Uncle’s graduation (picture catch-up 5)

After we left San Antonio, we drove to Lubbock. It was a long drive. And there were tons of deer. And windmills. We finally, finally made it to Uncle Jared and Aunt Danielle’s house. Up there, we had lots of good time with Kellen’s family, and three of Rylan’s five great-grandparents got to meet him for the first time. Two of my cousins who were at school at Texas Tech got to come meet him, too. We saw Uncle Jared graduate from SIBI and had fun with Cousin Haden. We weren’t in Lubbock very long, but it was a good ending to Rylan’s first vacation!

Rylan was thrilled to be at Uncle Jared’s graduation.

Meeting Cousin Monica

And Cousin Melina

One of the proud great-grandmas

Aunt Danielle and the cousins, the day we left

Baby’s first vacation (picture catch-up 4)

Written on 12/23, about 5/18-sh, posting on 12/25, probably to be read 12/26 or later, so I don’t know if I should say it because I’m all turned around and confused, but Merry Christmas!

When Rylan was just a couple of months old, we got to go to Kellen’s brother’s graduation from Sunset International Bible Institute in Lubbock, Texas. Since it was so far away and Kellen was already going to be taking some time off, he took an extra day, and we turned it into a little vacation. We went to San Antonio for a couple of days to see our friends, Sarah and Ryan (miss you guys!). Of course, this was the middle of the week, so they had work/school. So we entertained ourselves during the day.

We went to the zoo, which Jacey loved, and finished early enough that we drove to Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch and did a drive-through safari. I think that might have been even more fun because she got to help drive! I pulled Rylan up in the front seat, too, and nursed him and squealed as animals came too close to my open window.

It was a lot of fun.

Petting a… hedgehog? I can’t remember. They had a great kids’ zoo!

At the fishing hole in the children’s zoo

I think every single zoo has these little prairie dog bubbles.

So not interested by the elephants.

Rylan’s first big excursion in the sling. I think he was comfortable!

So sweet! Couldn’t stay awake between the zoo and the safari.

One of my favorite pictures ever, of all time.

Laying in my lap on the safari. Content. As usual.

Loved!

Look how close!

These early smiles were hard to catch. I love this one!

Already couldn’t take his eyes off mama.

My boys. Be still, my heart.

March (picture catch-up 3)

And here are my favorite pictures from the rest of March.

Look how comfy!

This is what he wore to his first day of church, the day after he came home.

Kellen’s cousins, Ryan Kate (my flower girl!), Cade, and Carson came to meet the baby. I hid in the bedroom. Jacey was a proud big sister.

She loved holding him (while he was still tiny and not big enough to cruch her!)

Homecoming (picture catch-up 2)

As you know if you read my blog when Rylan was born, he had jaundice and had to stay in the hospital an extra day. Coming home without him was really hard for me, and I went up to the hospital in the middle of the night to feed him and very early on Saturday morning to wait for him to be released. And that took forever. But, finally, the pediatrician showed up and let us go! And we came home. Together. As a family.

In the hospital, dressed up and ready to go. Come on, doc!

Beautiful!

Ready to go! (Look how tiny!)

The excited big sister, come to welcome Rylan home

She immediately jumped in there with a pacifier. This would become a recurring theme.

Coming home is hard work. He quickly fell asleep on Gramps, aka The Nap Man.

At the hospital… (picture catch-up 1)

Here we go, the first catch-up picture post. I’m trying this whole “gallery” thing. If you click on a picture, it should bring it up in a bigger size, and then you can scroll through the pictures. Please let me know if it doesn’t work that way, so I can just insert the pictures into the post instead!

Here are my favorite pictures from the hospital. So this one post of 17 pictures gets us through three days of the 4 months I have to catch up on.

That’s going to be a lot of picture posts…

The only picture of my baby belly we were able to get

Jacey meets her brother

Look how he’s staring at his daddy… precious!

I gave Jacey a present–a family of elephants. She immediately lined them up and named them after us.

The proud greato-grandparents

Sleeping with the toy his big sister brought him

The proud daddy

Jacey holding Rylan for the first time!

Love this one!

SO SWEET!!!

Rylan’s temperature dropped pretty low, so they stuck him inside my nightgown for some skin-to-skin contact. It was so relaxing!

How sweet is that?

Here he is under the jaundice lights the night he stayed there without me. Getting a nice tan, isn’t he?

Guess what…

I finally got pictures ready to upload! It’s been, what, 10 months? I have never put a picture of Rylan on my blog. Do you realize that?? Never! Argh. I’m aggravated with myself. But it took me so long to be able to do anything but take care of my kids (remember how I said I thought it was March until sometime in June?) that I didn’t have time to go through the months of pictures and pick what I wanted to share, and I didn’t want to skip those months–it just didn’t feel right to post pictures of a four-month-old when I never even put his baby-baby hospital pictures up.

So, over the last few weeks, I’ve gone through EVERY PICTURE we’ve taken since Rylan was born. And discovered that we’ve either lost some, or we didn’t take a single picture in April or September, and I’m really not sure which one it is. I’ve culled as best I could, but I still have a ton of pictures to post.

But they are all resized, waiting in a pretty little folder on my desktop called “Blog.” I’m going to get them all posted as quickly as possible. The first one will be coming later today. Want to see what the big boy who’s cruising up and down the couch right now looked like in the hospital? Stick around.

Quickies…

Leaving the house today, Jacey told me, “I will bring my Bible with me so I can read it in the store. That way I will not forget about God at the store.”

And that, folks, is how you know you’re doing something right.

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Rylan is cutting his fourth tooth (bottom front two came in on the same night toward the beginning of October, top right was… November 16? Wednesday night either the week before or after Thanksgiving, now working on top left). He’s cruising all over the place, but he gets stuck UP–he doesn’t know how to let go of the couch/fireplace/toy he’s hanging onto and sit down. So he just cries until he falls or you come rescue him, whatever comes first.

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If I leave the room to do something and both kids are in the room and Rylan fusses, Jacey will follow me and let me know, “Rylan is really sad that you left him. So will you come back so he can be happy?”

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I got several great ideas from friends for “mama dolls,” but the mama doll didn’t make it on Jacey’s list for Santa, after all. So we’re off the hook there.

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So do you have to teach kids modesty, or do they pick up on it themselves? Because, at some point, “I’m so pretty.” “That was really sweet of me!” and “That was a really pretty song I just made up.” won’t be so cute anymore!

Hard concept

Jacey has been sick, so she’s been watching a TON of tv–anything to keep her still and her fever low. Tuesday, I found Disney’s Tangled on tv–the movie about Rapunzel. Turns out, Jacey thought the princess’s name was Tangled, not the movie title. And the two were inseperable in her mind. So we had several conversations like this:

Jacey- Mama, what is Tangled doing? (“Tangled” sounds like “Day-ndled.”)

me- Not Tangled, honey, Rapunzel. And she’s singing a song.

Jacey- Um, but what is Tangled doing?

me- No, baby, her name is Rapunzel. The movie is called Tangled.

Jacey- Why is her name Rapunzel?(“Wuhbuncell”)

me- That’s just what her mama and daddy named her. But the movie is called Tangled because she has long hair and it gets tangled.

Jacey (after a long pause to assimilate this information)- What is Rapunzel doing?

And then there was this conversation later on:

me, on the phone with Kellen, talking about how Jacey’s feeling- She’s just sitting on the couch now. She’s watching Tangled on tv.

Jacey, still watching tv, joined the conversation- Mama! You mean Rapunzel!

Sigh.

Pop quiz

Flattering or not?
Mark (A) for flattering and (B) for not.

1. Going to the door only to have the saleswoman there ask if your mom is home.

2. Asking your three-year-old what she wants for Christmas and hearing “a new mama.”

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In case you were curious…

I almost told the saleslady “no” and closed the door. But then I was honest and had to listen to part of her pitch before I convinced her I don’t want cleaning products you can squirt in your mouth because they are just THAT nontoxic.

And she also wants a suitcase (thanks to the little girl in Target who was pulling a Disney Princess suitcase down the aisle after Kellen and I thought we were done buying all the Christmas presents this year), a Rudolph (to go with the stuffed Donner she got in her stocking at Mimi’s house last year), and a pink mirror (don’t know why she wants that one).

As to the new mama, I asked why she wanted a new mama. She said she wants one to play with. When I told her in a wounded voice that I play with her, she finally made clear that she wants a soft mama. Which means a stuffed toy. Because she got two hard plastic Ariels to play with in the bathtub and then a stuffed Ariel, so the stuffed one is called “soft Ariel.”

Anyone know where I can find a stuffed animal that looks like me?

To grandmother’s house

Jacey just had her first stay in Bonham without us. It’s the longest she’s ever been away from us: three nights. She and Cousin Haden came up on Saturday (Daddy and Uncle Jared drove Jacey and Haden halfway on Saturday and Nunu and Papaw came halfway to pick them up); Tuesday, Haden went home, and Daddy, Rylan, and I came up here.

She didn’t even miss us.

And I’m torn over this.

I’m thrilled that she loves her grandparents and that she doesn’t need us around all the time. It shows that she’s growing up and becoming self-confident and independent. We’ve done a good job of helping her adjust from the  needy mama’s girl she was a year ago to the big girl she is today.

But she didn’t even miss us!

Oh, she was happy to see us. She gave us kisses and hugs. She asked for me to put her to bed last night rather than Nunu. But she could’ve stayed a lot longer than three days without us. In fact, given the choice, I’m not sure she’d ever come home!

A while ago, she spent Saturday night with Mimi and Gramps. I went to pick her up from Bible class on Sunday morning and I said, “Did you miss us?”

“Yeah!” she said. “Can I keep spending the night with Mimi and Gramps?”

I know grandparents’ houses are fun. I know there are fewer rules and more sweets and more attention from the grown-ups than at home. And, this time, she had Haden here, too, and he’s way more fun than a baby brother! After all, he plays back… and doesn’t pull her hair. (I hope.)

But, as a parent, you still kind of want to know that you’re first. I was wondering–when would she prefer Mama and Daddy to grandparents? When would it be enough, and she’d be ready to come home? I suppose whenever the trip stretched out long enough that the rules had to go in effect there just like at home. What about if she was sick? Would she prefer Mama’s care to a grandma’s? Is that the only time she might prefer us to them?

Anyway, this was a huge milestone. I’m glad she can spend time without us. I’m glad I survived time without her! (It helped that I was sick with allergies and busy getting ready to come up here for Thanksgiving.)

But I kind of wish she’d missed us. Just a little bit.

Ah, well. Maybe next time.