Tuesday, May 29, 2007

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! :)
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Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Links

I was looking on www.babycenter.com's Austin board and there was a great post with links for activities for children around Austin. Ryan's a bit too young for them right now, but I wanted to post them for future reference or if anyone else was interested.


I thought these were all really cool ideas, especially for when Ryan gets older. There's also a couple of other things we were thinking about getting into at some point:

Three Months Old

I can't believe it, our little Ryan Lion is already three months old! Since I've done such a horrible job of blogging Ryan's first three months, I'm just going to write down a few milestones, at least the ones that I can remember!

The first month was a blur. That's all, it was a blur. There was so much that was happening, mostly me and Steven getting to know Ryan and adjusting to life with him. By the time he was a month old, he learned how to give us a pouty lip. Let me tell you, I can't resist that pouty lip! I know he does it when he's unhappy, but I can't help to laugh each time he does it! I know, I know, I'm just horrible!

Month two was a lot more fun. I discovered that he absolutely loves his swing and our occupational therapist said that it's good for his inner ear, which helps with balance. After she said that, I felt less guilty for leaving him in there to nap during the day! Ryan also started tearing when he turned two months. Let me tell you, those tears are heart wrenching! Once the tears start, he gets whatever he wants! Around 2.5 months, he became absolutely infatuated with his changing table mobile. The mobile is a lion with a mirror for the tummy and the lion's legs dangle. He loves that mobile! He likes to flirt with himself in the mirror. Steven has even caught Ryan winking at himself. There's a video on Ryan's picasa web album site. If you haven't seen it, you really should! He's definitely happiest on his changing table.

Just recently at three months, Ryan has started to grasp things with his hands. Since he's got more control over his hands, he's been holding onto his rattles and playing with his crib mirror. We take the mirror and place it in front of him and he'll hold onto the ring and birdie and spin the lady bug's body which is a rattle. Ryan likes to grab onto the books that I'm reading to him and he's also starting to grab onto our fingers. It's a lot of fun seeing him play! I told Steven that means that Ryan's ready for more toys now! :) He's also starting to kick with his feet a lot more. His head control has gotten a lot better; we can place him forward facing in the Baby Bjorn now and since he's over 11 pounds, we don't have to use the leg loops anymore.

It's so crazy how fast Ryan's grown. He's on the smaller side for his age and he can still fit some of his 0-3 month clothes, but I already have a box full of clothes that he's outgrown, we no longer put him in the newborn positions (toward us) in his carriers, and he's awake for much longer stretches now. It's so exciting seeing him grow! The next thing you know, he's going to be drinking margaritas!

Wednesday, May 02, 2007

New Favorite Song

Okay, not really new, but new to me. :)

Abba's Thank You for the Music

I'm nothing special, in fact I'm a bit of a bore
If I tell a joke, you've probably heard it before
But I have a talent, a wonderful thing
cause everyone listens when I start to sing
I'm so grateful and proud
All I want is to sing it out loud

So I say
Thank you for the music, the songs I'm singing
Thanks for all the joy they're bringing
Who can live without it, I ask in all honesty
What would life be?
Without a song or a dance what are we?
So I say thank you for the music
For giving it to me

Mother says I was a dancer before I could walk
She says I began to sing long before I could talk
And I've often wondered, how did it all start?
Who found out that nothing can capture a heart
Like a melody can?
Well, whoever it was, I'm a fan

So I say
Thank you for the music, the songs I'm singing
Thanks for all the joy they're bringing
Who can live without it, I ask in all honesty
What would life be?
Without a song or a dance what are we?
So I say thank you for the music
For giving it to me

I've been so lucky, I am the girl with golden hair
I wanna sing it out to everybody
What a joy, what a life, what a chance!

So I say
Thank you for the music, the songs I'm singing
Thanks for all the joy they're bringing
Who can live without it, I ask in all honesty
What would life be?
Without a song or a dance what are we?
So I say thank you for the music
For giving it to me

Ryan is 11 Weeks and 2 Days Old

I'm still having problems posting pictures from Picasa, hence my lack of posting. Also, I still haven't finished my birth story. I have no idea where the time goes. While I'm working on both, I figured that I might as well give a Ryan update before I forget everything!

The last time that I posted was on our two year anniversary. We went to the last show of our Paramount Theatre last word series season ticket package. It took two years to use the gift certificate we received for our wedding, but it was worth it. We heard David Sedaris speak. Lydia got me to read his book, Me Talk Pretty One Day, back when we were in school. Parts of his book made me laugh so hard that I had tears in my eyes! It's still my favorite David Sedaris book and I even got a copy signed right before the show began. He ended up reading two excerpts from the book. It was so funny to hear him reading his work. It made it so much funnier! With our gift certificate to the Paramount, we got to hear Sarah Vowell, Dave Barry, and David Sedaris. We also got to see the play 1984 based on the book by George Orwell, and Steven's parents went to go see the Kodo Drummers. We're going to look into season tickets again, we really enjoyed our date nights at the Paramount. :)

I also have to say thank you to K Ry for babysitting that night. After her first time babysitting Ryan a week or so earlier, I didn't think she'd want him back! But, he was being really good for her, except for when he peed on her while she was changing his diaper. The best part was when she was telling me about it, Ryan sat in his infant car seat and just laughed at her...classic! K Ry was the first person to attempt to tame Ryan's mane. Click here. What do you think?

Last week, we also got a visit from Lydia. I miss you!!! It was nice getting out of the house with Ryan and just getting to hang out. Ryan went to the mall for the first time where, of course, I splurged on a couple of cute outfits! Ryan's almost outgrown all of his 0-3 month clothes. Most of the Carter's and Baby Gap stuff still fit, but I just can't help myself. We now have a box in the nursery that we're starting to fill with his old clothes.

On Saturday, we went to the last of our season ticket shows to Bass. We saw Mamma Mia! It's actually the second time that we've seen it, but it was so much better this time around. Both Sophie and Donna were amazing! It also helped that I listened to the soundtrack the entire week before to get hyped up for the show. Abba is a little before my time, so it really helped to know more of the music this time around. With our season tickets to Bass, we also went to see Hairspray and The Lion King. I remember the Hairpsray movie, so it was fun to see the musical version and The Lion King was amazing. I was so surprised how they could take a movie that I love and that I am so familiar with (it's my favorite non-Pixar Disney movie) and turn it into a beautiful Broadway show. It was just amazing, from the costumes, to the sets, to the music, I was really impressed and not just because I'm a Disney fanatic!

Thank you Maria and RJ for coming down and babysitting! I think they had a lot of fun with Ryan Lion. They did his hair (see above), took him out on a walk and played with him. We got to go to brunch at Chez Zee on Sunday morning...yum! While we were waiting, Ryan Lion got his first balloon animal, a lion, of course!

I've got some exciting news...I figured out how to take video with my camera and post it online via Picasa and Picasa web albums. Yay! The first video I posted is of Ryan on his changing table. He loves his changing table. We have a mobile above the changing table with a mirror facing downward so Ryan can look at himself. Yes, he's smiling and laughing at his reflection. Yep, he's vain. We've decided that he got that from Uncle RJ. They even shared hair gel this past weekend! Luckily, Ryan still loves his swing. He's beginning to like his mobile more and more these days, even though I think it really depends on his mood. He used to really like his activity mat, but I can't leave him on there for more than 5 minutes anymore. I think it's because the toys on his activity mat don't move, while his mobile toys do.

We still do a little bit of tummy time, we should probably do more, but he just hates it so much that he needs a lot of calming afterwards. I've started using the exercise ball for his tummy time instead of the surfboard mat, but I think it presses on his stomach too much and he ends up throwing up all over the place. It's really hard to do tummy time without having Ryan throw up! I've also started putting Ryan in his Bumbo. That's the cool looking chair that he's sitting in above. It's suppose to help build neck and back muscles and get infants sitting up as opposed to being in the supine position. It's a cool little chair and it really does look like Ryan is sitting up all by himself. He usually ends up spitting up/throwing up when he's in it though. I think the sitting position pushes on his stomach and makes it all come up. I just need to time it right and we're usually fine. :)

On the other hand, Ryan loves to stand and walk around, with assistance of course. :) If he's getting fussy, if you put him in the standing position, he instantly gets in a better mood. If you let him stand on a semi-hard surface, he'll start to walk. He lifts one foot, moves it forward and places it down, just like he's walking. He doesn't step very far though and usually ends up stepping on his other foot! While he's "walking," he has pretty good head control, so I don't worry about tummy time too much.

Did I write enough? ;) I can go on and on when it comes to Ryan Lion!