First Movie

I took Carter and Rylan to their first movie at a theater today. Regal has free movies on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings. We met Sarah (with Mary Grace) and Erin (with Cooper & Lily) at the Turkey Creek theater and watched The Polar Express.

I put Rylan in our Chicco stroller and we were able to sit on an end so I could put the stroller next to the seat. The theater has stadium seating so we had to get the stroller down a few steps but it wasn't too difficult.

The boys did really well considering the movie was 1 hour and 40 minutes long. Carter LOVED the popcorn that Sarah shared with us. I think this was the first time he'd had popcorn. Sarah tried taking a picture of us and Carter was stuffing his face ...

Rylan got fussy after about 45 minutes so I ended up holding him for about half the movie. Luckily he only started screaming a couple of times and I was able to settle him down in less than a minute both times.

Carter sat still for the beginning of the movie while he was still hungry and eating popcorn, grapes I brought for him, and Mary Grace's animal crackers. He started getting antsy about half way through the movie and there were some challenges to get him to stay in our aisle but we managed. Sarah helped out too and even held both Carter and Mary Grace on her lap for awhile!

Carter did sit in his own seat for awhile during the movie but I think he could only see the top half of the screen because he's so small!

Overall, it wasn't too stressful and I think Carter enjoyed trying out something new.

After the movie, Sarah and Mary Grace went with us to the park. Sarah was nice enough to pick us both up some food from McAllister's while I fed Rylan and Carter took a short nap in the car.

We went to Anchor Park and the playground was completely deserted (I've never been there when it's been empty). Sarah, Rylan, and I sat under a tree in the shade while Mary Grace and Carter played in the giant sandbox. I've never let Carter play in the sand before because it's usually super crowded and I usually don't want to have to clean Carter up. Even though he was soaked with sweat and the sand stuck to him, it wasn't too hard to clean him up. But most importantly, Carter had lots of fun even though it was super hot (luckily it was also super breezy)!

Before we left, we let the kids play on the playground for a few minutes. Carter even tried out a big slide!


During Carter's nap this afternoon, Rylan hung out in his swing for a little bit. It almost looks like he's smiling in this picture ...


Here's a short video of Rylan in the swing and grunting (you can also hear Carter in the background over the monitor as he was trying to settle down and fall asleep) ...

We made it ...

Carter, Rylan, and I made it through our first day on our own! And it went pretty well.

The hardest part is that Carter is jealous of Rylan getting to be held so often. I try to put Rylan down as much as possible so I can interact with Carter but I have to nurse him and hold him to soothe him when he gets worked up. Carter wants to be held during these times and ends up screaming, crying, and throwing tantrums (it's not all the time, but often enough). I'm trying to give Carter jobs to do during these times but that only works so many times.

I managed to get Carter down for his morning nap and even grab a shower this morning! I remember when Carter was a newborn that I felt accomplished if I took a shower and made the bed each day. Things are so different this time around!

Rylan chilling in his swing this morning ...


After lunch, we ran a few errands. We went to the bank and post office (we didn't have to get out of the car for either) and then went to the grocery store. Both kids did great - no fussing at all in the store! I put Carter in the seat and Rylan's carseat fit across the basket of the cart. There was still a few inches below his carseat to put groceries as well as room to one side of it. It worked out really well. I survived my first trip out with both boys on my own!

I managed to get some stuff done around the house today too - vacuumed downstairs, did 3 loads of laundry, put away some laundry, and gave Rylan a bath.

Charlotte staring down Carter, trying to get his snack, as we prepare to give Rylan a sponge bath ...


I made Carter a fort that he enjoyed for about 30 seconds before destroying ...



Sarah got Carter and Rylan coordinating, embroidered outfits. I tried to get some good pictures of them this afternoon in the shirt and onesie, but this is all I ended up with ...


I'll have to try again soon.

Unfortunately Carter refused to take an afternoon nap so it started getting a little crazy about the time Brian came home. But we all survived the day and it wasn't too bad. It helped that Rylan slept a little better last night so I wasn't completely exhausted today.

Hopefully tomorrow will go just as well!

Grandma

My mom has helped us out a lot over the last few weeks. She stayed here while Rylan and I were in the hospital and took care of Carter. Brian went home for a little while every day to spend some time with Carter, but he was able to spend most of his time with us at the hospital (which was good because I had some issues one night with getting pain medication and help from the nurses and couldn't get to the bathroom on my own).

My mom came back and spent all last week with us too once Brian went back to work so that I didn't have both boys on my own quite yet. I was able to get a lot done last week knowing that I wouldn't have much free time for much longer.

Thanks for all your help, Mom!

Today's Activities

Today is my last day of help before I will have the boys on my own for the entire day! I'm a little nervous!

We've kept ourselves busy though today.

Rylan has not slept well at all the last few nights. He'll sleep maybe 30 minutes at a time. We're so sleep deprived and out of it at night that we're probably not trying everything we should to get him to sleep better but we're trying. We've been making a bigger effort today to keep Rylan awake during the day and hope this may help him sleep a little better tonight. We don't think he has his days and nights confused, but he has been awake a lot more during the night lately and still sleeping a lot during the day.

When Rylan is awake during the day, he's typically fussy. Like Carter was at this age, he doesn't just chill out and look around. He requires constant rocking and singing. However, today we've had a few really nice hours of awake time when Rylan didn't fuss much.

Here's Rylan chilling under the new toy my mom got for him ...



After morning nap and before lunch, we took the boys outside to play while Brian cleaned the Pathfinder.

Carter scoring a goal ...


This is our set up for Rylan. He stays in the shade with a fan blowing on him ...


Carter wanted me to entertain him. He sat here with Rylan and wanted me to kick his soccer ball into the goal (actually, he wanted me to hit the soccer ball with his plastic golf club into the goal) ...


While feeding Carter lunch, he kept asking for his goggles (these are from the Build and Grow Workshop at Lowe's). Carter usually doesn't want to wear them and I'm surprised I actually understood what he was saying. He had fun wearing them on his head like I wear my sunglasses (not that I have sunglasses right now since Carter gets ahold of them a lot and stretches them out so they break easily) ...


After lunch we took the cleaned Pathfinder to Carmax to see what they'd give us for it. This has been our third car for a long time. We held on to it for so long because it has been great for hauling our kayaks and bikes and is convenient for getting home stuff from Lowe's and Home Depot (like plants and bags of mulch). Now that we have 3 SUVs, we decided it was time to let go of the Pathfinder. We're planning on getting a hitch on my car (and maybe Brian's too) and buying a trailer to haul dirty landscaping supplies and other large items. We don't use our kayaks and bikes that much and we can get them on both the Rav4 and Forester. Once we have a hitch on my car, we'll probably get a bike rack that attaches to the hitch so I don't have to try to get bikes off the top of my car.

We were extremely surprised by the high amount Carmax offered us for the car and said "yes" to their offer immediately (they gave us twice the amount we were willing to accept for it). I stayed in my car with the boys while Brian was dealing with the salesman - I think it was hard for Brian to play it cool and not start jumping up and down when he heard the offer!

While Brian was doing the paperwork, I took a quick picture of Carter in front of the Pathfinder.


We also sold our Saab to Carmax last August when we got the Subaru. Here's a picture of Carter from that day ...


Carter is taking his afternoon nap now and Rylan is sleeping in his swing so even though I should be napping, I'm catching up on stuff like my blog. Hopefully Rylan sleeps better tonight!

Knoxville Zoo

We had to head over to east Knoxville today to exchange our cable box for a new one (it had been getting flakier and flakier and then a battery exploded in the remote this week) so we stopped by the zoo for a little while this afternoon. It's still really hot here but not quite as bad today as the high was only near 90F. We stayed just over an hour because we didn't want to overheat anyone (especially Rylan). Having a membership is great!

We tried out our new double stroller today that I plan on using for the next few months while we keep Rylan in his carseat. We have the BOB Sport Utility Duallie with the adapter bar. Even though our carseat isn't included in the list of carseats that fit this stroller, we're able to wedge it in and feel that it's not going anywhere and is safe. The stroller is huge and won't fit through all doors but I wanted it for next year when I run with the boys so we're going to make it work. We'll switch to the double Maclaren once Rylan is bigger.

Brian and the boys ...


Carter showing me the "baby" ...


Checking out some animals ...



Carter liked the meerkats that he could see and hear through the wire fencing ...


The gibbon was just chilling at the window with his foot up but Carter refused to put his hand or foot up (I was hoping for a really cute picture!) ...


After visiting about a third of the animal exhibits, we decided to cool off in the air conditioned Wee Play Zoo area. Carter had lots of fun playing.






Rylan slept the whole time that we were at the zoo and most of the drive home. We thought Carter would pass out on the way home but didn't and then refused to take an afternoon nap. At least it was really easy to put him down tonight!

Rylan's 3 Week Exam

Our pediatrician's office does a 3 week exam instead of a one month exam. Rylan had his appointment today (a few days early since his doctor had no openings next week). It's obvious that he's a good eater because here are his numbers from today:

• Weight: 10 lbs, 2.5 oz (81st percentile)
• Length: 21.25 inches (64th percentile)
• Head Circumference: 37.75 cm (59th percentile)

And these were his numbers from 2 weeks ago:

• Weight: 8 lbs, 6.5 oz (62nd percentile)
• Length: 20 5/8 inches (72nd percentile)
• Head Circumference: 36 cm (47th percentile)

So Rylan put on 1.75 pounds in 2 weeks!

Rylan's belly button stump fell off this morning before his appointment. I had been a little worried about when it would fall off because it was still really raw on the bottom and bled onto his clothes sometimes. Once off, it looked weird in the middle (it was the color and texture of the umbilical cord at birth). Our pediatrician ended up sealing it with something that looked sort of like a match - it produced a little chemical reaction that essentially burned that section of the belly button. Rylan wasn't a big fan of having this done, but he didn't cry too much either.

Otherwise, everything else was routine at the appointment. We didn't really have any questions (things are so much easier the second time around!) and Rylan seems perfectly healthy.

Splash Pad

My mom and I took the kids to the splash pad this morning.

Rylan chilled out in his stroller for over an hour. I picked him up for awhile after that, but for the first hour, I was able to run around with Carter and just check on Rylan every few minutes. It wasn't that crowded at first so I was able to leave him in the shade at the end of the picnic tables and no one bothered him.


Carter had a lot of fun today. This was the first time we've been back to the splash pad since Carter has gotten so comfortable in the water at the pool. It took a little while for him get his confidence up, but he eventually was willing to run through everything.




Carter liked turning this guy around to shoot the spray in different directions ...


Carter decided to take a break for awhile and sit at the picnic tables. He kept clapping though for all the other kids running through the water.


I was really surprised that Carter liked this area. He run through these arches for about 10 minutes.

I think I'm going to be brave enough to tackle this outing on my own. We may have to leave sooner than planned if Rylan is really fussy and Carter won't play on his own, but I'm willing to give it a try.

Rylan is still doing well. I'm generally feeding him every 2 hours during the day. He starts getting fussy and tries to latch on to my bicep so I think I'm reading his cues correctly. He's not eating for that long at each feeding but I think he's getting enough quickly because he has thrown up a lot of milk the few times he has thrown up. I've tried pushing him to wait longer between feedings in an effort to eat for longer at each feeding but he doesn't seem to eat more when I do this so we're sticking with lots of short feedings for now. Most nights I can push Rylan to 3 hours between feedings at least once but that requires that he stays in his swaddle. Rylan is super strong and gets out of my best swaddles quite often. When he does that, he tends to only sleep about an hour before starting to fuss. I bought some muslin Aden + Anais swaddling blankets that are nice and lightweight, but I'm having more trouble keeping Rylan's arms in those. Hopefully I'll get better soon!

Rylan is still sleeping a lot during the day. I've been trying to keep him up more during the day in an effort to make sure he sleeps at night. He's slowly staying awake a little more each day.

Rylan has been doing a really good job of putting up with sponge baths and tummy time. He doesn't fuss much during either. He is getting stronger and can hold his head up during tummy time for probably 20 seconds. When you lay down next to him, he tends to turn his head so that he's not looking at you. Carter wanted to lay with Rylan tonight and kept having to switch sides so he could have Rylan look at him. Luckily Carter never stepped on him.

Rylan has a doctor's appointment on Friday and we're curious to see how much he weighs. using our scale and weighing myself alone and with Rylan, we think he's up to around 9.5 lbs. He's still wearing the newborn sized Pampers Swaddlers which are supposed to only fit up to 10 lbs. The size 1 are supposed to start at 8 lbs, but they are huge on Rylan. We tried out Huggies with Rylan like we did with Carter (I still had some left over from Carter), but they leaked almost every time he wore them. And the size 1 Swaddlers leak right now too because they are too big. And there's only been 3 times that Rylan has peed on us when changing his diaper. Carter had already marked his territory many more times at this point. I keep letting my guard down though so when it does happen, there's a bigger mess. Boys are so much fun!

Fireworks

Brian's parents visited us the weekend of the 4th to meet Rylan. Here are some pictures of them with the little guy ...



We kept Carter up on the 4th to see the fireworks in our neighborhood. There are still quite a few lots that haven't been built on in our section of our neighborhood and so several groups of people set up large firework displays on the street that is blocked off to traffic. And because we're on a little ridge, we can see several other local displays above the trees (we can even see the high fireworks from the downtown show).

Unfortunately, Carter didn't respond as we had expected. We thought he'd love the fireworks. Instead, he got really scared (this kid is usually scared of nothing!). He wanted to be picked up as soon as we were outside and kept pointing back at the front door. He was whining and just acting weird. When I sat on the couch on the porch, Carter got on the couch next to me and buried his head behind me.

We should have done a better job of preparing him for the loud noises. Plus it was way past Carter's bedtime so that probably had something to do with it. Oh well.

Dimples

I took some pictures of Rylan today for his birth announcements and here are a few cute ones that I'm not using.

Rylan showing off his dimples ...


Studying the camera ...


"No more pictures!" ...

Rolling Over

From www.babycenter.com ...

"Your baby may be able to kick himself over, from his tummy to his back, as early as age 2 to 3 months."

Rylan at 12 days old ...

We're in trouble!