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. ;)

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.

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.

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!

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!

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!

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!

Reilly Boone

(Could not get enough of the tent!)
We made it through our first camping extravaganza this weekend, and by extravaganza I mean one whole night, but for now.. it's all we need! Oh.. and by we, I mean Reilly and I, Jeff sat this one out, how nice for him. It cracks me up the amount of stuff required to take this kid anywhere, let alone camping..where one should be rugged and live off the land.. out of just a backpack, you know straight up Annie Oakley style. No! In tow on our one night camping trip was a playpen, two blankets, two stuffed animals, pajamas, set of tomorrow clothes, dex baby sound sleeper, sleep sac, toys, books, bjorn.. and then of course the diaper bag and all of it's usual suspects. However, I will say that my Dad brought their playpen so we didn't use ours, the sound sleepers batteries were dead, so we didn't use that, Reilly slept in the same shirt he wore up and sweatpants, did use the blankets but not the stuffed animals, so it's probably safe to say he could have roughed it.

(that little right hand corner is mine, the rest would be my high maintenance son.)


We were supposed to leave at 4:15 from my Mom's house, with Amy and Karen, but as usual, Amy was about an hour late and I had kept Reilly up through his second nap in hopes that he would sleep on the two hour drive, but now it was 5:15 and almost dinner time so he had to eat while we drove and stayed awake the entire time, then proceeded to stay awake until 10:00pm! In his defense, I did let him eat a marshmallow, which.. you try eating a ball of sugar the size of your hand and see if you can sleep! Not happening. And I didn't quite know how to put him to sleep in a different setting (my kid is ocd about his sleep.. CRIB only, no cuddling, no sleeping in my bed.. just his crib.) and how to put him down without disturbing the rest of the campers trying to enjoy some peace and nature (although, baby crying is natural!), so I just let him decide when he wanted to fall asleep and he decided around 9:45, making it the record for the longest period of time he has been awake, nearly 10 hours, 4 hours is his present max, but generally 3. Next morning he was bright eyed and bushy tailed at 6:45am, and didn't nap until nearly 1pm.. let's just say we got home on Sunday and now Wednesday he is finally getting back to his regular schedule. On the bright side.. he did have to sleep with me in the tent! Yay!

Not that you ever wanted to know so many details about him sleeping, but.. now you do. Aside from all of that, the kid LOVED camping! Loved every single part, loved standing in the playpen watching everything, loved the fire, the lanterns, the food.. everything. It was so hilarious to witness... definitely plan on doing this again in the next month or so. We went on a hike down to the river and he got to put his feet in.. loved that also, and played with sand for the first time. So much fun.. couldn't have had a better first camping experience. I'm pretty sure he was smiling the entire 20 hours (yes..extravaganza) that we were there, which made it easier on me as you can imagine how trying to camp with an 11 month old could weigh heavily on ones nerves, but it didn't, obviously.

Boys will be boys!

So I have to type fast, cleaning to do, Reilly is napping.. time is of the essence! Anyway.. Reilly.. TOTAL BOY! Holy cow! I grew up in a household of girls and only knew that CHILDREN acted a certain way.. no no.. girls act one way, what Reilly is doing is scaring the crap out of me. When he was really tiny I started reading "Bringing Up Boys", and quickly stopped, mostly because it was boring.. but the first few chapters emphasized that boys and girls act differently. For the most part, you don't see girls running around playing cops/burglars/cowboys/anything else you want to call shooting games, you don't see them covered in mud, you know.. gross boy stuff. Granted, yeah.. with my cousins I climbed a tree or two, played hockey and football.. but would I have rather been setting up an entire house for my barbies, and changing their clothes multiple times a day, or.. you know.. pouring food down my Baby Alive's butt to watch it come out her mouth (I guess that one isn't that girly), pulling tiny kittens out of a bigger kittens stomach..DEFINITELY! I also thought some of it was learned.. not that he would just.. BE this crazy! But I'm telling you.. he is crazy, and he is a boy through and through!

For instance.. he burps sometimes, all babies do it, he can't control it yet.. however, I've never seen anything laugh after their burp.. and then follow it up with fake burps.. also laughing. Ew! And until recently, if Jeff burped in front of him I would seriously have a knock-down, drag out fight with him about how it wasn't appropriate and I wasn't going to be embarrassed by a burping child.. but, now he does it, and he has only seen Jeff once or twice doing it, but never has he seen Jeff laugh. So.. I had to apologize to Jeff for that one.

Next up: Growling. Yes.. he growls. It's weird.. and cute, super funny to watch him and Jeff chase each other around growling. However, the other night I was rocking him and he would seem like he was sleeping peacefully on my chest, until he POPPED up and growled at me. WHAT! THE! HECK! And once again.. he thought it was funny and continued to do so over.. and over, he doesn't get bored easily-so.. it entertained him for quite some time, while I just sat there completely astonished wondering how soon I should get him exorcised.

A few days later we had his birthday lunch with his friends, two other boys and a baby girl. I was definitely comforted by hearing the other two mom's-of-boys talking about the babies tearing through their house, making messes, screaming, going nuts.. and then the mom-o-baby-girl talking about her little girl doesn't do those things and is mostly just..pleasant. Totally gave me a "phew.. it's not just my child" moment!

First Birthday - Vegas Style!

(getting them to look at the camera.. not happening!)
Now I know Reilly's birthday isn't for a couple more weeks, and I'm definitely not in any hurry to get there (although I'm definitely more excited than I thought I'd be!), but Rei had his first celebration with his little baby friends this weekend, and it was way too cute!

When Reilly was six weeks old I started taking him to the new mommy mixer at the Barbara Greenspun Woman's Center, near the St. Rose San Martin hospital. There were met quite a few people, four of which we have continued to hang out with for the past year about, going to gymboree, holiday events, libraries, etc. Two of the four are moving away next week though, Reilly will just have to get used to that living in such a transient city. Since all of their birthdays fall within two weeks of each other, in June, we decided they needed to have a little birthday celebration together, as they will be missing each others birthday parties! On Saturday, we had a birthday lunch for them at Rainforest Cafe at the MGM.. only in Vegas is that a 1st birthday lunch! But it was the best location because all of the animals kept the babies entertained throughout the meal, which for anyone who has ever tried to sit through a restaurant meal with a kid in a high chair.. not a fun time; each time there was a rainstorm all four of them started dancing or wiggling in some fashion and looking around at all of the effects! It was perfect!

The babies all had the opportunity to exchange birthday gifts, get a Happy Birthday from the restaurant staff, and even eat cupcakes! Thank you so much Valeria for bring the everything-free (gluten, dairy, eggs.. all that stuff!) cupcakes! They actually weren't bad, and for babies who had never had a cupcake, nor anything to compare it to, it was great! Reilly picked at the frosting for a few minutes, then went straight in and held the entire cupcake up to his mouth!

(saying goodbye to his friend, Dylan)
At the end of lunch, they said there goodbyes, which... although come 10 years from now Reilly won't remember it, it still broke my heart. Especially saying goodbye to Dylan.. Reilly has just gotten so excited to see him the last couple of times we got together, as opposed to in the past where he didn't know one kid from any other, he actually knew who he was and got so happy around him. It was definitely a bittersweet celebration, but we hope that Davis and Dylan both enjoy the places they're going, and we will definitely miss them! We are so happy that they got to have such fun memories together in their first year of life!



(one last goodbye while waiting in valet)

Child Dedication.

On Mother's Day, we dedicated Reilly at our church, The Crossing. It was something that we had been waiting a long time to do, especially considering it is only done there twice a year... Mother's Day and the Sunday after Thanksgiving. For Jeff and I, it was an important promise to make to our child, raising him in a Christian home and teaching him such values and instilling Christian morals into the way we parent and teach our children. So without getting too preachy.. it was something that we really wanted and felt we needed to do, and we did this Sunday!

Let me tell you.. this weekend was nuts! But I was expecting it to be, and just the same as it seems like every weekend lately, had everything ready to go by Friday! Saturday was Jeff's Birthday so Reilly treated him to Sesame Street Live, which they both LOVED and although we only made it through the first half, Reilly definitely lasted much longer than we had expected and got way more into it, dancing and clapping, and watching every minute, so cute! Saturday night we left the little dude behind and went out to celebrate Jeff's Birthday adult style, with a little sushi and Steel Panthers! Needless to say we didn't get home until after 1 in the morning, and had to be at the church by 9:30, so Mother's Day didn't come with sleeping in or breakfast in bed this year, in fact I woke up an hour earlier than both Jeff and Reilly to get ready and get the house/food ready for guests.. but hey, would it be Mother's Day if I weren't mothering?

The church had a sweet little breakfast before the service for the families and children being dedicated. Afterward we took our seats in the service, which- holy ready to leave Reilly in the nursery! His good friend Ava taught him the joy of jumping on the chairs yelling to the people in the rows behind us, but hey.. let them be little right? I thought it was adorable! During the dedication, all of the families stood on the stage for about 15 minutes, of course Reilly found his Uncle Tim, John, and Nick in the audience making faces to him, so he was making faces back, wanting to get off the stage to them, waving, pointing at them.. real nice guys! At least he kept people entertained I suppose.. little showman! We didn't make it through the rest of the service without Jeff and I dividing then meeting back up in the family room. After the service, we had some family and friends back to the house for a quick reception/lunch, and then took a much needed two hour nap!

I guess this year, Mother's Day for me wasn't about being pampered and adored (which Jeff.. you better believe you're making up for it next year!), but for me it was about something much better, and making a promise about what kind of mom I would be to my tiny guy, and I couldn't have asked for my first M-Day to have gone any differently!

First Dentist Appointment.

I know I'm like 8 years behind, once again, but.. figured the dentist wouldn't really take any time or effort to write, so.. voici!

Reilly had his first dentist appointment today! It was kind of fun.. he got the same treatment I get when I go, but on a tiny scale. We went to Adventure Dental on Flamingo and 215, just based on reviews we read online, and loved it! Dr. Richardson is the practicing dentist there, and is such a nice guy. He is really upbeat and fun, kind of what you would expect from a male pediatric dentist I suppose. The office is so nice also, I seriously want to decorate my bathroom like the one in the waiting room! Unfortunately the diaper bag was left at home so I didn't have my camera, or you know I'd have pictures of it.. ha. Lame. They also have a "Fast Check In", self check in on the computer, so I didn't have to fill out any paperwork, which was nice because I had just met Reilly there with his uncle after work and he was antttssssy to nurse, so was mauling me while I was trying to type in the information!

We got called back to the exam room immediately, which was very kid friendly. Colorful, yet modern also, with a TV screen playing movies over the exam chair for the kids to focus on. The hygienist asked me routine questions, then Dr. Richardson came in and examined Rei's four tiny teeth. Told me to get Reilly off of nursing pretty soon, which I'm totally motivated to do (believe me!), but easier said than done. (We are waiting until his 12 month appointment with the pediatrician to ask what he thinks would be the best source of nutrition once we wean him.. as far as milks go..). Rei wasn't a huge fan of the exam, but.. he had two strangers in his mouth and his mom holding his hands down, what person of any age would like that? However, it was less than 15 seconds. Then the hygienist brushed his teeth with a fun light flashing toothbrush, which Reilly loves having done, painted on some fluoride.. slapped a sticker on him (which I had to take off as soon as we were out of the office because he is allergic to the adhesive), made our next appointment, and we were on our way! So fast, so painless.. really great! Each appointment they take a picture, not sure why.. to see the kids' teeth? So a copy was printed out for us, and Reilly definitely liked picking a toy out of the treasure box at the end; by picking I mean me handing him to most unlikely choking hazard option.

So.. that was that, we enjoyed the experience. I definitely recommend Dr. Richardson and Adventure Dental!! And we'll be back there in 6 months!

Bye Bye Gymbo!

Reilly had his last class at Gymboree. I can't lie and say I'm sad to go, I have had enough Gymboree, despite whether or not Reilly likes it.. Mommy is ready to move on. We will however miss his favorite teaching Miss Amber. She was the sweetest teacher ever and Reilly loved her. And she was so awesome about knowing each child individually.. and genuinely showing interest in them. She started teaching Reilly's class when he was 3 months old, so it was sad to say goodbye to her. I had to lie and say we were moving because I didn't want her to know we were taking classes elsewhere.


But now.. Reilly is officially signed up at My Gym! You all knew it was coming, I worked there all through college! It will probably drive me crazy working there because my mind is CONSTANTLY (it's annoying actually) critiquing the staff, and watching the timing, and noticing if any programming is skipped.. hoping that wears off after a few months. :) Reilly loves it though, it's MUCH larger than Gymboree, so even in a big class he doesn't get intimidated by too many people and just roams free.. without even caring where I am, he was always so clingy in his other class. There are also a lot more activities to do, and the programming changes every week.. where as at Gymboree it is literally the same. exact. class. every. single. time. I could teach him the entire thing in his bedroom.. so really, he won't be missing anything. Of course he has already discovered the ball pit.. and since he is such an avid climber somehow always manages to find his way into it. So we are very happy with our decision, but miss the friends he has there. One great perk is that his great friend Paige is in his class so they have breakfast dates at Panera afterward.


One tiny tiny downfall, his class is at 8:15 on Saturday morning. Aye carumba! So.. I need to get ready for bed NOW! Goodnight!

Itsy Bitsy Spider.

Reilly's new song this week is Itsy Bitsy Spider. I'll post a picture later, if I can get one.. lately he attacks the camera whenever he sees it, so it's impossible to capture cute moments as of late. When he sings it he likes to do the sun motion, and it's the most adorable thing ever. And if you ask him where his itsy bitsy spider is, he'll immediately show you the sun, then of course he claps. Today he started doing more motions, he makes a little spider by tapping his hands together, and waves his arms all over the place when the water wipes the spider out. I should just get a video of it instead.. but it's seriously the most adorable thing I have ever seen!

Egg Drop.

So last week we went to the Egg Drop at Seastrand Park in Aliante. It looked to be a fun event, a helicopter was going to drop thousands of eggs for the children to pick up, looking back I'm not really sure why all of the things that could have gone wrong didn't go through my mind, considering that I'm constantly worried about everything, but this time around I must have been blinded by the adorable idea of sweet kids collecting Easter eggs. Honestly, the only thing that I thought could go wrong was an egg being dropped on my kid.. but alas..

My mom and I decided to go fairly early because I told her about the event after pre-registration had closed, so Keith wasn't registered. I was ready with coffee in hand (for her, not me.. still going strong Lent!) at 7:00am. Okay.. that's a lie, I was ready to go at 7:00am, however Reilly was still fast asleep, so I had to wake him up, nurse him, and get him dressed. Anyway.. we got there by 8, which is all that matters. The parking wasn't that bad by the time we got there, they had the lot closed so we had to park on the street, but we weren't far from the entrance, the line was nonexistent, but hey.. better safe than sorry right. Reilly and Keith got their color coordinated, age appropriate wrist bands, and we laid out a blanket and hung out until the event opened. Within the hour an INCREDIBLY HUGE line started.. no, not a line, a mob. The mob wrapped around the gate of the park to the complete opposite end, down the street.. and.. out of my sight. Once we were in Keith wanted to go straight for the bounce houses.. so Reilly and I found a spot away from the loud music and chaos and set up our blanket once again.

The eggs were set to drop at 10:45 for Reilly's age ground, under 3. There was a huge lot dedicated to each age group, and then this one was divided once more for toddlers who would be collecting eggs on their own and those who needed parents to help them. By the time 10:00 rolled around, holy cow, thousands of parents and children were crammed together around the field. I'm sorry.. but.. why, and how are you going to keep your under 3 year old still for 45 minutes? Fortunately, my blanket was huge, and no one was rude enough to step on it.. so our space was not compromised. We continued to hang out, playing with balloons, Easter grass, eating breakfast...we had fun. Once 10:40 arrived I was skeptical about even doing the egg hunt, would Reilly remember? No. Does he know what an egg hunt is? No.. Does he even care? No. So I figured we'd just see how it played out.. the helicopter came along and did drop thousands of eggs. They were all empty.. we'll get there, and the ropes were cut letting hundreds of parents loose to search for eggs. Wait, let me go back.. parents? Yeah.. parents.. I didn't see any toddlers picking up eggs, I saw parents going completely insane..pushing strollers onto an egg hunt field? Yeah.. that's safe.. knocking people over going... I'm getting mad all over again thinking about it. It was the most disgusting thing I have ever seen in my life. I saw an egg that the helicopter had blown far away from the madness, so Reilly and I hurried to it. I put Reilly on the ground with the egg between us so I could take a picture of him going for it, and a grown ADULT ran up and snatched his egg. I immediately yelled at that woman that that was his egg, and she dropped it, but.. I couldn't believe it. Is this really what parents are teaching their children? To be this selfish? To steal? To hurt others? Reilly was more interested in watching everyone from behind a gate than anything else, so that's what we did. After a few minutes I suggested to him that we go back to our blanket because this egg hunt was horrible, and a mother overheard me. She was holding her one year old, and agreed saying that they weren't even in for 30 seconds before her daughter was kicked and knocked over by other parents. I couldn't believe it. Since they were going by age I started worrying about Keith, whose age group hadn't gone yet. I thought the toddler group was brutal, what would his age group be like, so I called my mom and warned her about how crazy it got.

The best part about the whole thing was that once the egg hunt was over, you took your empty eggs to the candy exchange and traded them for a bag of candy. So whether you had 15 eggs, or just 1, or even none, everyone got the exact same bag of candy. We decided that if we took our eggs home empty, the Easter Bunny would fill them up on Easter, as opposed to waiting another minute with the crazy people. Prior to the hunt, I heard some parents telling their children to make sure each child got an egg, and only take one because there will be more eggs on Easter, and sweet lessons, but then I heard about other parents telling their children to make sure they got every single egg, it's just.. so sick, and so heartbreaking that this is the way some kids are learning. My mom saw a sweet little girl collecting eggs, when a boy came up and stole all of the eggs right out of her basket. I mean.. I guess we've all had something like that done to us, and it just builds character, and yadda yadda yadda.. but.. heartbreaking none the less. As we left, my stomach turned as we walked past parents counting out eggs from the baskets of their children that could barely walk, let alone fill an entire basket with eggs.

At the end of the day, Reilly had fun, he likes being outside, he got to play with two eggs, got a balloon, and a lollipop.. was completely oblivious to anything going on around him. So I guess that's all that matters, Keith had fun too. Will I do it again? Probably not.. my over thinking brain just can't handle it!

Water Baby.

Yesterday we had some time to kill while on my Dad and Rhonda's side of town to pay them a visit, so we checked out Nature Discovery Park in Aliante. Oh my gosh, we may have to move just to go play there everyday. Upon pulling up to the park you see a huge waterfall and a grass area filled with the future Beckham's of the world, but beyond that.. amazement! There is a walking trail that wraps around the park and multiple pond area with different types of birds: geese, ducks, pigeons.. and Reilly loved sitting on the edge of the pond watching the giant geese swim around him. There is a play area, which is gated! I haven't seen that at a park here in town before, so much safer, and it included multiple "you have to be this tall" to play alone signs, which was also nice because big kids and little kids playing together just seems like a recipe for disaster, in my opinion. The best part of the park was the splash area though! It had tunnels that shot water, animals that shot water.. just, so much water. I probably looked like a crazy mom when I took off Reilly's clothes and let him run (crawl) free in the water in his diaper, but hey.. he had fun! I wish I had my camera with me, I'll have to make an excuse to go again and remember to take pictures then. I definitely recommend this park, it's just south of the 215 on Aliante, and with the waterfall on the corner, you can't really miss it!

Don't Blink.. seriously.. don't!

I'll probably feel really stupid for saying this when he turns two and really isn't a "baby" anymore, but Reilly is feeling less and less like one everyday. Except for when he is being pissy, he doesn't really cry anymore, we don't have to figure out ways to calm him down, or take turns holding him whenever we go anywhere because he won't sit in his car seat, he is becoming just a well behaved little boy (again, when not pissy) who is interested in more than just me and it's SO much fun! And come to think of it.. I don't even know when the last time I had to nurse him in the car because he wouldn't calm down in his car seat was!

Reilly is officially done with baby food, he doesn't really eat that much on his own though, but I figure at this point it's really just for learning how to eat more than anything else, because he still gets most of what he needs through breast milk anyway. He definitely has his favorites though! It was funny.. the other night I gave him tofu, grapes, puffs, pears, and zucchini all mixed up on his tray and he picked out every single piece of everything except the zucchini.. how he could tell the difference between that, the pears, and the tofu which peeled were all white I do not know.. but he was not having any of that stuff! He also had spaghetti for the first time the other night. Such a mess, but he was shoving fistful after fistful into his mouth.. I've never seen him eat like that before. The toast he gives to the dogs, but most fruit he will eat up.. especially watermelon and mango, SO my kid. Wonder if the fact that I ate at least one container of mango a day towards the end of my pregnancy has anything to do with that.. he likes miso soup as well, so perhaps! :) I hadn't really made it to Whole Foods since we learned more about his allergies, but the other day I made a trip and found so many options for him, including teething biscuits.. and can now make him macaroni and cheese by cooking egg free noodles and melting soy cheese into them. I did make dairy/egg free pancakes for him one morning.. buuut they weren't so fabulous.. probably to the fault of using vegetable spray on the pan, some 'reviewers' recommended adding more sugar too, so we'll see.

He is also learning new skills all the time, as of now.. if I can think of all of them.. he can splash, clap, find his nose, make little crazy signs..ugh, make piggy noises, wave, still dances like nobodies business, never tires of hide and seek.. and you know, the rest of the things babies do. The best part is that he gets so proud of himself for his accomplishments, when asked where his nose is, he barely touches it before getting a huge smile and clapping for himself! It's the best. He's also really into his cd player on his crib and always points to it and looks at me, waiting for me to turn it on and sit through another hour of kid's songs.. so not fun.. seriously, I keep saying I'm going to make him a dance cd, but haven't.. so if anyone wants to.. you'd be our hero! This morning I was exhausted so after I put him down for his 10:00 nap, I too took a nap, and woke up in a panic when I realized it was 12:30 (2 hours is usually his max), I heard him talking and ran to his room.. he never cried, just pulled his cd player off the side of his crib and was sitting happily playing with it.. funny guy.

I can't believe this Saturday he will be ten months old.. what? Are you kidding me? I'm pretty sure he was just born last week.. I cannot even believe that he will be a year pretty soon, and that I have to plan a birthday party already! Insane.. seriously.. IN! SANE! As long as he stays a mommy's boy forever, and never tells me he hates me, or wishes he didn't have parents, or tells me he can't wait to move out.. then I'll be just fine, and he will live.

A is for Anaphalaxia,. part 2!

Reilly had his follow up appointment with his allergist, Dr. Jim Christensen, today. Such a great doctor, if you can handle his staff.. and by staff I mean Michael- the front office know it all who will put you on hold for 5 minutes with every call.. just to stand there. Yes.. I witnessed it today from the waiting room. But, if you can get past him, Dr. Christensen is so nice and informative!

(He still loves to crawl onto his bouncer and play with that panda- it cracks me up!)

Anyway.. he gave us soy and wheat back! Wahoo!! That opens up so many windows for Reilly to actually get some sort of nutrition. Milk and eggs are really bad though, so we need to stay FAR away from those, and the peanut isn't horrible, but bad enough that he would prefer us to avoid them, which is fine by me. He says he should grow out of all of them by the time he is 5 years old, so we are definitely able to relax a little now. And I've officially quite playing the mystery allergy game. If you've had the amazing pleasure of being around Reilly, you've seen him with splotchy red skin and little white bumps, it's a daily occurrence.. he's sensitive, gotta get over it otherwise I'll drive myself and everyone around me mad!

I don't really know what else to update about, his sweet little heart is sleeping right now. He has gotten to the point where most nights he'll let me lay him in his crib, roll over to his stomach, get a blanket over him, and go to sleep. It's really sweet, other nights he cries for..3 minutes and is out. He has starting playing his own little version of hide and seek! He'll duck or move behind pieces of furniture, then pop out and crack up, it's hilarious! He doesn't tire of it though and can pop out front the railing of his crib over and over and over, each time with just as much enthusiasm.

Other than that I think it's gotten to the point where so much happens that I can't update about each thing! Which is great.. he is trying to say words, climbing over everything, starting to enjoy having some private time to play with his toys and not need me there every second, it's really a lot of fun now. He loves to go for walks and if I had to energy he could look around from his stroller for hours. If he could only sleep through the night.. we'll get there. :)

(Trying to get him used to hats for the summer.. considering both of his parents have fair skin.. right now he will wear them backwards because he isn't distracted by the flap!)

"POP"

One of Reilly's favorite times of the day is bath time! He loves playing with his little animals, trying to figure out how the water comes from the shower head, and sometimes eating the bubbles, it looks so cute when he has a little white bubble mustache! He has a little bath book and Jeff reads it to him every night while he is in the tub, once I tried reading it and Jeff informed me that I was doing it wrong because I don't over-exaggerate the word "POP" and I don't splash water all over Rei on the last page where the story refers to bath water splashing. He may just be onto something though.. tonight while Jeff was reading, Reilly watched very carefully as Jeff repeated "POP" a few times, and then he said it right back! When Jeff got to the end of the story, Reilly started splashing independently as the part about splashing approached. For the rest of his bath time, whenever we said "splash", he would splash the water- one more trick to the list! It's crazy how quickly babies pick things up at this age!

On the other hand.. he has decided that he likes to be dipped when we're dancing, and will just throw himself back and laugh, which is fun for the most part. However, as I was going up the stairs tonight he kept doing it, which I told him wasn't the safest idea.. then when we were turning the corner in his room he dipped back and knocked his head on the wall! Whoops!

The Twins.

These are Reilly's monkeys.. or as far as Reilly knows, this is his monkey. I haven't thought to attach him to a "lovey", or any sort of other transitional object, it just didn't cross my mind. However, he has been particularly fond of his sock monkey lately, he likes to cuddle it when he is being held, hold him while he is being read to, and although he doesn't pay much attention to him when he is sleeping at night, he likes to play with him in his crib in the morning. The 8-12 month section of "the book" mentioned that you should have two of whatever your child's "transitional object" becomes, god forbid anything should happen to one, or it needs to be washed, etc. I glazed over that section because.. if you lose it- you get over it, or if you really love it you find a way to reconnect.. yes, I still have Sleeper, Jeff will no longer allow him in the bed, but he is very close by on a bookshelf.. and sometimes sneaks into the bed with us. I can't tell you how many family members had to priority mail that bear back to me, or how many times my grandma had to restuff and sew him up after one stuffed animal tragedy or another. However, Jeff read this section and insisted we have a second monkey.. and considering I have to pull teeth (or threaten their existence) just to get him to read a baby book, I definitely don't want to hinder any motivation. So.. Reilly has two monkeys! Rhonda is the best and picked up the second one at Cracker Barrel this week! As of now, I think he can tell the difference between the two because I experimented multiple times, and each time he chose the original, however.. original is going to be hiding in the closet for a while, while monkey #2 absorbs Reilly's smell, love, etc, and they will just continue to rotate for all of eternity. Until I die an old woman and Reilly is going through my things and finds out I lied to him his whole life about his beloved sock monkey..

A is for Anaphylaxis.

In December I gave Reilly a small bite of ice cream, that same night his face broke out in bumps, but he was also being held by a woman with too much perfume on at a Christmas dinner so I didn't put the two together. In January he got another bite, same rash-so.. no more ice cream. A week later he got mash potatoes, which came with a rash all over his face, red eyes, and eventually welts around his eyes.. and a realization that he might be allergic to dairy. We mentioned to his pediatrician and he said that it sounded like a dairy/cow's milk allergy, and also that he was allergic to dogs due to allergic reactions whenever Max (His aunt and uncle's dog) was around, but no other dogs.. weird. He said if he had a reaction again, just give him some benadryl, but wanted to have him tested for any other allergies just to avoid a worse reaction in the future.

A few weeks ago we had him tested, thought we were just confirming a dairy allergy, no big deal. The did a "prick test" which was AWFUL! It included a tray of little pricks of the allergens pressed into his back, about 10 of them. Within minutes the at one point millimeter sized pricks were almost inch long white welts on his back! Ew.. then the doctor returned to confirm that not only was Reilly allergic to dairy, and not allergic to dogs (just Max), he was also allergic to wheat, soy, eggs, and peanuts. Oh my gosh!! So what is he going to eat? Well right now it's very limited.. he pretty much eats vegetables and fruits, oatmeal although it has a "trace of wheat" and a very small amount of baby food meats that don't have any allergens in them. Not going to lie.. this sucks! We'll manage.. but.. it sucks. Fortunately all except for the peanut allergy should go away by the time he is 4, granted we are very strict about not letting him eat any of them. The peanut allergy he will always have, he is not the type that will go into anaphylactic shock if someone opens a jar in the same room as him, but if he eats a peanut containing product, or if someone else does then touches him, then we'd better have the epi pen ready. Yesterday we had his blood work done.. HORRIBLE, thankfully my dad and Rhonda came along because considering how easily I take a needle myself (not very), there was no way I would be able to hold Reilly down while they drew blood from him. The blood work will determine how allergic he is to each thing, and which could be more dangerous.. crossing my fingers that most of them are not that bad and he can still eat one or two. Otherwise.. 3 more years is not that long.

The other good news is, I never knew how easily replaceable some things were in food.. eggs can be replaced with.. not wanting to look it up right now, but vinegar, yeast.. and other stuff. So that's manageable. And we found a lot of cookbooks on the FAAN website for some really good looking stuff! The not so fun news is that cow's milk cannot be replaced with soy milk when we wean him off of nursing, and rice milk is just not as nutritious so his doctor would prefer I keep him on breast milk as "long as I can".. ugh. So my plan is to still wean him from nursing at one and then just pump after that. Absolutely no offense to anyone who continues to nurse after a year, it's just not for me. And the other fun, but not fun news is.. we are THINKING of getting pregnant again sometime in the near/distant future, however.. in order for Reilly to get his milk, which takes 500 calories a day from me, and baby #2 to get it's nutrients, another 300 calories from me.. I'm pretty much going to have to eat a house everyday of my next pregnancy. Which is exciting because I have a real excuse to be fat.. but not exciting because.. ew... fat.

So anyway.. that is the allergy update. Took a while for me to post about it because I couldn't think of a way for it not to sound like something horrible, which.. it really isn't, we just have to make a few adjustments. He is perfectly healthy and happy, which I am thankful for everyday, he just can't eat a few things. And if anything.. it's just one more motivation to make sure he doesn't consume unhealthy or processed foods.

Hide and Seek

While most of you may be teaching your children sign language and how to read.. my kid is a one man circus show. His "tricks" include making piggy noises and dancing on demand, and now.. hide and seek. We're still working on sticking his tongue out. He's got the rest of his life for literacy!

We played this game for about 5 minutes before I thought to video it, so he was pretty much over it.. but you get the gist.

Laughing Baby.

THIS is my absolutely favorite thing in the universe!

Mr. Independent

Since I was pregnant I have been trying to think of ways to make my children as independent as possible. My cousin, Jen, has three amazing daughters and they are all so independent. She lives in California, so I don't see them often, but we were there a few times last year for the holidays and my Nana passing :(. I remember sitting at the table one morning watching as the three of them, 2, 4, and 6 at the time came downstairs and worked together to make their own breakfast.. frozen egos with syrup and milk. They were able to get their own dishes, get their own egos, the oldest daughter got the milk for the younger two.. AMAZING!! Minutes later they got themselves dressed and were able to pick out their own clothes, despite her fashionable advisement. As I watched those girls I decided THAT was my goal, and I'm starting as early as possible with small things such as routines, keeping Reilly's dishes as low to the ground as possible, and although it may be a disgusting mess and take three times as long- not baby'ing him while he is already trying to do things on his own.

Today was particularly frustrating though and it's just getting harder, but I know the end result will be well worth it! I should have known he was going to be a fun day when I offered him his pacifier while we were sleeping this morning and he swatted at my hand, took the pacifier, and put it in his own mouth. He has been doing this new thing lately where he slaps the food right off the spoon when you try to feed him.. and he is quick! It's so frustrating because I want him to eat so that he getting enough nutrition, but as soon as I pull the spoon out of the bowl his hand is in the air like he is about to spike a volleyball. I decided to go ahead and start letting him try to feed himself, he likes to take the spoon, turn it around backwards, and chew on the end- I even tried giving him the spoon backwards, but the kid cannot be tricked. He did get a few bites in, but considering he is already 6oz shy of staying on his growth curve for weight, don't want him to fall behind at all. Meanwhile, I gave him some bananas and cut up puffs- he is still working on the self feeding, but it's so cute. So of course he is COVERED in food, his high chair is covered in food, I am covered in food.. massive mess, but that's fine.. I'm sure their will be messier days in parenthood, so I stripped his clothes off and washed him down, then took him out of the high chair and set him in the floor for a minute while I wiped the high chair. Earth to Sarah.. he can crawl now, and of course he went straight for the dogs' water dish.. where else would he go? When I called his name to stop him, it startled him and he fell into the dish and started crying, so I'm covered in puree'd food, holding a soaking, naked, screaming baby with no clue where to go next. It was pretty hilarious in hindsight!

Fortunately after two meals of making a mess and making pterodactyl noises at me when I tried to feed him, he was pretty willing to be fed at dinner time. I'm excited to start giving him little pieces of food, but can't go ahead with that until after he sees an allergist (he is allergic to dairy and pet dander.. so they want to test him so we know what else he may react to before giving him foods), which he was supposed to do today but they had to cancel his appointment, so we will wait another week! But I did give him some green beans at dinner tonight, he didn't seem too stoked.

There Goes My Baby..

Who is this little guy I've been hanging out with the last few days? Because I'm pretty sure last week I had a BABY and now I have a much different child. Within a week he has started crawling, and today speed crawled.. so cute, starting pulling himself up to standing on toys and his bed, tried swinging from his mobile, and is as of today eating small pieces of food.

Lowering his crib was especially difficult. One night he woke up at 1:30 (what on earth!?) and when I went to check on him he was standing on his knees holding on to the side of the crib. I had to turn his bedroom light on just to be sure I was seeing what I thought I was seeing. That night I suggested that Jeff lower the crib just in case he decided to pull himself all the way up. Jeff went ahead and lowered it all the way to the lowest level just to be efficient. No! Way! He refused to raise it up a level despite my lying that I couldn't reach Reilly in the crib and crying that I wasn't emotionally ready for such a low crib, so I pulled out the tools and raised it myself! Now it is the perfect height for Reilly to stand and hold on, but do nothing more, like.. climb out of?..

Today it just went a step further when, while standing, he realized his mobile was now in reach after 8 months of hanging over him and went for it. He held on with two hands and, naturally as it's not very stable nor meant for hanging, he fell.. so down came the mobile. Oh.. and if anyone has great ideas on how to store all of this random stuff that they grow out of SO fast for the next child, in hopes of having another boy, I would love to hear it.

When they say don't blink they mean it! Last time the 1st of a month fell on a Tuesday I was sitting in a hospital bed, emotions jumping from excited to nervous to anxious.. and now my little guy will be 8 months old and I need to start thinking about first birthday ideas! Ahhh!!!!

The Four B's

The other night Reilly lead his bedtime routine for the first time. It's so incredible to watch babies develop cognitively, I love watching him figure things out.. like just letting the shower run while he is in the bath and he gets so inquisitive about the water, and touches it, or puts his hands under the bath water to feel the pressure from the shower, the entire time just looking so curious. But the other night he did something that was one of those baby light bulb moments.

When Reilly was two months old we implemented a bedtime routine in order to help him sleep through the night and know his bedtime cues.. Jeff called them the "Four B's".. Bath, Book, Bed, and Boob. The routine starts with bath time, it used to be about ten minutes long and increased as he got older and wanted to play with toys, bubbles, etc, and now when he is ready he tries to climb out of the tub. We're learning cues too. Then he gets a few stories, always ending with Goodnight Moon, nursed or bottle fed if Jeff is putting him down, and put in bed still awake. The other night he got his bath as usual (has recently not been wanting to spend too much time in it), then I placed him on his changing table to lotion him up and put his pajamas on and he grabbed the lotion himself. Once he was in his pajamas I was carrying him around his room, throwing his towel in the laundry, turning on the humidifier, and he was diving out of my arms for Goodnight Moon, just staring at it on the rocker. I sat down to read him his stories and with finishing each one, he would lean forward and reach for the next one in the small pile, and once Goodnight Moon was complete he just turned himself around the nurse!

It was just really excited to see that he knew what to expect and knows his routine, and enjoys his routine.. that is the most important thing, for him to be comfortable and confident and having a bedtime routine and knowing what to expect definitely supports that.

Mover and a Shaker!

Oh my goodness, what a day! No photos to go with it yet, but we'll get those.. don't you worry, I just wanted to hurry and type it out while it's still fresh.

Reilly has just been exceptional lately! I mean.. he is exceptional, but it has just been a tiny extra dose of awesome lately, well.. some parts. He is really just becoming the sweetest little mama's boy who can melt your heart and make you laugh from one second to the next. Today was a fun day, he woke up an hour early so we got to have some extra play time before I left for work. I worked 10:30-1:00 today.. tedious, I know. When I got home from work Reilly's Mamma, Rhonda, was holding him and he just reached out at me kicking and smiling, and as I took him he just wrapped his chubby little arms around my head and kept hugging me, then gave me a big wet baby kiss on the mouth! Melted. My. Heart! Dang I love that boy. At this time, Rhonda was warming up his bottle, and.. he is a large child, so I was holding him while he sat on the counter and I just put his bottle down for a minute, he picked it up like it was no big deal and popped that bottle right into his mouth! Hold the phone!! Now.. I know what you're thinking, especially if you're not a mom-whoop de do! No really.. WHOOP DE DO! He gets, on a big week 3 bottles at most, he just doesn't get them, so he has really had the opportunity to develop that skill, also we use a brand of bottles that is extra.. wide.. so it's hard to get his tiny hands on, but no.. he did it like it was just another day. He is sippie cup training right now, so that has probably been good practice. So at that moment I'm just jumping around in excitement for him, continuously taking the bottle away from him and putting it back on the counter just to see it over and over. But then it got better...

We went up to his room to play, and I'm sitting in the rocking chair just watching him explore for a few minutes and can't figure out if what he is doing is crawling. He was going for those.. door stopper things built into the wall, and watching them bounce when he hit them. Strange things babies are into.. so I moved him away from it again and low and behold-HE IS CRAWLING! It's not very graceful, this being unsure, which quite a few belly flops along the way. So awesome, so of course I keep moving him further and using different toys to make him crawl in circles around his room, and literally, by the end of the night (despite a horrific restaurant experience because he was exhausted), the kid was crawling with his belly off the floor. I am so proud of him, and so sad at the same time because my little baby is growing up, and so not thrilled that now begins a whole new world of chasing him around and keeping him from getting into things, but hey.. maybe I'll lose that extra baby weight that I've been keeping as a souvenir.

On a sad note, I am sharing this because it breaks my heart and I have a picture of it, so why not, he has realized that his bedroom exists outside of his crib. Reilly is sleeping 10 hours now, but everyone now and then he'll wake up and whine for a few minutes and fall back asleep. I usually wait for him to fall asleep and then go check on him, make sure he is in a safe position, etc. So I had been finding him turned sideways in his crib sleeping on his stomach for a couple of days, and then one morning I go into his room and he has the crib padding pulled down and is looking through the crib bars crying like a little prisoner, it broke my heart. And now every nap, every bed time, everything he looks through that thing, and sleeping training rules aside, I just can't see that, so that's usually my weak spot to swoop him up and cuddle him. Today I managed an extra second to get a picture of it, it would be more sad if he weren't flipping me off, but can't say I blame him. ;)