3 Months

Happy 3 Month Birthday to my beautiful baby girl!!  Here are a few highlights of Ry's life right now:

• Ry sleeps for 5-7 hour stretches.  Usually from 11p-6a.  
• Mommy is still in the bad habit of letting Ry snuggle in the big bed after she eats in the morning.  (It will stop when Momma goes back to work in 2 days.
• Ry still wears a size 1 pamper and 0-3 clothes.  A few of her one pieces are starting to get a bit short.
• At Ry's 10 Week (2 month) appointment she weighed 10lbs1oz, and 24 inches long.  These were the 10th and 96th percentiles.  Her head circumference was 67%.  She gets her big noggin from her Dad!
• At 13 Weeks Ry weighed 11lbs5oz.
• Kipu ate 4 pacis this month.
• Ry loves to be held in a standing position.
• Ry waits an average of 4 days between poops.  When she goes - it's a blowout.  Every.Single.Time.
• She is starting to hold things like rattles and her chain links.
• She has a huge bald spot on the back of her head from constantly shaking it from side to side.  She has been doing this since we brought her home from the hospital.  
• We love her like crazy.

 

Long Day

Today was a long day.  It started with a trip to Ry's Pediatrician (who I really like) to get Ry's case of the sniffles checked out.  I think the main diagnosis was a case of over dramatic Momma Syndrome.  When we were getting ready to go to the doctor Ry gently reminded me that today was our last day for an adventure before I went back to work.  It was also brought to my attention that I had never taken her to the Pheasant Lane Mall even though I promised I would, so Ry and I spent the better part of the afternoon walking the mall.

We also stopped by  BuyBuyBaby to replace the 9th paci that Kipu ate.


Feeling a little blue about this being the last of our shopping extravaganzas I decided to splurge and pick up The First Years Kick 'n Coaster I had been eyeing for weeks now. (All was good on the splurging front cause Daddy came home from work with a raise and a promotion! Yay Daddy!!!) Ry is really starting to enjoy her toys... here are a few videos of her favorites including her new Coaster!

Ry's swing has been a life saver. Lately she has taken quite an interest in her "friends" on the mobile.

First time in her exersaucer

Still a little too short

Today stinks.

Today is Ry's second trial day at daycare. We skipped sending her for a day last week due to the fact that her Mom hates sending her the storm . I never thought I would want to stay home full time, and while there is still a part of me that wants to get back to work and challenge my mind, there is also a huge part of me that dreads being away from my Little Bug every.single.weekday. Unfortunately in this economy accounting jobs are just not available part time.

My current position is very flexible and leaving early/getting in late isn't much of a problem as long as I am putting in my 40 hours during the work week. My current position requires 30-40% overnight travel, which is not possible (nor am I willing to do) anymore. For the last six years I spent over 10 weeks a year in hotel rooms. The first few years I really enjoyed traveling, but it really wears you out.

That being said, I am able to return to my current position for a short period of time, however finding a new position (internally or externally) is a must. This unknown scares me. It scares me to not know where I will be working, what my hours will be, how close to Ry I will be, and how my relationship with Ry will change.

Being without her today is hard. I have fought back tears for the better part of the morning. Knowing this is my last week with her stinks. I miss her like crazy. The unknown scares me.

What I do know is that being away from her will make me cherish my time with her. I love her like crazy. She will spend two days with her Grandmas who love her like crazy. She will spend three days with a daycare provider I really like. This is our life right now. It will work. We will adjust.

One more thing... For a few nights we heated up Ry's towel in the drier. Now she doesn't scream every time we take her out of her tubby!

Baby it's cold outside...

The late October snow storm that left us without power for 5 days, also caused me to search for a winter hat for Ry.  Even though her head is in the 67th percentile it is surprisingly difficult to find a hat small enough to fit her head.  While I am very much a "dog girl" and anti-cat, I just couldn't pass up this super cute hat which her Grammy & Grampy ended up buying for her:

 

And now that I am looking at these pictures I can't believe I failed to document the fact that Kipu ate her 8th paci the night we lost power.  Since it stays warmer downstairs in our house we decided that we would sleep on the pullout couch and let Ry sleep in her swing (still her favorite place to sleep).  Well wouldn't you know we woke up to Kipu eating Ry's paci during the middle of the night.  Usually when Ry is in her swing we know if Kipu is near because it starts to click bringing the swing up to speed, but since she was going to be in it all night we had stopped the swinging motion, and therefore did not hear Kipu stealing the paci.  

Kipu also has had a stuff nose lately.  But no worries, she took care of it:

Ry also had wanted me to pass on this message:

Two Became One.. Now there are Four

Two years ago today I married my best friend. It is amazing to think how our lives have changed since then. For the past three years we have gone away (somewhere tropical) this week. First a cruise, then our honeymoon in Hawaii, and last year a short trip to Atalantis in the Bahamas. While I enjoyed all three of those trips in the nice warm tropical sun, it is nothing compared to the warmth of snuggling up with Ry.  Now my "vacation week" is my last week of maternity leave, and I plan on soaking up every minute of it before I return to work.

Dan and I went out to celebrate our Anniversary on Saturday night, and spent the entire night trying to recall what we did when we were in Milwaukee a few years ago for Memorial Day. We still don't agree on what nights we did what. We both have AWFUL memories. My goal is for the next two weeks to take a few minutes each day and try and recall what we did that day while we were in Hawaii. Together. My guess is we still won't always agree but at least we have picutres to look back on to help us remember. Unfortunately I don't think we took a single picture in Milwaukee, so no help there. (And yes in crazy Kaitlin style I logged into my credit card account to see if I could 'figure things out', but my statements didn't date that far back... another win for Dan who believes in retaining all records in paper versus the electronic approach I prefer.)

Dan.Kate.Kipu.Ryann.  This is my life, and I can't even begin to imagine my family without them.  Happy Anniversary to my amazing husband.   This day I married my best friend, the one I laugh with, live for, love!   Who would have thought two years ago this is where we would be today??

Halloween Take - 2

Tonight was our town's Trick Or Treating. It's already over. We only got 7 Trick or Treaters. We had 8 BAGS of candy. I have one week of Maternity Leave left, therefore Dan will be bringing all the left overs to his office. Sorry coworkers!

We put Ry and Kipu in their Skeleton costumes for a quick photo shoot, then took Ry across the street in her SeaHorse costume to meet the neighbors. We have lived here for over two years now, and still have yet to become friendly with many people in our neighborhood. Hopefully as Ry grows older we will begin to as I know there are quite a few kids in our neighborhood.

We are home!!!

After approximately 112 hours without power we are finally home! Ryann has now officially survived two major storms. Hurricane Irene swept through Massachusetts when Ryann was just over two weeks old. I remember being terrified of losing power during that storm and going to bed praying that we wouldn't lose it. While I did the same this storm I was more concerned with losing my "stash" of food for Ry than I was about actually being without power and potentially displaced. It's amazing how 10 weeks has changed Dan and I.  We have become so much more confident with Ry and being able to read her cues/plan our lives around her schedule - wow life has become so much easier.  Having more energy helps I'm sure too, but I guess that is what happens when you have to recover from surgery.

While this past week has felt like a bit of a blur, last night we did manage to squeeze in a trip to go Trick 'o Treating as it was the "make up date" for the town we were staying in.  Dan and I debated over whether it would be silly to bring Ryann Trick O' Treating this year given how young she is, so it was nice to have some of her big cousins going so she could tag along.  Here are a few pictures from our trip out as well as a few more from Pumpkin Carving!