My Mom's Memos

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:

puppy, doggy
hi
bye-bye
night night
papa (opa)
Ju-Ju
Nana
moon
juice
thank you
stinky
stay
go
cracker, cookie
more
cheese
mama, daddy (sounds like dahdeeeeeee)
mine
sock, shoe
ball
yum
truck
no / nein nein nein (no in German)
oh no and uh oh (when very appropriate)
green
yellow
cat
broom
mummy (according to my mom)
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

Monday, August 27, 2012

16 Months

OMG I'm having a hard time keeping up with blogging! Better late than never right? The months just go by so quickly, he turned 16 months on 8/18. Let's see, what's new with my little guy...

Ry is now ~24 lbs and I'm pretty sure his second molars are coming through as well. That kid has a mouth full of shark teeth! No canine teeth yet.

He loves looking for belly buttons. If you ask him "where's your belly button" he quickly pull up his shirt and search for it. He also loves finding mommy's belly button. There's been times it's the only way I can get him to come inside. "Where's mommy's belly button?" Next thing I know the little squirt is chasing after me and won't stop until he's pulled up my shirt and pokes my belly button.

Ry surprised us a couple weeks by showing us that he knows his body parts!

"Show us your pretty eyes" - Ry blinks
"Where's your lips?" - Smacks his lips
"Show us your smile!" - picture cheesy Elvis grin and squinty eyes
"Where's your hands?" - waves his hands around (jazz hands??)

He'll also point to his teeth, tongue, hair, ears, eyes and nose. It's the cutest thing! When we have friends and family over I feel like I'm showing him off by making him do tricks. Either way it's super cute and I couldn't be prouder.

Our little man is definitely discovering his tongue. We can see him rolling it around in his mouth making really cute garbled sounds as he tries to say more things. This kid is gonna be a chatter box I just know it! Ry's become quite the mimic, he repeats most things we say.

"No, no no!" While pointing his finger!
"chomp chomp" In regards to his shark shirt
Juju
Nana
Pa-pa (as in Opa)
cheese
bye-bye
juice
uh oh - says this when he drops something
gone gone - when his food is gone

If you ask him "Where'd it go?", he will shrug with his hands facing palm up and look around, his way of telling us 'I don't know'.

Ry loves playing with our dogs Sarah and Josie. He's constantly following them around, laying next to them on the dog bed and even tries to ride them! Sarah and Josie are very good with Ry - handling pretty much everything he dishes out to them and walking away when they've had enough. One thing Ry has picked up from the dogs is answering the door. He knows that when the dogs start barking and running towards the front door that someone has arrived. Ry's eyes become enormous with exhilaration as he exclaims 'oh oh oh', hands in the air while running towards the door and occasionally trying to bark. Nothing but excitement over at our house!

This past month has been super busy. Check out the photos below from all our adventures.