What a Bummer

Well, I cancelled the trip to Aurora because my car is sick. And now I cancelled my evening at Tami's because Ryan is sick. I kept him home yesterday because of his fever and he slept on my chest almost all day. I finally got him an appointment for 9:10 this morning. Thank goodness because his fever was 103.8 when he woke up this morning. Once again, the doctor couldn't find anything wrong. So we are taking tylenol and cuddling. I won't get to do anything else this weekend, but Ryan comes first and it was nice to get an extra day with him, eventhough he is sick, so I can't complain.

Unsuccessful

The other night I took at least 20 pictures of Ryan outside, and never got a single one where he was looking at the camera! However, Ryan pulled on his first flower and tried to eat his first mulch, so maybe it wasn't a waste after all :)

PS. Check out my repainted bird bath.

Pure Joy

Ooh...something good happened tonight. Since I had robo-cleaned the bathtub for my Mary Kay party, I gave Ryan his bath tonight in the big bathtub instead of the sink. Ryan was in a state of bliss. He absolutely loved it, altho it was a bit frustrating when his toys floated out of reach. When the water started to get chilly, I laid him on his back to wash his hair, and he started kicking hard just like he was an Olympic swimmer. Water was flying everywhere! We don't have a video camera, but we were able to take a few short videos with my digital camera. Then he turned over on his stomach and started crawling backwards. Sure, he'll crawl in the bathtub, but nowhere else!

Reasons I Am Frustrated

1. Ryan has a low-grade fever, but ever since 105.5 I am scared of fevers! He has two more teeth poking out (for a total of 6) so maybe that's why he has the fever.
2. My #$%^&*! car. It keeps stalling (while driving!!!) for no reason and no one can figure out why. I can't get it in again until Monday, so I had to cancel my weekend trip to Aurora.
3. I was digging in Ryan's closet, and when I stood up my toe stubbed the carpet and ripped off half of my big toe nail. Ow!
4. I got distracted last night and forgot to watch Big Brother.
5. I broke the wheel off Ryan's stroller and the replacement part is $30 after shipping.
6. I am having a series of bad hair days.

Ok, now I am doing whining. It helps to have someone to talk to! Things have been pretty good other than the above. I had a nice weekend last weekend. Friday night I had my Mary Kay party with the poker girls and afterward we played Apples to Apples. Diane kicked butt. Saturday I ran errands with H and then I went out! Tami and Preston babysat so I could go to the High Life Lounge and the Royal Mile with H, Rikki, Amy, and Brian. The High Life Lounge rocks. It looks just like my basement, and all the food comes with Tater Tots. There were Tots everywhere. We had regular tots, bacon-wrapped tots, tachos (like nachos but with tots instead of chips)and more cool stuff. Then we went to the Royal Mile where Brian entertained us. I learned too much information. Sunday Todd and I went to Travis's to pick up the champagne for the wedding, then out to lunch, then to the wedding. The wedding was very sweet and nice(eventhough they wouldn't let us have the champagne!) Brian and I carved up the cake as best we could. My family came over afterwards, so that was nice too. The rest of the week has been work, Ryan, and watering the garden.

Countdown

5 hours, 53 minutes until Big Brother All Stars starts!

Heart Update

Today we took Ryan to see Dr. Chandramouli for his heart checkup. He had a chest x-ray and an EKG, but did not have to have the echocardiogram. The Dr. says the hole is still there, but it is smaller. He can tell this just by listening. He must have expert ears. He believes the hole may close in the next six months. He told us that nothing bad is going to happen to Ryan and not to worry. His next checkup is Dec 11. Ryan, of course, laid perfectly still during the EKG. How did I get so lucky? I think he was waiting for them to poke him with something and was saving his energy to scream!

Third Time's the Charm

Tonight was our third attempt at having Brian and Diane over for supper. The first time, the bar was broken into and Todd had to rush to Newton. The second time was when Ryan and I had colds and started getting pink eye. The third time was tonight, and it was a success. I made baked sweet potatoes, cheese bread, shrimp skewers, and Rachel Ray's Chop Chop Salad with Spicy Dressing. Brian and Diane brought over thick, juicy steaks and margaritas. Brian brought four different spice blends for us to choose from, and then he grilled the steaks. It was delicious. I inhaled mine. Yum. Diane helped clean up, and we visited until Todd and Ryan both fell asleep. It was nice to socialize, and it was the first time in probably a year that Todd and I were together and were laughing and joking and not talking about the bar or Ryan (he was entertaining himself in the exersuaucer). A great night!

Marnie actually left the house on a Friday night!

Well, I actually had a social engagement on Friday. I'm not sure if it counts since we took Ryan with us, but he is so good that you hardly notice he's there. My big night out was that Diane and I went to Merle Hay Mall. We got a lot of shopping done and then we went to La Hacienda for supper. I even had a margarita! and had something besides fajitas. I had the carne asada, which is basically fajitas without the peppers and onions. It was very good. We didn't get back to my house until 8:30. Ryan was good as gold shopping and at the restaurant, which is typical (I'm very lucky), but I was a little surprised because he missed his 4:30 bottle and 6:00 jars (2) of baby food, and his 8:00 bottle. I tried to feed him at the mall, but he was too busy looking around.

Yesterday I sort of relaxed and Ryan and I went to WalMart. We only got stopped by three admirers, and he slept the entire time. I got two $5 floribunda roses, so I was very happy. I had the carseat and four big rubbermaids in the cart, so by the time I got to the checkout, I was pushing with one hand and carrying three boxes of cereal in the other! I always get the weirdest and slowest clerks. This time my clerk was deaf and couldn't speak, so you had to write down any questions. That didn't bother me at all, but apparently he wasn't familiar with fruits and vegetables. He handed everyone in his line the cheat sheet the clerks have with the pictures, and we had to point out which fruits and vegetables we had. I didn't know tomatoes where so confusing!

Today I was going to take Ryan to church, but I woke up with one eye glued shut. I now have pink eye in the other eye! Whoo-hoo! I spent the rest of the day cleaning and doing laundry.

Tomorrow is a big day. It is Ryan's checkup at the cardiologist's. I am not too worried about the cardiologist, but Todd is wondering if Ryan will be able to play sports with his heart murmur. We shall see how it goes. I bet he doesn't lie as still during the echocardiogram as he did the last time (he was six weeks old then)! He will have to have another chest x-ray too, which bothers me because he just had one when he had pneumonia.

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.