The Joy of LOVE: Day 01

I'm super excited for a new class/project - The Joy of Love. This 28-day class is based on the other finding the joy classes.  Everyday for the month of February you will receive an email with a photo idea and occasional tips. I love taking pics and can't wait to get some tips so this is perfect. There is still time, so you can still join - spread the love y'all!


suggested class materials:

• someone(s) you love
• a camera
• a desire to stretch your photographic skills

what you can expect from this willette JOY class:

• a daily email during the month of february
• the email will contain a photo idea and occasional tips
• a public flickr gallery to share photos
• an album template download at the end for all of your photos you take during the class
• a journey to help you document your loved one(s) – whether it is a spouse, partner, child, pet, parent or friend 

Today's prompt: what they DO

I chose to photograph my wonderful husband, Kevin, taking care of our sweet little boy, Ryan. This is their nightly routine and it's so sweet. Kevin is such an amazing daddy and Ryan just lights up when Kevin is around. Ryan was giggling so hard tonight before bath time when Kevin was singing to him - it was adorable! We love you daddy!

Bath time

Clean as a bean

Bedtime stories and then sweet dreams

Solids!

Ryan had his first "solid" on Sunday, January 30th and he did such a good job! We started with some organic multi-grain cereal by Happy Bellies. I got this and the organic brown rice from the MetroMom events that I have been going to so I thought it would be great to try it out. It's not really what you and I would call a "solid" but I guess it's a little thicker than milk so it counts. 

We started out with Ryan in his highchair but he kept slouching over so I had to hold him up. It was kind of difficult to feed him and hold him but we managed. 

Yum Yum!

What? Is there something on my face?

 Open wide!

Once the hands got involved it got REALLY messy

The next day we tried again and used the bouncer seat - MUCH easier! He really LOVES food time!

Oh, and look who likes Ryan's food too? Surprise surprise....

Don't worry - Bob got a hold of this after we were done

Today we tried some organic brown rice cereal and I mixed in a little formula and the little man LOVED it. He kept opening up his little mouth wanting more and more. So fun! I LOVE this whole baby food thing!

Next I am going to start making his food. I think we will try sweet potatoes and avocados next.  I can't wait to start mixing up some fun things - baby food recipes here I come!

Snow Day!

I woke up early this morning around 5:30 not because of Ryan but because of the sleet hitting the windows. Our first winter storm blew in early this morning and its been a crazy icy day! I love that we got to stay inside all day and hang out together. Wish daddy could have spent the day with us too! Here are some pics from today:

Playing with my toys! You have rolling from your back to your belly down and that is suppose to be the more difficult way. You do it every time mommy leaves me you on your back on your playmat. The only thing is you only roll to your right - you are like Zoolander - you can't go left. Well I know you can, but you prefer to only go right, so we will just work on that!

Playing with your workbench 

Eating some yummy rice cereal with BOB! You LOVE it and so does BOB! Oye!

I also did a little online shopping for our Hawaii trip - so excited! I can't wait to get little Ryan some beach clothes and I am totally getting daddy and Ryan a matching swim suit - they will be so cute! I will have to start looking for them soon - today I focused on myself. Last night while watching the bachelor I thought that Emily's swim cover up was super cute. So I hit google up this morning to see if there was anyway I could find out where she got it AND I am so excited because not only did I find out where she got it, but I found this blog that is great for finding outfits worn on tv shows:. The blog is called Possessionista and it's great! Now if someone could just build an app so that you could take a picture of anyone and find out where to get their outfit that would be AMAZING!

Happy Friday

This past Friday we had such a fun day. We spent all morning with Yia Yia T before she headed back to Houston. The weather was so nice so we went for a nice long walk on the Katy Trail. Ryan and I got some pics in the backyard.

Then we headed over the the Hales for some wine and pizza. The Botterman's, Sun's, Pearson's and Mike and Mary were there as well.  It was so great to hang out and enjoy the amazing weather.

Cousin E and Ryan

Truman & Megan

Little Truman

Ryan and Grandpa

Look at those cheeks!

Lyla and Truman

Ryan was tired!!!

Just hanging out

The little kiddos eating ice cream!

Little R taking another nap

Reading a book with Stacey

Dear Ryan (6 months)

Dear little R -

Someone around here is totally getting chubby.....and it's not mommy! OMG I swear you have grown so much just in the last two weeks.

Check out those chunky thighs

Every morning I wake up to you cooing through the monitor. When I get into your room you find me with your eyes and give me a huge smile! So sweet - melts my heart! I love that I get to wake up every day with you!

You are not rolling over consistently but you have done it. I have found you on your stomach before so you have gone from back to stomach and you actually rolled over from stomach to back (for the first time) when I was taking all these pics! I know you are going to add rolling over into your playtime any day and I am sure you will be like - What mommy? It's no big deal. Although you are not rolling over you are definitely getting stronger. Every day you are doing something new and now you really love trying to sit up. I help you since you can't do it on your own but it's only a matter of time until you don't need mommy anymore.

Taking a break

Not ready to get back up...thinking of maybe rolling over. 

Pee-a-boo! Right after this you rolled over! 

And ended up on your back! So proud!

Last month I said that you put everything in your mouth but this month your do it even MORE. Everything you get your sweet little hands on goes right to the ol mouth. When we went to the grocery store you grabbed at everything I was putting into the cart, so I brought it closer to you so you could touch it but all you wanted to do was put it in your mouth. You love your paci and have learned how to take it out of your mouth but you can't quite get it back in. It comes back to your mouth but usually the wrong way - which makes you a little angry but we get it fixed and you are happy again.

You LOVE to talk. You make these super cute loud squeaks and love it when we talk back to you - like we are talking your own special language. You really love it when I say Mama or Baba or Papa - it makes you giggle. The first time you giggled was this month and it was when I was saying Pa Pa over and over again. It actually started hurting my mouth but I kept doing it because you were so darn cute GIGGLING!

You LOVE Bob. I am not quite sure how he feels about you but you don't really care at all. He makes you smile a lot and sometimes you even laugh at him. When we take Bob out to pee we wait for him together at the back door and get excited when you see him come up to the door. It's super cute. We give him a treat together and I am sure one day you are going to love doing that yourself.  Sometimes you try to pet him but it is more like a grab - and your grabs are a little fierce but he has yet to bite you - only growls - which you totally don't mind.

We go to physical therapy every Monday and you give Sandy the BIGGEST smiles when you get there. You are such a HAM! Sandy stretches you for an hour and you are pretty ok with it for most of the time but then you get tired and hungry. You always fall asleep on the way home - all that stretching makes my little man tired.

This month we started Little Gym and Kindermusik and you LOVE them both! We go to Kindermusik on Wednesdays and Little Gym on Thursdays - you are a busy little man. In Kindermusik you have two friends that are around your age - Mica and Grant. The rest of the class is a little older but they all love to play with you. You love the shake the rattles and look around when we are all singing. At Little Gym you have a lot more buddies that are around your age and you guys are all so cute! Barry is your teacher and he is so nice and fun.

Got my TOES!

Loving this new giraffe

Thumbs Up:
Tummy Time - Yay!
Bath time
Kindermusik
Little Gym
Baby Einstein
Bob


Thumbs down:
Taking your bottle away before you are done
When you can't get your paci back in


Your daily schedule is still pretty great. We wake up sometime between 7am and 8am and you nurse. We play together and stretch for about 30 minutes depending on how long you will tolerate it. Then you watch a quick baby einstein video which you really love. After your video you are usually ready for your morning nap so I help you fall asleep and you take a nap in your crib! You nap anywhere from 30min to an hour and a half. Obviously mommy digs the hour and a half because then I can get things done around the house. When you wake up you nurse again and then depending on what day it is we venture out for your activity. You continue to nurse every three hours but you only take 20 minutes to eat now so we can basically do it anywhere which is nice. We try to get home for an afternoon nap but sometimes you fall asleep in your car seat. It's pretty comfy so you don't seem to mind. Then when daddy gets home you basically still have the same routine. Play with daddy, bath time, then you guys read some book and hang out before your last bottle. You last bottle has always been 6 ounces of breast milk until you were 5.5 months, which is when you got hungrier and we had to start supplementing with formula (bottles changed to 6 oz of breast milk and then 2 oz of formula).  Sidenote: I stopped pumping in the morning at 6 months because after two weeks I was still only getting 1 ounce total.  Anyhow, I still pump at night so I will continue to give you as much breast milk as I can and we will supplement the rest with formula, which you don't mind at all.  You are basically passed out by the end of the bottle and daddy burps you and swaddles you up and tucks you in. Once you hit the crib you are a goner and you sleep soundly through the night.  Yay!

Our last big event this month was getting your Doc band. It really doesn't bother you at all and we think you look quite handsome in it! We have to take it off 4x's a day so that we can get your stretching in and you don't seem to mind taking it on and off either - so thats good.

We love you to pieces!

Love,
Mommy

Sick little man

My poor little man is so sick! This morning he seemed much better once he was awake and the entire time we were at the doctor's office then all of the sudden he took a turn for the worse. Ryan fell asleep on the car ride home from his appointment and snoozed a little while longer once we got home. Since he had gotten shots I had expected that he would be a little sleepier than normal. When he woke up he still seemed in good spirits so I fed him then we ran up to Bed, Bath & Beyond to get him a humidifier and some supplies to organize our pantry. While we were there my little man just fell apart. He started sneezing and snot was just dripping out of his nose. Poor little guy! I felt so bad! We went right home so I could get him in his crib for a good nap. He took a two hour nap and woke up happy. Although he was happy he definitely still had a little runny nose and a little cough. We played and hung out then I had my photoshop class. When I got home at 8:30 Kevin said that the little man only ate three ounces of the bottle he gave him - he usually downs six! Ryan has never passed up food so I know the little guy must feel horrible. When I got home he was passed out in Yia Yia T's arms - so exhausted. We decided to wake him up and give him a bath before trying to give him another bottle. We noticed he seemed really warm and took his temperature - little guy now has a little fever. We gave him some tylenol - first time for that - hope it works! Kevin just struggled getting another 4 ounces into him. I think it's hard for him to eat since he can't really breath out of his nose. I really hope he gets a good nights rest and wakes up feeling much better tomorrow! I guess we will see how it goes.

On another note - during his two hour nap today I cleaned out our pantry. We have such a small space for all of our food and it tends to get super messy, super fast. I often don't know what we have and what we don't have....so I decided to tackle this and I am so happy with our nice clean pantry. Take a look!

I know....scary!

Top and Bottom areas

Close up - YIKES!

Two hours later: 

So clean :)

Yay for a clean and organized pantry. Boo for a sick baby! Let's see what tomorrow brings.

Six month checkup

We just got back from our six month check up and Ryan is fast asleep.  I was a little nervous going to this appointment because we switched our pediatrician (but are still at the same practice).  I was worried we would run in to our old one -- eek! But luckily we didn't. I am sure they are use to people switching so it's not a big deal. Anyhow, we met with his new pediatrician, Dr. Neely, and really like him. I also really loved his nurse. She was so nice and gentle with the little man - especially when giving the shots! I think Ryan really likes her too! Ryan did so well - he is so happy when the nurse and Dr. Neely are checking him out - lots of smiles!  He got DPT, Hib and Hep B shots as well as the first of a two part flu shot. So many shots but he did great and only cried for a little bit until I was able to pick him up and he calmed right down.  We were so proud to find out that he is up to 14lbs 1 oz!!! Yay Ryan! Here are his stats:

Weight: 14 lbs 1 oz (8%)
Height: 26.25 in (50%)
Head: 41.8 cm (8%)

Last night Ryan didn't sleep very soundly. When we put him down for bed we noticed that he started coughing. It wasn't a wheezing loud cough, just more of a quick dry cough that he would do like evr 30 min or so. It was a little weird because he was fine all day so we didn't know what was wrong. All night long I heard him cough but he never really woke himself up.  He slept until 7am (which is normal) and when we went to get him I noticed his nose was a little stuffy. Once he was up and fed he seemed back to normal (no coughing or runny nose). We brought it up at his appointment and found out that the little man has a virus. Nothing major - something he just picked up from another little kid. He has a sore throat which is causing his cough. Dr. Neely said it would run its course and the best thing would to get a humidifier to run at night. The good news is that Ryan really doesn't seem bothered by it.  He is one happy little man!