2 weeks old

Our second week of being parents has been just as busy as the first!

I spent the last part of last Friday night extremely stressed out, as I realized that Ryan needed to have a professional photographer with an actual studio to do her newborn pictures. I looked all over the internet and had some great suggestions from friends. I was stressed because everyone wanted to charge an arm and a leg for the amount of pictures I was wanting. After hours of pulling my hair out and being pushed to the brink of a meltdown, I finally found a girl about an hour away that could do them for me ASAP, and at a totally REASONABLE price!! I was SO relieved and I felt like I had just won the lottery.

Saturday was a big day for us....it was the start of Georgia Football!! Ryan is still too small to fit in the 0-3 month Georgia onesies we bought for her, so I cut off the bottom of one and made it into a t-shirt for her. She paired her new shirt with some tiny red shorts, and she watched the game with daddy and mommy. The Dawgs won, of course...they were playing Louisiana-Lafayette...not a big game for us.

She is the CUTEST!!

Saturday evening, we drove up to Gainesville for Ryan's newborn photo shoot. As we took our exit off of the interstate, we were so envious of the beautiful countryside as we drove to the photographer's house. As we pulled up to the old rustic house, my eyes lit up! I could tell that this was going to be RIGHT up my alley!! Whitney, the photographer, was sitting on her front porch swing and greeted us warmly before taking us up the winding staircase to her studio. The house and studio were both GORGEOUS - I could not have decorated it better myself! Whitney was so sweet and patient, as it took Ryan over an hour to fall asleep for her "sleeping beauty" photos. Ryan projectile-pooped all over Whitney's hand and blanket, and she just said "oh-she pooped! No big deal!" We eventually stopped trying to get her to go down, and just took some awake shots. But after a couple of bottles, countless songs, stories, and lots of bouncing, she FINALLY went to sleep!! We got the most adorable pictures. They were JUST what I was wanting, and then some. I can not wait to get the disc of all of the photos so I can share them all with you....as well as plaster every wall in this house with them!!

I haven't gotten the disc of pictures from Ryan's photo shoot yet, but here are a few shots that the photographer shared with me on Facebook...

Ryan was such a beautiful model that Whitney asked us to come back later in the week to model some new hats for her....I was thrilled at the chance to get more beautiful pictures of our wonderful little girl while she is still this tiny!

Hat modeling

Sunday, we took Ryan to church to show her off. We have found a great little church out in Grayson that we have started attending, and are planning on staying at. It is quite small for around here, more like what I am used to back home. Everyone was so excited to see her! So many people came over to meet her and tell her how pretty she was. Some very nice people brought a big box of food for us, and then they took us out to lunch with several other people from the church! We had a really good time. We really like the people of this church - everyone is very sincere, not fake or superficial. Just good ole' nice people. They have already asked Dave, Ryan and I to be Joseph, Mary and Jesus in the Christmas program!! We are excited to do it! I will have a singing part, but dave and Ryan won't have any lines. Yes...Ryan will be playing a baby boy...I don't think she will mind....I mean, it's JESUS!

The first Sunday of each month, they have "Kid's Moment" at church, where they call all of the children up to the front and do something with them. This past Sunday, a man read "The Cost of Raising a Child"....it was amazing! Me, still being a smidge hormonal, had to fight back tears as he read it...it was so very sweet and Ryan was sleeping peacefully on my chest and I just started thinking about her growing up....sigh. Anyhow, I found it on the internet, and I wanted to share it with you all....

The Cost of Raising a Child...

The government recently calculated the cost of raising a child from birth to 18 and came up with $160,140.00 for a middle income family. Talk about price shock! That doesn’t even touch college tuition.

BUT $160,140.00 isn’t so bad if you break it down. It translates into:
- $8,896.66 a year,
- $741.38 a month,
- $171.08 a week,
- A mere $24.24 a day!
- Just over a dollar an hour.

Still you might think the best financial advice is: don’t have children if you want to be ‘rich.’ Actually, it is just the opposite.

What do you get for your $160,140.00?
- Naming rights. First, middle and last!
- Glimpses of God every day.
- Giggles under the covers every night.
- More love than your heart can hold.
- Butterfly kisses and velcro hugs.
- Endless wonders over rocks, ants, clouds and warm cookies.
- A hand to hold usually covered with jelly or chocolate.
- A partner for blowing bubbles and flying kites.
- Someone to laugh yourself silly with, no matter what the boss said or how your stocks performed that day.

For $160,140.00, you never have to grow up.

You get to:
- Finger-paint
- Carve pumpkins
- Play hide-and-seek
- Catch lightening bugs
- Never stop believing in Santa Claus

You have an excuse to:
- Keep reading the Adventures of Piglet and Pooh
- Watch Saturday morning cartoons
- Go to Disney movies, and
- Wish on stars

You get to frame rainbows, hearts and flowers under refrigerator magnets and collect spray painted noodle wreaths for Christmas, hand prints set in clay for Mother’s Day, and cards with backward letters for Father’s Day.

For a mere $24.24 a day, there is no greater bang for your buck.

You get to be a hero just for:
- Retrieving a frisbee off the garage roof
- Taking the training wheels off a bike
- Removing a splinter
- Filling a wading pool
- Coaxing a wad of gum out of bangs, and
- Coaching a baseball team that never wins, but always gets treated to ice cream regardless.

You get a front row seat in history to witness the:
- First step
- First word
- First bra
- First date
- First time behind the wheel

You get to be immortal. You get another branch added to your family tree, and if you’re lucky, a long list of limbs in your obituary called grandchildren and great grandchildren. You get an education in psychology, nursing, criminal justice, communications, and human sexuality that no college can match.

In the eyes of a child, you rank right up there under God. You have all the power to heal a boo-boo, scare away monsters under the bed, patch a broken heart, police a slumber party, ground them forever, and love them without limits so one day they will, like you, love without counting the cost.

It’s the best investment you’ll ever make.

-- Authur Unknown --

Sunday evening we took Ryan and the boys to the park. We go out to one of the lakes at the park and let Grimm and Tonka swim for a bit...well, Grimm swims, Tonka wades. We find a big stick to throw and Grimm swims way out to retrieve it. He loves it. After the boys have had a chance to release some energy, we walk around the entire loop of the park, which is 3.5 miles. It is a great walk, very pretty. Ryan never even knew we went anywhere...she slept the ENTIRE time.

Monday morning, Dave let me sleep in! He likes to get up and cook himself breakfast and piddle around the house in the mornings, so he and Ryan did that while I caught up on my sleep. That afternoon, our friend Mikey was having people over to play volleyball at his house, so we took Ryan with us to show her off. Daddy played several games of volleyball while Ryan and I watched from the shade. Ryan was so good the whole time we were there! She really likes the warm weather, and she slept in my lap for almost 4 hours.

Tuesday, Dave went back to work. I was very sad to send him off, to say the least. Not only is he the biggest help and best daddy in the world, but I just really enjoy having him home. I miss him so much when he is at work all day. We missed him too much, so Ryan and I drove out to his work to see him! He was so excited to show off his new baby girl to his friends and coworkers. He carried her around the whole time as we walked around to the different departments. Before we left, the Engineers all got together and gave us a gift card to Babies 'R' Us!!

After going to daddy's work, Ryan got to go to the grocery store for the fist time. She needed some more formula, diapers and wipes, and a few other things. That night, I didn't get to bed until around midnight, and Ryan decided to be wide awake around 2:00 am...I got up with her for as long as could, but no matter what I did, she would not go back to sleep. At 5:00, I realized that I had only had 2 hours of sleep and it was really wearing on me. I wanted to do all of the night time stuff myself, so that Dave could be well rested for work. I hated to do it, but at 5:00, I had to wake Dave up and give Ryan to him. I was too tired to walk around with her anymore! He didn't mind at all, and told me that I should have woken him up much sooner, but I just feel like I have "failed" if I don't get her back to sleep myself. So far, she is a little confused on her days and nights...her most active time is from 2-5 am and she sleeps the hardest from 2-5 pm. But that is okay, she is new at this! She will get the hang of it, mommy and daddy just have to hang in there a little linger :)

Daddy feeding his baby girl

Wednesday morning, I was pretty frazzled because I woke up 30 minutes later than what I really wanted. I was running around like crazy trying to get everything done that I needed to do. We had to drive to Gainesville for another photo shoot, which we were very excited about. Ryan was pushing the age limit for a newborn shoot...it is best to do before 10 days old, and she was 12. I got her to go to sleep by rocking her on the photographer's porch swing outside in the warm weather. She was so good for 2 or 3 poses, but then she woke up. She wasn't really fussy, just wide awake. The photographer was able to do a picture of Ryan in a big crock of mine for me...it is probably one of my favorite pictures of all time. Ryan was awake for it, but I kind of think that makes it way better. She has such pretty eyes!

Wednesday night, our good friends Russ and Molly came over with their 3 year old son, Max. They were excited to meet Ryan, and Molly cooked us all dinner! It was so very sweet, and we had a great time catching up.

My mom has been sick for a week, and the doctor cleared her to be around Ryan on Thursday. Thursday morning, mom came over and was so happy to get to see Ryan! We took her to the Yellow Daisy Festival at Stone Mountain Park. It is a huge festival where everything sold has to be completely handmade...right up our alley!! Ryan was the star of the show - everyone who walked by her stroller would look at her and as they were passing, we heard them say things like "that's a brand new baby" or "how sweet and tiny". Tons of people asked about her and wanted to know how old she was....13 days and at her first festival!! I bought a piggy bank for Ryan's room...I have been wanting to get her one so badly, but all of the ones that they sell in stores are stark white, or pink, or polka dotted...just not something that would go in her room very well. But I found a hand thrown piggy at the festival that is just PERFECT. Love it!!

The perfect piggy bank!

Mom and I gave Ryan a bath, and Dave went to bed early, since Ryan has been having some trouble sleeping at night. Mom stayed over late to watch Project Runway with me and help with Ryan while I did a few chores. Mom had Ryan in a deep sleep and I put her in her cradle as mom went home. I was finishing a few things up around the house and I heard Ryan make a few noises. I went in to check on her, and I could tell that she was about to wake up, so I picked her up to try to soothe her back to sleep. I heard some noises in the garage, and had to wake Dave up to check it out...I am completely paranoid about people trying to break in...anyhow, it was a good thing Dave went to bed so early...he checked out the garage, and of course all was well, but just as he was coming back in the house, Ryan started WAILING!! We had never heard her cry like this before...she was completely inconsolable and I was almost in tears because I felt so bad for her. Dave figured out that it was gas, and told me that she was okay. She sounded so pitiful, and it is just heart breaking to hear your baby hurting like that and there is just nothing you can do about it. She cried hysterically for over 20 minutes, but had a few good poots, and eventually calmed down.

Friday morning, I got up in the morning with Ryan, and texted mom to see if she would stop at CVS on her way over to pick up some gas drops. She did, and she gave them to Ryan, and she seemed to really like them. Mom basically took care of Ryan all afternoon. She let me catch up on some sleep and clean up the house. Nana B stopped by to see Ryan, and then my brother John and his daughter, Aurora stopped by as well.

Around 5:00, Dave's mom got into town. Grandma and Grandpa Mark were very excited to meet Ryan. Grandma couldn't wait to hold her! We showed off her room and I made some dinner. We have the in-laws here with us until Monday morning, so we have a big weekend ahead! We are taking them to the Yellow Daisy Festival as well. Hopefully we have nice weather!

Grandma

So that was our 2nd week with little Ryan. Time flies!!!

Have a great week!!

~the Sullivans