Almost Christmas

We are so excited for Christmas this year. It has been so much fun showing Rya Christmas lights and decorations all over the city. She is a big helper when it comes to wrapping too...except she thinks every present says "Rya" on it. :)

Rya's first Disney vacation

On Friday, October 23rd, The Johnsons headed out for an 11 day extravaganza around central and south Florida. We started off in Venice for a nice, but too short, visit to Nana Net. We then headed to Orlando for 7 days. We took Rya to Magic Kingdom on Monday, the 26th. What a special day!! Larry and I hadn't been to Magic Kingdom since my 22nd birthday...over 10 years ago. We arrived at the park shortly after they opened and just wandered around and took in all the sights and sounds. We watched a parade, a walking musical and a show at Cinderella's castle. Rya was in awe overload! Everywhere she looked she saw people, music, dancers, balloons, characters, etc. I can't count how many times she said "OOOO!" We left around lunchtime to take a nap so we could make it for the night parade and fireworks. We got back to the park around 4 and went on a few rides before it was time for us to find our seats for the light parade. Rya LOVED "It's a Small World"! She was sitting on my lap clapping, smiling and dancing the whole ride. Larry taped some video, but it came out just a little too dark. She liked the night parade so-so and was NOT a fan of the fireworks until we moved further away. We had such a wonderful time and can't wait to go back with baby #2. :)

BIG recap

I can't believe it's been almost two months since an update. Sorry for the slack.

A lot has happened since August. Rya has started going to Mom's Day Out twice a week. It took her awhile to get into the swing of a new classroom AND new "teachers", but I think she's adjusted well. On Wednesdays she is still one of the oldest in her class and they take naps in the crib or swing and just sort of play and hang out. On Fridays, she is the youngest in her class and they do more interactive and learning activities. Stories, colorings, playground trips, sleeping on mats!! I didn't think she could do it, but by the second week she would get her mat and go to sleep on it. I'd still love to sneak in and see it one day.

Since our last update, we have announced that Rya will be a big sister! We are very excited...anxious too, but overall excited. We know it will be hard work at first, but it will be worth it in the long run to have two children close in age. They will be about 22.5 months apart. I wasn't really nervous until Larry asked me the other day how I was going to handle two children alone during the day once he went back to work. Now it seems like that's all I think about, BUT we will take it one day at a time and take the curses with the blessings. I'm just really not looking forward to the no-sleeping stage again. Aye Ca Rumba.

All three of us have had the flu. Rya first along with an ear infection, then Larry, then me. I felt like I was dying. Larry and I were both put on Tamiflu, but little Rya just had to stick it out. She did get antibiotics for her ear infection though. I also was put on antibiotics because it started to go down into my chest and my doctor didn't want that to happen...bad news for pregnant women. Rya and I are fully recovered, but Larry has this lingering cough. He has a few more days of antibiotics so hopefully he will be back to 100% shortly.

We leave tomorrow for a mini-vacation to the Outer Banks, NC. It will be Rya's first airplane trip. I don't know what to expect. I have downloaded some shows on the laptop to hopefully help keep her mind off the fact that she has to sit in one of our laps for each leg of the flight. Our layover up is just long enough to let her stretch and run around for a little bit before plopping down in our laps again. After the airplane rides, we have a 2 hour drive. I hope she takes her nap then. That's the only other thing that has me worried. Sleep. I just hope she does it and does it well. But if she can sleep on a mat, she can sleep in a new place, right?! :)

I have a ton of pictures to put up but that will have to be later today. It's time to wake Rya up for a fun day at Mom's Day Out. Thanks for reading!

Dress up & Posing

 

 

 

 

GOLFING

 

 

 

 

15 month well baby

We have a healthy and happy not-so-baby girl. The doctor can't believe how fast 15 months has gone...I think I was one of those moms that called at the slightest sniffle so we've become "regulars" at the doctor's office. Rya weighed in at 21.4 pounds (up from 20.8 pounds at 12 months) and in the 50th percentile. She is 31 inches long (up from 29.5 inches at 12 months) and in the 75th percentile. Her head is 47 cm. (up from 46 at 12 months) and in the 75th percentile. She is growing right on track! We had a few questions concerning her diet. She doesn't like to eat any animals. The doctor said that's perfectly fine, Rya's getting most of her protein from milk. That was nice to hear. Over the past few days Rya has gotten some patches of eczema on her back. The doctor said that Rya is showing signs of having allergies. She wants us to start giving Rya a 1/2 tsp of Zyrtec every night at bedtime. She doesn't want to do testing, but does want us to treat it with over the counter medicine for now. I was doing some reading and found that it's common for children that have eczema to later devlop asthma. I'd like to do whatever it takes to try to delay the asthma. Larry had bad asthma as a child and is a major sufferer of allergies now. He actually just got his first allergy shot today, so hopefully he's on the right path. We are lathering Rya up with cocoa butter to ease her eczema and will start the Zyrtec shortly. Rya received two shots today so we want to make sure there aren't any chances of reaction to those before starting her on the Zyrtec. Dr. V said she is doing wonderfully developmentally and that we should consider upping Rya's days at Mom's Day Out. She actually said this at 12 months, but I think we are finally ready to enroll her in more time away from me. I need it and I know Rya needs it. She LOVES being with the other kids.

Here are some pictures from us "coloring" the other day. She colors for about 2 mintues and then sits on the paper and puts the crayons one at a time in the box...then takes them out, one at a time...then puts them in, one at a time. Over and over again. She does this with a lot of things, not just crayons. In the morning I'll put a hand full of Cheerios on the table for her to eat while she drinks her milk. Lately, she brings them to me one at a time and then puts them back on the table one at a time. I don't mind this, just wish I understood WHY.






Last, but not, least. We've been playing with blocks for about 2 weeks now and she doesn't quite get the whole idea behind stacking them, but she loves knocking them down after I've stacked them. Today, however, she grabbed a book from her bookshelf, laid it on the floor, then stacked another book on top of the first one (edges lined up) and carried it over to me...so she gets the stacking idea, just on a less blocky scale. We are working on our words. It's interesting. She'll repeat what we say, but it's not the words we say...it's the tone and pitch we used. Sometimes the letters match up, sometimes they don't. I hope that makes sense. :)

Thanks for reading! xxoo

Summertime Rolls

The only thing that is not active this summer is the tropical weather. They always say that summer flies b/c of all the traveling and visiting that happens. And once again "they" are right. Since we haven't been able to travel as much this summer as we have in the past, it seems like everyone has come or will come to us. I'm a fan!! We do live in one of the most beautiful places and I'm glad we can share it with friends and family. We have had more visitors this year than ever before and have made some wonderful memories. (I'll post pictures in a separate post.)

Rya has her bottom two first molars completely in (good times) and is now finishing the top two. She is TRYING so hard to talk...it's hilarious. She loves walking backwards and although she tends to kind of curve at the end, she giggles the whole time. :D She's trying to learn how to play golf (as you'll see from the pictures) and is really good at kicking and throwing the ball. Nothing mesmerizes her like Yo Gabba Gabba on Noggin. We don't let her watch a lot of TV, but when I have something to do, I admit it does make a nice babysitter. We are working on independent play...I just feel so guilty sometimes. I hope that's normal.

We have our 15 month well baby checkup next week and I am just so excited about this one. I don't think we've been to the doctor (knock on wood) since our 12 month well baby checkup. That's HUGE! Seems like our first year we spent A LOT of time there...even for a little girl NOT in daycare full time.

We are off to meet my cousin's little girl tonight and visit with some other cousins and aunts & uncles...and of course Gran'ma. I'll be sure to post pictures from that too. :)

My such big lips you have!

Rya found my "lipstick" the other day. I hope you can see just how far she's sticking her little lips out. I gotta get a better video camera or figure out how to get a YouTube video on here. :D



Here are some still shots:

Debbie Downer

I have put off posting this week in hopes that our week would improve or I would find something to be positive about, but here it is Sunday and I'm still at a loss. Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday afternoon were some of the most trying days in a long time for me. Rya was being a royal Her Whineyness and my tricks and love just weren't cutting it. When I picked her up from Mom's Day Out on Wednesday she was crying and very unhappy...so unlike her, she usually LOVES going. I had set an appointment with the pediatrician for that afternoon because of the crankiness and low grade fevers, but after I got a quick glance in her mouth, I coughed it up to teething and cancelled the appointment. Well, after her bath Wednesday night we noticed a rash on her belly and back. By Thursday morning it spread to her arms and legs. We figured it was just a viral rash, but I called the pediatrician anyway before the long weekend. And what a long weekend it was! It ended up being a viral rash and we were told we were at the end, but the rash would stick around for about a week. Larry took off Friday from work and so we headed to the beach for him to surf and for Rya and I to play in the sand and sun. We met my mom and dad and had a nice time...there, there's something nice from the last week. So it's wasn't a TOTAL flop. ;) Friday evening Larry started feeling like poo and complained of body aches and headache. I figured he just overdid it in the water and sun. However, he started to run a fever and was having chills when Rya woke up at 1am throwing up EVERYWHERE. She continued to vomit every hour to hour and a half until about 6:30am. We went through all her towels, 4 sheets, both of her lovies and 5 pairs of PJs. I was doing laundry at 2:30am to try to get lovie cleaned. My heart broke everytime she got sick...I felt so helpless. She didn't throw up any yesterday day, but we kept her on a water, banana, rice, applesauce & toast diet just in case. Needless to say, we skipped the fireworks, but I watched some on TV w/ Neil Diamond. :D Larry is still running a fever but hopefully he's almost to the end of it. So we are 0 for 2 on favorite holiday celebrations this year due to illness. Sorry to be such a downer, but I'm sure one day I'll look back on this and laugh..hopefully.

WATER PARK!

WARNING: The following post has some major fun caught on camera! Yesterday the weather was beautiful! It was still 98 degrees, but SOOO much better than the 100+ we were experiencing. The little bit of rain we got on Thursday afternoon/evening REALLY made a difference. Rya, Mimi and I went to Baby Bookworms in the morning and then headed next door to the children's park. They had the water turned on for the fountains, so I just let Rya have at it. I didn't take her bathing suit, but I did pack a towel and extra onesie...just in case her feet got wet. :) Within minutes, she was soaked head to toe. WHOOPS! Next Friday I'll just put her bathing suit on under her clothes. LOL.

PASSED OUT!

Backyard Wandering

Here are some pictures and video from the backyard "stroll" the other day.

Cinderella

Rya LOVES to do the dishes and help with the laundry. I need to learn how to keep the fun in these two events so that I can get some help when she gets older. Yeah, right. :D I haven't sneaked any laundry video yet, but here is a quick clip of her helping with the dishes. :)

There's Nothing Like Chicken on the Beach

Miss Rya has tan lines. It's quite amazing, actually. She's never gotten sunburned and I put SPF70+ on her each and every time we go in the sun, yet she has tan lines. She LOVES the beach. LOVES it! I put some pictures below of a recent sunset trip. Larry went surfing while we had some dinner and mother-daughter time (as if we don't get enough, right?!) on the beach. I don't know why the third one is sideways...I must be doing something wrong, but I can't figure it out...any ideas?








We've had a busy week and a half. I volunteered as an assistant to teach 4 year olds at Vacation Bible School last week. It was a blast, but I was SOOOO worn out when I got home that I laid down with Rya each day! The kids were so much fun and had a great time. Katie came in town last Thursday to celebrate her 21st birthday on Sunday! SOOO much fun. She is such a wonderful person and has such wonderful friends...I'm glad I was a part of the celebration. We went to Tradewinds for dinner Saturday night and it was sooo delicious and a wonderful place to have a special dinner. We had a champagne toast at my house at midnight and I'm sure we'll be celebrating for a few more days, but I'm already sad to see her leave next Tuesday. :(

Rya's 6th tooth just broke through on the bottom. She has 4 on the bottom and two HUGE ones on the top. She looks like a woodchuck. I love it :) She loves to just wander through the house and I definitely have had to keep my running shoes on to follow her around. She's bonked her head pretty good twice now and has two bruises on her forehead. She only cries for a short time and usually when we react poorly to her falling. She's definitely a lot of fun and I don't want her to get any bigger...it's going too fast.

Round and Round

Rya's new favorite thing: spinning around and around. Whether she's standing or sitting the girl loves to spin. Only problem is she usually falls when she starts walking if she's standing up and spinning. Dizzy! :)

She's bonked her head a few times the past few days. She has a big bruise on her forehead from where she faceplanted into the island in the kitchen. Of course she hated the ice more, but the boo boo bunny helped for a few minutes. We are having a rough day today. She has a slight fever of 100.5. I gave her some Tylenol and hopefully that will help. She doesn't want to be held, she doesn't NOT want to be held. So we play the game and take deep breaths. Why is it that when we have a rough day I either want chocolate or alcohol? Two things I'm trying to avoid. The numbers on the scale are going up a little and I think there are two reasons for this: 1-It's TOO hot to exercise outside for more than 10 minutes. Our one hour walks are OUT the window until we learn to get up before 8. It was 92 degrees at 10 o'clock this morning! No fun for baby = no fun for Mommy. 2-The amount of beer I have been consuming b/c of the frequent trips to the beach. How can you sit on the beach and NOT have a beer? Regardless more beer and less exercise amounts to more pounds on the body. SOOOO, beer is being dropped from the diet for a least a week. ;)

Old and Grey!

That's what I'm going to be soon...this little girl is definitely keeping us on our toes lately. She has enjoyed the art of strolling around the house grabbing onto anything and everything she can. That's all fine and dandy until it's a screen door that moves or a chair that tips over. I've started saying "brush it off" and so far it's working...a little. Some of the REAL scary spills take a bit more reassurance, but for the most part she's handling the falls like a champ. She also has learned to throw things. Food from her chair, her cup of milk, a ball, Ceci's dog bone, you name it, it might be tossed at you. I can't believe her changes just over the past week. It's like she's in fast learning mode or something. Since she's walking more outside we put our shoes on before we head outside to play. Yesterday I asked her if she wanted to go on a trip and she went, grabbed her shoes, sat down and started trying to push them on. She didn't have her toes in them but just the fact that she associated shoes with going out was mind blowing for me. SUPER CUTE!

I think I got 5 new grey hairs last night. Rya fell asleep around 7:45pm and woke up just before 9pm crying. We let her cry for about 2-3 minutes and then I went in to try to console her. She was just laying on her back crying. Usually if she's upset she'll sit up or stand up. Not so much last night. So I picked her up and tried rocking her. This didn't work AT ALL...in fact, it got worse. Much worse. She was now pain screaming and I had to call Larry in for help. He tried holding her, rocking her, talking to her, nothing. 15 minutes had passed and I'm getting really worried. Then she starts coughing and then gagging and then finally throwing up. However, the vomit isn't very liquid...it's full of mucus and it's not clearing out of her throat. She starts turning super red and so we grab the bulb suctions and start sucking out her mouth and nose. We get it out and she starts crying again. I liked THAT cry. I ALMOST dialed 911, but when we cleared her out we decided we should take her to the ER instead just in case she aspirated. So off we went at 9:30. We get all checked in and of course the ER doc was like "so, she threw up...once...she sounds good and looks good, you are clear to leave". We were happy to hear that but probably looked like idiots. Oh well, better to be safe than sorry, right?

Gears Turning

 

My little nuggie LOVES puzzles. She doesn't really get them, but I'm happy that she likes playing with the pieces and watching me put them where they belong. One day she'll get it. I was a big puzzle girl growing up. Puzzles and memory..and look at where THAT got me. ;) I have a lot to say, so I'll post a new update soon. xoxo

Birthday Weekend

This is Larry's birthday weekend and we had a wonderful day! Rya, Mimi and I went for a SUPER long (over an hour) walk this morning while Larry played golf with a friend. After Rya's nap, we ate lunch and hung out for a little bit before heading to the beach. It was wonderful! Lots of seaweed in the water, but just the perfect temperature. Rya had a blast and we got to watch a wedding...always a treat. :)

Rya and Larry were spending some time together last night while I went over the bridge to drop our computer off at the "repair shop". (Keep your fingers crossed that they can fix it.) He called to let me know that Rya had walked through the living room and kitchen on her own. I missed it! She has walked back and forth to us or from us to the couch/chair, but she hasn't just taken a leisurely stroll on her own yet. He was so excited!

We had a nice steak dinner last night with some nice wine. Tonight we are having pasta and tomorrow, for his birthday dinner, Larry wants burgers and wings!! So funny! His birthday isn't really until Monday, but he wants his presents and meals on Sunday since he won't be taking off work. Oh and for birthday breakfast he wants eggs, bacon and chocolate chip pancakes. I better set the alarm and hope Rya sleeps in. :D

Bugs, Bugs, Bugs

So, I've been battling with the desktop computer. It won't boot up and ALL of our pictures are on it. Wedding pictures, vacation pictures, Rya pictures, Harley pictures. :( We have some sort of nasty bug or virus and we are going to have to call in the professionals. Of course putting these pictures on a disk or external hard drive has been on my "ToDo" list for a few months now and just hasn't gotten completed. I'm paying for it now, aren't I? Ugh.

Also at the top of our fun list is cleaning and disinfecting the day after the termites swarm...6 times now! We usually get one, maybe two, bad swarms a year, but they have been persistent little things this year. It's so so so so gross. They swarm, the next day there are dead termites in random spots all over the house. So, I scrub everything down, vacuum the dead ones up and pray that was the last swarm. They swarmed again last night and hopefully today will be the last of the cleaning up of dead termites. To top it off, in the middle of the night I woke up to a creepy crawly thing on my left arm. You guessed it...nasty termite crawling on me. I got the heebie geebies, went to the bathroom and scrubbed myself with soap and water. I examined the rest of the bed and pillows thoroughly before climbing back in and attempting to fall back asleep. It took awhile...where there's one there's bound to be another. SO SO SO gross. I really hope you aren't eating while reading this.

Rya's had a fever for a few days now...just a low 100.1, 100.2, etc. It's either from her MMR shot last week or her teeth. This is one place I don't want a bug to be. She's doing so well and we are enjoying her being healthy. :) She had her 12 month well baby last week and is doing great! The doctor was so happy that we made it and are doing so good. She didn't have any concerns and said to keep doing what we were doing. My main question was what to do if Rya ate a rock. Dr. V said that if we saw her do it and she swallowed it with no problem, to bring her in to do x-rays. She said not to freak out and startle Rya if she happens to put it in her mouth because she could gasp and inhale it. I have noticed that Rya has started taking things OUT of her mouth that she doesn't want in there so the Dr. said that chances are she would realize that the rock isn't something she could eat and would take it out on her own. I'm not going to test it though. ;) Rya weighed in at 20.8 pounds...in the 50th percentile. She is 29 and 1/2 inches long...in the 50-75th percentile. Her head is 46cm in circumference...also in the 50-75th percentile. Bottom line is that she is proportioning out and filling into her head some. :) Below is a picture from our trip...Thanks for reading!

Super Cute at our Sunset Spot

We enjoyed watching the sunset from this Sandestin golf course hole. SO beautiful! Here is a special moment we happened to capture on video. I'll upload to YouTube for it to be more clear soon. :)

Sweet Vacation

We left for Sandestin yesterday afternoon for some much needed R&R...THANK YOU JAY & MELISSA! Rya took her first ride on an elevator and boy can that girl scream...in a small box with great acoustics. LOL. Poor guy riding with us. When he exited the elevator he told me not to worry-that he had a granddaughter about the same age and she did the same thing. I don't know if he was telling me not to worry b/c it was normal for one-year-olds to freak out on the elevator or to not worry b/c he's used to hearing a one-year-old scream her head off and it didn't upset him. :shrug: Either way, I know my ears were bleeding...so I'm sure his were too. We struggled last night w/ trying to get Miss Rya to sleep in her pack n play. It was 1:30am before we all just piled into the bed together. We slept until 7:15am. I woke up to the BIGGEST smile I've seen in a long time. I forgot how much I loved waking up next to her...it has been too long. Anyway, she's doing great with her naps in her pack n play now so hopefully bedtime tonight will be much easier and smoother. We just had a nice thunderstorm and it's cooled down quite a bit so when Miss Monkey wakes up we are going to hit the pool! xxoo

Happy First Birthday, Rya!

Wow! What a year! I can't believe we made it. LOL. It's been such a fantastic, scary, overwhelmingly wonderful journey so far. We had such a nice afternoon with friends and family on Saturday. We missed all that couldn't make it and hope to see you real soon. I think I'm addicted to making collages with Picasa. :) I hope to get the video of Rya "smashing" her cake up soon. In the meantime, here are some pictures of from the day:

Happy Mother's Day

 

What a wonderful day! It started with this cutie looking at me:





















We played in Rya's new pool that Larry got for her 1st birthday! I only took one picture and of course her eyes are closed, but it's still cute:
















Me & Miss Bug (kind of looking like a boy):


We all took a nap together in the afternoon and then headed to the beach for the sunset. Rya loves facing forward in her car seat and she had SO much fun playing in the shallow water at the beach. Yes, I just let her go in her diaper and shorts. :) I had extra clothes in the car and was sad we decided not to put our bathing suit back on. We'll know for next time. Enjoy! ♥

Drinking and Driving

I'm sorry this is sideways. But it's funny to hear her squeaks and squawks. She's drinking her milk while driving her car...sounds like I was drinking too by calling it a chair. :shrug:

What would you do?

What is it that even a perfectly well-mannered, mild-tempered kid goes absolutely crazy and all rules, self restraint, and manners go OUT the window when you put kids in or near water? Last Friday our friends came to visit from Tampa. I was trying to think of something we could do in the evening before dinner so I thought we could go swimming for a little while. Honestly, I also didn't feel like giving Rya a bath and just wanted to white trash bathe her for the evening...nothing like killing two birds with one stone, right? Anyway, we get there and it's a ZOO. A madhouse! Kids everywhere. We watched them for a little while and they were having SO much fun, but I started getting panicky. I'm not a big fan of kids and more were showing up by the minute. I figured I needed to get Rya in, rinse her off, TRY to play for a few minutes and get out before all the elementary aged kids in BWB showed up. So off we went. I'm holding Rya on my left side and walking down the stairs when BAM! something hard and fast hit me on the forehead (inches from the baby)! I mean I knew I was walking into a danger zone, but for Pete's sake. I look down and see this dive stick torpedo thing at the bottom of the pool next to my foot. I got NAILED in the face with a dive stick torpedo thing! Here's what it looked like, except it had some sort of cartoon character face on the top:

Problem: I didn't see which out-of-their-mind kid threw it. So, I bent down, picked it up and laid it outside of the pool. I watched closely to see who came to pick it up and spotted an overweight 5/6 year old boy grab it and take off. No apologies, no excuse me, no ceasing of the "game". It took me a little while longer to figure out who owned him and when I finally figured it out I was VERY discouraged. Three ladies had met up at the pool to let their kids play to allow them so social time. They were relaxing, talking, having a couple of beers...unfortunately, they weren't very attentive to their hellions. My heart sunk b/c I didn't want to approach them (yes, I'm a chicken), but by this time, my forehead was swollen and throbbing. I practiced what I would say a few times and realized that I was too angry to say anything, so I didn't. We just left. Of course, the next morning I woke up with A LOT of nicer ways to address the situation, but the moment had passed. So my question to you is this: What would you have done?