Category Archives: Ray

Easter 2013, just Ray

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Seriously, the camera loves this happy kid. Ray was asleep during our family photo shoot for Easter, so Ray got a separate shoot. It only took about 3 minutes, because he just sat there on the settee just smiling at me like this, for every picture. It was amazing. Best kid to photograph. ever.

Now, lemme explain his outfit: I wanted to do a cardigan onesie and after practicing on one a few weeks ago, I felt pretty confident. I finally found the grey and white striped long sleeve onesie I was looking for at the consignment store and made my onesie cardigan. Then I needed a yellow bowtie. I couldn’t find the right yellow fabric in my store of fabric and so I asked Daniel if he had any ties he wanted to get rid of and he did! The only problem was that the tie I wanted to use was yellow and blue. I didn’t want the blue … soooooo, I just folded and sewed the blue parts together so that the tie looked all yellow, then I made it into the bowtie you see above. I attached the bowtie to a white short sleeved onesie underneath the long sleeved onesie cardigan and there you have it – Happy Easter little Ray!

I had a little fun editing the first and last picture of Ray. Just for fun.

 

Ray, 9 months and the cardigan

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I can’t believe it. Ray is 9 months. It went slow and fast. Here is what he’s up to these days:

  • he took his first sit up bath today, without the little infant baby bathtub. He tried to lie down flat on his tummy and put his face in the water to drink it the entire time. It’s like he’s trying to drown or something. I was halfway in the tub myself the whole time, supporting him with one arm and hand while I washed him with the other. It was quite a feat … and it probably looked hilarious too.
  • he crawls everywhere, and fast.
  • he says stuff. Like “lalalala” and “mamamama” and “dee”. And when he’s mad he says “nah nah nah”.
  • he eats a ton. I feed him about 6-7 baby food jars and he drinks about 22oz of formula a day.
  • consequently, he poops and pees a ton as well. It’s to be expected. But the one thing I haven’t counted on is changing his clothes and sheets daily. He pees and poops through everything, all the time. But for the past week specifically he’s never woken up without having peed through his jammies and blankets and sheets. This kid is an animal. It’s like he’s making up for the 4 months when he was losing weight …. so that’s good.
  • he’s pretty active. Also to be expected. I guess Daniel and I just usually make active kids. He is always slapping or kicking something or someone. He’s gotten Daniel and I pretty good a few times, slapping us hard and loud on the face. It wouldn’t be so bad, except that it’s during church. One time he got hold of my hair with both hands and yanked as hard as he could and I wasn’t expecting it and I yelped out in pain and surprise … in church …. it was embarrassing.
  • he pulls himself up to his knees on stuff around the house.

  • he’s a happy boy. As long as we make sure he’s fed and gets his naps in, he’s pretty happy.

  • Noah and Liam love him and try to play with him all the time. Ray is a good sport, even when they’re a bit rough because I think he likes hangin’ with the big boys.
  • he’s a serious momma’s boy. He won’t even go to Daniel if I’m in the room. I kind of love that. It’s selfish, I know. But he is in love with me and how could you not love that??
  • he loves his soft blankets and won’t really relax unless he has a soft, squishy blanket rubbing his little lips. It’s adorable.
  • I’ve started giving him a little bit of table food – bananas and grapes, chopped into miniscule pieces. He seems to like it, after gagging a little at first.

OK, now for the fun stuff: I have been looking on pinterest for ideas on what to dress up Ray like for Easter and I found these onesie cardigans that I LOVE and so …. I had to figure out how to make them. I found this tutorial for them and made little Ray his first onesie cardigan. I think I pretty much, nailed it! But I made it from a onesie I got from the consignment store for $1 and had to pick from what was there, so it’s a little big on him, but I think it still works.

So, once I finished the cardigan, I gave Ray a bath and then did a mini photo shoot in his room to show off his beautiful self and my handy work on the cardigan. You’ll notice he has an orange nose. He’s been like that all winter. I think it’s just because his nose is chapped and dry from having a perpetual runny nose for months. Winter sucks. Anyway, it’s not the coloring in the picture that’s weird, it’s really that his nose is orange.

All my boys. They are so fun. I love their sweet faces.

 

Videos Galore

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What the heck have we been up to?? Well, a little crawling, a little sledding and a LOT of dancing courtesy of Noah.

Ray crawls!!!!

Sledding:

Noah and his sweet dance moves (watch out Uncle Ian!!). In case you’re wondering, that dead looking set of legs coming out of the middle of the red couch behind Noah is just Liam – passed out napping.

you’re welcome :)

stick a fork in me

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I’m done.

It was 1 degree this morning when I got in the car with all 3 boys to take Noah to school. In a few years, when I’m happily living in California, I think I will not remember what 1 degree feels like. I hope so. But for posterity’s sake, this is what 1 degree feels like:

It hurts.  Every bit of skin surface that is not covered, stings. It just stings. I imagine it’s the same feeling as when you get a wart frozen off. But it’s your wrist skin and your nose and cheeks that sting and feel like they’re being frozen off. It doesn’t take that much time either. For instance, it hurt as soon as I opened the front door and the air hit my face. I felt like swearing like a sailor. I wanted to do something that I heard someone do two summers ago – we were vacationing on Lake Michigan, having a beach trip, and it was the height of summer, but Lake Michigan was frigid. One daring soul ventured out into the water and starting screaming the F-word, long and loud. That’s what I felt like doing this morning when I opened the front door. I didn’t though and I feel like I deserve props for not screaming the F-word, long and loud.

There’s also no “bright side” to this weather. When it’s this cold outside you can’t even enjoy the snow or outdoors. You just have to bundle up inside, crank up the thermostat and try not to leave, for any reason, unless you need food. At which point, you try to send Daniel.

And it has been so long living here in Michigan that I am beginning to doubt myself. I think I liked going outdoors before here, didn’t I? I think I went camping and bike riding and roller blading and snowboarding, didn’t I? I think I was an active person, who enjoyed the wilderness and had a fond feeling for the mountains and pine trees, didn’t I? I remember going to the beach and actually getting in the water … and didn’t I boogie board? Didn’t I look for opportunities to get outside and go to the park? I have the foggiest memory of doing fun, outdoor recreation but I’ve been here for almost 6 years now and I haven’t done those things. Michigan has ruined my memories of the beach and camping and snowboarding. It has made those memories horrible for the past 6 years and I am beginning to think I don’t like being outside. I know I don’t like being outside in Michigan. The summers are so short and humid and the land is so flat and mountain-less and the snowboarding is so crappy and the cold is soooooooo cold. I think if I stay here much longer, I will morph into a sad, indoor person that surfs the internet a lot and plans trips away from here.

Also, I don’t think it’s healthy to live in weather like this. You end up indoors, breathing stale air and getting sick, then passing all your illness to everyone in your family … twice. And my skin is cracking and hard. Daniel’s skin gets super dry and flakes off, all over his body and Noah’s knuckles get so dry that they crack and bleed … often. To sum up: I want to curse because it’s so cold, we’re sick, stuck indoors, I’m losing my identity and our skin is cracking and falling off. So, I’m done. Done with Michigan. Ready to scoot on out of here and never come back … ever, never ever. I will miss my friends. They are good people, I feel bad for leaving them here, but I will just have them come visit me in a warmer climate :) I keep talking like we’re leaving, and I hope we are, but we have no real plans just yet.

So here’s the news on Ray lately – he’s cut his second bottom tooth!

He’s gorgeous. Hopefully, he will have no remembrance of Michigan. Lately, I noticed that Ray loves tags and small strings. He’s learning how to use his little pincher fingers and doing great. He sits up unassisted a lot now, although every once in a while he’ll be sitting there and then just fall over … hard and we feel like bad parents. He’s been sick for about a week now and he had a fever over the weekend and today he has a strange rash on his body ….. in short, there is always something to worry about with Ray. I am in a constant state of worry over him. Is he too cold? Too hot? Eating enough? Drinking/nursing enough? When did I feed him last? What’s his temperature now? Too low? Too high? When did he get Ibuprofen last? …. constant state of worry. When does this part end? I don’t remember when it happened with Liam. But Liam was so chubby, I didn’t really worry about his eating habits. Even if he had stopped eating for a few days, he had reserves, if you know what I mean. Anyway, my little Ray is so little, I just worry about him all the time. We go in to weigh him in a week and a half, so we’ll see how he’s doing.

Until then, I will not run screaming to the car, drive to the airport and fly west and never come back farther east than Arizona ever again in my life (like I sometimes imagine myself doing), instead, I will get some shorts on and go workout in the basement, take a shower and maybe make some hairbands for little Chiara (Aria’s baby girl due on March 6th).