Saturday, November 24, 2012

19 Months

This past month has been crazy busy!  HalloweenTouch A Truck, Wurstfest, dentist appointment and a trip to the hospital.  Good grief!  Lets start off with the not so scary stuff.  

This year for Halloween (<-- link to more pics) my hubby and I dressed up as Lion-O and Cheetara from the 80's cartoon Thundercats, Ry was our baby tiger cub Tygra.  :)  For Ryland we converted a Tigger costume by adding a Thundercats patch, my husband found a shirt from Goodwill and altered some of his workout gear to make his costume and I found the pieces for my costume online (orange leotard, yellow tights, Thundercats patches).  My greatest find was my orange gogo boots from Goodwill!  :)  This was Ry's first year trick or treating, and he had a blast!  I think he actually enjoyed passing out candy and greeting the trick or treaters the most. 
Thundercats - Ho! 10/27/2012

Happy Halloween!  10/31/2012


ready to take on the hood





The following Sat was the Touch A Truck (<-- link to more pics) event in Round Rock.  Ry is all about trucks, construction vehicles and giant wheels.  :)  This event allows children the opportunity to explore vehicles of all types - public service, emergency, utility, construction, transportation, etc.  He absolutely loved watching the excavator in action and playing with the firetruck tires.

Touch A Truck 11/3/2012


mini excavator 


Firetruck!

The next day we headed to New Braunfels for Wurstfest (<-- link to more pics).  Ry was so excited he totally skipped his nap.  Going on a Sunday is AWESOME as it's less crowded which gave us plenty of time to enjoy the food booths and carnival rides with little to no lines!  Ry rode a carousel for the first time and danced with his cousins in Wursthalla.

Carousel at Wurstfest 11/4/2012



Dance baby dance!!!

cousin love

Ry had his very first dentist appointment in Nov.  We took him to Small Smiles which caters to kids and had plenty of kid friendly toys in the waiting room (including video games!).  After a brief tour we headed back to a semi private room to begin.  I wish I had snapped a shot of him in the dentist chair as he was all smiles and having fun sliding down the seat.  It was all fun and games until we actually had to begin the cleaning.  Ry Sat in my lap and I leaned him back into the dental hygienist lap.  The cleaning was quick, less than a minute, however he screamed the entire time.  I didn't realize how many teeth Ry actually had, even his canines are in!  At home he stands with us at the sink as we brush his teeth, so now we have to get him used to laying down.  Overall a good visit and Ry received an A- on his dental exam. 


At dentist office 11/14/2012

The cleaning!

Now onto the scary stuff.  The day before Ry turned 19 months, he woke up slightly warm.  We didn't think too much of it because he was acting normal, running around and playful.  We had a busy morning and took off by 8:30am for Emma's volleyball game, afterwards we took Ry in for a haircut and followed that up with an early lunch at Pluckers.  While we waited for our food Ry fell asleep on me (11:30ish).  He was still a little warm but we figured he was just sleepy as it was close to his nap time.  
waiting for our food...tasting lemons

sleepy baby

We left shortly after noon, and Ry was awake for the car ride home.  Once home I took him straight up to his room and he was out.  Just a few minutes later I heard a strange noise from the monitor.  On closer inspection of the video monitor it looked like Ry had the hiccups...but they were strange hiccups.  I decided to go upstairs and check on him in person.  Ry didn't acknowledge me when I entered the room.  As I got closer to the crib I noticed his entire body was convulsing and he didn't respond when I touched his back.  That's when I noticed his eyes were rolled up in his head, drool everywhere and his lips were blue.  I immediate grabbed him, ran downstairs and called for my husband.  Malek turned him on his stomach and was thumping his back while I called 911.  Ry wasn't making any noises and his body was completely limp.  Finally after about 1 min Ry started making a strange moaning sound, like nothing we've ever heard before from him, but at least he was breathing.  The paramedics and firefighters arrived shortly after that and started to work on Ry.  They took one look at him and said he'd had a febrile seizure due to a sudden spike in temperature, which is apparently very common for his age.  They immediately started to cool him down, removed his clothes, placed cold towels on his body and gave him some oxygen, his temp was 103.5 (probably higher than that before they arrived).  A minute or so later Ry finally gave a normal cry.  I have never been so scared in my entire life, I thought we were going to lose him.  It looked like he'd had a stroke.  As soon as he was stable the paramedics put him in his car seat, on the gurney and into the ambulance.  I rode with him to Dell Children's hospital.  The Dr told us Ry would be out of it for quite a while, a febrile seizure is equivalent to him running a marathon.  Ry recovered quickly at the hospital and they released us after 3 hours or so.  We still aren't sure what caused the fever as his throat, nose and ears were all clear.  By the 4th day his fever finally broke.  Thankfully these type of seizures do not cause any permanent damage and Ry will make a full recovery.  Now go hug your children.

Exiting the ambulance at Dell Children's Hospital 11/17/2012


Recovering
back at home


Thursday, October 25, 2012

18 Months

Happy - taken before he received 5 shots :(
My little rascal is one and a half years young!  At his 18 month appointment Ry weighed 24 lbs 5 oz (30%), 32 1/4th inches tall (50%) and a head circumference of 49.3 cm (90%).  Ry also received 5 shots since we apparently missed the 15 month appointment.  :(  It's always heart wrenching seeing my baby cry, but luckily he recovers quickly.  The Dr is very happy with his progress and our next appointment is at 2 years.  We have noticed that Ry turns one of his feet in when he walks, the Dr isn't concerned and said that's quite normal at this age and he'll grow out of it.  We've also noticed that Ry uses his left hand the majority of the time...looks like we may have a south paw on our hands!  Of course the Dr said that could change over time as well.  
Too cute for just one mirror 9/23/2012

Ry was just promoted up to the next classroom at daycare (last Fri 10/19).  His teacher told us he was the only one in class who could recognize colors and was eager to learn more.  Ryland knows over 20 words and understands most things we say or ask of him.  That explains his big head.  :)  We recently caught him saying 'stinky' and 'stay' (to the dogs).  My mom swears he's said diaper and clean...but I have yet to hear it.
His ever growing vocabulary:
  1. puppy, doggy
  2. hi
  3. bye-bye
  4. night night
  5. papa (opa)
  6. Ju-Ju
  7. Nana
  8. moon
  9. juice
  10. thank you
  11. stinky
  12. stay
  13. go
  14. cracker, cookie
  15. more
  16. cheese
  17. mama, daddy (sounds like dahdeeeeeee)
  18. mine
  19. sock, shoe
  20. ball
  21. yum
  22. truck
  23. no / nein nein nein (no in German)
  24. oh no and uh oh (when very appropriate)
  25. green
  26. yellow
  27. cat
  28. broom
  29. mummy (according to my mom)
  30. fishie
At the end of September we took some extended family pictures with the Malek clan.  Below are some of our personal shots.  We should have the CD of professional pics from the photographer this weekend.
GQ potential!  9/30/2012
This is my 'cheese' face! 9/30/2012
And now for the worst moment of my life (to date).  We had a scare with Ryland at the beginning of October.  I was playing with Ry in our backyard, pushing him in his cozy truck (i.e. cozy coupe).  After a couple trips around the patio he got out and I thought he was done.  I should have known better than to leave his truck so close to the edge....I walked away to get something from the grass.  In that time Ry went back to the truck and tried to get in, as he did the truck scooted back and then went over the side of the patio.  I turned around just in time to see him and the truck going down, and his head landed on the sharp side of one of the walking stones.  He immediately started crying, I rushed over to him to find a huge gash on his forehead and lots of blood.  We rushed inside, called his Dr and headed to the ARC (clinic).  Luckily we didn't have to go to the ER and we avoided stitches.  The Dr was able to glue the wound closed.  I was and still am beside myself with guilt and grief.  Ry is fine, and the scar will heal well and lighten over time, but it will always be there.
The day after, all glued up - 10/2/2012
11 days later the glue came off - 10/13/2012
Getting better 10/20/2012
Ry-baby loves to be outside and one of our favorite things to do is walk over to the bridge in front of our house or the softball field backstop.  He's such an adventurous, energetic little soul. 
Strolling through the hood with my wagon 10/13/2012
Posing for mommy 10/13/2012
  
Getting ready for Halloween.  This guy ain't scared at all!  We visited Spirit Halloween and he was laughing and playing with the displays and kissing the zombie babies! 
I ain't scared! 10/19/2012
Preview of Ry's costume, before alterations - 10/7/2012

Friday, September 28, 2012

17 Months

Ryland surprises us every day with the things he's learned and knows.  It amazes me the little person he's become; bright, loving, energetic personality.  He's definitely grown taller...but still only weighs 22 lbs despite all the food he wolfs down.  Ry has started taking our hands and leading us to the things he wants.  When he's ready to go, he'll grab my hand, say 'bye-bye' and walks us to the door.  The dude knows what he wants!  He mimics everything from gestures to words, our little parrot.  He's soooo close to giving the Hook 'em Horns hand signal.  :) 


grrrrrr pasta!  9/8/2012
Ry finally came down with his first ear infection at 16.5 months.  If you ask me that's pretty darn good making is that far before getting an ear infection!  Unfortunately for a good week there it was SO.NOT.FUN!  It started off with a fever on Friday, which we thought was due to teething.  He also had some gross green eye junk, which we attributed to something in the air irritating him (not allergies NOOOOO).  He was OK the first couple of days as we loaded him up with Tylenol.  Then by the third day he was much worse.  Very clingy, no energy, hot, green eye junk still there and overall very whiny.  So on Monday, Labor Day, we made an appointment to have him checked out.  Sure enough his left ear was inflamed and apparently he had conjunctivitis!  I found out later that many of the kids at day care had the same symptoms.  So for the next 5 days we had to administer eye drops, and for the next 10 days amoxicillin.  OMG that was the WORST!  Ry refused to take the meds and fought us at every turn.  We tried to slip the amoxicillin in his juice, then his milk.  He'd only drink the milk in the morning and refused all liquids in the evening (he figured out what we were doing) so we finally had to resort to forcing it down with a syringe.  :(  I think we were lucky to get half the meds down him.  Thankfully he cleared up pretty fast even though we never did finish off the meds (bad parents).
:)
9/14/2012
Come on...lets get outta here!

As soon as he recovered from that, he succumbed to a 24 hour stomach bug...on Friday!  Again...another virus making the rounds at daycare.  This bug resulted in both of our cars getting hit with vomit.  UGH!  At least there was no fever.  It was back off to the Dr's office for more meds. Pedialyte, saltines and nausea meds were prescribed.  On the way there he puked in my car two times.  Poor baby was miserable and I forgot to pack extra clothes!  The Dr's office was nice enough to give us a gown.  Thankfully Ry was recovered by Sunday, just in time to go back to daycare.

UT tailgate 9/1/2012
September means football and tailgating are back!  We've already hit up two tailgates this past month.  The first was crazy hot, thank goodness our spot is located under some ginormous trees and lush grass.  The second tailgate was much cooler.  Both times we had some friends come out and join the fun.
Go Green!  Go White!  8/31/2012
MSU cool 9/8/2012
Ry loves his easel  8/29/2012

water table fun 8/31/2012

Visit from Baba 9/2/2012

Dinner at Verona 9/18/2012

Dinner at Verona for Opa & Juju's bdays 9/18/2012