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Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Our Pediatrician..

Is AMAZING! I know a lot of my friends are going through some big things with a recent situation involving their pediatrician; I couldn't imagine. I know how much time, research, and consideration we dedicated to finding the right pediatrician for us, and I couldn't stand the thought that if after just this one year alone we'd have to start over, after developing a rapport with him, Reilly becoming comfortable with him, putting our trust in him month after month, well-check after well check! While pregnant, our search came down to Dr. Gusic, Dr. Moore, and Dr. Conti (dodged a bullet there!).

So.. I highly recommend Dr. Gusic to anyone who is still searching. Obviously you have to find the doctor that is right for your family, which he has been for ours. He is so great with Reilly, has a sarcastic humor to him-which you know I appreciate, my husband is a huge fan, and best of all (which admittedly it took me quite a few visits to accept) he calls me out on my crazy. We have never waited for more than 5 minutes in the waiting room.. waiting an hour is just insane- no offense.. but.. what were you people thinking? The nursing staff is so nice, as are the girls at the front desk.. and everyone in between. We've also seen Dr. Alazard and Dr. Misch who were also awesome! They are all very different doctors, in my opinion, but they are all great.. and they are all very straight forward and don't doctor "from the book"! Oh.. and they're all at St. Rose Pediatrics, that might be beneficial. ;)

Thursday, September 22, 2011

Rocky Rocky.

Without a doubt.. rocking Reilly before bed at night is my FAVORITE part of the day, I look forward to it everyday, don't want it to end during, and miss it when it's over. It's when he is his cuddliest, silliest, sweetest... best ever. Every night he gets his bath, gets lotioned up and pajamas put on, brushes his teeth, waves goodnight to daddy... sometimes reads books, sometimes doesn't, up to him.. and then it's our 20 minutes of snuggling. He cuddles onto my chest like a little newborn baby and we just rock back and forth.. and most the time after a few minutes he'll sit up and start making funny faces, or giving me "noseys".. or telling me where my nose, ears, and tongue are, putting his hands on my eyes for butterfly kisses.. then giggling and pulling his hands away, just to repeat. Tonight he kept making fishy faces and giving me kisses.. then cracking up about it. After a while I'll put him in his crib, tuck him in, turn on his singing frog, then off to sleep he goes.

I think that when he is older, and telling me he hates me.. while I'm crying hysterically in my bedroom with my head between my knees believing him, rocking him is what I'm going to try to remember, or when he grows up and moves away, I'll just remember his face popped up being so silly before bed each night.

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Toddler Days..

A quick catch up on Reilly.. he is doing really well! He is getting smarter everyday, it's crazy how fast he learns and catches on to things. Today at his 15 month well check the pediatrician asked me how many words he has and I was stumped.. yeah, I knew there was a number per age, and I've always thought to keep track, but I guess I just haven't because.. he has new ones all the time, but I answered his question with "...he knows all of his animal sounds", the doctor probably though "great.. if he was living in a barn or a zoo that'd be awesome, so how about those human words".. eh, what can you do? As for animal sounds if you ask him what the animal says he can respond to cat, dog, frog, bunny rabbit (says hop hop and bounces), dinosaur (realistic..), bear, duck, penguin (says waddle waddle and rocks side to side...duh!), a baby (not an animal..but, honestly-when reilly was born jeff compared newborns humans to newborn horses..horses being inferior), crocodile, pig, bear, and of course.. mickey mouse! That last one was just for fun one day, I was "quizzing" him on his animals and tossed Mickey Mouse in and he responded "toooodle", if you have the great privilege of watching MMCH, you get it, if you don't.. trust me, you don't care. He is always putting two word phrases together and can put together a three word phrase if it starts with "I want..". As for body parts, he will gladly show you his nose, ears, tongue, and belly.. tongue and belly you don't even have to ask, he is just that kind!

As for his..other growth. He is 31 3/4 in tall which is in the 50-75th%, 25lb 4oz..the lower 50-75th%, and his head circumference is something phenomenal and off the charts.. a good..100%, on the small side. That dome.. I've gone ahead and attributed most of his body weight and height to that thing as well, and I imagine.. if his head were proportionate to his body, he would probably be a very small guy, some brands of baby clothes have to be seriously stretched in the neck to get over his head! Love it.. love his face, and love that I get to look at it on a larger scale! See that adorable thing magnified!

Currently things that Reilly likes are:
1. Cereal Bars. Holy.. smokes. He was eating the Gerber ones for a long time, but..they're small, and going through a box every other day was silly.. so he has stepped up to the Kashi cereal bars.. much better, for multiple reasons, the grocery bill an obvious, as well as being caught in public with only two in the diaper bag.
2. "Grapas".. that means grapes for the non-baby greek. But.. he is his mother's son, and wine comes from grapes.
3. Watermelon. Another "holy..smokes" category. He cannot see watermelon, it needs to remain hidden.. God forbid he is 10 feet away from the fridge in his high chair.. and you open the fridge door and he sees it somewhere hidden in the back, because he is a watermelon sniper..meltdown ensue until it is in his hands/mouth/dripping down his face and all over, more often than not, a white t-shirt.
4. Mickey Mouse. I swear that show is crack for kids. He even answers Mickey when he asks his audience questions, "do you want to go inside my clubhouse" "YESH!"...what? how do you know what he is talking about?
5. Being rocked. Hands down, my favorite time of the day.. sometimes even after he is asleep I sneak in for seconds.
6. Colored pencils. Not crayons, not even those...sorry..STUPID egg shaped crayons that he just pulls the crayon part out of.. only colored pencils. And he will carry them all day long, no matter where we go.. and just.. write on a piece of paper.
7. Pancakes. His staple Sunday morning breakfast.. and then a few other days during the week depending on my mood, or what his daycare is serving. He pretty much just hovers in the kitchen while I'm making them..reaching up on the counter, waiting not so patiently.
8. Brushing his teeth. Probably a good hour in the morning and only a few minutes at night.


Things that Reilly does NOT like:
1. When I leave for work... ugh. :(
2. Food items that are not fruit.
3. Getting his diaper changed.
4. Sitting in a high chair.. which we are moving on from, to a kid sized table.

So..that's my update. He's pretty fun..once again, 15 months is my FAVORITE age! Haha..broken record? I'll leave you with a funny little..weird..story that happened tonight. During bath time he always wanted to play with the soap.. but.. he would want to chew on the lid, which I think is gross, but if he likes eating soap.. that's his prerogative. However when it came down to giving it back to me, disaster. So now he has a tiny soap that is all his to play with.. one of those travel sized ones. And his own washcloth so he can put the imaginary soap on the washcloth, rub it together, and then wash his face saying "scrub scrub scrub".. like he likes to do. And sometimes when I'm washing him, he won't let me until he gets to put imaginary soap on my washcloth also.. so tonight he had a little one person dialogue, I'm guessing that the other person was supposed to be me? Because he was holding out the washcloth saying "please?" and then following it with a stern "No!" over and over.. and the please was in a very high pitched voice- which.. thank you Reilly.. I appreciate that.

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

What happens at Grandma's.. (probably won't stay at Grandma's!)

Oh my goodness, Reilly did the weirdest thing yesterday. And really in the grand scheme of things, it's not that weird, but sometimes you get those "holy crap this thing is a human" moments, and they just catch you by surprise. Please don't take this to mean I don't think my kid is human.. of course he is human, but.. if you have kids I think you know what I mean by this, or maybe not.. perhaps I'm the only one that is constantly amazed when my kid does human things, sorry if that sounds horrible.

Anyway.. so.. yesterday I was at the kitchen island cutting up squash, least favorite vegetable to prepare for him, but he loves it, anyway.. I was doing this and he walks into the pantry and walks out with a bag of marshmallows. He's a little boy who makes messes everyday, dragging things out of the pantry is just another Monday morning, but this time he brings the marshmallows over to me and hands them to me with an excited look on his face.. which he has never done before with a food item. I put them on the counter thinking he is just going to clear the shelves, but hey.. if it keeps him occupied I'm all about it. But no.. he keeps reaching for the marshmallows, standing on his tippie toes-making his little Winnie the Pooh "hoo hoo hoo" noise that he makes when he wants to eat something. How the heck does my kid know what that is? He has had one marshmallow in his entire life, months ago, and these are mini, and he never saw the bag. So I took one out and handed it to him and his face LIT UP and he slammed that little white ball of sugar in his mouth so fast and reached for more! WHAT ON EARTH! So I texted Jeff of course because he likes to give him anything and everything that is not nutritionally valuable and ask "Why the heck does my son know what a marshmallow is" and he response "No idea!".. so now I'm stumped.. until my mom comes over to watch him! As soon as I asked she got an evil little grin and I knew it! But what can I do.. she is grandma, and that is what they do right? As long as she gives him marshmallows at the beginning of the day, long before I have to pick him up and deal with a sugar high, we're golden. I just don't understand why anyone thinks anything is going to get by me.. I've been a gumshoe my entire life- ask my sisters who were constantly tormented by detective ways, or my husband.. or my dad.. let this be a lesson grandparents, aunts, uncles!

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Back to Work.

IS NOT FUN! I have been dreading today since Monday, but also my entire life. Yes, I've been "back to work" since Reilly was born, but.. on my own schedule, come and go as I please, and like..9 hours a week. That was the life! But I ended that life in March because it was just.. not what I thought it would be. I signed a on with a different group doing the same job.. and am still signed on with them, but.. they are proving to be brain dead so I'm moving on without them, and when they get it together, we'll see.. anyway, as for now I'm back at My Left Foot Children's Therapy, where I was right before I got pregnant with Reilly! It's weird.

As I was saying.. I have been dreading this day. Reilly is my best friend in the entire universe, I love love love spending every minute of the day with him! And I love love love that he loves spending every minute of the day with me, and doesn't like when other people try to hold him, and clings to me, and follows me everywhere because I know it won't last forever, and I just live for that feeling of being the most important person in the world to him! It's honestly the greatest feeling in the world. So for me, going back to work, yeah.. I'll miss him, but the thought of him missing me is what tears me to pieces. Today was the first day and I only cried as I was walking to the car after dropping him off at my mom's house, he did fine though, he gave me a kiss and waved as I left looking slightly confused. He didn't cry at all during the day, during lunch I called him and he kissed the phone and laid his head on it while I was talking to him, and then when I picked him up he took 4 STEPS just to get to me!! We came home and took our a bath together (yes.. I wear a bathing suit..) and then played. Jeff got home and asked when his bedtime was, and.. I decided I don't like bedtime anymore.. I want to soak up every second that he is pleasant and awake. Jeff vetoed that one real quick! So today was easy.. tomorrow though I just want to avoid. I'm crossing my fingers when I leave he is excited to play with his Grandma and Uncle Keith, probably not Aunt Karen though, and doesn't cry because now he knows that when I leave I don't come back for a while. Hoping he does great again! We shall see!!

I am too neurotic though. MY MOM is watching him, the woman who raised me, and three of my siblings.. clearly she is perfectly capable, at least she did a fabulous job with me! Yet I still feel the need to pack his breakfast, lunch, and snack.. with directions and a meal plan. Hoping that doesn't last as well.. I'm just so picky about his fruit and vegetable combinations and it's not natural. Working on letting go.. I really need to work on that one. The other night Jeff went to the grocery store to pick up a few items and I couldn't sleep because I wondered if he checked the recipe on the chicken nuggets to make sure they weren't battered with eggs. Alas.. I checked the recipe first thing in the morning, they were fine. But these are all firsts for me, I'm sure baby #2 will roll around in the dirt and eat.. bugs for lunch.

OH.. and he was cracking me up tonight when we were playing. That kid.. I don't know where he gets it from, he is a nut! He has this new angry face he makes.. where he tilts his head down, gives you a mean stare and pinches his lips together for a few seconds, then cracks up! It kills me every time! And then he was picking up my phone, holding it up like he was going to take a picture, and saying "cheese". I just love every little inch of him!

Anyway.. I guess that's it for now, too exhausted to upload pictures, I'll try to get that angry face one, it's just too great!

Thursday, June 16, 2011

Quick Attempt at an Update.




So much has happened in the past few weeks, thus no update. Reilly is 1 now, that's very exciting! We had his birthday party on June 4th and it was fun.. I think. Don't be surprised if the kid never has a birthday party again! Holy cow.. I'm a nutcase. I might have gotten a little anxious about the planning and the details.. and fears of things going wrong. A few nights before the party I had nightmares about everything going wrong, and had to force myself to stay in bed as opposed to get up and start making lists. I made the lists after breakfast the next morning instead. Plus.. considering all the planning and cost that goes into a birthday party- I'd so much rather take a vacation and actually enjoy the day and relax, and at least enjoy it for longer than the hour and a half a party lasts. You can tell me I need to take it easy all you want, but.. that's just not my personality, unfortunately.

Last week we drove to northern California for my cousin, Bonnie's, wedding! We had SUCH a great time. We only really got to see our entire family the day of the wedding, but it was still good to see everyone, and Alison went with us, so it was a definite plus to get some sister time in considering we see her on a big year, twice. Reilly got to play with Marley again, which is always fun. He is so cute.. and so tiny compared to Rei! The drive up took about 10 hours and the drive home ended up taking 12. We were pretty nervous about the trip, and were considering it a test run for our drive to Denver next month- with flight plans still in our minds, but it was totally fine! Karen is an official part of any drive we ever take though, she kept him entertained in the back seat for a majority of the drive, which was the best! We made sure to take plenty of new toys, which his birthday being the week prior definitely helped with, lots of snacks, and stopped at a park for lunch and to get out and play. OH! And major milestone.. he took his first steps!! Soo exciting! My dad recorded it.. and emailed it to me, but the attachment didn't come through so you'll get that later. But he did take two steps.. at a rest stop along the way. Considering everyone around him went ballistic, I wouldn't be surprised if he never tried to walk again though.


He is definitely in a really fun age right now. I know I know.. I think every age is fun, but this one is really fun! Ha.. anyway, he has become quite the little helper. Yesterday I decided to take on putting together his toy box while he was awake (I couldn't handle the toys on the floor for another second.. and some of his Christmas and Birthday gifts were still unopened in the closet because.. yeah.. toys, freak me out! I should get over that..), anyway.. he demanded a screwdriver and would literally try to use it on whatever part I had just finished. So funny, he just sat inside the toy box working away. Then today I was dusting his room, and he dropped what he was doing with his toys, and hurried right over to help. He wanted the spray.. and threw a fit when he couldn't have it, but settled on having a cloth and getting to wipe his crib. In a few short months I'll have the little slave child I've always dreamed of! What other reason is there to have children? I'm kidding..

So that's that.. he finally sleeps through the night! Yay!! It's a lot tougher on me though than I ever thought getting a full nights rest would be. From waking up every few hours to pee while I was pregnant and nursing all night for the past year, I've gotten used to a lack of sleep, now it's harder to wake up after 8 hours.. who knew! I'm sure I'll get used to it and love every hour very very soon though!

Friday, June 3, 2011

The First Year..



(waiting in his crib in the morning)



(his usual face lately.. driving me CRAZY!)
Holy smokes!! Reilly is a year old.. an entire year has gone by, when?

As 12 months approached I wondered how I would feel, I wondered mostly if I would get emotional and cry about it, but the closer we got, the more excited I felt! Yeah, he is no longer in his first year of life, but I'm so excited for what's to come! He is so much fun now, okay.. if you have spoken to me in the past week you know I'm lying, but even his screaming all day long is fun in that.. he's showing personality and growing, and being a little too demanding for his own good. He is his mother's son, can't blame him. I cannot believe that a year ago I was tucked away in my hospital bed just watching the baby in the bassinet next to me, until the took him away to do his pku test in the middle of the night.. weird! When I was pregnant, I couldn't remember a life without my massive belly, I got so used to it and couldn't remember what it was like to have rock hard six pack abs.. ha.. ha. Yeah, that's a joke if you didn't catch it. Now I don't remember what it was like TO have the belly, I put a balloon in my shirt the other day just for kicks, and immediately was able to navigate through the house and small doorways like I had been doing it every day of my life. That's kind of strange. Anyway.. I was excited, and am excited for the months to come and to be able to do more with Reilly! He really is the funniest little guy, and I know every mother things their kid is the most beautiful, most sweet, most funny, most perfect kid.. I don't think he's all of those.. but he is the funniest, that kid.. that kid.. his new thing is jedi mind trick moves. His uncles taught him that- where he waves his hand across the air in front of you. Like really.. are you joking me? Jedi mind tricks? And he has also developed a love of the word "no".. he says it so pretentiously too, I like to offer him things I know he doesn't like just to see him close his eyes and shake his head with a quick "Neh", until I finally offer what he does like, to which his face lights up as he reaches for it.

On Wednesday I had my first "whoa" moment. The day before Reilly was born last year I had a crazy long to-do list. I guess that's the joy of knowing when your baby is being born (he was induced), you get to make sure everything is ready! So I was running every errand in town, including grocery shopping to make sure the house was full of food for at least two weeks (NOT the brightest idea 9 months pregnant, getting the groceries into the car was not a comfortable task..)! Anyway, I went to the Walmart near our house, well on Wednesday I had to stop there to pick something up and walked out at the same hour that I did a year prior, then looked in the cart and saw my baby sleeping in his car seat and had a total "holy crap, where did he come from" moment! Seriously.. a whole year! Insane, I can't get over it. However, I am definitely happy where we are now and I wouldn't go back for anything in the world, only forward with this little guy. I told Jeff that I was kind of sad on Wednesday, because there's nothing more exciting than the anticipation of a new baby, and getting the hang of things, and everything being new.. whether it's your first baby or not- it's always a new adjustment and lifestyle. His response was "well we'll be doing it again pretty soon anyway".. which is so exciting, but I only want two, so.. that leaves me sad about the thought that we only get to do it once more (yeah.. sit inside my brain for a minute.. it's a roller coaster..).

Aside from all of that.. Reilly's 1st Birthday was pretty good! He woke up to balloons and Jeff and me singing Happy Birthday to him at 7 in the morning, had blueberry pancakes, slept through My Gym, went to Papa's for dinner, and a cupcake, then screamed himself to sleep from exhaustion on the drive home. His birthday party is tomorrow.. which I am vowing to never do again. At least not next year.. I have planned this thing for months, gathered for weeks, and have now worked my tail off since 9am preparing everything for his hour and a half party! Next year.. Disneyland, it's already decided!