One Year Later

 Remember this cutie patootie face? I remember how fascinated she was with her pumpkin... and how easy it was to get her to sit still for a picture.

 Today it was pretty near impossible to get her to sit still! But she's still so cute!

(excuse the blurriness, I'm still trying to figure out why my camera is doing that. Super annoying!)

Story of a mom with a sick baby

Woke up to find Ryleigh, her bed sheets, blankets, pillows, and stuffed animals covered in throw up.
Striped the bed, rinsed Ryleigh off under the shower and then gave her a bath.... didn't have time to give myself a shower even though I felt gross after all that clean up.
Made breakfast, cleaned up from that, and then called the pediatrician. Waited on hold forever. Finally talked to a nurse, than ran to Rite Aid to buy medicine. Administered medicine, then started prepping dinner (yay for easy crock-pot meals). Then I made lunch.
The Benadryl knocked Ryleigh out, so I thought she'd sleep well... she didn't. More coughing/runny nose miserableness. Then finally the tiredness won and she slept for a little while. Husband got home, so our errands began.
Drove half an hour to my in-laws house to get access to our things stored in their attic. Visited with Granny, then headed home, leaving helpful husband there.
More throw up during the car ride. All over the car seat, and the baby.
Proceeded to wipe down car seat with wipes. Then very carefully carried baby into the house for yet another rinse in the shower, followed by a bath. Finally got around to eating dinner, which Ryleigh refused. Tried to get her to drink some tea with lemon and honey. She refused that as well.
Rinsed out yucky throw up clothes.
Now I am finally sitting down, trying to get just a second to breathe.
And of course, after refusing dinner 20 minutes ago Ryleigh has now decided she's hungry and would like to eat cookies for dinner.
After a day like today I am almost tempted to just give her the cookies....

Playing the name game

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet".

After a debate that has lasted more than 2 years (see, I am stubborn), Ryan and I have finally reached a conclusion.

We have both always liked the name Alexander for a boy's name. We also like the idea of using Ryan in a boy's name. We think Ryan Alexander flows nicely.... but we do not want to call our son Ryan, it would be way too confusing, so we always knew we would call him Xander. But here's the issue, it would require us to explain again and again that even though our son's name is Ryan we call him Xander. I do not want to explain that a million times.

So then we thought, "Why don't we just call him Alexander Ryan?". It doesn't flow as nicely. And I don't like the idea of the first name and last name both ending in "er". But, it would require a whole lot less explaining when we call him Xander.

This debate started when I found out I was pregnant with Ryleigh. It continued even after she was born and we hadn't even thought about having another kid. And it most definitely came to a head when we found out we are having a boy.

But in the end we have decided to switch what we originally told everyone and name our son Alexander Ryan. And hopefully we'll stick with that conclusion up until March when we sign the birth certificate

Little Boy Blue

Ok I have to admit I am absolutely thrilled that baby #2 is a boy!

Ryan and I had already talked about only having 2 kids. Mostly because of finances. When you think of how expensive it is to go out to eat, or take a family vacation, or put kids through college it's insane. We realized that if we still want enough money to be able to do those things we should probably limit the number of kids we have. So we were very happy to find out we will now have a boy. One of each gender sounds good to me.... (but we reserve the right to maybe change our minds and try producing more little playmates :-)

I am also happy that Ryleigh will always be daddy's little princess. All my life I wanted to raise a little girl who was daddy's little girl, and I get that chance and I'm happy.
And on the flip side I'm excited about having a boy for me. I've always heard there's a special bond between a mom and her son, and I can't wait to experience it. (Is it crazy I was thinking, "I get to do the mother/son dance at his wedding!"?)

I am also super excited about all the shopping.... lately I've started noticing some adorable boy outfits and have resisted the urge to buy them! But now I think I'm going to attempt to sell Ryleigh's clothes to purchase boy clothes!! Yay!

pink or blue..?

I remember about 2 and a half years ago Ryan and I were talking about having a baby. At the time I remember there were specific songs on the radio that made Ryan emotional, and I knew then that he was ready to be a daddy. The songs also happened to be about baby girls. "American Girl" by Carrie Underwood, and "Stealing Cinderella" by Chuck Wicks.
The Cinderella one was one of the reasons why we nicknamed our baby "Cinderelly".. before we ever had an ultrasound telling us it was a girl. I knew she would be a girl all along. I just felt it in my gut.

But this time around? Nothing. No special songs. No gut feelings. No mother's intuition. I have no clue what gender this baby will be.
And I am totally 50/50 on what I want it to be.
There are pros and cons to having another girl, and I think there's just as many pros and cons about a boy. So it should be interesting when I go for my ultrasound tomorrow. 5:40 can't come fast enough.

The only thing bothering me about it is we still have no clue what to name another girl. My one wish is to see my baby on the screen for the first time tomorrow and say "Hi....(insert name here)". I liked knowing that I was seeing "Ryleigh" on the screen almost 2 years ago. I hate referring to the baby as "baby"! I need a name by tomorrow night or I will just feel awful..... (Yes, I admit, I may be crazy. Ryan thinks so and can't understand my line of thinking).

I'm seriously thinking of just putting our favorite names in a hat and having Ryleigh pick one!

Life might be a little more bearable now

We have had many grievances with our downstairs neighbors, as I'm sure I've mentioned one too many times in this blog.
The latest, however, being that they let their front door slam shut. Everytime they do they shake our whole apartment. It used to be that we had knickknacks on one of the walls, and things would shift so much they would eventually fall off their shelves. It's extremely annoying! Especially since they come and go a lot... I'm talking about every 5 minutes, without the tiniest bit of exaggeration. seriously.

Anyway, for months now I've sat and let anger build up in me every single time I got shook up on my couch. I am so not a confrontational person! I will let a problem build up until it absolutely explodes, rather than nip it in the bud. But, today I decided to leave a little note in our neighbor's mailbox.

All I said was please don't let your door slam shut, it shakes our entire apartment. And I closed it with a nice "Thank You", hoping that my nice manners would help the situation.

So far these people have been very unfriendly...like when you walk by them on the sidewalk they look the other way type of people... even though I have tried to say "Hi".

So I was very surprised when the mom came and knocked on my door to apologize. She said they weren't aware the door would shake our apartment. So I very nicely said, "It's ok, I just wanted to inform you of the situation because I figured you hadn't realized it would shake it so hard". Overall it was a pleasant exchange, especially considering it was our very first conversation ever.

Then I was even more surprised when the ever more unsociable/unfriendly daughter came up to apologize as well! Again, the conversation went nicely, and I am so thankful that they are now aware of the problem.

Hopefully now our living situation in this place will be a little nicer

New camera, new pictures, finally!

Today Ryleigh and I had a wonderful day at the zoo. There was hardly anyone there. For the most part we were the only people at each exhibit! It was so nice to take the time to really watch the animals, without feeling bad for blocking someone's view, or being pushed out of the way.
 I also had a chance to finally use my new camera.So, here's some zoo pics for you to enjoy

                                               Watching the penguins...

                                     This snow leopard just sat there, begging to be photographed

      She was so happy she got to ride the tractor, with no big kids pushing her around. She loves tractors!

                   She absolutely loves the Treehouse building because she's obsessed with things that hatch out of eggs... this is pretty much Ryleigh-heaven.

My daughter is way too much like me!

Everytime Ryleigh eats a chocolate chip cookie she takes it apart into little pieces. I never understood why in the world she would do this instead of just biting into it. But tonight I observed her to see if I could figure out the method to her madness.

I realized she breaks it apart so she can get to the chocolate chips, and then she discards the plain, regular cookie pieces.... such a chocoholic already! haha.

However, as much as she is like me, she is also a lot like Ryan. She is the biggest Eagles fan ever! She will not stop talking about them and cheering, "Go Eagles".

A sigh of relief

Jellybean (ie. baby #2) has finally started kicking hard enough for me to finally feel it. Hugh sigh of relief. I don't know about other pregnant women, but I am a wreck in between doctors appointments when I get to hear the heartbeat. All kinds of bad thoughts go through my head, and I struggle a lot with feelings of fear. But, now that I have gentle kicks throughout the day reassuring me I can spend less time in panic.

Also, as much as I loved being pregnant with Ryleigh I think I might be enjoying this pregnancy more. With Ry certain foods I ate would make me sick. Thankfully that was an easy enough problem to fix. But with this baby, so far, I've been able to eat everything with no sickness whatsoever.

Also, in the beginning, Ryleigh used to kick a nerve in my abdomen that must have also gone down my upper leg. So there was no doubt when she was kicking! (and she's still on my nerves outside the womb too! haha). But this baby is front and center, and not kicking anything vital (yet).

And yes, I am the woman that all other women hate because I don't get morning sick. I actually love being pregnant! If it was up to me I would be pregnant all the time! It's just the whole parenting a stubborn toddler that deters me from that idea.