April showers bring May flowers

Ryan’s world has been busy for the past couple of weeks.  The fun began with his first Easter.  We started our Easter weekend with a parade on Saturday.  We headed to one of our favorite downtown areas and watched the parade with some friends and their 5 ½ month old daughter.  The weather turned out to be beautiful – a perfect day for a parade!  In fact, it was so warm that Scott and I found ourselves without a proper sun hat for Ryan.  Lucky for him, his friend Joela had a cute one to share.  Ryan is starting to get into a habit of borrowing cute pink things from his friends … good thing he’s an easy going boy!  The parade was a great effort of the local schools, youth centers, businesses and more. 

Here is Scott and Ryan watching the action:

His Easter Sunday was complete with his first Easter basket from the Easter bunny.  It was complete with colorful eggs, sunglasses, swim suit, rubber ducky, Hot Wheels car, stuffed rooster, candy, and more.  Clearly the Easter bunny has been keeping an eye on our good boy!

No pictures with the Easter bunny  … Scott and I saw some of those – the bunnies look pretty freaky.  Some look like they’ve had a few too many juice boxes if you know what I mean …

Here’s Ryan Easter morning with his basket.

Later that day, Scott, Ryan and I got ready to host an Easter lunch.  We had our parents and “Auntie” Sheila over.  Ryan has countless aunts and uncles … some by blood others by special selection.  It was a fun day - Scott and I enjoyed being the hosts ... our turn to gather the family and share our traditions!

And on Easter Monday Ryan had his 6 month check up with the doctor.  Sure didn’t feel like a holiday to him – he got another round of vaccines.  He sure can scream – and to think I have been worried about loud noises harming his ears!  Most of the time, he IS the loud noise! 

Here he is at the Dr’s office reviewing the vaccines and their side effects.

He did quite well – it only took a few minutes for him to calm down, he’s such a trooper.  He did better than mom and dad did – as usual.  We were the ones that needed the lollipop after the appointment …

Ryan is a growing boy!  We really haven’t gotten to say that very often – as I’m sure other parents of achondroplasia kids can relate – but he has had a bit of a growth spurt!  Enough that I’ve packed up his 3 month clothes and we’re into our “6 month stock”.   My “metro man” sure has a wardrobe.  We’re very fortunate to have been given so many clothes from other moms! 

We finished off last week with a long night.  Ryan had another sleep study.  While most people were up late watching the amazing lightening and thunder we had here – the three of us were in our hospital room trying to sleep.  Upon our arrival, Scott and I set up our Aerobed – yup, that’s right.  We set up a huge Aerobed in the room so we could stay the night with Ryan.  The bed is ridiculous – it’s 2 feet off the ground and the mattress if a full size mattress.  We were “those people” but at least it made us (moderately) comfortable. 

Here's Ryan and I our goofing around on our mattress.

Here’s Ryan enjoying his crib for the night … obviously this is a “before” picture!

I cannot get over how many wires they put on the poor thing.  He had wires all of his head, face, neck, arms, torso, legs and feet.  So pretty much all over.  The process of putting them all on took 2 techs and still took 20 minutes.  Ryan screamed the entire time.  It was heartbreaking.  Scott and I could just hold his hands and talk to him – not that it did any good.  Finally he was all set – and to all of our benefit, he was exhausted.  With just a few minor interruptions (for starters a huge thunder and lightening storm!) Ryan slept pretty well.  And he continued to amaze us – the next morning after getting everything removed, within 2 minutes he was smiling and chatting away.

Here we are on our way out!  He’s just awesome – all ready for the new day, the bad night is behind him!

… and now we wait.  Of course the results take weeks to come in.  We’re hoping he’s improved since his last study …significant improvement means NO mask at night. 

We’re thinking good thoughts …and in the meantime … On to the next adventure!

First Family Trip

Here’s to the beginning of so many firsts!  Ryan has already blessed us with countless firsts – at just 2 months he gave us the most beautiful sight we had ever seen: a big toothless grin.  His beautiful smile led to more firsts like rolling onto his back, and later onto his tummy.  And going beyond our sight, Ryan has given us some sounds that are guaranteed to make anyone laugh out loud.   His giggle is fantastic and also very contagious.  Must have something to do with the big “gummy” grin it’s paired with!  And most recently, Ryan has discovered quite a unique sound ... he’s clearly trying to make that adorable raspberry noise … but the hard working guy he is, he forces it out so much that it comes out sounding like a massive fart!  Needless to say, we turn quite a few heads when he does this in public!  We just can’t help to be proud of our “musical” boy!

And now to our most recent first … Scott, Ryan and I went on our first family trip.  We went to the beach – lucky for us, we live in CA only about 45 minutes from the coast.  We shared a beach house with some great friends – 3 other couples and their babies.  Sounds like a crazy idea – especially with the large amount of rain forecasted - and to be honest we weren’t sure how it would work out to have 4 infants under the same roof, but thanks to the layout of the house and our amazing children, we not only survived, but we had a great time!  The babies are all under 1 year old: starting with 11 month old Eliana, 7 month old Elody, 6 month old Ryan, and 3 month old Aleks. 

It was a quick and action-packed weekend!  Saturday morning started out very very wet and windy.  We all stayed in – entertaining the babies and relaxing.  A few mimosas for the parents and food and toys for the babies.  Everyone’s happy.  Here’s a picture of Ryan trying out Elody’s Bumbo chair for his solid food feeding:

It was decided that a only confident man can wear pink that well.  He’s almost ready for the Bumbo … just need a little more neck strength and he’s there!

The rain let up by mid day and we got the chance to explore the beach.  This was Ryan’s first time to the beach so we went down there armed with our camera of course.  At this age, the first trip to the beach is a bit anti-climatic but a first is a first!  Scott and I think that he enjoyed the cold salty air and sights.  Next time, we’ll explore the water and sand.  It was a bit too cold and wet for that this time …

After the trip to the beach, we all spent the rest of the day together enjoying homemade beer, wine, snacks and March Madness of course.  Ryan had the time of his life (well, so far!) on the floor playing with everyone else’s toys but his own.  He’s not moving yet, but he somehow got his hands on a doll (that was Scott’s personal favorite, ha ha), a couple of books and fun chewing toys of course. 

All of the fun had to end at some point and off we went back over the hill towards home.  Ryan sure slept well on Sunday … he was worn out from his adventure – as were we! 

On to the next adventure ...