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!

Sleepy Baby

What is up with Mr. Ryan? Yesterday he slept from 8:30 am - 2 pm at daycare, fell asleep on the car ride home, slept 5:00 - 6:00 in his crib, slept from 6:30 - 6:50 when I wheeled him around the block in his stoller, then slept from 9:15 last night until 4:45 am this morning. This child has never slept that much in 24 hours since the day he was born!

The cool part is that the baby monitor reaches to the garden, so I did some raking in my perennial bed while he slept. He is probably having a growth spurt. Saturday only his toes touched the bottom of the exersaucer, but last night I noticed that he can stand flat-footed in it. We started him on green beans on Monday, 2 weeks earlier than Dr. L suggested, but he has been very hungry. He took his first bite, looked confused, then grinned. He eats them right up. He has spit up a lot of them though, but always on Dad :)

This morning Terri Ann asked me if I wanted her to wake him up if he zonked out, but I said no. I am a firm believer in never waking a sleeping baby (except to go to daycare - it breaks my heart)!

I love the exersaucer!

Aah..some time away from the kid. We got Ryan an excersaucer on March 6, but he couldn't use it because his feet wouldn't touch the bottom, even with a phone book. Well, he had a growth spurt and now can use it. It is wonderful. He enjoys it, and I can put him in it and walk away for a while. He is a good baby, but I have been husband-less since Thursday, so it gets a little old.

Ryan and I had a good trip to Humboldt yesterday. Todd's parents picked us up at 7:30 am, and we got home at 9:00 pm. We visited Todd's Aunt Kathy, Uncle Denny, and Grandpa Fortner. Ryan hammed it up and showed off all his skills. He was properly admired all day. He keeps trying to crawl, but hasn't figured out he has to lift his stomach off the floor yet. It was good for Grandpa Fortner to see him. He can't get out much, so Ryan brought him some sunshine.

Joy - the radar shows a big storm heading this way. Great. The tornado siren is 500 ft from our front door! It makes things in the house vibrate, but at least I know it would wake me up if there was a tornado in the middle of the night.

A long week ahead at work. Ugh. I hope I don't have to run errands every damn day at lunch. I am going to the Lion King with my mom and sister on Friday though, so I am looking forward to the end of the week.

I turned 5 months old on Monday!

Ready to Roll!

Scrapbooking with a Baby

This is how you scrapbook with a baby:

At 11:00 am - Put baby in swing.
Spend 20 minutes picking out paper to go with your pictures.
Glue down one picture.
Change diaper. Feed baby while watching Food Network.
Put baby down for nap.
Glue down second picture and worry about paper choice.
Veg in recliner a few minutes.
Baby wakes up.
Put baby in excersaucer.
Glue down third picture.
Baby frustrated. Move to play on floor.
Cut out 3 letters for title.
Rescue baby from activity gym that he has flipped over on him.
Go upstairs for more supplies.
Feed baby while watching Food Network. Try to put baby down for nap. Unsuccessful.
Put baby in car seat on kitchen counter. Cut out the rest of letters.
Again attempt nap, but batteries in swing and crib aqaurium are both dead.
Change poopy diaper.
Play on floor.
Glue down a few letters. Look for batteries. Rats! Only have 3 and need 4.
Hug, kiss, and cuddle. Get sad because he has to go back to daycare tomorrow.
Realize it is 2 pm and you have not had breakfast or lunch. Eat frozen pizza.
Repeat previous steps in random order for 3 more hours.
Nearly finish 2 pages, then baby is so tired he bawls.
Give up and only replace 3 of 4 batteries in swing.
Swing works great, baby falls asleep.
Kick yourself for not trying to get by with 3 batteries sooner.
Finally finish 2nd page and actually do a 3rd.
Baby wakes up. Wake up Dad and give him baby.
Time to cook supper!

Rolling Machine

Ryan has suddenly turned into a rolling machine and now will actually stay on his tummy. Last night he rolled all the way from one end of the living room to the other (the long way), and then spit up on the rug. He has started rolling to get toys and is really, really trying to crawl. He has the crawling basics down, but doesn't get up on his knees, so he scooches on his stomach. He has made it about 6 inches so far.

Today it was 65 degrees so after work I took Ryan for his first stroll outside. I pushed his stroller down to Franklin, over to 50th, up to Merle Hay, and then back home. It is not that far, but I am ashamed to say I was winded. I have been hoping to walk on my lunch hour since my work is on the Clive Greenbelt, but I always seem to have errands to run. It is so much easier to run them at lunch instead of hauling Ryan around with me. Monday I took 6 boxes of stuff to Goodwill and picked up pictures at Walgreens, yesterday I paid bills at lunch and afterwork went to Hallmark to buy birthday cards, and today at lunch I went to have my sleeping machine repaired and to Kmart to buy sunglasses for Ryan.

I also have three projects going on at home. I am cleaning up the basement (since Todd doesn't have time), trying to get the second floor cleaned (I started before Ryan but never finished - mostly involves sorting Todd's crap), and I am scapbooking on the dining room table. I do a little each night after Ryan is in bed or on the weekends when he is asleep or in his swing.

Mom's Day Out

On Saturday, March 18, I got a partial day off and thanks to two more gift cards, it cost me almost nothing. Gma and Gpa Stein babysat from 9 - 5:30. I got a whole carload of groceries and got them all put away in the morning, and then Diane and I went to Red Lobster for lunch. Then we went shopping to Kohl's, Bed Bath & Beyond, and of course, a greenhouse. Red Lobster was great except the waiter said we could substitute a cup of lobster bisque for our salads, then charged us $3 each extra. Damn good soup though. We burned through the giftcard my aunt sent me pretty quickly. I am happy to report that I apparently do not have a seafood allergy as I am alive to tell about it and did not get hives.

Grandma and Grandpa wore Ryan out. He zonked out during his 6 pm bottle and I put him to bed immediately. He was still in his clothes! He slept a full 10 hours, but since he went to bed so early, he was awake and ready to play at 4 am! He and I both were all messed up the next day. I never even made it out of my pj's. I did get 1.5 scrapbook pages done though.

Ryan continued to zonk for the whole next week. He was in a growth spurt because he was sleeping 12-13 hours a night and eating 6.5 bottles and 2 servings of cereal a day. We bought him an exersaucer on the 6th, and he was too short to touch the bottom. I put him in it on Sunday the 26th, and now he is tall enough to use it. It really tires him out though.

Thank God for Honest People & Gift Cards

I dropped my debit card at the gas station this morning. I figured it out by the time I got to work, but figured it was a goner. I called the station and someone turned it in! There are still good people left in this world.

Yesterday on my lunch hour I used the gift card that my parents got me to Grounds for Celebration. It was a little piece of heaven. I got a yummy lunch and cheesecake, and I got to eat and look at gardening catalogs UNINTERRUPTED for 45 minutes. I still have enough left on the card to get a icy mocha some morning.

Dazed and Confused

Sunday night Todd fell asleep on the couch and I went to bed. I was sleeping and heard Ryan crying. Todd and I got to him at the same time. I told Todd I would change Ryan if Todd made his bottle. So, I changed Ryan and got him dressed in a cute orange henley and jeans. Then I gave Ryan to Todd for him to be fed. Todd gave me the strangest look and told me to go back to bed. I was like, whatever - I can go back to bed for only 20 minutes - I have to go to work! Then I looked at the clock. It was 1:55 am! I thought it was 5:55 am. I went back to bed and woke up at 6 am. Todd was asleep on the couch, and Ryan was asleep in his crib - in his orange shirt and jeans :)

Ryan Gets H by the Hair

Well, I Went

I went to the farm for the weekend after all. I still didn't feel the greatest, but Ryan and I set off after daycare and arrived at the farm about 8:15 pm (after a diaper-change pit stop at Heather's). Everyone was surprised to see how big and bright my Baby-Boo has become. He even slept in the crib upstairs and didn't wake up until 7:30 am! Saturday was mostly all Ryan and Marnie time with my parents, and I started eating real food. Yum.

Saturday afternoon, I even got to take a little trip while Grandma babysat. I met H and Christy at the scrapbooking store in Oelwein and then we took Christy for ice cream. She is a sweetie and is fun to watch because she buys her scrapbooking supplies based on what she thinks is cool, not because she has specific pictures to go with it. She bought some paper with chocolate bunnies on it and some Las Vegas stickers.

Saturday night was my grandpa's 91st birthday party. It was a huge success. Mom cooked a delicious meal. We had roast beef, mashed potatoes, gravy, rolls, broccoli casserole, cauliflower/bacon salad, and Wacky cake. Nicky even baked some banana bread for us. Heather and I were confused because mom put dishes of jam on the tables for the rolls, and we both thought it was cranberry sauce. We couldnt' figure out why the hell you would put cranberry sauce on roast beef! Ryan entertained the adults after supper and the Hansen kids watched Harry Potter. The funniest part of the night was when Ryan discovered the barrette in H's hair. He grabbed it and would not let go. Instead of helping her, I took pictures. Ryan was up until almost 10 pm, but he crashed 15 minutes after everyone left.

Ryan screamed with nightmares for part of the night, and my stomach woke me up early (not good) but Ryan slept until 7 am. We just hung out the rest of the morning, and we left for Des Moines at 1:30. It rained all the way back to Des Moines, but it was a good trip.

When I got back, Todd was home :) so we had family bonding and then we watched the Sopranos. I made waffle fries and chicken breasts with cream of chicken soup for supper, and Todd loved it. He proclaimed it was the best meal he had ever had since - last week. (He is only home for supper one night a week). He is easy to please. The more boring the meal, the more he likes it. I went to bed early and Todd crashed on the couch.

It was a good but tiring weekend. Now I hear H and Kurt have my stomach ick.

Should I Stay or Should I Go?

Forgot to mention that during Ryan's shots, Dad sat down so he wouldn't faint, and Mom held down poor little Ryan. Why do I always have to be the bad guy?

I am supposed to head straight to the farm after I pick up Ryan from daycare today, but I am still feeling ickish. I took yesterday off, but am at work today. I am not puking or pooping, no fever, but my stomach just plain hurts. I have only had crackers, toast, and applesauce for 4 days. Ugh. I don't feel horrible, but don't feel good. Should I stay or should I go? The car is all packed (you would not believe the amount of stuff needed for 2 nights. I gave up on diaper bags and used a giant rubbermaid.) and Ryan is healthy, but I don't particularly want to get my 91-yr-old grandpa sick. Hmmm. Should I stay or should I go?

Bragging

I am bragging about my Baby-Boo Ryan. He had an excellent 4-month appointment at the doctor's on Monday. The doctor said they don't get much healthier than Ryan, and he has the motor skills of a 6-month old! Brag, brag. He can roll over both ways, grab objects and move them from hand to hand, track things with both eyes moving together, and he has his first two teeth. He only cried for about 2 mintues when he got his shots, then fell asleep. He has been on rice cereal for a week and can start the green veggies after April 15th. And the pediatrician says he can't hear Ryan's heart murmurs, but he never can. We will have to wait until June 5th to see what the cardiologist (and his super-human ears) hears.

Ryan measured in at 15 lbs, 10 oz and was 24 3/4 inches long. This puts him in the 50th percentile for height and weight. However, he has a large noggin'. His head is in the 90th percentile! As Elaine on Seinfield would say, he's a walking candy apple!