed around 8:30 or so). with several unsuccessful attempts under my belt, i finally left lucy in her crib about an hour and a half ago. i have been laying here in bed ever since listening to her cry.crying doesn't really bother
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lucy in technicolor
ok, i swear i'm not going to turn this blog into a lucy photo gallery (although i can't make any guarantees when the new byrd baby arrives...). but..i thought this picture of lucy turned out great from this weekend in paducah. our friend terri took it, but i played around with the toning that a friend of mine recently showed me. i've been tweaking the toning effect a little and i thought it was interesting
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paducah: a retrospective (cue flowery music...)
it’s hard to believe, but we’ve been gone from paducah for almost a year now. we love everything about little rock, but we really do still miss paducah. for being the weird little small town that it is, it was a good place to live. for the first time since leaving, we were able to go back and visit. i thought i would offer some highlights and insights from the weekend.1. paducah is still named
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lucy lu
this is a picture christen shot several weeks ago and posted on her flickr page. it's my desktop image at work and i had to put it on here because it perfectly captures lucy.
lucy the camera hog
when you flip around the viewfinder so that lucy can see herself, she suddenly transforms into the camera hog that she was born to be...(p.s. sorry for the crappy audio...)
alien girl found in woman's womb...
ok, so that was my attempt at becoming a headline writer for the national enquirer...we have big news and i'm assuming by the photo you can take a guess as to what this big news is... this november (the 26th to be exact), we will be greeting a new little baby girl! today we had a nice long 45-minute ultrasound when she decided not to spread eagle, thus angering her parents and greatly frustrating
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lucy
i'm consistently reminded about how deep my love for lucy is and how much brighter she makes my life. most of the time, i notice these things in the simplest parts of life.a couple days ago, we made a monumental switch: we turned around lucy's car seat. this change has been really fun for us because we can see exactly what lucy is doing as we drive along (of course, the chance of rear ending some other
