Before we get to our second Christmas celebration with Roger and Veronica, here are a few cute pictures from the day after Christmas: After Megan finally opened her stocking she got lots of stickers from Santa and one of her favorite places to put stickers is on Ra Ra (i.e. Ryan), doesn't he look thrilled?
That night I tried pigtails for the first time, soooo cute! She looks so big with them! She won't keep them in for very long though. But that first time I did it she kept running back to the bathroom and climbing up on her step stool to check herself out, it was adorable!
So back to Roger and Veronica! They got here on Sunday the 27th and Megan was sooo excited to see her Uncle Roger and cousin Veronica. As soon as they arrived Megan started running around the house to get Veronica to chase her!
Here's Christmas dress #2, another action shot was all I could get!
Here's Ryan in his outfit with the sweater vest this time, smiling with his Granddaddy!
Family photo try #1, all good except Russ whose blinking
And this one was try #6 or 7, which is ok... the kids are clearly done with photo taking!
Megan and Veronica, she's reading Megan the Itsy Bitsy Spider complete with hand motions!
Ryan and I after he fell asleep nursing :-) Veronica and I :-)
This was Monday night at our house, Veronica is great with Ryan!
And this was Tuesday morning at our house. Megan wanted to hold Ryan, which is rare and then after I picked him back up she said "more"!!! So she held him again, that was a first! Yay!
We had a wonderful Christmas! Megan was so excited when she walked out and saw all that Santa had left under the tree! She ran right to the tree and started opening presents! First was a smock, to go with her easel that Santa brought her and Ryan. Second was a Nemo coloring book, which reminded Megan of how much she loves the movie Finding Nemo and immediately she wanted to watch it! So funny how the toddler mind works! So we took a nice break and watched about 20 minutes of Finding Nemo (that's about how long she lasts). It was a nice break for us, I made coffee and we had some breakfast.
But soon we were back to opening! Megan loved opening Ryan's presents too, she would open them right on his belly so he could see, it was quite cute!
Next Megan opened up her Thomas the Train set from Santa she was very very very excited! We immediately put it together and took another break while Megan played with her Choo Choo!
Megan had soooo much fun playing with her new toys as they were opened we were opening presents from 7am until 11:30 am and still didn't get to stockings until the next day! But it was soooo much fun doing it that way, we all had a blast! Her train was definitely her favorite toy, when she woke up from her nap she ran out to the living room saying Choo Choo and she talked about her Choo Choo the whole way home from Gramby and Granddaddy's house that night!
Here's Megan in her Mega Playland that her Aunt Amy got her! This was another huge hit! She ran around in it for awhile, chasing the cats and throwing balls!
Russ and Ryan on Christmas, he didn't last long is his cute outfit unfortunately. He had a blow out soon after this photo... at least we go the photo in!
This is the best photo I got of Megan in her cute Christmas dress! She just wouldn't pause a moment for me!
Russ's last day of schoool was Friday 12/18 and since I'm still on maternity break we're making the most our 2 weeks together as a family!
Here's Megan helping Dad make pizza - she's an excellent pizza chef, our pizza was extra cheesy - yum!
On Sunday night we headed to downtown Austin to see the Trail of Lights, it's a bunch of light displays put up and you walk through it (yes here in Texas we can walk instead of having to drive!) This is one of the displays, Texas themed :-)
Here's Megan posing as an elf!
Russ and Megan spinning under the big Zilker Tree (an Austin tradition!)
And then it was time to bake cookies! Megan wasn't all that into the rolling or the cookie cutter but she LOVED to spread out the flour and sprinkler flour on the dough (and on herself, all over the table, chairs...) It was quite fun and messy!
The next day we decorated! Megan's favorite part about decorating was the sprinkles! She didn't really care to frost the cookies she just wanted to put the sprinkles on, oh and eat the sprinkes - big handfuls of sprinklers went into her mouth! And of course she ate several cookies while we were decorating...
Ryan's having a great week too, he's so full of smiles these days! I love the big open mouth smiles like this one - just soooo sweet!
She's talking up a storm these days. She's getting really good at 2 word phrases and she kinda works them out aloud. She starting saying "Bye Gymbo" a month ago when she would leave Gymboree class, and then yesterday when we were leaving the mall she said "Bye. Mall. Bye Gymbo. Bye Mall." so cute! And then I heard her say "Bye Dada" too yesterday. She also likes to say "Move Dada" or "Move Mama" when we're in her way. She tries to repeat almost any word we give her and does pretty well with new ones.
She still loves to say Pie, if you ask her her favorite food she'll tell you pie. If you ask her what she's cooking when she's making something in her play kitchen she'll tell you pie. Although this week she's been cooking eggs a lot too... If it's a dessert food she doesn't have a name for she calls it Pie! She also loves and knows the words for cookies and cake and after she asks for Pie and we tell her there isn't any she'll move onto asking for those!
She's still in her crib, she loves to climb stuff but won't even try to climb out of her crib. So we're not in any hurry to move her, too many others things going on here :-)
She's still happily in diapers, and we're pretty happy we're not potty training yet either! She does know when she's going to poop because she tells us before she poops. Although she often blames it on Elmo. The conversation goes something like this, Megan: "Poopy", Me: "Megan, do you have a poopy?", Megan: "No, Elmo", Me: "Elmo has a poopy", Megan: "Uh-huh". But regardless on knowing when she's going to poop she in another phase of hating diaper changes, so she'll tell you she going to poop, tell you when she has pooped but then she'll hide from diaper changes and / or cry when we take her to change them.
Megan loves to play hide n seek with Nemo or other stuffed animals. She'll go to the couch and cover her eyes while I hide him and then go look for him. She has the biggest grin come over her face when she finds him, it's adorable!
Loves the movie Finding Nemo, I put it on a couple times to save my sanity when Ryan came along and I turned her into a TV / Nemo monster! We had to clear out the top drawer of the entertainment center from DVDs because Megan would open it saying "Nemo" grab any DVD and open the doors to where the DVD player is and try and put the DVD in the player. She'd get pretty far too! We had to go through a Nemo cleanse (i.e. we hid it and didn't let her see it for a while) and now she's back to normal. She still requests Nemo occasionally but is easily distracted. She does watch Sesame Street a couple times a week, usually on mornings when I'm trying to get us out of the house. She loves the Elmo's World part and is pretty interested in the rest. She'll sit at her little table or on the couch and just watch
Megan loves coloring, she likes crayons and markers and will try desperately to get her hands on a pen. She also loves her play kitchen, she takes food out of her fridge puts in a bowl and stirs it. She'll put the bowl in the fridge or microwave to cook it and then take it out and say "yum"
We have to keep the front door locked now because Megan can open doors, and will go to the front door and say "park" and try and open it. If it's open she'll just go on outside, yikes! She loves the park down the street and the big twisty slide. She also tries to climb up the ladder structures that are for older, taller kids.
She's getting more and more interested in Ryan everyday. She loves to give him paci's, push the swing, bounce the bouncy seat. She calls him "Ra Ra", and will give him kisses at night on her own and say "awwww" sometimes when she sees him. When I get her up in the morning she asks about Dada and Ra Ra. At the dinner table sometimes Megan will go around and name all the people in her family, "Dada, Mama, Ra Ra and Meegan"
She still loves to read. Now she likes longer books with more words on the pages. Her current favs are Stellaluna and Mommy Breastfeeds My Baby Brother
Ryan 2 months
Ryan loves to smile when he's awake. Mostly he smiles when we smile at him. He loves it when I laugh, but it has to be a real laugh, I can't fake him! He also loves when Russ makes funny faces does silly things with him
He still hasn't really taken to a pacifier, Megan never did so we aren't surprised. He seems to like the pacifier most from Megan. She LOVES giving it to him but never seems to leave it with him long before she pulls it away, maybe that's why he always seems interested in it because she constantly teases him with it!
From 1 month until 2 months he was pretty colicky at night from about 7-10pm. Starting on the day he turned one month he would just cry / scream during those hours. Nursing would help for a couple minutes and then back to crying, moving, walking, bouncing all helped a little but he would soon be back to screaming. It was awful! After trying lots and lots of different things we found putting him in the swing and turning the hair dryer on to be the best solution. He would almost immediately calm down and soon fall asleep. Sometimes we swaddled him in addition to swing + hairdryer. But right around when he turned 2 months it started happening less and less and now we've had several good nights in a row, yay!
Ryan still HATES his carseat. I can count on a total crying screaming fest at least for some part of each car ride. It seems like he doesn't get as worked up as he used to so that's good and he is limiting it more to when we're at lights or stuck in traffic and usually calms down when we're on the highway or moving.
Is rolling over, belly to back. He doesn't do it every time but he's definitely rolling. Sometimes he gets really frustrated still when he can't remember or his tactics aren't working on the particular surface
He likes to face out while we walk around, he's starting to take in more sights and sounds around him. And he's more interested in his bouncy seat bar that has lights and sounds and his activity mat with the toys dangling down.
Ryan decided about 2 weeks ago that he wasn't going to take a bottle anymore. Sigh... we haven't been the greatest about giving him one consistently so I'm sure that's why. Russ is home on Christmas break now so we're going to try and nab his bottle refusal in the butt before I head back to work on 1/7
Ryan loves baths but only if he gets to take them in the big tub! He loves floating on his back, I get in with him and he just loves floating in the water. If he's having a bad crying night we'll just get him in the bath with one of us and he calms right down.
He's a pretty good sleeper, most nights he'll take a good 4-5 hour stretch from 10-3, wake up to eat and then he's back asleep until 6ish. Last week he slept for a 7 hr stretch which was amazing for me!
Ryan Joseph was born at 3am on Thursday 10/15, he was 7lbs 7oz and 21" long.
My contractions started on Monday (10/12) in the evening and continued on Tues 10/13 but they were all over and far apart. Then tues evening they picked up, I still went to work wed 10/14 and they slowed down but then picked up in the afternoon. I left work early around 2pm and headed home. Lora (our nanny) was home with Megan and she stayed while I tried to lay down and rest between contractions.
Russ got home from work later than normal since he was trying to get things ready for the sub since it looked like I was going to be having the baby soon! When he got home he scrambled around to pack his hospital bag while I tried to manage contractions and Megan who knew something was going on and all of a sudden really needy (holding a toddler during contractions is not exactly easy...). Russ's parents arrived around dinner time and helped with Megan while I hung out in the shower for awhile since it helped with the contractions.
It wasn't until 11:30 that we called the on call Dr and headed into the hospital, contractions were a solid 5 minutes apart by this point and I was in a lot of pain!
We had a Doula assisting me/us with Ryan's birth. Her name is Ame and she's a friend of a friend who was working on her Doula certification and needed to attend a few more births. So we ended up with a Doula free of charge, and she was absolutely awesome!
On the drive to North Austin Medical Center (NAMC), I threw up all over myself, the car and my cell, Russ handed me a bag but it was too late. So I walked into NAMC in my PJs and covered in puke :-) Our doula, Ame, met us there and she helped me through the contractions. She was great! During contractions she held my hips, did some squeezing / massaging that helped and Russ held my hands. She had the most calming and soothing demeanor. I can't tell you how much more helpful Russ was this time with Ame there. Just having a little direction and ideas from someone else got him so much more involved in helping me through contractions! I mostly labored standing up and squatting next to the bed but this seemed to be a problem for monitoring the baby and at one point the nurse made me lay in bed because she was thought the activity didn't look good in the monitor. Laying in bed made the contractions so much worse, they felt longer and much more painful that way. I remember thinking if I'm going to be stuck laying in bed I want the epidural! So I had them start the IV fluids for the epidural because it was just too painful laying in bed through the contractions. I did get to stand again before I was ready for the epidural and it felt much better, but at that point I had already given into the idea of the epidural and there was no going back!
The anesthesiologist was great - last time I had a not so good epi experience, but this time was great! When they checked me after the epidural I was 9cm and almost ready to push. I wasn't surprised since I had been feeling some pressure to push... (and had refused a cervix check before the epi because I was nervous they would say I was too far along to get it!) Still I was happy I had the epidural I got like 10 min of rest and then everyone was in the room and 3 pushes later Ryan was born!
Megan came to visit us on Thursday morning, she was a little timid at first walking into the room but came right up to my bed and sat on my lap for most of the time she was there. She wasn't all that interested in Ryan, mostly in seeing Russ and I. The night Ryan was born was the first night I'd ever been away from Megan and it was very hard to see her only once a day while I was in the hospital. I missed her very very much! While we were in the hospital Russ's parents stayed at our house with Megan. Lora came by during the day to give them a break and let them get back home. Russ came home around dinnertime and to put Megan to bed each night and then he came back and stayed with Ryan and I. We were in the hospital 3 nights (including the night we got there while I was in labor) and left Saturday morning around 9. We tried to leave Friday but the pediatrician heard a heart murmur that was louder than the day before (which can be a bad sign), she wanted us to stay another night to monitor it. Thankfully Sat morning it was very slight and hasn't been heard since.
Wow I can't believe we haven't blogged since Megan turned 1! So much has happened since then... Not too long after Megan turned one we found out we were expecting again! In July we moved to a bigger house in a nicer neighborhood on a cul de sac! In September I turned 30, and 2 weeks later on October 15, Ryan Jospeh Denny was born! A month after Ryan's birthday Russ turned 40! It's been a crazy and fun year here! I hope to be better about blogging in 2010! Here are some recent photos of the kids!
Newborn Ryan still in the hositpal
Our first family photo!
We had professional photos of Ryan, Megan and us taken when Ryan was a week old and they came out amazing!!! Here are just two of them. Lyndsay Stadtner from Life in Motion Photography is the amazing photographer!
Megan was a duck for Halloween! She LOVES her duck customer but the actual trick or treating part wasn't her favorite. Although she was excited to get candy she got very very scared whenever she was an adult in a costume, even silly costumes like a whoppi cushion were very upsetting. We made it to three neighbors houses, all whom she knew, and then decided to just go home! But she loved answering the door and handing out candy!
My parents came for 10 days after Ryan was born, we had a GREAT visit!
Roger and Veronica came to Austin for Thanksgiving! Megan had so much fun with her cousin Veronica! Veronica taught Megan how to play hide n seek with one of her stuffed animals, we all rode the Cedar Park train together, and played at Gattiland too!
Ryan started smiling at 7 weeks, the day after he smiled for the first time he also rolled over (belly to back)! He's still sporadic with his rolling but he can repeat it over and over if he's in the mood!
At first the new baby brother was a rough transition for Megan, she had a hard time sharing Mommy and didn't like it when I held or nursed Ryan. Now she's doing much better. She LOVES to give Ryan a paci, push him in the swing, help with diaper changes... all under much much supervision!
We cut our Christmas tree down this year at a Christmas tree farm in Elgin (about a 40 min drive), it was great! Megan loved riding out to the fields behind the tractor. Ryan was in the Moby wrap the whole time and slept for most it. I've been using the Moby a lot more this time, it's helped me to get out more with Megan and Ryan seems to like it.
Ryan has pretty strong neck muscles, here he is at 2 months! He was holding his head up pretty well during tummy time even at a dew days old! And he likes tummy time (most of the time)!
Megan has been working on diapering her stuffed animals and dolls since this summer but she's getting a lot closer to doing it herself these days! Elmo also often is seen in the swing, bouncy seat, buckled into Ryan's carseat, on Ryan's changing pad, with a paci, in Ryan's clothes...
Well actually today Megan is 1 week and 5 days old :-) Megan had a great birthday! My parents came in for the party (and a visit), Russ's parents were there too (of course!) and a couple friends. We had a Hawaiian theme, complete with the cutest dress ever! Megan took a nap halfway through her party, but luckily woke up in time to do presents and cake before people left! She did great with the presents, although she got bored at the end.
Here's the spread
And the cake (although Megan didn't eat this one she had a cupcake)
Eating her cupcake. She didn't take the whole thing and try and eat it, she broke it into smaller pieces and then ate those. Overall she was unimpressed, later that night I gave her a cupcake again to see if maybe it was all the people watching, she ate a couple bites and then went back to her peas!
More pictures from my parents visit:
She just get's cuter and cuter all the time!
Here is Megan and Grandma dancing!
Here's Megan with her serious playing face, this is what Russ and I got her for her birthday, a sand and water table.
It's hard to believe Megan is going to 1 two weeks from tomorrow. We're officially in denial. Megan turning 1? It can't be! Time sure does go by faster now! She's getting so big too, well size wise she's not big, but age wise!
She's into everything. She walks fast but no running yet. She steps up and down holding onto the wall or our hands. She can crawl up onto the couch when we place a little step stool next to it. And she LOVES the couch! :-) She enjoys opening and closing doors and cabinet doors. And chasing the cats around is still one of her favorite things. In the last couple weeks she's really grasped putting things in other things. She puts the balls in her roll and roar dino (actually I forget the name of that toy... but it's something like that), she'll feed me and Russ cheerios or give us sips out of her straw cup! She'll try to put things back too, like she'll put the mail back in the mailbox on her laugh and learn house. It's pretty neat!
She's been totally off bottles for the last couple weeks. She's still nursing, so bottles weren't hard to give up at all. She drinks expressed breast milk out of a straw cup when I'm at work.
She still has 7 teeth, although I'm pretty sure that 8th one is coming in anyday now. (But then again I think I said that 2 weeks ago too...).
She's dancing now too! hehe! Sooo cute. I really really need to get a video of it to post. She has the Fisher Price Laugh and Learn Home and it has 4 buttons with different songs on it. She loves to play a song and then dance a little and as soon as the dance is done she pushes it again! She'll bounce up and down, sway her arms side to side or clap her hands.
We're very excited that my parents are coming in less than 2 weeks (they'll be here for Megan's birthday) and then Jason is coming to visit a couple weeks later! Yay! Lots of fun ahead in the next month!
