One Year Check Up

Rylan had his one year check up today. As we had suspected, he's put on very little weight in the last three months and is approaching a more "average" weight.

Rylan's 1 year stats:

• Weight: 24 lbs, 7 oz (75th percentile)
• Length: 29.5 inches (50th percentile)
• Head Circumference: 19.25 inches (95th percentile)

Rylan's 9 month stats:

• Weight: 23 lbs, 14.5 oz (90-95th percentile)
• Length: 28.25 inches (50-75th percentile)
• Head Circumference: 19 inches (>95th percentile)

Rylan had to get a finger stick today for a couple of blood tests and didn't even seem to notice it. He just watched as the nurse took the blood sample and didn't cry at all. He wasn't as agreeable with the two shots he got but as soon as I picked him up, he stopped crying.

Developmentally, Rylan is doing fine. He's not pulling up or standing very well while holding on to things, but the pediatrician wasn't concerned since Rylan is crawling (even if it is a one-legged belly crawl). He has started crawling over things like toys or my legs so he's making some progress.

We Have AC!!!

We had our air conditioning repaired today! As we expected, a nail from the new roof had pierced the coolant line.

The HVAC guys had to cut a large hole in the ceiling of our guest bedroom.




They screwed the drywall back up but we need to have it taped, mudded, textured, and painted. Our roofing contractor took a copy of the bill from the HVAC guys so he can reimburse us for the cost. He is also arranging for someone to complete the drywall repair.

Our roofers came back out this afternoon. They installed the 4 missing ridge vents, put another row of shingles over the exposed nails, and cleaned out our gutters. We are starting to make some progress on getting our repairs done!

While Brian stayed home with the HVAC guys, the boys and I met Erin and her kids at their pool. It's been awhile since we've been able to meet up with them and Izzy sure has grown! She's six months old now. Here's a picture of Rylan, Izzy, and big sis, Lily.

Rylan's Birthday

Rylan started his birthday off yesterday with his first cow's milk. He only took a few sips, but it's a start.




We didn't do much all day but we did take the boys out to dinner at Moe's. Rylan had his first cheese quesadilla. He hasn't been very good with eating lately and only had a few bites. That molar is breaking through his eruption cyst on his bottom right side and the bottom left molar is pushing up too.



We got Carter a kid's meal since they are $0.99 on Tuesdays (we typically just share our food with him or bring him something because he rarely eats food if we order it for him). He never drinks anything other than water or milk, but he had his first apple juice last night. We were all about new food and drinks for the kids yesterday!


When we got home from dinner, we had cake.


Rylan seemed to enjoy us singing to him ...

He didn't want to dig into the cake with his hands ...


But he LOVED what I fed him with a fork ...

We opened presents after eating cake. We tried to get Rylan to pull the paper off ...


But Carter ended up doing most of the unwrapping ...





We can't believe our baby is one already! We really need to start calling him Rylan now instead of Baby!

House Update

When our roofing contractor came out yesterday morning, we asked him if he was aware of anything happening to our air conditioner while we were gone. He said he was not. Then he called back yesterday afternoon to tell us that his contracting company has had a problem with roofing nails puncturing the coolant line between the furnace and condenser unit when it is run too close to the roof. Apparently this has happened on three or four of their jobs already. When the coolant line is punctured, the coolant evaporates. If this is what happened then that is why the air conditioner was still running but wasn't putting out any cold air.

We had a heating and cooling guy come out today and confirm that everything is fine with the condenser unit. He added some freon to the unit and was able to determine that the freon was evaporating in the coolant line. He pulled out the soffit to examine the line and looked at the line in the attic but couldn't see the puncture. There is a section though between these that he couldn't get too which is most likely where the puncture is. So tomorrow he's sending out a couple of guys to cut out a section of the ceiling in our guest bedroom. They are going to patch the coolant line and then screw the drywall back in place. Then we are going to have to find someone to tape and mud the drywall, add the texture to match the rest of the ceiling, and paint.

The roofers were supposed to come back out today to add our 4 missing ridge vents, coverup the exposed nails, clean out our gutters, and roll the yard again with a magnet to pick up nails. But there was a chance of rain today (which never happened) and they decided to come out tomorrow instead.

Also, we have worked out with the roofing contractor for them to pressure wash our entire driveway and sidewalks so that the gouges caused by the first crew's trailer blend in. They were willing to demo the three sections of driveway that got scratched and pour new concrete but we figured it wouldn't match the existing driveway at all. And it would be a big pain.

On the bright side, our garage doors got installed yesterday and look great. The guy that installed them did a great job.

Wedding Photographer

My sister's wedding photographer (Abby Fox Photography) sent her a preview of her pictures today. Here are a few of my favorites ...






We can't wait to see the rest!

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday, Rylan! We love you so much!

Beautiful Bride

Here's a picture I took with my phone when we were doing photos at the waterfront. The one the photographer took should be beautiful!

No Air Conditioning and More

We were greeted home after a 10 hour drive from Michigan to a house with no air conditioning on the second and third floors. And it was/is HOT up there. The unit is pushing air but it is not cool at all.

We have someone coming out either today or tomorrow. Hopefully today.

We managed to all sleep in our bedrooms with the ceiling fans on high and the doors open (as well as the windows in the master bedroom open). The thermostat was reading 86F. Everyone slept okay but it's supposed to get even hotter today so I'm not sure if we'll be able to sleep upstairs again tonight.

Also, our roof got "finished" while we were gone. However, they forgot to put on 4 of the ridge vents, didn't tar over a lot of the nails on the top layer of shingles, didn't clean out any of the gutters that are filled with hundreds of nails and other trash, and did a horrible job of picking up nails in our front beds (I've picked up several dozen without even looking hard). We called our contractor last night and he was out here first thing this morning with promises to get it fixed ASAP.

Our new garage doors are supposed to be installed today. The installer was supposed to be here at 9 am this morning and it's now 10:40 am and he's still not here. I guess I'll be calling to check up on those soon.

We are so ready to be done with house repairs. But at least we still don't have interior damage. One of our friends had their ceiling collapse last Tuesday night when their roofers didn't tarp their roof probably before a storm came in. So it could be worse.

Congratulations Karey & Mike

My sister got married this weekend. More to come soon ...

Backseat Driver

Carter now likes to tell me that a light is red or green and that I need to stop or go. He hates when I turn right on red!

Roof Update

After our roofing crew was fired on Saturday, we had a new one start Monday.

I've gotten a little information from the contractor and the project manager about that first crew. They were out of Georgia and had done at least two other houses for our contractor. They were slow on one of those houses but perfect on the other so they decided to continue using them.

On Saturday (the day it rained), the project manager had dropped off a tarp about an hour before the rain and told the guys to cover the house. We had gotten home about half an hour later and only the foreman was here. I'm guessing his crew was also gone when the manager dropped off the tarp. The manager told me yesterday that he thinks the crew's truck had broken down but no one seems to be sure. Either way, they should have covered the house before they left. The manager also said he was upset about the trailer they had dragged down our driveway. He was not impressed by the dinky little trailer they had because it didn't hold much and they kept having to go to the dump to get rid of shingles instead of working.

So our new crew started working about 6 pm Monday night. They put shingles on the front of the house over the garage. They were banging away until 9:30 pm and finally left a little before 10 pm. I was able to get the boys to bed close to their normal bedtimes and they amazing slept through all the noise. So far they've taken their normal naps too - I'm just amazed because it is REALLY loud.

They showed back up around 8:15 am yesterday and started taking the shingles off the front of the main part of the house. They seem to be going slow but the contractor stopped by and said that they were told to go slow and do a good job because of our bad experience with the last crew. They managed to get the shingles off that front section and put the felt up last night before the rain started. There have been 3 guys and a foreman that comes and goes.

This morning 5 or 6 guys showed up and started working around 8 am. They've been working on getting shingles on the part they took off yesterday. There's been scattered showers all morning but they've been working through the rain.

Hopefully they can finish tomorrow!

Ocean Isle - Day 4

On Tuesday we stuck around the beach house all day. After some time on the beach, we headed to the pool for awhile. Rylan used the baby float and Carter really liked the new float I had bought for the adults. It ended up that only Carter and Maddie used it. The pool was always so cold that no one spent that much time in it.


After naps, we took the boys back down to the beach for awhile before dinner. The boys typically took their afternoon naps at the same time which gave us a little free time. I usually read either on the porch where there was always a nice breeze or by the pool. I finished one book (Water for Elephants) and started another (The Help).


Checking out the ocean and showing off that dimple ...



Carter was a shovel hoarder. I always lost my shovel whenever I was digging in the sand.


We came across a handful of jellyfish throughout the week.


I got out my SLR camera and got a few good pictures of the boys on the beach ...










After dinner when it was getting dark, we took a walk on the beach with the boys to look for ghost crabs. We saw one when we were almost back to the house but it was another family on the beach that spotted it first. I remember seeing them all the time (even during the day) when I was little. There were tons of holes but we just couldn't find the crabs.

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day, Brian! We all love you so much!

You're Fired

Our roofing crew showed up early this morning and started removing the shingles from the front of the house. We had some things to do so we left the house mid-morning and didn't come home until after lunch.

When we got home, only the foreman was at the house. A storm was coming in and the foreman told me his guys were about to tarp the roof. The front and back of the house over the garage did not have shingles but had the new felt nailed in. There was no ridge vent covering the peak so there was about an inch gap in the plywood ceiling of our attic storage area.

The roofing crew didn't come back in time. The rain started about 30 minutes later. It poured. They finally showed up after another 45 minutes and started getting the tarp up. Our contractor and his boss showed up a few minutes later (we had called the contractor to let him know what was going on).

So far we don't have any damage to any drywall, but the rain did come in at the gap in the roof and through a lot of the nail holes where the felt was nailed to the plywood. There was a pretty big puddle in the attic storage area.



Here are some pictures of the "wonderful" tarping job the crew did.





They had also removed the shingles and felt from the section of roof above our fireplace so they just nailed some new tarp on it to cover it.


I took the boys out after the rain ended to run a couple of errands. The roofing crew was still at the house cleaning up. Brian called me a little after I left to tell me that somehow the crew hadn't attached the trailer they were putting all the trash in to their truck properly and dragged it down our driveway. It left 1/4" deep gouges in the concrete.


Brian called our contractor to tell him about the new damage and he said he'd "make it right". And that the crew was fired.

We have a 40% chance of rain the next couple of days so hopefully the shingles get up soon or the tarp does a good enough job keeping the rain out.

One of the things we had to do this morning was get my car inspected after my accident yesterday. Because of all the hail damage to cars around here, our insurance agency has a temporary facility set up where they do an estimate and cut you a check right there to repair the damage. It took about 40 minutes, but it was so easy. Unfortunately though the body shops around here are insanely backed up. The insurance agent said that the body shops they recommend are currently making appointments for next year!

Carter's Belly

I noticed a bunch of small bumps on Carter's belly yesterday morning. There's no redness and Carter's not scratching it. I haven't fed him anything new or switched laundry detergents so I have no idea what's causing the bumps.


If the bumps don't clear up by Monday, I'll call the pediatrician just to see if we need to do anything.