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By Jen, on February 15th, 2011
I can’t believe how much Ryan’s language has grown in the past couple of months. We’ve been signing with him and I think that’s really helped to improve his verbal skills, too. Here’s a list of the words he signs:
- more
- milk
- water
- eat
- please
- thank you
- you’re welcome
- all done
- bye-bye
- hi
- sorry
- mommy
- daddy
- up
- potty
- hungry
- sleepy
- happy
- fish
- giraffe
- dog
- duck
- bird
- monkey
- gorilla
- stop
- jump
- diaper
- chew
- love
- baby
- bath
- blanket
- poop
- cookie
That’s almost 40 signs! I had no idea how well he was doing until I wrote it all down. He also has lots of verbal words:
- mama
- daddy
- thank you
- welcome
- uh oh
- sit
- go
- blue
- green
- up
- bye-bye
Plus more that I can’t think of right now. I can’t believe how quickly he’s picking things up these days!
By Jen, on July 29th, 2010
I finally finished uploading the springtime photos and have started an album for our summertime ones here. I wish I had time to caption all of them!
By Jen, on July 28th, 2010
We had such a great day today from start to finish. The day began when I woke up at 7:15 to the sound of silence – Ryan had slept all night long! I took advantage of my time alone to take a shower (ahhh!) before Ryan woke up at 8 and Nicky woke up at 8:30.
I haven’t been this on top of things in a very, very long time, and it was a playgroup day for Nicky’s preschool class that starts in the fall, so we went to Pinebrook Elementary School to the playground and met a few friends. When we got home, we were just in time for a nice walk with our neighbors and then came back to play in the basement for a little while before lunch. After lunch, the boys played nicely together while I folded some laundry and cleaned up, then they both took a very nice 2-hour nap.
After naptime, we went to meet our preschool friends again to march (okay, pull the wagon) in the Hilton Fireman’s Carnival parade. Just as we started to walk, it started to rain, and within minutes it was pouring. The boys didn’t mind the rain at all, but Nicky was absolutely terrified of a little boy in a scary skeleton mask, so we had to stop along the way several times, but he was okay. The parade ended up at the carnival, and Nicky rode on the Dizzy Dragons with Chuck, and then he rode on the ferris wheel for the very first time with me! He LOVED it!
After we came home and gave everyone a nice shower, we had a late dinner and played for a little bit before bedtime. Ryan crawled over to me to blow raspberries on my belly, awww. :)
My evening ended with some Ryan snuggles. There’s nothing as sweet as baby whispers at bedtime. It just melts my heart.
Oh, yeah, and the new iPhone 4s came today! Chuck’s activating them now. To finish off our night, I’ll enjoy some Words With Friends and M&Ms in bed. Life doesn’t get any better than this. :)
**I forgot to add a few things last night in my happiness coma:
- When we were walking in the parade and Nicky was so scared of the kid in the mask, he kept his eyes closed but still kept waving to the parade-watchers. Everyone got a kick out of it!
- I asked Ryan where his head was last night after dinner and he put his hand on it; I love the times where we start to realize that he understands us!
- Chuck stopped at Mighty Taco on the way home from his work trip to Toronto yesterday. Yum!
By Jen, on July 19th, 2010
Our basement is finally finished, after two and half months! Here are some before and after photos of the project. While the process was not wonderful, I’m so glad that we have another room to spread out!
By Jen, on July 7th, 2010
We’re usually a pretty healthy crew around our house. Ryan only got sick once, when he was 8 weeks old, and Nicky caught the same cold the next day. Otherwise, Nicky’s only gotten sick a few times.
This past week, Ryan got a fever on Monday night when I got home from work, and he was extra fussy and still feverish until the next night.
The day after that (Thursday), Nicky got sick VERY QUICKLY. He told me that he didn’t feel well, and within and hour he had a fever of 102 and trouble breathing. After albuterol and acetaminophen, he improved, but then worsened after his nap. He was fine the next day.
The following day (Saturday), Chuck got into bed at night and said he thought he was getting sick and was really unwell the next day (and every day after). On Monday, I started getting the chills and a fever at work and was pretty sick the next day. I started to notice that we’d all had a mild rash; Ryan’s was the most pronounced on one of his feet, but it wasn’t a big deal.
Today (Wednesday), Chuck got home from work and said that he had a really sore throat and sores in his mouth, and he started to get sores on his fingers. He called our doctor, who could see him tomorrow afternoon. The receptionist wouldn’t even take a message for the nurse because she said that it sounded like strep throat and that he’d need to be seen by the doctor. So, Chuck decided to go to the after-hours clinic to get treatment sooner. He had a rapid-strep test that came back negative and was diagnosed with Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease. We all have it. Apparently, it’s a virus like a cold and the only treatment is symptomatic. The nurse practitioner that he saw said that recent cases last 10-14 days.
Thankfully, Nicky and Ryan were extremely mild, and mine isn’t too bad. I have a pretty sore throat because of the sores on the back of my tongue, but I’m able to keep my fever and body aches under control with Tylenol and Motrin. Chuck is in pretty rough shape with painful sores in his mouth and on his hands and feet. Looks like he might have another rough week or so. :(
By Jen, on July 7th, 2010
It seems that this past week has been very busy for Ryan. He’s been army-crawling around for at least a month or two now, but just in the past few days he’s started to crawl up on his hands and knees. And, he could kind of pull himself up a couple of weeks ago; now he’s pulling up onto EVERYTHING! He’s pulling himself along all the furniture and going everywhere he can. And, this morning when Chuck went in to get him from the crib, he was standing for the first time! So, I pulled out the mobile and moved the mattress down to the lowest level.
Ryan has also been clapping and waving for a while, but now he’s doing it in the correct context…clapping when he’s happy and excited and waving hello and goodbye to people.
I never posted an update for his 9-month pediatrician visit. He was 30 inches long and 20 pounds, 12 ounces, finally surpassing Nicky! At every other visit, Ryan was just a tad smaller than Nicky, but at Nicky’s 9-month visit, he was measured at 29 and 3/4 inches and 20 pounds, 1 ounce. Both of those are considered the 90th percentile for height and 50th percentile for weight…tall and skinny, like their daddy.
I can’t believe how quickly my baby is growing!
By Jen, on May 26th, 2010
Nicky has really shown us that he has a kind heart in many ways, several of which are how he treats Ryan.
When he fusses and I can’t tend to him immediately, Nicky will run over to try to calm him with toys or rub his belly. As I got ready to get everyone outside to our backyard beach today, Ryan was pretty cranky in his crib and Nicky brought him a bunch of toys to quiet him down.
Also today, when I got upstairs to change Ryan’s diaper and found that it had poop, I said, “awww” and Nicky shouted from downstairs, “Mommy, I’m coming up to get a poop wipe for you!”, then he held Ryan’s hands out of the way while I changed the diaper. So sweet…
Something I don’t love but I’m sure we’ll laugh about in a few years is how Nicky has recently adapted a cry that imitates Ryan when he’s in his bed at night. Both last night and tonight, I thought Ryan was crying, but when I ran upstairs, I found that it was Nicky wanting me to turn on his radio. He’s a smart cookie, because he got what he wanted!
Back to the kind heart, nothing melts me like a heartfelt, “I love you, Mommy”, which Nicky says frequently now, unprompted. Truly makes my life worthwhile. <3
By Jen, on May 16th, 2010
Ryan’s been up in the night more than usual lately, and this morning I found out why: he has two more teeth on top! Now he has four teeth on top and two on the bottom. I’m so happy that my baby is growing up but a little bit sad to see that gummy smile go away.
Other recent developments for Ryan include sitting up on his own and waving. He’s also started to crawl backwards a little bit and he even gets up on his hands and knees and rocks sometimes. He loves to stand and even walk around with assistance, so I’m pretty sure that we’re going to find ourselves reassessing our current baby-proofing strategies.
By Jen, on April 9th, 2010
I’ve started a new folder on our photo site – Spring 2010. I can’t believe how quickly time has passed – we already had two days where the temperature got to almost 90 degrees outside! What a great start to what I think will be our most fun summer yet. :)
By Jen, on March 24th, 2010
Nicky is pretty much potty-trained now! I can’t believe how quickly that happened. He still wears training pants at naptime and a diaper at bedtime, but he wears underwear the rest of the time! We folded up all of his other diapers for Ryan now – I’m so proud of him!!!
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