Ryan's Footprints on

our Hearts

One summer afternoon at Nanma and Poppa's house, Ryan was playing happily in the sandpit when his play was interrupted by some ants. He promptly found a sand sifter to hit them with and screamed at the top of his lungs triumphantly “I got you!” over and over.

Whenever he was unable to open something – like a pop top drink - or get something to turn on – such as the organ – he would state clearly with his palms facing up “It’s not working!”

When it was bath time, he would come running down the hall saying “Rain!” “Rain!” - his way of asking for the shower over the bath to be turned on.

Driving around looking at Christmas lights and he would be cheering “Tegs! Tegs! Look!” and “Wow!” and the occasional “Santa Claus!”

We had just started potty training and whenever he saw anyone go to the toilet he would come too to sit on his potty. Only problem was, he wanted to be stripped completely naked every time!

Riding his bike along the Strand and when he would come to a slight uphill slope he would say “push, push!”

If anyone looked sad he would go up and hug them saying “you ok?”

He found a lot of joy in turning the Numlock key on the computer keyboard on and off as a light would go on and off.

Whenever something fell to the ground…..it didn’t fall according to Ryan, it “crashed!”

Ryan insisted on shutting doors. If he walked past an open door, he would have to stop and shut it. “Shut door?” he would say, looking at me for approval. It wouldn’t matter what I said – that door was being shut by hook or by crook. Sometimes it would take us a few minutes to get down the hallway in the mornings because he would have to stop and shut every door on the way.

At the library, Ryan would rarely sit still and listen to the story, rather he would climb on top of the tables behind Belinda, the story teller, and start dancing, always the centre of attention, huge grin on his face.

If you asked Ryan for a kiss you would either get a forehead tilted forward for you to kiss or he would plant an open mouth slobbery kiss on your cheek.

His dummy was a security item for Ryan and was often difficult to get from him but more often than not, if you asked for his dummy, he would happily give it to you – for a short time anyway.

Ryan slept with a blue cuddly bear blanket since his birth. He could not get to sleep without it. Most mornings he would come out of his room with it in his arms. The occasional time he would forget it, he would turn and run down the hall “blankie, blankie!” he would announce quickly returning with it tucked under his arm and his dummy placed firmly between his lips.

Ask Ryan where his belly button was and he would promptly find it for you. Lifting his shirt and cheering “there it is!”

Many occasion when I thought I had 2 minutes to myself and had ducked to the toilet, I would hear Ryan wondering around the house saying "Muuummmyy...where are yoooou?" over and over. 

Walking along the strand early one morning, Ryan disappeared into a garden bed.  I walked on a few steps thinking he would come straight out but he was unable to be seen.  I called his name and told him to come out and he kept responding "ooooook" everytime.  Eventually I had to go in after him and found him standing there with a cheeky smile on his face in amongst the bushes.

My best memories of Ryan were when we came out to visit in Dalby and Nick and Tegan were taking  turns being the driver on the little electric quad bike up and down the outdoor paved area. Ryan was hot on their tails running along in his walker, back and forth, back and forth not even caring that the other kids weren't waiting for him, so much energy!  (Charmaine O'Connor)

When we saw him in September 2007,  we hadn't seen him since he was, at a guess 8-9months old, and he was now nearly a two year old but as soon as he jumped out of the car he ran up and gave us big cuddles.  I remember he thought that Colin growling and stamping his feet like a monster was the funniest thing.  On that same visit we had just had the carpets shampooed and Ryan got hold of a can of coke and ran straight to the lounge room with it and of course promptly spilt it and left a stain. I was pretty annoyed but now when I see it poking out from under the rug it just makes me smile and I don't think I'd ever have the heart to get it cleaned.  Then we all went out to Warwick for a combined birthday bbq for Nick, Daniel and Ryan. Even though it was for all of them Ryan sat up the head of the table and quickly turned it into a celebration just for him. I'll never forget him clapping his hands with a massive smile on his face while we sang happy birthday! I do remember that blowing the candles out wasn't the easiest task for him though.  I remember watching him go for a piggy back ride with Colin around the shed at Pam's place with a huge smile on his face and doing his best to keep up with all the bigger kids.   Marge and John kept getting annoyed with him cause he kept going in and out the back door, slamming it every time.  I think the more they said no the harder he pulled it closed behind him, cheeky bugger!  (Charmaine O'Connor)

Ryan loved the song "Put Your Hands Up for Detroit".  Whenever it came on the radio while in the car, he would start pushing his arms up into the air above his head.  I can still envisage him in the rear view mirror doing exactly that. 

Ryan was fascinated with Geckos.  He had just begun saying "gecko" and pointing wide-eyed at them the week before we lost him.

Car keys! He always wanted people's keys!  He would go up to people's pockets and pat them, saying "keys, keys."