Ryan loved babies. He loved them so much that he when he was 2 or 3 years old, he always carried a baby doll with him everywhere he went. He called it baby. Left, Ryan in December of 2003 (at 2 1/2 years old) with his baby doll.
One time he left his baby in Babies-R-Us the grocery shopping cart and he was totally distraught We went back and looked and baby was gone, so his Nana Linda went in search at toys r us and found a baby that was almost identical. He was content if not fooled. As an uncle without a lot of toys, I was working on ways to win Ryan’s respect. I thought maybe radio controlled helicopters might be the ticket, but really he gave me props when my wife and I had our first daughter. According to him, that was the best thing that could ever happen. He kept saying, “She’s so beautiful.”
We found a video a few days ago and Ryan was holding and feeding his young loving cousin (my daughter). Above, still photo from video from the video – May of 2011. He was softly talking to her and smiling and his soft voice said, “she is so cute.” I’m glad that Ryan got to hold my daughter.
John What a beautiful memory.I was just outside letting my 5 month old baby pick flowers and of course try to eat them.I brought her inside to feed her and while feeding her a bottle I clicked on your blog hoping to see more pictures of my friends,your family and here is this wonderful story about Ryan and your beautiful little girl that I see and she is beautiful I saw her at the memorial service.I wanted to talk to you but I didn’t have any words to say.I can see Ryan loving babies just look at his mom.I remember last year when my wife was pregnant(only a couple months) and she came to Aqua Safaris with me and some how I didn’t mention our pregnancy to De De even though I was there every week helping with classes and De De saw my wife,hit me in the arm and said “Oh my god you didn’t tell me you were having a baby!” Her face lit up as you can imagine with that magic smile. Since then De De had been giving me breastfeeding advice,demonstrations and the history and importance of breastfeeding every chance she got. She always told me to call her any time we needed any advice.I was fortunate enough to have DeDe meet my little girl in June twice.Once with Luke and Ryan during Jr Guards the boys both looked at her and I can remember Ryan saying those same words “She’s cute” and once at Aqua Safaris.De De did everything but hold her because she had very dirty hands that day.She said she would hold her later I thought nothing of it, later would never come. I’m always going to have good memories, and my baby has really helped me deal with this.So again thank you to all who share memories here and god bless.
I couldn’t stop the flood of tears after reading this latest blog about Ryan loving babies. He is so adorable in that picture with DeDe and his baby. For some reason at the funeral I could hold the tears in, but when I read this blog daily, my eyes fill with tears and I feel like I am losing my breath for a second. Even though I know they are gone and I won’t ever see them again, my heart doesn’t want to believe it. Instead I make myself think that they are just off on another family adventure or that the reason I won’t see them again is that they moved away. I was one of Ryan’s teachers at DeLaveaga and I will miss him so much next year. I think about Ryan and his family everyday and so far every Thursday at 7:30pm, I am thinking about them especially. I have been saving all of the newspaper articles and the obituary. I just can’t let seem to let them go. I don’t want to forget this bright, friendly, boy and his wonderful family. As I am sure we all do, I just wish I had one more chance to see them and to say good-bye. Thank you for this blog John. It’s helping to keep their spirits alive.
Ryan our green eyed blonde who smiled with his entire face. He so lit up the world when he entered it just 1o years ago. He loved being funny and telling jokes, I had to be careful of the ones I shared with him, because he remembered them and loved to re-tell them. One of the times I was over for a few days and had returned home, DeDe called and said she knew I had been there because the boys told her “we’ll have no Lolligaging” when they were on their way out the door. (she and David did not use the word, but I heard DeDe once or twice after that). He loved to hear stories and he and Luke would each have their turn sleeping with me, Ryan really liked me to make up stories about a “Diamond Eye Fish”, he always wanted me to add a new tale. I remember when I went to visit them in Baja, I took a two man rubber raft in my suitcase, boy did they laugh at that and I immediately became the captain as I towed the two boys around in the bay, pretending to be pirates. They both had such active imaginations and such good senses of humor. So many memories I have to hold them close always. Last night was extremely difficult and I just could not sleep, so I got up and talked to them as I gazed the pictures on the blog. My heart is breaking as each day the reality hits me that this is all truly happening. Thank you to everyone for sharing and sharing your precious stories with us all. They are so missed and will be forever loved. I Love you Ryan and hope you all can still know how much! Nana
You know what I really loved about Luke and Ryan was the depth of love and emotion that was so available at the surface. Even in just a casual small conversation you would really get in touch with their person. This was the quality of the Houghton family. But its a very unique quality for kids to have – to be so connected and in tune with themselves, that they feel comfortable sharing themselves so purely with everyone else. I loved that!!