Year 2 Day 339: Look Ma, No Hands!

See...now he's just a show off. He only just started pulling himself up on furniture and in his cot, sitting up on his own, and crawling...but now he's going to take it one step further.

Yep.

Now, when he's holding onto the sofa, he lets go with one hand...or BOTH...and tries to just walk off after something -- forgetting that he doesn't yet have the balance. I told Matt I'm going to start calling him Ryan 'No Fear.'

I was lucky to get a bit of a lie-in this morning...which was nice. Matt reported to me that Ryan whinged off and on the whole time I wasn't downstairs. I guess Mommy cuddles are the best medicine when teeth are giving you a hard time.

Year 2 Day 338: Toothy-Peg Torture - Round 3!

Ryan barely slept last night. I checked the logs I have been keeping and I think it was maybe just over 6 hours? That isn't a lot for a baby - nor is it near enough!

So, do you know how much sleep Mommy got?? Three hours. ONLY three!

I discovered shortly after Matt left for work exactly why sleep was so difficult for my little mite. Are you ready? Drum roll, please...

We now have tooth number THREE!!

Ryan's top front tooth on the left has started breaking through the gum. You can even feel the ridge a bit when you dare to chance putting your finger in his mouth. He had been sticking his tongue out the past few days and I think I will know now that is a sign that one is about to come.

Fast forward to late tonight before I had a chance to blog and I decided after he woke the first time, that I would just bring him down to me until he was sleepy again. One thing I have learned is that teething trumps all and it's much easier to go with the flow during these times than to force him back to sleep and end up back upstairs with him every hour until I went to bed.

As you can see, Ryan didn't mind this executive decision, and he was ready for sleep again within the hour!

Year 2 Day 337: Brittania Park - Park Deux

Ryan invited Daddy along this time to show him how much fun he has on the swings. Matt had a ball pushing him and the expressions on his face were priceless!

He spent a lot of his time gawking at the other kids within the park and on the playground, but we just attribute that to his ever-growing curiosity -- or being nosy...one of the two.

Here's hoping that a little fresh air will do him some good and allow him some much needed sleep tonight.

Year 2 Day 336: Holy Milestones, Batman!

The boy was simply driven to sleep tonight when he boycotted all naps this afternoon because he was too busy pulling himself up on furniture, sitting up on his own (even though I missed him actually DO it because I was in the kitchen getting his porridge), and...get this...

CRAWLING!!

Yep...it's still not perfected like a Maggie Simpson crawl...but he is purposefully moving forward in a creeping/crawling manner. I even have a video...LOOK!





I'm so proud and I'm SOOO in trouble!

And what's the best thing to end our perfect little day with? A bedtime story from Daddy, of course! (Best story-reader EVER!)

Year 2 Day 335: This is the Life

Yep, just sitting out on the patio, enjoying a yummy lunch of carrots, cucumber, hard-boiled egg, and mashed-egg sandwiches! This was Ryan's first taste of an egg hard-boiled. He has had them scrambled before, but definitely an interesting alternative.

Every bite went down the hatch!

Later, when he went down for his afternoon nap, I went looking online for templates to use with my genealogy findings. I came across a file from My Family Search (which is associated with LDS), but when I downloaded it, I didn't get a template, but instead a video welcoming and thanking me for becoming a volunteer indexer.

HA!

I decided to give it a shot and basically you have access to loads of world records, from the census, military, taxes, birth, marriage, death, etc. You are required to decipher the chicken scratch handwriting and complete a spreadsheet (included in the program). Then you submit it and it becomes part of the world wide web for people to do searches on. I figure this is me doing my part since I know how difficult it is to find a complete set of records when you're searching for ancestors.

If you're interested in genealogy, you should really consider doing this. You can invest as little or as much time as you'd like. Plus, for me...I find it a bit interesting to read about other lives. Like this one in the photo for example (last names censored as I don't want to break my indexing oath). This is a record of a marriage license where the bride-to-be was underage and needed parental consent to get married. Unfortunately, the genius who photocopied this record copied the handwritten note of permission from her mother, over the TOP of the actual marriage license, leaving it non-readable for a majority of the information. I found it quite funny.

I do feel nerdy doing it...but at the same time, it's nice to know it will help someone with their own research down the line.

Year 2 Day 334: Car Seat FAIL

A couple weeks back this car seat was on offer at Asda for only £15 -- I believe marked down from £25. It does both front and rear-facing and since Matt and I plan to do Extended Rear-Facing (ERF) with Ryan, it seemed like a good deal. The alternatives are much dearer, for example a front/rear-facing Britax seat from Babies R Us, and although we do plan on getting something a little more substantial, we thought this would be a decent interim seat until we could afford the other.

The seat (Nania Trio Plus) had a 4-star review rating, however, the lower-starred reviewers complained it didn't have much padding and one even said it didn't fit well in her Corsa (which is what we have). We decided to get one anyway and see for ourselves.

Although Ryan does enjoy the extra room and being able to sit more upright, his head flops dangerously forward (which was another complaint of reviewers) when he falls asleep. Also, it's not exactly secure by just the seat belt in the car as we have to wedge it against the back of the driver's seat. So, from these discoveries we have chosen to retire this seat to keep as a booster for when we're ready for him to face forward.

Until then, looks like it's back to the snug little infant seat for a while longer.

Year 2 Day 333: Little Nipper

Here is our little bundle fresh from an afternoon nap. He's had a pretty tough past couple of days with teething and last night someone decided to switch my child for one of the Cullens from the Twilight series.

He has been waking several times a night now and since I know he's eating plenty, it has to be teething and possibly yet another growth spurt. When I brought him into bed with me at half-two this morning to nurse, we both fell asleep for about an hour. When I woke I decided to move him to his cot, but when I started to move, he started to root again so I latched him on for another top up feed. This is when the first incident occurred.

"Ow!"

It isn't very often when he bites, and it's always when he's having teething pains...so for this reason, I usually don't latch him back on. Except in my zombie-state, I did and he bit me even harder. When I looked down I saw that this time he drew blood!

Yep...Mommy's little baby vamp!

Then all morning he's been a bit fussy off and on and every time he goes to nurse, he cries in pain and can't stay latched for very long. The suction is really hurting his gums.

Fast forward to tonight when I was putting him to bed and he just wasn't having it. He's been extra drooly and kept blowing raspberries instead of sleeping. Then Matt tried to help rock him and he had a major meltdown. The neighbours probably thought we were torturing him.

I can see where a top tooth is trying to make its way through the gum...I just hope it gets the job over and done with soon so my little bunny can catch a break and get some sleep!