Bizarro

Last night when I was feeding Ryan at 12:30 am, I saw one of the weirdest, scariest things ever. It was a clean-cut David Lee Roth performing the bluegrass version of Jump! I am still traumatized.

Rock/Scissors/Paper

Todd is doing something really cool at the bar. He is having a Rock/Paper/Scissors tournament on Friday, June 23. It only costs $2 to enter! That actually sounds like fun.

Finally Healthy (Almost)

Things are looking brighter at the Stein house. It has been a rocky few days. Last week I overdid it and just exhausted by self with the gardening. It was too much. Friday I stayed home from work and slept in the recliner from 8:30 am - 3:45 pm without moving so much as an inch. Saturday Ryan and I woke up with colds. We were both all stuffed up. By Sunday we were both coughing and Ryan's eyes were all nasty. So, Monday we both went to see our respective doctors. He had just a cold (Thank God - I was worried that the pneumonia was coming back) and PINK EYE! I have some type of bronchial virus. Yee haw. Tuesday I awoke with PINK EYE! Whoo-hoo! We both stayed home again. I was a bad mother and put Ryan in his exersaucer in front of his Baby Genius dvd and actually got 1.5 hours of sleep. Wednesday we were back at work and daycare, and today we are both feeling great.

Not much going on this weekend. Tomorrow night after work we are going shopping with Diane. Baby Boo and I just need Father's Day and Birthday gifts for Todd, but Diane is shopping for her Mexican vacation. Can you tell I'm green with envy?

PS

Does anybody want my Pampered Chef apple peeler/corer/slicer? Or a fondue pot? Or a Holly Hobby cake pan?

Forgot to Tell You

On Memorial Day Todd and I actually spent some time together with no Ryan (he was in bed)! We ordered pizza and watched two movies. #1 was The Forty Year Old Virgin - I was nervous about ordering it because most "hilarious" movies end up sucking, but it was so funny that I almost peed my pants several times. #2 was A History of Violence, which I wish I hadn't seen. Very violent. Even the love scenes were exteremly violent.

I Can Stay Sitting Up Now

Garden Baby

Ryan Update

Since I last blogged:

- He can sit up unattended.

-We have tried apple & mango, apple & cranberry, and organic green beans & mashed potatoes. We are currently doing organic carrots & brown rice and pears & pineapple.

- Ryan is drinking less formula, but is eating 5 jars of Stage 2 baby food a day!

- He can crawl backwards and is soooooo close to crawling forwards. He just rolls/army crawls his way to wherever he wants to go.

What's New?

I am trying to think of what is new around here since I last blogged two weeks ago.
Not much. Time is flying but nothing exciting seems to be happening. It has been work, take care of Ryan, run zillions of errands, and garden during every spare minute I have. Ryan and I have been outside every day for 1-2 hours for about 10 days and I have been outside during naps and after he goes to sleep.

I put in a new flower bed on the south side of the house, took out and replaced all the flowers on the east side of the house, got rid of all the ornamental grass and replaced it with lillies, got rid of all the snow-in-the-mountains on the north side of the house, planted my big vegetable garden with all flowers and no vegetables, planted my containers, and repainted several pots and my birdbath. Whew! I know I do too much, but it is enjoyable to me. I only have 5 things (out of about 60) things left to do on my gardening list, and Todd said he would take care of 3 of them for me. The cool part is that I didn't have to buy that many new plants. I just divided and moved around what I already had.

The good news is that from here on out it is just weeding and watering. Now I can start scrapbooking after Ryan goes to bed.

Another reason that I was able to get all that done was because my parents were down last weekend. Mom watched Ryan, and I worked my Dad hard. He helped move all the sod from my new flower bed, went with me to Lowe's to load/unload all of my soil and mulch, changed the blade on the lawnmower, changed the burner on the grill, and installed a window air conditioner. I made Thai food for them, but it was really hot! I need to adjust the recipe. Ryan was entertaining as always, and my parents took Ryan and me to Red Lobster. Yum.

The only other things I have done was 1 graduation reception, 1 birthday party, and 1 photo session for Ryan, all husband-less, of course. He is still working tons of hours and his health is really deteriorating because of it. Such is the bar life.

Baby Food of the Week

currently: organic wildblueberry and pear
next up: organic creamed spinach

We have completed all stage 1's and are moving on to stage 2. I found a ton of new flavors at Dahl's so I went crazy. Daycare and I now have enough baby food to last for 60 days! I didn't buy and dinners with meat. They have too much added stuff and the doctor says Ryan is getting enough iron, so doesn't need meat. Ryan eats fruits and veggies (that we already know he isn't allergic to) at daycare, and we are still trying new ones at home for supper.

Just Plain Miserable

I am taking a quick break from Mr. Fussy. I shouldn't call him Mr. Fussy - it's not his fault that he has pneumonia. That's right - PNEUMONIA! I was just bragging last week that Ryan had never had so much as an ear infection, when we both came down with colds. He just had a little runny nose, but I have had the head/chest cold from hell for about a week. Anyway, we took him to his six-month appointment on Monday for his check up and shots. He weighed 19 lbs, 11 oz (75%)and was 26.5 inches long (50%). His noggin is still 90%. Wednesday morning Teri Ann called and said he had a fever of 103, so I picked him up and took him to the doctor. They said his ears and lungs were clear, so it must be virus and to give him Motrin to keep his fever down. That worked for a while, but Thurs afternoon, his fever was back, despite the medicine. By 9;30 that night it was 104.9 and he was breathing fast, so I took him to Mercy. We got right in, but by that time his fever had risen to 105.5! They gave him a mega dose of tylenol, then began the tests. First they used a catheter to get a urine sample, then attempted to get blood out of both arms (neither arm worked and I was about ready to take the needle out myself because they were digging around in his vein, finally took blood out of his heel, then did a chest xray. Turns out he has pneumonia, but has no cough or wheezing so he presented no signs of infection other than the fever! We got home at 12:30 am and slept until 10 am. Yesterday I had to take him back to the doctor to be checked (third time this week!) and then he was fussy all day. This morning he is more lively and jumped around in his exersuacer some and took a good nap. As long as I can get him to swallow his medicine, he should be good as new soon. I hope.

I am finally starting to feel better, but still have a cough. Between this and the funeral Ryan and I have missed 5 days of work/"school". I will be gald to get back to our routine.

I Miss You Grandma

Tomorrow (May 3) would have been my Grandma Arnold's 90th birthday. I miss her a lot and so does everybody else. She has been gone since 1987. She was the perfect grandma, and is one of the many reasons my childhood was absolutely wonderful. I have a lot of her traits too, of which the most apparent is our shared ability to worry and obsess about the smallest thing. That is why my mom calls me Marian sometimes. (My other grandma was also a Marian, and I twitch my foot like her.) I know my mom will be thinking about her mom tomorrow too. I wish she could have met Todd and Ryan, but Ryan's dramatic delivery and my postpartum depression hospitalization probably would have done her in from worry.

Tulip Time is not to be...

Mom and I were going to take Ryan to Tulip Time on Friday, but the trip is off since my dad's sister Doris died on Sunday. We were going to go last year too, but my dad's Aunt Marian died. I don't think I will make plans to go next year! It is jinxed for Schweitzers.

I think I have only seen Aunt Doris twice since I got married, but it is sad to hear she has passed. I am sad that she died alone, and mostly sad that now her kids don't have any parents. Her husband died when I was one year old. That means she has been a widow for 30 years! That is a really long time. I feel bad too for my dad and his other sister, and really bad for Grandpa Schweitzer. He is in a nursing home and doesn't have much quality of life.

It also makes me nervous because she is one of many Schweitzer/Nielsen relatives (oddly all female) that was diabetic.

I am picking Ryan up at 12:00 tomorrow and heading home. I am going to stay until at least Saturday morning since I don't get up there too often.

Mr. Ryan is 6 Months Old

Mr. Ryan turned 6 months old on Thursday. He is getting really big. I can't wait till his doctor appointment on May 10 to see how long he is. We started him in the exersaucer on March 6 with a phone book because he couldn't reach the bottom, and now he has moved to the second height setting.

He can almost sit up unsupported and rolls everywhere. It shouldn't be too much longer till he crawls. He also is a robo-pooper. He is the first baby in the 10-yr history of Shepherd's Heart Day Care to have such big poops that it ended up once in his armpits and once on his shirt collar!

We are working our way through the stage 1 baby foods. We do each food for five days in a row to make sure he is not allergic. So far we have done green beans, peas, peaches, squash, pears, and carrots. His favorites so far are peas and peaches (not together). All we have left is sweet potatoes, applesauce, and bananas. I am not going to try prunes since we already know he is a robo-pooper!

Such a Good Boy

Yesterday I baby-sat Caleb Daniels so Tami and Preston could go to a wedding. It was easy. Caleb was a very good boy. He has impeccable manners - saying please and thank you and even excuse me after he burped. He even ate his supper and went to bed for me! However, I have now seen the first hour of Madagascar twice, but not the end. I am going to have to rent it to see how it ends!

Recovering

Ryan and I spent are recovering this weekend from the big trial last week. I testified for the State as an expert witness on Wed/Thurs in a lawsuit. Now we just have to wait until August for a ruling :(

This meant I spent Monday thru Thursday in court, and worked at the office on the previous Saturday for 5.5 hours, Monday night for 4 hours, Tuesday night for 4 hours, and Thursday night for 2 hours for trial prep. 13 hour days are not good when you are getting up at 4:30 am with a baby! Ryan was a trooper and went to work with me on Saturday and Tuesday night. Todd watched him Monday night, and Diane was a dear and picked him up at daycare and watched him on Thursday night. Maybe Ryan will want to grow up to be a lawyer.

I was so physically and mentally tired last week that I ended up accidentally sleeping three nights in the recliner in my clothes. I kept conking out everynight after Ryan was in bed. I got the biggest compliment of my life though, when the Asst. Attorney General told me that he thinks me going to law school would be a great idea:)

Heather and Kurt were in town on Tuesday night so we went out to eat. Unfortunately I was tired and it took 50 of the 60 minutes I had to eat just to get my darn sweet and sour chicken.

Mr. Spit Up (Look at his shirt!)

Ready for Church on Easter

Ryan and His HUGE Easter Basket from Gma & Gpa Stein

Big Plans Tonight

Tonight my mom, my sister, and I are going to see The Lion King. We bought our tickets through Central, so there is an alumni cocktail party before the show. Tami and Preston are going to baby-sit Ryan since I baby-sat Caleb when they went to the Lion King. Tomorrow we are going to go out to eat as a family. I am looking forward to it. I am hoping for Joe's Crabshack or Red Lobster. I am excited for them to see how talented my Baby-Boo is and how much he has grown!