Moms...give your input please!

Yes, he may be sweet:

But he's been killing Joe and me lately. He used to be such a good sleeper (to bed at 7pm and didn't make noise till 7am or even 730am). Over the last two weeks most nights, he will wake up crying sometime anywhere between 2am and 5am. Now, only once or twice has it been where he wakes up screaming bloody murder, so I thought that it might be night terrors, but all the other times he wakes up with only a little fussing--almost just talking-- at first (which I ignore hoping he falls back asleep) but then it gets louder and louder until he actually is crying really loudly and really hard.

A little background so you can form your opinions: the last almost two weeks we have been out of routine a LOT. I was in Jenna's wedding and was gone that whole weekend (Joe was gone too attending the wedding festivities as well). Friday my mom was with him all day from 9am till we got home from the rehearsal dinner at 10pm, so she put him to bed. The next morning I left first thing and my aunt picked him up from our house at 1030 am and kept him all night over night while we were at the wedding and I didn't get home till after lunch Sunday. THEN....Joe and I got sick last week (thankfully Ryder didn't) and were out of commission. When he was with us, we were watching movies/cartoons and weren't really playing because we felt so crappy, but most of the time he was at Joe's mom's house-overnight one night too. Joe and I really didn't feel back to normal until Sunday. I know he was very upset that things were out of routine, even when he was with the both of us, he still could tell things were "off". I will also throw in that all last week when we were out of routine he would barely eat anything. He wasn't fussy at all or warm or acting sick at all, and we're done teething (he has them all!) but he was really fussy only if we tried to get him to eat (even pizza...a favorite...) he would take only like three or four bites and then be done. I think he was way out of sorts.

Anyways...back to the waking up. So when he does the night waking, it's not something you can ignore. He's screaming bloody murder for Heaven's sake and he will just keep doing it. Last night when he woke up at 430, we let him chat...and then eventually cry until I finally went in there at 5am. I don't normally do this, but I had a feeling he was hungry. I made him a piece of toast and he ate the whole thing in about two seconds. He cried hard when I tried to put him back down in the crib, so I rocked him for about 5 minutes and then put him down. He was still awake when I laid him down (so it's not like I rocked him to sleep in order to get him back into the crib), but at that point he didn't cry. He just watched me walk out of the room and never made another peep.

This is kind of how these nights have been going. I have only given him a snack twice now (which both times he gobbled down), but I don't know if the night wakings started because he was out of routine but now it's becomming a routine...? Has anyone else had periods where their once great sleeping children now are waking up? I would like this to stop (obviously....) but how do I stop it? I can't just let him scream for hours in there (which he's a stubborn child...he totally would too). What the heck do I do??? Is he just playing Joe and me for dummies or is this normal?

For those of you who have no kids...sorry this was a long rambling post. But you can give your opinions too! Anything helps!

Per usual

Well, per usual, I have been a slacker once again in the blogging world. BUT I feel as though I have some good excuses. For one, I was in my best friend's wedding last weekend. So it's safe to say I was fairly busy (a blog about the wedding weekend to come later). Two: Wednesday night when I was working, I had to come home because Joe was sicker than a dog vomiting/in the bathroom since he had put Ryder to bed that night. I assumed it was food poisoning or something and someone had to be there and functional in case Ryder for some odd reason woke up. So I came home around midnight Wednesday night and by Thursday morning at 8am, we were both begging Joe's mom to come over to pick up Ryder because we were both out of commission. Turns out that the "food poisoning" that Joe had was round #2 of the rotavirus flu (we had it back in the winter too). So if anyone has had the rotavirus...you know how much FUN it is!!! Pssssyyyych. BUT if I had to have any kind of flu, I would take that one because that's the type of flu that babies are vaccinated against. So Ryder skirted that one, thankfully! Unfortunately I had to miss another day of work (well, I'm not that sad about that..haha) and a good work friend's wedding in the process :( Boo.


Last week before Jenna's wedding festivities all started, I did manage to meet Amanda and Camille at her apt pool for some fun in the sun. Ryder decided to throw his hat in the pool and then he wouldn't wear it when it was all soaking wet, so Camille was nice enough to borrow Ryder her pink bandana to cover that big old head. I think he pulled it off pretty well, actually!

Notice the dripping pool of water under Ryder's chair. That's from the swim diaper draining the gallons of water it can hold!

And the bathtub one below is just to show off his nice body. Although, I do believe we are going through our first "food jag". He is not interested in eating much of anything lately. It's pretty much a fight at every meal over the last week and a half to get him to eat anything, even a bite or two of food. He's still his happy-go-lucky self, but not eating. Maybe because I keep posting these sweet body shots that he feels he needs to get it together and go on a diet? haha, kidding. I love that body!

Karma

Sometimes I really really need to step back and say "chill out"....maybe then I could avoid situations like tonight. Joe suggested we go to the grocery story together (much easier and faster than doing it by yourself with a child), and we'd kill two birds with one stone and drag all the dry cleaning in too (our grocery store has a dry cleaning place inside the store). So I told Joe to start shopping and I'd take all the dry cleaning to the counter and get that done. Well, I sat at the counter for ten stinking minutes (I know this because I painfully watched the clock above the lady's head tick ever.so.slowly...) Anyways, so this lady obviously had no clue what she was doing. She couldn't get anything right. I was seriously getting so annoyed. After telling her that I had four pairs of pants ("Five?" "No four" "Oh, I thought it was five" "Nope, four" Staring at me, so I count out "one. two. three. four..." "oh, okay then" uuuuuh).

Anyways, after giving out audible sighs and I probably looked more annoyed than I should have, but we got it done. And we finished shopping while I was all huffy and puffy to Joe telling him about the "idiot" working the counter. We get home and we are putting Ryder to bed and the house phone rings (It never rings unless it's telemarketers and the only reason we have a house phone is for a fax machine for Joe's work). ANYWAYS...the person calling leaves a message saying that I left my purse at the dry cleaner counter. Sweet.

I drive all the way back and go to the main service counter and who comes out with my purse?? The "idiot" lady at the dry cleaners. She says--in a genuinely nice way---"wow, you're hard to track down! I couldn't find you in the phone book and I had to look you up online because I couldn't find your # anywhere for some reason" Aaaaaaand I go home feeling quite stupid. This lady, whom clearly had annoyed me because I made it fairly obvious, spent time figuring out how to track me down so I could come claim my purse. I wouldn't have blamed her if she threw it in the trash!

Moral of the story? Chill out and try not to be such a b*tch!

On another note: here's a picture of my most favorite little fat face :)

Pool side fun

Another weekend flies by...I swear Summer weekends don't even exist sometimes before Monday graces us with her presence again! Blink and the weekend is gone. Today was exceptionally gorgeous too, which if I am being a positive person--I feel grateful for the last day of the weekend to be so nice. But if I'm being a negative person---it makes me more sad that Monday is already tomorrow (which means back to work tomorrow for Daddy and back to work tomorrow night for Mommy).

After Ryder's (very short 1 hour) nap today, we headed over to Eric and Teri's house for a little fun in the pool and grilling out. It's always nice to be able to hang out with friends who have kids too (then you don't feel so bad bringing yours with too!). Anyways, Ari and Ryder are pretty much meant to be boyfriend and girlfriend someday :) Ryder just needs to work on his beach body and then he'll have it in the bag! But for now...he kept the shirt on because he was a little embarrassed of his soft, pale body ;)

Trying to get them to sit still for two seconds to take a picture. Ryder was trying to grab at her I'm pretty sure...

And I thought this one was so cute! Ryder was (shockingly) looking in the general direction of the camera. Not AT the camera, but in the general direction. A very difficult thing to get him to do lately...And Ari is striking this adorable swim suit model pose :) Love these two!

I hope everyone else had a wonderful weekend as well!

The Bachelorette

Joe and I shamefully tune into the Bachelorette every Monday night. I sorta have a thing for reality shows....

Anyways, you can ignore this post if you don't watch the show because I will tell you what I think about it!

Ames. I have NO clue why, but everytime I see him flash on the screen I laugh. That is SO mean and like I said, I have no clue why but I do!! I think it's mostly because of the rose ceremonies. If you haven't noticed how completely AWKWARD he is standing there, then pay attention next Monday. I was really glad he went thru to next week, but only because I want to see him stand there again looking so weird. Every other guy stands with their hands clasped infront of them....but Ames stands there with his hands hanging at his sides like a monkey and has the most funny/weird look on his face. I think it looks like he's trying to send her telepathy messages or something. He should have red lazer beams shooting to her.

I'm glad Ryan went home...he's so fake it's ridiculous. And boring. If I was on a date with a guy and he started rambling on and on and on about a hot water heater.....he'd go home too.

Contantine and Ben look pretty much the same. I think that Constantine could give a rats ass if he's there or not--or at least that's what his face/body language tells me when he's not in Ashley's presence. I also think Ashley likes Ben the most. She should...he's a WINE MAKER GUY in Cali. SWEET!!

Last week J.P. was my favorite, but after this week he is kinda a freak. You can tell he really seriously likes Ashley, but he's so possesive, controlling and has a bit of a hot streak temper. BAD COMBO. So he's at the bottom of my list.

Lucas was boring. See ya.

As far as Ashley, I don't really like her as the bachelorette. I liked Ali (from last season) way better. She seemed so real, and Ashley is so fakey and dramatic and cries waaay too much.

Anyways, I'm about a hundred times more lame for writing this. But at least I know it. I'm sure you all have guilty pleasures out there too ;)

15 month appt (and other updates)

It must be the summer that makes me such a bad blog updater. Update #1: Ryder graduated from physical therapy a couple weeks ago. He essentially has no head tilt 90% of the time and when he does have a head tilt, it's typically when he's looking down at something he's playing with and it's only like 2 degrees. Big deal. Not worth PT anymore! So, Nancy gave us her blessing to no longer come to see her anymore!! woo hoo. It was really super cute: before we left Ryder had his very own "graduation ceremony". There was one of the physical therapy ramps that has two bars on either side of it so that you can walk while holding onto the bars. At the end of the ramp was a mirror so you could watch yourself when you did your exercises. For his graduation walk, Ryder held onto my hands, walked the length of the ramp and when he got to the end of the ramp by the mirror he reached out an high fived himself!! It was very cute :)

Update #2--->As far as movement, he's finally walking better when holding onto my fingers/hands and he can push toys and walk behind them. He scales along the couch and around the coffee table like he's superman. I'm guessing it won't be too much longer before he walks.

And then today we had his 15 month appointment. He SERIOUSLY is one sassy child. The pediatrition came in and Ryder was smiling, holding his hand out to the doctor and having a good time....that is, until the doctor wanted to poke and prod the kid. We laid him on his back and the doctor was trying to listen to his heart and lungs, and feel his belly among other things and ryder was NOT having any part of it! At first he swung and landed a couple face slaps as the doctor was hovering over him. So I held his arms down. Well, okay...no hands available?? Okay, then I'll just start kicking the doctor in the gut! So I reach down to hold his legs and what happens? A hand gets loose and reaches for the stethoscope...and Ryder yanks the stethoscope right out from the doctor's ears. Nice. The doctor said, "my he sure knows what he wants or doesnt want, huh?" Understatement of the century doc. So I said, "Don't worry, I'm a little afraid of him too" :)
So the stats for my gigantic boy:

Height at 12 months: 30.25 inches (60%) Height at 15 months: 32 inches (75%).

Weight at 12 months: 26 lbs (90%) Weight at 15 months: 28lbs 9oz (92%)

Head at 12 months: 48 cm (90%) and Head at 15 months: 48.9cm (90%) (I also would like to mention that we measured my head just to see the difference and my head measures 54 cm....guess which side that giant melon comes from?!)

So overall Ryder is a big boy (duh). The only other thing that the doctor mentioned was Ryder's lack of talking. Yes, he babbles and says "baby" and "mama" but other than that it's nothing. The doctor said that most kids Ryder's age say at least 5-6 words at this time, and the doctor was hoping that Ryder would start saying some words over the next 2-4 weeks. Now, the Type A personality in me gets a little worried and bothered by that (how dare the doctor mention being "developmentally slow" in regards to talking to me!!!) But then the chill, more relaxed care free type B personality in me (thank you dad!) says, "whatever" he'll do it when he's ready. When I was talking to my dad about the doctor's appt, he made a good point. He said that Ryder, since the day he was born...a week late....has been letting us know he will do his own thing on his own time schedule. And he's so right. So I'm going to not fret and just enjoy it all before he learns the word NO! haha.

Over anything else, there is one thing that makes me sad about Ryder becoming a big boy. No, it wasn't him turning one. It wasn't seeing milestones like crawling, scaling the couch, or walking behind the push toys. It wasn't even walking in on him for the first time one morning to see him standing up in his crib (very proud of himself if you can imagine). The one thing that makes me kind of sad is the peach fuzz hair that he now has on his legs and arms. Bye bye hairless, soft baby skin...hello to my little growing toddler! But for now, I will cherish every moment I get to cuddle and snuggle with my baby:

Happy 4th of July!

I LOVE the 4th of July...it's the epitome of Summer and it always brings back great old memories from when I was a kid. And now I am lucky enough to be able to create new memories with my family. Unfortunately my camera battery died half way through our vacation...and before it died, I didn't even take very many pictures. I have been so bad about taking pictures lately!

Anyways, after I woke up last Thursday afternoon (I worked the night before), we were off to Alexandria to visit my Grandparents and my parents. The weather was absolutely beautiful and the water was warm. I was super pleased because Ryder was an angel! As many parents know, taking a baby/infant out of their schedule and routine can sometimes spell disaster....but really he was SOOO good. I couldn't have been happier that my parents and especially my grandparents got to spend some quality time with Ryder.

We headed out to my grandparent's land where Ryder took a spin with Grandpa Donn on the 4-wheeler. Seriously, this kid LOVES anything with a motor. Blender, vaccum, lawn mower, and now 4 wheeler....

Here is my Grandma starting up the 4 wheeler for us because we didn't know how...seriously, doesn't she look bad ass on this?

And this one is my favorite: Ryder kept reaching out to his Great Grandpa Frank and everytime he would touch his hand, he would burst out giggling. Nothing better than a good baby giggle :)

Since it was hot, we filled up the floaty raft with water and stripped a baby down naked and let him play in water. He enjoyed himself!

We stayed in Alexandria Thursday, Friday and then left Saturday morning to head to the Haskins' cabin in Park Rapids. Again...GORGEOUS weather! I have very few pictures from the weekend, but here are a couple--->

Captain Cubby Bear driving the pontoon (ignore that he has no life jacket on... It was a battle that lead to complete meltdown whenever we tried to put it on him)

And the two Haskins brothers jamming out on the boat before jumping into the water.

Even though it was a fantastic 5 day vacation, I was ready to come back home today and get back into our regular routine again. I might think differently in a few days, but for now I am excited to be back home :) Happy 4th of July!!!