Category: Ryan

Fun Day

The boys and I had a fun day today. The weather was very nice, so I packed a picnic lunch and we went on a 3 mile walk by a park and a lake.

Ryan was SO excited to go- picnics are one of his favorite things right now. He helped me make peanut butter & jelly sandwiches, and made sure I cut the crusts off his. 🙂 He reminded me to bring some bunny crackers (Annie’s white cheddar crackers), and to bring lots of apples.

Yesterday I found a really neat popsicle mold at Bed Bath & Beyond. It holds 4 popsicles, but there is a little built in straw in each one, so when the popsicle starts to melt- as it always does with a three-year old, instead of it dripping down his arms, and legs, he can suck the juice out of the popsicle holder with the straw. Before we left for the picnic / walk, we made a batch of popsicles with strawberry-lemonade.

After we got done eating, we walked over to a pond, and Ryan had a blast throwing rocks in, and Cole did great, standing up, holding the stroller, and watching his big brother. When it was time to go, I put Cole back in the stroller, and we chased Ryan. Cole *loved* it. He was laughing and shrieking with delight. As we were walking back, Ryan started singing a song from a book we have, “The Train They Call the City of New Orleans,” at the top of his lungs. Everyone we passed by on the trail back, smiled at him.

When we got home, Cole had crashed out, and I was able to move him from his car seat to the floor in the living room, and he stayed asleep. First time that has ever happened. I cleaned up our stuff, and then moved Cole to his crib, and got Ryan down for a nap.

I had a massage therapy appointment this afternoon, so I went to that, as soon as Joe got home. Then he had one, so I made the boys dinner, and then Joe got home.

I am dismayed to discover that I have a very stubborn milk blister that seemed to get worse this afternoon. I have had it for two weeks now, and can’t get it to go away. It hurt a lot and was starting to swell, so after dinner, I soaked it with some Epsom salt, and pumped.

Cole saw me pumping and got ‘jealous’ of the breast pump. He kept trying to pull it away, and then he started crying-little monkey! I ended up just nursing him more- baby is usually more effective than a pump anyway- and he seemed happy to get some extra nursing time in. I am going to have to be more diligent on soaking and pumping / nursing this blister, and will probably go see the doctor next week if it doesn’t clear up. I had a BAD case of mastitis in January, and don’t want to another case.

Ryan came in from outside, and we broke open a popsicle. He looked like he had never had anything quite so good before. He started licking his lips, and he savored every lick. He really wanted to use the straw, but kept running off to play. Finally, before bed, enough of the juice melted and he got to use the straw. He said, “that is really neat, mommy.”

Tomorrow morning, I am off to a free skin cancer check, a local dermatologist is having. I haven’t been to a dermatologitst in about 2 years, and have a few freckles that have been changing, and need to get them looked at. I hope I like a doctor there, and can find a new dermatologist I can see more regularly.

Then we are going to look at a few houses, and see if they look as nice inside as they do from the outside…:-)

We don’t have anything planned so far, for Sunday, so hopefully we will just be able to get a few things done around the house, play, and relax.

Ryan

The Baby Factory

“Mommy, where does (insert anything from ) come from?”

I get asked this about 50 times a day from Ryan. He wants to know where everything comes from- from popsicle sticks to wheels. Interestingly, most of the things he is asking about, can be answered by, “from a factory.”

When he asks where his bunny crackers paper, glasses, clothes, etc. come from, I say, “from a factory.” Then he asks where the factory is- we have settled on it being ‘far away.’

Yesterday he asked me where babies come from. (I didn’t think this was supposed to happen until he was much older- like 4), so I told him “from their mama’s tummy’s.” He thought about it for a moment and then asked, “where did I come from?” “From my tummy,” I said.

I was waiting for the next question, that he has asked before, “how to babies get in their mama’s tummy’s?” but instead he said, “No. I came from a factory.” (he pauses and then says,) “The Baby Factory.”

Uh, I guess that would be me! I am an official baby factory in my son’s eyes. 🙂

Breastfeeding Mothering Pregnancy & Birth Ryan

It is All Worth It

Motherhood- it starts the moment you find out you are pregnant, and am told it never ends until you stop breathing. Even when your children are ‘grown and gone’ you will still wonder and worry about them.

You lose your body during pregnancy (even though it is the most wonderful thing ever- to be growing a new human), and start down the lovely road of sleepless nights. If you are pregnant, and someone says, “sleep now before the baby comes,” that is a dead give away that this person has never been pregnant.

During pregnancy you read and try to cram everything you can into your brain about pregnancy, babies, diet, health, labor, birth, breastfeeding, etc. into every spare minute you have. You selfishly give up any and all remnants of a life that included eating what you wanted, drinking, and staying up late- all for the good of your unborn child.

Then comes the actual day this unborn baby is born, and again, it is the most wonderful and powerful thing, but for a lot of women it is also a lot of work, pain, and well, labor. You surrender to your body, and let what ever needs to happen to get the baby out of you, happen. If you were modest before childbirth, there is a great chance you won’t be after. Need I say more?

When your sweet baby is finally born, you have exactly 2 seconds to catch your breath, and then start worrying about your child. Is he breathing OK? What is his weight? Is he crying? Why isn’t he crying? Is he crying too much? Why won’t he stop crying?

“Food- ah that’s it! My baby wants to eat- that will stop the crying,” you tell yourself as you try to nurse the baby for the first time. If it is your first child, you think you know what you are doing, but in reality, you probably would have more confidence trying to climb up Mt. Everest in a blindfold- it just takes practice to perfect. If it is a subsequent child you do know what you are doing, but must guide the baby until he gets the hang of nursing.

Then life with the babe starts, and you realize you didn’t know how good you had it while you were pregnant, and could at least shower and brush your teeth every day. You probably have taken some time off from work, or even decided to stay-at-home with your baby, putting your career on hold, to raise your child(ren).

You don’t regret that decision for a moment, but some days you wish you could go to an office for a few hours and talk to GROWN-UPS. You wish you could have a business lunch, where you didn’t have to lug around a sippy cup, baby food, crackers, a ~~diaper bag~~ sports equipment duffel bag along, with all of baby’s toys, food, diapers, and gear. You wish you could finish a train of thought, or finish a conversation without having ~~someone~~ baby, babies, or toddler in the background crying, or screaming. You wish you had a project where you could see immediate results and actually have someone thank you or tell you, you did a good job.

If you get two or three hours of sleep continually through the first year, count yourself lucky. If not, you can join the ranks of those of us who sit up at night, after night, after night, with our babies, who won’t or can’t sleep for more than a few hours at a time. You think back to PBL (pre-baby-life) that a bad night was when you didn’t get EIGHT uninterrupted hours of sleep. Yes, you could get through the day on six or seven, on a rare occasion, but anything less than eight, forget it- you were a walking zombie. As you sit in the dark, staring at a wall, now knowing what a walking zombie REALLY is (it is what you have become), you tell yourself it won’t be like this forever- it will be easier when the child(ren) are older, and it will all be worth it one day.

My day arrived this morning, when my sweet, charming, adorable, 3 year old son woke up, and discovered his daddy had already left work. He started to cry, and I held out my sleep-deprived arms for him and said,

“It’s okay, sweetie- mama’s here. Come give me a hug.”

To which he actually gave me a look like a scowl and ever-so-firmly said,

“You need to go to work, and Dad needs to stay home with me.”

I replied,

“My work is to stay at home, and take care of you and your brother.”

To which he said,

“NO- you need a job, and Dad needs to stay home with us.”

Yes, hearing that makes it all worth while. 🙂

Family & Friends Household Ryan

Hello, I Can’t Take Your Call…

Post author By A Mama's Blog
Post date May 26, 2007
5 Comments on Hello, I Can’t Take Your Call…

We finally splurged about a month ago and got a new phone. Our old phone was awful, with lots of interference, static, and the worse part, it would make this terrible high pitched scream almost every time we used it, and the person on the other end could hear it too. No wonder no one ever called us! 🙂

We got a new GE 6.0 DECT Cordless Handset Speakerphone, with digital wireless technology that has no interference and I LOVE it. You can customize the rings as well, so I know ahead of time who is calling by the song the phone plays- I don’t even have to look at caller ID. One of the best features is the speaker, which I use almost all the time now. I can set the phone on the counter, and go about what I was doing, and still have my hands free. No more crimped up neck.

Ryan has taken an interest in the speaker as well. Now when we call Grandma, and she isn’t home, he can hear their voice-mail recording which goes something like this:

“Hello, you have reached B. & L.’s house. We can’t take your call right now, but leave your message and we’ll call you back.”

The other day, I was upstairs putting laundry away, and I could hear him ‘talking’ on his play phone using Grandma’s voice-mail recording, but customizing it for himself- examples of what he was saying:

“I can’t take your call but I’ll call me back after my nap.”

“This is Ryan’s house. I can’t take your call right now, so I’ll leave a message.”

“This is Ryan- I can’t take your call at your house, so I’ll leave a message.”

“Hi, Grandma, this is L.’s (grandpa’s name), I’m working right now, call me after my two hour nap.”

“I can’t take your call right now, but I’m at work.”

“This is my grandparent’s house.”

“Oh hi, I pressed the wrong button, sorry.”

“Hi, this is Ryan’s house. I’m not home. I’m right by my phone.”

He just kept coming up with these right after another. I had a hard time trying not to laugh, because they were just so cute, and yes, I stood at the top of the stairs writing these down on the back of a receipt, because there is no way I would have remembered all of them. 🙂

Cole Mothering Parenting Ryan

Best Friends

Today I am under the weather with a stomach bug, and I told Ryan this morning, I needed him to be extra good today, because mama was sick.

He was just perfect, which was so nice. He played with Cole almost all day, with no hitting, biting, pushing, or other tactics usually employed to make Cole cry.

As I was struggling through, trying to make them lunch, Ryan was playing patty-cake with Cole, who was just adoring the attention his big brother was giving him. After they were done playing, Ryan said, “Mama, Coley is my best friend,” as he gave him a sweet little hug. Cole’s eyes lit up, and he was all smiles.

It doesn’t get much better than that, but when my dad stopped by for a short visit this afternoon, he told him as well, that Coley is his best friend.

Motherhood sure has a way of surprising you- I guess after a year of telling Ryan not to hurt his brother, and constantly hearing, “Mom, Cole has my toys,- you need to take Cole away,” something has clicked, and now this little baby, who had upset Ryan’s world so much, is now his “best friend.”

Even though I am sick and it has been a hard day, just these few little words, has made it one of the best days.