Garage Sale Scores!

I'm not big on garage sales... I hate shopping in general, so not knowing exactly what I'll find and for what price just irritates me to NO END.

But here's the deal... Ryan is fast running out of clothing! I've been checking clearance racks every time I go to the store for whatever, but I just hate spending $$ on clothes that, given his track record, he will wear for 2 weeks.

So, since Mark was working, Evan and went on an adventure (I've become the mom that calls every outing an adventure, just to stir up some motivation to get everyone in the car and happy).

The first couple were overpriced bombs. (Honestly, who is going to pay $2 for a pair of boys pants that the knees are coming out of?)

THEN, we found a GREAT one for Ryan. FIRST, the cutest jumper... in perfect condition... and spotless. I had been looking at almost the exact one and it was selling for close to $100, so I didn't mind shelling out $20 as I imagined the countless hours of free arms it would provide for me.

After we got home, and I got it cleaned up... Ryan took it for a test run, and it was BEYOND a success!

At first, he studied the bright blue frog hanging above his head... and about 10 seconds later...







He was grinning and cooing at it... and wouldn't take his eyes off of it, despite the fact that I'm pretty sure it put a crick in his neck!






Of course, it IS simply adorable from his view!



The red parrot... not such a huge hit... he was a little apprehensive.

The clothes there were also SUPER well taken care of, they even smelled freshly laundered (which didn't stop me from washing them as soon as they came in the door!) AND she was only asking 50 cents a piece.


There were a few more bombs, and a few more where I was able to get a good price on some baby clothes in good shape... plus a pair of swim trunks and a pair of pants for Evan.


THEN Evan made a score. We stumbled across a bin FULL of Star Wars toys. We walked up to the lady with both of our arms FULL of figures and two big ships, and I expected her to say $15... but she pronounced his loot at only $5! He's been playing with them all afternoon.


So about $30 later, I came home with about 6 full outfits for Ryan, plus an lightweight jacket and some feety pjs for him, a pair of shorts and a pair of pants for Evan, about 15 action figures and 2 Star Wars ships, a very expensive Jumper, AND two math workbooks for Evan to practice with this summer.


I think I made out like a bandit!

My Baby is officially NOT a BABY!

Excuse the red eye... But the lights went out right before Evan's turn to receive his award, and I was forced to use the dreaded flash from 20 feet away.

BUT... here is my baby... well, not the baby of the family... but still my baby... graduating from kindergarten. (And his teacher Miss Penny). Evan read more than all but one other boy in his class, finishing 97 chapter books this year. He also became a Math Star (which means he mastered adding all the way up to +9) and a Writing Star (he passed off all his letters, and started writing sentences and doing basic spelling tests).

I can't believe how much he learned this year! I was a little apprehensive about "private" KG, but now I would recommend this program to ANYONE! He got so much one on one attention he really has a wonderful base to build on.

So congrats to my baby... who is not a baby anymore.

(But because I'm his mom, he will always be this cute no matter how much he whines about eating hummus... or how many math problems he masters... or how many books he reads! Oh my gosh, he's so dang cute!!!)

I'm Mean.

Once again, I have proven just how mean I am. (Really, it's easier to just accept it, I am not a nicey nice person.... I fully embrace my bitchy side.)

Evan has been picking up some of his dad's bad habits... namely, being a picky eater. I refuse to allow it.

Earlier this week, we were watching one of my favorite PBS shows... Zonya's Health Bites... and she was making wraps... and used hummus as the spread. Evan said "MOM! That looks so good! Can you make that for me??" So I said SURE!

Today was grocery day, and I had completely forgot... Until Evan reminded me...and he SPECIFICALLY asked for the hummus.

I made him a wrap for lunch... I let him pick all the things he wanted on it.... and I let him try the hummus BEFORE I put it on. He was allllll for it. Excited even. Then he took 1 bite, and ate his jello and left the wrap on the table.

I put it in the fridge.

He said he was hungry around two.

I pulled out the wrap.

He didn't touch it and went to play with Legos.

I put it in the fridge.

Around 4 he said he was hungry.

I pulled it out... he didn't touch it... and I put it back.

It's now almost 7, and guess who's hungry?

And guess what is now sitting on the counter.


It's a battle of wills at the point. I told him he could eat it now, or eat it for breakfast, but he wasn't getting anything else until it was gone.

I will win. I'm more stubborn than mean. Just ask my mom.

*** Update ***

He ate it at about 8. He didn't do it quietly, but he did eat it. There was a lot of "gagging" but I completely ignored him until he was done, and then asked if he would like anything else to eat.

Like Father, Like Son

When Evan was about Ryan's age, I went onto his room and there was my baby laying in his crib with a pile on top of him. Mark was standing watching him kick and squirm. Mark jokingly said, "Well, I didn't want him to be bored!" The logic being he couldn't yet move to his toys, so Daddy moved the toys to him.

Well, a friend gave Ryan a gift box that contained several adorable little stuffed toys and plush rattles. And I came into the room soon after and found that Evan had done this:

I held back a giggle and asked Evan, "Hey! What's this?"

To which he replied, "I didn't want him to be bored!"

Why you should NOT allow...

your 6 year old to watch Jon and Kate plus 8... esp when it's a marathon:

They will start telling you... in fact BEGGING you ... or maybe "DEMAND" is more accurate... to have 12 kids. That's the current number Evan has settled on.

Sleep, or lack there of...

Ryan doesn't like sleep at this stage of his life. Well, he does like it if I hold him and walk around bouncing and patting him. Other than that, he doesn't like it.

I've reached peak sleep deprivation... here's how I know:

Last night I woke up on the floor beside his bed. I had pillows and blankets (which I sort of remember getting up and pulling off Evan's top bunk), and I remotely remember Mark asking me what I was doing. I remember saying that I needed to be close to him. The thing is that if I had been sleeping IN my bed, I would have been only about a foot further away from him since his bed is in my room!

Well, Ryan was awake and fussing at 2am, and we've been mostly awake since then. He is passed out in my arms right now, and frankly I'm afraid to move.

In between yawns, I keep mumbling, "This will pass soon."

I now know just how easy of a baby Evan really was, and understand why people kept telling me I was lucky!!

It's Raining... It's Pouring...

And Mark is still snoring. HA! Okay, it's early, so I guess that's excusable. We got home late late late last night.

Let me back up to Friday to give you the run down on this fun adventure.

Wait... let me back up to November for a second... We sold our trailer last November. We had pretty much out grown it without adding a baby to the mix, so the week or so before the rifle hunt opened, we listed it... and it was gone within 24 hours. (The funniest thing is that after dragging it through 4 summers worth of rough mountain roads, having boulders and trees attack it... including one huge spruce that fell on TOP of it.... we sold it for the same amount we had bought it for... maybe the added dirt and dents were worth more than we thought!)

So, we usually start the camping season on Easter. Uhhh... I'm adventurous, but not even I was not going camping with a one month old.

This weekend though was going to be the start. We decided since our buddies... who we always camp with... had just purchased a trailer with a flushing toilet, we would do the tent route this year. Evan and did some research, and found a good deal on a tent that would get us through the summer. We spent all day Friday preparing (one good thing about a trailer I now remember is that you pack ONCE... and all remaining trips require a cooler and a change of clothes)... and then the news changed from "Cloudy with dry storms in the evening" to "Scattered off and on sprinkles."

Yeah. They were more on than off, and they were NOT sprinkles... more like DOWNPOURS.

We spent the day in the trailer talking and having fun... we even ventured out in the first OFF period to build a fire and roast hot dogs and marshmallows for dinner (oh, it started raining again as soon as the fire was going, and I roasted the hot dogs while everyone else cowered under the awning of the trailer).

Obviously, there was no way we were going to set up the tent in the mud hole, and really the only thing we unpacked from the truck were the coolers. So we had Evan change out of his drenched clothes into pajamas, and drove home in the dead of the night.

And now we're wondering what to do with the rest of our weekend. (It's not raining at our house.)

99%

My baby is a GIANT!

This has been the week of doctor appointments.

First, the Cardiologist: Ryan is making progress! His blood pressure has stabilized. That means his heart is pumping correctly. The holes are still there, however all of the tests were"as expected", and he's doing just fine. We go back in 6 months.

Second, it was his 2 month appointment with his pediatrician as well. Which meant SHOTS. Yes, I am a firm believer in vaccinations. I hate holding him while he's poked, I hate the fevers that follow, and other possible side effects loom over me like a shadow, but I know that they are his best bet.

His stats are almost off the charts... 15 lbs 3 ozs, and he's 24 1/2 inches long. He's officially HUGE! His weight puts him in the 99th percentile, and his height in the 94th. His head though is nice and normal, only in the 37th%

Cute and cuddly... double (or triple chins)... knee dimples... tootsie roll arms and legs. Oh, and adorable smiles. What's not to love???

Evan also had his annual with the doc today... and even though he's still the tallest kid in his class, he's not nearly as high up in the percentages. He IS one inch shy of 4 feet tall!! What in the world??? How did he get to be so BIG??

He's going to be taller than me very very soon. I'm going to go snuggle Ryan... and smell his head, and close my eyes and remember when my first baby was still a baby.

Signs of Summer

Bare feet in green grass!!

(Ignore my flip flop tan, k?)

Intresting!!

Okay, Dad... this is your "nursing" warning. (And anyone else who doesn't care about nursing.)

I started back to work last week... and after a week of upset tummies, lots of crying and spitting up, I decided for everyone sanity, I needed help.

Ryan was dining on his first expressed milk, and while he had been a little fussy with breast feeding, it was nothing like this.

I didn't want to call his doc, because doc's tend to swing right to formula. I didn't want to call the Le Leche League, because obviously, I need to supplement, and that's not really their agenda.

Sooooo, I pulled out the number they gave me when Ryan was born for the hospital lactation consultant.

The nurse who answered was very nice. I explained that I had recently started back, that my son had been supplemented on formula since birth, but this was the first time he was using expressed milk... and things were going badly.

She asked me a few questions:

How many bra sizes did I go up?

WHAT????? What the hell does that have to do with anything.... but I told her.

How often does he want to eat? ALL THE TIME... and even after he's done, he wants more.

With bottle and breast? Yes

How much weight had Ryan gained in the last week? About a pound.

Did he have baby acne? Yes. How bad? It had started to get worse a few days ago.

How were his stool? Still explosive, and runny.

What color? Yellowish... but a little darker than mustard... more green tinted.

How would you describe his eating style? Lazy... suck suck sleep.

Her answer: You're not getting a proper let down. He's getting too much foremilk, and not enough hindmilk.

WHAT???

Okay, so, I knew about foremilk and hindmilk... but this I didn't know!

She explained it like this: It's basically as if you were to try and eat nothing but candy all day long... you would constantly feel hungry, but have a tummy ache from all the sugar.

Foremilk is really sweet, and doesn't have a lot of fats. It's the candybar milk. Hindmilk is the good fatty filling milk. A mom's body makes milk on demand... but it also stores milk. Your breasts are the storage units. Some women STORE a lot more milk than others, so when the baby cuddles up to the table to eat, there is a large supply already there waiting. This would be the foremilk the baby gets first.

The problem with this is the fats of the milk tend to stay in the breast until there is a strong let down and the fats are basically pushed loose from the breast tissue. If you store enough (OR if you just have a LOT of milk)to fill your baby's tummy, your body never cues the hindmilk, and the baby gets the candybar milk... and that causes a tummy ache AND hunger.

NOW, this starts to regulate itself after time in most cases, and mom and baby both become happier.

Unless you're pumping. Then you have more issues. Pumping is not exactly what nature intended, so let downs (and hindmilk) are harder to come by if you have this issue to begin with.

SOOOOO long story short, my baby was on sugar overload and STARVING!

She suggested that I mix the milk with formula for now. It could take a few days to see results, but the throwing up should calm in a day.

For pumping, she highly suggested NOT waiting until I felt engorged... but instead try and pump every two hours for the next few weeks and make sure I was pumping until not a drop was coming out.

While nursing, instead of switching up sides (like most of the advice tells you to) DON'T. Nurse wholly on one side for an entire feeding. If baby wants to eat again within about an hour of the first feeding, stay on the same side.

And you know what... it's TOTALLY working. So, file this info away, and next time there's a mom with these issues, suggest she talk to someone about Milk imbalances... before someone recommends she eat nothing but white rice or switch to formula.

He laughs...

while he's sleeping.

Almost 2 months...

Can you believe he'll be 2 months old this week?????????

The Difference

Everyone who sees Ryan says "OH! He looks just like EVAN!" And I can see similarities... but they look SO different to me!

They have the same nose.. and chin. (But Ryan's nose is longer... his face is longer)

Evan's mouth was smaller, but the shape is similar.

Evan's head was rounder.... Ryan's is more ovalish (Sorry Tigger, still like my son, ok??)

They BOTH have those huge adorable squeezable kissable cheeks.

Evan had a TON more hair (until he went "old man" bald).

But those difference as small compared to...

The eyes...

Their eyes are so different.

Evan's eyes still just suck me in. He has these huge expressive "feeling" eyes... you can see his soul, I swear. You get sucked in by the love that pours out, buy the depth of FEELING you can see. Strangers stopped me constantly when I was out with Evan, always commenting on the eyes.

Evan's eyes are a beautiful rich brown, just like his Dad's. Can't you just stare and stare at that face??? It's the eyes, I swear.

Ryan has beautiful eyes... they are shaped like mine...

Maybe it's because they look like mine that I don't see the same exotic beauty in them... but I still love looking into them... esp when he's got a goofy look... or is half asleep...

Ryan's eyes are expressive too. You can see his mood rather than his feelings... I think he gets that from ME too. (Mood/Feeling, what's the difference?? A mood is more of a present state of being... Where a feeling is deeper... more than just and "in the moment" mood... get it??)

Anyway, I'm hoping he either got his Dad's beautiful browns or my Dad's striking blue/grey. I guess time will tell. In the mean time... I will keep staring at that beautiful face!

It can't get much better.

Firsts.

Today was my first day back at work... which means it was Ryan's first day at daycare... and we both survived!!! Yay us!



Work was great... It felt good to be back in that groove... and despite the horrible dream I had, I was able to leave on time... and the elevators worked properly.



Ryan's teacher said he did really well for a first day... I picked him up... and it made my stomach drop because he SMELLS like someone else!! Someone else has held my baby enough for him not to smell like me! But I fixed that right away by snuggling him and snuggling him and SNUGGLING him.

I try hard not to judge, but honestly!!

I'm a member of a mom message board... mostly I just read, but today I had to physically walk away from the computer to keep from posting.

The question asked by a mom was, "How do I stop my 3, almost 4 year old from drinking milk from a bottle?"

Uhhhh... stop giving it to him?? I realize that at almost 4, he can almost make the bottle up himself, but...

I'm mean, I know.