Dear Ryan (14 months)

Little BUG -

You turned 14 months today little man (well, four days ago)! So what's new?

Your Routine: 

You wake up around 7:15 in the morning and your dad usually goes to get you (since he’s already up). You guys share a bowl of cheerios on the bed while I wake up. You usually search for Bob and are thrilled when he pokes out from under the covers. Once mommy is up we head to the living room where you have some yogurt (sometimes more cheerios with it) and watch a little bit of the Today Show. 

At 8am (or 8:30 depending on the day) we meet Stacey and Jack to go on our walk. You love going on our morning walk and on days when we don’t you get a little angry. I know if you could talk you would be saying “Mommy LETS WALK”!

Our days are usually filled with activities, play dates, and errands. Now we always try and make it home for your nap. Since you only do one a day it important for you to get a good one in your crib. I try to get you down around 12:30 - sometimes its easy, and sometimes there is some screaming. You typically nap for around two hours and have been known to hit almost three, but that is pretty rare. 

In the evening you have dinner around 5:30 or 6:00, which is before dad gets home. Most of the time you are done and ready to give daddy a big greeting. You usually give our a BIG squeal when you hear him coming - its so cute and your daddy loves it. Your greeting wrapped up with Bob’s greeting makes coming home pretty special!

We give you a bath every night because you love it plus it also helps your calm down. After bath time you read some books, hang out and then hit the hay around 7:30ish. 

Meals/Solids:

You eat like a little champ but the one thing you absolutely LOVE is mac n’ cheese. Goodness gracious - and you are particular, you like Kraft the best. I try and give you the Annie’s Organic but you know the difference. Oh well...

I also rediscovered the squishy food pouches that I use to give you when you were younger. They are great now because they are an easy way for you to get your veggies AND you also like to hold them and feed yourself - score one for mommy!

Development/Milestones:

We got rid of your night bottle (the last one! yay!) for good this month. You really didn’t even seem to mind (I think it was harder for your dad to give it up than you!). Now you chug a little bit of milk from your sippy cup then sigh and collapse on either my or your dad shoulder. It’s adorable. 

I think your official first word is “Uh-oh” ...either that or “Bob”. You have been saying Bob for a while but you tend to say it even when he isn’t around, so I am not so sure. The “uh-oh” thing is on purpose and when you drop something. I also think that you are saying Dad now.....hello, what about mommy? :)

You like to hand me everything which is super cute. You also are really intrigued by putting caps on things and taking them off. 

Sometimes you bite - yes, that’s right - a little vampire. I am not sure if it is going to be an issue or not but you are pretty deliberate about it. Whenever I (or your dad) tell you “No” you take a chunk out of our hands. The first time was at dinner and you were trying to stand up in your high chair. You dad told you NO and had his hand there to keep you in the chair and you looked at him then opened up your mouth and bit him! It was shocking...and painful! You have done this to me a few times but hopefully you will learn it is not acceptable. 

Firsts:

You started Mother’s Day Out this month and it was a little bit of an adjustment. You have never had separation anxiety before but I think you had a little case of it - luckily it didn’t last long. Now you love it when you see your teachers and you reach out for them when they take you in the morning!

You starting standing up all by yourself this month but you really don’t do it all that much. 

You learned how to slide down your slide in the backyard - and you LOVE it!

Sizes:

Weight: Guessing 20-21lbs?

Clothes: 12-18 months

Shoes: size 4
Teeth: Four top front teeth & two bottom front

Likes:

Pretend sneezes

Peek-a-boo

Music class

Mr. Barry & his guitar

Balls

Bubbles

Playing outside

Books

Shakers

Thomas the Train scooter

Other random notes:

I always forget to mention how you twirl your hair when you are tired. That’s how we know when you are about to fall asleep - the hair twirl. It’s cute!

You still sleep with your booty up in the air and your hands shoved down underneath you. It’s pretty darn cute as well!

You are at that phase where you think No is funny. I am trying to be consistent and let you know that I am serious...but you still think its funny. One day...


You Uncle Bryan babysat you all by himself (Kevin was out of town). You guys had a ball but you did end up with an upset stomach which kept you up until 3am! I think it was from the pureed broccoli that I gave you for dinner!


Whenever I put on Chapstick (which is a lot since I am addicted to it) you want it too. I try to get it on your lips but you just want it on your tongue. So cute!

Love you to the moon and back!

Weekend Update

Last week was a wee bit stressful for me because I was alone most of the week. If you know me, you know I hate it when Kevin is gone. Not only do I miss him, but I am a scaredy cat and hate to be alone. And of course these days it just hard work! Since he was gone for most of the week I was excited to go out with girlfriends on Friday night. Kevin’s flight didn’t get in until 9pm so I brought Ryan over to the Hales house and Michael watched him until Kevin was able to pick him up. Sarah had a yummy food spread for us and we toasted with champagne. Michael got all fancy pants on us and had a driver take us all to the Train & Maroon 5 concert. We had so much fun - here is a pic of Sarah and I with our massive beers. 

On Saturday we started the day out by going to Lily’s 3rd birthday party. Everything was super cute and Ryan had a lot of fun playing the backyard. The weather was AMAZING.  My favorite part was this RAINBOW cake! It tasted just as good as it looked!!!

Birthday girl and her cake!

Deliciousness!

Susanne hanging with Ryan

Saturday afternoon Kevin took Ryan over to the Botterman’s house to watch the A&M game and I got some time to myself. I just cleaned the house and went to get a much needed pedicure. It was lovely. I even got to sneak in a little catnap. 

This morning we headed out on foot for breakfast. We walked down the street to a place called Velvet Taco. It was delicious - I fell in love. Hands down the best breakfast taco in Dallas. It’s fancy, the taco -- not the joint, which I am sure doesn’t surprise anyone in Dallas. It’s not your typical breakfast taco and now I definitely want to go back to try lunch/dinner. I had #18 which is the applewood bacon, egg, cheddar potatoes, smoked chili button, and mustard greens. Yup - thats fancy for me. 

This afternoon we headed to the Rangers game. We got tickets from Kevin’s boss and decided it was time to take Ryan to his first baseball game. The seats were great (right behind 3rd base) BUT they were in the sun and it was pretty darn hot so we didn’t stay in them for very long. When we got to the park we bought Ryan a Rangers shirt - I don’t really know the players but all they had in his size was Cruz, so that what we got. He seemed pretty happy with it - now I am on the hunt for a Nolan Ryan one because I think it would be super cute! Anyhow, we watched a little bit of the game from the seats while Ryan had a hot dog then we walked around the stadium and got Ryan an official certificate for his first game - wohoo!

Yay baseball!

Ryan's first ballpark dog!

Flirting with some ladies

So busy flirting he didn't even realize he was standing by himself!

Such a fun weekend - love my little family! I am excited that Kevin will be home all week this week. Which reminds me - what’s for dinner? I was super excited when this weeks NoMoreToGo menu came out. Here is what we will be trying out this week!

Monday: Salmon with Cilantro Cream Sauce, Roasted Grape Tomatoes, Fluffy Couscous

Tuesday: Chicken and Cashew Lettuce wraps with dipping sauce, sticky rice

Wednesday: Steak tacos with Avacado Sauce, Hearts of Palm salad

Thursday: Leftovers

Friday: Dine out

Arts and Crafts

My little bug did his first art project today at school! It was so adorable! When I went to pick him up one of his teachers was posting pictures on the bulletin outside of the room so I snapped some pics of them!! I love reading what they did during the day and seeing pictures was even better!

Here he is coloring his apple picture. What a sizzler. 

Here they are at music class - the music teacher comes to their room. 

And here is his masterpiece! 

So I haven't really given an update on how he is doing since the first day (which he did great). The next time I brought him he cried when I dropped him off - broke my heart. He was crying when I picked him up too - and on his note from the teachers the "Today, I was: Happy, Sad, Quiet" had the happy and sad checked. Ugh - sad, boo - I hate knowing that my little man was sad. I am not saying my little baby is happy all the time but it was just so unlike him to be crying so much.  His teacher believes that is is completely normal and that it will pass - and each day I notice a difference. Now he doesn't cry when I drop him off, and today he didn't cry when the teacher set him down to play. Progress. I think one thing that made him cry was that all the others babies are screaming too! 

Anyhow, on his note home today the teacher wrote that he was doing better, but still got "sad" checked (along with happy). They said "he played with friends today and he kept trying to comfort two girls (go Ryan) when they cried by handing them their lovies/pacifiers". What a DOLL! That made me smile! 

I know its just an adjustment and I already think things are getting so much better!

Hanging at the Park

Over the weekend we walked up to the park and Ryan had fun playing! Love the weather...

love that smile!

He loves anything with a wheel

Playing with a stick..that he also ate a little on the walk home. 

Love those little bitty hands...

No More To Go: Week 2

Don't worry - I didn't give up already. I wanted to cook last week but Kevin was gone three out of my four cooking nights so I wasn't about to cook a big ol meal for myself. So here is the plan for this week. I used one recipe from last weeks menu since I didn't get to make anything. The other two are from this week - with alterations for the sides.

Monday: Jumbo Pasta Shells - Meat and Spinach with Ricotta and green salad 
Tuesday: Bacon wrapped tenderloin with spinach and mushrooms
Wednesday: leftovers
Thursday: Grilled lemon & basil chicken with parmesan crusted zucchini and fresh tomatoes
Friday: dine out

Monday review:

****

We both really loved it. It was easy to make and it makes A LOT! (I filled this and another smaller pan) We have so much leftover...which is fine since Kevin will take to work. I am also going to try and give some to Ryan tomorrow - who knows, he might like it. Thumbs up!

My favorite room - Ryan's Nursery

I have started this post a few different times but have never gotten around to finishing it. Well, now that he is 13 months old I think I need to get it done! Better late than never!

Once we learned that we would be bringing home a sweet little boy I knew I wanted to create the perfect little space for him.  I wanted Ryan to have a true baby boys room. I figured there would be times for themes and whatnot as he got older so I wanted something sweet and babyish...and boyish! I was not afraid of blue but also wanted to balance it out with another fun color.

My mom introduced me to Serena and Lily and I fell in love with everything they have! Ugh their stuff is amazing....anyhow, I really fell in love with the Blake collection. I have never been a huge pastel person but really loved the blue and green and the fun combination of polkadots and stripes - whats not to love? I also really liked how the room was decorated, so calming and so sweet for a little baby boy - just what I had envisioned.

I ordered the paint samples that Serena & Lily suggested but wasn't a huge fan of them in person. They just didn't do anything for the room - I knew I wanted to go a little more blue.  We planned to add bead boarding so I wanted a blue that would pop without being too overbearing. (We ended up using a Sherwin Williams paint that was color matched to Pottery Barn xxx.- eek I have to look this up!)

Once we had the walls figured out and the bedding selected the rest of it just came together. Of course my mom was instrumental in decorating Ryan's nursery, she picked out so many things and helped me make decisions when I wasn't sure what to do! She also helped with a lot of the grunt work! 

We found the crib at Buy Buy Baby and love it. It is very sturdy I am sure all of our children will enjoy get to enjoy it! It is part of the Hudson collection by Bonvita. 

It took me a while to decide what we wanted to put above the crib. I didn't want anything too heavy incase it fell - that would be horrible! My mom found this cute little sign shop on etsy (Sweet Art Boutique) and we got one custom made. (It's super cute but I am thinking it wouldn't be hard to make one myself...maybe for the next baby!) It is perfect because it is painted on canvas, so even if it did fall, it wouldn't hurt!

Moving along...

We found the glider & ottoman online at Posh Tots. It is the Adult Chateau Glider with custom fabric. Ordinarily I wouldn't order furniture online without seeing and/or sitting on it, but one of my friends had this glider and I loved it so much. The boutique she had bought hers from closed, but after doing some googling I found it at Posh Tots- yay! 

We needed a simple white bookcase and I search forever for this. I couldn't seem to find a bookcase that was tall enough and wide enough - I really didn't think it would be that difficult. I ended up finding this one at Walmart. They were off white so we painted the pieces of wood (ahem, faux wood) before we assembled it. Although it isn't the best quality it gets the job done and I think it works for now.

Ryan received so many cute things from all of our friends - lots of books, stuffed animals and frames. We had so much fun arranging the bookcases. I got the adorable little green and white baskets at container store.

The furniture above is mine from when I lived with my parents. It was originally white, then painted black and then white again for my little bug. We found the adorable pulls from Pottery Barn Kids and I love them so much. I think they are discontinued now...I had to search like crazy for them! The animal ABC picture is from ZGallerie,

We found a lot of wonderful items at Pottery Barn Kids:

 - Avery Rug

 - Curtains

 - Hippo Chair

 - Green & white striped pulls on dresser, nightstand & bookcase

I also took some pics of details below:

Starting from the right hand top corner - 

1. Giraffe Drawing (Gift from a friend - she bought on Etsy)

2. Ryan Silhouette (Need to ask my mom where she got)

3. Thank Heaven for LIttle Boys Pillow (Furniture store in Houston)

4. Ryan Canvas (Sweet Art Boutique on Etsy)

5. Love at first sight (Hobby Lobby - My mom added the dragonflies)

6. Animal ABCs (ZGallerie)

7. Giraffe, frame & stain glass cross (Made by my friend Susanne's grandma)

8.  Crochet Owl (Made by my friend Jackie)

I think that sums up most of the items. If you have any questions just leave me a note and I will get back with the details!

Standing up!

Today Ryan started standing up all by himself! He typically grabs on to something to assist him and won't let go. I knew he could stand by himself (even though he rarely ever did it) but I have never seen him get himself up without grabbing on something.  Anyhow, he did it once today in our master bathroom but then when Kevin got home and was watching him he was doing it over and over for him.  He was pleased as punch with himself! When I got back he performed for me as well and I snapped this picture with my iphone (please excuse the blurriness...he was just so excited).

Oh, and also please excuse the no pants. From my understanding there was an incident with a beer spill...no worries everyone was fine :) lol.

Big Day!

DIY Labor Day

We had a real DIY weekend at our house. There were so many projects that I have been wanting to do and we finally got to check them off our list! While my list looks rather small, each project was highly involved. I will explain later in separate posts. Anyhow, here is our little list.

Our To-Do List:
Reorganize both master closets
Makeover the laundry room
Build hutch that I bought from Ikea

Kevin and I got started with his closet then jumped in to the laundry room. We made great progress but were so happy when my parents and brother Nick came to visit us on Sunday - they helped tremendously! We were able to finish up the laundry room, my closet and build the hutch.  I am going to post before and after picture of everything but I haven't taken the 'afters' yet. There are still some final touches that I am working on :)

On another note I just finished a smaller project for our living room. I forgot to take a before picture so I will just explain. When we first moved in it took me forever to find art for the walls. I tend to like to change things up every so often so I didn't want to splurge on something that I would be tired of in a year. I ended up buying three white canvases at Michael's and then finding fun fabric to cover them. I have already gone though two different fabric patterns and almost a third when I decided to try something a little different. With a little inspiration from my favorite site, Pinterest, I decided to paint a chevron pattern.  I used DecoArt Champagne Gold and really love how it turned out. It's shimmery but not too showy. Here is my final product:

Yes, thats Modern Family on the television - so ready for the next season!

The whole process was pretty easy - the hardest part was creating the pattern. I checked out a few blogs to see how others had done it and then took a stab at it using their helpful hints. It's not perfect by any means but I am pretty pleased with it. 

13 months

So I had originally planned to keep up with your monthly photos and letters but clearly I have already fallen behind. I decided to forego the monthly stickers and just stick with regular pics. So here we go...

You love playing with balls!

So serious!

Playing with the grass

You are a super duper fast crawler and a serious climber. This makes it easy for you to get into EVERYTHING - which, by the way, is your favorite thing to get into. The other day I was making you lunch in the kitchen and I found you trying to eat one of my favorite candles in the living room. No harm done but you sure did have some wonderful breath. 

We walk every moning with Stacey and Jack. Sometimes we bring Bob - he only makes it halfway and then you have to share your stroller with him. You typically start banging on him with your feet but he just lays there and takes it - because he knows his other option is to walk. 

You LOVE eating yogurt and cheerios for breakfast. Daddy sits with you when he eats his cereal and you guys share the cheerios - it's as cute as it sounds. After that I give you yogurt which you are a huge fan of.  

As I mentioned earlier, you are really into climbing. You haven't mastered getting on to the couch from the ground but that doesn't mean you haven't figured out a way to get up there. You start on you chair and climb over the back of it to get on the couch. Once you are on there you crawl back and forth from one end to the other. Usually stopping to poke at Bob and of course giggle when he growls at you. 

My furniture in the living room has been compromised because I can't have any decorations out. I had to clear the sofa table off because you would grab the pictures and vase and want to throw them. Once the table was cleared off you apparently thought that was a "Go Ahead" for you to climb and sit on it. Goodness - so now it's just floating about a foot from the sofa.  

Favorite Shows:

Backyardigans (really just like the theme song)

Baby Einstein - still love it. I have no idea why this keeps your attention so well but even your 2 year old niece will sit and watch it with you at restaurants

Favorite Food:

Peanut butter & Jelly, turkey rolls ups with hummus, Mac n Cheese, Hot Dogs and ALL fruit.  You also tried Broccoli this month and were pretty fond of it. Yay!

Favorite Song: C Lo Forget You (yes, I realize I am a little late on this song but you will soon realize mom is not so hip in the whole music department.) Really, you just love anything that mommy sings and dances to like a crazy woman. I guess it would be pretty funny. 

We really increased the toy department (lots of birthday presents) this month and you seem quite happy. Although many times you are content with a toothbrush, tervis tumbler straw, the remote control and/or my iphone. 

You love to hammer things. When daddy was building some shelves you got your hammer out and helped him by banging on the wood - that was also just as cute as it sounds.

You love opening books and turning the pages yourself. You give your Hokey Pokey Elmo hugs and kisses and its super cute. You enjoy using your walker and are so cute when you pick it up and jump to get over the little bumps between rooms (I have no idea what those are called...we called them Troll Traps in Norway). 

It has been a really hot summer and I can't wait for the weather to cool down a bit. We never get to play outside and I know you would love to play with your outdoor toys. Hopefully September will bring cooler weather!