Bye-Bye Mustang

Yesterday was a BIG day for Matthew, big day for room in the garage, big day for Matthew's Mustang. After much tear-down and hard work in the garage, Matthew shipped off his first baby for restoration to begin...at least for the metal work to be completed with the next step being getting painted. I about forgot how big our garage actually is since the mustang is out of it now.

Personally I've told Matthew he has 2 years to get the car completed or it has to be sold. I don't think he believes me, but for now, looks like it just might be done by then! Crossing my fingers.

I took a picture of the special occassion. Please excuse the lines in the picture - I took it through the glass of the front door---didn't want the people to think I was a mad-crazed-woman-with-a-camera. :~)

1 Month Picture

Here is Grady's 1 month picture. Trying to get his picture reminded me how limited you are in posing a 1 month old who can't hold up their head.


Also, while taking his pictures Ryane wanted to be very involved! She was asking to hold him over and over...and over. Now I know to have her hair brushed and fixed just incase she wants to be in the picture with him as she never wants her picture taken when I want to take it. Here is one we got with her holding him.

Grady - 1 month Dr. Appt

We've had a few people mention lately that they think Grady has been filling out. Well, we went to the Dr. today and found out that his extra 3 lbs. has helped his "filling out"!! Yes, our "little" man now weighs 11 lbs. and is 22 inches tall. That puts him in 82nd percentile for weight and 68th percentile for height for 1 month old boys.

Overall, the doctor appointment went well and she said Grady is doing well. We go back in another month for another check-up and shots. :( While there we also mentioned some of Ryane's symptoms she went through last week with a fever one day, then a rash two days later and Dr. Schmid said it sounds like she had fifths disease. We told her that according to the internet, that is what we thought last week as well. I'm sure doctos love a patient looking up diagnosis on the internet - ha! I'm just happy Ryane didn't give it to Grady--not that there were any major side effects. Considering she couldn't seem to quit kissing him the day of her fever, I am surprised she didn't pass it along.

I hope to get Grady's 1 month pictures taken this weekend and will share them later. For now, here a few that I took for his 3 week pictures.
Our sweet peaceful looking guy.


This is a face we see often. Grady has the permanent lines in his forehead from raising his eyebrows so much and gotta love the pucker mouth!

Bathing Beauties

Matthew took off work early one day this week and we took the kids (still seems odd to say and think we have kid"S") to the aquatic center. We took Ryane earlier this year to meet up with Aunt Sherry, Kendra and Karlie, but I was big'n'pregnant then, so I didn't get to enjoy it as much with Ryane.

Ryane loves the big 'Lides!! She is such a water bug too. At one point she didn't want me to hold onto her hands anymore as she was standing in water that was over her chin--brave little girl! Grady enjoyed his first time to the pool as well--slept right through most of it. Grady hung out in the shade as we took turns going here and there with Ryane, but he did manage to dip his feet in the water as well. Of course I couldn't go to pool as a family without a camera in tow.

Sunbathing Beauties

Hanging out pool-side

Going down the Slide

Enjoying the Lazy River

Got to have your accessories for the pool

Family Time

Just wanted to share this sweet family moment that I happened to capture a picture of. Having both kids in our arms seems to be a common occurrence in the house. This picture was Ryane going through her bedtime routine drinking her last milk of the night. She needed to do it with Daddy--very common thing. I took the picture mainly for Matthew to have, but afterwards I saw Ryane was holding her brother's hand--awwww, she is so good with him.

Ryane goes through spurts where she wants/needs the extra attention. I think of it as more of equal attention, because we all know newborns need lots of attention. Just today she was pointing at my lap and saying which leg was her's and which was Grady's. She knows she has to share and I try to give her her own time on my lap as well. The fun times come when they both need carried at the same time. I'm getting better at it and surely it'll be easier when Grady can hold his head up better. For now, we are managing.

3 weeks old

Grady was officially 3 weeks old yesterday. Time has flown by. I only wish it actually felt like I've been off work and had 3 weeks worth of time with my kids, but it doesn't. Grady is doing great - seems to be growing, growing, growing to me. Matthew thinks his face has really filled out and I agree. I definitely couldn't imagine him fitting in my belly now - yikes! He is eating and sleeping like a normal 3 week old I think. We have his one month Dr. appointment scheduled for next Friday to see how much he has grown.

Personally, I am still feeling sleep deprived and I look for that to go away in about 18 years. :~) Sleeping has been getting better and I'm starting to feel like I've got my body back. My baby belly is primarily gone, still left with those ca-ute love handles/muffin top. I did manage to fit into some regular jeans last weekend, which was the first and only time I've tried. I managed to weigh myself a couple days ago and I am slightly over 10lbs over pre-pregnancy weight, so I feel good about that--especially since I haven't done anything about it and don't plan to anytime soon. I'm healing great from my tubal - scar looks practically non-existent, bruising almost gone and my only visible stitch is almost dissolved completely. I'm returning to a "normal" person, well, normal for me anyhow!

4th of July weekend

I know I am running a little behind on getting 4th of July weekend pictures posted, but better late than never right?! We spent the Saturday and Sunday of the weekend at Toronto Lake. About 3 weeks prior my parents bought a vacation house that is located on the lake. It was nice to be able to have a house with air conditioning to go to when take a 9 day old newborn camping! Ryane had a great time at the lakehouse. We didn't go swimming in the lake as it was really high, so we broke out Grandma and Grandpa's waterhose with the sprayer attached. Ryane got to have a good time running through the water with her cousins Kendra and Karlie. Saturday night we watched Uncle Lou and Kendra shoot fireworks and Ryane wasn't a fan of the big noises, so eventunally just started ignoring the fireworks altogether. Grady just slept right through basically everthing I believe. I did manage to get some of the weekend's pictures scrapbooked, but am also including others from the water fun.

Namesake

This past Saturday, Grady got to meet his namesake, his Great Grandpa Max!

Yep, Grady's middle name came from Matthew's maternal grandfather. I recall the first time Matthew brought up naming a kid after him, it was waaaayyyy back when we took a vacation to Tahoe - yep, back when we had dated for 5.5months. :) Matthew and I both love and adore Grandpa Max so much that this is the least we could do to honor him by naming his Great Grandson after him. Grandpa Max and 'Grandma' Barb came to Emporia on Saturday night for a quick visit. Here are a few pictures.

Cloth Diapering and Potty Training

Two common questions we get is 'How is cloth diapering going?' for Grady and 'How is potty training going?' for Ryane, so I thought I would share our victories and challenges.

Cloth Diapering
Cloth diapering is oh so easy and I really like it. I love the feeling of being able to put a fresh clean cloth diaper on his bottom. The diaper covers work awesome as long as we make sure we have all the cloth diaper tucked in. If that is all done, we have had zero leaks. I definitely can't say the same for the disposable diapers. We wore a disposable to church and out to eat over the weekend and sure enough, it leaked. All I could think was....this wouldn't have happened in cloth. I think I'm becoming a cloth diaper snob! One con to it is that it does increase the laundry load and I'm not one to like doing laundry. But, they are so easy to wash and really don't require any extra work. We take the diaper off, throw it right into the diaper pail, dump it into the washer, run a quick rinse cycle, then wash them normally and voila..all clean and sparkly!! Much easier than I anticipated. I am happy to report for our earth that we have only used one pack of newborn diapers plus about 1/4 of another pack and the rest has been using cloth.

Potty Training
Ryane does so good with her potty training. I love that I'm home with her and help her in her training process. I will say we are still training and haven't moved to the train'ed' part. Not sure when we should consider her trained. For now, it is mostly me telling her to go potty rather than her verbally telling us it is time. Not sure if we just don't give her time to say it, but I really don't want accidents to clean up. She goes most days without accidents, but we still have them from time to time. My goal of not having 2 kids in diapers at the same time worked out nicely. I can't imagine Ryane wearing diapers right now. She seems like such a big girl to me.

Smiles for mommy

I really don't think he could overdo his smiles right now! :) I love them!! This picture was taken Saturday and was the 3rd smile in a row. He kept them up long enough to get a picture.

His big smiles crack me up. He seems to get so into the smile that he squishes his eyes shut and has the biggest gummiest smile. Now, does he really know what he is doing??? I want to think so as it seems to intentional. He doesn't smile often, so I keep going back to this picture. Based on the last 3-4 nights of being REALLY sleep deprived, I needed this picture. Newborns are a lot of work!!

Another photo shoot

Link to all of Grady's Black & White pics

Could they pass as siblings?

I go back and forth as to how much Grady resembles Ryane when she was a newborn. What better way to compare than to take similar pictures. Here is a direct comparison of them - Ryane is on the left and is 3 days old in the picture. I took Grady's picture on the right tonight at 13 days old. I can see the similarities (especially chins and noses), but I can also see differences--Ryane has Matthew's lips and Grady has mine. Same or different - I think they are the two most beautiful children in the world!!! Those 9 months of carrying them gives me full permission to declare that.

Don't leave her alone

Being a mother of two alone at home really makes me have to juggle my time and attention for both kids during the day. Thankfully, Grady is pretty easy going as I'm constantly having to put him down or leave him lay there for a bit while I attend to Ryane or play with her.

Today, I was trying to get Ryane to change out of her PJ's and go potty as we (Ryane, Grady, and myself) were going to attempt to leave the house for the first time to go see Matthew at work. Well, Ryane was being stubborn in the bathroom, so I left her to do her thing while I changed Grady's diaper. What harm could she do in the bathroom, right?? Well, I get Grady changed and go check on her. She is all nakey, setting on her potty, splashing in something on the floor. At first glance it looked like a bunch of water covering the floor, but after looking at the empty bottle of baby oil laying there and looking at Ryane's freshly oiled up body, I was in fear of the clean-up. I rush back to put Grady down in his crib, grab a towel out of the linen closet, and head back to the bathroom...for a fun time of course! After 50 no, no, no's and stops from me, Ryane "tries" to stand up and is continuously slipping towards me. I make it close enough to grap her and start wiping her off. Oh, just so you know--a full bottle of baby oil can easily about a 9ft. square area!!

What have I learned? I can't leave Ryane alone as she'll find something that I didn't really even know existed in the room. She'll find something to entertain herself I guess. I think I got the floor cleaned up, but now I have a bath rug that has been washed and still has baby oil in it. Anyone know how to get it clean??

Newborn Pictures

Just thought I'd share a few of my favorites from Grady's newborn photo shoot yesterday.






Link to the remaining pictures: Grady's 1.5week pictures

Somebody HELP Me!!

Mommy has me trapped infront of the camera. It's madness - please come help me!! ~Grady

Happy 4th of July

May everyone have a happy and safe Independence Day!!

Grady - 1 wk Dr. Appt

We took Grady to the Doctor for his 1 week appointment to have his jaundice checked out and to make sure he was growing adequately. Both checked out perfect! Dr. Schmid said his jaundice was gone and that he looked good. As for his weight, I was anxious to see if he was back to his birth weight (8lb. 1.9oz) or somewhere close to there. Well, the nurse weighed him and I had to laugh...the boy has put on some weight! He weighed 8lb. 13oz. Healthy eater I suppose! He also measured 20 3/4 inches, up from 20 inches at birth. While I am thrilled he is healthy, I hope this rate of weight gain starts to slow down or we are going to have one heavy boy to lug around in no time.

I just haven't been too motivated to get my photo studio set back up after taking it down to make a guest bedroom out of the basement for visitors for when he was born. But, I did manage to have a mini-photo shoot with Grady when he was 5 days old in the dining room. I was working on getting some pictures for his birth announcement. I will have to have a few more sessions with him while big sister naps to make up my mind on the final announcement pics.

She Loves her Barney!!!

I learned on vacation that Ryane LOVES Barney....you know, that big purple dinosaur guy. She must have watched it at day care, but I had NO idea how excited she was until she heard it come on the TV while we were in the hotel room. I woke her up today from her nap so she would be able to catch "her show" and made sure I had the camera ready to catch her excitement so I could share it with everyone. Could you imagine if we all reacted like this when our favorite show came on?

So, this is what he would look like...

....if Grady would be sleeping at night! :)


Our first couple nights at home were rough for Matthew and I. I'm really not sure if we could even count the hours we got to sleep as it was all so broken up. We thought our best chance for sleep were just to bring him to bed with us to co-sleep, which would work for a bit. I am happy to report though that the last couple of nights have been a great improvement with Grady sleeping a good solid 3 hours at a time before needing fed again. I can handle that, so much more manageable than every 45min. or hour, then fussing between. Oh, to have a newborn in the house again!