He's Mastered the Stairs

While we were at my parents house for Christmas, Ryan learned how to go up the stairs. He would try to go down the stairs, but he would go face first. Jim has been trying to teach him how to turn around and go down the stairs on his belly. On Saturday January 24th, Ryan finally figured it out, and he can officially go up and down the stairs.

When I first saw him turning around to come down the stairs, I about had a heart attack. Jim assured me that he was fine and that was how he did it. I was still nervous the first few times I would watch Ryan try to come down.

The stairs are Ryan's new favorite place to play. He'll sit on the landing in between the two sets of stairs and hold on to the bars of the railing and jabber. It used to bug me that he would go up there to play. Now, I know it keeps him busy for a few minutes so it's fine with me :) The other day I was talking to my mom on the phone. I was sitting on the landing between the two sets of stairs while Ryan played. He decided to continue up the stairs and go into his room. I continued to talk on the phone when things were a little too quiet. I went up to Ryan's room and he had taken all of his clothes out of his drawers and thrown them in the garbage and all over his room. His room was a mess. That's his new thing, too. He loves to open all the drawers in the house and throw everything out. I spend the bulk of my day picking up after him. It's a treat.

Anyway, just in the past few days, he has got even better at coming down. He used to take the stairs one at a time on the way down. Now he kind of stiffens out and slides down. It's pretty funny.

While we were watching Dora the Explorer today, from the stairs, I got Ryan on video going up and down the stairs.

Dinner @ Brick Oven

Last night, January 23, we met Kristy, Annie, and Cory at Brick Oven for dinner. I lived with Kristy and Annie in Sandy while I was going to school at the U of U. We got along so well--it was great. I'd live with them now if we could get a house big enough for 3 families :)

I just have to blog about what Annie said so I don't forget it. At dinner, we were ordering drinks and she asked the waiter if they had cherry coke. He replied that they did so she ordered a vanilla coke instead. We all about died laughing. I guess she was just checking to see if they had cherry coke, haha.

We try to get together every once in awhile to chat and keep up on each other. I'd like to get together a lot more than we do, but we're all busy and have conflicting schedules these days.

After dinner, we travelled to Spanish Fork so they could see our house. It was a fun evening. Like I said, I would live with these girls forever if I could. Maybe we could settle for buying houses by each other in the same neighborhood :)

Ryan after dinner

Me, Annie, and Kristy

Jim, Ryan, and Me

Jim and me

Annie sent me these pictures. We took a picture of Annie & Cory together but she didn't send me that pic. If you want to see if, you'll have to go to her blog.

Update on Ryan

I took Ryan to the doctor again yesterday. His left eye has been pretty gunky. It's red, has puss around it, waters all the time, and has dry, scaly skin underneath it. I wanted to see if his RSV was getting any better, too. Jim couldn't leave work so I had to take him by myself. I was a little nervous, but I managed :)

The doctor took one look at his eye and said it had an infection. He also looked at his ears and throat and said they were also infected. I told him about our trip to Instacare and them telling us to just keep "doing what we're doing." And he told me if he would have seen Ryan, from the way he is still wheezing, etc., he probably would have put him on a nebulizer. It was so good to hear that there was something else we could have done to make him feel better. The doctor prescribed an antibiotic for him to take and and an antibiotic to put in his eye. They also weighed him at his appointment. He now weighs 21.4 lbs--he's gained almost a pound! He doesn't miss any meals :)

After one day of taking the antibiotics, I can tell he already feels better. His eye looks so much better already. We are supposed to put the drops in both of his eyes four times a day for five days. I put the drops in his eyes right after we got home from getting the prescription filled and it was so easy--I even did it by myself. Now he knows what is going on and he'll fight, kick, and bawl. He closes his eyes so you can't get the drops in. We have to hold his little eyes open to get the drops in there--it's terrible. I know it is helping him, but I feel like we are torturing him :(

I'm supposed to take Ryan for a check-up in a week so I'll give another update on how he is doing.

Ryan's Favorite Way to Watch T.V.

When Ryan will sit long enough to watch T.V., he likes to sit wrapped up in a blanket on Jim's lap. Ok, he's only done it this morning after he woke up and tonight when he was settling down for bed. But it was pretty cute so I had to take a picture or two.

I don't know if you can see it or not, but he has a little bruise right in the middle of his forehead. He was crawling and ran into the doorway. We didn't think he had hit that hard, but then he had that litte bruise on his forehead, darnit.

Gungboo Again

Yes, we've all had the gungboo again. Ryan has had a runny nose and cough for over a week now. He's working on getting his top four teeth, and I've heard kids can get sick when they are cutting teeth so I didn't worry too much about it. But he continued to get more congested and cough harder as the days went by.

Last Saturday, we got Ryan a humidifier and some Baby Vicks VapoRub to put on his chest, which seemed to help. Jim also had drill last weekend so I was home alone with Ryan on Sunday morning feeding him his mush when he had a horrible coughing spell. He couldn't catch his breath and eventually threw up. The poor guy was crying and would lay his head on my shoulder like the coughing, etc. had totally wore him out. I was nervous so I called Jim at drill and told him I was worried. Jim came home and we took Ryan to Instacare. I hate taking Ryan to the doctor because they always tell you there is nothing they can do for infants. Ryan was sick this summer where he would get the chills (he would literally be shaking, it was terrible) and then, right after the chills, he would get a fever and be way hot. We took him to the doctor and they said he just had to get through it--waste of time.

Anyway, we went to Instacare and like I suspected they told us to just keep doing what we were doing. The doctor did tell us that Ryan had RSV, but it wasn't severe enough to have any treatment. Oh, Ryan weighed 20.8 lbs when he was weighed, too.

On Monday, Jim and I both started having cold symptoms. We've been sick ever since. I think I've had to blow my nose 9,000 times. I'm about sick of it. The best part is I've completely lost my sense of smell and taste. I don't mind losing my smell, especially when I'm changing poopy diapers. But, I hate that I've lost my taste. I cannot taste a thing--it's horrible. I made lasagna the other night for dinner and I had to ask Jim if it was good cause I couldn't taste it. I know I would hate to be bling or lose my hearing, but I would also hate to lose my taste.

Since we've been sick, I haven't been blogging. I have been taking a few pictures though so I'll post them.

This is a picture of Ryan in the tub the other night. I finally stopped bathing him in the baby bather and started putting him in the tub. He loves it.

He got squirting bath toys for Christmas, but he isn't quite sure what to think about them yet :)

A week after Jim got home from Iraq, he went to Wisconsin for a 2 week course. While he was there, he got this Green Bay Packers outfit for Ryan. Jim isn't a huge sports guy, but he does like the Green Bay Packers. He couldn't resist getting this little sweatsuit for Ryan.

Another pic in the Green Bay sweatsuit.

Ryan has been playing really well with his toys. I'll put him down and he'll crawl to his toys and just play. I have to be in the room, of course.

He has to "taste" everything. I shouldn't tell people this but he licked the toilet, the sole of Jim's boots, and the glass on the entertainment center.

When I was pregnant, I went to one of those gender ultrasound places. I purchased the package where you could get a 3-D picture of your baby. Ryan would never cooperate to get a picture, but I did get to see him licking while in the womb. I have it on DVD for proof. It's pretty funny. Anyway, the point is, he's always been a licker.

Some serious playing...

More playing...

Making the rounds around the saucer

Having so much fun :)

Anyway, we're all finally starting to get better. I can't wait until my taste comes back. It's really annoying. I hate cold season. It's the pits.

Pics of Ryan

I liked these pics of Ryan but I don't really have anything to post about them so I'll just post them :)

I didn't take any pics of Ryan on his 10 month birthday. This is him 1 day after his 10 month birthday though. He looks like such a big boy.

He does this new "face" where he scrunches us his nose and has his mouth open. It's pretty funny. He was doing it while I was feeding him dinner, but every time I got the camera out he would quit doing it OR I would miss the picture. I missed the "face" in this picture, but I thought it was funny so I had to post.

One more pic of him

I vacuumed really quick today. Jim laid on the couch with Ryan and Ryan fell asleep. He looked really cute so I had to take a picture, of course.

A close up of the two. Ryan's hand is by Jim's face because he constantly jumps like he is falling of a log or something when he sleeps :)

I just have to post about our night last night...around 4:45am this morning our damn smoke alarm in the master bedroom starts chirping and needs a new battery--grr! Jim had to go downstairs, to the garage, and get our ladder so he could undo the smoke alarm. Even when he got the stupid thing unplugged, it still wouldn't stop chirping. We didn't have any 9V batteries around, and it wouldn't quit chirping, so Jim took it down to the garage and left it there so we couldn't hear it.

I was afraid the loud chirp was going to wake Ryan up. It didn't right away, but he decided to get up at 6am and wouldn't go back to sleep. He finally took a little cat nap around 7:15am until about 8am. I still wasn't ready to get up but decided I'd better. Jim and I had stayed up and watched "No Country For Old Men" (really good, tense movie by the way) last night so I was up later than usual, and I got woke up earlier than usual. Both Jim and I have been kind of dragging today.

Anyway, I just had to mention our stupid smoke alarm. It reminded me of living at my parents house. It seemed like they always had a smoke alarm that was chirping. The problem was, you could never figure out which one was chirping so it seriously took a couple days to finally find it and change the battery. It was a treat. Smoke alarms always seem to chirp at the most inconvenient of times--such as 4:45 in the morning!

Jim goes back to work tomorrow. He has been off since December 18th. He did go back for a half day on the 29th, but he has been home with us the rest of the time. I don't know who is dreading him going back to work more--me or him. He has been a big help with Ryan--keeping him entertained, changing diapers, bath time, getting him lunch/dinner, etc. I keep telling Ryan tomorrow is going to be soooo boring without having dad home :) Hopefully the days go by quick, haha.

Gabe's Baptism

On Saturday January 3rd we went to Delta to see Gabe get baptized. It was Gabe's 8th birthday that same day as well. When we walked into the chapel, it was a full house. There were a total of 6 kids getting baptized that day. I thought it would take forever to get through all of those kids, but the whole thing only lasted just over an hour.

Afterwards, we went to Mi Rancherito for lunch. It is Gabe's, well the whole Rowley family's, favorite place to eat. We were all pretty much ravenous when we got there; the waitresses couldn't keep us stocked with chips and salsa :) Wendy also brought a cake to serve for Gabe's birthday. It was a really nice day. I'm glad we were able to make it to see Gabe get baptized and celebrate his 8th birthday.

Gabe after being confirmed

Gabe with his parents, Rhet and Wendy

The Rowley Family

Rhet, Wendy, MaKena, Madison, Gabe, and Riley

Gabe at Mi Rancherito with is cake

10 Months Old Today

Ryan is 10 months old today. I can't believe his in the double digit months :) He is getting so big and learning new stuff every day.

Here are a few of the things he is doing at 10 months old:

• Into everything--he pulls down our DVD's 50 times a day
• If Jim or I go in the kitchen, he is right behind us. He loves getting into the cupboards or helping unload the dishwasher.
• His language is expanding--it is still only babbling but we can tell there are a lot of new sounds he is saying. He still will not say mama though :(
• He is a great eater. He'll eat pretty much anything except baby food green beans and squash.
• He has his two bottom teeth and is working on getting his top teeth. We can see where the top 4 are going to pop through any day.
• He waves. If Jim is upstairs and Ryan is down in the family room with me, Ryan will flap his hand up and down waving. It's pretty cute.
• Ryan can do "so big," which is when he stretches his hands up in the air above his head.
• He is officially an all-terrain crawler, according to Jim. He will go over anything to get where he wants to go even if it is off the edge of the couch. (FYI--we have been right by him anytime he has dove off the couch so he hasn't fallen yet.)
• He is starting to stand without holding on to anything. He continues to walk along the couch and go between the couch and the coffee table. He will definately be walking soon.

Ryan is such a mellow kid and keeps us very entertained. We love him very much.