don't feel sorry for him, he's okay with it

Just like being the oldest, there are advantages and disadvantages to being the youngest kid in the family.

Advantages: There's plenty of entertainment if mom's too busy to play with you, there are more people in the family that dote on you and constantly tell you how cute you are, you learn patience at a very young age, and mom and dad are a little more relaxed into parenthood by the time you come along.

Disadvantages: Why dwell on the negatives? All I'll say is, I'm pretty sure when Alexis was a baby she never had a sticker stuck to her forehead for several hours because some kid stuck it there and then mom was too busy to take it off.


I'm thinking of creating a special folder in my pictures file entitled "You can tell I have older siblings...". This picture could also go in there.



(In case you were wondering, I did jinx myself by going on and on about Ryan sleeping well. A few days after writing that he developed croup and hasn't slept well ever since. I think he's finally starting to get over it, but I'm not going to talk about that at all. I've learned my lesson.)

You can breathe easy about Tyler's hair...or can you?

Did you hear that Ryan is sleeping through the night now? He has his last bottle around 7 or 8 pm, and then doesn't eat again until 8:30 am. He will occasionally wake up between 5 and 7 am, sometimes I hold him for a minute and sometimes he puts himself back to sleep. But you won't hear me complaining about that. It took him 9 months to sleep through the night, so I figure I've got no room to complain about some minor detail. Actually, if you have a baby (or any children) in your life, you have no room to be complaining about anything at all. (Though that doesn't always stop me...)

So, since I'm getting all kinds of sleep now, I feel like a new woman. The fog has lifted and I feel like the most productive person on the planet! I do a better job at keeping up my house, I've been reading more, I'm teaching myself how to knit, and I'm learning lots about nutrition and healthier eating. But most importantly, I'm more patient with my kids again! I knew I wasn't really that monster that was showing up around here fairly often over the past 9 months.

(I hope I haven't jinxed myself by going on and on about the positive side effects of Ryan sleeping.)

So, we cut Tyler's hair.

I put up a good fight against the mullet, and Jeremy put up a good fight for the mullet. So this is how it ended up:
Is a rat's tail better, worse, or just as bad as a mullet? It won't be around forever and I'm pretty sure it's less noticeable, so I'm okay with it for now. I just knew that if we cut a mullet I would be embarrassed and so would Tyler. He would catch on that people were laughing at his hair, and he's sensitive enough as it is. For the record, Tyler was also anti-mullet, but mainly because he wanted to get rid of his curls--he thinks they aren't cool. I told him that whatever he does is cool, even growing curly hair.

Also, this weekend the kids cousin, Mason, came over for a sleepover. They had a lot of fun with him and at one point were watching a movie all scrunched together on the couch like this:
And they all wanted to sleep together on the floor, so I laid out some foam pads and they slept like this:
They stayed awake until 10 pm talking about crazy kid stuff, and then as soon as they woke up in the morning they were singing the song from the Pillow Pet commercial. I was listening to it from my room and it made me feel like a kid again. Sleepovers can be fun! But they can also be a big pain in the butt, which is why we won't be doing them often. (This one wasn't, though.)

And this morning, before Alexis went to school, Tyler told her that after school they would celebrate his toy dinosaurs birthdays by (pretend) eating a cake picture that he drew in primary yesterday. But because I'm a new woman (see above) I told them they could even bake a cake in Alexis' Easy Bake Oven.
So they did, and we sang "Happy Birthday" to 3 little dinosaurs. Then they blew out the candles. The best part of having toy dinosaur birthday parties is that they don't have much interest in cake, so they share it all with their human friends.
They did dip their heads in the cake a time or two though.

Now some cute pictures, just for fun.

Alexis, wearing my boots

Ryan, just after a nap

And, just to clarify. I was VERY excited about the steps Ryan took in that last video. I just had something on the stove that couldn't burn so I didn't go running in to see. Each milestone for each kid is just as important as they were for the first. Unless they are the middle child, then they just don't matter!

(That was a joke, in case you couldn't tell.)

trouble

Today I feel like talking about politics. And religion. And the state of the public school system in America. And Charlie Sheen.

Just kidding. I'm not even going to go there. I'm just going to show you a video.

Yesterday I turned on a Baby Einstein movie for Ryan so I could try and make dinner without him pulling himself to stand on my legs every time I turn around. He doesn't watch these movies often, but he gets pretty excited over certain parts when he does watch them. So Jeremy took the video camera out there to tape him watching a movie. Sounds boring? Fast forward to about 1:40 and watch something exciting happen. I promise, it's pretty cool. (Maybe I'm the only one that finds it cool...but hey, it's my blog.)




Also, my older two kids are equally captivated by those movies.

The Nine (Month) Wonder of the World

"Duuuuuhhhhh...you talking about me?"

I'm aware that this blog has turned into a Blog All About Ryan, but I'm confident that if you had Ryan for a baby you would do the same thing.

Today marks nine months of this child's living, breathing air, life.


I'm scratching my head over how we got here. Wasn't he just born? Wasn't he just sleeping all day in his swing in the living room? And now he crawls all around that same living room, looking for trouble? It can't be the same baby!

This picture was taken yesterday...right?

The thought of Ryan getting older makes me pretty sad. I just looked through some pictures taken the month he was born and it was making me too emotional, I had to stop. I'm trying my VERY hardest to enjoy every moment with these children, and live in the moment instead of looking back and wishing, but the moments are moving too fast for me. No one ever told me that the more kids I had, the faster time would fly.


Ryan as a nine month old is a pure delight. I'm not exaggerating, and while I may be biased, I'm not blind. His smiles are freely given, he makes absolutely cute sounds and funny faces, and he rarely gets upset. Also, even though he's thinning out some, you still can't help but smile at all his fat.


He's freestanding in the middle of a room, walking along furniture, and crawls at a quick pace. He gets into things he's not supposed to get into, and watching him eat a graham cracker is one of my life's greatest pleasures.


He thinks his brother is the funniest person he's ever met, he loves to see his sister when she comes home from school, his face lights up when his dad walks into the room, and fortunately he still looks at me as though the sun rises and sets with me.


It's hard to remember what life was like before Ryan came along. In these short months he has wormed his way into all our hearts and is the center of our world. To say we love him would be a severe understatement! We are enamored, enchanted, and engrossed!


P.S. Did you hear? Tyler is Awesome--his shirt says so.

on "fired"

I love to watch Tyler button his shirt. His cute little fingers that still have a little bit of pudge remind me that he's still my little boy, but their ability to actually button all the buttons on his shirt also remind me that he is growing up.
I also love the proud look on his face when he's done it all by himself! I should have taken the band-aid off his face before taking this picture, oops. And I know he really needs a haircut, but Jeremy wants to keep growing it out. In fact, Jeremy wants to cut a mullet again, but I don't think I can let that happen this time. Once was enough. I'm not sure it'd be as cute on a kid as old as he is, plus he's missing one of his front teeth now which would only add to the look. Back me up on this, I need support!


Meanwhile, I'm babysitting a 3 year old boy today and he and Tyler are playing great together. He is very well behaved and cute, but about every 30 minutes he comes to me with a toy phone and tells me, "My house is on fired! Call my mom!" So I pretend to call his mom, though I'm not exactly sure what it is he wants me to say. After I hang up with her I usually tell him, "your mom said she loves you and to not go in your house when it's on fire!" That's the best advice I could come up with, and he seems satisfied with it until his house catches on fire again.


Lastly, for those interested parties, the whole Ryan sleep situation is not getting much better. For three nights over the weekend he slept for over twelve hours, only waking up once to eat! It was super awesome, but...as I explained to Jeremy last night, the fact that he did that makes me even more upset now that he's not. It's amazing how looooooooooooong it takes to get used to waking up several times at night, yet how quickly you can then readjust back to "normal" sleep. The thing is, Ryan knows how to sleep. He puts himself to sleep every night and for every nap and oftentimes when he wakes up at night, but he can only sleep like that when nothing is wrong with him. And since the beginning of December, something has basically always been wrong with him. Either ear infections, a cold, teeth coming in, or congestion. Right now he's got a lot of congestion, and I'm afraid maybe now another ear infection. I'll probably take him to the doctor tomorrow to see, and if the fluid that was in his ears has turned into an ear infection we'll be on our way to an ENT to see about tubes in his ears. I hate the thought of that, but at least then we'd all get some sleep. And if he's this happy and pleasant when he's got all this stuff going on, then imagine what he'll be like when he's perfectly healthy!

See! He knows how to sleep!

And so does Alexis! I love her and her rosy cheeks.

raise 'em up

Raise your hand if you're tired of seeing the backsides of girls whose pants are too low, their shirts are too short and their midsections are too large.

(I'm not complaining about midsections, I've got no room to talk, I'm complaining about visible midsections.)


Now raise your hand if you think this same low pants/short shirt/large midsection combination is adorable on babies.


Raise your hand if you think I need to clean my refrigerator.

And raise your hand if you want to be the one to clean it for me. First one with their hand up, wins.


Raise your hand if you think it's gross that I have a container of worms in my refrigerator.

I do, that's for sure. But Jeremy insists they stay. Compromise--that's marriage, folks.

I wish I could see when you're raising your hand.


Raise your hand if you think it's funny when your baby gets trapped between the legs of a chair, and then stays there for 15 minutes, perfectly happy.

I'm teaching him that there are consequences to his actions. Also, it was the only time in the last 2 months that he's stayed in the same spot for longer than 30 seconds (when he's awake, that is).

On a related note, I'm not typically able to change a diaper (especially not a poopy one) in faster than 30 seconds. Which explains the scene upstairs 2 minutes ago where Ryan was naked from the waist down, mid-crawl and reaching for something, while I was holding him back by one of his legs with one hand and simultaneously trying to grab a diaper out of his drawer with my other.

I don't even have to tell you to raise your hands if you've ever done that, I know you already are.


Raise your hand if you think it's funny that when the baby is under the chair, his toy falls just out of his reach and he cannot figure out a way to get to it.

Raise your hand if you think this blog post is going nowhere.


Raise your hand if you wish I would learn how to use my camera so that instead of a blurry picture, I could produce a picture that actually shows Ryan's new tooth.


Raise your hand if you are tired of snotty noses and gunky eyes, and are just ready for spring to show up.

I'm going to assume you are all in agreement with me on all of these things. Especially the last one.

Raise your hand if you never want to hear the phrase "raise your hand" again.

Lucky for you then, that Ryan is crying and in desperate need of his mama.

today I learned how to spell "chronicling"

So, maybe you've all figured out by now, but I'm kind of a boring person. I don't much care for parties and I generally do my best to not ever host one. Which, of course, is why I was sent a child who has grand ideas for a party she'd like to throw at least weekly and is constantly begging me to let her have one.

Go ahead and feel sorry for her. I do.

This weekend Jeremy is going to snowboarding with most of the boys in his family, so the girls decided to get together and have a "girls night", plus nine kids, held at my house. Alexis caught wind of this yesterday and has been going nuts ever since. You see, Alexis is the oldest cousin, loves to plan things, and has a million ideas racing through her head at all times. This makes her a "triple threat". Last night she asked if we could make a list of things to do on Saturday night, and I knew there was no way she'd sleep until we did it, so I sat down with her to brainstorm. And boy did she ever have some ideas! The first idea she introduced to me was a 3 legged race, which she was calling a 2 footed race. I tried to sway her from this idea since there's not a lot of room in my house for that sort of thing, but she already had ideas for how to get around that hang-up.

I took a picture of the list she came up with because it's so funny to me. After each item on the list she drew a box, and then after we wrote down all the ideas she went through and put a check next to the ones she wants to do for sure, and any ideas that fall under the "maybe" category, she drew a check in half the box, and then colored in the other half. There were no "for sure no" items, no matter how hard I tried.

Because this way of thinking is so foreign to me, it takes a lot of energy for me to not get annoyed by this and brush her off. And a "planning" session like this can be exhausting for me, especially at the end of the day. BUT! But, I love who Alexis is and I don't want her to ever feel like she should be different. If anything, I should be more like her. She is determined, she is prepared, she is fun to be around, she is full of good ideas, she is a leader, and she has a zest for life! And I always want her to know I think she's the most special girl I've ever met, so if that means that I will be participating in a 3 legged race in my living room on Saturday night, so be it.

This kind of leads me into the next thing I wanted to talk about. You may have noticed my blogging has seriously slacked off lately. Life seems to have grabbed me by the wrists and started running, with me bouncing and dragging behind. As a result I've discovered lots of things that I DON'T want to be (mostly by becoming them), most especially in regards to the type of mother I am. So I sat down and thought about the kind of mom I DO want to be, and figured out what kinds of things I need to be doing to become that mom. This is all well and good, but it doesn't leave me much free time, so my blogging will probably continue to be slow for awhile. I'm not going to stop blogging because I love chronicling this fleeting time of life, but I just don't have as much time as I used to, and it's not top on my list of priorities. So you will most likely be hearing less from me, for awhile anyway.

Now for Ryan's adoring public:
I put him in a swing at the park for the first time, and he loved it. Though most of the time he just laid back like this:

Now, a few quick tidbits to round up this long post:

-Alexis, since Saturday, has been snapping nonstop. She snaps while talking about something, she uses it for emphasis, she snaps while dancing, she snaps while using the bathroom, she snaps while eating (or when she's supposed to be eating), she snaps while reading, doing homework, and I'm SURE she snaps during school too. It is incredibly cute, and it's always with both hands, never just one.

-Ryan has another ear infection, and I can't decide which is worse: the ear infection and subsequent lack of sleep, or the medicine I have to give him and the never ending, foul smelling diarrhea that results. Amazingly enough, he is still his happy charming self throughout the day, no matter what is bothering him.

-Tyler is still misusing the word "heck" and if I have paper nearby I write down some of the things he says. Here are a few examples:
*Does this thing heck come off?
*Are you heck sitting here?
*Is this heck a movie?
*Is it heck okay if Ryan plays in the laundry basket?

Believe me when I say, it is the cutest heck thing.

See you in a few weeks. Or tomorrow. You never really know.

more of the same

Wow, I forgot how much more work a baby becomes once they are mobile! I spend half my day moving things out of Ryan's destructive path and making sure he doesn't fall off of something or onto something dangerous. Time may have faded my memory, but I SWEAR Ryan is more intense with this whole standing thing than my first two kids were. He MUST stand at all times. When you put him down for a nap you have to go back in there usually about 5 times and lay him down again before he actually falls asleep. One time, shortly after he learned to crawl and stand, I went into his room a few minutes after laying him down for bed just to find him crawling around his crib with his eyes shut while tiredly whimpering. He was so exhausted that he wanted to sleep but it's like his brain was saying, "MUST KEEP MOVING! DO NOT STOP!" So, you know, that's a lot of fun. Did someone request a fat tummy picture? You've come to the right place!

Also, the past few weeks I've been weaning him from breastfeeding. If you've ever done that than you can feel my pain, and you probably know what I mean when I say that Benadryl and cabbage leaves are my new best friends. If you don't know what I'm talking about, it's better that way. Did someone request a cute picture of him drinking his bottle? I happily oblige!

It rained over the weekend, which melted a lot of snow, and yesterday was sunny enough and barely warm enough to take the boys outside. Tyler got to ride his scooter with some friends, but probably spent more time eating really old snow.

Tyler has also been doing some pretty funny stuff lately. Currently his favorite thing to do is hide when he hears someone coming into the same room as him, and then jump out and say "BOO!" I remember Alexis doing something similar around this age too. The problem with Tyler is that he's not at all quiet about it, so it's never a surprise. And he does it about 100 times a day, but I can only act surprised for the first 3 times before it gets old.

Also, he has started throwing the word "heck" into sentences randomly, and it almost is never used correctly, which makes it really funny. Today he said to me, "What is this heck thing?"

Finally, when he's telling you a story, he uses the phrase "and guess what?" a lot. Like, A LOT. Just a minute ago he was telling me a story about a dream he had last night and it went something like this:

"Mom, guess what! Last night I had a dream about a bakugan, and guess what? It went tick tock, and guess what? I was hiding from it, and guess what? It tried to find me, and guess what? Alexis and grandma found it, and guess what? They killed it! And guess what? I was happy they killed it, and guess what? It wanted to kill me!" And so on and so forth.

Then there's Alexis. She's still beautiful. She still keeps me on my toes and scratching my head.

The other night I tried to take a quick video of Ryan in his bouncer while we were finishing up dinner. As a result you get a quick peek at what dinner is like around here: Tyler is always still hungry and we always have to ask Alexis if she is done eating, and Ryan just ignores us all. In addition to that, in this video we get a burp from Jeremy, Alexis telling us the date so we'll always remember, and Tyler being really annoying. Amazingly enough, I didn't yell at any of them!

Ryan's taking a stand

Ryan has been crawling for a few weeks now, but it's more like he's swimming the butterfly stroke than crawling. While laying on his stomach he brings his arms up, drops them on the ground in front of him and drags his body forward. I figured that since most of the time he's crawling he is not actually on his hands and knees I had a little while longer before he started trying anything new. But two days ago I was sitting on the living room floor watching Ryan play, while talking to my mom on the phone. As I was talking to her I realized that Ryan had crawled over to a little toy and had pulled himself up onto his knees. Next thing I knew he pulled himself up to stand, then knelt back down, then stood up again. I couldn't believe it--he's just barely 7 months! A few minutes later he crawled over to the toy box and acted like he wanted to pull himself up there too. I wasn't sure he'd be able to, but I pulled the camera out just in case. Good thing I did because he pulled himself up there, but then quickly fell over. See for yourself:




It was fun watching him do that, but I kind of hoped he would forget all about it the next day because I still want him to sit happily in one place. But of course he didn't forget, and the whole next day I followed him around taking pictures of the places he decided to stand up next. Again, see for yourself (a few are taken with my cell phone):


I think he had help getting up to the couch, but he did the rest all by himself. You can't tell from this picture, but I think standing up in the bathtub made him a little nervous because it was kind of slippery.

I guess he's out to prove that those stumpy legs are good for more than just decoration. And really, this is quite the feat considering the weight he's hauling around!

The award for "Most Memorable Event of 2010"...

...goes to the birth of Ryan! (Was there any question?) This is also the event I'm most grateful for. (Was there any doubt?) There was never a baby more loved than this one. You can't help but smile when you see his fat cheeks, pinch his chubby legs, or kiss his round belly. He's the easiest baby I've had yet, and a pure delight to have in our family. Every second of every day I'm grateful that he is mine. And now, at 7 months old I'm wishing time would stop. All the signs that he's growing up (crawling, teething, weaning, eating solids) sadden me. I should be happy about them, but I just want him to stay a baby forever. Ryan's existence has also taught me what it really means to be tired. I thought I was tired when Alexis was born--I had no idea. I thought I was tired when Tyler was a baby--I was very wrong. And if it's possible to be more tired than I am now, I don't care to find out. His sleep has been so beyond horrible the past two months (there's reasons but it's a long story) that I've learned just how little sleep I can function on--it's pretty remarkable actually. Despite that, he still is absolutely perfect! That may not make sense to you, but that's just how awesome he is. Even if I were never able to sleep again, I would still keep him. (But let's hope it doesn't come to that!)

Runner-up for the Most Memorable Event of 2010:
Being unemployed for 6 months.
Half the year.
Beginning of May through the end of October.
Basically, a long time!
This is also the event I'm second most grateful for. (Surprised?) I've tried to sit down and write about this at least 5 or 6 times, but I just can't do it justice so I quit. And I still can't give it an adequate description. It was awesome and not awesome all at the same time (but more awesome than not). It was a blessing in disguise. It was exactly what we needed. It was good for our family and our faith. It allowed us to see just how loved we are. It taught us to accept service. It strengthened our marriage. Alexis, Tyler and Ryan all got to know their dad even better. Jeremy had the best summer ever, a time we jokingly refer to as "The Summer of Jeremy". I was able to relax and enjoy Ryan as a baby because I had help. We learned to better distinguish between needs and wants. We had confirmed to us that paying a full tithe is more important than anything else we could do with our money. We had more time to give to others. We saw that prayers are answered. We understood better that our lives are not in our hands. We learned lessons on patience. And we developed empathy for those in a similar situation (which, unfortunately, we know many).

Overall it was a good experience for us, which is kind of odd, but not every day was easy. I know our experience isn't what every one's is like, and my attitude about it may not be what most people's is, but I can provide a listening ear if you find yourself in the same situation. Also, Jeremy's opinion varies a little from mine because he was the one that was putting all the work into looking for a new job. I know at times it felt overwhelming, frustrating, and pointless. But we kept confident and optimistic (most of the time) because we knew there was something out there for him--and he did find something great. It's not his dream job, but he enjoys it, it pays the bills, and the schedule is a trillion times better than his old job. In fact, even on the worst day of unemployment he NEVER once wished he had his old job back. (And neither did I--we were burnt out there!)
Honorable Mentions of 2010:
Tyler played itty bitty basketball
I helped out a lot in Alexis' kindergarten class
Family vacation to Phoenix (and missed our return flight)
Alexis played soccer
Last Rhino trip (to Hole in the Rock with Jeremy's parents and brother) before the baby
Jeremy and Tyler participated in their first father/son camp out
Alexis "graduated" kindergarten
Jeremy and I celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary
Jeremy and the kids went on lots of camping or Rhino trips
Ryan and I stayed home and napped!
Weekend trip to a cabin with friends
Alexis turned 6 (and celebrated with a friends party)
Jeremy built us new bedroom furniture
Family reunion with Jeremy's family
Jeremy hiked King's Peak (quite the accomplishment!)
Ryan gained a lot of weight
Tyler learned to ride a 2-wheeler
Alexis started 1st grade
Tyler started a weekly playgroup/preschool with friends and neighbors
Tyler turned 4 (and had his first party with friends)
Alexis lost her first (and second!) tooth
Ryan learned to crawl
We bought a new car, and the old one reached 200,000 miles!
Quick trip to Las Vegas for a baby blessing
My little sister got married
and we welcomed a total of 4 new nieces and nephews!

2010 was quite the year, and while I loved it, I really hope 2011 is a lot less eventful!