Legal MP3's

Ryan and Sharis are away so I am going to report on some non-baby news ... gasp! For all those that only care about Ryan, stop reading now.

I am not quite sure what people's music downloading habits are, but if you buy your songs legally, Amazon.com today announced a new online music service that is trying to compete with iTunes called AmazonMP3. I am a massive Apple follower so God forbid I use anything but iTunes. But this service is the best thing so far to compete with iTunes.

The nice thing about it is that the songs don't have any digital rights management (DRM) on them so there is no software restricting you to where you use the song. Right now, most of the songs on iTunes can only be listened to on up to 5 computers that you authorize. Now, Apple has convinced a couple of record studios to start selling songs without the DRM, but they are $1.30 instead of $1.00 (they are a little higher quality as well) and not every song in their library is available without the DRM. AmazonMP3's songs remain at the $1.00 price point yet they don't quite have the selection of iTunes. However once you purchase the song on AmazonMP3, it will be imported directly into your iTunes - so your songs are still all in the same place. I think this is quite savvy on Amazon's part and they are doing things very well.

I plan on using Amazon's new service. I will first look for the song on iTunes without the DRM. If it is not there, I will search on AmazonMP3 for it. If they don't have it I will return to iTunes and purchase it with the DRM.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled Ryan programming.

All Alone

I am home alone. Sharis took Ryan to Cleveland this morning where he is getting baptized this weekend. I will meet them on Friday but they went early to spend some time with Grandma and Grandpa. They made it OK after a couple of stops. Ryan still gets riled up at times but Sharis handles it very well. My family will meets us there this weekend for a small gathering for the baptism.

Stories to Read

If you don't follow Sharis' sister and brother-in-law's blog, they have a fantastic post on Mothers. It is a must read. Mom, I marvel at what you have built.

Also, most of you have probably read Sharis' 3 hour car trip post with Ryan which involved poo spread everywhere as well as make shift diapers. But you have to read the travel story that involved Sharis' friend Sarah's child Nila and their 6 hour plane trip across the pond. I don't know how they made it.

Breaking Records

Notre dame has never been 0 and 4. We have never lost 6 games in a
row to the same team at home. It was another tough loss today. It is
not a good tome to be a Notre Dame fan. And I thought the Davie
years were bad.

Sent from my iPhone

The Rizo's

We might still be in this game

Only down 3 with 10 minutes left in the 2nd quarter. We finally were
able to run the ball on that drive.

Touchdown Jesus

Gametime

It is gorgeous down here in the Bend. I don't think we can pull off a
win but there is always hope right?

Monday, September 10

What a day! Actually Ryan was a very good boy, but Mommy may not have won any awards for her role!!

My friend Leslie and I ambitiously decided to venture on a 3 hour car trip with little Ryan to Grand Rapids. Our friend Sarah (see their blog link to the right) and her family were in town from France and we were hoping to get a visit in before they went back. Well...on the trip there we stopped for gas and Ryan got a little fussy so I decided to feed him. Turns out his fussyness was not due to hunger as much as the fact that he had charted a record blow out for his lifetime thus far! He poo'd through an outfit, a swaddle, a blanket, the kiddopotamus, and all over the car seat. And don't think for one second that the poo trail stopped there. Once I pulled him out of his seat to find this mess, I proceeded to get it on just about every clean thing that I had brought for him and myself. Luckily, we were going to Sarah's parent's house and we could do his laundry once we arrived. I, like many other mothers throughout time, resigned to wearing the poo on my jeans and smelling like a combination of that and sour milk (a perfume that I've come to realize will be with me as long as I have a little one) for the rest of the day. Sweet.



Here is a picture of Ryan explaining to Sarah's daughter, Nila, how and why Mommy smells.





Ok, so we think the worst is behind us and we head off. Ryan is being so good in the car and I am quite impressed-Leslie is too considering I prepped her for the worst. Bless her for agreeing to make the trip with us!

Well...of course we would be too lucky to do the return trip unscathed. We stop midway to load up with gas and feed Ryan again. I change him at this point and note that I have just put the last diaper on him. Oh boy. Luckily, diapers are super absorbent...onward!

Just after we got off the skyway, Ryan starts fussing. We pull over and I take him out and try to calm him. I figure he probably needs a change and sure enough the diaper is dirty. Now what?! Makeshift diaper time. I pull out a receiving blanket and fold it into a long rectangle so that he can wear it like a "maxipad". Then I take his burp cloth (which is a very thin-like you can see through it thin-cloth diaper) and tie it on each side of his hip. As Leslie was able to capture, you can see right down this concoction. Yes, the pictures below capture the final product-scary.









Basically his onesie was the only thing holding this creation together. He knows it too. He's not very happy with my decision. Can't I go commando mom?









Somehow we did make it back, but he wasn't quite as happy the rest of the way. Mommy's sorry Ryan. Next time I'll pack more diapers.

Ryan's Portrait

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Originally uploaded by flowmug

This is by far my most favorite picture of Ryan we have so far (and we have over 800). I am not trying to toot my own horn either - because I didn't even take it. This is a shot from Sharis. She has gotten quite good at capturing our child with the camera - and she hasn't taken any classes.

What is your favorite picture so far? Tell us in the comments what set it is in and what the picture's title is.

Market Records

The S & P 500 Index is 13 points below it's record high reached on
July 19 which is Ryan's birthday of course. Ryan's Grandpa Gary first
pointed this out a couple of weeks ago - I just haven't written about
it. Is this child destined for a career in the markets? No pressure.

Sent from my iPhone

Thing One, Thing Two

So this is actually thing #207 that people don't tell you about motherhood (but I've been reading a lot of Dr Seuss lately)
...a conscientious necessity to even out the girls.
That's our goal in week 10 of Ryan's young life.

Correction

I just had a lactation consultant come out because, yes folks, that's right, I'm still having nipple pain. Mind you, it has gotten alot better since I started using this all purpose nipple ointment (I don't have to take Advil every day anymore), but it's still there. Anywho, she weighed Ryan officially and he is 11lbs 2oz. Looks like our scale is a little off-weird. Though this is also good news for me because it means I don't have to loose quite as much weight to get back to my "normal" self. I've plateaued and am getting discouraged. Will my closet full of clothes that I loved ever be used again?

Diaper Wedgie

Ouch! He can't possibly ski like this!!

Business in Front, Party in Back

A friend of mine told me he thinks babies have natural mullets. Is this truly what God intended?

2 Months

Ryan's 2-month birthday is today and I did an "unofficial" weigh-in this morning. The little nugget is getting to be quite a buster at 12lbs!!

ND vs. Penn State

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Originally uploaded by flowmug

Last Saturday was Ryan's first game watch and his first party at Uncle Paul and Aunt Courtney's house. He hid any displeasure he might have had with ND's play by being very good for the entire game - of course it helped that all the ladies wanted to hold him. He was just trying to impress them by showing them how good he could be - what a flirt!

Courtney was very reluctant to share Ryan. I think by the time ND plays USC, Ryan will be bigger than Courtney.

Kisses

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Originally uploaded by flowmug

Ryan gets a lot of these every day.

Week 8

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Originally uploaded by flowmug

Week 8 photos are now up on Flickr. Click the picture to be taken to the entire set. The week isn't over so hopefully we will be adding to it.

Week 7

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Originally uploaded by flowmug

Didn't take too many pictures in Week 7. But here are the couple that we did take.

New Job

I am starting a new job tomorrow morning. The whole situation has come up kind of fast yet has taken a long time to develop. Things have not been going well at work for a couple of months now. We have tried to turn things around but to no avail.

The way I found the new gig is through a buddy that I used to work with at Archelon. He is now working at Van der Moolen and just so happens to be expanding. I am joining him and another member of his team to form a small group within Van der Moolen to build trading models to trade stocks. I am excited for the new opportunities.

All Grow'd Up

It seems like Ryan is already all grow'd up. He gets bigger every day. His feet seem huge to us. He has a new sound for us every day. He has new personality for us every day. He is a lot more alert. He looks at things a lot more and makes eye contact. He smiles and even laughs a little bit. His legs are getting stronger. He constantly moves his arms and legs. He is probably trying to learn how to use them and hasn't quite figured it out yet. He is also constantly using his tounge trying to figure out how that thing works. It's amazing how steep his learning curve is right now - even though he is trying to learn simple things like how to use his appendages and cause and effect.

Bumbo

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Originally uploaded by flowmug

He's not quite ready for his Bumbo yet but we are quite impressed by his neck strength at this point.

4 Generations

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Originally uploaded by flowmug

Ryan was able to be with his father, his grandfather and his great grandfather last weekend in MN. Both of my grandfathers were named Sherman so that is where I get my middle name from. And we wanted Ryan to carry on that name as well - so this is one of his namesakes. It would have been nice for him to meet another one of his great grandfathers from my side but we are definitely thankful that we still have one left.

Airplane Rides

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Originally uploaded by flowmug

There are a couple more photos of Ryan's first airplane experience in the Week 6 photo set.

Minnesota Trip

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Originally uploaded by flowmug

The pictures from our trip to MN are finally up on Flickr. We had a fabulous weekend. We went to Sharis' cousins wedding on Saturday and had an 85th birthday celebration for both of my grandparents on Sunday. The whole Cooley side of the family were finally able to meet Ryan.

If you click on the photo, you will be taken to the Week 6 picture set on Flickr.

Broken Air Conditioner

Our air conditioner stopped working last Thursday. Sharis was instructed by some service people to check the circuit breaker. Sure enough, the circuit breaker had been tripped. She reset it and the cool air flowed again.

But after a little while it was tripped again. So again she reset it. This went on for a day or 2 and finally we couldn't get the air to stay on.

So we had someone out to look at it today and it turns out we need a new unit. There is a problem with the condenser - it's not grounded correctly. Apparently it's not something that can be fixed very easily. So we are taking Ryan's college fund and buying him cool air - do you think it's worth it?

Thankfully the weather is not in the 90's - but low 80's is still pretty rough. So we have had Ryan's clothes off a lot of the time and have given him cold baths to try and keep him cool. I am waiting for the guys to come and install a new unit (thankfully they are doing it the same day they made the service call) while Sharis and the Little Man are in the cool confines of DePaul Church.

Game Day

This time of year is bitter sweet. I love the fact that college football and the NFL are starting - but that also marks the end of summer.

We took Ryan down to experience his first Notre Dame tailgate this weekend. I had to go to a wedding in the city by 6pm so had to head back to Chicago just before kickoff - that's right, we went all the way down there and didn't even go to the game. I didn't get as many pictures as I wanted because it was pretty hectic. There were 3 tailgates that we had to get to and Ryan was off his schedule so he was a little tired and cranky. It was also quite warm so we had a difficult time keeping him cool. Once we found some shade though he seemed to do better - despite the blaring music from the tailgate next to us.

We probably won't take him into a game this year but might try to next year. He's a little too young and will probably get startled by sudden cheering - although if we continue to play like we did Saturday, we won't have to worry about that. After catching the game on Tivo, it was a good thing we didn't stay for the game - no need to watch that debacle in person.

This is Sharis, Ryan and Sarah - a good friend of Sharis' from St. Mary's. She has a new son - Oliver - as well but we neglected to get a shot with them together.


Make sure to check out how Ryan's other baby friends around the country were spending their Saturdays:

Jackson Schneller in San Francisco - Ryan is upset because Jackson's parents let him drink beer already.

Caroline Schemerhorn wakes her Dad up early for Game Day in San Francisco

And you don't want to miss Sophie Rauenhort's brush with the law in Berkley, CA