Here is a brief overview of the last 10 days here.
Last weekend Kyle and I went to the Dream Marriage seminar at our church. It was perfect and just what we needed.
Valentine's day Kyle had to be at the hospital at 6:30pm for his 3rd sleep study. The following day he also did a daytime study where he had to take 30 minute naps periodically throughout the day. We took him lunch and I had to take a picture. Can you imagine sleeping with all that? He had them super-glued to him. He still has glue in his hair. We will get the results back in a couple of weeks.
Gunnar got unhappy with me.
He seems to find himself trouble to get into more and more.
Gunnar went potty a lot on the toilet. He is still doing great. I think he is OCD, he insists on putting the stickers on their "eye." He also preferred putting stickers on the boys rather than the girls.
Gunnar spent some time watching movies on the ipod. Usually this is a treat in the car, but we needed a few moments of piece and quiet. And apparently he needed some clothes. What kind of parents does he have anyways?
We practiced safety. He has on a bullet proof vest. You can never be to safe!
We finally got out garage cleaned out so we can park our car in there. Apparently Gunnar wanted to park his bike in a safe place too.
Ryker did some more bouncing.
My sister Jami came to visit for the weekend. We went to Charlie Safari an indoor play area with bounce houses and jungle gyms.
Gunnar had a blast bouncing and climbing.
Ryker had fun too,
but I am not sure if he had as much fun as my sister.
Ryker got in some cuddle time with Auntie J.
Gunnar played the Wii intensly.
Sadly we had to say goodbye to Jami. She didn't even offer to take one of the kids with her....
Ryker ate some carrots and rice. He doesn't really like carrots or rice, but he likes them mixed together.
I...well, I got mastitis AGAIN. Kyle even got to watch me go out cold for about 10 seconds because I was go sick Thursday night. It was pretty scary, but I am doing much better. Sorry, but no picture of that for you all.
Life is crazy and busy, but boy I love my boys!
I realized my writings usually revolve around Gunnar and I thought it would be nice to share more about our Ryker.
He truly is the sweetest, happiest, chubbiest, and most content little guy ever. He loves to cuddle, loves to laugh, and he thinks his big brother is the funniest guy on the face of the earth (which worries me a bit). He loves to be held my me, his mama, but he doesn't mind others at all either. He has a great time in the church nursery and likes to spend time alone with his daddy too.
Ryker enjoys playing in his bouncer or just rolling around on the floor. He really plays without me so much more than Gunnar ever did, it is a nice change of pace. I am sure it helps that Gunnar is always running around entertaining as well. I can even put them in their bedroom together, close the door, and take a shower without anyone getting upset, I come out of the shower to two happy kiddos.
Ryker recently started "crawling." I am not really sure what to call it, a low-crawl, a shimmy, hmm...He gets from point A to B in a forward moving motion. It cracks me up, he doesn't get anywhere to fast yet, which is great. However, if I had it my way he would not be crawling at all yet, they get themselves into all sorts of trouble when crawling starts. Here is a little video of him demonstrating his crawl.
He can sit up without anyone holding on to him, but it usually doesn't last to long. Something will catch his attention and he will fall over then roll or crawl to his desired location. He really is an expert roller as well.
With Gunnar I was always wanting him to do things quickly. I was worried he would be behind developmentally or something. Just crazy new-mom syndrome I suppose. With Ryker I am taking my time. I gave him rice cereal a few times, but after his 4 month well-baby check-up and the doctor telling me how much better it is to really wait until the are 6 months old, I decided I would wait. I am sure by this point in Gunnar's life he had already had a hamburger, not really, but close. So for now, he is just breastfeeding, he only has had 2 bottles his entire life.
Sleep. Apparently, my kids are not blessed with the sleep through the night gene. Gunnar didn't start regularly sleeping through the night until he was around 9 or 10 months old. Thankfully he now goes to bed around 7 and then he gets up when Kyle's alarm goes off at 5:30 (on the weekends he sleeps until around 7 or 8 with no alarms going off). He usually crawls into our bed and takes Kyle's place, I put on a cartoon and I continue sleeping until around 7. Sometimes he goes back to sleep and other times he just lays there patiently watching TV (or makes unsuccessful attempts to wake Ryker and me up so we can start our day). As of lately Ryker has been going to bed around 8, waking up between 1 and 3, and then sleeps until 7. It really isn't that bad. I would love if he slept through the night, but I don't mind getting up with him. He isn't up for more than 10 minutes before going back to sleep again. Usually I go get him from his crib, and bring him to bed with me where I feed him and we both fall asleep so he stays in bed with me the rest of the night. I love cuddling with him, but I don't think Kyle appreciates it so much. :)
Really, I am one blessed mom. I have two adorable, happy, healthy kids. I thank God for the blessings they have been in my life. I remember being so upset when I found out I was pregnant, I simply was not ready for baby #2. I cried A LOT about it. But now, I wouldn't have it any other way. My boys bring me joy and happiness. Life would be so dull without them.
Here is another video of Ryker. He was just laughing up a storm at me today. I was just looking at him and he was just cracking up...apparently I look REALLY funny today or something. Ignore my bad video taping skills and enjoy a minute and a half of Ryker laughs.
These days boring sounds kinda nice. It has been a long time since I have been bored. I actaully think I might enjoy being bored for at least an hour or so. Between the potty training, Kyle's medical appointments, three dogs, Ryker, and Gunnar just being Gunnar, I am busy.
My house is rarely clean, the laundry usually needs folded, and there is usually a few dirty dishes in the sink. I try and focus more on keeping my three boys happy. While I wish all those things were taken care of, reality is they rarely will be taken care of. That just means that when I do actually get them done I feel like a super mom. :)
Here are so pictures from my not so boring life.
The WIC office here gave Ryker this shirt. I thought it was pretty funny. He is so cute. I just can't help but kiss his chubby cheeks all day.
Gunnar heard the bath water and went running for it. It was for him as he had covered himself in a green marker, but the kid loves baths so much he couldn't even wait for me to get his shirt off.
Gunnar can reach up on the counter-tops now. So annoying, because this means I have to try and keep them as clean as possible. He got an empty ice cream carton on the counter this morning and was drinking the melted ice cream out of it, yum-o. He was very pleased with himself.
Gunnar wasn't feeling to well on Sunday and Monday which resulted in a lot of cuddling. It wasn't boring by any means, but it was nice to have him calm and chill for a couple of days.
Gunnar also had recently mastered the "evil eyes" I don't really like them, and he gives them to me quite frequently. I want to get a pictures of them, but I also don't want to encourage him to do it. They crack me up though, I wonder if I give him "evil eyes" a lot or something.
(photo taken from http://greenbabyguide.com/2009/05/25/a-potty-training-solution-for-public-restrooms/)
Today was the first day of venturing out of the house without diapers for any real amount of time. This meant that Gunnar had two choices, to use a public restroom or pee his pants.
I am going to make some curtains for the boy's bedroom and went to get some fabric this morning. Gunnar did great. He went potty before we left and came home accident free. We were gone about 1 1/2 hours, he slept most of it, which was good for me, much less to worry about. He did take care of some major business when we got home, but it was on the potty so everyone was happy.
Then during the afternoon we had to run some errands with Kyle. The first hour went great. I told Kyle that Gunnar would be needing to go potty soon and I wasn't sure what to do, as no potty was available in the car and we were in traffic. So, about 5 minutes later, Gunnar did the potty dance in his seat and had an accident. Poor kid.
We got to our destination and I took Gunnar to the restroom to change his pants. We got in there and I put him on the big potty. He did great, hanging on where I put the covers and at first I was helping hold him, but he was doing so great I let go (like a dummy). Then he let go because he started to pee and he had to do the usual clapping of hands for himself and cheering. The excitement quickly stopped as he found himself in the toilet. Eww...Gunnar fell in a toilet...in a public restroom toilet. I told Kyle it was a good thing it wasn't a port-a-potty or he would have been in real trouble (I get shivers thinking about it). Being the good mom I was I was busy cheering him on and getting him some jelly beans out of the diaper bag for his success going potty so I didn't even come close to saving him from the grossness.
Gunnar didn't seem to care about it all (he loves any water, even toilet water I guess) and came out cheering so he could get some high-fives from Kyle. I was probably more scared by the incident then him.
How does everyone handle public restrooms with little kids? The toilets are to tall for Gunnar to stand at, do I carry a step stool around with me? Carry his potty seat with me? Maybe we should just let him pee outside when we are not a home, it just seems so much easier...plus the cold air really speeds the process along.
Oh and in my searching for public restrooms tips when potty training I found these...cootieguards and the my pee-pee-bottle. I think the cootie guard is pretty neat, the pee-pee-bottle, really? Pretty sure any old water bottle would work just as well..haha. The video cracked me up.
Hopefully this is the last of my potty training blogging for a while. Gunnar is doing awesome and we are so proud of him.
The potty training has continued here at our house.
I guess I have learned that you have to do what works for you and your kid. I don't really think there is some magical method to potty training, and I am totally not buying that very many people can potty train there kid in just 3 days.
Gunnar has done AWESOME the last three days (which would be 6 days of potty training). I won't say it has gone perfectly, but we have had way more success than failure. He is really starting to recognize that he has to pee and attempts to communicate that to us. Whether or not we always understand his dances and jibberish are another story. He also had his first poop in the toliet without any promopting from Kyle or I. Usually I see him working it up and rush him to the bathroom and but today he did it all on his own.
His first potty chart all filled up. He loves putting the stickers on, and is really sad when he doesn't get to. Oh the simple things in life.
The potty chart we started today.
We have made a few outings without diapers, mostly short trips, but so far he has done great on them.
Ryker has been a trooper through this all, because it doesn't matter what I am doing, nursing, changing him, rocking him to sleep, etc, if Gunnar has to pee he has to be set down or tossed to Kyle. Poor kid, but he still loves me.
I have a few pictures to share and then a video of Ryker. I can't believe how fast this little guy is growing up. He rolls all over, and is very close to crawling. He inches forward a bit at times, but finds the roll is the most effective way to get places.
Kyle isn't naked...haha. Apparently they were having an underwear party at nap time.
Something is wrong with this? Why does Ryker think things like this are so funny. Boys will be boys.
