Christmas 2010

I hope everyone had a wonderful & blessed Christmas. Ryan was so excited this year about everything-the decorations, the tree & of course the fact that Santa brought presents. We did read the Christmas story of Jesus every night for the past 2 weeks and he liked that but it will probably be another year or two before he really understands why we have Christmas..not that it's just about Santa bringing gifts.

I'll post more in another entry about our Christmas Eve & then Christmas day (i'm short on time) but by far his favorite gift was from his Nana & Papa (my mom & dad). A Strider Balance Bike!

I learned about this bike from a fellow preemie mom who bought one for her son and he's done so well on it within a few short months. I've read nothing but positve comments about it and know that it will help his balance and core strength. Ryan's physical therapist even said we could bring it in to therapy! He was sooo excited when he opened the bag and was just grinning from ear to ear. My parent's are going through some remodeling on their house so he didn't have a lot of room to ride but he didn't care..he got right on it and started walking. Of course, this is the Christmas it decides to snow so we can't take it outside just yet but the forecast later in the week is calling for 50 degrees so we should be able to get out by week's end for him to ride it. Meanwhile, he's been walking around with it between our den & kitchen. Here's a couple videos from Christmas.

Cautious but excited

Things have been really busy here and while I try to post an entry at least once a week it doesn't seem I'm keeping up with that. Trying to get everything ready for Christmas and going to doctor appointments has kept us busy..not to mention work. I haven't posted much about this pregnancy for a few reasons and I'm still at odds at whether I want to or not. In a way, I do want to post to have a journal of sorts to refer back to but I'm not sure if I want it "all out there". I started this blog for Ryan because I was (and still am) bad about keeping up with journals & baby books that have all the "milestones" entries. Do I have time to make another blog just for me & little miss sweet pea? Probably not. But I do want to post about my feelings & what's happening with this pregnancy so I might just need to do that..another blog that is and make it less public. I know this decision is mine and mine alone but if you want to comment on your thoughts go right ahead...I'm listening.

That being said, I am getting a little more excited every week that goes by. I'll be 23 weeks tomorrow (Monday, Dec. 27th) and I've been feeling her kick for a few weeks now. I'm a little disappointed that Dean still hasn't felt her but every time I feel her and then put my hand on my stomach she stops..and I don't get a chance to tell Dean to come over and feel her. Hopefully these next couple weeks she'll start to be even more active and he'll be able to feel her kick. I'm still wearing my regular clothes and at my past appointment actually lost 2 lbs. from my previous appt. I'm still up 11lbs though. Now that Christmas is over I'm sure I've gained back those 2 lbs plus more..ha! I think in the next couple weeks I'll be needing some maternity clothes for sure. I really need some shirts already but just haven't had the chance to look or what I have seen, I don't like. I'm off work for the next week so I'm sure I'll be able to get out and look around some more.

Snow!

Is this what our winter will be like this year? Who knows..not even the weather "guessers" know around here. We've already had 2 rounds of snow and they are saying in another couple days we could get a bigger snow event. The first snow we had was on Monday. It was a surprise for sure because I watched the weather Sunday evening and saw nothing about getting snow. Luckily, the weekend weather had been somewhat warm (50's) so the snow was pretty to look at but didn't stick to the roads. Around here, because we don't get snow all that often(sometimes we can go a couple years without it), even an inch is a BIG DEAL..(laugh away my friends in Chicago & Wisconsin). So getting home from work Monday was uneventful. Ryan was giddy and he walked down the street to the mailbox with Daddy and then posed for some pictures.

Since it has been pretty cold all week, in the 30's, they were predicting today's snow would accumalate some and then some of it wash away when it changed to rain..which happened. I went into work for a few hours and then we closed for the day. I walk about 2 blocks from our office to the mall parking garage so even though I was in my tennis shoes, I basically walked baby steps the whole way. I'm a clutz and being pregnant with about 10 (or more) extra pounds doesn't help matters! Anyway, I got home safe and in the late afternoon I took Ryan out to play a little.

We'll see what or rather how much our next snow day brings!

Santa

After getting Ryan's Christmas pictures done at JCP, we walked into the mall and let him see Santa. The days leading up to the visit we kept telling Ryan to make sure he told Santa what he wanted for Christmas. I wasn't too sure he would actually talk to him since while he's not scared of Santa (or other people in general), he is pretty shy & quiet when he's in a new situation. He's become a lot better though after being in daycare & with his speech therapy. Since it was mid-morning the line wasn't long at all so we only waited a few minutes. He went right up to Santa, smiled, got on his lap and Santa started talking to him and Yes..Ryan talked back! We heard him tell Santa that he wanted cars, a motorcycle & a skateboard..haha! Dean and I were just giddy with excitement that he talked to Santa and even more because the picture turned out great too.
(it's a little bright because I didn't edit it after I scanned it)

Christmas Pictures

This past weekend we went & got Ryan's Christmas pictures done at JCP. Both myself & Ryan were long overdue for hair cuts and while I normally do not like to get hair cuts done right before pictures, it was a must. My mom took him to the barber shop a couple days before the pictures. His hair is a little short for my taste (at least the front) so it was hard to part it on the side, which I like to do. With that said, I still think the pictures turned out great. There's always that ONE great picture (well, usually) and this one was it:

We had a great coupon for 1/2 off the total so we got a couple more poses. I wasn't too happy with any of the family poses but only for personal reasons (I didn't like what I was wearing, my hair wasn't the way I liked it & I just felt blah!). We did end up buying one family pose though since Christmas is the one time of year we do family pictures. Here are a few of Ryan's other poses:

The photographer gave him this present and he really thought

something was in it. Notice how he's getting ready to open it..hehe

Ryan's new shirt