Day 237

The kids trying to wake up Tim this morning.

Waiting in line to go through security at the airport.

Elyse left this morning.  I did her laundry last night, as I always do.  That's always the worst part of her visits, packing her suitcase.  Usually when she gets in she is so excited to show me everything she brought so we sit together and she goes through her suitcase and carry on to show me what she has.  I sit and wonder which outfits she will be wearing while she's here.  During the Summer, I unpack her suitcase and put everything into her dresser.  I get so excited and am so happy thinking about all the time we will be spending together.  While she's here, I spend every single minute with her.

My heart hurts as I pack her suitcase.  I've said it a million times, but it really, really sucks to have to share a child.  It is something that I will never have Ryan do.  Elyse is so sweet.  When she came down this summer, she was so excited about being a big sister.  She went into Ryan's room with me and I showed her everything.  The night before I had Ryan, she was a little sad that she wasn't going to be able to spend the whole day with us while we were at the hospital.  Her face was so happy when she came to visit us that morning.  She had to leave the room as I was giving birth, but she came back shortly after.  She was begging my mom to bring her back to our room to see Ryan.  Her face was priceless.  She was there to watch Ryan have his first bath & even got to be the first person to brush his hair.  Ever since he's been born she has been so good to him.  When he was brand new she would get so excited to see what Ryan was wearing.  When he was napping in his pack n play, she would walk over to him and stare at him.

I love so many things about Elyse.  The way her she raises her eyebrows when she smiles without showing her teeth, the way she sticks her tongue out on the side of her mouth when she's writing, putting saltine crackers in bowls when she eats them, the way she snuggles up on her Daddy when he's sitting on the couch, how wide her mouth opens when she laughs, the way she talks to and plays with Ryan all the time, asking me what she should wear in the mornings, her laugh, listening to her read, her little toes, coming out of the bath with her hair covering her face, asking for tortilla soup and rice w/ butter.  Maybe I'll add more tomorrow :)

I hate saying bye to her.  I hate having her for such short periods of time.  I hate going months and months without seeing her.  I miss her =(

Day 236

Last night, Kylie spent the night with us.  Elyse has been wanting her to come over since Wednesday when she wasn't able to come to Pump It Up.  The girls had much fun at their sleep over.  They were playing school and one of their "About Me" papers said, "I wish..." & Elyse filled it out and made it say, "I wish to see Bubby more."  I sure wish that too.

Ryan has been loving to pull all of his books off the book shelf lately.  He was pulling them all off and Elyse was reading them all to him.  I was sitting in his room just listening to her read and watchiny Bubby pull off books from the book shelf.

Day 235

Elyse & Ryan playing in Ryan's room.  Elyse had gotten that scrapbook from her Grandma a while back, however, she is never here long enough to fill it out.  So she started filling it out today.  It even came with a small book that you are supposed to fill out for your American Girl doll, she was filling it out for Ryan :)

Today we were talking and she said, "It's my second to last day today, I wish it was my fourth to last."  Boo.

My family <3

Day 234

Took the kids to Pump It Up again.  I love that place!!!  Elyse is too crazy to take pictures of while she's running all around.  We were supposed to meet her cousin, Kylie, there, but that didn't work out as planned.

My babies are so sweet.  I love playing all day, everyday.

Day 233

Get me out of my crib, Momma!

Elyse reading a book to Ryan.

Nerf guns w/ Daddy.  Not sure who won.

Eating some bananas and carrots from Sissy's restaurant.

My delicious dinner, made by Elyse!  P.S Carrot, apple, and vanilla yogurt milkshakes are pretty good!

Day 232

Today:

1. Ryan woke up in the morning and from a nap standing up in his crib! <3

2.  Ryan got his first bloody nose at Bookmans =(  He fell onto the floor when he was standing on an ottoman.

3.  Bubby's first time @ Pump It Up!  Love that place.

4. Pizza for Dinner & Yogi Bear the movie.

Day 231

The kids checking out their baskets from the Easter bunny.  Elyse waited upstairs for 2 hours for Ryan to wake up!  Finally, at 9:15- I just woke him up so she could see her Easter basket.  That's why Ryan looks so sleepy!

Easter egg hunt!  Elyse went around and found most of the eggs while Ryan ate his bottle.  She did save some from him.  Ryan is really good at imitating if you show him how it's done.  We picked up an egg and dropped it into the basket.  Then Ryan crawled to each egg and dropped them in Elyse's basket.  It was so cute!  He's getting so big.  We all went to church.  Ryan was talking the whole time before the services start, so he got to experience the nursery for the first time.

Next we had Easter @ Tim's mom's house.  Easter egg hunt, dinner, and some kite flying!

Day 230

Learning the story of Jesus.

Easter egg hunt.

Mommy, Sissy, & Bubby.

We had a good day.  After breakfast we went to an Easter egg hunt at a church that is right down the street from our house.  They have had the sign up for a month, and I've been looking forward to it ever since.  The egg hunt was fun, free otter pops and popcorn.  There were jumping castles, which we didn't stay for, but we did go down the big slide!

When we got back to our house, my grandparents and parents had just gotten into town.  They came to spend the weekened with us.  Love them so much.  Happy they drove the 4 hours to come spend time with my family <3  Bubby had to take a nap.  My mom, Grandma, and I worked on Ryan's birthday banner.  I've been planning his birthday for 2 months now!  I told my mom my idea for Ryan's birthday banner- she went out and bought the materials and has been making it, so I was happy to help her this weekend.  We got [almost] all the pieces cut out.  I can't wait to see it when it's finally done!

We had lunch at Sweet Tomatos & Tim's mom met us there.  Gave Ryan some macaroni noodles, which he didn't care for.  But Elyse loved the macaroni & cheese.  Of course.  We went to Tim's mom's house to dye eggs.  Came home a little late and had a very cranky baby, who had lots of trouble falling asleep.  I had to snuggle him for a little while.

Elyse laid in bed with me before bed and we read books together.  Makes me so happy.  2 years ago when she came out for the summer, we spent so many nights together laying in bed & reading books, waiting for Tim to come home. 

I love my babies.

Day 229

She's finally here <3

Ryan couldn't stop staring at her!  He only slept tonight for about half an hour before we had to leave to the airport to pick her up!  & He didn't go back down until about 20 minutes ago.  I hope he still sleeps well.  & maybe even sleep in!

Today, Tim & I went to Target to get some new bedding for Elyse.  She likes her new blue comforter.  I'm redoing the letters in her room too.  She doesn't really like pink and purple anymore.  She picked out 5 different colors, hopefully I finish tomorrow.

Tim & E are down stairs playing with her Pet Shop cards.  I'm ready for bed.

Day 228

Ryan slept in this morning until 8:30!  How nice.  I got to sleep in 2 hours longer than usual for a week day!

We had a lunch date with a girl who works at my school, Christine and her two kids, Sam & Hannah.  We went to Pizza Hut!  Ryan had so much fun playing with the kids & the kids loved him too.  We came home and took a 2 hour nap.  So relaxing!  I love naps.  Did some laundry and vacuuming.  Took Ryan to the mall to see the Easter bunny.  When I gave him to the Easter bunny, Ryan had a look on his face like he was going to cry.  Then it went away and he just kept looking at the Easter bunny, wondering what the heck it was.  He wouldn't smile for the camera!  But he's still cute :)

Day 227

Playing under the kitchen table.

Getting into his toy box.  My favorite little toes.

Today was my last day of work! Kind of.  Thur-Mon is Easter break.  & I'm taking off Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday of next week to spend time with Elyse.  I only work on Wednesdays for 3 hours, so I'll just go to work instead of make sub plans!

Ryan had a doctor appointment today at 1:30.  He is 16 lbs 7 oz!  He has gained 1 lbs 10 oz in the past 5 weeks!  Geez. He is 26 3/8 inches long and his head was 44 1/2 cm.  He's getting big!  Right when I layed him on the scale he started screaming.  He was so wiggly, he rolled over and started crawling.  It's not so fun to see him cry.  Ryan never cries.  Well- barely ever, unless he lands on his face when he's standing up or something.  He just is not a fan of the scale at the doctors.  I picked him up after she weighed him and he stopped crying. 

We left the doctors to go to Baby Time at the library, but my car wouldn't start!  Boo.  So we had to call Tim & by the time he got there and jumped my car, it was already 2:15 and we wouldn't have made it in time.  I've missed the past 3 weeks.  Ryan and I both really like going.  Plus, I love talking to other mommies.  So instead of Baby Time, we went to Frys to grocery shop and pick up some of Elyse's favorite snacks.  Can't wait to see her on Friday!!!

Day 226

So sweet.

Day 225

Getting his own toys from his toy box...

Making meses..

Refusing to wear his bib at dinner time.  He pulled it off twice.

He's my little monster.

Day 224

Ryan's third walk of the day.  He was so whiney and wanted to be held all day. Yet he is perfectly content whenever he goes for walks!  He was even relaxing with his leg up!

Ryan climbed up onto the side of the tub for the first time tonight.  He's been trying ever since he's been getting baths in the big bathtub.  He usually gets one hand up and then gets on his knees and gives up.  Today he got both hands up and stood up!  Almost gave me a heart attack.  It's too slippery to be standing in the tub when you're wobbly.

Day 223

We bought Ryan a little baby pool at Target today.  It was only $5.  It's getting so hot already and I thought he would love it.  Plus I was excited to finally put him in his bathing suit!  He loved it, I kept trying to sit him down, but he wanted to crawl over to the edge of the pool and hang half way in and half way out.  He liked playing witht the water that was on the patio.

His little flops are still too big, but gosh- they are so cute.  I made him wear them for the picture.  He kept trying to bend down and play with them.  "What are these things mom?"

After bathtime I brought Ryan into my room and he was laying on the floor playing with his monitor.  I was on Blogspot reading Another Day Stronger, when I noticed from the corner of my eye on his knees & moving.  I put down the computer and sure enough, he was crawling to get his monitor!  I ran downstairs to get Tim to show him.  We were so excited!  Ryan has been crawling on his tummy for over a month now.  He gets up on his hands and knees, but before he moves he always plops back down to his tummy.   He gets up on his knees to play with something he can't reach or to stand up on things.  But he has never crawled on his knees before.  I was clapping and kissing Ryan.  Haha.  Love when he does new stuff!!

One of my fears as a working mom was that I would miss out on all of Ryan's firsts.  However, I have been the one to witness his first smile, laugh, roll from tummy to back, roll from front to back, sitting up, swimming crawl, army crawl, and now his real crawling.  Makes me happy.  The other day when Ryan first climbed to stand up on something (standing up straight, not leaning halfway over like he does on his bouncer)  Tim did see it first, but I was standing in the kitchen and I moved so I could see too.  Being a parent is so amazing.  I love to share all these firsts with Tim.  He gets just as excited as I do!

Day 222

Ryan trying to be sneaky and crawl from his room into Elyse's.

Day 221

Today Ryan was climbing up onto everything.  First he climbed up onto the coffee table and was just laying on the bottom part of it.  Then he was crawling over to the ottoman thing for my rocker and was climbing onto that.  Then he climbed up onto the couch to stand up!  He has never pulled himself up onto the couch.  He has never even been interested in crawling over to the couch.  He is such a big boy.  I put the camera lens cap on the other end of the couch and slowly but surely, he was moving his little feet and hands to walk down there to grab that.

Ryan is at the point where he wears his diaper half the time when he is eating his dinner.  He gets so messy.  He wants to feed himself and flops his arms all over getting food everywhere.  Today when I was giving him a bath he had food in his neck creases and on the back of his neck and in his hair.  When I finally put him in the tub and rinsed him off there were food particles floating in the tub.  Gross.

Before bed, I was brushing Ryan's teeth with his little rubber tooth brush.  He wanted to play with it, so I let him and he was chewing on it.  I took it away and he wasn't happy...

Gave it back, and he started chewing away.

Missing on sissy.

Day 220

Ryan always has his feet up on everything.  He was drinking his bottle and kept sticking his feet up on his bouncer.  He would not let me hold him tonight while he was drinking his bottle.  He was going crazy squriming all around so I let him lay on the floor and I laid next to him.  He is a monster already.

Day 219

9

Hanging with my baby.  Can you tell Daddy dressed him in stripes and plaid?  I haven't taken too many pictures the past few days.  I need to get better at that!

Taken on Sunday at the park!