Sunday, September 26, 2010

Green Peas and Avocado Anyone??




Growing Up and Packing Up

We have officially packed up all of the "newborn" stuff around the house and moved it all to the basement for storage. Who knew this time would come so fast! There were a lot of things that Ryland had grown out of and no longer used like his playtime mats, newborn bathtub, swing, bouncy chair, vibrating chair, bumbo seat, etc. Part of me was sad as we boxed up all of the stuff for storage but then other part of me was excited knowing that he is growing and learning new things every day and loving all of his big boy, 9 month+ old toys!

We also converted his exersaucer that he spent many hours playing and bouncing in to the new walk around play table. He has not been interested in sitting in his exersaucer for a few weeks now so when we took it apart and made the new play table with it he was in love. He was excited to see all of his old exersaucer toys again and to be able to play and interact with them in a new way.

During this transition and packing, Ryland was right there in the middle of it all. He climbed on the boxes and played one last time with the stuff as we took it apart and boxed it up. He was such a great helper :) And now to celebrate we are all getting ready to go for a walk on the Chattahoochee trails. Codi is so excited! Scratch that ... it is now raining so no walk for us!



Saturday, September 25, 2010

Eating Lunch on History

Ryland and I went out to Douglasville this morning to visit with CC and Pops and Grandmother before she went back to Elba, AL. My parents got my highchair (which was originally my dad's highchair) out of the attic so Ryland got to eat lunch in the exact same chair that I (and my dad) ate in for years!!



A Visit From Grandmother & Ryland's New Walking Toy

Grandmother (my dad's mom) came to visit us this week. It was great for all of us to spend time together and for her to get to see Ryland.

We had everyone over for dinner last night and CC and Pops brought Ryland a new toy .... one that he can walk behind! He was very excited because they have one of these at his school and he loves it. He pushes it all over the place and does such a good job of walking behind it.









Ryland and Ellie Brook

We went over to our neighbor's house for dinner last weekend. Ryland and Ellie Brook spent some time together crawling around.





Friday, September 17, 2010

9 Months Old and Loving Life !!

Playing chase around the house ...


Ryland now loves to stand on the outside of his exersaucer instead of sitting in it ...


He loves playing with his toys on the fireplace hearth ...




Feeding himself mangos ... YUM YUM ...




Playing with all of his toys ...


He loves to pull all of the plastic containers out of the cabinet ...


9 Month Check Up

This morning we went to see Dr Loventhal for Ryland's 9 month check up. I love our well check ups because that is when I get to ask all of my crazy questions that I keep in a spiral notebook and take with me. However Ryland is starting to like them less and less since he is starting to understand that these are the visits that come with shots. And he is starting to get shy with new people. Overall the check up was great and Ryland got a good report on everything. Dr Loventhal said that he was developing perfectly and he had hit all of the expected milestones for a 9 month old. The first thing that they did was give Ryland the "TB" shot in the arm and then pricked his toe for blood. So Ryland was a little fussy for the rest of the time that we were there. And he never likes being held down when they can look in his ears and mouth. We then ended the visit with 2 more shots in the leg. But Ryland was able to get in a good nap on the ride home and was as happy as he could be when we took him to school after we got back.

9 Month Stats for Ryland:
Weight = 18 lbs 2 oz (15th percentile)
Height = 27 1/4 in (18th percentile)
Head = 47 cm (91st percentile) no wonder he is so brilliant!!

Waiting on Dr Loventhal (if you look closely you can see where they pricked his toe) ...

Right after the last 2 shots in the legs ...

Poor thing ...

Sound asleep on the car ride home ...

Thursday, September 16, 2010

9 MoNTh BiRthDaY !!!

Today is Ryland's 9 month birthday!! Man how times flies by!! He woke up this morning at 6:30am after having a good night's sleep. I cannot tell you how much he lights up our world with his smiles, especially the big one that he gives us in the morning when we go in there to get him out of his crib. That is one of my favorite moments of each day. Last weekend he went three nights in a row of waking up screaming every 2 hours. It was almost like he was having bad dreams because he never really woke up but he would stand up in his crib and cry until we went into his room to rock him back to sleep. But the last few nights he has been back to his normal schedule .... bed at 8pm and waking up at 6:30am.

On my way to pick up Ryland yesterday I got a call from the school when I was less than 2 miles away. They were calling to tell me that Ryland had just fallen and busted his bottom lip on one of his teeth. They said that he was doing ok but they wanted me to know since it did bleed a little bit. Needless to say I rushed right in when I got there, scooped him up and kissed all over him. They said that he had fallen backwards while he was trying to pull up on one of the cribs. His lip was not swollen and you could hardly see the cut on the inside of it when I got there so I think the fall scared him more than it actually hurt him. But I do feel a sense of comfort knowing that the Goddard School takes every "incident" very serious and will always report it to the parents and document it in his file.

Tomorrow is his 9 month check up with Dr Loventhal. I am excited to get his 9 month old stats and I will post the details after the appt. Our fingers are crossed that we get a good report on everything and that he has a good check up.





Sunday, September 12, 2010

Not loving the toothbrush yet ...

Ryland did not like the toothbrush!!





Football, BBQ and JJ & MiMi Visit

Jerry and Sharon came up for a visit this weekend. Ryland was a little shy at first when they got here but it did not take long for him to remember them. My parents and some friends came over on Saturday to watch football and eat BBQ that Tab had smoked all day. It was a great weekend.







CC and Pops brought a ton of toys and Ryland was in heaven ...


He did not know which one to play with next ...


Putting a $1 in his elephant piggy bank ...

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Feeling Better and Back at School!!

Ryland has not had a fever for over 24 hours which means that he got to go back to school today!! Yay!! He was so excited when Tab dropped him off this morning.

Monday, September 6, 2010

A LOOOOOOONG LABOR DAY WEEKEND

Here is a recap of our long holiday weekend. All I can say is that I am glad that it is over, glad that Tab is back in town and hope next week will only bring good things for Ryland!

Thursday Sept 2nd:
Our long holiday weekend started off on Thursday with a call from Ryland's school letting us know that he had a 101 temperature. So Tab went to pick him up around noon, gave him some motrin and he seemed ok for the rest of the afternoon. We thought we were in the clear.

Ryland and I left for Highlands, NC after work and my dad followed us in his car. My mom was already there and we were all looking forward to spending the long weekend in the mountains. Ryland got upset about half way there and cried the rest of the way. It is definitely hard driving long distance with him all by yourself. I am not sure that I will do that again for a while!

Tab left on Thursday night for a hunting trip in Arkansas with the guys. All seemed great and just like we had planned.

Friday Sept 3rd:
Ryland woke up with a 103.6 temperature. He has never had a temp that high before so I think I went through a little spell of shock at first and then the high gear mommy-mode kicked in. We gave him some more motrin but his temperature kept climbing. Since we were 2 hours away from Atlanta we found a doctor in Highlands that would see him but she was not much help. Needless to say my mom, Ryland and I all jumped in the car and headed back to Atlanta and straight to a Childrens Healthcare of Atlanta immediate care location. He did not have any other symptoms ... ears looked good, no runny nose, no cough, no vomiting. His temperature was 104.7 while we were at Childrens and for the first time he started acting like he felt really bad. After bloodwork, a urine sample and a lot of poking they decided to treat it as a bacterial virus and started him on an antiobotic shot (rosefin sp??). He did not have a good reaction to the shot. His already high temperature went up even higher and he got pale and splotchy and started getting the "fever shakes". You could just feel the heat radiating off of him. He laid in my arms with nothing on but a diaper and my mom wiped a wet cloth over him trying to get his temp down. After a while he finally started looking and feeling better. And after 4 1/2 hours of being at Childrens we left and since there was still so many unknowns and his temperature was still at 103 we decided to stay in Vinings and not drive back to Highlands (like we originally planned).

Here is Ryland in the waiting room at Childrens. Even with a 104.7 temp he is still smiling but with dark circles under his eyes :(


Sound asleep, burning up and sweating in the exam room waiting on the doctor ...


This was Ryland right before we left. He was feeling much better and finally ready to play.


Saturday Sept 4th:
Ryland woke up with another 104 temperature and we were back at Childrens for round #2 of the antiobotic shot. Since shot #1 did not go great the day before they decided to split up the antiobotic into 2 shots and give them 30 mins apart. That process went much better but it meant that Ryland had to get 2 shots. He kept his high fever for most of the day and since things were still not getting any better we decided to stay in Vinings for the rest of the weekend.

Showing off one of his many bandaids ...


Sunday Sept 5th:
Ryland woke up with a 101 temperature which was much better than what he has had the last few mornings. Since we left everything in Highlands (clothes, computer, Codi, etc) my dad packed it all up and came back to Atlanta with Codi on Sunday morning. We all went back to Childrens for round #3 of the antiobotic shot. They had all of the test results back and for the most part everything came back normal. They are now thinking that he has a viral infection which means that all we can do is let it run it's course. Tab and everyone that he was with left Arkansas that afternoon to come home. He got home around 10pm and my parents went back to Highlands.

In the waiting room at Childrens ...


In the exam room waiting on the doctor ...


Monday Sept 6th:
So far things are looking better. The highest his temperature has been today was 101.5. He is acting like his normal, playful self and has been giving us the biggest smiles all day. Right now the worst part is the awful diaper rash that all of those high fevers have given him :(

I hope that this is the only time that we have to visit Childrens Healthcare of Atlanta 3 days in a row and over a holiday weekend. But I do not know what we would have done without them!