Year 2 Day 353: The Cheese Stands Alone

The first thing Ryan is interested in when we visit his cousin, Amy (BESIDES his excitement over seeing his cousin, Amy) is cousin Amy's activity block. This was the very thing that caught his interest enough that he wanted to stand as much as possible to play with it, and he even first learned to pull himself to standing by using this very block!

Of course, now he can pull himself to standing without much trouble and I am even confident enough as his Mommy to stand back a bit and trust that he can balance himself well enough holding on. He does occasionally let go entirely and try to walk off (forgetting he can't walk, I guess) and a couple times today he would let go and just stand at the block without holding anything -- but I am talking only a matter or 3 seconds or so.

Anyway, Daddy and I suspect that at this rate...in another 3 months, by his first birthday and Christmas (or maybe even sooner) he may very well be walking!  ::gasp::

Year 2 Day 352: Don't Try This At Home

I have come to the conclusion that changing my dear son's nappy at times is as simple and easy as trying to give an enema to an angry alligator.

You see, he loathes (and I mean LOATHES) being on his back most of the time, so unless distracted by some song-singing on the telly or a pretty purple bottle of Mommy's A-Z Multivitamins, you have no chance. Lately the difficulty has been successfully executing the clean-up portion of the experience while he flips and flops his body whilst trying to spin into the infamous gator death roll.

Not pretty.

Especially when he's grabbing at the wipe that's covering his boy bits (to protect one from getting hosed down) and then trying to put said wipe into his mouth -- because what else would a baby want to do with a baby wipe, right?

Then there's the tedious task of trying to secure closed the new nappy while he continues to try to flip to his belly, or better yet, while he's bashing you in the knuckles with the multivitamin bottle you so cleverly gave him previously to distract him.

Bruised knuckles or not...this boy is leaving with a clean bum and nappy. Even if it means leaving a bit of destruction in his wake.

Year 2 Day 351: On The Mend

Ryan was in much better spirits today. He slept on me last night on the sofa downstairs and although I didn't get proper sleep until after 6am, it was nice not having it interrupted by screams of him in his cot. Instead I was woken up to a soggy hand clenching my nose. When I opened my eyes I saw a wide open mouth with four little pearly whites grinning back at me.

He hasn't had any fever today and he seemed to be himself again playing with his toys and chasing the cat in the walker and screeching. I thought he might have been ready for a nap in afternoon, but when I tried to put him down he wasn't having it, so I brought him back downstairs and thought a little time in his Jumperoo might wear him out.

Now, normally when he is sleepy he will also be quite fussy...but this wasn't the case as I watched him bounce, bounce, bounce away. It wasn't until I looked up at one point and noticed him nodding off that I actually believed he was even tired!

His head would start to tilt and his eyes rolled back...but as soon as he would slump, his own body weight would shift the springs enough to bounce and he would then look up and start bouncing as if nothing had even happened! I watched for a good three minutes or so before he properly rest his head and went to sleep.

Then, I grabbed the camera, of course!

Year 2 Day 350: Poorly Baby

After a temp of 101.1 around 3am, I kept Ryan up for about an hour to monitor his temperature. By 4am I could feel him sweating on me, so I knew the fever had broken. He was awake and crying at 4:20, 5:20, and 6:20 before I finally just brought him downstairs to rest on me on the sofa.

Of course, THEN he decided to sleep.

He was okay enough during the day to play, but you could hear in his breathing that he just wasn't fully himself.

After Matt came home from work, we decided to play it by ear and still went through the bedtime routine even though he returned back downstairs with me in the end. So we thought we would just let him stay up and get in his cuddles since he was feeling so poorly.

We attempted to put him 45 minutes before we came up to bed, and he lasted about 10 minutes once we got into bed ourselves. Pillows under my right arm and baby on my left shoulder, we retreated yet again to the front room to set up camp on the sofa. No sense in having two sleepless nights in a row.

Year 2 Day 349: You're Pushin' It!

Quite literally, he was today! The boy cannot be stopped! He has to be climbing onto or out of or OFF of something anymore. Gone are the days where he will sit patiently in the wicker chair in the bathroom holding his plastic duck while Mommy brushes her teeth. Gone are the days where I can leave the room to prepare lunch and be confident that he won't be spread-eagle across the tray of the walker trying to climb out and into his push-chair. Fully-walking or not, we have a mobile baby who doesn't have much in mind for staying put for very long.

Today he pushed the walker (yes, from the OUTSIDE) from one end of the front room to the other and onward behind the sofa and back again. He was on FIRE!

But that wasn't a foreshadowing for how the day would end...

By mid-afternoon, a mildly runny nose I had noticed from the morning was like a leaky tap that wouldn't stop. His eyes appeared glazed and his energy quickly diminished. He had a feed before Matt got home and I thought he would go down for a nap, but he lasted 10 seconds in his cot before his nose was bothering him and he just wanted a cuddle. It wasn't until nearly 7pm that he finally passed out on my shoulder so I took him up knowing it wouldn't be for the night.

Shortly after eight, he was crying again upstairs so I brought him down to have a scrambled egg and toast soldiers while Matt and I had egg on toast. I noticed he was looking distant, but when I touched his skin it was like a hot coal. His temp measured 100.7 so I got a nice bath ready and gave him some Calprofen for the fever. We even elevated his mattress slightly with pillows to help.

Now I sit finishing the blog with a baby asleep on my shoulder once again. He lasted 20 minutes before I made him battle the snot-sucker because he woke unable to inhale or exhale easily through his nose again. I suspect this will be ongoing tonight, I just hope after such a long, busy day this little guy and his bunged-up nose can get some rest.

Year 2 Day 348: Cheeky Brit

Tonight's photo is a bit of a double meaning because not only is Ryan both British AND Cheeky, but the actual bum or cheek of his jeans is representing as well! The jeans are still a bit roomy and I have to roll them a couple times because Matt's height gene hasn't kicked in, but this purchase a couple months back couldn't be passed up when we saw them at Matalan. We knew if we bought them in a 6-9 that he could at least grow into them and they would last a while. There's nothing either of us loathe more than wasting money on something that won't last him a bit, considering how fast babies grow out of things.

He showed them off for Nan and Grandad when we stopped by for a little visit.

He also got the chance to re-enact his performance with a push-walker when Josie brought down Matt's old one that he used when he was just a baby. It's wooden with a metal handle and it holds a set of multi-coloured wooden blocks in the base. It was definitely a hit, but will need a good wipe down with the dust it had collected in its 30+ years without use. A photo of this will be a must when it's all ready.

I can't wait!

Year 2 Day 347: Obituary for Mr. S.D. Card

S.D. "POS" Card, an 8GB memory-recording device, died suddenly the 12th of September, 2010. It was the casualty of the finicky card-reader purchased several years back from Dollar General and a victim of shoddy design and quality. He was less than 12 months old.

Mr. Card was purchased in a small camera shop in Merry Hill Shopping Centre to replace another card and he allowed the taking of many wonderful photos, including the birth of the world's cutest baby. S.D.'s photos were featured on this very blog on a daily basis. At the time of his death he was about to provide the photos for day 347.

S.D. Card is survived by his 1GB cousin, S.D. Polaroid, who has provided tonight's photos. Funeral arrangements: TBA.

Let me start by saying how unbelievably excited I was to blog tonight because Ryan took his first steps with his cousin, Amy's push-walker!! No help from Mommy or Daddy...just off across the floor all on his own! He's still unsteady in his balance, but the boy has NO FEAR and is so determined. The best part of all was that my camera was naturally close by and all that was required was to get Matt to spot him in case he fell over so I could snap some photos.

And let me tell you...snap some photos I did! I don't recall how many I took, but in reviewing them on the way home I knew I would have a difficult time choosing just one or two.

Once Ryan had been fed and put to bed, I anxiously came back downstairs and retrieved my camera from its case. I removed the memory card and inserted it into the card reader just as I do every night before I blog. When I saw that it hadn't recognised any new media I knew I was in for the familiar game of "insert-remove" as the card reader had an annoying knack for not wanting to read the card right away. I must have done this close to 50 times before getting fed up. That was around the time Matt came into the room needing to use the PC briefly.

I had a bit of a strop and pulled the memory card out and tossed the card reader aside, purely out of frustration that it wasn't reading the card. When I inserted the card back into my camera I soon realised it wasn't seeing the photos there either. So, I removed the card yet again and examined it closely only to discover...

...the corner now had a chip in the flimsy plastic. Clearly this had to have been from repeated attempts to get the card reader to READ THE CARD, which it wasn't doing. This confirmed my worst fear!

The pictures are gone because the card is broken and cannot be read!

This means the photos I have taken of my son over the last TWO days were lost!! Granted, I did just back the card up on Friday, so it could have been worse...it could have been a lot more photos. But still.

This is where I admit...I still cried about it.

I know, I know...call the whaaaaaambulance. But c'mon...anyone who takes loads of photos can probably appreciate that these memories are precious and losing them is just...so...sad.

Anyway, I'm a bit over it now. Still disappointed that I don't have the photos to show what happened tonight, but I guess that means I will have to re-stage tonight's events. Shame.

And with that...I'm going to bed.

::moment of silence in remembrance of S.D. Card::

Thank you, and Goodnight.