Dance To The Music!

Rylan ovbiously loves to dance, and sing, and apparently loves the camera too!

We Love Our Heath!

Those who know me for very long, know of my love for Heath. I am not kidding. There was a time when people  would call me obsessed. From the very first day Heath came to our family, I have been in love! It is easy to see that Rylan loves Heath as much as his momma does.

Here is Rylan playing with Heath. I swear, it doesn't matter what Heath says to him, he just dies laughing!

What an awesome family we have!

We're Back on The Solids Again!

Ok, be honest. When you read that title did you do it to the tune of Aerosmith? I sure did :)

That's right! After stopping solids for over a month, we made an executive parental decision to allow Rylan to have more solids. We put him back on formula only, as per ped's orders, after he wasn't showing enough weight gain at his checkups. In fact, in two weeks, he actually lost 5 oz. (though there were lots of other circumstances: time of last meal/ time of last diaper change...) This drop in weight brought him down below the 10th percentile in weight. This means over 90% of kids his age weigh more than him. :( (sidenote: this was NOT a problem while I was nursing...stupid gal bladder)

The problem with taking solids away from Rylan was that he missed them. He would look at us longingly, and even voice his displeasure, while we ate. Going back to straight formula has not been successful. Bottles no longer satisfy Rylan. If anything, he gets bored, and refuses to finish them. So, after extensive research (thanks to my crazy knowledge seeking self) we have decided to give him 3 small meals in addition to his formula. I have compiled a list of "calorie rich" solids and have even (begrudgingly) agreed to add butter to his vegetables. Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, a reputable source, recommends adding 1 tsp per 1/4 cup of food for babies that are not gaining weight.


Here is a recipe I use for his sweet potatoes. I blend it together using our Baby Bullet. I LOVE that thing!

1/2 Cup Boiled Sweet Potatoes
2 tsp Butter
4 tbsp Rice Cereal

Total Calories: 298

We feed this to him in addition to 5oz. of formula (100 calories) for lunch and dinner. He also gets a serving of Gerber blueberry whole-grain yogurt with a bottle in the morning. I would like to make the yogurt myself, but am leery of dealing with such a sensitive process. He also gets 2 more 7oz. bottles. We are hoping this will help him gain the weight he needs without encouraging bad eating habits...he won't need any help in that area if he follows his parents example :/

As a reward for reading such a long and tedious post (this is really for my own record keeping), here is a video of the first time Rylan tried his blueberry yogurt.

-Ash

Spring Breakin' It

This spring break has been a busy one for our little family. Here is a recap of our whirlwind week!

We left on Wednesday morning for Saint Augustine with Rylan's Granny, Poppa, Aunt Steph, Uncle Drew, and Cousin Case. Between shopping, trolley riding, ghost touring, and getting lost a few times, we were exhausted from the trip! Not Rylan though, he had a most relaxing time. He spent most of the time in his stroller walking around town, or in his car-seat on the road. This meant he spent 98% of the trip asleep! It amazes me that even with sleeping much of the day, he still slept all night! Here are a few pics from our trip.

One of the BEST places we ate!

Ghost Tour...Drew and Matt were scared ;)

The creepy lighthouse. 

The old jail.

Case was quite the photographer at dinner.

Seriously, how he spent most of his time. 

Photography by Case.

When we got back, Rylan was glad to be home, and so were we! On Saturday our good friends Sierra and Sweet Baby Kane came over for a play-date! After a few minutes in a too cold kiddy pool, the boys enjoyed crawling on one another and learning about sharing.

Out of all Rylan's toys, the plastic Easter eggs from Nanny J were the big hit!

Look at that sweet face! We love Kane!

Tomorrow is back to school for Rylan and Mommy. Only 12 weeks until summer!

Wedding Bells and Conch Shells...Our Trip To The Keys

As you know from our last post, we took a trip to the Keys last weekend. Taking a vacation with Rylan is one of the most challenging and rewarding experiences ever! Here are 10 things we learned about vacationing while on vacation.

1. No matter how much you pack, you never pack enough. We seriously fit enough supplies to last a small country several months...and still made 3 trips to CVS (without coupons...they will be on our next trip) I have no picture for this number...although I guess I could have taken a picture of our receipts?


2. It's always nice to have an extra set of hands. Having extra help is nice, especially if you need your hands free to do important things...like exchange rings and say vows. Good thing my daddy was there to help. He held Ry the whole time during the ceremony...(even though Rylan's Gigi claimed that right in advance).




3. Take advantage of all naps. Either Rylan is a super awesome kid, or we are super awesome parents. Our first dinner as a married couple happened to coincide with Rylan's post-dinner nap. This meant instead of scarfing down our food and getting Rylan the LOUD Talker out of the restaurant, we were able to enjoy our food and have a real conversation (about Rylan of course!)


4. Find out if your hotel has a bathtub (in ADVANCE)!!! We sadly did not do this. Normally, as per Ry's ped's orders, we bathe him every couple of days. Since it was so hot and he was slathered in sunscreen every time we stepped outside, we had to bathe him every night we were there. My parents saved us once by bathing him in their hotel bathtub. The rest of the nights we attempted an awkward bathing in the shower. Who knew wet babies were sooo slippery?

5. Duval Street after 8:30 is NOT kid friendly. No this picture is not Rylan's reaction to Duval after dark, but had he been awake it could be. Us being the tech nerds we are, we used TripAdvisor to search the best restaurant that was kid friendly. After vetoing anything with seafood, we settled on a "southern" restaurant on a street different than Duval. After getting lost (thanks to Matt's POOR navigation), we managed to find this restaurant. It was neither southern nor far from Duval. While the food was delicious (pizza), the walk back to the hotel was appalling. The only good thing about Duval street at night is the Ah-Mazing frozen yogurt shop that was still open! Who knew Captain Crunch was so good on top of cake batter fro-yo?

6. Have your camera ready at all times! You never know when your child will decide that they are, in fact, a FISH! Rylan spent hours in the pool! He loved the water. He had so much fun splashing and trying to dunk himself. However, this are the only pictures we managed to get of it :(

7. Wear the appropriate attire. No, we didn't really learn a lesson from this...I just couldn't resist posting this picture of the RIDICULOUS hat my parents bought for Rylan (and themselves...)








8. Sometimes, you have to just forget the reviews and try new things. As we have said before, we are NOT spontaneous. Rather, we are meticulous planners, especially on vacations. Before we go on a trip we have what we are going to do and where we are going to eat figured out. This trip, being so last minute, was different. We went to one restaurant that we researched...and it was not that great. The best food was found just by walking around.

9. Sanity is better than sightseeing. After several hours of exploring Key West (and Duval in the daytime), we deiced to forgo the standard photo op at the southernmost point, in the name of sanity. Rylan was hot (and cranky), I was hot (and cranky), and Matt's feet hurt (and he was cranky). This is the picture we got as we did a "drive by."






We already knew this one before the trip...
10. We have the best family/friends ever! Thanks so much for the amazing support. We feel so blessed by the  phone calls/texts/FB posts/ and this little surprise from Andy and Steph!






Here are a few more pictures from our trip...

Like Poppa like Grandson

Two Handsome Guys!

He loved the fish!

Mile Marker 0

The Un-Spontaneous get Spontaneous!

Even though it is only 4 days in, March has been one memory making month! Here is a look back over the last few days...

March 1st- Rylan is 7 months old!! 

Sometimes it's still hard to believe that God would trust us with something so precious and sacred. In this blessing, He has also given us a daunting task- raising Rylan to be a Godly man. It is through our actions, not our words, that Rylan will learn right from wrong, and how to love others. Which leads us to another event on March 1st...we left for the Keys! I know, you are thinking what does the Keys have to do with raising Rylan to have strong morals and beliefs? 

March 2nd- Our parents join us in the Keys, we head down to the Key West Courthouse and...

get married!!

While marriage has always been where we were headed, it just wasn't very high on our priority list. I mean, we had been together for almost 3 years, love each other unconditionally, and have Rylan. To us, it felt like we were already married. Yes, we felt convicted that we were living in sin; but we just didn't want to do anything about it. When we first started going to FCC, our conviction kicked into overdrive. After speaking with our pastor last Sunday, we realized that we could never truly raise Rylan in the way we are commanded to do, if we ourselves were living in sin. So...we made the arrangements, and less than a week later, we became Mr. and Mrs. Smith! Even better...

Our parents joined us!

It was perfect! We could not ask for a better family. 

We will post more pictures from our trip soon. For now, have a blessed week!

With Love,

The Smiths