Ryan: 12 Months

You are 1 year old today, my sweet baby boy! This past year has been absolutely crazy and stressful but wonderful and full of moments of pure joy. Being your mom has changed me in ways I could not have imagined. How did you get to be so big so fast?
These days you are walking/running all around. You love opening and shutting doors, climbing up and down steps, and being chased down the hallway. You are on the go all day long and rarely enjoy just being still. Your favorite activity is making a mess.You still seem a bit behind in your eating skills. You continue to refuse to eat any solid finger foods......however, you did eat a few small bites of ground beef this week. Your Daddy and I got so excited when you did this! I now give you cow's milk twice a day, with lunch and dinner. You are still nursing about 5 times per day, although lately you've been skipping one of your afternoon nursing sessions.
Although you "talk" all the time now, your only regular word at this point is Dada. But you have said Doggy, Daddy, Yes, and Eyes. Still no Mama!
I remember when you were an infant and we struggled with getting you to sleep. I always imagined that by 1 year of age you would have "learned" how to sleep. Unfortunately I was wrong. You are regularly taking a morning nap of about 1 hour now. But that's usually it for the day. Nights are still the same. I can nurse you to sleep and get you into your crib by 8:30, but you are usually up again within a few hours, and then in bed with us. After that you wake up a few more times before the day starts around 7:30. It's better than, say, 6 months ago. But still......you are a big 1-year old now and you should be sleeping more consistently!
You still only have your 8 front teeth. But I can feel some seriously swollen gums in your mouth right now. You may be cutting your molars in time for your birthday!
You get both sillier and smarter every day. You love to clap and wave bye-bye. You touch my eyelashes when I ask you where my eyes are. You poke your tummy when I ask you about your belly button. And you open your mouth really wide every time I say the word "yogurt". In all honesty, I feel a slight sense of accomplishment for making it to 1 year. There were definitely some days in the beginning when it seemed like all you did was cry. Being a mom to a 1-year old seemed so far off, yet here we are.I love you more than you will ever know. You fill my life with so much happiness and laughter! You were created to be my son and I feel so blessed that God chose me to be your Mommy. Happy 1st Birthday Ryan!

Love you Baby Boy.

Ryan's First Easter

Easter was really nice this year! Ryan is too young to dye easter eggs with me or hunt/eat chocolate goodies. Those traditions will have to wait until next year. On Sunday we went to church and then over to my parents' house for some ham and potato salad. My sister was still visiting with her kids, so it was lots of fun. At one point during the afternoon she decided that my hair needed to be braided. So here is our family photo on Easter, with me looking like Pippi Longstocking.

Rash

As I alluded to in my previous post, I had to call Ryan's pediatrician during his birthday party. Ryan has been on antibiotics for his double ear infection during the week leading up to his party. The day before his party he broke out in a rash, and I noticed it getting worse on Sunday. It was on his cheeks, tummy, back and shoulders. I thought it was possibly an allergic reaction to the medicine.

Fast forward to his Dr. visit the next day. They said it wasn't an allergic reaction, but instead it was eczema. Ryan was prescribed some cream to apply to the rash. I didn't think it was eczema, but what could I do? Within a couple days the rash seemed to go away. After doing some research on the internet, I found that it is quite common to develop a rash toward the end of taking Amoxicillin. I am now pretty sure this is what caused the rash.

So then a day or two after that rash went away, Ryan got some new bumps. These looked very different. They are larger, and look more like welts with a lighter center and red around the edge. They would appear in groups of 2 or more on his body, and then disappear after a few hours. This has been going on for the past 5 days now. So I called the Dr. again yesterday and they confirmed over the phone that it definitely sounds like hives. They can be an allergic reaction to any number of things...new food, new detergent, touching a new plant, etc. Or they could be viral, and possibly a result of his illness.

The nurse told me to give him Benadryl, which I did. Since then the spots have slowed down quite a bit. But how am I supposed to figure out what is causing these hives? I hate now knowing what he is allergic to, but I can't think of anything new he has been exposed to. I'm going to drive myself batty trying to figure it out. I want answers!

Baby No More

Ryan and I were playing in the front yard the other day.And all of a sudden it hit me.
He's not a baby anymore!
Waaaah!

Ryan's 1st Birthday Party

Whew! Ryan's 1st Birthday Party was a success! It was a lot of fun but I am a bit relieved that it's all over. It was more work than I anticipated (being sick the week before didn't help matters)

One of my favorite parts of the day was actually before the party. It was early in the morning and Ryan was still in his jammies. He found some of the curly ribbons I was going to decorate with and decided to start the party early. I had an ongoing To-Do list all weekend leading up to the party. You have to be really organized when you are hosting almost 50 people!
My very talented friend Jen made the train cake. It was so cute! (and yummy!)Ryan got his own little cupcake with an "R" on it. He picked it up and mushed it in his fingers but made no attempt to taste it. I spoon fed him a tiny bite of frosting and he made an awful face. Too sweet for him!
To eat we had BBQ'd tri-tip, potato salad, fruit salad, biscuits, veggies and dip, macaroni and cheese, baked beans, and freshly popped popcorn. It was quite a feast!Ryan got so many cute outfits and some really fun toys that he has been enjoying this past week. I was anticipating that Ryan would be shy with all the people around, but he did great. He spent a lot of time playing outside and actually fell asleep for a nap later in the afternoon. The only bad part of the day was the fact that I had to call his pediatrician towards the end of the party....but that's a story for another blog post. Overall it was a great 1st birthday party and we all had a lot of fun!

Miss Me?

Between Ryan being sick, throwing Adam a birthday party, me being sick, throwing Ryan a birthday party, and hanging out with my sister and her kids this week, I haven't had time to blog lately. Add to that the fact that Ryan is suddenly into everything, and I really don't even have a chance to sit down during the day. I will definitely post a re-cap of Ryan's party on here as soon as possible. For now here is a sneak peek from his big day.

Adam's 30th Birthday Party

First a quick update on us sicklings. Ryan seems much better but I'm still feeling crummy. My ear has really been bothering me, with a little bit of pain and a ton of pressure. I don't have an ear infection but my head is so clogged I can't hear or taste anything. Must get better by Sunday!

On to Adam's birthday bash.....it turned out really well! I invited over a bunch of his friends and we celebrated with lots of food. Including this:

What you see here is the world's largest hot dog. Ok maybe not, but it was very very big! Adam's friend bought it for him. You slice it, BBQ, and then eat like a hamburger patty. It was really tasty! I also ordered pizza and made Adam Oreo cupcakes. Here we are about to sing happy birthday to him.

Happy 30th Birthday Adam!

Better and Worse

Good news is that Ryan seems to be feeling better. Bad news is that now I'm sick. I started feeling sick Sunday night and today was the worst so far. Congestion, headache, cough and achy body. Not the full blown flu or anything, but probably just a cold. And now Adam is starting to feel sick. What makes it hard is that now that I'm a mom, I can't just lay down and take a nap if I'm sick. There are no sick days in the job description for a Mom!

Still Here but Sick

Ryan, that is. My poor baby got a fever Tuesday night (102.6), then had a gunky eye on Wednesday, developed a cough on Thursday, and by Saturday was tugging at his ears a lot. I took him to the Dr. on Saturday and it turns out he has a double ear infection. (His first ear infection ever!). I'm pretty sure I wiped snot off of his nose about 2,000 times today. His upper lip is chapped now, poor guy. Every time he coughs he starts crying, almost as if he feels sorry for himself. As I type this I can hear Ryan coughing in the next room in his crib. Sleep has been nonexistent around here lately so I'm crossing my fingers that he (and me) sleep for longer than 1 hour tonight. I hate this part of motherhood! It's so hard to see my baby feeling so miserable, particularly at night. Hopefully I will be able to write on my blog tomorrow because it is a special day around here. Here's a hint .....someone's turning 30 tomorrow!

Mommy Night Terrors

Back when Ryan was a newborn I woke up frequently. And not just because he woke up often to nurse. Even when he was asleep and I was finally able to fall asleep, I would often jerk awake in panic. Was he breathing? Had I fallen asleep nursing him and accidentally dropped him? Had I rolled over and crushed him? Was that him crying? Every single night these thoughts would wake me up and confuse me. It would take me a few minutes to sort things out in my head and figure out that everything was ok. I eventually stopped doing this after a couple months, but unfortunately I've started doing this again! I'm calling them my Mommy Night Terrors.

Ryan is so active now that I have to keep a constant watch over him. In the blink of an eye he can fall and crack his head on the fireplace, eat the dog food, or knock over a lamp. I am really not joking when I say that I can't take my eyes off of him. I think my brain has gotten used to being super-vigilant during the day and now it doesn't know how to shut off at night.

I keep waking up and thinking Ryan has fallen off our bed, but more often than not, he's actually in his crib and not even in the same room. Another example is Adam's nightstand, which is really a filing cabinet. When the top drawer is opened, it is so heavy that the entire filing cabinet can fall over. Ryan has opened it a few times and almost had it fall on him. So now sometimes I wake up and think Ryan is opening the filing cabinet and about to be crushed. I am so terrified until I figure out he isn't in any danger. It is both scary and frustrating! Why can't I just turn my brain off?

Jam-Packed

We had a jam-packed weekend! We spent a of time outside due to the nice weather. Some of the highlights were Ryan's 2-hour nap on Saturday, atttending a Baby Sprinkle, going to church, a BBQ, and watching my nephew play lacrosse.

Here is my 13-year old nephew Josh, right after playing 2 games. He scored the winning goal for the first game, but we missed it!

Ryan enjoyed cheering him on.

And also had his own adoring fans.

Me and my sis.Did you have a good weekend?

Foodie Friday: Uninspired

I have been very uninspired this week in terms of cooking. As in, I haven't been doing much of it. I think it's a combination of the hot weather and the fact that Ryan is teething. Sweaty Mama + Whiny Baby = No time or energy to cook.

I thought this picture summed up our week pretty well. Poor baby has sore gums.

When I don't cook, it's not like we can just order take-out. We're on a tight budget that doesn't really allow room for eating out often. So our meals this week have consisted of a lot of canned vegetables, instant rices and pasta, and barbeque-friendly foods. Not necessarily bad food, just very lackluster.

Do you ever get in a food rut, or just plain get tired of cooking? What do you do when that happens? And what do you cook when it's really hot outside? I have a hard time coming up with meals that don't heat up the house too much, yet are still hearty enough to satisfy my hungry husband. Care to share any easy go-to recipes for the warm weather?