eleven months

I could tell you how much Ryann hates her monthly photo sessions now, but I'll just let some of the pictures do the talking :o).  How dare I put a headband on her and try to get her to stay roughly in one spot!!!

Today my baby girl is eleven months old.  Just a short month until she is a year.  She looks more and more like a toddler every single day.  I am amazed as I watch her grow.

Our (never very accurate) measurements have Ryann weighing in at 20 pounds even, and standing about 29.5 inches tall.  That is a little weird to me (and probably wrong, but whatever) because that would mean she didn't gain any weight, and grew 3/4 of an inch.  I hear they start slimming down the more they are moving, but I didn't think it was happening to Ry.  We are officially in all 12 month clothing, and she is growing out of some of her 6-12 month pants.  18 month stuff is definitely too big, but it doesn't look 100% ridiculous.  However most of her 18 month, and 12-18 month stuff is pretty summery.  So hopefully we can make the 6-12 work a while longer.  Seeing as we are still getting snow.  Ugh.  We have been putting her only in size 4 diapers, even though they are definitely big.  They aren't leaking so we are going with it.

Ry is getting four bottles a day - 6 ounces when she wakes up in the morning and from each nap, and a 7 ounces bottle before bed.  As far as solids go... we are doing a lot better, and she is feeding herself which is awesome.  But she is definitely showing a huge preference for cracker type items, and is starting to push away everything else.  We try making her eat turkey, fruit or veggies, but eventually she ends up with some goldfish, little crunchies or cheerios.  She likes to eat a little bit of waffle for breakfast.  She uses her four plus a tiny fifth teeth to munch it all.  One of her new tricks with her sippy cup?  To take a drink and then let it all slowly dribble back out of her mouth.  Lovely.  Makes for a wet baby after every meal.

We are still keeping with a two nap a day schedule.  Ryann usually wakes up between 5:45am and 6:30am.  She goes down for naps around 9:30am and 2:30pm, and sleeps for about 90 minutes each time.  The past couple days she has slept for an hour in the morning, and two in the afternoon.  That is a schedule I can handle.  :o)  She is in bed by 8pm.

 

I am pretty surprised that Ry isn't walking by now.  Not really upset or worried, but surprised.  She has been cruising so well for a while, and she started moving pretty early, so I just assumed she would be fully mobile by now.  But after watching JT wobble all over the house and climb on everything during a playdate on Friday, I'm trying to appreciate Ryann's lack of that dangerous ability :o).  She has taken a step on various occasions, but usually it is followed by her superman dive that she has deemed as the best solution for getting from a standing position to my lap.  She did take two in a row today, but only one time, and wouldn't do it again.  Ry can walk relatively well when you hold just one of her hands, so I really think she is too scared to do it by herself.  In due time I suppose!

Ryann is trying out new sounds and words all the time now.  She can say (roughly) hat, apple, waffle, all done, head, ouch or ouchie, and most clearly, up.  When she really wants you to pick her up it is a very forceful UP-PA!  So cute.  Yesterday is when she really started saying ouch more.  If she even slightly bumps something, or touches something, she will look up and say 'ouch?'  We think she is also using 'ouch' when the situation isn't exactly going her way.  She loves to see what kind of reaction she can get.  She also tries to say yuck, but it definitely isn't understood by anyone but Chris and I.  I think she is trying to say ball and book, but really any word that starts with a b just ends up as a 'buh' sound.  Oh, and bottle is 'baba'.

This little kid is getting so smart.  She definitely knows how to push my buttons and is testing the limits.  If she gets any sort of reaction from me, especially slightly negative, she tries out the behavior again just to see what happens.  Right now it usually involves sticking inappropriate things in her mouth.  Oh yeah, no more baby who doesn't eat crap off the floor.  We were in the basement doing laundry and she totally tried to eat a piece of lint.  I had to dig it back out.

Ryann is still a little book lover.  We have spent SO MUCH time, especially in the last few days, hanging out by the bookshelf.  She looks at books.  She makes me read books.  Surprisingly one of her favorites to make me read right now is Marley and the Kittens.  Her Grandma Anita brought it to her just before Valentine's day.  It is a long book but she sits through the whole thing probably three times a day.  She is also enjoying the Belly Button Book.

how she truly feels about the headbands

Chris said one of his top ten things that Ryann does, is how she giggles after she sneezes.  She loves to hear us say 'bless you!'  Sometimes when her sneezes fails, and doesn't quite come all the way, she will smile and say 'et ooo'.  Absolutely adorable.  Recently, when she toots I say "PU!" (pee you?  how do you write that?  :o) and wave my hand in front of my nose.  She thinks it is really funny, and has started trying to toot on purpose.  I hope that doesn't stick, but come on, it's funny.

Now (almost) whenever we say night night, sleepy or tired Ryann will make a cute little noise and lay her head on whatever is closest to her.  She also recognizes when someone is sleeping in a book or something of that nature, and will make the cute little noise and do her little trick.

A couple days ago I asked Ryann to give me a hug.  To my surprise she laid her head on me and just kind of leaned in.  Honestly, I about cried.  It was so nice to have that kind of interaction with her.  Sometimes she will give me a big sloppy wet kiss when I ask, but the hug?  The hug was so much better.  She has been giving hugs on and off when we ask since then.  I LOVE IT.

 

Oh my goofy little girl.  I can't believe you're almost one.  I love you to the moon and back!

for accountability

All my life I have always been slightly overweight.  Always the biggest of my friends.  Genetics didn't serve me well in the metabolism department, and I don't exactly make the healthiest choices all the time either.  (Ok rarely do I make the healthiest choice, let's be honest).  I love food, and I can always come up with a million reasons not to exercise.

When I got pregnant I swore I would be more healthy.  I was growing another human, surely that would be motivation enough.  Miraculously I didn't gain a ton of weight (only 20 pounds, I guess I'm going to thank all day nausea for that one), but I never really made any big changes in how I was eating.  I craved onion rings all the time.  So I ate them.  Hello BK Lounge drive through.  :o).

By two weeks after giving birth, I was three pounds under my pre-pregnancy weight.  I played it off like my body was just awesome like that.  The truth however, might have more to do with what was most likely a small dose of post partum depression, and an even bigger helping of post partum anxiety.  I was so stressed and anxious that I was rarely eating or drinking anything.  I should have talked to my doctor, or Chris, or someone, but I was fearful that everyone would think I was a bad mother.  There is so much more I could say about those first six or so months, but I'm not quite ready to get that deep.  Maybe in the near future, but not right now.

Around the six month mark, I started to feel more confident with my ability to take care of Ryann, and more confident with my life in general.  I am still a very anxious person, I always have been, but a lot of it has seemed to even out.  All of that is great, of course, but since then (thanks to my inactive life style) I have gained fourteen pounds, putting me eleven pounds over my pre-pregnancy weight.  I'm tired of hating the way my body looks and feels.  And I want to be a good example for my daughter.  And there are events coming up in the near future that I don't want to look back on pictures, and hate who I see in myself.

Like I said I have always been a little overweight.  But my sophomore and junior years of college I was very confident in my body, and took pretty good care of it.  I was walking all over the KU campus, working out for at least 90 minutes five days a week, and teaching dance.  I was fairly active.  I know I won't be able to fit all of that in, but it my body image from those couple years are going to serve as my inspiration.

i have no idea why the colors turned out the way they did.  my shirt was NOT that bright of pink.

and if you didn't know I am naturally a blonde.

and those pictures really make me miss my long hair :o(.

Wow.  Seriously can't believe I posted those pictures.  Not sure why but it feels weird to have them on the blog :o).  Especially the one in the dance costume.  Is anyone else giggling?

So my goal is to loose 25 pounds.  Ryann's birthday party is four weeks from yesterday, and I really hope I can loose five by then.  Five pounds in four weeks is absolutely doable.  I just have to stick with it!  That is why I am posting this and linking up to McFatty Monday over at Heir to Blair.  For accountability.

This month Chris is doing a pharmacology (I think) independent study, which allows him to make his own hours.  He is watching Ryann from 7-8:30am for me, so that I can get in a short workout and a shower in the mornings.  It feels great to be in that routine again.  I always worked out and showered in the morning throughout college, it was a schedule that worked well for me.  It seriously feels so good to have that accomplished by 8:30.

Wish me luck!  I really hope I can motivate myself to become a healthier me. 

more randomness

For some reason I just haven't had the brain material for a cohesive one subject post.  So my gift to you is another selection of randomness.  Don't worry about thanking me.

::  I've been working on printing some invitation envelopes this weekend.  When the printer has been going for a while, I sometimes feel like it is repeating a phrase over and over again.  Today, for no apparent reason, it was speaking German.  'Guten Tag' over and over again.  That is what my crazy brain was hearing my printer say numerous times.  Don't worry, I'm well aware that I'm strange.

::  Ryann has taken two naps for three days straight now, without a huge fuss.  And has probably only missed an afternoon nap twice in the past 10 days or so.  I'm so thankful that I didn't complete give up on the two nap schedule.  I appreciate the encouragement.  Unfortunately she has been waking up between 5:45 and 6:30 in the morning, but if that is what it takes for her schedule to round out right now we will do it.  I don't want to mess with too much until after daylight saving time anyway.

::  Some pictures I took last weekend while Ryann and I were hanging out at my parents...

::  Ok how many of you are on Pinterest?  I am really only following one person, and would love to follow more.  Search for me if you want!  Ashley Ann... I'll follow you back!

::  I have a ton of pictures of food on my computer, capturing several recipes that I completely intended to share on the blog.  I have yet to do it.  Does anyone like the recipes?  Motivate me to share?  (That is, if I can remember what recipe it is a picture of)

::  Ryann's invitations are designed.  Now I just need to print them and mail them out.  Like oh you know, yesterday.  Why am I such a huge procrastinator?

::  Did you see Cason and Shelley's peel and stick wood (vinyl) floor?  It looks great.  And easy (I think).  And cheap.  We definitely need something like that to redo the floors in our little bathrooms.  We however, have wood floors butting up to the bathrooms, so we would need something that looked like tile or stone.  Has anyone done that lately?  Have any pictures or product reviews/suggestions to share?  It would be much appreciated.

::  I know I've said it A LOT lately, how I write my blog for me.  And it's true.  Even though I had never planned on this becoming a mommy blog, or one where I dump pictures of my ridiculously adorable baby (sorry, couldn't help myself), that is what my life is right now, and it is what I want to write about.  So obviously if no one else really wanted to read it besides my closest family members and friends, (and even you guys don't have to if you don't want to :o), it would be alright.

But when I woke up Friday with an extremely sweet e-mail from Mallory in my inbox, telling me how much she enjoyed my blog and appreciated the day in the life series, I couldn't stop smiling.  This blog may be for me, but all of you readers out there are so supportive, and so helpful, and I can't tell you how much that means to me.  Seriously.

Mallory was inspired to capture a day in her life, and you can read about a couple of them here and here.  Thanks for sharing with us Mallory!

::  Enjoy the rest of the weekend! 

so big

You know that game that everyone plays with a baby, but you don't know why... you ask them how big they are, and get them to hold their hands above their head... yeah Ry would never do that for me.  Seriously, I have been saying it pretty much everyday since she was at least 7 months old, if not earlier.  And obviously she came mimic me doing a bunch of other things.  But she wouldn't do 'so big'.  Until two days ago.  She finally started humoring me :o).

And just for fun a few pictures of her eating waffles at breakfast last week...

waffles make her that happy :o)

again, rockin' the hat at breakfast

embrace the camera

This about sums up our attempt at embracing the camera today.

Of course I failed to get any pictures yesterday (partly because I forgot, mostly because I didn't shower :o), even though I always intend on taking some by Wednesday.  And today it is nasty outside.  And the light in my house is HORRIBLE.  Top that off with a baby who has no desire to sit with me and have her picture taken and this was a tough task!

We made two attempts, one before I went and got my hair done...

That one actually isn't so bad.  She was just incredibly cranky, and apparently hated her vest, so I decided we would try when I got back to see what we got.

She really just wanted me to check out her new bath toys that her and daddy bought at Target while I was gone...

So I resorted to spinning her in circles to make her smile...

Whatever.  We embraced.  You should too :o).

a day in the life - libby

**Sorry!  For some reason my scheduled post didn't go up as planned, so this is a little late.**

Happy Wednesday, time for you to meet another mama!  Enjoy a day in the life of Libby!

***

Hi all!  I'm Libby from ELF: A Family Blog.  I'm married to free-spirited chef-in-training and we have a beautiful 6 month old little boy named Thaddeus (oh and two crazy dogs).

I spend my days as a special ed teacher teaching struggling readers at one of the local high schools here in town and my nights taking care of my little man while my husband works.  My husband is in school full-time during the day, but his classes often start later than my work day begins (we start school at 7:50).  He's responsible for getting Thad ready for daycare (at his aunt's) and out the door.  Many times this is how he arrives at daycare (and sometimes even in pjs...lol).

While he's getting his first bottle of the day, I'm already in full swing dealing with high schoolers.  Each class is 90 minutes; a typical day starts with a few tardies and maybe a little bit of boyfriend/girlfriend drama.

On the weekends, I'm lucky enough to be able to spend the days hanging out with my little man.  An average Saturday morning starts with a bottle and some cuddle time.  Then on to jumping and some floor time.  While he's playing, I'm cleaning the kitchen, tossing in a load of laundry, or feeding the dogs and picking up random bottles so I can get them washed.  

Between 10:00 - 11:00, I'm finishing up my second block of kids and little man is eating his morning dose of fruit followed by a bottle.  At daycare he's given baby food, but at home we often experiment with real fruit including apples and bananas.

When I'm home, we chill for a little bit to let the food settle.  This usually includes singing silly songs, counting, and just chatting while I turn on some Food Network for background noise.  Sometimes he takes a very small catnap (less than 30 min.) and other days we just keep playing and rotating toys.  

While back at work I'm now into my plan period.  Today I was running around trying to find our school psychologist to set up a time to test one of my special ed students.  I also made a few calls to parents, scheduled two more IEP meetings, and chatted with a senior student who doesn't have class.  Oh and I'm supposed to sneak in lunch during this time, but it often doesn't happen - I usually end up picking through my lunch once my next class begins (it's ok, they don't mind). ;)

1:00 marks the end of my peer tutor class and start of Thad's nap time (too bad high schoolers don't get naps).  Why do I know this?  Every weekend it's like clockwork.  If I'm not paying attention to the time, Thad lets me know.  We head upstairs for a quick diaper change, bottle, and bed.  Depending on how he's feeling that day he'll sleep for an hour or two. This is the time I run around vacuuming, doing more laundry, paying bills, and trying to sneak in a little bit of lunch.  If the hubs is home we hang out for a bit before the little guy wakes up, many times he's at work though, so I get a little bit of down time.  I really look forward to this time to decompress just a little.  Some days though, we don't get a nap.  These are the days we've got to make a trip to the store and run some more errands.  We just switched his infant car seat to a convertible one and I really miss the fact that he could nap while we ran errands.

Once we're home (or nap time is over) we hang out, read some books, do some more tummy time - he really tries to move, but just doesn't get anywhere...lol, poor guy.  On Friday, Grandpa stopped by.  This is pretty unusual since my parents live almost three hours away.  Gramps was in town helping my sister out so he stopped by to say hi to "fat boy."

Usually around 4:00-4:30 we eat dinner (during the week I'm off by 3:30 unless I'm held up by meetings).  We eat a mixture of baby food and real food once again.  Tonight was some sweet potatoes and then some toast.  Some nights we throw in some real broccoli or another type of veggie.  We've been trying to practice drinking out of a sippy cup, but he just doesn't quite have it yet.  

After dinner we head into the living room for some more play time.  He may hop in the jumper or play on the floor.  We haven't mastered sitting to the point that I'm comfortable leaving him alone while he's sitting, but we're getting there.  

At 6:00 we head upstairs, take a bath (if it's bath night), get a new diaper, lotion up, and put on some pjs.  Then we read while he takes his last bottle.  We got him a children's bible a month or so ago, so we've been reading through that.  As soon as he finishes his bottle, he gets burped, snuggled for a minute, and put down for the night (with his burp cloth of course...lol, he loves the darn thing).  He's often awake, but drowsy when we put him down, but he's gotten really good at putting himself to sleep.  Usually within 15 minutes he's out.  I have to say, since he started eating food and not just taking bottles he's been sleeping through the night - from 6:00 to some time between 6:00-7:00.  And once in a great while, he'll even sleep until somewhere between 8:00-9:00.  Needless to say, I feel pretty lucky.

Once the little man's in bed, I'm free to eat dinner, shower, and catch up on some DVR'd shows (House, Grey's, etc. - I'm a DVR junkie).  I usually take this time to read through some blogs and check facebook (as we all know how important this is...lol).  I try to head up to bed sometime between 10:00-11:00, but it hardly ever happens.  The hubs usually gets off at 10:00 and is home by 10:30 so I wait around to chat with him.  Then I'm finally off to bed.

Questions from Ashley: 

1. What's the most surprising thing about being a Mom? How tough it can be at first.  I was struggling with breastfeeding and exhausted from my c-section.  On the other hand, it's surprising how strong being a mom can make you.  After all, moms don't get sick days.  It's also amazing how after you get through that new, rough, healing phase - you start to love your little one even more.  There is never a day that goes by that I am not thankful for and amazed by my son.  

2. What are some tips you'd give to new moms, or soon to be mamas? If you're a first time mom, don't buy everything just because it's on a suggested registry list.  We didn't and I'm very thankful for that.  Waiting to a buy a few things let us determine what we really needed and could use.  

3. What are your top 3 baby products?  Lol, I just asked the hubs and he said "Diapers, formula, wipes, bottles..."  Thanks hon.  Here are mine.

• A mobile - It doesn't really matter what kind, just one that spins and plays music.  This was a life saver those first few weeks home when I needed to pee or get ready and Thad didn't want to be put down.
• A travel formula container - After breastfeeding didn't work out, this was a lifesaver.  In case you aren't familiar with them, it's a just a little plastic container with some dividers that you can store pre-measured formula.  Makes traveling and running errands super easy.
• Ergo or Moby Wrap (or another type of carrier) - When Thad was first born and I was on maternity leave, the Ergo and the Moby Wrap helped me carrier him around while picking up the house, etc.  He went through a phase where he didn't want to be put down and I literally wouldn't have gotten anything done without it.  

So that's it, "a day in the life" with me, Libby...feel free to stop by my blog anytime and thanks to Ashley for having me today!

***

Thank you, Libby, for sharing your day with us!

mind dump

Forgive me.  I'm dumping all that I have on the brain right now.  :o)

::  Last week Chris, Ryann and I took a trip to Target.  When we walked in the door an old woman was 'driving' by on her scooter.  She looked up at Ryann and said 'Well look at that fat face!', giggled and kept on going.  I wasn't really sure what to say to that.  It was kind of funny, and really strange all at the same time.

::  Some blogs I'm really enjoying right now...

I absolutely love reading Sharstin's blog.  My best friend passed it along to me when Shar posted a picture of my nursery as inspiration for her newest addition's room.  Her family is adorable, her crafts are great, and lately she has shared some pretty great recipes that sound delicious AND easy.  Definitely check it out.

Another blog chock full of inspiration, and some cute downloads as well.  I mentioned the girls of Eighteen 25 when I shared a link to their tutorial for a holiday planner.  Since then I have loved EVERYTHING on their blog.  If only I had more time to be creative (or uh, utilized it more wisely).  Sorry girls, that your header looks a little off... :o(

::  Ryann has three teeth coming in right now.  Two on top have been coming down for a while now (they haven't broken the gums yet), and all the sudden today I saw that one is poking up on the bottom too.  Poor kid was miserable this evening.

::  I got my craft on this weekend.  Nothing crazy, I just became best friends with yarn.  I made more than 30 yarn poms, and also wrapped a wooden 'R' in yarn.  The idea of that is great, but I highly suggest it for those of you who want to wrap an H, or an L, or maybe a T.  An O might even be easy.  But an R?  An R kind of sucked.  Especially the one I picked.  I got the idea for this from here and here.  It is going to make an appearance at the birthday party.

::  If you have any interest in making yarn poms, you can go the whole wrap it around your finger, but I highly suggest the Clover Pom maker.  It has made the process go so much faster, and I've wasted a lot less yarn.  Not to mention it helps make all the poms the same size without a lot of hassle.

::  The slap in the face transition between 74 degrees and 32 degrees really sucks.  WTF Kansas.

::  I semi-finalized a menu for Ryann's birthday party.  I'm super excited.  Too bad I can't freaking decide on an invitation design.  It is so much harder for me to design something for myself, than it is for me to design something for clients.  I have no idea why.

::  I really want to paint my nails a fun bold color.  Any suggestions?

::  I'm feeling very cluttered lately.  My house is cluttered, my mind is cluttered, my life is feeling a little cluttered.  That may not make a whole lot of sense, but is the best way for me to describe how I'm feeling lately.  My mind and emotions are going in a million different directions, and my house is a mess.  My goal over the next month is to do a little decluttering.  I'll let you know how it goes.

There are more things floating around in there, but I'll spare you from the rest of my randomness.  Good night! 

slow down baby girl

Holy cow.  The last week and a half Ryann has changed SO much.  Really, I can't believe how smart she is getting, and just how much her little personality is developing.

Last Saturday Ryann said her first word.  HAT.  I find it strange that hat is what she picked out to be her first word, but we'll go with it :o).  That evening we were at dinner and Ryann started patting her head and saying ha-ta.  We thought she was just being silly, but then I told Chris "I think she is actually saying something.  I think she is saying hat?"  We kind of looked at each for a minute, and then he went and grabbed one of Ryann's hats.  She smiled, pointed at it, patted her head and said 'ha-ta'.  Since then she will randomly ask for her hat, even though she will only wear it for a minute or less.  Also, one of those mornings where I was a little cranky I decided to watch my DVR'd episode of The Bachelor.  They were wearing helmets... Ryann looked up at the screen, pointed and said "ha-ta! ha-ta!".  I about died laughing.  It was so cute and I was so proud.

excited that I let her wear her hat at breakfast when she asked for it

She has been mimicking us saying all done for a couple weeks, and knows what it means, but she usually doesn't say it first, only repeats us.  So we decided we are going to count hat as the first one.  This morning she was also clearly saying "up" when she wanted me to pick her up.  She tries to say ouchie, yuck, hair bow, and waffle as well.  The things she attempts to say crack me up.  None of them are the things I expected.  Although she says mama, and dadadadida and almost clearly directs them at Chris or I, they aren't consistent.  I thought surely she would be saying mama or dada before she picked up any other words.  Oh and when she tries to say waffle?  So funny.  A lot of times it sounds like awful.

This week we also discovered that she randomly knows/understands a lot more words than we knew.  We were sitting in the family room asking her 'where is...' with the ones we usually do:  light, window, tv, max, dada, mama and baby doll.  For some reason I randomly threw out 'where is your penguin?' referring to her penguin toy that she rarely plays with, and that we don't really talk about much.  But she crawled right up to it and poked it in the face.  So Chris asked her 'where is your remote?', and she didn't try and get one of our remotes, but crawled to her toy basket and dug out hers.  She also knows what her phone is, a ball, and a pillow.  There are probably a few others but I can't think of them right now.

Lastly, she has started doing so much better picking up food and trying to eat her by herself.  I can ask her to take a bite and she will usually try whatever is on her tray.  Also, I can ask her to take a drink, and if she isn't preoccupied with something else she will.

She is becoming quite the little girl... and quite the ham :o).

apparently her go to faces = the scrunch nose and the screaming face

Sorry this post is becoming really long, but you should totally watch this video.  I have no idea why she started doing this, but it makes me giggle.

Seriously.  She is going to be one in just over a month.  How did this happen?  Slow down baby girl.  Slow down :o).

embrace the camera

I'm a little (a lot) late on this post, but I'm busy wrapping things in yarn.  Sorry.  :o)

She points and talks about everything.  Trees, people, cars, animals, various other things that we can't figure out exactly what she is pointing at.  But her finger is always ready to go.

Thanks to the gorgeous weather we saw in the midwest on Thursday, Ryann got her first ride in the swings.  She LOVED it.  For about 30 seconds, until she tipped forward and nailed her face on the front of the swing.  Thankfully there was a little boy running around that kept her occupied, so she lasted a few minutes before she really wanted out.

Oh well.  Better luck next time.

Oh man, can you tell that I edited these really quickly?  I was trying to get them uploaded before Ryann and I left for my parent's house earlier today.  Chris is working the night shift again, so we came to hang out with people who won't be sleeping all day :o).

Ryann was so cute on the way to and from the park.  She was in the stroller pointing and saying 'Ohh, Ohh!'  I was cracking up.

Ok, back to things made out of yarn...