I want to do a quick post about all the things Ryan is doing now. There are a lot of things about this age that are challenging, but I still love it. He cracks me up and amazes me every day with the things he does and the things he is learning. Little things that someone else would probably not see the humor in or find all that amazing are funny and amazing to me. His personality is coming out so much; after having a baby for so long, all the new things he does now are so fun to watch.
He has 15 words now, maybe more if I am forgetting some. I keep adding to the list as I remember new ones. Right now he can say: mama, dada, nana, hi, belly button, cat, thank you, poo poo, hot, baby, uh oh, balloon, boo, apple. Most of those, anyone but us probably would not know what he was saying, but I guess that's perfectly normal for toddler-speak. I can really tell his vocabulary is about to explode though!
Every morning when he wakes up, I bring him into bed with us for about 20 minutes. He nurses, then jumps on daddy to wake him up, and then proceeds to be a total goofball. Last week, he pulled up my shirt and started blowing raspberries on my stomach like we do to him. It was absolutely hilarious and he thought so too!
Whenever anyone comes over to the house (often this includes Todd or I coming home) he has to run and grab something, anything, to show them. Usually whatever toy is closest - he just needs something to show them. He will start to run toward the stairs where the front door is, then stop halfway, turn around to grab a toy, and then finish running to the stairs.
If you sit him in your lap and ask him "what stinks?" he will nonchalantly lift his foot up to your face. Or, if his timing is really good, he'll fart lol.
He claps whenever an audience on TV claps, someone finishes a performance on TV or in real life (like the magician at his friend William's birthday party), or when a song finishes on his CD in the car.
He claps for himself as soon as he goes on the toilet, every time, and looks at you like "come on, I just peed, aren't you going to clap?!"
He kicks his right shoe off nonstop, it's impossible to keep it on. It's not that he doesn't want it on, because he'll give it to you and want you to put it right back on, he just likes to kick it off. This exasperates me in the food store because I have 2 options the whole time, 1) constantly put the shoe back on or 2) respond to every fellow, well-meaning shopper that yes, I know he's missing a shoe, it's in the cart, thanks! lol. His shoe has also been returned to the courtesy desk. As I type this, I realize I should just take both shoes off in the food store. Then he can't kick one off, and nobody will think he's missing one...duh!
He has 10 teeth now.
He can sign "more," "please," "water," and "milk."
He just learned to throw kisses and it's adorable. He also just started bringing his lips to mine when I ask him for a kiss, it melts my heart.
He is into everything - I can't keep up with him. Thank God I do not have one of those husbands who comes home and says "what do you do all day?" when the house is a mess, there are dishes everywhere and piles of laundry. Some days it's amazing how little I can get done no matter how hard I try.
We just broke ground on our new house! Closing date is set for 8/28. I can't wait. We will have so much space, and finally a backyard for Ryan.
He has started to climb. He can get up onto some big toys, and the chairs to his toddler-size table, and stand up high. I alternated between running over and making him get down, and letting him be. If I see that there's nothing around that would really hurt him if he fell, and he's not up high, I try to take a deep breath and let him be, because he does need to fall a few times and learn from it.
He loves to help me with laundry. He can unload the dryer into a basket, and will also load it if I hand him the things from the washing machine one by one. He is very precise about it. If something falls on the floor or is hanging out of the dryer, he quickly fixes it.
He loves to take his toys and pitch them over the baby gate to watch them bounce down the stairs. This drives me crazy. Any toys he throws down there he doesn't get back for the rest of the day. He has 900 toys; this doesn't phase him.
He loves his daddy. He says "dada" constantly - at least 200 times for every "mama." He mainly says "mama" in the middle of whining of he's upset about something, or impatient for a meal. When you come in our door downstairs, the alarm beeps, and as soon as he hears that beep he yells "dada!" even if it's not him. He looooves when dada gets home.
He understands so much of what you say. You can ask him to find a certain toy, ask him to find his cup and bring it to the table, ask him if he wants a snack, where the vaccuum is etc. etc. and he knows how to respond. The other day I was putting his toys back together and told Todd "I'm looking for the thing with the little apples in it" and Ryan jumped up, signed "more" and ran over to his table and patted it - he knew he had been having apples as a snack earlier, and wanted more. It's little things like that that amaze me because it's just such a big change from the baby stage. It's amazing to watch them learn and see all the things they understand!
I will post some pictures soon!
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
Thursday, March 15, 2012
14 Month Milestone - Broken Leg!
Okay, I truly need to just jump back into this thing. I will try to do some "make up" posts in between (first birthday, first haircut etc.), but if I keep waiting until I have time to make up all the posts I SHOULD have written, I'll never get anything written! Thanks Lauren and Laura for the encouraging comments on my last post! :)
My poor pickle broke his leg on March 3rd :( I still can't believe it! He is in a cast until the 27th...hopefully no longer.
We had just gotten home from a nice lunch at Applebee's and Ryan was exhausted, so I grabbed a diaper and told him it was time to go upstairs for nap. Todd had gone back to the car to grab the dry cleaning we had picked up because we had a party to go to that night. As we were walking toward to upstairs, Ryan heard Todd coming in the door downstairs. Whenever he hears him he always goes over to the top of the stairs to see him, so he veered off that way and I was just a few feet behind him. One of his rubber toy balls was in his path, a ball a little bit bigger than a softball. He was walking and waving a big wooden spoon around. I don't know if he stepped on the ball (kind of hard considering the size of it) or saw it and tried to kick it or what, but I did see the fall. His right leg went left with the ball as it spun out from under him and he fell to the right, first onto his side and then onto his back. He also hit his head on the floor but it was carpet and he's hit his head worse than that.
He started screaming, but I thought the fall the just scared him. It was a very "fast" fall because of the momentum of the ball spinning out from under him. I picked him up and went and sat down with the usual "you're ok, you're fine..." but we realized pretty quickly that he wasn't. The screaming was not subsiding at all and he wasn't calming down; it was definitely a pain cry. We immediately started looking at his legs and his right leg just didn't look right and looked like it was starting to swell - maybe in the ankle, maybe in the knee, it was hard to tell. He would not bear weight on it at all.
This is where we started to panic a little. We knew his leg could very well be broken. It's not a life-threatening injury, so we shouldn't call an ambulance, right? But if his leg is broken, is it a good idea to try and strap him into his carseat and drive the 20-25 minutes to the hospital? I was afraid of doing more damage. Todd wanted me to just hold him in the car and I understand why but I said no way; if he's going in the car, he's going in his carseat. We also grabbed the phone to call the pedi and ask what we should do, but they were closed. Within a few minutes we just ended up in the car driving to the hospital. He was screaming bloody murder, but he was also still exhausted, so he actually alternated between screaming and dozing off in the car.
To make a long story short (because what ER visit isn't a long story?), they took X-rays of his leg and did not see a fracture. They were about to send us home (after 4+ hours) which made me a little nervous because he couldn't walk. Before they discharged us they sent a pediatric orthopedist in. I don't think they knew he was available earlier. He said that kids bounce back quickly and that he doesn't like to cast if it's not necessary and a cast would probably be overkill, but before he made a decision he wanted to see if Ryan would walk from me to Todd. When I set him down, he again wasn't putting weight on it but would set it down a little. I felt the only way to really see how bad it was was to let him go and see if he would even try to walk. I felt terrible, though, because he took a couple steps while falling forward at the same time, it was so painful for him. He didn't want to take the steps but it was like he didn't know what else to do when I set him down. He basically collapsed screaming. Right away the orthopedist said "you just bought yourself a cast." He said even if there was no fracture, whatever he had done could get worse if not casted. He said it would probably be on for no more than 2 weeks and that we needed to go to the orthopedic office in a few days and they might even take it off then.
"Daddy, it hurts!"
Handsome Blue Cast
He was very good while getting his cast on and didn't start fussing until the end. The Dr. let him play with the supplies while he did it, so he was happy. My mom and Brenda got to the hospital to see him shortly before we left and brought him a teddy bear and toy truck and that made him happy also.
I was most worried about the fact that he didn't understand why he couldn't walk - I just couldn't imagine being a 1 year old and your favorite thing to do is run around and all of a sudden you have a big heavy thing on your leg and can't get up. I was worried about that, and how he would be able to sleep (he has always been a tummy sleeper). When we got home it was bedtime. He actually went to sleep very well and slept good for the first 3 hours. After that he was awake and upset and the rest of the night was spent in our bed just trying to keep him comfortable all night. A lot of waking and crying. After that night though - he has been great! Many nights he is sleeping from bedtime to morning with no wakings. The next day it was time to see how he would really manage with the cast. He was extremely frustrated and there were a lot of tears. I sat on the floor to play with him most of the day and he was content if he was engaged. If I got up to do anything, he was upset and wanted to be picked up. He could crawl, but not very well.
We went to the orthopedist a couple days after it happened. We waited 2 hours to see him (in the waiting room was another little boy, almost the same exact age, whose name was also Ryan L, and had the same injury!). When we finally got called in we waited another 10 or 15 minutes for the Dr. to just come to the doorway, tell us that with good magnification, they found the fracture (they were looking at the same x-rays they had taken in the hospital) and it was near his knee. I am curious where, but he wasn't specific and didn't show us the x-ray. We have copies of them but of course we can't see anything except some really cute bones. He said to come back in 3 weeks and it sounded like they were pretty certain they could take the cast off then. Cross your fingers!
It's amazing how quickly he has adjusted now. He can crawl very quickly, pull himself up with it, and over the last couple days has even taken a few steps with it! That's the most pathetic but cute thing you've ever seen. His leg is bent in the cast, so his right foot doesn't reach the floor if he stands up straight. He hunches over and ever-so-carefully takes these tiny steps. When he wants to dance, he just stands very carefully and flaps his arms! My poor boy who loves to shake his hips to a good beat, or really any beat at all. I look at him and think "do you even remember you once knew how to walk?" He can still sit on the toilet fine - and, by the way, here he is in his big boy training underwear!!
I know that in the grand scheme of things, this is actually a pretty minor injury, but I still feel terrible for him. I really hope he gets right back to walking when it comes off. I know it was probably what would be considered a freak accident, he has fallen so many times, plenty of them over balls, but his leg went just the right way this time. While I wouldn't say I feel "guilty" because it's not as if I wasn't watching him and he fell down the stairs, a part of me still feels a little sick over it. I mean, you've failed in SOME way if your 14 month old breaks his leg, right? No, I know that's not true, but it just doesn't seem right. :(
My poor pickle broke his leg on March 3rd :( I still can't believe it! He is in a cast until the 27th...hopefully no longer.
We had just gotten home from a nice lunch at Applebee's and Ryan was exhausted, so I grabbed a diaper and told him it was time to go upstairs for nap. Todd had gone back to the car to grab the dry cleaning we had picked up because we had a party to go to that night. As we were walking toward to upstairs, Ryan heard Todd coming in the door downstairs. Whenever he hears him he always goes over to the top of the stairs to see him, so he veered off that way and I was just a few feet behind him. One of his rubber toy balls was in his path, a ball a little bit bigger than a softball. He was walking and waving a big wooden spoon around. I don't know if he stepped on the ball (kind of hard considering the size of it) or saw it and tried to kick it or what, but I did see the fall. His right leg went left with the ball as it spun out from under him and he fell to the right, first onto his side and then onto his back. He also hit his head on the floor but it was carpet and he's hit his head worse than that.
He started screaming, but I thought the fall the just scared him. It was a very "fast" fall because of the momentum of the ball spinning out from under him. I picked him up and went and sat down with the usual "you're ok, you're fine..." but we realized pretty quickly that he wasn't. The screaming was not subsiding at all and he wasn't calming down; it was definitely a pain cry. We immediately started looking at his legs and his right leg just didn't look right and looked like it was starting to swell - maybe in the ankle, maybe in the knee, it was hard to tell. He would not bear weight on it at all.
This is where we started to panic a little. We knew his leg could very well be broken. It's not a life-threatening injury, so we shouldn't call an ambulance, right? But if his leg is broken, is it a good idea to try and strap him into his carseat and drive the 20-25 minutes to the hospital? I was afraid of doing more damage. Todd wanted me to just hold him in the car and I understand why but I said no way; if he's going in the car, he's going in his carseat. We also grabbed the phone to call the pedi and ask what we should do, but they were closed. Within a few minutes we just ended up in the car driving to the hospital. He was screaming bloody murder, but he was also still exhausted, so he actually alternated between screaming and dozing off in the car.
To make a long story short (because what ER visit isn't a long story?), they took X-rays of his leg and did not see a fracture. They were about to send us home (after 4+ hours) which made me a little nervous because he couldn't walk. Before they discharged us they sent a pediatric orthopedist in. I don't think they knew he was available earlier. He said that kids bounce back quickly and that he doesn't like to cast if it's not necessary and a cast would probably be overkill, but before he made a decision he wanted to see if Ryan would walk from me to Todd. When I set him down, he again wasn't putting weight on it but would set it down a little. I felt the only way to really see how bad it was was to let him go and see if he would even try to walk. I felt terrible, though, because he took a couple steps while falling forward at the same time, it was so painful for him. He didn't want to take the steps but it was like he didn't know what else to do when I set him down. He basically collapsed screaming. Right away the orthopedist said "you just bought yourself a cast." He said even if there was no fracture, whatever he had done could get worse if not casted. He said it would probably be on for no more than 2 weeks and that we needed to go to the orthopedic office in a few days and they might even take it off then.
"Daddy, it hurts!"
Handsome Blue Cast
He was very good while getting his cast on and didn't start fussing until the end. The Dr. let him play with the supplies while he did it, so he was happy. My mom and Brenda got to the hospital to see him shortly before we left and brought him a teddy bear and toy truck and that made him happy also.
I was most worried about the fact that he didn't understand why he couldn't walk - I just couldn't imagine being a 1 year old and your favorite thing to do is run around and all of a sudden you have a big heavy thing on your leg and can't get up. I was worried about that, and how he would be able to sleep (he has always been a tummy sleeper). When we got home it was bedtime. He actually went to sleep very well and slept good for the first 3 hours. After that he was awake and upset and the rest of the night was spent in our bed just trying to keep him comfortable all night. A lot of waking and crying. After that night though - he has been great! Many nights he is sleeping from bedtime to morning with no wakings. The next day it was time to see how he would really manage with the cast. He was extremely frustrated and there were a lot of tears. I sat on the floor to play with him most of the day and he was content if he was engaged. If I got up to do anything, he was upset and wanted to be picked up. He could crawl, but not very well.
We went to the orthopedist a couple days after it happened. We waited 2 hours to see him (in the waiting room was another little boy, almost the same exact age, whose name was also Ryan L, and had the same injury!). When we finally got called in we waited another 10 or 15 minutes for the Dr. to just come to the doorway, tell us that with good magnification, they found the fracture (they were looking at the same x-rays they had taken in the hospital) and it was near his knee. I am curious where, but he wasn't specific and didn't show us the x-ray. We have copies of them but of course we can't see anything except some really cute bones. He said to come back in 3 weeks and it sounded like they were pretty certain they could take the cast off then. Cross your fingers!
It's amazing how quickly he has adjusted now. He can crawl very quickly, pull himself up with it, and over the last couple days has even taken a few steps with it! That's the most pathetic but cute thing you've ever seen. His leg is bent in the cast, so his right foot doesn't reach the floor if he stands up straight. He hunches over and ever-so-carefully takes these tiny steps. When he wants to dance, he just stands very carefully and flaps his arms! My poor boy who loves to shake his hips to a good beat, or really any beat at all. I look at him and think "do you even remember you once knew how to walk?" He can still sit on the toilet fine - and, by the way, here he is in his big boy training underwear!!
I know that in the grand scheme of things, this is actually a pretty minor injury, but I still feel terrible for him. I really hope he gets right back to walking when it comes off. I know it was probably what would be considered a freak accident, he has fallen so many times, plenty of them over balls, but his leg went just the right way this time. While I wouldn't say I feel "guilty" because it's not as if I wasn't watching him and he fell down the stairs, a part of me still feels a little sick over it. I mean, you've failed in SOME way if your 14 month old breaks his leg, right? No, I know that's not true, but it just doesn't seem right. :(
Friday, February 10, 2012
I have a 13 month old.
I have a 13 month old. You know what that means? I haven't blogged in over 7 months and I am SO mad at myself for that. It would be one thing to not be getting our memories into this blog but getting them into the baby book, but I'm terrible with THAT too. What is wrong with me? Every day I say I'll get to the baby book, find the camera, charge the camcorder...yet time is flying and I'm not keeping up with any of it. I will never be able to remember all the things I would if I had kept up, and I feel like I am letting Ryan down. I get determined to do better and then I think "but what's the point if I've already let so much time pass?" and I know that's not the right attitude. I hope that I really can do better and that I can start by going back, looking at pictures, remembering as much as possible, and getting it down in the baby book, and here. If I was going to be diligent about one thing it should be recording memories for Ryan, cataloging our days...why am I such a failure at that? :(
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