Super Human Immune System

Lately I've been questioning what happened to my super human immune system I once had. The whole entire time I was pregnant and all throughout nursing I never once got sick. (minus the horrible morning/all day sickness from week 7 to 12 when I was pregnant--but I don't count that as sick-sick). Not one sniffle, throat ache...NOTHING! It was a glorious, illness-free 20 months. Since I have stopped breast feeding 5 or 6 weeks ago or whatever it was, I have gotten the flu and what was just an annoying chest cold a few days ago is now a chest cold AND a head cold. What the heck!?? There has got to be some sort of connection between stronger immune systems and being pregnant/nursing. (I should research this. Key word: should. I am not going to, but maybe someone reading this knows something). I mean, think about all the lack of sleep I got from not only having a new baby but also working night shift...how could I have not gotten at least a cold then?? But now...bam. Sick. Stupid. And what makes me feel even worse is that I think Chubbs McGee might be getting my cold. Why do I think this?? He was awake a ton last night. Crying really hard when he did wake up. Very stuffy. Watery eyes. Runny nose (although it is clear still...) sneezing a lot. Hopefully, this is the worst of it for him. Otherwise I'll feel terrible! How could you not feel guilty getting this guy sick?? --->

Too young for molars??

We have seen a LOT of the above photograph lately: chewing on everything and anything in site. And tons of drooling. Throw in some intermittent cranky pants and multiple night wakings and you've got a teething infant named Ryder!! (Good thing he's cute, or that "free baby" sign would have to be dragged out of storage...)

But no really, the real reason for this post is to ask the moms out there when their infants began getting molars. Ryder's lower right gum where the first molar should be is super swollen and he's always got a finger jammed back there gnawing away. His other gums on the back of his upper jaw and lower left back are normal sized but that dang lower right gum is HUGE. So, of course I start thinking oh my gosh, he's got an abcessed tooth!!! (but i'm insane and that obviously isn't right) So the only other thing is that it must be a molar. But I feel like he's way young to be cutting molars! I mean, he only has three teeth on the bottom and three teeth on the top right now. Shouldn't he get some other front chompers first? Well, I guess he's lucky because now this summer he can have some steak to chew on or something with his fresh set of molars....

Useless Talents

Last night my favorite movie of all time, Shawshank Redemption, was on tv. Considering it's a ridiculously long movie, we finished watching it in bed last night. You know that part at the end of the movie when Red (Morgan Freeman) gets out of jail and goes to the big tree to dig up the box that Andy (Tim Robbins) said he was going to leave for him? And Andy writes him a letter?? Well as this part was coming up in the movie, Joe informs me he could quote word for word the letter Andy writes to Red. I say, "Prove it". And off he goes:

"Dear Red,

If you're reading this, you've gotten out. And if you've come this far, maybe you're willing to come a little further. You remember the name of the town, don't you?.....I could use a good man to help get my project up on wheels. I'll keep an eye out for you, and the chess board ready. Remember Red, hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things. And no good thing ever dies. I will be hoping that this letter finds you and finds you well.

Your Friend,

Andy"

About two minutes later, I found out that Joe was right and he could quote word for word that letter. He threw out a very enthusiastic "YES!!" and I think even a small arm pump. He kept saying that given any scene he could probably quote it for me--I quizzed him and he, in fact, could do the couple scenes I gave him. And in all honesty, he could probably do that for a lot of movies, not just Shawshank. Joe even said, "Is that sad that I'm feeling very proud right now??" (answer: yes). I informed him that it was lovely that he can remember that kinda crap, but yet I have to write Joe a note to remind him to run the dishwasher before he goes to bed at night when I'm at work :)

About five minutes later, after we were discussing how useless this "talent" was, he informs me that he knows who won Best Picture at the Oscars from the year 2000 till 2010. There is a long pause and I say, "oh, okay". Another long pause and then from Joe in an excited/very impressed with himself voice, "You want me to name them for you?" ----- "....sure, I guess". And off he went naming the movies.

THEN, he commented how he needs to find a job that pays people to do these "talents" because he would make a killing....oh, okay honey....

Just one of the reasons I love my hubby: he's full of useless talents!

Here's a little sneak peak of one of the pics Amy took of Ryder:

Oh Chubbs McGee

If you couldn't tell, Ryder likes to eat. A lot. Here is a cute pic of Chubbs McGee in his high chair as happy as a clam because he's eating dinner. I love his bib---it's says "Chow Time!!"
Don't you just love those chompers he's showing on the bottom?!?

PS: My sister-in-law, Amy, was kind enough to snap a few "10 months" shots of Ryder. I'll upload them hopefully sometime this weekend---they're pretty cute.

Yes, even your "dress" sweats

For Christmas this year as one of my gifts from my wonderful sister-in-law, Amy Grace, I received a subscription to Parents magazine. I really enjoy getting this magazine each month--FYI: a good gift for any Mom. Anyways, I actually think that some writer was writing directly to me this month...which means that my hubby must have written to them asking for help for me (otherwise how else would they know I have this...issue, if you will). The article was titled something along the lines of Getting Back to Gorgeous or something like that. It was for new moms post baby. One section in particular rang true for me: the sweat pants section. It talked about how it's so easy for moms to stay in "scrubby" clothes all day when staying at home and how some women may feel better about ourselves/feel more refreshed if we "put away the sweatpants"...and I quote: "YES, EVEN YOUR DRESSY SWEATS!!" Oh dang...they got me. I TOTALLY have dressy sweats versus the i'll-never-leave-the-house-in-these-ratty-things-sweats. I have a whole drawer of sweats. Sweats I used to wear to the gym, but not work out in. Sweats I worked out in. Sweats I only wear in the house on the weekends. Sweats I only wear when it's a cleaning the whole house kinda day. (this is a really sad list by the way...) And of course, my "dressier" sweats I can leave the house in and not feel like a dirt-ball. Those would be my stretchy nike black sweats. I would bet money on the fact that there may be many many days in a row that I don't put "regular" clothes on (i.e. jeans and a real shirt/sweater). Usually this kinda of dressing up would require seeing other people/having an appointment etc.

Typically I justify consistently being a scrub-muffin by saying that I cannot possibly crawl around on the floor to play with Ryder in jeans and a nice sweater. That would be foolish. Also, my job consists of wearing PJs to work essentially (scrubs for those of you who do not know I'm a nurse...) so why would I ever come home and take "PJs" off and put on jeans and a cute top?? Also, I should throw in that I was totally kidding about Joe writing to the magazine about not wearing sweats all the time...he says he doesn't care (and I seriously don't think he does). I always just tell him that I never put on real human being clothes so that when I actually do get ready, he's really ridiculously impressed by how well I can clean up. I wouldn't want to spoil him or anything by looking nice on a daily basis now, would I?? Foolish I tell you!! Anyways, that article just made me laugh, and it also made Joe laugh when I pointed it out to him. That just means that there must be many other moms out there too who apparently need to "Get Back to Gorgeous", not just me :)

So, today after Church I stayed in my jeans and nice sweater all.day.long. It's now 830 at night and sweats are calling my name right about now!! I don't think this will be a regular occurence, FYI.

On a side note: I have had a few people ask my why I have not been posting over the last two weeks...well I still am waiting for a new power cord for my computer to come in the mail. It's been killing me not having internet access on a regular basis!! I'm on Joe's work computer right now, so I can't do much. I have all these pictures of ryder just begging to uploaded and shown to the world...and I'm praying the power cord comes tomorrow and I can get back to being in touch with the rest of the world...yes, by that I so shamefully mean Facebook, blogging, emailing. Sad but true. HAPPY VALENTINES DAY EVERYONE!!

ill

Our house has been swamped by rotavirus (thankfully ryder has been vaccinated from this terrible bug and he never got it!) and Joe and I have had a less than fun week. Joe was sick the first half of the week--including a lovely ER run for some iv fluids for severe dehydration. Then when he was finally feeling somewhat better, I get it. To top it off, our power adapter for our laptop isn't working, so I have had no internet access for over a week now (I'm currently at work, soaking up Fairview's $$). --is that sad to say I seriously feel left out of the loop of what's going on in the world without my internet?!? Sad but true.

So let's just say that I am thankful for the week to be over and for a new (and healthy!) one to begin. Although I'm not so sure how this week will be...I'm on night one of four of work this week. BOO.