2 Months

Ryan was two-months-old on Friday, the 19th. The only picture I took of him that day was this though, in his car seat. He pretty much slept from about 2 pm until the next day other than waking up to eat. I think the combination of shots and Tylenol pretty much knocked him out.



@ 2 months old:

He's sleeping in his bed but in his bouncy seat. I might attempt him sleeping on his back soon, but so far any attempts at him doing so results in him waking up. My kids are just incline sleepers, it seems.

(11/16/10)

He's on just formula now. I stopped pumping the day after he was 5 weeks old. He doesn't seem to mind. He eats between 3 - 4 ounces at a feeding, usually every 3 - 4 hours except for a 5 hours stretch at night. When he's hungry he just whimpers and puts his hands to his mouth. Unless you don't feed him fast enough, then he gets mad. He gained almost 2 pounds and 1 inch in the last month. He's now 9 lbs 6.8oz and 22 inches long. Still 25% for both. He's still the noisiest eater ever. I have to warn people beforehand how loud he is and that while it might sound as if he's choking, he's not. He's just that noisy.

The acne is about gone, but he has some eczema on his forehead. Hopefully that clears up easily with lotion, hydrocortisone when we need it. He also still has strangely greasy hair.

He smiles. I love it. First smile was at 7 1/2 weeks old on 11/10/10.


(11/18/10)


He's cute. Really cute.


(11/16/10)

And still awfully serious sometimes.


He like his play mat. He's so interested in the lights and music above him. He really likes the mobile over the changing table, too.

(11/15/10)

He sleeping great. He usually falls asleep between 8 - 9, wakes up and eats around 11pm then sleeps until 4 or so, eats again and sleeps until 7 or 8am. I cannot complain one bit.

He's an easy baby. Content as can be. Rarely fusses. Just easy. For now at least.

He's out of newborn clothes and newborn diapers. With these (almost) two pounds he's gained, he's fitting in most 0-3 month clothes nicely. The fleece sleepers are still way too big, though. He's starting to get chubby cheeks we noticed last week.

He uses a binky, but is hit or miss with it. He's definitely not as into it as Mackenzie was. Sometimes he really wants it, but often he has absolutely no interest.

He's still awesome.

Because it amuses me, part two

@ the library, 11/12/10


@ Steak and Shake, 10/31/10


@ the pediatrician, 10/18/10


@ Dairy Queen, 10/16/10

Back to Halloween

It's never too late to get the Halloween pictures up, right?

Our Halloween festivities began the Thursday before Halloween when we met up with all my workout girls for trick-or-treating at First and Main. It's an outdoor shopping mall, very cute, and many of the store employees dress up to hand out the candy.

I had no chance of getting them all to look at me. And this was only half of the group. It was crowded, and near impossible for everyone to stay together.

Next up was the Halloween parade and trick or treating at Emma's preschool.

Mackenzie dressed up too, and was the candy-hander-outer.

Emma was Belle. We tried hard to find Strawberry Shortcake, but it wasn't meant to be.


And Ryan just looked cute in his spider hat and slept.


Then on Halloween Sunday, we had trick-or-treat. Lisa, Tim, Bree and Ava came over for our 3rd annual Halloween trick-or-treat party. We missed having Larry, Beth, Caroline and Jack there though. It wasn't the same without Beth's super cute mini-cupcakes!

Ryan was a football. Hee.


And underneath his costume, he had a pumpkin butt. Another hee. Also, he was 6 weeks old that day.


Hello Dora, Belle and Football.



Bree was not wasting any time.


At our next door neighbors, Bob and Stacy's.



Ryan slept through it.



After we hit a few houses, the boys took the girls for more trick-or-treating while Lisa and I sat by the fire pit. Much warmer there. But by 7:30 they were done, I took Ryan in and Michael and the girls handed out candy until it was over at 8. Emma is now Cinderella, as she tripped on her Belle dress twice and fell face first onto driveways. But she's tough -no tears, just wanted to switch costumes.


And you might've noticed Dora was blonde up above. She should've looked like this:

But she wouldn't wear the wig. I got it on her once, when we tried on her costume, and that was it. I wish she would've worn it, so stinkin' cute.

Friday Five

1. I got Emma this super cute sweater at the Gap. Totally reminds me of my favorite sweater when I was in elementary school. But Emma did not find it super cute. She told me she didn't like it because she didn't like "that color" and pointed to the grey. So she doesn't like grey. This was Sunday night.

Monday at school, I'm telling Lisa and Kelly about it and Emma tells them she doesn't like grey. That's when we all just looked at her in disbelief, because you know what she was wearing? Grey. That she picked out of her closet that morning herself. Grey shirt and grey skirt. Really? But you don't like grey. Huh.

2. I worked out today. Closest to a real workout as I've gotten so far. I walked a few laps with a friend, lifted my regular upper body routine with slightly lighter weights than I'd been using, then ran four laps. I haven't run since my belly was big enough to bounce when I ran and I stopped. So it's been a while. It wasn't as awful as I thought it would. The running that is. I'm slowly adding things back in. I'm still slightly paranoid of hurting myself after my c-section, but I'm tired of not being active. I think I'm going back to step class next week. And I'm going to start adding ab/core work back in. And push-ups. I've done a few of those and it's crazy how hard they are now. Something that was so easy to me pre-pregnancy has become not-so-easy. It's amazing how fast your body gets out of shape, how fast you lose the strength you've built up. It felt good though.

3. Ryan went to Kid Park (at the fitness center) for the first time today. Technically babies should be eight-weeks-old before going in, which would be Sunday, but they let him in. Thank you Miss Nancy.

4. Mackenzie really got in to painting her little animal that Renee sent her. Emma enjoyed it to, just didn't make quite the mess. Thanks Renee! They love them!


5. Ryan smiled! Wednesday he gave me his first real social smile. It was awesome. There is nothing better than your baby smiling at you, especially the first time. I can only describe the feeling as joy. This happiness was just bubbling out of me. I love it.

Today I tried to get a picture of him smiling and this is the best I got. When I say "Good morning Ryan!" in this baby talk/sing song voice he smiles. But when I move back to take the picture, he stops. So there was a lot "Good Morning"-ing going on this afternoon in my attempt at a smiling picture. Note to self: do not use your 50mm lens when trying to get a picture of your baby smiling on the changing table. It just doesn't work when you're trying to be close to said baby's face to get him to smile, yet keep having to move back to to get the picture in focus. Also, learn to use your camera.

Now she's three.

Mackenzie's birthday was November 1st, so I now have a three-year-old. A crazy, lovable, silly, talkative, stubborn three-year-old.

(On the slide at Chick-fil-a, my current favorite picture of her)

Last Monday on her birthday we went to Chick-fil-a for a birthday surprise lunch with some friends. She was so excited. This is about the best shot I could get of seven kids 4 and under sitting at at a round table.


Have I mentioned how much I love Chick-fil-a? And not only because they will bring me as many Dr Pepper refills as I'd like.


When Michael got home that afternoon Mackenzie got to open her presents. While she enjoyed opening them, it was nothing compared to Emma's excitement. Christmas should be interesting.

After dinner, we had brownies (courtesy of Lisa) with three candles in Mac's.

Sunday we had her party. It was a Toy Story/Dora/Diego/Scooby Doo/Princess party. Toy Story cake, plates and napkins, Dora tablecloth and streamers, Diego plates and napkins, Scooby Doo and Disney Princess decorations.

At three, Mackenzie is 36 inches tall (25%) and 30 pounds (50%). She refuses to be potty trained. She's capable, just would prefer not to. No more binkies (thanks to a visit from the binky fairy, more on that later). Loves to sleep in her bottom bunk. While she hasn't been regularly napping since the spring, she will still go upstairs and lay down in bed if she's tired. The girl loves to sleep. She loves her monkey and blankies. I have to limit her to two yogurts a day. She loves mac and cheese, grilled cheese, yogurt, honey nut cheerios, fruit. We made a lot of improvement this summer in what she eats. She'll now eat most veggies and most meats, when before she wouldn't eat anything but chicken nuggets for meat and the basic veggies. Not to say she won't put up a fight if there's something she doesn't want to try, but for three, she does very well. Except peanut butter. She refuses to try it.

She still does her "like this" thing when describing stuff. Calls granola bars granilla bars. She will scream no when there's something she really doesn't like/doesn't want to do. Will still lay on the floor when she's mad or frustrated. Did I mention stubborn? But she often will easily give something to her sister if she wants it, she shares easily and is so giving and loving.

She has lately been saying"da!" "ba ba!" when pointing out things/wanting things because she can and it's funny. You have to hear her say it to get it. Today she said "Sha-la. Sha-la" while wiping up water she spilled. When I asked her what it meant, she matter-of-factly said, "When you want to get a thing, then get a thing." Well, that clears it up.

She rides a two-wheeler, can pump her legs on the swing (no more pushing!) as well as Emma, and takes a shower more than a bath. Although to be honest, she'd prefer a bath. She'll start swimming lessons this winter and (hopefully) ballet in the spring. She's becoming her own person, which means more fighting between the girls as Mackenzie starts to speak her mind and have her own opinions. She is really in to books, and will disappear in to her room to read for long stretches of time. She also wants us to read to her all the time and will read aloud to us. She can now go to the Eagle's Nest at the grocery store and finds this extremely exciting. She's starting to get opinionated about her clothes, which I don't find exciting. She's in Sunday School at church.

She loves to snuggle, loves to play, loves her family and friends. She's beautiful, smart, and just simply amazing.

Friday Five

1. It's snowing out. And it is sticking. So apparently winter is here. I like winter but I hate being cold.

2. They love him.


3. The binky fairy visited this newly-turned-three-year-old this week. In exchange for the three binkies under her pillow in a Ziploc bag so she couldn't get to them (plus the two her mother found the next day), she received a Polly Pocket set. It went about as expected. Some crying. Some begging. But she was able to go to sleep pretty easily without them. Yesterday in the car she randomly whined, "But mom I want my biiiiiinkies." Tonight is night number three without them and not a word was said. So I guess she's good.


4. Emma was Special Child of the Week last week. Very exciting. This included a sticker, a box she filled with her favorite things for a special show-and-tell all her own, pictures and drawings to hang on the wall (above her in the picture), a q&a she filled out (with spelling help from me) and a "pet" to bring home over the weekend, complete with movies and a book. Unfortunately we never got to the movies. Which caused some tears Sunday night when she realized this.




5. Ryan likes to roll onto his side. He's been doing this for almost two weeks, since five weeks old. I'm not a fan. What if he turns into Super Infant, rolls on to his stomach and then can't lift his head up to breathe? This is the one time I'm glad he doesn't like to sleep on his back and is still in his bouncy seat at night. It is pretty cute, though.