The rocking chair session

It's hard to believe that Ryan is already 8 months old! He started crawling towards the middle to end of April and as soon as May rolled around, he was pulling up on everything. He's an excellent crawler and fast! Here are some pictures from what I've been calling "the rocking chair session!" (the antique looking chair was my Dad's when he was a boy, mine when I was a girl and now my boys...the other two chairs belong to the portrait studio)

Easter pictures...as promised.

Here are Easter pictures!

Easter pictures and laundry

The boys were supposed to have Easter/7 month/4 1/2 year pictures on the 10th.  The lack of pictures in this post isn't due to laziness or technical difficulties.  Pictures were scheduled for 9:30 a.m.  I was getting their clothes ironed and ready Saturday night. I pulled Jacob's polo shirt out of the dryer, the shirt that he has never worn, to find something had bled all over it in the wash. It was a sea-green color shirt and it looked like it had red wine all over the collar and two buttons. I wanted to cry.

I treated the shirt with an assortment of products and washed it again. It has been washed about ten more times since then and you can still see the stain. Its better, but still there.

I called Sunday morning and canceled our appointment. They had matching outfits for Easter and the store I bought it at didn't open until noon. I looked online for the shirt and it was no longer displayed on the website...guh-reat.  I called and they had ONE left in his size.  Hooray!!  Jeff picked it up for me and what do you know??  It was half-off!  SCORE!! 

This time, I'm not watching it before he wears it to pictures.  Maybe I should try some of those new Shout things that are supposed to catch colors?  It wasn't even something red. I had already learned my lesson with red clothes.

Stay tuned for some pictures so cute you can hardly stand it!!

The boys

I know it has been a while since I posted...maybe 7 months?!?  Things have been non-stop with the addition of Ryan. He had his 6 month check-up this week (a couple of weeks late due to a double ear infection).  He weighs 18 pounds and 1 ounce. He is 26.5 inches long. He is in the 50th percentile for height and weight. His doctor told him, "Dude, you're boring" and then told me, "Mommy, boring is good." 

He can roll over front to back and back to front. He can get up on his arms and toes when he is on his tummy but hasn't quite figured out how to bring his knees up under him.

He has the best smile...his entire face lights up. He adores Jacob and thinks everything he does is hilarious. He has also started saying "da da da da da."  He also got his first two teeth (on the bottom) this month.

Jacob currently has strep. He has been pitiful. He's also had to do a breathing treatment and use his inhaler because his oxygen level was low.

His imagination is as wild as he is. Some days he's a firefighter or a pirate. He likes to pretend he's a cowboy or a puppy. He still LOVES Toy Story 3 and everything to do with it.

He can write his name and Ryan's name. He can write all of his abc's and can recognize them. He can do simple addition and subtraction. He loves movies and reading books. He's playing Sunday Soccer again this spring and is much improved from the fall. He scored the first goal for his team this past week! 

My life is as full as my heart. I am truly blessed!

Ryan, week 35

This has to be the fasted doctor's appointment I have ever experienced. It probably had something to do with the fact that I was 15 minutes late. I signed in and before I could even sit down, they called me back. My blood pressure was a little high, 130/80 but overall, ok. I found out that I cannot travel so no trips over an hour for me until after Ryan gets here. Since Jake came at 36 weeks, my doctor didn't think it was a good idea.

Here's what babycenter.com says about Ryan:
How your baby's growing:
Your baby doesn't have much room to maneuver now that he's over 18 inches long and tips the scales at 5 1/4 pounds (pick up a honeydew melon). Because it's so snug in your womb, he isn't likely to be doing somersaults anymore, but the number of times he kicks should remain about the same. His kidneys are fully developed now, and his liver can process some waste products. Most of his basic physical development is now complete — he'll spend the next few weeks putting on weight.

Ryan, week 34

This is my last week to be pregnant and not have a doctor's appointment. After next week's appointment, I will be on weekly appointments. Everything is still rolling along! No blood pressure issues so far, which means I've made it a little further along than I did with Jacob!

The nursery has been painted and this week my Mom and I put up the border. That was not an easy task...especially for the long walls. It makes such a difference in the room. Jeff moved some of the furniture around and we put the crib together. I spent most of Saturday getting organized and cleaning baby toys and am happy to report that his room looks like a nursery!

Here's what babycenter.com says about Ryan:

How your baby's growing:
Your baby now weighs about 4 3/4 pounds (like your average cantaloupe) and is almost 18 inches long. His fat layers — which will help regulate his body temperature once he's born — are filling him out, making him rounder. His skin is also smoother than ever. His central nervous system is maturing and his lungs are continuing to mature as well. If you've been nervous about preterm labor, you'll be happy to know that babies born between 34 and 37 weeks who have no other health problems generally do fine. They may need a short stay in the neonatal nursery and may have a few short-term health issues, but in the long run, they usually do as well as full-term babies.

Ryan, week 33

I went to the doctor this week and everything still looks great! We were able to schedule my c-section and was fortunate to get the mid-morning slot. I'm glad I don't have to be at the hospital @ 5:00 a.m.! My feet have been pretty swollen and as I mentioned last week, the morning sickness has kicked it up a notch, but other than that, things are moving along!

Here's what babycenter.com says about Ryan:

How your baby's growing:
This week your baby weighs a little over 4 pounds (heft a pineapple) and has passed the 17-inch mark. He's rapidly losing that wrinkled, alien look and his skeleton is hardening. The bones in his skull aren't fused together, which allows them to move and slightly overlap, thus making it easier for him to fit through the birth canal. (The pressure on the head during birth is so intense that many babies are born with a conehead-like appearance.) These bones don't entirely fuse until early adulthood, so they can grow as his brain and other tissue expands during infancy and childhood.