Wordless Wednesday

"How is Ryan doing with the new baby?"

Everyone has been extremely good at making Ryan still feel very special. And the number one question we get is, "How is he doing with the baby?"

I am still unsure on how to answer that. It's just not what I expected. I thought maybe anger, digression, crying, throwing...something. But he just ignores Harrison.

To him, things have not changed. I think he has changed. He has gotten louder...so much louder. Definitely more demanding. But not in a bad way (well most times anyway). He is just more pronounced with everything.

But to him there is still no baby present. The only thing that he does ask is "ere baby go mama?" when he can't see him. Then when you tell him he just turns his head and goes about his business, there is no reaction to it.

Harrison is not allowed in his room and definitely not allowed on his changing station or in his bed. Except for this picture, it lasted only moments, and you see he is up in the corner like Harrison is some disease ridden object. I call this picture the stare down. I think this might have been Ryan's realization that baby IS coming home with us.

This was their first official picture taken together, it wasn't the best, but we did finally get Ryan to give him a kiss.

He did seem so proud at first, I was so excited for our lives to start and Ryan was going to cherish his baby brother...maybe one day, just maybe!
One thing that Ryan is very interested in is how Harrison is fed. Which is very hard to explain to a 2 1/2 year old. He sees the pump, and I just explain that I am getting milk for the baby, and he is okay with that. But tonight he wanted me to come into the living room NOW, and I told him when I was finish feeding Harrison I would come right in. His sweet little face got right up next to us and he looked at Harrison and said "baby eatin mama?" Well how do you explain that, because to anyone who does not understand the concept, yes it would look like the baby is eating me!

separation anxiety

Why is it as soon as you get rid of your child, whether it be for an hour or all day, they are all you can think of.

I need a break from like everyone else needs a break, and thanks to wonderful friends and family, I definitely get the needed breaks. But as soon as I get done what I needed to get done I am only thinking of them.

I have always been like this with Ryan. I think if I sent him to daycare, I would love to have a video of him everyday and I would watch it all night. Not to make sure they are having proper care, but to watch him interact and play.

I have always wanted to know everything he has eaten and said through out the day, everyday. I love watching him play and how he does everything. Maybe some would call it being a control freak. But I like to call it separation anxiety for the parents.

a little time alone

Yesterday morning I got to sneak out of the house for some quick errands. Oh it was such a delight, if anything just to be sitting in the car by myself. I was gone for an hour and a half. Which was AWESOME, but I was ready to be back home with my guys.

Well an hour and a half with three guys all alone in a house with no motherly supervision is, well, a little unsettling for the mother. There are just no rules or guidelines.

The house was messier than what it was when I left, and more toys and dishes every where. But all to be expected. But the one thing worth mentioning in all this is the picture above.

What is that you ask...oh just one of Harrison's poopy diapers dog handled by our wonderful loving obeying dog, Clementine! Why she finds it necessary to eat baby poop and a half a diaper I will never know, its just another one of her AWESOME traits. (now make sure you keep track of all them, because one day one I list her on Craigslist, I will need help remembering all of them!)

But hey on the bright side of everything I got out of the house by myself for 1 1/2 hours and everyone was happy when I got home, and we had an amazing day together...well except for Clem!

getting a little bit of advice

Being home on maternity leave is nice is some respects.

For Christmas Matt got me subscription to Parents magazine, knowing I loved reading them after I had Ryan. Well that was much more practical with one sweet sleeping infant. But today I was able to finish well flip through 2 of them, just reading the highlights.

I love the sections on tips from other moms, especially food/dinner tips. This certain issue has a front cover add saying “5 healthy dinners under $10 each”. Definitely a section I will be reading. Why I don’t know, I am always so disappointed with them.

See what you think, here are the 5 fab meals:

1.Cheese and Spinach Tart with Glazed Carrots
2.Beef and Veggie stir fry
3. Penne with Turkey sausage and Peppers
4.Ginger Salmon and Mashed Edamame
5.Chicken and Brown Rice Soup

Now you tell me are those family/time friendly meals…NO! In their defense, they never said either one of those things, but come on those are not practical meals for a family at all.

and then there was two!

From one child to two! I don’t think anyone being as honest as they can, can ever prepare you for this HUGE transformation your entire family is getting ready to endure.

Today has been two weeks since Harrison was born. And the first day the three of us, (me, Ryan, and Harrison) were left all alone all day with no other plans. I was not really worried, since we have done some evening and certain parts of the day by ourselves already and they went fine. But keeping a 2 ½ year old and two week old content for that long by yourself is completely impossible…don’t ever EVER let anyone tell you it can be done…because they are lying to you!

Harrison and I woke for our final night time/morning feeding around 7:30, and I told him we had to hurry before his brother woke and starts shouting demands. So that lasted 2 minutes, and we heard “mama, mama, MAMA, MAMA” so we took a break, got Ryan up and said we had to watch TV in mama’s be while I finish feeding the baby. HUGE MISTAKE. All he wants to do is jump, pull on the blind cords, and climb all over me while screaming, oh and I forgot to get him his orange juice before I started feeding Harrison again.

That is how our morning started and that was only the first 10 minutes of “FUN”!!!
The day progressed, we had no injuries, maybe some hurt neglected feelings, definitely some tears from all three of us, but we managed. Lots of movies we watched, I wonder if we will ever get out of that habit since that has been going on for 2 weeks straight now!?!

Ryan went down for his nap at 12:30, Harrison and I feel asleep around 1:30, and Matt was home by 3:30 (yay)! I woke up feeling more tired than what I started with an awful back ache from falling asleep in the recliner. But hopefully the 2 hours will add up in my sleep deprived body.

Full of joy (and milk-ouch!) that we are all home for a great evening together , I started to feed Harrison. Matt comes in and in a serious, very believable voice says “I think I found a way to earn some extra money”. I was excited, I am thinking selling video games, stuff on ebay…something reasonable. (I know, crazy thought with my husband). He goes in the other room and brings in the River front Times. For you that live around here, now all the crazy things you can do to ‘earn’ extra money. He shows me an add that says “ Now looking for lactating moms or pregnant women to fulfill spots in an porn”. Don’t I feel great now with my huge engorged feeding machines hanging out.

Now I sit on the couch watching Little Einsteins for 5 time today while Matt and Harrison rest their sweet little eyes. Oh and I can’t forget about Ryan running his airplane through my hair screaming “pat pat pat” in my ear.

a little bit of a modified Turkey Day!

This was our very last Thanksgiving as the 3 of us. And Ryan's last for all the attention. And almost the whole day was nontraditional.

I usually have Thanksgiving here for both of our families, then games and desserts. Well only having 8 weeks to go I decided for my own well being (maybe for the sake of some others too:) I was not going to cook the meal this year and we decided to go out.

We still watched/danced with the Macy's parade in the morning, we didn't get to finish it because I forgot about it when I had Loni make the reservations. We went to Blue Springs, then we went home cleaned/relaxed, then everyone came back over around 4 for games/snacks/desserts.

Ryan and daddy danced to the Rocket's.

Going out to eat sounded great in theory (and I actually enjoyed it), but Matt was not so pleased with it, and I think it actually ruined some of the day for him. The turkey they had was just regular restaurant turkey, not homemade TD turkey. And he was really upset with that, and the fact there was not left overs. Which in turn made me feel like a huge pill of poo. I didn't realize making a decision like that was going to affect people so much. But after we got over that, the day was pretty good.

We played games, Ryan even played RLC with us, he would help roll the dice and grab all of our quarters :)

Every year Jason and Loni stay the night to go shopping early the next day. After everyone left and we looked through all the ads, Loni and I decided to go to Toys'R'Us at midnight. First we went to see New Moon. Which I really liked and I have never seen the first one or read any of the books. Then we made it to Fairview Heights for Toys'R'Us. I think there we probably 5 police cars, and the line wrapped all the way around the building. It did move pretty fast I guess. We got inside, could not move, so I ditched the cart, which was the wrong thing to do since we had to hold everything for the hour and a half we stood in line. What great deals did we get you ask, I got 2 packages of diapers for $10 (I got 4), and two board games...that's it. No great deals, but we did learn on what to do and what not to do next year. Then we went to Old Navy, I got Ry a coat for $15 (org. $40), so that was definitely worth it. We got home and it was 5:30. It was definitely an experience, was it worth taking the next 48 hours to recover...I'm not sure!?!