Birthday Party

We had a birthday party for Carter this afternoon.


We had 4 of Carter's friends over and their families. Sarah, Brent, and Mary Grace were in town for UT's homecoming game so they were even able to make it. We also had Amy, Chad, Caitlyn, and Alek; Meredith, Wes, Blaine, and Hudson; and our new friends, Jennifer and Sammy. Erin, Matt, Cooper, and Lily had another birthday party to go today so they weren't able to come but they gave Carter an awesome truck puzzle and book on Friday!

We had a construction vehicles theme. I made some decorations that resembled caution signs ...



The kids really loved these mini-sandboxes I set up on the front porch with some of Carter's trucks and Little People. It was a little chilly and rainy (just like it was for Carter's party last year), but that didn't stop the kids from playing.



We also had a "Construction Zone" where the kids could build with our Mega Bloks ...


I set up some crafts in the dining room for the kids to do.


We had a "Coloring Station" ...


And "Hard Hat Area" where the kids could decorate hard hats with stickers ...


I put out all of Carter's trucks, puzzles, and books that matched our theme ...


We had yellow and black cupcakes ...


Here's a picture of Caitlyn and Carter playing in the sand ...


The hard hats were really cute on the kids ...



We started the party at 4 pm and let the kids play for an hour. We had pizza delivered at 5 pm from Snappy Tomatoes and then had cupcakes.

Carter really enjoyed having everyone sing "Happy Birthday" to him. I wish we had taken a video, but these pictures at least show how happy he was.



Carter waited until we were done singing and then blew out the candle all by himself!


I didn't do a good job of getting pictures, but here's a shot of the kids eating their cupcakes ...


Neat Carter ate his cupcake with a fork ...


Black icing probably wasn't such a good idea!



After cupcakes, Carter opened presents. Everyone was so generous and gave him the most awesome gifts!




Everyone started heading out around 6 pm. It's amazing how quickly 2 hours goes by when you're throwing a party!

I think everyone had fun at the party. Carter took a short nap today and was not in the best mood before the party, but except for a couple of very short meltdowns, we was good and really seemed to have fun.

First Cereal

We tried giving Rylan some rice cereal today for the first time. I managed to get about 2 spoonfuls into his mouth and I think at least half of each stayed in. Rylan was not a big fan though and made lots of funny and unhappy faces. When attempting the third spoonful, Rylan started crying and so I decided to just try again tomorrow or Monday.

"I have no idea what I'm about to try."


"What's this?"


"I don't think I like this."


"I know I don't like this!"


"No more, no more!"


I think we're going to have to figure out how to put Rylan in Carter's booster seat or put him in a stroller to feed him solids because the Bumbo chair is definitely too small for his massive thighs!

I've been keeping Rylan's nails trimmed, but as you can see in the photos, he's been scratching up his face a lot lately. It's been mainly happening at night when he wakes up screaming and swinging his arms around.

Rylan's still on his sleep strike. The longest he slept last night was when I fell asleep feeding him and woke up 1 1/2 hours later holding him in my arms. I totally gave up at 4 am and just got up with him this morning. I finally got him back to sleep around 6 am but then Carter got up.

I got Rylan down around 8 pm and he just woke up a few minutes ago screaming. Brian is rocking him right now trying to get him back to sleep.

Sleep Strike

Rylan has been on a sleep strike since Tuesday. He hasn't been napping much (even in the car where he used to fall asleep easily - he cries now instead). And nights have been terrible. Nothing longer than an hour, and last night he was up just about every 30 minutes. We think Rylan may be about to get his bottom teeth in because his gums seem really swollen, he's been drooling more, and wanting to chew on things more. Hopefully that's it and he'll be back to normal soon. He doesn't sleep well, but this has been ridiculous!

I've been trying to get everything ready for Carter's birthday party on Sunday and that's been taking up my minimal free time (hence, no posts in a couple of days).

Here's a quick update and some pictures from this week:

When Carter got up from his nap on Monday, his little legs were covered in hives (mostly around his knees).


They went down within an hour (though there are still little bumps there even now). I'm not sure why he got them, but he did have something new to eat before his nap. The receptionist gave him a sugar-free lollipop as we were leaving the pediatrician's office. He's never had something like that before. I wonder if that was the cause of the hives because he also had two very gross diapers that afternoon.


One of the thinks I bought at IKEA in Atlanta was a playmat for Carter (for only $10).


It's the first thing he plays with in the morning and the last thing before bed.


Today the boys and I met Cooper (and his mom, Erin) at Anchor Park again for a playdate. I didn't get any pictures of the boys playing, but I did get this picture of Carter watching a train. He was so excited when the train first came - jumping up and down and shouting "choo-choo". But the train was so long that Carter actually lost interest and went back to playing before it was done passing by.

Giggles

Rylan has been smiling and laughing for awhile now.

He actually smiled as a newborn everytime he fell asleep. A few minutes after falling asleep, he'd start grinning for a few seconds. I know it was just a reflex at that time.

Starting around 6 weeks, it's been super easy for almost anyone to get a smile out of Rylan. As long as you give him your complete attention (and he's not in a bad mood), he'll smile at you when you smile at him.

It's also pretty easy to get Rylan laughing. Even Carter can do it now. When we were all in the car this weekend, Carter started making a ppppbbbbtttt sound at Rylan and he would laugh. Carter kept doing it and Rylan kept laughing. They repeated the routine yesterday.

When we were at the zoo today, Carter got Rylan laughing again and I finally got my first video of Rylan laughing. Both Carter and Caitlyn are laughing some too but you can generally pick out Rylan's laughs.

Knoxvile Zoo

Carter, Rylan, and I met Amy and her kids at the zoo today. It's been getting cold at night but is back to being warm during the day (around 70F for a high) so we're trying to spend as much time outside as we can before it gets too cold.

Caitlyn and Carter are becoming such good friends. They ran around for awhile holding hands ...


Checking out an elephant ...


Goofing off in front of the zebras ...



Rylan slept for awhile when we first got to the zoo but was awake the second half of our visit. Baby Alek missed all the animals because he slept the whole time.


Sitting on a lion ...


Playing in the jeep ...



A Carter zebra ...


and Caitlyn gorilla ...


Amy and Caitlyn watching a gorilla pick through his lunch ...


The chimps basking in the sun ...


We stayed at the zoo for almost 3 hours. Carter was so worn out that he fell asleep as we were leaving the parking lot around 2 pm. I moved him into his crib when we got home and ended up waking him up around 5:45 pm. Running around the zoo can be tiring!

4 Month Checkup

Rylan had his 4 month checkup today. We have a few other doctor appointments this week that Brian has to take off of work for so he had to skip this one. He didn't miss much as the appointment was very uneventful (except for Carter walking into a door, again).

After Carter recovered from walking into the end of an open door as we walked from the waiting room to the exam room (he was looking around at other things instead of where he was going), Rylan got all his measurements done.

Rylan's 4 month stats:

• Weight: 20 lbs, 1 oz (>95th percentile)
• Length: 25.5 inches (75th percentile)
• Head Circumference: 45 cm (95th percentile)

And here are some of Rylan's and Carter's previous measurements for comparison.

Rylan's 2 month stats:

• Weight: 15 lbs, 12.5 oz (98th percentile)
• Length: 23.5 inches (66th percentile)
• Head Circumference: 41.5 cm (81st percentile)

Carter's 4 month stats:

• Weight: 13 lbs, 13oz (34th percentile)
  
• Length: 23.75 inches (17th percentile)
• Head Circumference: 42.5 cm (75th percentile)

Carter's 1 year stats:

• Weight: 18 lbs, 14oz (4th percentile)
  
• Length: 28.75 inches (18th percentile)
• Head Circumference: 47 cm (68th percentile)

Big surprise ... Rylan is a big baby! It's just crazy to us that he weighs more than Carter did when he turned one. The pediatrician wasn't concerned at all with Rylan's larger size. He again said that once Rylan is mobile and eating more solids, he'll slim down.

We've been given the all clear for trying out solids. Once I pick up some rice cereal, I'll give it a try with Rylan. I'll either need to stuff him in the Bumbo chair or find another way to sit him up to eat.

Rylan got his next round of shots. Unfortunately the nurse was slow and didn't have everything as prepared as most of the nurses do so Rylan had to suffer longer than he should of before getting to be picked up. He calmed down quickly but continued to whimper for a few minutes. This was the first time that Carter was with me when Rylan had to get shots. Even though Carter did great with his flu shot, I tried to explain to him what was going on and that Rylan was fine so that he didn't get scared. We'll see how Carter does in a few weeks at his 2 year checkup.

NC Trip - Day 7

On Thursday, October 21st, we spent the day with my dad. Unfortunately I had been up since a little after 3 am with Rylan so I was tired. I had fed him and then he was wide awake. He just kept smiling at me. I walked with him for an hour and eventually got him back to sleep for about 30 minutes but by the time I was finally falling asleep, he was up again. At least he wasn't crying that whole time!

My dad had to run by his office in the morning so we took our time getting ready at my mom's house after she left for work. We even put Carter down for a morning nap since he was exhausted from being on the go so much.

When we got to my dad's house, we had lunch and Carter got a very cool gift ... Handy Manny's tools! The toolbox even plays one of the songs that's in every episode. Here's a picture of Carter dancing to the music ...


Then we headed off to the Battleship North Carolina, which is docked in the Cape Fear River in downtown Wilmington.


I carried Rylan in the Bjorn and Carter was pretty much attached to Brian.

Some pictures from the main deck ...





Checking out the inside of the huge gun turret ...


We went up and down many steep steps (they were almost ladders) to explore several levels of the ship. Brian had to carry Carter and Brian warned him to watch his head. So for awhile, Carter kept covering his head on all the steps.


Taking a break ...


Carter insisted on trying out some of the steps himself ...



Going up and down below deck was really tiring with the kids. And we had to be careful to not let Carter run off because there were numerous places he could have fallen down several feet. There are lots of signs with interesting information on the self guided tour of the ship, and we tried our best to read most of it while keeping Carter safe.

Some more pictures on the main deck ...




When we got back to my dad's house, Carter took another nap. We brought his playyard with us so it was easy to get him down. We enjoyed a leisurely afternoon with my dad just hanging out and catching up.

When Carter woke up, he found his tools right away and convinced my dad to play with him ...


Carter really enjoyed "fixing" the gate ...


When Jan got home from work, we had dinner and then headed back over to my mom's house for bed. Before we left, I got this cute picture of my dad with the boys ...