Saddest Christmas Song Ever...

Every time I hear this song it nearly brings me to tears especially after having Ryan Lion.

The Christmas Shoes
by Bob Carlisle

It was almost Christmas time, there I stood in another line
Tryin' to buy that last gift or two, not really in the Christmas mood
Standing right in front of me was a little boy waiting anxiously
Pacing 'round like little boys do
And in his hands he held a pair of shoes

His clothes were worn and old, he was dirty from head to toe
And when it came his time to pay
I couldn't believe what I heard him say

[Chorus:]
Sir, I want to buy these shoes for my Mama, please
It's Christmas Eve and these shoes are just her size
Could you hurry, sir, Daddy says there's not much time
You see she's been sick for quite a while
And I know these shoes would make her smile
And I want her to look beautiful if Mama meets Jesus tonight

He counted pennies for what seemed like years
Then the cashier said, "Son, there's not enough here"
He searched his pockets frantically
Then he turned and he looked at me
He said Mama made Christmas good at our house Though most years she just did without
Tell me Sir, what am I going to do,
Somehow I've got to buy her these Christmas shoes

So I laid the money down, I just had to help him out
I'll never forget the look on his face when he said
Mama's gonna look so great

Sir, I want to buy these shoes for my Mama, please
It's Christmas Eve and these shoes are just her size
Could you hurry, sir, Daddy says there's not much time
You see she's been sick for quite a while
And I know these shoes would make her smile
And I want her to look beautiful if Mama meets Jesus tonight

[Bridge:]
I knew I'd caught a glimpse of heaven's love
As he thanked me and ran out
I knew that God had sent that little boy
To remind me just what Christmas is all about.

EY Ladies (Past and Present)

We had our first annual holiday happy hour this past Wednesday at Malaga in the warehouse district.  It was so nice to be out at night (I know, gasp!), but I have to say that I don't miss being in downtown traffic!  We also did a gift exchange and I got some pretty awesome scrapbook paper, stickers, rubber stamps and a gift card to Seattle's Best.  Coffee and scrapbooking, nothing can make this girl happier.  :)  From left to right, we have: Judy, Heather, Peggy, Diana, Holly, Leigh, Heather, Lesley, me and Meg.  Thanks Heather for organizing!  

Miss Aubrey at 2.5 Days Old

We finally got a chance to meet the newest Moore on Wednesday. I just can't believe that Ryan was ever that small! She weighed in at 8 pounds and has lost a little bit of weight (all newborns do), but still, I can't believe Ryan took over a month to get to 8 pounds! It's craziness. It seems like Mom is doing well. She was all dressed up when I got there and is looking good. Aubrey already has a head full of hair and if you ask me, it looks curly already! I bet Jessica can't wait to buy lots of cute bows. :) Congrats again!!!

Ryan and Santa Claus

Ryan did great with Santa! After patiently waiting in line (and climbing all over me), Ryan crawled over to Santa and when I put Ryan in Santa's lap, he tried to pull Santa's beard! Once we got him settled down, Ryan smiled for the camera, and this was the first shot. Luckily, we went after Ryan's My Gym class, so he was a little tired and in a great mood. It's all about the timing. :)

I tried to look for a really cute classic Christmas outfit for the picture, but I couldn't find anything that I liked, so we ended up with this outfit from Babystyle that has a Santa Pirate (there's an eye patch over Santa's eye) on the front that says "Yo Ho Ho" and on the butt of the pants, it says "Pirate's Booty." It's not exactly the pristine cute outfit I was hoping for, but that isn't my baby anyways. :)

Welcome to the World Aubrey Lynn!

On Monday, November 26th at 9:21 AM, Ryan got a new friend by the name of Aubrey Lynn. She weighed in at 8 pounds even and measured 20.9 inches. We can't wait to meet the new lady in Ryan's life. Congratulations to Mama Jessica and Papa Ken!

Ergo Baby

My favorite new piece of baby gear is the ergo baby carrier. It's kind of like a backpack that can carry Ryan. It puts the baby's weight more on your hips as opposed to your shoulders. I thought that once Ryan was old enough to go into a regular stroller as opposed to his snap 'n go, that he'd like being in there and wouldn't mind being strolled around. It turns out that his stroller happy time is only about 10 minutes with a form of distraction. He does better if the stroller is constantly moving, but he still can get pretty fussy. Wearing him is the only way that I can get any shopping done!

I tried putting Ryan in the Baby Bjorn a little over a month ago and my back was killing me within the first five minutes. I loved the Baby Bjorn, which is rated up to 22 pounds (my guess is that Ryan was about 17 pounds at the time), but it was time to move on. I did a ton of research and found www.thebabywearer.com. It's an excellent resource with reviews for a lot of baby carriers. I've only learned how to wear Ryan in the front carry position, but I hope to get comfortable enough to use the side and back carry positions. My only complaint is that you have to be a little bit of a gumby to get it on!

Da-Da-Da

The weekend before Thanksgiving, I went on a mad shopping spree and Steven stayed home to watch Ryan (and college football). When I got back, Steven said that Ryan was babbling all day long. Ryan is generally pretty mute. Ryan usually cries when he's upset, hurt, hungry, etc and he shrieks/yells when he gets excited about things. Before bed time, he's more prone to laugh and just vocalize, but never really babble. Most of the time, he's fairly quiet. Sure enough, Ryan was just babbling away. He kept on saying da-da-da. It was so cute in his high pitched baby voice! He did it again on Sunday, a little bit on Monday, but that's been pretty much it. He'll say it sometimes if you urge him too, but otherwise, he's back to being fairly quiet. We're counting da-da as his first word.

When we got back into town from Corpus on Sunday, Ryan started saying "hey Daddy" in a low voice. It was the weirdest thing ever and Steven and I couldn't stop laughing out loud! We don't know what happened to our sweet high pitched da-da-da! Now if we can only get him to realize that when he says da-da that it's Steven he's referring to!

Congratulations to Neha and Rootvik!!!

Neha and Rooty tied the knot in an extremely elaborate affair this past weekend in Corpus Christie. We went to the garba on Friday night where EVERYONE, I really mean everyone, danced the night away. All I have to say is that stick dance is pretty impressive! The ceremony was on Saturday morning where the groom arrived in a horse drawn carriage. We were hoping that he'd come in on an elephant, but there was no such luck. The pics on the left were taken during the ceremony. The reception was on Saturday night. It began with a video, dances and speeches and ended in some more serious dancing. I now know where "raise the roof" came from! We had a fabulous time. We wish the newlyweds all the love and happiness in the world and if their new life together is anything like their wedding, they'll be one happy couple.

It was the first time for both me and Steven to leave Ryan Lion and guess what? We made it through and I think Ryan had a great time making Grandma, Grandpa, Tio Loco and Tia Maria chase after him. He's been going through some serious separation anxiety lately, so we were a bit worried, but he took to the grandparents really easily, so we knew we didn't have to worry. He did take awhile to warm up to Tia Maria though, he even went to RJ first!

I almost forgot to mention that while we were in Corpus, we ate at THE two story Whataburger. Yep, it's practically legendary! We also drove to Port Aransas during the break on Saturday. The road dead ended into the ferry line, so we actually had to drive on the road, in the wrong direction to get to the other side. It kind of reminded me of the Houston flood where we drove in the wrong direction on Beltway 8. Good times. It was good to hang out the PPA'ers too. It's been 4.5 years since we graduated and it felt like no time had passed at all. I miss you guys! Another fun thing was getting to see people that Neha has introduced me to over the years. It was fun chatting with them too. Anyways, it was a great weekend. I can't wait until the next PPA wedding. Hint hint people!

I know, I know...I'm the WORST blogger ever

So much has been going on with Ryan Lion that I just haven't had any time to blog about it! Ever since the time change, he wakes up at 6:30 and goes to bed around 7:30 and only takes two naps during the day for about an hour each and the rest of the time, we like to call him our little path of destruction. Ryan is all over the place these days. About a month ago, he started crawling on all fours and climbing like crazy. He learned how to climb the stairs on the third try and every chance he gets, he bolts over to the stairs to start climbing. He can pull up on almost anything now, including his swing, the piano bench and my legs. As of a couple of weeks ago, he's really gotten good at getting himself into the sitting position from whatever position he's in.

Ryan's favorite toy is still his Laugh 'n Learn home that he got from Tia Maria and Tio Loco for his baptism. He's figured out how to spin the sun/moon wheel so that it sings either way he turns it. He uses the stool at the base to stand on and turn the dials of the clock and pick out shapes from the shape sorter. Ryan also loves knocking down his stacking cups. He's gotten so good at it that he doesn't even have to look at them anymore! Sometimes he's so eager to knock them down that he won't even wait until you've finished building the tower. Ryan loves playing with his lift-the-flap books. He pulls on the flaps so hard that a lot of them are practically torn off of the book! He loves the books that makes noises too. His favorite is the Baby Einstein book that plays the classical music.

It is now impossible to place Ryan in either his jumper or his exersaucer. He's learned how to pull up on both and he'll play with the toys from the outside. If he's in a fairly good mood, you can put him in his play pen. If he's not in a good mood, you'll certainly hear from him that he wants out! At the kid's gym, he's learned how to hang from a bar, so he's been doing that on the bar on the side of the play pen. It won't be long before he climbs over the top!

We've finally put up baby gates to block off the living room as a safe place for him to play. He plays a game we like to call "baby jail" where he sits or stands right next to the gate and pulls on it while crying. Let me tell you, it's a really sad sight.

Ever since he turned 9 months. we've started giving him table food. He loves being able to feed himself, but I do have to admit that it gets pretty messy quick! He loves bananas, just like his daddy. He's also a fan of cheerios and as of lately, blueberries. He's really not a waffle fan, but he'll still eat some if it's in front of him. We still try to give him jars of baby food from time to time, but he still tries to feed himself by grabbing the spoon and sticking it into his mouth, that is, if he's aimed correctly!

Ryan's 9 month doctor's appointment went well. Ryan weighed in at 18 pounds and 12 ounces (30th percentile) and was 28.5 inches tall (75th percentile). He's back to being a string bean. Luckily for us, there was no shots this time around. Yay! But, he did have a blood draw; all of his test results came back normal.

We had a fabulous Thanksgiving where Ryan got to meet a ton of his Great Unlces and Aunts, and his first cousins once removed. Yes, we looked up all of these terms online. :) We are HORRIBLE HORRIBLE HORRIBLE parents and did not get any pictures of him on his first Thanksgiving. Hopefully Auntie Al (who is really his first cousin once removed) will post the pics that she took of him. I'm so bummed that I don't have a scrapbook page for Thanksgiving! He was dressed in one of the first outfits that Steven and I ever bought him. It's an argyle sweater vest with plaid pants. It's the dorkiest/cutest outfit ever. We'll have to do a photo shoot with him wearing it, it's so cute! We also did the traditional hot pot for dinner. Ryan even had turkey and some mashed sweet potatoes. Yummy!

I've been feeling really crafty lately. Whenever the weather starts to get cooler, I always want to knit. This season of knitting all started with the pumpkin hat that I made for Ryan for Halloween. Since then, I've made him a Snowman hat (isn't it the cutest thing ever?) and a red and white stripped hat. The striped hat was my first time making a pompom. They're so much fun to make, I'm definitely going to make more soon. I also knitted Gryffindor colored leg warmers for K Ry's birthday and a newborn hat. As far as paper goes, I've been trying to scrapbook more, but I'm really not getting much done since I haven't gone to a Scrapmania in forever. I made personalized stationary for Mel and Al for their birthdays. Right now I'm working on making baby shower invitations, bachelor/bachelorette party invitations and Christmas cards. Making invites/cards is a lot of fun, but it kind of makes me sad to give it all away! There are so many more things that I want to knit/make, but Ryan keeps me really occupied during the day!

Okay, that's all that I can think of for now. I will really try to update more and definitely take more pictures of my growing boy!

Baby Bully
We are raising a little baby bully! We went to a music class at Heartsong Music last week with our mom's meetup group and Ryan bullied two other babies! While we were waiting for the class to start, Ryan was sitting on the floor in front of a mirror (because we all know how much he loves mirrors!) and another baby sat next to Ryan. The other baby was a couple of months older and Ryan reached out and grabbed his shirt and pulled him down to the ground!!! Then, during the class, Ryan was laying on the ground on his back and he grabbed the shirt of the baby next to him and yanked, luckily, I stopped him right before he went for the baby's blonde hair! Who knew Ryan would be such a bully!

JUMPING BEAN

Check out Ryan's new video on his Picasa web album site picasaweb.google.com/babytangy. He's really getting the hang of jumping!

I forgot to mention earlier that Ryan's new trick is to take off his bib when he's bored and chew on it! It actually works out pretty well because it serves as an instant toy and he wipes his own mouth when he chews on it. He's so helpful! :)

Labor Day Weekend

We spent Labor Day weekend in H-Town. We drove down Saturday and had dinner at Sinh Sinh...yum! It seems like it's the only restaurant we *have* to eat at whenever we're in town. We did dum sum on Sunday at the old school Golden Palace. Houston is synomous with food to me. Can you tell? At least I've got my Asian food cravings taken care of!

On Monday, we swung by Cindy and John's new place on the way back home. It's a really nice house. It's funny because the house seems to be geared towards really tall people, which is perfect for John!

Ed and Sara were in town along with Ed's dad and step-mom. Alice and Colt were also in town. It was good to see a lot of the family and hang out.

The first picture is of Sara and Ed with Ryan, the second picture is of Ryan chewing on butterfly antennae and the last picture is of the Oscar Mayer Weinermobile!

Ryan was really good the whole time. I think he really likes his Auntie Sara. He peed on Auntie Al...hehe...he really does like giving her a hard time! He started eating the entire 4 ounce jar of baby food in one sitting. Steven and I are both impressed. I've been feeding him half jars mixed in with rice cereal, but he was really hungry for some reason this past weekend. He's still drinking 6-8 ounces at each feeding too. It's no wonder he's moving up in the growth chart!

Within the past couple of weeks Ryan has started jumping like crazy. It looks like he has springs for legs. At least he's making the most out of his Baby Einstein jumper. Ryan has also been raising his arm above his head and bringing it down really fast. It looks like he's trying to flag something down. He usually does it while he's eating, but he also does it when he's playing with his crab rattle. When he does it with his crab rattle, I have to shield his head or else he just bops himself in the head with the rattle! Ryan's also inching along further and further when he's on his tummy. He's still really good at rolling to get where he wants to go. He's also doing better at sitting unassisted. He can go for longer stretches of time, we're up to 2-3 seconds now. :)

Sounds like nap time is over!

6 Month Appointment

We had our 6 month appointment today and Ryan weighed in at a whopping 16 pounds and 13 ounces, and he is 26 1/2 inches tall. He's in the 45 percentile for weight, 50 percentile for height and 50 percentile for head circumference. At 4 months, he was only 12 pounds and 6 ounces, so he's gained A LOT of weight. It's no wonder that my hands and arms hurt after holding him! I think he's going through a major growth spurt, he takes in 8 ounces of formula at least once a day now and always finishes at least 6 ounces during his other four feedings. He's also eating solids 1-2 times a day. I can't believe how much he's grown. He's not my lil baby anymore. ;( He's turned into a squirmy little monster that likes to put everything in his mouth!!

Last week, Ryan got his first hair cut. We took him to a place called Cool Kuts for Kids. It's one of those kid hair cutting places. They had toys and video games everywhere. It was fun, but a bit crowded. We fed Ryan during his hair cut, so he didn't move around very much. He didn't cry or get upset at all which really surprised me! We saved all of his hair in a little plastic envelope. From what I hear, there are special scrapbooking envelopes that I can use to show off a lock of his hair...hehe...I can't wait!

I've updated Ryan's picasa site with pictures from his first haircut, our trip to the farmer's market on Saturday, and his 6 month photo shoot. I warn you, there are a ton of pictures from our little photo shoot! I almost felt like we had a pro studio going on because we used props this time. :)

A few weeks ago, Ryan started scratching things. When he's doing the baby cobra pose, he has his hands palm side down and will just start scratching. It's like he's sharpening his claws.

Ryan has also gotten really good at getting around on his play mat. He rolls himself around until he can reach whatever toy he has his eye on. It's usually his inflatable lion or his storybook rhymes toy that sings to him when he flips the pages.

Ryan also LOVES to drink water from our glass. If we're holding him and try to drink, then he'll grab for the glass. When we try to get him to drink out of the glass, he opens his mouth, but the water usually ends up all over him! He knows how to use his sippy cup, but he usually just plays with it instead of actually drinking from it. I'm thinking about getting one of those sippy cups where the baby can drink from a straw. If he can learn to drink from a straw, then he can drink our water without spilling it all over himself.

As far as sleep goes, Ryan is still sleeping through the night. He gets about 11 hours at night and he takes 2 or 3 naps during the day for at least 3 hours. All I can say is that Ferber is a genius. Ryan rarely makes a fuss when going down for the night. His naps are a bit trickier, he usually fusses more, but will fall asleep within 15 minutes or so. I think of his fussing before he naps as his way of saying I'm tired and I'm almost asleep. :)

I've been obsessed with Ryan's scrapbook lately. I've made good progress so far, so let's hope that I can stay fairly current. I went back to scrapmania at Archiver's on Friday...so fun! :) I am literally a kid in a candy store. I bought a circle cutter on Friday, so I'm super excited about getting to use it. I wish I could scan in some pages to post on here, but the pages are 12 x 12. Oh well, ya'll can just come over to visit and see it then!

Visit with Auntie Lydia

Lydia came to visit for the past few days. She had a wedding to go to on Saturday and she extended her stay to soak up the Austin sun. Visits from Lydia are always fun because they usually involve local Austin food. Yum!

On Wednesday, we went to Hyde Park Bar & Grill. We had really good tamales and their fries are always so yummy! Afterwards, we went over to Amy's, gotta love that Mexican vanilla! That evening, we went to the Triangle for the Farmer's Market and we had dinner at Mandola's. I'm seriously loving Mandola's. They have really good pizza. I think it's the freshly made mozzarella that really makes the difference. We also got Ryan a lion onesie from a local artist, Will Heron. He has super cute stuff!

On Thursday, we went to Hoover's for lunch. I don't think that I ever go to Hoover's unless Lydia is in town! We got manis and pedis done at the nail salon in Steiner. It's so close and convenient, how could we not? :) We had dinner at Trudy's. I had a few sips of her top shelf Mexican martini. I miss alcohol!!! My goal was to bf for 6 months and it's coming up. I may even go a little longer though, Ryan has been really good at eating lately. Weird, I know. Anyways, we ended up missing out on First Thursday though, which was a bummer. Maybe next time.

On Friday, we hung out on SoCo and had lunch at Homeslice. They have a really good white clam pizza.

Today, Sunday, we spent the morning getting pampered at milk + honey. Do you see a food theme here? We both got hour long massages. The last time that we went was back in December while I was still pregnant. I got a pregnancy massage and my masseuse was awesome because she was so strong. I really felt like she worked through all of the kinks in my back. I had another chick this time, but she might have even been a bit better. She was so good. She asked me about my preferences and when she massaged me, I didn't feel like she was going to push me off the table like the last chick! I am so incredibly sore, but I really really really needed a massage. Ryan is getting heavier and heavier! Thank you Mel and Al for your gift certificate! We went to brunch at Jo's afterwards and had their cracked egg sandwhich. It was so good. I can't wait to go back.

I miss you Lydia, come back soon!!!

Now for a Ryan Lion update. He was actually pretty good being out and about. There were a few times where he was super fussy, but overall, he was really good. Generally, if you feed him, he's a happy camper. He loves being in his Baby Bjorn! If I'm pushing the stroller at the same time, he likes to hold onto the handles and push too!

As of this past week, Ryan has been pushing his butt up in the air while he's tummy side down. Is butt up in the air a milestone? :) He's starting to push off of his feet a bit, so it looks like he's on his way to crawling. Yikes! I'm not looking forward to baby proofing!

He finished up eating green beans last Sunday, he started eating squash on Monday, which he really liked, and is now on applesauce. Surprisingly enough, he doesn't seem to like applesauce as much as squash. Odd, isn't it? We're going to do carrots next and probably prunes after. We also have peaches, but I don't want to give him two orange foods in a row because I'm afraid he'll turn orange!

Now that Ryan's almost six months old, getting heavier and staying awake more and more, I decided that it's time to get an umbrella stroller. We went with the Quinny Zapp in mandarin orange. Isn't it cool looking? It comes with a car seat adaptor for their car seat, the maxi-cosi infant seat. If I knew that earlier, I might have gotten this one instead of our current stroller frame and car seat. Oh well. Jessica, maybe you should look into this stroller?

Last Tuesday, we checked out The Little Gym. It was a lot of fun. It's very gymnastics oriented with some music and games. Ryan did really well. He did some tumbling, he hung out on the uneven bars and walked on the balance beam. I'm thinking about checking out the Austin Children's Museum's baby bloomers program and My-Gym. I still want to do an age appropriate class at Gymboree too. Hehe...sometimes I feel like I'm going a little overboard!

Ryan's scrapbook is coming along. I've been able to do a few pages here and there this past week. That's probably why I haven't done the laundry yet....oh well! I've been having so much fun scrapbooking, it's my latest addiction. It makes me wonder what's next!

Green Beans!

I was really worried that Ryan Lion had an aversion to green foods after the whole pea fiasco, but luckily he likes green beans. He usually gives me a strange look for the first couple of bites, but after that, he chows down like a pro. We're starting on squash tomorrow. It's actually a lot of fun feeding Ryan, even though things end up a bit on the messy side. It's quite a feat to feed him while stopping him from putting both of his hands in his mouth and rubbing the food on his hands onto his cheeks, eyes and hair. Do they make baby straight jackets so food doesn't get eveywhere? As you can tell by the first picture, this was a failed attempt, but he finished the whole container! I see green poo in my future... :)

On Thursday, we went to my mom's meetup group playdate at Gymboree. I've been really wanting to try it out, so I thought it'd be really fun. Ryan was the youngest one there, everyone else could sit unassisted or were crawling and walking all over the place. We did have a good time and I can see how this place would be a ton of fun for kids who can already walk. The class was roughly 45 minutes and Ryan spent about 30 of those minutes sitting on the floor and mouthing a ball. Yep, we spent $8 for Ryan to chew on a ball! :) There were a couple of songs in the beginning, open play time and then a few more songs at the end with bubbles and a parachute. I have to admit, playing with the parachute was pretty fun. Overall, Ryan did really well. I think it might have been a little too much for him at times though. I had him on a rocking horse and another kid came up and tried to rock the horse for Ryan and he didn't like that. He got a bit fussy towards the end and the leader even stopped the class to tell me that Ryan had thrown up! We're trying out the Little Gym on Tuesday. I just want to see how similar/different they are.

On Friday, I went to scrapmania at Archiver's. It was 6 hours where you can hang out in the store and scrapbook. They bring in dinner, they have prizes and demonstrations through the night and you get free paper too. I actually won one of prizes! It was a little container of beach embellishments, they're really cute. The *great* thing about scrapbooking at the store is that if you're missing anything, then it's all there for you to purchase. There's also a ton of people around to talk to and get ideas from. Everyone at the store is so helpful, did I mention that they are starting to recognize me. That's NEVER a good sign!!! Anyways, my table was kind of dead. There was one girl who was really nice, but we just never really got to talking because there was another lady at our table who just didn't want to talk, she wanted to finish what she was working on. It was just weird to talk to that one girl when the other one was so quiet. The last seat was pretty much empty most of the night because that girl table hopped onto another table. I got a few pages done, so I'm pretty happy. I just want to go back and do more now! There's a 12 hour event coming up in August, but it's the same weekend as tax free weekend. Talk about being torn! Mel and Al, are ya'll up for a 12 hour scrapbooking marathan followed by a 12 hour shopping spree? It'll be a fantastic 24 hours!!

On Saturday, my parents came up, so we got to do date night. We went to Lizette's birthday party (that's a picture of us at the party) and we went to see Ratatouille. OMG, the movie was so good. I have to admit that it didn't really appeal to me from watching the trailers, but now it's #3 on my top 5 favorite Pixar movie list! If you haven't seen it, you just have to go, it's so funny. I laughed out loud so many times and I usually don't laugh out loud at movies! Here's the list, in case you were wondering: 1. Monsters, Inc. 2. Toy Story 2 3. Ratatouille 4. Finding Nemo 5. Cars. It was our first date night since our 2 year anniversary back in April. Sad, I know. We really needed it too. It was so nice to be out with Steven.


Today, we took Emili horseback riding for her birthday at Bee Cave Riding Center. I haven't been on a horse since I went on a cruise to Mexico after graduating from college, so I was really nervous! Everything turned out great and we all had a good time. There's a picture of me and my very tame horse, Max, who is a Paint horse and apparently likes to get into fights (seemed contradictory to me too). The last picture is of Carolyn on Ruby (who our instructor described as being onerous), me and Max, Emili on Joe (a Flea Bitten Gray) and Josie on Cougar (an Arabian). Emili led the way because her horse apparently likes to bite other horses, then it was me, then Josie and Carolyn bringing up the rear. Poor Carolyn, her horse would get behind and then to catch up, it would start galloping. Every so often, we would hear Carolyn shrieking and we knew Ruby was galloping to catch up. Afterwards, we went to lunch at Iguana Grill. It was my first time there; they have a great view of the lake and pretty good food too. It was a fun day. Happy Belated Birthday Emili and Lizette!!!

It Finally Happened Last Week...

Ryan reached out for Button's tail and tried to put it into his mouth. I knew it was all a matter of time! On the same day, he also grabbed her ears. Poor Button, her ears always seem to be a target, even Chewy used to attack her ears. She was really good about the tail and ear grabbing though, she only gets mad when there's a Greenie involved!

Both dogs have been great with Ryan. Except, of course, when Ryan is on the brink of sleep or in the middle of eating and Carrie goes on a barking tirade. She can't be good 100% of the time, right? As for Button, she usually ignores Ryan, but doesn't show any signs of jealousy especially since she used to be the one in my lap all of the time. She seems to be getting a little jealous though when I feed Ryan just because she loves food so much. Button jumps onto my chair and lays behind me when I feed Ryan in hopes of me dropping some delicious baby food. I bet she can't wait until Ryan gets some real food and drops it on the ground!

Rolly Poley Ryan

Ryan has gotten really good at rolling from back to front and front to back. A couple of weeks ago, Ryan only knew how to roll from back to front and he'd get stuck on his tummy and cry! There was one night where Steven and I had to flip him onto his back five times! Luckily he's gotten better at rolling from tummy to back and he doesn't mind being on his tummy as much which is great because it means more sleep for us! :)

As for the solid front, Ryan has tried rice cereal, peas, sweet potatoes, and pears. He likes everything except for peas! Ryan was doing really good on the rice cereal, so we decided to start him on peas because loves peas. Unfortunately, Ryan is more like Tia Maria and has not taken a liking to peas. The first time we gave it to him, he started to gag and choke so much so that he made himself throw up. We then skipped to sweet potatoes and tried going back to peas. His second attempt went better, but he just gets this look on his face like we betrayed him for feeding him peas because he dislikes them so much! I read somewhere that kids need to be exposed to some foods up to 10 or 12 times before they like it, so now I am trying to feed him a little bit of peas before we go to the food of the day. He's really gotten better, but he still looks a bit betrayed by us.

Everyone's been asking me if I plan to make my own baby food. Theoretically, this is a great idea, but we're talking about me here. I have no desire to steam food, puree it and package it. I have to agree with Steven when he said that he doesn't see any appeal to making baby food. It looks like we're going to have a Gerber baby afterall.

I just finished reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows today. Yes, Ryan did spend a lot of time in his Baby Einstein activity center today, but I figured it was a good trade-off. :) J.K. Rowling is a great writer and she did a fabulous job of tying in loose ends. The book was extremely action packed from the very beginning. It was very hard to put the book down at a good stopping point because it was just non-stop action. I happened to be at Barnes & Noble on Friday night and it was packed. There were a few people dressed up, but the best by far was a guy dressed up as Hagrid. He looked just like the Hagrid from the movie, except for the size, of course. I was very impressed. Again, I am saddened by the end of another saga. After seven books, you get so involved with all of the characters that you don't want it to end. I think the appeal behind Harry Potter is that he appears to be a normal kid, but it turns out that he's special and belongs to this magical world where he's famous. As a kid, who didn't want to feel special? Who didn't want to wake up one day and discover you could do magic and that there was an alternate world out there intertwinded with our own where everyone loved and adored you? Seems like any 11 year old's dream to me! Anyways, enough about Harry Potter, I'm beginning to sound a little too obsessed.

Congratulations to Dennis and Maria, they got engaged back in May and Steven's the best man. They are getting married in Houston in June next year. We're so excited for you two!!! We went out for a celebratory lunch at the Salt Lick. Yummy. It was Ryan's first time there and you'll never guess what he went after, not the bar-b-que, but the store-bought bread! Steven was holding him and Ryan kept on leaning toward the bread with his mouth open. So silly!

I was driving around on the south side of town last Friday and I was excited to see that they are building a BJ's off of Brodie. They have the best avocado eggrolls ever, better than the Cheesecake Factory. Yummy. I really like their pizza too, not to mention the half and half pizookie. Mouth watering...yum.

Working on posting a new picasa web album...watch for it!

Five Months Old
And Ryan's already playing the air guitar! Cute pic, eh?

Yes, I know...haven't updated in a couple of weeks, so here goes...

For the fourth, we went on our very second road trip to big D to visit Tia Maria y Tio Loco (no explanation needed here). Ryan did extremely well. This time around was so much better than our last trip to H-town when Ryan was almost two months old.

We went to a fabulous bar-b-que at Maria's friend's place. They have a son about a year older than Ryan. He is so adorable and he was great with Ryan. He tried to "share" his pacifier with Ryan. Sweet gesture, but a little gross. :) It's still so hard to imagine Ryan running around all over the house, but I know it's going to come soon! I'm enjoying the non-mobile stage.

We also got to check out Neha and Rooty's new pad. I just have to say that their place is pretty sweet. They live really close to Maria and RJ and when we were describing where Maria and RJ lived, Rooty opened up the patio door and pointed across the highway and asked if that was the complex and sure enough it was! Talk about a small world.

Ryan's five month birthday was on Thursday, so I thought it would be fun to take him out and celebrate while Steven was at his volleyball game. In honor of the new Harry Potter movie that just came out and the last book coming out this weekend, we went to see The Remus Lupins. Yes, that's right, Wizard Rock! They were playing at Bookpeople. I figure that he could go to his first concert for his five month birthday and what could be better than a Harry Potter rock band? Afterall, he's already got the air guitar down! I have to say that they were actually pretty good, but it was a little bit too loud. We didn't really have good seats because of the stroller, so we ended up walking around and checking out the store and listened to the music that way. I think he would have really liked to see them performing, but it was really cramped inside the store. I put Ryan in the Baby Bjorn and he absolutely loved it! He could see everything I could see and he kept on grabbing whatever books I picked up. Overall, his first rock concert experience went pretty well. How many people get to shop for books while being at a wizard rock concert?

This past week, we finally purchased a high chair for the Lion. We ended up with the cutesy patterned Rainforest high chair from Fisher Price. We've fed Ryan rice cereal a total of five times now. At first he really didn't understand why I was feeding him with a spoon and he made a lot of funny faces. Now that he's realized that food is involved, he has turned into a voracious little lion. He grabs my hand when I feed him to guide the spoon into his mouth and he gets upset if I take too long to get more for him. He's even reached out for the bowl that the cereal is in and brought it to his mouth so he could drink up the rice cereal. Lately, when we drink water, he'll reach out for our cups and drink from them too. I'm beginning to think that he's not going to be so little anymore! We're trying to decide what solid food to give him next. I can't wait to see his reaction to a new food. We mix the rice cereal with formula, which he's already used to, but if we do a veggie next, it'll be completely different.

Ryan's also been really talkative lately. He hoots like an owl. I hear "whoooooo" coming out of him all of the time! He's also starting to make the "pft" noise. It's almost like he's spitting. We went to hang out at Archiver's while a few friends were scrapbooking (I learned my lesson last time, scrapbooking and Ryan don't mix) and he alternated "whoooo"-ing and "pft"-ing. He was really loud, but cute. :)

Ryan has officially started sucking his thumb. He's always been obsessed with his hands, especially lately since I think he's teething. He usually has his hands in his mouth and he gnaws on them, but now he just pops his thumb in and sucks; it's so incredibly loud. I've been trying to pry his thumb out of his mouth and stick a pacifier in instead. The Soothie pacifiers that we use are like bottle nipples in that the middle of the nipple is hollow, so I try to stick Ryan's thumb in the hollow part, so it's like he's sucking his thumb, but not. For some reason, that seems to make sense to me! I still can't believe that we waited almost two months to give Ryan a paci. I was so worried that he's get addicted to it. Now, I'd prefer if he sucked on the paci instead of his thumb! Oh well, I have a feeling that it's all a losing battle. Whenever I give him a paci now, I can just hand it to him and he can bring it to his mouth and suck on it. A lot of times, he'll start playing with it and chew on the edges or even on the tab part, it's like a teething toy for him now. It's all very cute. :)

I had a realization this past week. We are horrible picture takers. We've got a ton of pictures, as you all know, but we never seem to remember to take pictures of all of Ryan's first holidays. I don't think we got a picture of him on Valentine's Day, his first holiday. We didn't get any pictures of him actually on Easter and we didn't get any pictures of Ryan on his first fourth of July. In his baby book of "first holidays," we're not going to have anything to put in there! So, if you're with us for any holiday in the future, please either take pictures yourself, or remind us to do it! I really wish that we also took pictures on his birthday every month. We did when he turned one month, but that's about it. You can buy these really cute onesies with the numbers 1 through 12 on them to show how many months old they are. I advise everyone to buy them or do something similar. We're doing a horrible job of tracking Ryan's first year!!!

Picasaweb is Now Updated!

I've uploaded a ton of pictures from the last week on the picasaweb site. For some reason, the dates are a little screwed up and two of the albums are showing up on the bottom of the screen, so make sure you check them out. Enjoy!

My Baby Bobble-Head

Babies are suppose to have big heads, right? :)

I forgot to mention yesterday that Ryan has started making the pft sound. It's really cute, minus the spit!

I've also got a Carrie update. When we took her to the vet 1.5 months ago, he said that her gradual increase in weight over the years could be a sign of thyroid problems. He asked us if she's been drinking a lot of water (yes), likes hanging out on the tile (yes), and is relatively inactive (yes!), so we've been really worried about Carrie lately. We had to go back to the vet to get Carrie a booster shot and decided to weigh her again to track her weight gain and possibly schedule a blood draw to check her thyroid. Well, Carrie weighed 10 pounds less, weighing in at 65 pounds! I made the vet tech go and weigh her twice. :) I guess we can hold off on getting her tested now. We think that they messed up weighing her last time because she certainly doesn't look any skinnier!

Big Week
This is going to be a quick blog entry because it's been such a big week for Ryan Lion and I just had to write something! Last Sunday, he got baptized at St. Thomas More. I'd like to say think you to his godparents, Xin-Xin, John, Kathy and Arthur. We've already agreed that Kathy and Arthur are in charge of purchasing the car and Xin-Xin and John will have his college education covered. :) Afterwards, we had our house warming. Thanks for everyone who came. It was so great getting to see everyone again.

Ryan had his first taste of solid food on Thursday, June 28th. He did pretty well, even though I don't think that he actually ate very much! We're going to try it again soon.

Ryan rolled from tummy to back right before he reached four months, but he hasn't done it since. However, he's been rolling from back to side for awhile now (he prefers to sleep on his side) and even goes from back to tummy, at which point, he usually starts screaming. I don't think it's because he can't go from tummy back to his back, I think he just kind of gets wedged in his crib. Today, he actually went from tummy to back in front of Al, Mel and me. It was very exciting to have other people witness it.

Our little lion has also learned how to hold his bottle (we're supplementing these days). When he gets full, he'll start playing with his bottle by pulling it in and out of his mouth. Silly baby!

We've had lots of family time this past week. The grandparents have been here for two weeks, Kathy got to stay for a few days after the baptism, and Melissa, Alice and Colt came up for the weekend. It's been great getting to spend time with everyone, come back and visit more!

I officially joined stroller strides last week. Yay me. Let's hope that it actually makes a difference. I'm feeling really chubby right now. I bet it's from brunch at Fonda San Miguel. Brunch there is worth a week of stroller strides! :)


I'll post more albums on the picasa site soon!

Father's Day

Although this Father's Day wasn't quite as exciting as last Father's Day where we got our BFP (don't think we can beat that any time soon, nor do we want to!), we had a good time. We went to Taco Deli for breakfast. I figured that if it was good enough for me on Mother's Day, then it was good enough for Steven on Father's Day. :) Gotta love the migas royale! Afterwards, we went to the Round Rock premium outlets, which isn't a very Steven thing to do, but we had to buy Ryan's baptism outfit. We got an all white overall outfit at Strasburg Children. Let's just say that we won't be shopping there very often. We also got the cutest baptism booties. They are little booties with crosses on them, they were too cute to resist. Ryan's getting baptized on Sunday. When we were looking for an outfit for him, I kept on picturing spit up/drool all over the front of all of those outfits! Afterwards, we're having a housewarming. I'm still nervous about the seating situation. Is it rude to ask guests to bring their own chairs? Anyways, hopefully we'll post baptism pictures and housewarming pictures next week. We definitely have to get good pictures of him in his outfit before it gets ruined! We had to buy him a 0-3 month outfit, which leads me to my next paragraph, Ryan's 4 month check up.

We went to Ryan's 4 month well-child visit on Friday. Ryan weighed in at a hefty 12 pounds and 6 ounces. Yep, he's a lil guy. He's still in the 15-20th percentile for weight and 35th percentile for height. He was 11 pounds and 2 ounces at around 3 months, so he's gained quite a bit, but he's still really little. We've been supplementing with formula for the past month, so I thought that would push him into the next percentile, but I guess not. Again, Ryan ran a fever until the following afternoon. He was so happy until the nurse came in to give him his shots. He started crying right away, poor guy. He did pretty well until bed time when he was especially fussy and he was really fussy the following day. It didn't make for a very fun Saturday. Oh well. The doctor did say that Ryan looked really good and called Ryan a big muscle. Yea, I thought that was a weird comment too. He was basically saying that Ryan was really strong, which I found interesting. We went to Steven's manager's house for dinner a few weeks ago and they have a daughter that is 10 days older than Ryan. She was so active compared to Ryan. She was jumping around, talking/screaming, and just constantly moving. Seriously, this kid could have beat Ryan up. It made Ryan look so sedate, so I was surprised that the doctor commented on how strong he was.

Yesterday, I went to a free rubber stamping basics class at Archivers. Archivers is my new favorite store that is fueling my recent scrapbooking addiction. The class was really informative, I learned a lot. I've never really been a big stamp person because what can you do with a stamp and an ink pad? It turns out that you can do a ton. Anyways, it was a great class and now I want to buy the entire stamp section, it's no wonder those classes are free!

When we bought our Stroller Strides Bob jogging stroller, I got a week of classes for free. I tried out a class a couple of weeks ago and I started using my coupon this week. I went to a class in Steiner on Monday. It was held all outdoors and boy was it hot! There was a breeze and it wasn't as humid as it has been lately, but I just can't imagine how much worse it's going to get! We did a lot of walking. It was good, I really enjoyed it. The instructor and other ladies there were really nice. I went back to the Lakeline Mall location today and that was good too. It's all one big program, but it doesn't seem like a lot of the girls go to classes in other locations and they seem to be curious about each other. I guess I'm an anomaly. I really like both instructors and I think it's good to mix things up a bit. Anyways, it's totally kicking my butt and I can barely move my legs. It's hard to always be the one lagging behind and the one doing all of the modified positions, but at least I'm trying. :)

Enough for tonight, I need to get more sleep!

It's Official

I turned in my computer today and I am no longer an employee of EY. After the almost fours years that I've spent at the firm, it was really weird to walk in with my computer and audit bag and walk out without either. But look at this face, wouldn't you want to spend your time making it smile? :)

I've been so worn out this week. I was really anxious about today, even more so than when I met with the partner last week. I think it's because without my laptop, this whole quitting thing is real. Silly, I know, but I had files and emails saved from back in 2003 when I first started!

We've scheduled Ryan's baptism for June 24th at St. Thomas More. Afterwards, we're finally having our housewarming. We figured we could knock out two birds with one stone by combining the two events. We've had a few people over for various things, but I'm really looking forward to the 24th. We don't have that much furniture yet, so I hope that people are willing to stand! :)

I recently joined a meetup group for stay at home moms. I went to my first meetup today at Krispy Kreme. There was only two of us that showed up! I had a good time though. The other mom was really friendly and nice and her son was so cute! He kept on looking at Ryan and grabbing Ryan's feet.

Father's Day is also this weekend and for the life of me, I have no idea what to get Steven. Ryan already has a "I Heart Daddy" onesie which he'll wear on Sunday, but besides that, I'm clueless. Any ideas? Last year, Steven got a home pregnancy test that said "Pregnant." Hopefully this year Father's Day will be less exciting! :)

So, I'm slowly getting back into scrapbooking and my goal is to finish my pregnancy scrapbook within the next couple of weeks. It should be fairly easy, but I need to pick pictures to print and I am so indecisive! If you get 300 pictures printed at Adorama, then the price per picture decreases. I figure that if I print pregnancy pictures, Thailand pictures, and maybe Disney pictures, I'll reach 300. Ryan's baby scrapbook is going to be quite the project, so I'm going to save those pics for later. I'm sure you've seen all of his pictures, it's really too hard to decide which to print!

Anyways, I'm rambling....Ryan is getting his four month shots tomorrow. I'm really not looking forward to it. I didn't think twice about it when he got his 2 month shots, but it was a horrible experience! We just finished feeding him and so he was really happy and then they stick him with four needles and give him some oral medicine. I felt so bad for Ryan. He was happy and doing great and the next minute he's in pain and crying. He also ran a fever for about a day after that. I am definitely bringing the Tylenol with me this time around. Wish us luck!!

We're also in the process of renting out the old house, so I'm trying to get everything set up with that. We're getting the trees and bushes trimmed this week and I still need to hire someone to clean out the place. Anyone need a washer and dryer?

I've got so much going on right now, but hopefully things will slow down soon!

Phases

I've been going through some crazy phases these past few months. When Ryan was around 1.5 to 2 months, I had this thing where I couldn't get enough of the local news. Crazy, huh? I practically had my day scheduled out in front of the TV so that I could watch as much local news as possible. Sad, I know!

After the local news phase, I entered the reading phase when Ryan was about 2.5 months. I ended up subscribing to four magazines, Oprah, Martha Stewart Living (to fit in with the stay at home mom stereotype), Cooking Light and Parents. I was also obsessed with buying Ryan Lion kids books so that I could read to him. I'm proud to say that we have quite a collection now.

Then I moved into my movie phase at around 3 months which I am at the tale end of. I went to baby day at Alamo Drafthouse a few times and I started obsessing over my queue on netflix. I've got like 50 movies in my queue now! It's just so easy to pop one in and feed Ryan.

My newest obsession is trying to get into shape. I went to a free Stroller Strides class, which was fantastic. But, we still have our membership to Lifetime, so I went to work out there this morning. It felt good to lift weights, but I think that I like working out with Steven better. He shows me how to work all of the machines and makes sure that I'm properly aligned. Without him, I just guess and hope that I don't look like too much of an idiot! I've also been walking the dogs more. Carrie really needs it, she's a hefty 75 pounds. The vet thinks that she may have thyroid problems. :( I'm trying to do a couple of things to get a feel of what is going to work the best of me right now. I want to try postnatal yoga sometime this week. I think that'll be fun to try.

I've also joined a stay at home moms group on www.meetup.com. It's actually a pretty cool website where people with similar interests can get together and start a group. They have a really cool calendar function that lets members RSVP. My first event with them is brunch at Krispy Kreme, which I totally deserve after trying to get into shape!

Another reobsession of mine is scrapbooking! I'm working on my pregnancy scrapbook with belly pics and ultrasounds. It's pretty much going to look like this blog. At least I blogged all of it so the scrapbook will be really easy to make. I just need to decide which pictures to print.

As you can tell, I'm trying to find ways to keep myself busy, but I think that the key is going to be balance as opposed to waves of different obsessions. I'm just trying to balance things out and get into a good routine.

Anyways, it's late and I'd better go to sleep now since Ryan is going to wake up in 4 hours!

Night!

Four Months Old!

Ryan is four months old today, I can barely believe it! Here's a couple of video clips from today. I'm not sure if you can even see them, but it's worth a shot.

Lots going on...I officially quit last Wednesday. Everything went really smoothly. My "seperation" date is scheduled for this Thursday. Quitting was really bittersweet for me. It was my first time back in the office in a long time and it felt like going back home. There's so much that I'm going to miss about the firm, mainly the people. It just amazes me the type of people that this profession attracts. Seriously, I think that I've met some of the best people that I will ever meet in my life at EY and in PPA. There's a lot of stuff that I'm not going to miss too, but it's one of those take the good things with the bad things I suppose. I don't for one minute regret my time spent at EY. Anyways, it's done and I've started a new chapter of my life entitled Stay at Home Mom. I admit it's a bit of a switch, but I'm trying to ease into things. I have been at home for the last four months, but it's weird not having the option to go back to work anymore.

Let's move on to Ryan Lion. He's changed so much. Every single day is a new experience for him; no two days are the same. Last Friday, for the first time, he rolled from his stomach to his back! He did it multiple times in a row. Luckily, I caught it on video, check out his picasaweb page. Ever since then, he hasn't been able to do it. Oh well, maybe we just got lucky on Friday. At least I have evidence that he did it! He likes to interlace his fingers now, it's really cute. It makes him look smart and very thoughtful.

Ryan really likes to press the buttons with the animal noises in his activity center and he likes pressing the piano keys in his jumper. I think he really likes the sound effects and the lights. I need to look for more toys that has both. He also really likes his Laugh 'n Learn Puppy because it sings. I don't think he's as into his stuffed/plush toys. He grabs them and squeezes them, but that's about it.

Ryan is still really good at restaurants, thankfully! If he wasn't, that'd be really tough. For awhile there, he was screaming bloody murder whenever we put him in his car seat and went for a ride. It's getting better now, but I really do think my hearing has suffered a bit. At around 3 months, he started screaming whenever we finished his bath and were drying him off. This came totally out of nowhere. At first, he didn't like baths and would just cry through the whole thing. Then, he didn't seem to mind them at all. Now, he's okay in the water, but has been bawling when we dry him off. It's getting a little better, but it's still ear splitting at times. Tears literally jump out of his eyes like a cartoon, it's quite impressive really.

Ryan still really likes standing as oppose to being cradled. He's gotten really good at head control, but when you least expect it, he bobbles his head and you just hope that he doesn't hit anything!

He has totally turned into a drool machine. Today alone, I changed him four times just because of the drool. It's so gross. Even when he wears a bib, he wets through it to his onesie and gets that all wet too!

I'm going to publish now, I hope that the video works! If not, I'll try to post some other pics instead.

Memorial Day Weekend

We had a fun filled Memorial Day weekend filled with family and friends. We spent Sunday hanging out with Josie. In the evening we planned to have Ken and Jessica over for dinner; and Maria and RJ were also in town after spending the beginning of the weekend in Fredricksburg for their two year anniversary. Since we were already planning to have four people over for dinner, we went ahead and invited Emily and Michael over too, then we got a phone call from Al letting us know that she and Colt were going to be in town too on Sunday night. Steven prepared a very gourmet dinner for the ten of us. We started off with a tomato tart and arugala and raddichio salad. The main course was rib eye steak with orzo pasta, grilled vegetables and chipotle shrimp and corn for the sides. For dessert, Steven made a very festive berry pie. All I can say is yum. I regret not listening to all of the registry guidelines though, we didn't have enough matching silverware and glasses! For some reason, I thought that two sets of four would be enough. I didn't think that we'd need more than that! Oh well, despite the unmatching silverware, dinner turned out wonderfully.

A good portion of the night was spent alternating playing with Ryan and the wii. I gotta say that the wii is pretty addicting. Ryan was really good on Sunday with everyone around. He got a little bit fussy, which was totally understandable given all of the people and commotion going on. I think that it really wore him out though because on Monday, he slept from 10ish to almost 3 in the afternoon!

The pic is of Ryan and Auntie Al. Poor Alice, Ryan made her work for his affection. She was running laps around the house with Ryan on Monday morning. Yes, I have to admit, Ryan can be a bit of a brat! :)