First Christmas

We had a very nice Christmas for Ryan's first. We spent Christmas Eve at Uncle Jer and Aunt Teri's, and Christmas Day here. Ryan was a bit cranky yesterday so he slept for much of Christmas afternoon and strategically planned a nice long nap while we ate dinner.

We missed Grandma and Grandpa Brown on Christmas. They ended up staying in Colorado for the holiday because Grandma B. had a cold. Hopefully they will be able to come out in January for Ryan's baptism. They will not believe how big he has gotten!

Here is Grandma Dhein holding Ry, her favorite Christmas gift.

Tummy Time

Does this give you an idea of how Ryan feels about tummy time??!

Obsession

I have a new addiction!!! On Friday Keith and I signed on to Facebook in order to see photos of our friend's new baby. (Congrats Brian and Trista! Jackson Gilbert Caldwell...) I am obsessed! Over the past couple of days I have logged on too many times to see if I have any messages and to see if anyone has posted anything. It is quite an addiction. Although I don't want to speak for Keith, I think he is hooked too. This morning when I went to log on I felt sort of ashamed that I was getting on AGAIN...only to find out that Keith had already logged on and posted something!!! Maybe Ryan needs his own page....(KIDDING!)

On a proud front, I am happy to say that Ryan started sleeping in his big crib a week ago and it has been going wonderfully. He sleeps great in it, thank goodness, and trust me, we don't take that for granted! He is still getting up once per night which is just fine. Last night he went down at 7:20pm, woke at 1am for a bottle and then slept until 7:15am. Once we put him down for the night we don't hear from him unless he has broken free from his swaddle or it is time for his bottle. It is nice to have him in his crib. I thought it would be a more difficult transition for me but he is right next door and now we can lay in bed and watch TV at night instead of tiptoeing around our room. We are still working on naps. They are inconsistent which is normal at this age. I read that naps aren't routine until at least 3 months, and our pediatrician even said it could be up to 6 months. So when he is tired we put him down and usually he will sleep for at least 45 minutes, sometimes even close to 3 hours! If he takes a long morning nap like he did yesterday, the afternoons tend to be more difficult nap-wise. He will only dabble with them, like 30 minutes here and there. Then he turns a bit cranky! Last night it turned out okay, because we just put him to bed earlier and he went down easily. He was ready!

It is freezing in Chicago today; I think it is 0 degrees! I think we will hang out by the fire and get the house ready for Keith's parents, who arrive on Tuesday, and Christmas. I am excited about Christmas, but also getting hit with reality. Two weeks from tomorrow I have to go back to work and Christmas is just a reminder of that. I know I should be living in the present and not in the future, but I am going to miss Ryan tremendously during the day. I am pretty sure I will be able to go down to working 4 days per week which will help. I can't believe this phase is coming to a close! It goes by so fast.....

Mini Me!

Ry's expression is priceless. It is 100% Daddy's!

Twice as Fun

Yesterday Ryan and I went over to the St. Cyr's house to see their new twin girls, Kami and Lainey. The girls are absolutely beautiful and we had such fun! I love how we call these "play dates". Clearly the babies are pretty oblivious! (But way cute nonetheless).

Darcie and Adam tried to have a baby for many years before they turned to adoption. They were cautiously optimistic when they heard they had been chosen by a birth mom in Portland who was due in mid December. They were in shock when they got a call in mid November that the mother was in labor and that they should get on the next plane to Portland to be there!

Last spring they were chosen by a birth mother here in Illinois who was pregnant with a boy. They made all of the preparations, decorated the nursery and met the birth parents, only to have it fall through at the last minute. It was so heartbreaking for them and we all struggled to understand why such an amazing couple was being denied the role of parents.

Now that they have their girls it all makes sense. It was the "plan" all along! It is just another example of how prayers do get answered, but not always the way that we think. And sometimes the answer can exceed our expectations well beyond anything we could have ever imagined!

Seeing Darcie and Adam with the girls was so much fun. They are such naturals, and Darcie, who is the most organized person I have ever met, really seems to have it down. The bottles are lined up in the kitchen, ready to go, and she can even feed the girls at the same time! I am so happy for them. It seems like just yesterday that Darcie and I were sitting in the design office at Crate complaining about how badly we both wanted children! How quickly things can change!

Cuteness!

Here is a picture of our tired little guy, who actually fell asleep as I was swaddling him! He is wearing one of my favorite sleepers- it is covered in little monkeys.

Yesterday he responded just fine to his vaccinations. No fever or other reactions, just a very lethargic boy! He was so cuddly, and very open to napping all day in the crib! At the doctor he weighed in at 11 lbs 9oz (50th percentile) and measured 24 inches in length (85th percentile). We have one long and lean little guy.

I am also adding this pic of me holding Ry in the sling. I used it as I was preparing his bottle and it really relaxed him, so I decided to keep him in it as I fed him. Keith called it lazy...I call it quite clever!!!!

Couldn't Resist

some cute bath time pics!

Weekend Fun

Ryan had so much fun on Saturday with his "cousins" Brady, JT and Madeline. The kids are so into him- playing with him and caring for him- and Ryan does love the attention! He was full of smiles and coos for them too. In the morning we went to JT and Madeline's basketball game at the YMCA. They play on the kindergarten team at St. Joe's (where their mom, Sarah, and I went to grade school! We are so old! :) Then we went back to the Schallmoser's for some lunch and Wii playing. The Wii is so much fun; I think I might cave in and agree to getting one (of course Keith wants it) because it is not like the video games that we grew up with where you just sit in front of the TV and zone for hours at a time. Anyway, it was a great day and once Ryan is older he is going to love running around with the Schallmoser kids. I am sure he will look up to them and think they are way cool. We joke that someday Brady (who is 20 months) and Ryan are going to beg Madeline (6 yrs old) to buy them beer just like we did with our older siblings (just kidding mom and dad!). Oh, I am sure there will be stories....

Ry is 2 months old now and tomorrow he has his 2 month check up. He is going to have some vaccinations which we are not looking forward to. We hope he reacts okay to them and they don't turn him too sideways. He is holding his head up really well now and I must admit I am glad he is getting stronger and not such a fragile newborn anymore. He is cooing a lot and getting more interactive and each day is more and more fun with him. I want to eat him up! It is amazing watching him look around and absorb his surroundings as he learns and grows. Lately he has been trying to "find" his thumb; you can tell is is figuring out how to put his hand to his mouth in a controlled way so that he can get it! And his 3 month clothing that I have been waiting to try on him because they looked so big fit him now. Not only do they fit him; much of it will be outgrown in a matter of a week or two!

Since I am not working right now I never know what the date is. I looked at the calendar today and couldn't believe that it is already December 8th!! Where does the time go?! I really should be Christmas shopping right now but I keep putting it off. My family and I decided that we would keep this holiday season lighter than usual for obvious reasons. We are all OK with it. It takes pressure off of everyone. And as my Dad so perfectly put it, "Christmas is all about miracles, and ours came a little early this year." So true!! Here is a photo of my Dad with Ryan. Keith's parents will be in from Colorado for a few days over Christmas so everyone will be together, which will be really nice.

Right now Ryan is sleeping in his crib. I am watching him on the video monitor waiting for him to wake up. On Friday night he slept from 9:15pm to 5:15am!! It turned out to be a bit of a fluke since he is now back to his 9ish to 3 or 4ish in the morning which I am definitely not complaining about! Besides, the morning he slept until 5:15 he didn't go back to sleep, and the mornings he wakes at 3 or 4 he goes back down until 7 or so. The more I talk to new moms, the more I realize what a dream sleeper Ryan is. We still haven't attempted his crib at night, but he is napping in it during the day and is going down very easily now. Yesterday afternoon he had been asleep for 2 hours and I started trying to slowly wake him so that his feeding schedule wouldn't get too off kilter. They say never wake a sleeping baby, so I was trying to be gentle and make him think he was waking on his own!!! I un-swaddled him, turned the hall light on, started putting his laundry away, and he would not wake up!! So I let him be for a while longer, thinking about how much he must have needed that sleep. I guess we don't need to tiptoe around anymore when he is sleeping! I don't think a fire engine would have woken him at that point. Well anyway, he finally did wake, got his bottle, and proceeded to sleep the afternoon away as he got passed around during the Broncos game.

Grandma is going to babysit today while I go to the dentist. I am trying to fit in all of these appointments while I am on leave so I don't have to take more time off of work when I finally do go back. Keith is going out of town Weds-Fri this week so I will be flying solo with the little man. I am not looking forward to it! I know I can handle it, especially since Ry is so good, but it is always nice knowing that someone else is there just in case.....

Well, I hear my little prince beckoning.....

The Napster

Look at this bright eyed, happy boy!! I am very excited about this because after a rough morning of boycotting sleep, little man Ry slept for 3.5 hours this afternoon in his bassinet. I am trying to get him to nap in his big crib and he will only take cat naps. My mom said that I was a big cat napper in my day...and you know what they say about payback! So I put the bassinet in his room and he took a monster nap today. At least he was in HIS room instead of ours! Baby steps..... Well anyway, he was in a great mood when he woke up which makes me very committed to long, uninterrupted naps!

The other picture is of Keith reading his golf magazine to Ryan. He seems to like it!!!!

And thank you to Louise Leonard who gave us this cute outfit before Ryan was born. "Prince" is right!!!!!