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!