Happy Birthday Ryan!

2007-10-20 Ryan birthday pictures

Today we had a little family birthday party for Ryan and it was so much fun! It was so great to see everyone. Special thanks to everyone who traveled all the way from Ma and NYC. It was such a very special day for Ryan and he was so excited to see everyone. Ryan got so many new books, toys and clothes. Our home is literally being taken over with baby toys! We had enough food for an army! We had ordered an Italian Combo 5 foot hoagie for the party and it was literally 5 feet long and took up the entire counter. I think we barely made a dent in the sandwich. I thought I had a picture but I am sure someone does I can post later! We also had tons of other yummy sides and a carrot cake and cupcakes. Ryan had his usual kale and yogurt for lunch but he did dig into some cheese and fruit and of course he had a yummy cupcake and ice cream too! He had strawberries for the first time today and he LOVED them! So yummy I think this may be his new favorite fruit!

I also wanted to thank Greg for putting together a very special slide show honoring Ryan and his first year of life. He really captured the memories of Ryan as a little tiny baby in the hospital to the big boy he is today. He even got all of his milestones in the slide show. I know it was a lot of work and it turned out to be the hit of the party. I think this was the first time I made it through without crying. Kerri it was great to see you, Steve and Caroline I can't believe how big she is! I wish we had more time for the kids to play!

The little blond girl Sofia in the pictures with Ryan is our neighbor's granddaughter. She just adores Ryan and he really loves her too. She is 2 1/2 and they play so great together. Sofia pretends to "babysit" Ryan when he goes over her house. It is so cute! She was such a great helper today assisting Ryan in opening all his presents. And Sofia just had a ball with all his new toys. Her and Ryan will have enough to keep them busy for a while!

So glad everyone could come to help celebrate Ryan's first birthday. It was so special to have everyone here. I know Ryan will look back at these photos someday and smile! What a great party! It is 9:30 and everyone in the house has been fast asleep for hours. Greg was the first one out he is passed out in the big chair snoring away. Ryan was the second one to fall sound asleep upstairs poor little dumpling so much excitement for a little baby boy. Even Dyan is asleep next to me on the couch too much excitmemt he missed his afternoon nap too! So much excitement for everyone for one day. I am feeling a bit tired myself so I think I will join the rest of the family and turn in for the night.

Thanks again to everyone for making Ryan's birthday a very special one he will never forget. We are so blessed to have such wonderful family and friends to share these special celebrations with! Hope you enjoy the pictures. Love you all. Goodnight.

Love,
Birthday Boy Ryan!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY RYAN!!!!

Happy Birthday Ryan! We are so excited because it is Ryan's Birthday today YAY!! Ryan slept in this morning until about 7:30 (he usually gets up around 7:000 and he was so happy talking to himself in his crib. I actually woke up before him and Greg and I lay in bed so happy I sooo wanted to wake him up to wish him a happy birthday but it was best to just let him wake up on his own. Anyways when he finally did wake up I got the video camera and we sang happy birthday to him in his crib. He was soooo happy and he danced in his crib while we sang happy birthday to him over and over again. It was like he knew it was his birthday! Then his favorite thing to do when we come in after we wakes in the morning and from his naps is to throw himself face first in his crib and kick his arms and legs laughing.....Polina says he does this for her too when he wakes from his nap. Then we helped him open his gift from us his push around buggy. We have not had time to try it out yet but I know he will LOVE IT!

Yes we have had a busy morning so far and it is only 2PM. Then Ryan had breakfast his oatmeal mixed with avocado and pumpkin and some mango and avocado for finger food and cheerios then I jumped in the shower and we were off to the pedi for his one year physical. YAY clean bill of health! 26 pounds three ounces and 31 1/2 inches long. Tippity top for both height and weight like 97th for weight and 99th for height and I can finally say he is taller than he is wide. He actually only gained a pound in three months and grew almost 2 full inches! He can eat anything now (b/c we have no history of food allergies) and YES he can have whole milk YAY! What will I do with the 130 ounces of breast milk in the freezer? Probably just mix a little for a while with the cows milk then use it for cereal. I have thrown so much of it away in the past I hate to waste more :( Oh well I really want to ditch my breastpump in a huge way! Ryan really has little interests in nursing anyways these days he'd rather be on ON THE MOVE! BTW he is walking so so well now I even let him (gasp) walk in the driveway and on the lawn. Yes we are religious about picking up the doggy do do now! Unfortunately for Ryan he also got 4 shots today too I felt like a really mean mommy making him get them on his actual birthday but his party is not until Sat. He took them all like a champ and barely cried. I opted not to get a flu shot for him he is not around sick children in daycare and most of his friends are at home. Greg and I plan on getting ours in the next few weeks. His pedi said unless he was in day care or around sick children there was really no need for yet another shot...the mercury and therosols- preservatives in the vaccines really freak me out!

So after a quick stop at Trader Joe's for some organic whole milk we came home to have lunch. Lentil soup and some cheese sticks he ate almost 2 whole cheese sticks! I swear he eats more than me! Ryan had a sippy cup of breast milk and cow's milk and he didn't even bat an eyelash! Oh yeah that's the other thing the pedi said no more bottle! The lactose from the milk can rot his teeth. We have to brush his teeth twice a day now and only sippy cups and no milk at bedtime after we brush his teeth only water. He has been napping for and hour and a half and I will have to wake him soon for his music class.

I told Greg yesterday I think I am ready for baby number too! I got so teary eyed thinking where we were one year ago, where we are today and how we agreed this past year has been the best year of our lives! Where has the time gone. It really is true when people say that children grow up so fast! We are enjoying every precious moment with Ryan. He is our dumpling our joy and we can't ever imagine life without him! See you all soon. I promise we will get a picture of the birthday boy up later on! I gotta wake sleeping giant soon for his music class

Love XOXOXO Ryan the birthday boy!

Ryan the Great Pumpkin!

2007-10-14

Weekend recap....yesterday I worked for a few hours and Ryan spent the morning with Polina while Daddy went to the driving range. Boy it got really cold all of a sudden here. I am not complaining though I LOVE Fall. It is our favorite time of year. When Greg and I first started dating and of course when Ryan was born! So after work we all ate lunch then took a family nap. I felt so lazy yesterday it was great! Then we decided to head out to grab an early dinner at one of our favorite dinner spots in Fairfield called Quatro Pazzi. They have the best Italian food in town and they are super family friendly! Sorry I have to brag a bit... the hostess comented on how well behavied Ryan was throughout the entire dinner and she even added that she knew he was a good sleeper and a good baby just by watching him interact at dinner. We took our dessert to go and headed to boarders so I could get the new children's cookbook everyone's been raving about called Decepitvely Delicous by Jessica Seinfeld. http://www2.oprah.com/foodhome/food/jseinfeld/recipes/jseinfeld_recipes_main.jhtml
Check out some of the recipes. My mom saw her on Oprah and she was on the Today show promoting her new cookbook. She hides spinach in brownies and veggie purees in alsmost all her recipes! Oprah said the recipes tasted fabulous! Then of course it was home to tuck Ryan into bed.

Today we all slept in and had pumkin pancakes for breakfast yum yum! Ryan just loves pumpkin pancakes and they are pretty healthy too. We make them with whole flour and canned pumpkin. He ate almost 2 whole pancakes for breakfast and even took a bottle from Daddy and he ate almost an entire kiwi too. This babe loves to eat. Then we cleaned up and headed over to Silvermine's for some pumpkin picking. Ryan really enjoyed the pumpkin patch and even got to ride in the wagon....he seemed a bit overhelmed (it was pretty crowded even though we got there early) but we think he had fun. He picked out some pumpkins and Greg even guessed the weight of one of the pumpkins and we got to take it home for free! Yay Daddy! It was so much fun. Not much else planned for the rest of the day maybe a quick Target run for some party supplies.

Hope you enjoy the pictures of Ryan in the pumpkin patch. Hope everyone had a great weekend. Talk to you soon. Miss you!

XOXO Ryan

Yay for Yappy Hour!

So today Dylan and I got to spend dome quality time at Yappy Hour and Dylan even won a raffle at yappy hour- a small bag of pumpkin spice treats. Yappy hour is at a pet boutique in Milford where you can bring your under 30 lb well behaved dog to play with other small dogs and they serve the adults wine and cheese. A co-worker of mine told us about it but we can only go if Greg is available to put Ryan to bed and it just so happened to be that he was home tonight. Poor Dylan this is only our second time going but I must say it went a little better than the first time. The first time we went he was shivering behind me and constantly wanted me to pick him up... today he actually socialized with some of the dogs a little and only wanted me to pick him up a few times. But it was a lot of fun.

Today Ryan and I had our first playgroup with some other mom's in town it was really nice to get to know some of the mom's in our neighborhood. There was even a mom there with 8 month old twins. Our little curious George was into everything and I could just see the mom of the twins looking over like "this is what I get to look forward to very soon" Yeah it is times like these when I tell myself "gee and I thought one was hard" as I looked over at this mom with her twins. They were really cute. There were 2 other little boys there too about Ryan's age. The seemed to play really well together except Ryan tried to steal one of the twins self feeder and protested as I dragged him away desperately trying to distracted him with cheerios and his sippy cup.

I successfully gave Ryan a bottle today and only managed to nurse him 3 times yay. A step in the right direction towards weaning him but we still have a ways to go but this is a huge accomplishment for us because he does not like to take a bottle from anyone (except Daddy0 let alone me because he ALWAYS wants to nurse around me regardless of when or what he ate last!

Tomorrow we have a busy day I have to go into work for a few hours I agreed to be a research assistant to one of the Dr's. We are doing a study through the National Institute of Health and the Joslin Diabetes Center on Type 2 Diabetes so it should be really interesting I just hope it does not entail too much outside commitment. So Ryan is spending a few hours with Polina then we are off to our sign and sing class then from there we have a neighbor's birthday party. I'll give you all an update later in the week. Till then take care.

XOXOX Ryan Alexander

Can't believe only one week till our little baby boy turns one!

Relaxing weekend!

From 2007-10-08

Friday I left work early because Polina had an appointment and Ryan and I came home and played with Sophia our neighbor's 2 1/2 yo granddaughter.
It was so cute to see her interact with Ryan. She just loves him to death. They played on the swing, Ryan loves to push her shopping cart around and they laughed and played in the yard. It was so cute Sophia told everyone she was "babysitting" Ryan. She tried to pick him up several times but we had to keep telling her he as too heavy for her..not sure if she really understood. It was adorable. She even gave us some apples she had picked with her mom that day. Ryan just loves apples!

Greg, Ryan and I were able to enjoy a very nice relaxing weekend at home just doing nothing and it was so great. Seems like Greg has been traveling and this was the first really weekend in a long time where we could just stay home and relax. Greg watched Ryan while I worked a few hours on Sat. and he was so excited to spend some quality time with Ryan. Then we headed out to dinner as a family to our favorite fairfield dinner spot Osianna's in the center of town. It was a beautiful evening to eat outside on the patio. Ryan was so funny he once again kept flirting with the waitresses and catching every one's attention. Greg and I enjoyed a wonderful meal and Ryan was very well behaved only fussed when he dropped his self feeder and we had to wash it off.

Yesterday we spend the day relaxing and lounging around after our morning errands and then headed off to the beach for some fun. After OCt. 1 you can bring dogs so Dylan got to come yay! He really had a blast running around and chasing the seagulls his favorite thing of course! Ryan, Greg and I got some cute photos by the water. If felt funny to be at the beach in the middle of October. There were quite a few children and families playing in the water and the sand..

Oh so cute today when I picked Ryan up he was pushing his stroller in the driveway. His new favorite thing to do. Like I said he is happiest on the move!

By the way did I mention this child is a human vacuum? Wanna know what he ate for breakfast today??? 5 oz bottle of milk, a large bunch of grapes literally inhaled them faster than Polina could put them on his tray ?? we wonder if he is swallowing them whole or actually chewing them (quartered of course to prevent choking)then he had an entire kiwi, oatmeal and his midmorning snack and entire apple! For lunch he ate yogurt, and finger foods of roasted turnip, sweet potatoes, carrots and butter nut squash. The least favorite being the turnip but Polina still said he gobbled it up. He later enjoyed an afternoon snack 5 oz bottle of milk and some goldfish and a few cheerios. Is there anything this child won't eat? Yes tonight he decided to throw his steak dinner around and thankfully Dylan happily cleaned up for us. Must have been the chewy coarse texture Ryan disliked he is not a big protein eater. For dinner he had super porridge (a mix of ground brown rice, and split peas a highly nutritious complete protein)carrots and cauliflower...yum yum. Then it was off to bed.

Just an update on the weaning...taking small strides only nursing 3-4 times a day over the weekend and trying to get away with pumping less at work down to once a day today from 2-3 times a day. The sage tea is sort of helping decrease my milk supply I guess but nothing too exciting. Will keep trying though. I want this to be a natural process for both of us.

Hope everyone had a great weekend. Can't believe Ryan will be turning one in just 9 short days! Miss you all.

XOXOXO Ryan Alexander

A couple new pictures

Hi everyone. Here are jsut a couple new pictures form our new camera. There is even a shot of Ryan walking and a few from Caroline's birthday party and a few with his new lion toy Grammie and Grampy got him. Enjoy. Click on Dylan's picture below.

2007-10-04

Weekend Getaway (sans baby)!!

Hello everyone! Sorry for the lack of updates but it was been a whirlwind of a week so far. I have been spending all my free time at night the past few weeks taking part in a diabetes study they are paying me $225 to answer some online questions every night about diabetes so I thought why not it actually was not that bad.....hence the lack of new news though. Okay so here it goes....

Thursday we left for Greensboro early in the morning and left the boys with Grammy grampy and uncle Freddie. I was so so sad to leave our little dumpling but I knew he would be great hands. I gave my mom a itinerary (at her request) to follow in terms of our "routine" eating, sleeping, and wake cycles and I must say she did a fantastic job in sticking to it......no disruption at all. Ryan ate well, napped well and slept through the night like a champ! Did not give the grandparents any hard times at all except one protest to an afternoon nap on Friday. They even took Ryan on morning walks everyday, to the park everyday, to the children's library on Friday to play, and to the grocery store. What a big help to come home to a nice home cooked meal and fresh laundry. Mom and Dad you ROCK!!! Could not have asked for anything more.

On our end Greg and I had such a FABULOUS time! I kept looking over my shoulder the entire time asking did I leave Ryan behind somewhere? It did feel like something BIG was missing! But I must admit it was nice to have a little freedom and not have to worry. We had so much fun to bring Ryan would have been difficult we had a family barbecue(in a mansion the most beautiful house I have ever been in complete with 5 bedrooms and 6 bathrooms!)on Thursday night, a rehearsal dinner on Friday night (in a bar totally not baby friendly!), and an outdoor wedding on Sat. and with Greg as the best man it would have been difficult with Ryan. Neil and Kristen's wedding was absolutely beautiful. Very unique very southern very non-traditional. She wore a stunning pink Lilly Pulitzer dress and he wore khakis a blue blazer and a pink Vineyard Vines tie with Cape Cods on it. The ceremony took place in her parent's backyard and it was short and sweet. The reception was held in a tent in her parent's backyard. The tables were decorated with pink and green flowers each center piece different and unique very elegant. Each place setting had a different piece of china all keeping with the color scheme pink and green. And of course I have to comment on the porta potty....which by far was the nicest porta potty I have ever seen. It was air conditioned (or heated) with gleaming hard wood floors, marble counter tops, lights, a mirror, fresh flowers, running water, air fresheners, and yes even mints! This whole weekend was like nothing I have ever seen before. We really enjoyed our weekend away. By Friday Ryan was calling out "Mama, Mama" and to hear that just broke my heart a little. I really missed him alot. I only cried once. The pumping was not all that terrible I have to say the worst was trying to find places to pump but we managed. I thought the time away and pumping might slow things down a bit in preparation for weaning but no such luck. All in all it was a great weekend. Greg and I got to spend some quality time together. Grammy and Granddad have already said they want to watch Ryan for Meeta and Jonathan's wedding next May when we go to Kansas City for a long weekend!

So yes after being engorged again this morning and pumping 9 oz (probably could have pumped more) only 4 hours after Ryan ate I freaked and called breastfeeding resources. At this rate I figured if I can't slow things down a bit I will be nursing Ryan until he goes to college. So yes I did set up a weaning consultation but int he mean time Dr. Smilie had suggested lots and lots of sage tea! Hopefully this will do the trick. I plan to stop nursing when Ryan turns one.....but sadly him and I really really enjoy it a lot it is part of our bedtime routine! The only snuggle time I get. Well maybe we will just try at night only. We will see. My mom claims that breastfeeding resources will make me feel guilty for wanting to stop but I can;t have him pulling an tugging down my shirt in public which he has recently started doing to me and almost anyone else!

Our new camera arrived today YEAH! Just in time for Caroline's birthday party tomorrow so look for new pictures some time soon. I can't believe I have been without a camera for over a month! We have missed so many precious moments! Good thing our video camera is still up and running..Ryan has not broken that one YET!

We also had our sing and sign class today. Trying to teach Ryan sign language and I think he may be catching on. He appears to understand so much. I really love this class the teacher is awesome and the babies are all about the same age as Ryan maybe a little older. He absolutely loves the class so much and has a big smile on his face and lots of laughs and giggles throughout the entire class. The instructor is GREAT at getting the kids attention and keeping it for short periods of time. All of her toys are interactive and and great learning tools. Ryan's friend Caroline is also in the class too.

YEAH Daddy is home and cancelled his trip to MN tomorrow so we have him home for a wile yipee! We are so lucky to have him here he is such a wonderful Daddy and loves spending time with Ryan. He even watched him for me tonight so I could make Tacos for dinner. What a nice treat to get that done without worrying about Ryan.

So hope everyone is having a great week. Look for some new pictures in the next few days. Miss you all. Can't believe Ryan will be ONE in only 2 short weeks! Take Care.