First, I'll attempt to catch you all up on how Rylee is doing these days. I say "attempt", because she has grown so much in so many ways the past few months that it would be impossible for me to mention it all. I'll do my best to include as much as I can think of, but it'll probably be a bit all over the place as things pop into my mind, so just buckle up and hold on for the ride. Okay... here we go...
As of four days ago, Rylee is now 21 months old. That means in just three short months, we'll be celebrating her second birthday. How is that even possible? I seriously can't believe it. I only thought the first year of her life went by quickly - and it did. But this second year... holy cow. It feels like we just celebrated her first birthday a few weeks ago. It CAN'T already almost be time for her to blow out candles again.
Rylee has grown and changed SO much in this past year. I was just telling my mom the other day that I have recently realized she's not even in her "toddler" stage anymore (*insert sad face here*). She is a little girl now. (I know it might sound a little silly for me to say it like that, but I don't know how else to put it. What "stage" comes after the toddler stage?)
She is very smart and spirited and independent.
She is learning more and more every day how to communicate with us, and she is comprehending things that I really didn't think she'd be able to understand for another year or two. She just blows my mind. Her vocabulary has sky-rocketed the past couple of months. I've lost count of how many words - and a few phrases - she can say, and she's to the point now where she can try to pronounce anything we ask her to say. It's also a good reminder to us that we really have to be careful what we say around her now (no, we don't cuss... I'm simply referring to more personal, "adult" conversation), because she may very well repeat it back to us - or worse, someone else - at some point.
She loves to read and sing and dance and play with her toys.
She loves watching game shows (I'm pretty sure I've mentioned that in a post about her before).
She loves her baby brother, though she is often jealous of him (which I know is to be expected at this age, when he is demanding so much of my attention). She likes to help me burp him after he eats, and she will ask to hold him every now and then (which is quite a sight, since he is already almost as big as her). She pronounces his name "Ry-ee", and I think it's one of the sweetest things I've ever heard. (You'd think she was actually saying her own name, based on that pronunciation, but she actually pronounces her name as "Ly-lee". I don't know why she makes the "R" sound for Ryan's name, but not her own.)
She loves her mommy, but she is a TOTAL daddy's girl - she has him wrapped around all ten of her fingers, and she knows it (and Jordan wouldn't have it any other way, either). Anytime we ask her "Rylee, who do you love?", she replies with "Daddy!" every single time. He has ruined her. (That was a joke... sorta...)
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| Rylee and Daddy, Feb. 28th |
She looks almost spitting-image of how I did when I was her age. It's a weird feeling for me, because every time I look at her, I feel like I'm looking into the past at myself.
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| This is me when I was around Rylee's age. |
Her facial expressions crack me up. She is so expressive.
She has it in her mind that my cell phone is HERS, and there are scratches and teeth marks all over it to prove it. I'm ordering a new cell phone later this week (we're due for our upgrade), and I'm determined to keep it away from her. We'll see how long that lasts...
She has really started coming into a "little helper" stage. She loves helping us throw trash in the dumpster or put dirty clothes in the washing machine. I'm embracing this time, because I know she is learning how to do different household responsibilities without "realizing" it yet, and therefore complaining about it. (I know that day is coming...)
I can't remember if I've mentioned this in a previous post, but she has officially learned how to climb over the chair wall Jordan "built" to keep her contained in our living room when she first became mobile (i.e. started crawling). That was a sad, sad day for me. I now constantly have to chase her all over the house, which is not always that fun/easy when I'm in the middle of nursing Ryan or something. I can't remember when she first figured out how to climb over the chairs, but I think it's actually been a month or two now (maybe even longer than that... I really don't remember), and since then, she has actually figured out she's strong enough to just move them/pull them away from the wall so she can just walk around them. So either way, we can no longer keep her contained in the living room.
There are still a million more things to mention, but I feel like if I keep going, I'll never get around to updating about Ryan, so for now, I'm just going to stop here on Rylee. On to Ryan...
The boy is big. Very big. I took Ryan to his 2-month check-up with his pediatrician on March 5th. He weighed 15lbs. 3oz. and he was 24 3/4 inches long. Both measurements put him in the upper-90th percentiles on the growth chart. Apparently I've got some rich breast milk.
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| waiting for the doctor |
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| It cracks me up when he goes cross-eyed. |
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| double-chin grin |
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| lady-killer |
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| This photo was taken on March 9th. He's wearing a size 3-months onesie and size 0-3 months jeans. As you can see, they were too small/tight on him. |
He is such a SWEET baby. I just love him to death. When he smiles, his eyes - with those beautiful, long eyelashes - just light up, and it melts my heart.
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| March 16, 2012 |
He has been cooing/babbling/gurgling at us for a few weeks now, and I love it. He always gets the hiccups a few minutes after he "talks" to us, though. Never fails. I guess it's because he sucks in air when he does it...?
We are still giving him 1 milliliter of Zantac twice a day to help with his reflux. It seems to be helping better since we upgraded (per doctor's orders) the dosage from 0.8 milliliter twice a day.
When I lay him on his floor gym, he can wave his arms in the air and hit the ball on the monkey toy that hangs down from it, causing it to play music. Smart boy.
I am still swaddling him when he sleeps, but he is pretty strong and always seems to break out of it, no matter how tight I do it.
There are a million more things I know I could say about Ryan, too, but I've been working on this entry for several days now, and I'm just ready to post it. I'll try to do another update post on the kids soon. For now, though, I hope this is better than nothing. (Sorry the information in this post is so all over the place. I told you it would be.)
