L-A-Z-Y

Just thought I'd quick post about how lazy we've been the past few days here.

Yesterday we hung out by the pool, went shopping at Kohl's, and watched a little TV (How I Met Your Mother was hysterical).

Today was an entirely relaxing day. We hung out by the pool all day (only came in to watch an episode of 24 this afternoon).

I am ooze... :)

Strollin' & Swingin'

It was a big weekend for Rylee. 1) She got her first umbrella stroller and used it during a Kohl's visit. (Obviously this isn't Kohl's - this was during her practice session at the house.)



2) Then Jon & Grandpa Chip put up her new swing. Boy does she love it!

Go Villanova!

I don't watch or follow college basketball, but in honor of my brother-in-law the Villanova man, we're actually watching the game. :)

Chip and Sandy got in this afternoon and Rylee is enjoying all the spoils another set of grandparents can provide (lots of hugs, love and new toys). They also brought some delicious Gulf Shores shrimp for dinner. Yum!

Ladylike?

I'm not a pro with the video camera and this is my first ever video posting so please forgive the lack of cinematography, but I just had to show you the adorable personality that is Rylee:



With her bald head, big milk belly and sound effect talents, why am I surprised that people often mistake her for a boy?!

Working Woman

Between working the past three days and going to bed early the last two nights (yes I was in bed only moments after Rylee's 7:30 bedtime), I haven't had any time to read or post blogs. Luckily, my life has been ridiculously boring and uneventful so you haven't missed a thing! (And I should have time to catch up on all your antics tomorrow hopefully.)

I feel much better than I did a few days ago and Rylee seems to be fine as well. Looks like we'll all be in good shape for when the in-laws get into town this weekend.

Rylee is stirring in her crib so I need to sign off and go get into my rain slicker. It's either that or feed her in my underwear. I'm tired of having to "Shout" my clothes every night after she decides it's hilarious to spit all her food out at me... :)


**The whole time I was writing this I was thinking of and humming that song: "I can bring home the bacon, I can fry it up in the pan!"... but subbing pays so little what I bring home is more like bacon bits! :)

I crack myself up! he he!! ha ha!!

Sneezy

I can't decide if the snot-nosed kiddos at school have given me my first cold or if I've developed some new post-pregnancy allergy, but I had nose issues all day today. I'm surprised I got anything done with all the sneezing, wiping and blowing (not to mention hand-washing in an effort to keep Rylee germ-free).

I'm not sure I've been successful on that front as Rylee was a little sneezy today herself. I even found a booger on her cheek when I got her up from her nap! And a little ball of ear wax that was half out of her ear. She seemed to be feeling fine other than those two oddities. I guess we'll have to wait and see.

I'm beat so I'm off to bed (earlier than Jon - I must be sick!).

Giggle Monster

Rylee has the cutest personality. She is all smiles and giggles these days. Of course she loves the typical games like peek a boo and pat a cake, but here are a couple of the more bizarre games that make her laugh:

1) Zombie
Jon pretends he is a zombie and tells Rylee he wants to eat her "brains, baby brains!" while tickling her head. She finds this hysterical.

2) Mexican Restaurant
I take credit for inventing this one. It started with the word "guacomole." I said it and she laughed. You can name pretty much anything, but "burrito, avacodo, chalupa, and salsa" are all gauranteed laughs.

She is a "silly willy, goofy woofy!" (Her Daddy's nick name for her.) :)

TMI Alert

I just shared a unique experience with Rylee and had to blog about it. :)

Rylee was acting all fussy and agitated, but since her fist wasn't halfway down her mouth I knew it wasn't her usual teething pains. She had been doing her poop grunt a couple minutes before but I'd done the required butt sniff check and it smelled clean. Hmmm...

I decided to open the diaper up and do a "looksee". Maybe my sniffer was plugged? When I looked inside, I could see the poop poking out but it appeared to be stuck. What else could I do? I grabbed it and pulled (with a baby wipe, not my fingers! - I draw the line somewhere).

This seemed to be the cause of the blockage. After that she pooped the biggest log turd I've ever seen her produce. I felt bad Jon missed it - it was impressive. :)

Moral of the story: love and parenthood completely alter your ick and gag factors...

*More evidence to support my conclusion: Jon just came home and said I should have saved it for him to see. :)

Gator Done!

(Must read title with Larry the Cable Guy accent or it won't make sense. :) )

We're trying to teach Rylee useful life skills early. Ya know - holding a spoon... drinking from a sippy cup... wrestling gators.

It was touch and go for a while...


...but then she got the upper hand.


Tomorrow we'll work on the sticking-your-head-in-its-mouth trick.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Her bib says "Kiss Me I'm Irish." Okay, we're not technically Irish, but come on - we're "Shannon" and "Rylee". :)


I call this shot "Ribbit!" because it looks like she's trying to catch flies just like the froggie on her bib. (Morgan, I know frogs are green, but does that automatically make them Irish? :) )


Rylee asked me to post this pic as a warning to you all. This is how you feel after you drink too much green liquid on St. Paddy's day so keep your consumption down. :)

Picture Perfect

Here are Rylee's stats from her doctor's appt:

Height - 26 1/2 inches
Weight - 17 lbs 6 oz
(she's still at the 75th percentile)

I also downloaded some new pics today so enjoy the many faces of Rylee...

"Crabby Wabby"
Rylee had a much better day today so let's hope some of her crabbiness is behind her. Still here she's modeling her Crabby bib from Jon's trip to Gulf Shores, Alabama... and her crabby face!


"Tricky"
So far Jon and I seem to parent in a fashion similar to how we trained our dog. (Yes, we're nervous too considering its worked so well for Rio: she doesn't listen, come when we call, or mind.) Here's Jon teaching her a new trick: high five.


"Mirror Image"
Here's Rylee playing with her new friend. They have so much in common!


"Pretty in Pink"
Rylee was excited to model this outfit that Grandma bought her for Valentine's Day. She felt very chic. :)

Everything

It was another crazy day here...

- Jon took care of Rylee
- I vacuumed my mom's place
- Rylee took a nap
- I laid out by the pool for 30 mins (got sprinkled on)
- Rylee had a fussy afternoon
- We went for a walk
- Rylee calmed down
- We said goodbye to a visiting friend
- Jon ordered Chinese
- Rylee played happily
- We were stuffed
- Rylee went to bed
- We watched TV for 10 minutes
- Rylee pissed off at the world
- We got her calmed down, back in bed
- We make ice cream and watch TV for 5 minutes (guess there was more room in our stomachs after all)
- Rylee angry!
- My ice cream goes in the fridge
- Rescue Rylee from her evil crib
- Run outside to watch the tail end of the shuttle zipping by
- Jon entertains Rylee
- I eat melty ice cream
- Rylee happy baby now
- Jon goes to bed
- Jiggle and dance Rylee like old times
- Rylee asleep :)
- Me tired...

Crazy day! Guess you could say it was "everything but the flip." :)

Kind of makes me glad I'm going to work tomorrow...

Blistaster

Blistaster: day of half bliss/ half disaster...

The morning started out great. It was just Rylee and I: hanging out, eating, playing, giggling, and chatting. Then around 11 she went down for a nap. By some miracle, the clouds parted in the sky and the sun broke forth across the pool deck. I jumped into my bikini, grabbed a book and managed to enjoy some "me" time. I even showered and dressed before she woke up. What luck!

More playing, laughing, giggling, eating and chatting followed. It was the afternoon nap where everything went haywire. She was happy in her crib for a while, but then got really fussy. I went up to check on her. When she saw me, she rolled over onto her back and... projectile vomited a fountain of formula out of mouth (it was like something out of the Exorcist).

Luckily, I sat her up right away before she had to choke or swallow too much back down. It was everywhere: down her front, down her back, on the sheets, on her clothes. Then it was bath, bedding change, laundry, fussy baby. :(

(I don't know if it was the fact that she had her shots yesterday or if it was just a fluke. She doesn't have a fever, but she's just a little off now.)

She's finally down for the nap she missed and I'm home alone while Jon is out having fun with our MN friends who are down visiting. Luckily, Grandma is coming over later for the evening shift so I can still partake in some of the festivities. That is if I can stand to leave her. I'm sure she's fine, but that's more puke than I've seen from her since her other projectile vomit incident (which was back when she was still in the hospital after birth). At least this time it wasn't face to face and none of it went in my mouth...

Rylee Rio Robin Rant

Behold the awesome power of jinx - Rylee woke up at 2:30 last night! All she did was giggle and roll around for a half hour before falling back asleep so I still can't complain. But I am knocking on wood while I write about her today just in case. :)

The other day when I came home, all I could smell was doggie "dorito paws" and dirty diapers (Ok, I'm making the dirty diapers part up, but I liked the alliteration...). So yesterday, I cleaned the house until it was spotless and smelled like Febreeze (which smells a lot like fabric softener sheets btw, but I like it.)

Then today, Rio went outside, managed to get into some mud, and tracked it all over my clean floors. Worse yet, she ran through the kitty litter with her wet feet which meant it started clumping in her fur and on my floors. Ugh!

I guess drawing that Robin to help ward off the bad spirits of Friday the 13th didn't work! :)

Unrelated Rant

Grey's Anatomy Spoiler **Don't read if you haven't watched last night's episode.**

Did anyone else think it was impressive that Dr. Shepard managed to hit Meredith's engagement ring across the yard with a baseball bat... in the dark... while intoxicated? Forget neurosurgery, sign this guy up for the Major Leagues!

Good Girl

I feel like I should sing Rylee's praises a little bit (especially since she has turned into such an easy baby over the past few months):

- she eats good (well I guess she always did that - you've seen her chunky monkey photos!)

- she sleeps good (put her down, walk away... refreshing!)

- she smiles and plays and rolls (she loves to steamroll a path across the carpet until she runs into something - even then she just laughs)

- she's even good on errands (today we hit Sam's Club and Publix and she was just happy and playing in her shopping cart seat cover the whole time - even better she fell asleep in the car and transitioned to nap in the crib when we got home - as Jess would say "sweet baby Jesus!") :)

Yes, I realize that
1) as I write this I am jinxing myself and
2) that she is at that perfect easy age before the onset of crawling
...but I just can't help myself.

I'll go back to poking fun at her tomorrow...

Working Girl

Looks like I'll be working full time for a bit next year after all. I got the opportunity to take an interim sub position for 8 - 12 weeks while a friend of mine is out on maternity leave. I'm super excited:

- the pay is great (just a little less than what I normally make)
- it's at my school so I can work with everyone that I know
- there's no grading and no conferences to deal with
- after raking in the cash this Fall, I can easily take the holidays off before I start subbing again
- it's something I used to love to sub back in the day...

and Jon just loves to say that I'm going to be...

the school librarian! :)

Manic Monday

So much to do tonight! Should I...

...watch Dancing with the Stars?

...finish my book?

...play with my new cell phone?

...just go to sleep?

Who knows, but there's no time for blogging obviously! :)

(Sorry I'm behind reading blogs too. I should be able to catch up on Wednesday.)

The Gatekeepers...

...of Bonita Springs retirement community take their job seriously. We'd have had an easier time entering Area 51!

The guard shack is staffed by residents who really don't want to let in the riff raff. (Apparently my Mom and I look like riff raff.) It doesn't help that at their age forgetfulness has also set in. They couldn't remember that the lady we were meeting had just driven up to the entrance and given them our names and info only 15 minutes before!

It's a cool place once you get inside so I can see why they try so hard to keep it a secret. There were two pools, a clubhouse, a baseball field, a shuffleboard court (a staple!) and parks. I love that everyone gets around by golf cart. They were personalized with names and decor. I especially liked the ones that had cases of beer strapped to the back (Bud Light!).

In addition to checking out my future retirement community, we hit the thrift shops (where I picked up a few items for Easter) and the best jewelry store EVER (aptly named The Best of Everything). The jewelry is nice but super cheap. They also have sunglasses, purses, watches, bags and some toys. Most of the stuff is knockoff-ish, but much nicer than the stuff you see at the Flea Market.

There must have been a hundred women in there (all the men were sitting outside on the porch). We were actually lucky to get in. My Mom has been there before when there was a line out the door and it closed before she ever made it in. (It's the South Beach of jewelry!) The line to check out was pretty long too - at least 30 deep - but they have the system down and it goes pretty quickly. How do I get a franchise of this place?!

All in all, we had a great time. Now it's back to reality as I actually have to work this week. Okay, only Monday and Tuesday, but still! :)

I'll be back at Sawgrass... in Kindergarten... teaching my class - literally. I'll be teaching the supported classroom which would have been mine had it not been for Rylee and my resulting leave of absence (instead it went to my friend, Karen). I guess it'll be a little glimpse into the alternate reality of my life. She sent 10 pages of instructions and behavioral guidelines - wish me luck!

6 on the 6

Just wanted to give a little shout out to Rylee who officially turns 6 months old today. Can you believe it? Time flies...

A couple of firsts for this week:

First runny nose on Wednesday. Not sure if it was the result of teething, Jon's ickiness or the fact that the pediatrician's office was overflowing with sick kiddos on Tuesday. They were spilling out of the sick room and into the well room. One particularly coughy girl kept trying to come by and touch Rylee. I tried making the polite "don't get too close to the baby, we don't want her to get sick" comments, but the Dad never asked her to steer clear (in truth, he never even looked up from his cell phone). I ended up waiting in the hallway instead!

First* rollover from stomach to back yesterday. Now she can roll from back to stomach and back. Although she can only roll one direction (to the left!) so after a while you have to pick her up and bring her back otherwise she gets too far away. :)

*Technically she learned how to do this at about two months (when she was having the worst of her acid reflux issues and refused to do tummy time by rolling over). Later she forgot and didn't start doing it again until about a week ago, but only in the crib when she was thrashing around at night so I didn't count that.

**Sorry for the overly detailed explanation, but I'm kind of using my blog as a resource/addition to her baby book so I try to keep the facts straight - you know I have no long term memory! :)

***This would be a cool birth date for someone: 03-06-09. :)

Sports Illustrated

Swimsuit Edition:

Rylee is wearing a Ralph Lauren one piece - a gift from my "sister," Heather. Rylee better not get used to designer labels, this might be her last.


The bonnet is a gift from Heather's mom, Penney. I thought it gave the suit a cool, old-fashioned vibe. (But Jon just thinks I refuse to take photos of Rylee's bald head!)


Look at the peek-a-boo back!


She can't wait until she can get her feet wet in the pool (it was way too cold this weekend).

Future's So Bright...

I gotta wear shades...

I couldn't resist posting these pics of Rylee poolside.


She's like a rock star (with mis-matched clothing and accessories!).


She preferred the oversized-Hollywood starlet-look of Maddie's glasses.


Check back tomorrow for her Michelin baby swimsuit debut. :)

Happy Birthday to Me!

You already know how much I'm in love my birth date - well today is no exception. Especially since my Dad told me something about my birth date that I didn't know. March 3rd falls on the 62nd day of the year (except leap years), thus there are 303 days left (like 03-03). Awesome numerology!

I've dubbed today my "platinum birthday" since I'm 33 on 3-3. (I already used up my "golden birthday" when I was 3 and my "diamond birthday" back on the legendary 03-03-03.)

As usual, this year I will be celebrating my birthday three times (my personal spin on my mom's lie of celebrating birthdays for two days).

The first time was over the weekend. Maddie turns three later this month so we both celebrated early. Here we are blowing out the candles on our cake: three candles for each of us. :)


The other celebrations include a dinner with Jon and a weekend outing with my Mom which may or may not be this weekend since Jon will be putting in some overtime on a big project. Whenever we do it... it will be a fun, shopping-filled day over on the West Coast of Florida. Thanks Mom!

L & M Visit

Jon's sister, Laurie, and her daughter, Maddie, came to stay with us this weekend. We had the best time ever! Enjoy this photo review of our weekend-

Maddie has been anxiously awaiting her meeting with "Baby Rylee." As you can tell, it was love at first sight.


Rylee loved hanging out with her Auntie Laurie. With three kids, she's a mommy-pro! (Big Nick and Baby Ben stayed home with Daddy - we missed all you guys!)


Maddie loved hanging out by the pool.


She really loves the outdoors, gardening and such. She's just another tree hugger.


She also loved being Rylee's big sister for the weekend. She was such a good helper. (A little bit of a nudist, but a good helper none the less!)


Saturday we also took the girls to the Galt Mile (Ft Lauderdale's beach area), but we didn't realize it was Spring Break. Just like Uncle Jon to introduce Maddie to Spring Break at age 3!


When in Rome... Laurie & I enjoyed some libations at Bubba Gump.


Sunday included a trip to Camp Everglades (a local park). Maddie loved it, but the adults were freezing. It got cold and windy. (Not pictured: I wrapped myself in Rylee's polka dot and pink silk blankie, but it was too small to provide much warmth.)


Today we took a walk, a final picture, and then it was time for them to head home to snowy Philly. :(