day at the beach

I love living 10 minutes from the beach - we don't go nearly enough though!

Ry loved laying on the sand with us but when we took him down to the water, the waves really freaked him out. See video:

Rice Cereal

He's not so sure about it. For the record, I think it's weird stuff too.

4 Month Check-up

So what we thought was a tooth is most likely a calcium deposit - which is probably what is causing all these teething symptoms. The Dr. wasn't 100% sure though - so we'll keep in eye on it and see if it becomes more tooth-like (it's kind of in a weird spot, so I'm really hoping it's NOT a tooth! Or else we need to start thinking about braces...)
The ringworm almost vanished overnight - you can barely make it the tiny rings now. I'm contributing this to the vitamin E treatments I've been doing and will be trying that on myself next time.
Mr. Ry-guy had his checkup and is becoming a long and skinny little fellow. He is now 25 inches long, which puts him in about 70th percentile for height, and 14.9 pounds, which puts him in only the 40th percentile for weight. I am going to try harder to make him nurse a little longer at each feeding - I think I BORE him. He nurses for a few minutes then finds something more interesting to do and won't finish his meal. I love fat babies though, so it's my goal to fatten him up a little :)
Our pedi suggested we start some rice cereal now. I was reluctant to do rice cereal at all before because it doesn't seem to have much nutrition in it and I wasn't really wanting to spoon-feed my baby at all (see baby-led weaning). But now I've warmed up to it (maybe because Brent told me I was being too much of a hippie!) and have accepted that rice cereal does have some iron in it... which can benefit him. Mostly I just think it will fun though and will get him more interested in eating grown-up food. So look forward to a post about his first cereal - coming soon!
He did so well with vaccines once again - what a tough baby we have! He let out one little pout and "wah." Then he was all smiles again. He was also flirting with all the ladies in the waiting room - smiling and yelling "Hoo!" at them. You can bet he was the most popular person in the room.
His ear canals have opened up to be a normal size now as well (they were nearly closed for months), so we've escaped the Ear, Nose, and Throat doctor trip.
So all-in-all he's a healthy little guy.
I'm not sure if I posted about his weird toes - but I talked to his doctor about them today. He thinks they'll straighten out when he starts walking. Good to hear!

crazy toes

poor baby...

... has something looking a lot like ringworm all over his diaper-area. Yuck, yuck, yuck. He's obviously going to take after me in this area. Have no idea why I never get sick but I get NASTY cases of ringworm that spread all over about once a year or so. My sisters used to get it really bad too. Sorry, Ry-Ry.
He's also been fussy the past few days or so - screaming out of nowhere! This is super unlike him. Well, I found a little bump on his gums a couple days ago and now I can see what appears to be a tooth trying to poke through. He can't be old enough for this yet! Hopefully the little bugger makes its way out soon and stops hurting my baby :(
Oh, and he just bit his tongue and now has a super-painful looking blood blister on the tip.

Good thing we're already scheduled for the pediatrician tomorrow for his 4-month check-up!

another page for Ry's book.

Love this baby.

The past week.

I've been working. Since Ry was 5 weeks old, I've worked about 4-8 hours per week. I did 20 this week. And although I am still convinced I have the BEST job in the world, I missed my cute baby waaay too much to do that again for awhile. Good thing I have awesome friends to watch him and never had to worry!

Ry has been practicing sitting a lot - he's getting pretty good! He was hanging out with Dad this day.

I watched a friend's cute baby one afternoon - he's only a few weeks older than Ry. They loved to pull on each others' clothes and body parts.

Shelby is starting to love Ry as much as we do. She didn't just lay BY him today, she laid ON him. Guess he's officially part of her pack.

Too cute.

4 Months Old

You are 4 months old today, Ry-Ry. You have become so much fun. We love hearing you talk constantly - you're interacting with the world!

You love to move around, and hate to sit still. When we put you down on a blanket, you scoot around on your back and belly - pushing off any near object or the floor to get yourself moving. You love to hold yourself straight up when you're on you belly - guess you have a better view of the world that way.

You love to sit up - although you're not so hot at doing it on your own yet. You wobble and topple over after about 5-10 seconds. But you're TRYING - and it's so cute.
Your sleeping schedule has been pretty erratic lately - you would so much rather stay awake and play than sleep. You fight it - but you've always fought it since the day you were born. Now that you're older we're laying down the law a little more - but you know we're still softies for you. You were sleeping 8 hours at night - now we're lucky to get 5. Let's fix this, buddy!

You're starting to love toys. You love anything that is soft - like stuffed animals. You run your hands over and over them and run the fur between your fingers. You love crinkly toys - and your lion that growls when you shake it. Mostly you love anything that you can bring to your mouth.

You are a beautiful baby - we love you more everyday!

Can't believe my tiny baby is no longer a newborn