Election Eve, Halloween and changes

I am hopeful. I am hopeful my country men will make the right choice. However I am also worried.
I think this sums it up very well.
http://robdelaney.tumblr.com/post/34643328161/after-sandy


Last Wednesday we took Ryan trick or treating for the first time. We went over to Mike and Janets to meet up with the girls.

 Alexandra and Chloe 

Sloane

Oh no, we dropped the bucket. Oh it was empty? Thats okay then.

After having a snack we were off. Ryan was a little worried at the first door but by the second he wants to hold the bucket, knock on doors and grab his own candy. He didn't even really know what candy was he just knew if he knocked on a door a grown up told him he was super cute and put stuff in his bucket or let him grab stuff.

 Ryan in the dragon outfit getting the hang of it.

 CANDY! (love Ryans face here)

 The group.

Ryan got really good at saying "trick or treat" and "thank you". Sounds more like "tickteet" and "tankyou" but it was still super cute.

I went up with Ryan to one house and helped him knock on the door, the guy saw my outline and thought it was older kids. He puts on a scary mask and throws open the door and sees four small kids 3 years of age and under and pulls of the mask goes "oh my, I am so sorry!" and puts the bowl out of good chocolate for the kids to get one. Ry looks at me, I say"its okay buddy go ahead." he takes one. He looks at me again... and reaches in to grab with a little toddler hand and get three bars! He puts it in his bucket, he goes to do it again. I try to stop him and tell him that is a little greedy, the guy holding the candy is laughing and telling me to let him! I smile and tell Ryan to say thank you and very embarrassedly scoot Ryan on to the next house.

This is the bucket of candy Ryan kept grabbing from, I am to the left with him trying to push/pull his hand away from the bucket gently.

It was a VERY fun night! After about 10 houses and some very full buckets we went back to Mike and Janet. Here is Mike. hehe

Or Doctor Park to some of you. (with his youngest daughter, the cupcake) yes he is dressed as an egg.

Janet had to stay home to hand out the candy to visiting kids.

Here are some cute shots of the kids enjoying the spoils of trick or treating.

 Mmmmmm chips.

Sloane is not big on eating candy but she LOVES the smell.

 SNNNNNNIIIIIFFFFFFFF

Alexandra likes the candy though. YUM!!! Good choice!

Janet enjoying the treats too. heh

Ryan just wants to ride the BMW. Another good choice!

It was so much fun. The next night Ryan was being so good he got Smarties for the first time, big shocker is that he liked them.

______________________________________________________________________

On to his 18 month check up and new awesome things he is doing.

Doc said he is big. He is about 3lbs over where he should be. So we cut his whole milk to 2% and cut it back big time. Or at least are trying to. I am also trying to cut back on carbs for him, he LOVES carbs so we are trying new stuff like red pepper or cucumber when we get home. He will be so hungry he will be shaking and crying so he gets a snack. Doc told me to stop letting him snack. I explained he gets two a day. One at school and one when he gets home and stuff like Banana, yogurt or apple. He was like "oh then thats okay." Bloody hell, its not like I am giving him ice cream and a bowl of crack. It's a friggn apple.

However just switching the milk will help a lot. (water no juice, not a fan of juice). If Ryan hasn't pooped I give him 1/3 pear juice and 2/3 water. Always does the trick.
Other then the 'weight issue' he is healthy.

On to changes.

He is growing up, what feels like, to fast. Eats with a fork or spoon or at least trying to. Gets mad when I try to feed him (I CAN do it mom!). Understands when he hurts me or does something he shouldn't (more later on this). Liked to give a treat to Roag (our kitty boy). Is starting to comunicate with me so much better. (more on this too). Loves to drink out of moms glass.

Sorry mom...
Yesterday Christina and Robin were over for dinner. (sister/brother in law). After dinner Christina, Ry and I were in the living room/sunroom. Ryan grabs my glasses and starts to twist them. I say something like "RYAN NO, those are moms glasses, DO NOT TOUCH, you know better." He gives them to me. I go on my knees and say to him " buddy those are moms only glasses, you know better then to touch, they are not a toy for you, okay hon." Ryan looks at me and says softly "sorry". I say to him. "buddy I am not mad at you, thank you for giving them back to mom, can I get a hug?" he hugs me and then we tickle fight.
It was epic. Other parents will get how HUGE this is. Hell I think even non-parents will get how huge this is.

I WANT IT...

This morning I take Ryan out of the crib, change his diaper (all the while he is chatting and laughing as I ask him about his night). I pick him up and as we leave the room he starts to cry. I go into the living room and set him down. I say "bud, you have to use your words or show mom what is upsetting you, do you want to show me?" and I hold my hand out. He grabs my hand and leads me back into his bedroom. He points at the computer mouse on the floor Neil gave him to play with and goes "da?" I tell him its okay to grab it. He smiles, laughs, picks it up, grabs my hand and we go back into the living room to play. I sit down with him and tell him thank you for showing mommy what upset him and he can always show mommy or tell mommy what he is upset about. Then he follows me in to the kitchen  points at where we keep Roags (cat) treat and says cat in Hungarian and apple (apple is his word for food). We take the treats out and Ryan gives a few to Roag. Ryan laughs, asks for some Cheerios and drink. Takes them to his table in the sunroom, sits down and eats them while I am making breakfast.

It's insane.

It's so cool.

I love it.

Birthday and day care

April 17th was a lot of fun. We hung out, cleaned, went shopping, played, went on the swings, slid down the slide and after we got home from getting Neil Ryan had a cupcake. This time it was rainbow chip and I put a tiny bit of frosting on it.
He loved it.

 Forget broccoli, give me cake!

 Hmmmmm

 Hey dad, try this out!

Nomnomnom

April 18th Neil took me into work and then was off to the doctor with Ryan.
He got his 12 month shots, in his arms, poor kid. We also found out he is 27.5lbs and 78cm (30.7inches). He is in the top 90% (which means he is a big dude)
He should drink whole milk (not 2%) No peanuts till 2 years of age (or peanut butter) and he had a rash (which might be athletes foot) on his feet so we have to cream him up at night and try to leave shoes off.
Neil and Ryan had a great time together while I was back at work. Neil gave Ryan a piece of twine while he was on the phone with Revenu Canada about our taxes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GD-MBzrmJL4
Its pretty damn funny and it made my first day back to work go better.
My guys picked me up a little early and Neil had a frosty for me as a treat. It was awesome.


Today... today was the first day of day care. I was so 'butterfly belly' this morning. Ryan had no idea what was going on. We went into day care and after asking about the sign in for video over internet we took him to class. I let the ladies know Ry has a rash on his feet and to try to keep shoes off him and the milk was in the bag (breast for now, we really need to go grocery shopping). The young black lady (really need to learn her name!) took Ryan from me and told me "go have a good day." She put Ry in the middle of the room and he had his back to me and started playing. Neil took my hand and lead me out of there. I was crying. Not much just a few tears. Neil grabs my hand, puts it up in the air and turns to me and says "Lets celebrate, lets go to mexico! Ryan is their problem now!" I couldn't help but laugh.


I was pretty busy at work and trying to get into the swing but I did go online a few times to spy on Ryan. I saw him playing, being rocked, being hugged and cuddled, I saw him do the tired lay down and thought to myself "Oh they better put him to bed soon." I saw him step over another kid, play with a ball, eat, drink, walk around and have a good time.
The lady Rita told me he had two servings of tacos at lunch. LOL. And it also looks like he drank his whole bottle of breast milk at 4. Maybe I should give them two bottles? He ate pita, tzatziki, oranges and the fruit I gave them. Damn... kid can eat. I guess it's all the playing with other kids.
I am trying to get him to drink only from cups so we shall see. I will have to talk to them about that and what they think.
He was covered in boogers which was super gross. It was nice to bathe him tonight. Lets just say all the kids there have runny noses and its hitting my gross out factor pretty hard.


This is his report card.

(click to enlarge)

 I get one everyday.
 I fill out the small section to the top left and the ladys fill out the rest. They were really happy with how much he ate and drank but he didn't sleep. The 30 min nap he did take was on a hippo pillow in the main play room. Rita said he went to sleep in her arms around 11 (which I saw) but when they put him down in the crib room he woke up. She said they left him there and he chatted and cried a little. Hopefully he will sleep for them Friday. He was in a GREAT mood on the drive home and tonight while he ate dinner and played. He had a nice bath (a fast one though cause he kept trying to lay down in the water). Now he is sleeping. I am doing some wash and then time to make lunches for Neil and I. (and a shower)
I will confess tonight after bath, after saying goodnight to daddy and kitty Roag, after breast feeding and teeth brushing I let him sleep on me. I sat in the chair in his room while he slept on me just staring at him while the sun was setting. I was in there about 10 min longer then I needed to be. I wanted to hold him longer but we need to sleep train him again, he is getting bad. I just sat there cuddling him looking at him and smelling him and kissing him. Trying to engrave in my brain how he feels in my arms.


I know I am being dramatic... I also know other moms reading this blog will get this and nod in agreement to that feeling. The old cliche is true, they grow up way to fast.


Love you little man.

Shots round 3, test results and the home state

Ry got his third round of shots today. He has been pretty good which is shocking. Playful, took a long nap, super playful and was good for Neil and Gabi tonight while I was a Zumba. He was a little moody when he woke up at 1030 but after 45 min got him back to sleep.
We shall see how tonight goes. (edit, just woke up three times screaming in the past 30 min. awesome just awesome.)

say what!?

I really hope he startes to sleep again soon. Almost a month of him waking every 1-2 hours. I celebrate the rare times he has slept 3 hours. So nice. I miss the 3-5 hour stretches so much.
Not only does he wakes up but he will wake up SCREAMING. So its hard to ignore him and let him go back to sleep on his own. He is in our room and Neil has to work and really how can you ignore a screaming baby (one bedroom house we live in)


We got the results that the ultrasound was okay. No scaring on the kidneys which is great! Still waiting for the VCGU results. Hopefully will have them soon.
But the doctor gave us good news today, he gave us the okay to go to Florida!


I am from Florida and my family lives there. My mom, dad, sister and brother in law. 
My dad has yet to meet Ryan and so does my sister Laura. My sis and I are sort of estranged but we are starting to talk again. She is not what I would call a kid person but hopefuly Ryan doesn't freak her out too much with the drool. (I tease he doesn't drool that much, he doesn't even need a bib).


We are going down Sunday the 30th and will get in around midnight. Neil will be there till Saturday the 5th of November and I will be there with Ryan till the 23rd. We leave early in the morning.
Neils dad got us one of the tickets on his air miles which was really awesome of him!

nomnom feet

I called my folks to tell them the good news. Now they were expecting me and Ryan at the END of November not the end of October so they were a little surprised. I could tell my mom was a little flustered. She has been working at getting all the crap we will need for Ryan. Highchair, car seat, play-yard, crib, foam mats for crawling, a walker, diapers, food, change mat... like I said, all the crap. And a place for me to sleep. She got a futon that will come in Tuesday. YAY I dont have to be on an air mattress for 3 1/2 weeks. :P


I know its short notice but I hope there are a few people I can see when we come down.

I always miss my old house when I go to Florida. I want to go across the street from my folks and sit on my porch in the quiet and have a smoke. I don't but I want to. (I used to live in the house across the street that was my grandmothers).

Shot reactions, walks and making baby food

Shots round two and 1 year ago yesterday...

Ryan did very good on his second round of shots today.

He was very brave. Didn't even cry until the second needle went in. He did jump a little at the first one and he gave me this sort of WTF(whatthefuck)look.

However after the second one was done and band aids were on I picked him up and he stopped crying and a minute or two later smiled at me.

Poor legs.

He is having a second nap now.

No fever yet.

37.6 c which is good.

Something that shocked me is my doctor told me to not make the cereal runny and its okay to give him real food (mashed veggys and fruit for now). I was shocked. He said make sure to give Ryan one thing at a time and wait a few days before introducing another food to double check he doesn't have allergies.

I am a tiny bit sad we can give him food. I love the easy to clean poops and how easy it is to breast feed. Nothing to clean up after unless Ry spits up a little. Its nice. Now with real food I will have to clean up bowl and spoons (easy enough) the high chair, the floor, him, me, the cats... heh anything and everything the food gets on. We will have to start with a schedule as well. Breakfast, lunch and dinner. I will have to keep track of what I feed him (encase he gets sick) at first. Also remember what he likes and doesn't like so I can try to get him to like stuff later on (it can take up to 14 times on a new food before a kid will eat it). I also want to make my own food so I need to start batch cooking that and freezing it.

It's exciting because its something new for us both but I am just a little sad.

I need to get Neil to feed him at night. Which means I will have to start making dinner for us as well to free up the early evening for Neil to feed Ryan. Right now Neil makes most of the dinners. But he cant feed Ry and cook dinner.

On to sad things. 

Yesterday was the one year mark of Abigale's due date. One year ago she was due. April was harder because that was the one year of her loss. It still make me think about her. I think about her a lot but every month less and less. When we first had Ryan he brought back a lot of memories and feelings about her.

Sometimes I even dream about her. This time was made a little easier by the celebration of Sloane. Watching her grow and get stronger makes it a happy month for me. Not one of sadness. I am hoping Ryan's birthday being in April, so close to the date of our loss, will do the same.

Still everything we went through with her makes me love and appreciate Ryan even more. I really think unless you have lost a child or came close to losing one you can not understand this. No offence to anyone but its a unwanted club no one talks about or wants to join.

Ryans Shower and his first round of shots.

Ryan's shower was this past sat (the 18th) and it went great.

Friday we headed over to Sherry and Roland's who were sweet enough to host the shower in the back yard (with help from Rita, Tim and Gabi) We set up the huge tent (thanks again to Chris and Anand for helping!) and hung out a little.

Saturday the weather was perfect. Warm and sunny all day. Bad news was because our Ryan is so little he gets over heated fast so we had to work some magic and put a fan on him and take some clothing off of him. However he still had a bad event.

Because there were so many people and Neil and I were distracted we didn't pick up on the cues that Ryan was close to a melt down till it was too late. Neil pointed out to me he hadn't eaten in a while (over an hour) and was showing signs of hunger. I took him downstairs to feed him and that is when the melt down happened. We think because I was hot and he was hot when I put him to my breast it was just too much heat. He freaked and nothing I could do would calm him down. Time to get help from Neil! Neil came downstairs and held him and got him calm enough to take some cold breast milk. We took his clothing off and put a cool wet cloth on his belly to cool him down a little. I think that mixed with the cold breast milk calmed him down.

Side note... you can feed a baby cold breast milk, its perfectly safe. Some babies might spit up a little more from it but its great if you are not able to breast feed (like in a car driving) and need to get food in the little one before they freak out.

After eating and cooling down he was fine. We put him in the pool for a minutes to cool him down more but the water was too cold and didn't care for it.

Too COLD, do not want.

However he took to the breast after that so I was happy. We had a good time, a great night and it was a blast to spend time with so many friends. I think we dropped the ball on introductions though since Tara thought Christina was a co-worker! (she is Robins girlfriend and all and all an awesome lady)

Neil posted photos on Facebook. 

 He has so many friends!

And so many gifts!

Neil hanging with Big and Little Ryan

There were even some pretty ladies there for Ryan!

Today was Ryan's first round of shots. He did great. He was a happy camper till the needles when in his legs. (one in each leg) I feel bad because Neil said Ryan was looking at him and gave him this "why would you do this to me I trust you" look. So in two months when we go for the next round I will be the one he looks at. Its only fair. 

 Before the shots...

 After the shots

Neil did say something that made me smile. As we were putting him in the car Neil said something about taking him to McDonald's when he is big enough.

Back story to his is as a kid Neils mom took him to McDonald's when he was good at the dentist or doctors. So that way he would not DREAD the doctors offices. He knew at the end of the pain and discomfort he would get yummy bad food he never got to have other wise. I think its an awesome tradition we will do with Ryan. I remember my mom doing something like that, we would get milkshakes at McD's and having a burping contest.