My mom bought us a video camera when Ryan was born, and it's been sitting and gathering dust on our mantle. Last night Justin connected it to our computer and found that we had taken various videos here and there, just never downloaded them. So for your viewing pleasure (Nani and GiGi, this is mostly for you), here are links to several of the videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FKSRdgnMhM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ia9DAex6YS4
We've just downloaded these, more to come from earlier in the year.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Monday, October 19, 2009
Random Musings: Mommies on One Side, Daddies on the Other
This post isn't really about Ryan, but more about the effects of parenthood. In the last couple of weeks, Justin and I have both gone out for dinner with friends while leaving Ryan with the other parent. I went with the "girls" and Justin went with the "guys". Now this is great, I love getting together with my girlfriends, and I generally organize these outings, but it's not how it used to be. I was always one of those girls that got along with guys better. I spent much more time at KDR than I did at Zeta back in college, and to this day some of my best friends are guys. It's interesting to me how becoming parents has segregated us into gender groups. Suddenly I find myself talking to other moms about breastfeeding or other baby stuff while the guys all go out to a cigar bar. In the past I would have been at that cigar bar with them (other girls too), but now I don't go. And although I miss my guy friends, I think a "Saru + the dads" dinner out would be kinda strange even though it never used to be. And in some cases, I spend more time with the wives of my old college friends than I do my old college friends. It's not bad, they've become my friends too, it's just different.
So this holiday season, Justin and I are going to throw an adult party (get your mind out of the gutter) where the girls and guys can mingle once again without the babies running all over the place. If you live in the Boston area, stay tuned...
So this holiday season, Justin and I are going to throw an adult party (get your mind out of the gutter) where the girls and guys can mingle once again without the babies running all over the place. If you live in the Boston area, stay tuned...
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
A Big Tumble
I don't particularly want to relive this, but as this blog is also a diary, I feel the need to document what I'm sure is the first of many times where Ryan causes my heart to stop. Ryan fell down the stairs on Saturday morning. He's fine, we called the doctor and he's not exhibiting any worrisome symptoms. This is how it happened:
Ryan has been doing the stairs by himself for a couple of weeks now. As he was learning, we would go down a couple of steps in front of him so to catch him if he fell. He's never fallen or slipped, so little by little we gave him more breathing room. Over the past several weeks he's been doing them all by himself much to his delight. On Saturday morning, we were getting ready to go to Target to pick up a couple of bins for his puzzles. Justin went downstairs first and then Ryan followed. I was getting ready in my room when I heard a thump and then Justin yelling "OH MY GOD!" Now seeing as Justin is the calm one, and I'm the one who panics, this terrified me. From what Justin could see, Ryan fell from the top of the stairs, did a couple of cartwheels in the air, and landed against the wall at the bottom sideways. Luckily his head didn't take the brunt of the impact, it was pretty evenly distributed across his body.
Ryan cried for a minute and then asked to go outside. We checked his head, limbs, everything and he didn't have a bump or scratch on him. Once it was clear that he was fine, I burst into tears and couldn't stop. Ryan came over to me, gave me a big hug and asked if Mommy was sad. I explained to him I wasn't sad, I was very happy that he was ok, just a little scared.
We're back to standing a couple of stairs below him again much to his dismay. It's going to take me a while to be able to back off again, I just hope I'm not hovering over him when he's 18 trying to go down the stairs by himself. Hehe. He didn't seem to learn from his fall either, 2 hours later he was jumping up and down at the top of the stairs. The good news is that he doesn't seem traumatized by it, the bad news is that he doesn't seem to have developed a healthy respect for gravity yet.
Ryan has been doing the stairs by himself for a couple of weeks now. As he was learning, we would go down a couple of steps in front of him so to catch him if he fell. He's never fallen or slipped, so little by little we gave him more breathing room. Over the past several weeks he's been doing them all by himself much to his delight. On Saturday morning, we were getting ready to go to Target to pick up a couple of bins for his puzzles. Justin went downstairs first and then Ryan followed. I was getting ready in my room when I heard a thump and then Justin yelling "OH MY GOD!" Now seeing as Justin is the calm one, and I'm the one who panics, this terrified me. From what Justin could see, Ryan fell from the top of the stairs, did a couple of cartwheels in the air, and landed against the wall at the bottom sideways. Luckily his head didn't take the brunt of the impact, it was pretty evenly distributed across his body.
Ryan cried for a minute and then asked to go outside. We checked his head, limbs, everything and he didn't have a bump or scratch on him. Once it was clear that he was fine, I burst into tears and couldn't stop. Ryan came over to me, gave me a big hug and asked if Mommy was sad. I explained to him I wasn't sad, I was very happy that he was ok, just a little scared.
We're back to standing a couple of stairs below him again much to his dismay. It's going to take me a while to be able to back off again, I just hope I'm not hovering over him when he's 18 trying to go down the stairs by himself. Hehe. He didn't seem to learn from his fall either, 2 hours later he was jumping up and down at the top of the stairs. The good news is that he doesn't seem traumatized by it, the bad news is that he doesn't seem to have developed a healthy respect for gravity yet.
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Buses and Bedtime
Ryan loves buses. He loves trains, cars, and excavators too (don't ask) but he LOVES buses. Everyday on the way home from daycare, he points out every bus he sees and yells "bus! bus! bus!" until I acknowledge the bus he saw. Then as soon as the bus is out of sight, he wants more buses and yells "bus! bus! bus!" until he sees a new one. He gets pretty frustrated with me for not finding the buses too. I think next weekend we should skip the apple picking and fairs and just head to the local bus depot. The kid would be in heaven.
The other subject of this post is bedtime. Now, Ryan has always been a great sleeper. He's such a great sleeper that when people with kids ask me how he sleeps, I answer tentatively for fear of being hit with something. Part of what has worked for us is establishing a routine. It's not long or too elaborate, but it's very consistent and Justin and I each play a specific role. Here's our basic routine:
One of us dresses Ryan in his pajamas and overnight diaper. We brush Ryan's teeth. We read 3 board books or 1 full length Dr. Seuss book. We do "family hugs" and then we all kiss his little stuffed Elmo goodnight. Justin takes Ryan to shut off the lights, first the hall light, then the room light. Then Ryan gives Justin a hug and kiss and comes to me. He gives me a hug and kiss and I put him in his crib while I sing a song (the same one since he was born). I say "night night" and "I love you" and he does the same. I close the door and we're done.
Tonight, I learned the downside of this consistency. It totally freaks Ryan out when one of us is missing. Although I have to say, he whines when I'm not there, but totally throws a fit when Justin's gone. Luckily this is very rare. Tonight Justin went out and I put Ryan to bed alone. All was fine until we finished the book. Then he started screaming for Justin. I tried to do the Elmo voice and make him laugh, which distracted him for about 30 seconds on the way to the light switch, but when it was me and not Justin helping him shut off the light, he lost it. Screamed for the next 30 minutes for Daddy. Mind you, he didn't ask for him once in the 2 hours between getting home from daycare and finishing the book. But when Justin's specific part of the routine came, and he wasn't there, it was very upsetting to him. Since I'm headed out of town next week for a business trip, I find myself wondering if we should just deal with this anomaly as it comes, or try to switch up the routine every once in a while so it's not SO super consistent and hope it doesn't screw up his ability to go to bed the other 95% of the time. The weird part is that when we put him to sleep at someone else's house and transfer him, he doesn't really care about the routine. It's only when it's in his room.
The other subject of this post is bedtime. Now, Ryan has always been a great sleeper. He's such a great sleeper that when people with kids ask me how he sleeps, I answer tentatively for fear of being hit with something. Part of what has worked for us is establishing a routine. It's not long or too elaborate, but it's very consistent and Justin and I each play a specific role. Here's our basic routine:
One of us dresses Ryan in his pajamas and overnight diaper. We brush Ryan's teeth. We read 3 board books or 1 full length Dr. Seuss book. We do "family hugs" and then we all kiss his little stuffed Elmo goodnight. Justin takes Ryan to shut off the lights, first the hall light, then the room light. Then Ryan gives Justin a hug and kiss and comes to me. He gives me a hug and kiss and I put him in his crib while I sing a song (the same one since he was born). I say "night night" and "I love you" and he does the same. I close the door and we're done.
Tonight, I learned the downside of this consistency. It totally freaks Ryan out when one of us is missing. Although I have to say, he whines when I'm not there, but totally throws a fit when Justin's gone. Luckily this is very rare. Tonight Justin went out and I put Ryan to bed alone. All was fine until we finished the book. Then he started screaming for Justin. I tried to do the Elmo voice and make him laugh, which distracted him for about 30 seconds on the way to the light switch, but when it was me and not Justin helping him shut off the light, he lost it. Screamed for the next 30 minutes for Daddy. Mind you, he didn't ask for him once in the 2 hours between getting home from daycare and finishing the book. But when Justin's specific part of the routine came, and he wasn't there, it was very upsetting to him. Since I'm headed out of town next week for a business trip, I find myself wondering if we should just deal with this anomaly as it comes, or try to switch up the routine every once in a while so it's not SO super consistent and hope it doesn't screw up his ability to go to bed the other 95% of the time. The weird part is that when we put him to sleep at someone else's house and transfer him, he doesn't really care about the routine. It's only when it's in his room.
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