Back in the (Workout) Groove

I finally did it.  I finally challenged myself to get out the door, with both boys, fed and clothed to make Stroller Aerobics with my FitMommas group - by 9am!  It was a challenge, I'm not gonna lie!  I actually did make it, and almost remembered everything, too.  

It was so great to see so many old friends - I have been so out of the loop.  But I got there on time, got weighed in for our weight loss competition, and then proceeded to have Melissa kick my ass.  And it wasn't even as intense a workout as I know she wanted to give us!  But it was fun, and I'm now feeling muscles in my legs I forgot I had.  Here's hoping I can walk tomorrow.

And my boys?  They Rock!  Seriously, I have the best kids on earth, IMHO!  They never fussed or cried, sat quietly and patiently.

My boys, chillin' in the double jogger.

Aren't they just cute as can be?

Really, the only thing that sucks is that I don't have an adapter for the double jogger to hold the pumpkin seat.  So I have to take Ryan out of his warm seat into the cold stroller.  But, he did really well today, and I don't see the need to make that investment for just a few more months of chilly mornings.  I just need to remember warmer, plusher blankets.  Though, he has such an amazing built in furnace, he was still sweaty when I took him out and put him back in his warm car seat.  Those must be Latta genes, as I am naturally freezing!

But it feels awesome to be back in the groove, and am already filling in my calendar with what workout I'm doing on what mornings.  Ryan will unfortunately have to conform to this new schedule, but his big brother did it, so I'm sure he can, too.  And here's to less jiggle come Summertime!

Conversations from a typical day with Sean

Having a conversation with Sean is always fun, because you never know what the little booger is going to say.  But we've had multiple good ones today!

After Breakfast

Momma:  Sean, are you going to help mom clean today?

Sean:  Yeah.

Momma:  You going to help with the laundry?

Sean:  Yeah!  I help you clean!  (said "I hep you cleeeeeeeeen") 

I help clean clothes!  (I hep cleen cloooooooothes)

I help with laundry!  (I hep wit laaawwwndry)

I go in the kitchen, I clean my hands!  (I go in chitchen, I cleeen my haaaaaaaands)

And then you gimme knuckles!  (And he sticks out his fist to Pound It!)

Still in his seat....

Sean:  Mom, I get down.

Momma:  Are you all done eating?

Sean:  Yeah

Momma:  Well, what are you going to do now?

Sean (with finger to the side of his mouth):  Hmmm....

Potty Break

I'm in the bathroom, Sean doesn't understand the need to give me privacy.  So he barges on in while I'm doing my business.  He noticed a squirt bottle on the counter.  

Sean:  I need my step-stool.

Momma:  You do?  What do you need that for?

Sean:  I clean the baffroom!

Lunchtime...

He wanted PB&J, but I never know which way he wants it cut on any given day.

Momma:  Sean, do you want triangles or squares?

Sean:  I want Circles!

Right before naptime...

We typically watch a cartoon, then go in his room to read a book before "rest time."  I don't really care what he does for the next 2 or so hours, as long as he's out of my hair (doesn't always happen, like Monday!)  So we're in the living room today....

Momma:  Sean, do you know what book you want to read before rest time?

Sean:  No, I not!  (Starts walking away from me.)

Sean:  I go get my Light-ning 'Queen board.  See you later, Bye Bye!  

(He says walking down the hall, waving.)

And he was killing Trey and I at dinner and on our Costco run, but seriously, at this point, I can't remember.  I had written down the earlier conversations, but at this point, I just remember Trey and I laughing hysterically, not actually what Sean said.  I need to start carrying a tape recorder!  He's just so funny, and half the humor is in how he says things, not just what he says.  Like "No, I Not!" is actually said "Nooooooo, I noooooot."  With all the attitude a 2 year old can muster!

Shiny Happy Baby

Despite the ongoing crying and screaming due to belly aches, I have found that Ryan is one of the smiley-est babies I've ever met underneath all that tummy trauma!  Actually, you're likely to catch one of his best smiles right after he's hurled all over you.  He's so cute, laughing, smiling and cooing at me whenever we get close.  He's even been known to interrupt a feeding because he's smiling at me too much to eat!

Here's a sampling of the best smiles on earth from the past few weeks (many of these captured on my iPhone, which has no flash.  Boo.)

How stinkin' cute is that grin?

My phone's wallpaper right now.

Bright BLUE Eyes!

My favorite crooked little smile.

Pure Joy!!  (This one is SO hard to capture with a camera!)

The face of a baby who just slept 12 hours.  

There was a contest...

...and my kid won.  :-)

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Happy Birthday, Poppa!

Happy Birthday, Poppa Latta!  Hope you have a great day, and we miss you and love you!

Poppa & Sean

2/8/09

Brotherly Love

As much as Sean hated the first week that Ryan was home, it seems these days he can hardly remember not being a big brother.  He loves Ryan, wants to help feed him, change him...jump on him, play with him, get him to answer questions...  

Sean still hasn't quite figured out that sometimes Ryan's needs come before his, but I don't think that's something too many older siblings get, much less two year olds!  Needless to say, since Sean knows better and can throw a better fit, Ryan frequently gets the short end of the stick in the attention department.  

But I definitely look forward to the days of the boys playing ball in the yard, Sean teaching Ryan the ropes, Ryan beating the crap out of Sean just to prove he can do it.

Quite possibly the cutest picture ever

Sean helping with the paci...

...or was he just trying to shut his little brother up?

Sean doing his own photoshoot of his brother

My Little Rebels

Sean the Helper

Washing Baby Ryan's bottles (before the great bottle search!)

Playtime together

Brothers in cahoots

Taken after a particularly rough night where they tag teamed me.

Wearin' matching jammies from Grammy

Two Month Check Up

It's been over a week since my last post, but we have been exhaustingly busy.  Ryan and I have been navigating the world of bottles, nipples, formula, etc, etc.  I received a lot of good information at his two week check up, and am already seeing some improvement.  But first, the goods....

Two Month Stats

Weight:  11lbs 14oz  (50th percentile)

Length:  23 1/4 inches (50th percentile)

Head: 16 inches (75th percentile)

Chunker and I waiting for the doc.

Ryan is a bit longer and bit lighter than his brother at this point.  Same big Latta head, though.  But the most important part of this check up was to discuss the Tummy Issues.  Oh, how they have plagued us.  The squirming, the screaming, the tooting!  

It all started around 5 1/2 weeks, and I thought it was related to his six week growth spurt.  But then it kept going, and getting worse.  After a phone call to the doc and then this check up, we have been tweaking a little of everything.  If you could imagine a graphic equalizer (does anyone under 30 years old know what that is!?).  You tweak this nob, then this one, trying to get just the perfect sound out of your music.  Well, that has been us, but instead of bass and treble, I've been tweeking...bottle, nipple, nipple flow, formula brand, formula type, burping frequency, position, etc, etc!   And of course, you can't change them all at once, otherwise you don't know what's working.  

In the end, it seems that regular formula in a cheap-o bottle with a slow-flo, latex nipple may be the winner.  Though I'm not ready to call it just yet.  We're also burping every ounce, making sure there's a solid latch (no milk spilling out the sides!), sitting up for a bit afterwards. And while we've run the gammut on formulas, and we're actually back on regular Similac, I'm thinking I like Enfamil better.  I think he spits up less, and it definitely mixes better.  And hey, I have a crap load of Avent and Dr. Brown's bottles that were are not going to use - consignment sale, here we come!

The other great part of the two month check up - the OK to start sleep training!  I've been hesitant due to the tummy issues - I wasn't 100% sure my little guy didn't have GERD or something serious that would prevent me from letting him start to cry it out.  But the doc gave me the thumbs up.  I waited a few more days as we made some bottle/formula changes, and I slowly eliminated feedings, and didn't let him cry the first few nights.  But now, I'm officially letting him cry, and he's doing SO well!  (Better than his big brother!)  I'm waiting five minutes the first time he cries, 10 minutes the next time, and so on.  I haven't had to let him cry past 10 minutes - he's calming himself down.  WooHoo!  Looks like a 9pm-7am sleep pattern is emerging.  He keeps waking up around the 2am hour, but falls right back to sleep once I go in to soothe at the 5 minute mark.  Last night, he woke up again around 6am, but since I'm insisting on the 7am wake up time, he cried himself back to sleep and woke up at 7:30. I'm hoping by the end of the week, he'll be 100% trained!  

And he's so happy when he wakes up!  He sees me, and gives me his great big GRIN, gets his diaper changed and he's ready to eat!  Once we have the 9pm-7am time down, I'll work on getting that bedtime closer to 7:30.  Sean's pretty much been sleeping 12 hours since 10 weeks, but he was also a thumb sucker!  He self-soothed with no help from his Momma!  Ryan is not a thumb sucker that we can tell, and while he likes his paci, he's not dependent on it.  So we'll see how this continues.  I'm glad to see this going well, though, and glad to see a routine emerge to our days as well.  Is normal life around the corner??

Happy Two Months

Dear Ryan,

What a month we have had!  And yet it was completely different from your first month on this earth.  For all the activity, travel and meetings of December, we have been decidedly low key this month.  We've stayed inside, sheltered from the cold and illnesses of the dead of winter - only venturing out when absolutely necessary.

And it has not been without its struggles.  You and I are still trying to work out your tummy issues.  We're on our third formula, second set of bottles and a variety of eating routines to see what works best.  It's so hard to watch you squirm and wince - something is obviously upsetting your tummy, but I promise that we will get to the bottom of it.

But there is no doubt in this world that you are the happiest, sweetest baby underneath all these tummy troubles.  When you smile, you make it so worth it - your whole face smiles!  It starts at the top of your brow, and your cheek bends down towards your mouth, until your entire face in wrapped up in one huge smile!  It's so amazing, and makes all the sleep deprivation worth it!

You do pretty good with your tummy time - in fact, you're a champ as compared to your big brother!  Sean hated it with a passion, you actually tolerate it! 

You're still warming up to the baths, they aren't always your favorite.  Sometimes I'll catch ya smiling and cooing, but usually it's a screamfest until I wrap you and get you warm and dry!

And my little skinny boy is finally chunking up!  I love it, you're getting little leg rolls, and your face is filling out.  I would like to know where all your hair is going, though.  Through the month, your hair line receded so far back that you now just have ring-around-the-head hair, like your Grandpa Lee and Great Uncle Stuart!

One thing that's just like your brother - you love your swing!  You love to watch the fishees circle above you, and you've been known to spend a nap or two swinging away!

And since we started playing around with the food and bottles, you have started to enjoy your bouncy seat.  Your big brother was never a fan, but you'll actually tolerate it for a time.  This so helps your Momma while I fix us a meal or tend to your big brother.  

 

This week we have your two week check up, so hopefully we'll get some more answers on the tummy, and we can start working on sleeping through the night as well.  In the meantime, I patiently wait for the best smiles in the world!

Love you forever,

Momma

First Annual Girls Weekend at the Lake

There are some positives to not breast feeding this time around.  I was able to get away for a whole weekend - with the girls - without the family!  And, no, I didn't feel guilty about it one bit!  I've been so sleep deprived, just the thought of two nights away from home to get as much sleep as I want sounded just too good to be true!  As it turns out, I wasn't actually able to sleep through either night, but at least I wasn't getting up to soothe or feed any babies!

Melissa set up the first girls weekend for us - our hubbies get together in the summer time for a boys weekend.  Missy was not able to come, but Amber drove down from Iowa and Melissa and I met up in Eureka and drove down to the lake together.  We stayed at the same house in Camdenton that we stay on our family vacation.  There was a bit of speculation as to whether or not we'd make it to the house, given the snow and ice that we got the week before, but the promise of 50 degree weather on Saturday was all I needed to say "Let's Go!"  Worse case scenario, we stay in a hotel Friday night and let the sun and warmth melt the ice and snow on Saturday.

The view of the frozen lake from the deck.  

The drive to the house Saturday afternoon.

But the worry was all for not, most of the snow and ice was gone, and thanks to four wheel drive, the steep driveway was no big deal.  We drank a margarita or two Friday night.  Slept in Saturday, hit the spa in the afternoon.  Full rub down and a glass of wine.  Nice.  Then we ate an early dinner, which included a mud slide for me.  Feeling good.  Then we headed to Peckers, the piano bar, which involved a mandarin orange vodka & orange Monster, and I topped the evening off with five Blue Moon drafts.  Ahem.  Needless to say, I jumped head first back into the drinking world, and was nice and drunk!  WooHoo!  Luckily, I drank 3-4 bottles of water over the course of the night, so I wasn't feeling too bad in the morning.  Just cloudy...

Drunk Mommas at Peckers

Amber & Melissa

Melissa & Amy

Amy & Amber

I'm pretty toasty at this point.

Amber had a longer drive back, so she left the house early to get some shopping in and head out.  Melissa and I hung out at the house, cleaning up, talking and moving slow.  We got home just in time for the start of the Super Bowl.  

Definitely can't wait until next year, ladies!  And I think we need to recruit some more Mommas in need of a break - it was too fun not to share!  Not to mention, I think we need a summer trip, also.  No fair that the boys get a day out on the boat!  I totally think we can talk Justin into letting Amber drive the big rig down!  :-)