We had our "20 week ultrasound" today - even though we are in week 21 (only 19 to go). With the holidays and such, we had to push it to this week. The baby measures just fine in all areas and no abnormalities were found. We did not find out the sex but we think she is a girl so I am going to use the she/her pronouns.
She is a touch below average size-wise which is just fine for the no-meds-would-prefer-small-baby-to-fit-through-small-hole-natural-childrearing Sharis. The ultrasound reaffirmed the due date of May 8, 2009.
Ryan was interested in what was going on during the ultrasound at first until he saw that there were wheels on the machine that was doing the ultrasound so then he just wanted to check it out.
Our technician was really nice. She divulged that she was pregnant herself but hadn't told anyone at work yet. I'm not really sure why she confided in us. I guess she isn't too good at keeping secrets.
You will notice Sharis put up a new baby countdown ticker on the right side of the blog that she found. It is pretty cool. If you click on the numbers, they change from weeks to days for both how far the pregnancy has gone, and how much there is left.
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
20 Week Ultrasound
Friday, December 19, 2008
Updates
Ryan is 17 months today (and I am 20 weeks pregnant) and I want to update our readers (if you care) but mostly just the blog in general for my own record. Being pregnant with our second has been a little more challenging thus far. Due to this, I stopped nursing Ryan when he was 15 months. I thought I'd keep it up as long as I could and it seemed the right time for both of us. My supply decreased tremendously and I think the taste changed. Ryan didn't seem to mind giving it up much. This made it really easy for me. He now loves his bottles of whole milk, which he gets before each nap (still 2 per day) and one before bed. I'm going to try goat's milk after the holidays and see what he thinks. It's easier on the system than cow's milk.
I just started to feel better at 18 weeks along and still have some less than average days here and there. At least I have some relief though! Up to now I have been tired (and quite sick) and felt guilty about this b/c I don't have the energy I want to be able to give Ryan. My days with him as my only child are now numbered and I want to soak in every moment. Finally we are able to play together again. He is growing more into a little man and getting such a cute personality. I've really enjoyed our time. Ryan stuff:
- He loves to be tickled. He'll put my hand on the bottom of his feet requesting this.
- Points to everything wanting us to tell him what it is and wants to point out things that he's enjoying to ensure we don't miss out. This gets challenging in the car on longer road trips especially.
- Loves to be chased around the house and "sneak" up on me when I'm in the kitchen and give my legs a big hug. He's such a lover.
- Stuffed animals are his favorite thing to cuddle and the most favored of these is elephant.
- He loves anything with wheels and balls. Also really enjoys pushing his umbrella stroller around the house and being pushed in either that or his wagon.
- LOVES music. We listen almost all day every day.
- Enjoys his gym and interactive classes. Very social and friendly with other kids. Has been turned down a few times on hugs for other little ones who are a little more cautious. No separation anxiety at all. He could care less if I'm in the room at these classes (in fact, I think I might cramp his style).
- He's saying a few words: mama, dada, papa, kyle, t, tractor, please...but still does a lot of signing, so that's how we communicate for the most part.
- He's a great sleeper and is down from 7 to 7 each night.
- He's a happy guy and listens to our direction pretty well. His smile and laugh are still just about the best things I've ever seen/heard. He melts my heart.
- He loves putting his toys away at night and asks for more when they are all in his toy box.
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Stop Using Internet Explorer!
About 60% of the readers of this blog still use Internet Explorer (which is the browser you use to browse the internet) and there are MAJOR security holes in that browser. (Please forgive this if I am dumbing this down to0 much but I am writing this as if my Grandma were reading it).
Here is a story from cnn.com from yesterday:
http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/djf500/200812161042DOWJONESDJONLINE000471_FORTUNE5.htm
It is MUCH safer to use Firefox instead of Internet Explorer due to these and many other security issues. I just don't want anyone having important passwords stolen.
Please switch if you can. It is fairly easy to install and you can still keep Internet Explorer on your machine, just try to avoid using it. When you install Firefox, you will have the option of porting over all your bookmarks from Internet Explorer. Don't hesitate to email me if you have any questions.
Here is the link to download Firefox:
http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Thanksgiving Football
Sophie Visits
Saturday, December 13, 2008
Thanksgiving Pizza
Another tradition that started a few years ago is for us to get together with my cousins on my Dad's side for Thanksgiving Pizza. It is a really good way for everyone to see each other over the holiday.
Aunt Trish, Nonny and Mom (and hidden is Kiley, my cousin Katie's newborn)...
Cousin Molly and her daughter Riley...
Cousin Megan and Riley...
Megan's daughter Adrienne...
Ryan trying to "hang" and race cars with the older Zack...
Ryan chillin'...
I don't know how this all came about, but at one point, someone put all the kids into Riley's crib...
Adrienne...
My cousins all have blogs and they have more pictures at their sites:
Megan's Post, Megan's Video
Molly
Friday, December 12, 2008
Thanksgiving
We DID have Thanksgiving on it's regularly scheduled day. It was SUPER good. My parents make some killer dressing. Sharis hates dressing but she requests doggie bags of this dressing she loves it so much. The turkey was 21 pounds - my Dad LOVES leftovers (although I wonder what he would say if you ask him how much he likes them now that it is 2 weeks later). I battled my brother for the wishbone and won.
My Nonny and Papa (from my Dad's side), and Uncle Tim and Cousin Eric (from my Mom's side) joined us.
When it was time for dinner, I found Ryan in the foyer reading all by himself ...
Three of the four generations ...
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Flickr MeMe - 6th Photo on the 6th Page
I saw this idea for posting that some people around the internet are doing from Thomas Hawk.
“It works like this: if you use Flickr, go to the sixth page of your photostream and pick the sixth picture there, then post it to your blog.”
This picture was taken when Sharis' whole family was in town a couple of weeks ago. We had Ryan and Andrew playing in the leaves. I have yet to blog about it. I am going to get to it when I am finished posting about our Thanksgiving week.
Macy's Christmas Display
The day after (our) Christmas, we went downtown to the annual Macy's Annual Christmas Display on the 8th Floor. This year's theme was "A Day in the Life of an Elf at Macy's SantaLand." It was VERY well done. I recommend it to anyone who is in MN over the holidays. We were lucky enough to go at the perfect time - the Monday before Thanksgiving. There were no lines. I can remember as a kid standing in line for hours to see the Santa Bear displays.
I should have taken some more pictures of the display itself. Here and here are links to pictures of the display I found on Flickr.
After the display, we went to try and see Santa who is right at the end of the display. Of course they corralled us into the shop before we got to see Santa and Ryan had to give kisses to the puppies ...
(that is one large canine!)
"Is Santa back here?"
When we finally reached Santa, Ryan cried and wouldn't sit on his lap. He was a pretty tired kid at that point but I didn't think he would be so scared of Santa. We had been showing him who Santa was all week. He even kept repeating his "Ho, Ho, Ho's." Needless to say, we didn't get a shot with Santa. We headed home for a nap instead...
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Thunder Thighs
This picture was taken by my Dad and you can see more of his pics by clicking on the picture.
Puppy Kisses
This picture was taken by my Dad and you can see more of his pics by clicking on the picture.
Football!
This picture was taken by my Dad and you can see more of his pics by clicking on the picture.
Christmas Already?
Actually, Christmas has already passed for my side of the family. We went to MN for the entire Thanksgiving week. And as tradition holds, every other year we do Christmas at Thanksgiving with whatever family we are with. Sharis and I find this solution preferable to not having Christmas at all with one of the families. It is a little odd to not have Christmas in December but my parents love the fact that most of their holiday work and Christmas shopping is done. They can now enjoy the holidays with the family they have in town.
Some of our activities included:
Making Christmas cookies ...
Riding horsies ...
Reading books ...
Trying to figure out the stairmaster ...
And we even had time for a nap or two (or in Sharis' case EVERY day) ...
Santa came and Ryan received his favorite thing in the world ... balls ...
He already knows how to grip the laces ...
He was spoiled and he wants to thank Grammy, Papa, Uncle T and Aunt Bear for the gifts ...
We hope everyone has holidays that were as special as ours.
Monday, December 1, 2008
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Roller Derby
tonight. It us quite entertaining. My grandma wanted to be a roller
girl all her life so we brought her tonight. It is a fascinating sport.
