Well, it has been a very long time since I have paid any attention to this poor blog. Understandably, I have had my hands full! Taking care of our little Ryan is a full time job! So much has been going on, that when I do get a free minute or two, blogging is the farthest thing from my mind.
Ryan had her first Halloween. She was a skunk, and it was absolutely adorable. It was so much cuter in person than any of the pictures can possibly show. I could just imagine her getting up and scampering around like a little Pepe LePew, complete with fun sound effects, but unfortunately she can't walk yet and it never happened...it played out many many times in my head though. We carved pumpkins like we do every year, gave out candy to trick-or-treaters and had some home made vegetable beef stew at mom's house. No big annual Halloween party at the Sullivan house this year. Too much going on to throw something like that together. We did, however, get half of our pumpkins stolen from the front yard, leaving me FUMING. We took Ryan up to a pumpkin patch to get some pictures in her skunk outfit as well.
Daddy carved Ryan her very own punkin...
At the pumpkin patch
My Halloween outfit
Ryan also had her first Thanksgiving. We did it at mom's house this year. We stripped her down, sat her in her highchair and plopped some mashed potatoes on her tray for her to play with, but she never really took to them. We would put some on our fingers and put it in her mouth, but most of the potatoes ended up on her chest. She really liked the gravy however. She was a good sport about all of it and let me get some super cute pictures.
Playing with my food
Bashful
Thanksgiving nap after all of that food!
Thanksgiving ended up being a really horrible day for Dave and I. We found out that a good friend of ours died in a horrible car accident the day before Thanksgiving. We went to his brother's house that evening to hang out with friends, and to offer support to the family. It still doesn't seem real. I won't get too into it, because I want this post to stay positive...
Black Friday was also a hard day. We didn't get on the road until later than I would have liked, and ended up getting to the outlet mall around 1:00. I have never had a bad experience on Black Friday, but my nerves were shot and people just seemed 1000 times more rude to me because of the baby stroller. I ended up crying on Dave's shoulder in the middle of the mall.
Our tradition is to stop at the Christmas tree farm on the way home from the outlet mall on Black Friday to cut our own tree, but it was cold and rainy, the baby was tired and I was fried, so we just came on home. I never really got in the mood to get a tree, so I sent Dave out on his own to get one....that's right...I didn't go. He picked one out all by himself. He did a really great job too. All of the tree lots around here only carry Douglas Firs, which aren't my favorite, but as far as Douglas Firs go, Dave got a good one :) It took a couple of days to get it lit and decorated, but the task was finally completed, and Ryan just loved to look at it.
Ryan got a package in the mail one day with a sweet little sheep ornament in it from Aunt Heather, Uncle Shaun, and her cousins Seth and Brady. She "put it on the tree herself".
Ryan was baby Jesus in the Christmas Program at our church. She LOVES going to church. She really likes the music and singing, plus she gets to wear fancy dresses and she LOTS of attention. Dave and I were Joseph and Mary in the Program. I sang a solo and Dave just had to gaze at me and the baby lovingly :) Ryan was SO good the whole time! During the first 4 songs, Jesus hadn't been born yet, so Dave had her in the back of the church. Them the 5th song was my solo I sang as a pregnant Mary and a lady in the church held Ryan in the back while Dave came out to get me to take me to "give birth". At the end of my song, I walked out of the sanctuary, took my baby bump off, grabbed the baby Jesus, and we had to walk up the aisle as a family while the choir sang. Ryan had fallen asleep while she was in the back, and she slept through half of the play. When she woke up, her eyes SHOT open and she had an extremely mad look on her face...she had slept though her 2 favorite parts - the angels dancing in their flowy white gowns, and her friend Mr. Moe singing a solo. She was visibly upset, but she contained herself and never cried. She was awake for the rest of the Program, and she was perfect the whole time (fitting, since she was portraying Jesus, haha). After the Program, I think that every single person in attendance came up to see her and tell her how good she was! Lots of people said that she was such a good baby, and the best baby Jesus that they had ever seen! Several guests asked how old "he" was, and they were surprised to learn that this Jesus was a girl!
Ryan got to go see Santa at our church. She sat on his lap and let me get a few pictures...
Ryan had a good first Christmas. Daddy got us an ornament that is a little silver shoe with Ryan's name, birthday, birth weight and length on it and it says "Baby's First Christmas". We will keep it always!
We got up on Christmas morning and had Ryan open a very special present first thing...it was a pink Bebe Pod seat, which helps her sit up by herself! She sat in her seat for quite a while and opened some gifts and watched us open a few. Ryan enjoyed the shiny bows on packages the most. I tried to put lots of curly ribbons on her presents so she could grab at them with her hands. She would actually rip the wrapping paper herself, but we had to help her get the gift out. Besides her seat, she got the book Goodnight Moon and a few toys. She got lots of clothes and toys from the Illinois and North Carolina families.
New seat!
New penguin friend!
New whale friend!
My Weebles!
We went to my parent's house in the afternoon and Ryan got more gifts there. Her favorite so far is a little mermaid girl that was in her stocking. We gave her a sample of baby food at dinner - peaches, of course, for a little Georgia Girl! She did okay eating it, but again, her favorite was the gravy. I didn't give her very much as to not upset her little tummy!
Merry Christmas from the Sullivans!
It started snowing in the afternoon on Christmas, and left several inches on the ground the next day. We suited up the baby in her little snow suit and went outside for 10 minutes or so, just to snap a few pictures of Ryan's first snow day!! She didn't love it, nor did she hate it...she just cooperated for the pictures, never really smiling, never crying.
Me and Mommy
My brothers are so handsome!
My Daddy is handsome too!
Two days after Christmas, Ryan had her 4 month visit at the doctor. She has grown so much!! She was very good for the doctor, but she had to get 2 shots, and of course she did not like it. It was much easier than last time, though. She cried for a few minutes, but was pretty much okay by the time we got in the car, and she was out like a light after we got on the road. She felt fine for the rest of the day, maybe just a little worn out from the crying. The doctor said that she is pretty advanced and is doing a lot of things that are considered 6 month milestones.
Ryan is getting so big. She weighs 15 lbs, 11 oz. She is 24 inches long (that's 2 whole feet!) And her head was 42 cm around.
The doctor gave us the green light to start cereal and baby food. I mixed up some cereal for her, and there really wasn't much to it and she didn't really like it. She didn't get upset about it, she just wouldn't swallow it. The directions on the box have you thin it out with formula so much that it is basically like trying to feed her formula with a spoon...it ended up all down her front side. Dave and I made her some cereal 2 more times, but we kept getting the same results.
Cereal is not very good
So after some poking around on the internet, we decided to go ahead with baby food and just skip the cereal phase...lots of people on the internet said they did the same thing and that cereal really doesn't have a much nutritional value anyhow, it is just filler and apparently a lot of babies don't like it.
We stripped Ryan down and sat her in her Pod seat, since she is still small and kind of slumps over in her high chair. We gave her sweet potatoes, and she could not eat them fast enough!! She LOVED them! (I didn't think they were so bad either, haha!) She would actually grab the spoon out of my hand and SHOVE it in her mouth! The first time she ate baby food, it went everywhere...she likes to stick her hands in her mouth while she still has food in there, so it gets all over her hands, and from her hands it goes to her eyes, cheeks, legs, hair, chest, and Pod seat! We are all starting to get the hang of the baby food now, and the ratio of food IN her belly compared to the food ON her belly is much, much better now! She has had sweet potatoes, peaches, and peas....and can you believe that PEAS are her favorite, and PEACHES are her least favorite?!?! I think that the peaches are a bit sour for her. But she sure does love her peas! Hardly ANY peas get spilled or spit out! This makes me so happy that she likes her veggies!!
Sweet potatoes!!
Yes, they are good!
Ryan is so much fun and can do so many things! She is using her hands - she can grab a toy in front of her and shake it or bring it up to her mouth. She can also move a toy from one hand to the other. She still doesn't have a lot of interest in rolling over (I think she could if she wanted to though) but she can lay on her tummy and lift herself all the way up with her arms and hold her head up and look at you. She will sit in her highchair for a half hour or so and play with a toy on her tray. She will look at you when you talk to her and she recognizes Mommy and Daddy's voices. She giggles and "talks" a lot. She will lay in her crib and have an entire conversation with her hands. Oh, and she sucks her thumb...great. I am not very happy about that, but we will break her of it before she gets too big! She drools constantly, so she has to wear bibs. She likes the sound of laughter, and she is still in LOVE with music! She still likes Justin Bieber, but she likes bluegrass now, anything with a BANJO!! She still loves her bath time, and we had to take out the "baby bumper" in the bottom, so now she just sits in the whale tub with no seat. She can stand up from a seated position all on her own, you just have to hold her hands for balance. She loves to stand - she is SO strong, she just doesn't have the balance down yet, so you still have to hold onto her.
She likes beards - she likes to touch daddy's beard, and our friends Mikey Sullo and Mike Conkin both have some facial hair and she just loves to look at them and smile. She can focus on objects. She likes to look at the dogs, Brother Grimm will let her pet him on the head, and Brother Tonka still gives her lots of kisses. She is going through a "Daddy Phase" right now, where if she is upset, nothing will do except Daddy. She goes to sleep on him much faster than she will on me. She typically wakes up pretty happy, and when you walk up to pick her up, she smiles, smiles, smiles when she sees your face.
She is in 3-6 month clothes, but will move on to 6 month clothes very soon! We had to do an emergency trip to the store the day after Christmas because she woke me up in the middle of the night and she was VERY upset about something. I took her to change her diaper and her back was soaking wet! Her diapers were just too small, so we had to run out and get the next size up.
After her nap one day several weeks ago, I found her with her head squished up in the corner of her cradle with her little body all cock-eyed staring at me as if to say "GET ME OUT OF HERE!" So after that, I went straight to the store to get her some sleep sacks and I put her sleep positioner in the cradle. I am petrified of SIDS, so no more blankies in the cradle with her and she has to sleep in her positioner, which keeps her from rolling over or wiggling around too much in her sleep.
For Ryan's first New Years Eve, we stopped and got a few sparklers and some Megamillions tickets (Dave informed me that we did not win by telling me that he would be going back to work next week...boo) The 3 of us went out to eat with our friends Mike and Jayme Conkin, who will have a little one of their own next year for Ryan to play with!! Hooray for playmates! After dinner, we came home and lit a few sparklers for Ryan - she liked to look at them, but didn't quite know what to think. She just stared blankly, never smiled, never cried. She fell asleep around 10:30, but Mommy and Daddy stayed up to see the ball drop, and went straight to bed after midnight!
Hmmm...what is that?
Sparklers!
Well, that pretty much brings us up to date. Here are just some fun pictures...
What a face!
Checking out her crocheted dress from Grandma Judy
We have had Daddy home from work with us since Christmas Eve, and he goes back on the 4th. We have LOVED having him home and are going to miss him horribly when he has to go back :( He has been a big help around the house, and we have gotten a lot of things done that have been on our "To-Do" list for a long time now.
~the Sullivans
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