Mckinnon: ONE YEAR!

Oh, little Mack..... you're a BIG boy now!!! (well, you were a month and 4 days ago... your mama's a little slacker lately!) You are the cutest, sweetest little boy i've ever met!

 And you are into EVERYTHING :-) So its a very good thing that you're so cute!

 And your big sister is showing you the ropes on just HOW to get into everything!

 You are standing up all by yourself and loving being outdoors and playing in the water!

And on this day, we saw you take your first step! (June 4th, i think?)

This month was a BIG month; you weaned from the bottle!

I was worried that you'd miss it since its such a wonderful cuddly time, but you were the easiest kid to wean! We started by cutting out your morning bottle at 11.5 months old. You were a little hungry for breakfast a little sooner so we bumped it up about 30 minutes. You also weaned to ALL finger/big boy foods at the same time. That transition was the easiest because you love ALL foods. If only you chewed a little better before swallowing.... one thing at a time, though. :-) So we'd get up and eat some oatmeal or a pancake and eggs or whatever at 7:30 and I offered you a cup of milk.

We were giving you a cup with a straw, but i started hating on them because they all started leaking. So one day, i decided to see how you'd do with a cup like Rhyan uses that you have to tilt back. I had to help you a little at first, but within 2 days, you were a pro! You catch on to things SO quickly! Especially when it involves getting food or drink :-)

We gave you 3 days to adjust to each bottle being dropped. And with each new phase of the transition, we were excited to see how great you did! I think its just another benefit of not letting our kids fall asleep with a bottle... you've never associated the bottle with anything other than food so as long as something replaced it, you were happy!

With Rhyan, i was always concerned with how much milk she took in. It was only about 8-10oz when she first weaned. However, you seem to think that milk is liquid gold. We have to actually limit you! Overall, you were so easy to wean. I kept you on the night time bottle until a week after you turned one.... but only because i loved holding you and seeing you get all drowsy as you ate that last bottle (it was the only bottle you ate before going down for a nap/sleep.... all other bottles came after waking from the night or nap). But eventually, your Mama decided it was time to let you be the big boy that you are. So one night i just got you ready for bed, read you a book and you went to bed like nothing had changed. Man, you're so big!

Another big change: your naps!

You started taking a REALLY long time to go to sleep in the afternoon so we had to shorten your morning nap to NO MORE than 30 minutes. You arent really ready to drop it yet, but we have to really limit it!

Here are some other hilights of this months milestones:

-moved up to 18 month clothes (fatty!)

-2 new teeth (lower laterals)

-standing alone

-taking one step on occasion

-still in size 4 diapers in the day, size 5 at night

-loving all foods. Except tomatos. Who can blame you, kid?

-you know that a cow says "moooo"

-your favorite game is to drop something and say "uh oh!" Its cute Until you start throwing food :-/

Schedule is pretty loose, but is as follows:

Wake between 7-7:30

breakfast around 8am

Independent play time around 9am

nap from 10:30-11

lunch around 12

nap around 1-1:30

wake around 3:30-4

dinner around 6

bed somewhere between 7:30-8 most nights.

 My sweet boy, you challenge me. You scream. A lot. And you cry if you get told "no". And you randomly lay in the floor and suck your thumb as if you never get to sleep. And you're cuddly and vibrant and you LOVE to be engaged and playing with your mommy, daddy or sister. You are absolutely a precious gift from God, just like your sister, and while there are days that i want to go far, far away to get a break.... every day, i am overwhelmingly grateful to be yours and Rhyans Mommy. The two of you bring me the most pure joy i've ever known, and i'm thrilled to have got

Tooth Watch 2012

Mack has broken his THIRD tooth through the gums and has three more on the way!

His gums look so sad! I'm honestly surprised he's not more cranky than he is (he has actually been pretty much ok!). I've been giving him some motrin before bedtime for the last couple of days because when I dont, he cries out at night 2-3 times a night. Not enough to have to go to him, but enough to keep him from getting a good nights sleep :-(

But even with all those teeth coming in, he's (sometimes... haha) a smiley little boy. Such a joy (from 7am-5pm typically... then the demon comes out in him!).

My blue eye'd girl

First off, i never thought i'd have a blue eye'd girl. Jeff's eyes are green and mine are brown and seeing as how brown is a dominant gene (if it's passed), i thought it'd be a miracle for my kids to have even green eyes, much less BLUE! But Rhyan got some Ford genes passed along and so there you have it :-)

Yesterday was gorgeous weather. Such a tease for spring (which i ALREADY have spring fever) but i was SO grateful for it! I got to dress Rhyan in a cute little spring dress that will likely be too small for her by the time it's warm enough to wear. So I thought i'd share some cute pics!

I posted this one just for my friend Brian... this is her oscar winning response: "what? me?!" :-)

I, also, just HAD to share this one. Rhyan and i went to Target Sat. morning and on the way home she was super tired. Her teeth have been bothering her some lately (bottom canines coming all the way in... those boogers are sharp and long!) so some nights she doesnt sleep really well (she doesnt wake up crying or anything, just seems to toss and turn more). Anyways, when we got home i tried to wake her up since it wasnt really naptime but she was OUT. So i put her on the couch while i got in groceries thinking spud could wake her up, but nope! I guess she needed the sleep. She still took a good nap, so no harm, no foul :-)

My sweet, sleepy angel!

Hope everyone has a great week. I'm off to a productive one! I just wish this rain would go AWAY!

Rhyan: 21 Months Old!

Every time i turn around, Rhyan is another month old and that much closer to being TWO! Ahhh.
I swear, this past month has been so much fun with her. Trying, at times, but overall we've really seen a lot of personality from her this month. Her vocab has really grown this month. Everyone told me that around 20ish months or so she would start to pick up more words and not to worry if she wasnt talking much before then, but as any 1st time parent knows, its so hard to believe what others tell you until you see it for yourself. So, i'm just going to try to list some things i can remember about her....

• Theres no way i can remember exactly which words are new, but she now says "NO NO", "baby", "mommy", "cuse me", "MINE", "baahh-neee" (barney), "tay-tuuu" (thank you), "dink" (drink), "nana" (banana), "juice", "papa" (i show her pics of Daddy), "giiin" (again), "i pussssh", "i eat", "sish" (fish), "bosh" (bath), "bella" (mamas dog), "Tracy" very clearly now!, "wowers" (flowers), "ower" (shower), and can do noises for LOTS of animals including a chicken, rooster, lion, sheep, pig, cow, dog, duck, horse, cat, and i'm sure i'm leaving some out!
• She has gotten her lower canines this past month. The lower right one came in the day after Christmas and the lower right on Jan 13th. The canines seem to have bothered her a good bit. She's drooling like a faucet and whining a good bit with them...
• Naps are going fine. The afternoon nap has moved to 1pm most days (because one of the little girls that stays with her at Tracy's house has gone to one nap a day and it starts at 1 so its easier to just put all the girls down at once... because Rhyan started noticing that she was getting laid down sooner than Shelby and Taylor and wasnt happy with that! lol). She sleeps from 1-3:30 most days. Some days she wakes up a few minutes before that, and there are lots of days we have to wake her up at that time. Otherwise she has a hard time going to bed at night.
• Over the Christmas crazyness we moved her bedtime to 7:30. On the days that I work, in particular, this is very helpful. I get to see her 30 extra minutes which is huge, considering i'm gone from her from 7:30-6:15ish those days...
• Her eczema is a little worse in the cold winter months, so we're trying to keep it under control with every other day baths, cortisone cream on flare ups, lotion daily and a humidifier in her room to keep moisture in the air.
• She's eating well, although she goes through spurts of liking/not liking stuff. For example, after months of not even tasting chili or veggie soup, she now loves it. And after months of loving PB&J's for lunch (not daily, of course), she wont touch them. She's picked up yogurt again, but that is really more of a day to day questionable food :-) Point being, she shares her opinions about food quite effectively, these days.
• She is in her "big girl" room now and LOVES it! The transition was un-remarkable. She didnt mind at all. She seemed to know it was her new room and has treated it as such from day one. It's slightly larger so we put some toys in there, which she loves.
• She loves the t.v. and knows how to turn it on with the remote. We limit t.v. to one 30 minute show a day (unless she's sick or we're sick or all just tired or something) which she sometimes takes better than others.
• Rhyan is very into climbing right now.
  
• She is testing boundaries. She has had a few days of balling her head off if we told her "no" about anything. We completely ignore any tantrums and do NOT give in (or even give her any attention for it) which keeps them to a minimum. She goes through spurts with these like anything else... i guess she wants to see if they start working :-)
• Rhyan is very, very playful lately. She loves to be chased!
• We re-instituted "room time" this month. All was going well and she was up to 25 minutes at a time... and then sickness came. And we're kinda back at square one. We do it at 10am each morning.

Schedule is flexible, but generally it is:
7:15ish wake up, brush teeth
8am breakfast
8:30 help mommy clean up
8:45-10am free play or run errands/ clean the house. I am "with" her but not necessarily playing with her the entire time. We play, i do a chore, we play, i clean...
10am t.v. time
10:30 independent play time in her room
11am craft time with mommy (playdough, coloring, puzzles, etc...)
11:30 free play (so i can fix lunch)
12 lunch
12:30 help mommy clean up, reading time and ready for nap
1pm nap
3:30 up from nap, snack
4-6 play time as a family/free play/ play with daddy (outside time if its pretty enough)
6pm dinner (This comes later if i'm working)
6:30 bath (this is switched w/ dinner if i'm working...)
7pm family time
7:30 bed

I'll reiterate that i live on a very flexible schedule. When we have no where to go, this is pretty much the way the day goes. But generally, we have an errand to run either in the morning or afternoon. And there are lots of times that we spend part of the late morning visiting a family member and in this case, we do more structured stuff earlier in the day and use the late morning as free play. I'm not overly concerned with making sure every minute of the day has a purpose, but i do want to make sure that she is 1. capable of playing independently of others and 2. increasing her attention span so that she doesnt flit from one activity to another every 2-3 minutes.

She seriously is a doll. Some of my very favorite things about rhyan right now are 1. her "singing" 2. her dancing 3. the way she hides in our closet and jumps out and says "boo!" 4. the way she says please (she basically says "p" and follows it with her tongue spitting on you... hard to explain, but imagine blowing a raspberry with a "p" in front) and 5. the way she calles "daaahhdeee" and "puhhhhh" at night before she goes to bed so she can love on them and tell them "nigh nigh".

Gosh, this age is precious :-)

Rhyan: 17 months

Alert the presses: Rhyan is 17 months old! Its weird, because clearly I am not aging... funny how she keeps getting older while i stay young :-)
I feel like my monthly updates are Random, so i'll try to be more concise? For whoever cares...

TEETHING: Rhyan's two top canines came on in this past month. She drools like a faucet and is on occasion more cranky than normal, but i guess that's to be expected. All in all, she teethes quite well.

NAPPING: Rhyan continues to adjust to her one nap a day schedule. She typically eats lunch around 12, although if she shows a good bit of tiredness prior to then, we'll go ahead and feed her a little early. She goes down for her nap right after lunch, typically around 12:15-12:30 and sleeps anywhere from 3pm-4pm, depending on how tired she is, i guess :-) Regardless of when she wakes up, we dont get her up until 3:30 to allow her some "rest time" after waking.

EATING: Rhyan eats like a lumberjack. Seriously! But this month, with teething, she has not eaten quite as well. She also got an ear infection at the end of the month which affected her eating. She will eat most anything. She, this month, would not eat chili or spaghetti. On a typical day, she might eat:

• Breakfast: 3/4 of a grands biscuit, a piece of link sausage, an egg and some fruit
• Lunch: a whole PB&J, yogurt and a fruit
• Snack: raisins and cherio's
• Dinner: 1/2 chicken breast, 2 veggies, a fruit and a bread

MILESTONES: Rhyan can now correctly place 6 of her 9 shapes in the shape sorter (w/o help)
She is using a fork and can on occasion actually poke something with it. She tries to use a spoon but only does well with this if it is a sticky food (oatmeal) and if you load it for her. She signs "please" when she wants something, without being prompted (i do still prompt her sometimes if she's not asking w/ a "please", but my point is she uses it correctly most times on her own). She also correctly asks to be "done", "down", "up", and "nigh-nigh". She can point to and say "bird" and thinks every animal is a cow and says "mmmmmm". She "nay"'s at the horses in her books and snorts at pig pics. She can correctly point to in a book a: balloon, ball, hat, horse, pig, cow, kitty cat, sun, green cucumber, red tomato, bear, a kids toes, eyes, hair, etc... The list goes on and on. The child is obsessed with books and brings them to us any chance she gets for us to read to her. She will NOT let me put her to bed w/o reading "goodnight moon" first :-) She can now point to her own ears in addition to her toes, eyes, hair, teeth, tongue, nose, eye.
Rhyan now fake burps, fake coughs, fake yawns and tries to fake sneezing. She finds herself to be quite funny. She has figured out how to stomp her foot and walk on her tippy toes.

FOLLOWING DIRECTION: Rhyan "helps" clean up more and more each week. Just today i asked her to help clean up and she pushed her "walker" back to its correct spot and her vacuum as well. She does not always, but usually comes to me when i ask, as long as i get her to look me in the eye first. Typically, she is very obedient.

OTHER: Rhyan loves to shower with mommy, play outside (She's venturing out on the grass, now!!!), dance, tries to sing along with her toys and LOVES being chased!
What a doll.

Rhyan: 15 Months

WOW! 15 months! We are loving every minute with her. She really is such a great baby. We're blessed, and we know it! At 15 months, here are some things i'll want to remember. She is:

-sleeping 7pm-7am each day
-naps in the morning from about 10:15-11am
-naps in the afternoon from about 1:15/1:30-4ish
-occasionally skips her a.m. nap (like, on sundays)
-LOVES to dance! to anything!
-is taking TONS of steps. not a full time walker just yet, but is well on her way!
-loves Spud like crazy. gives him kisses and pets him gently, much to his dismay
-says mama, dada, bye bye, bah (ball), bud-un (button.. in reference to her belly button), puh-kin (pumpkin), puh (spud), nigh nigh (night night), up, open (um, but i'm pretty sure she doesnt mean open, its just a noise she says constantly) and done.
-does "bad face"
-lets you "smell her foot"
-still does the little indian
-shakes her finger when i sing 5 little monkeys jumping on the bed when i get to the part where the doctor said "no more monkeys jumping on the bed"!
-tries to do the motions to itsy bitsy spider
-loves the outside
-LOVES water! pool, beach, water table, bath time... she just loves water!
-can point to her toes, foot, hair, belly button and OUR hair, ears, eyes, nose and teeth.
-talks a ton. we have no clue what shes saying and most of it sounds Chinese :-)
-helps get herself dressed by putting each arm in her clothes, putting each foot in her pants, etc.
-says "ohhhhhh" when she drops something or falls while walking. its cuter in person.
-blows raspberries. yuck.
-has weathered since her 1st bday roseola and strep throat.
-is doing great w/ her torticollis and is holding her head up well. we still do daily stretches.
-gives the best hugs and kisses. she even does it when i sing "i love you, you love me..." (the barney song...).

We are very excited and feel very blessed to get to be Rhyan's parents and are so glad that God entrusted her to us!

Chompers

ok, so i totally stole the title from Donna :-) But it was a cute idea and i'm not creative, so...

Rhyan has officially cut SIX teeth. She has been such a trooper, too. Never missed a nap or woke up in the middle of the night. She's been whiny during the day but i think thats to be expected. So i thought you all might like to see her (goofy) grin. I love it :-)

Update

Rhyan went to therapy yesterday. Her Daddy took her :-) Her new therapist, Diane, said she still has about a 10 degree tilt in her neck (to the left) and that we want between 0-5 degrees. They fitted her with a collar to wear that will help her want to keep her head up/shoulder down and she tolerates it ok. I cant really describe it so i'll try to catch a pic of her wearing it sometime.

She's been sick this week. She's had a cold and I was concerned about her cough so i took her to the Dr Wed. She was "fine" and her "lungs sound great!". Today, however, i could hear her wheezing. So at the risk of looking like an idiot/crazed 1st time mom, i took her back for another check and $35 copay. And i'm glad i did. Baby girl has bronchitis.

I told the dr that w/ Jeff having ear infections growing up, he's very protective/concerned w/ her ears. And that since i grew up with asthma and constantly got bronchitis, i'm always concerned w/ her lungs. So between the 2 of us, she doesnt go unchecked for much :-) But, i'm glad i've had experience w/ this b/c we have to use an inhaler w/ Rhyan for a couple of weeks which I'm a pro at!

Anyways, she's definitely feeling better which is great. She has 3 of the top 4 teeth in and that last one you can literally see through the gum, so it'll come any day now. Poor girl is going through a lot! But we're on the tail end now and things are looking up!

Showing her butt...

We joke that Rhyan has always had "tude", but lately she's really been showing her butt! HAHA!

In other news, her tooth is really visible now but i cant catch a pic. :-( She's doing so much better w/ sitting up now that the zantac is working.
This was taken about a week and a half ago. Daddy was helping but now she can sit up all on her own for about a minute!

Well, i've been working alot lately and am seriously starting to get worn out so i'm taking advantage of Rhyans nap and going to take one for myself.

Tankersly family thanksgiving tomorrow. I'm VERY excited. And already hungry.

FYI

Rhyan cut her first tooth today, ate sweet potatos for the first time, and sat up un-assisted for maybe 10 seconds. Wow. What a day!