New best friends

As RyRy gets bigger, so does his love for two things: his yellow and black spotted frog and his Gloworm. Its amazing to see his eyes literally light up if you put either on in front of him. They are temporary cry-stoppers as well.

Just layin' around with his frog friend

GloWorm gets a ride in the Jumparoo

His ears taste good too

He's just the best thing EVER!

I have to brag on my dad, or if you are Rylan, Poppa. He is a great photograper and he has an amazing ability to put his photos into collages and such. Here is his latest, taken the weekend he stayed with his Grammy and Poppa. Good job Dad!

Rylan has so many expressions and a whole lot to say. I can't think of anyone that he might have gotten that from.........

Big Boy

Guess who's holding his own bottle? (Most of the time, anyway)

Sometimes he passes out with the bottle (and one shoe)

ALSO big baby boy growing up news: we have already had to upgrade his carseat. The newborn to one year carseat really only got us to 7 months. 22 pounds and 30 inches have come and gone. Rylan is now rocking a spiffy new baby to toddler carseat that converts to a booster eventually. Supposedly it'll get us to 80 pounds. We'll see. We went to multiple stores to find one that appeared to wash easiest. He is loving his higher position in the car and all his extra room.

I am the owner of two of the ugliest feet in America. Or the world. Several weeks ago I purchased some cheap flip flops that rubbed a scar on my right foot. Then yesterday I took a spill down the steps of our pool. At first I thought I'd gotten away free of injury (except the whole injury to my pride because somehow it sucks worse to fall alone), but my toes wouldn't quit hurting. I finally checked them out and my big toenail and the one next to it were apparently the victims of brunt force injury. I won't go into details, its harder to stomach than details of my csection for some reason. So, I'm slightly hobbling around today at work, but happy that my toes (which I seem to have jammed as well) hurt way less than yesterday. Then I come home, pop a Tyson heat-n-serve roast beef dinner in the microwave for the prescribed 4 minutes. When I take it out, the top explodes off, and roast beef juice flies all over the foot I DIDN'T injure yesterday! Burn burn burn. The saddest part for me is that I went all out last time I got a pedicure and paid $5 extra bucks to have pretty flowers painted on my toes with a rhinestone center.

That's all I have to say about that.

The many faces of Ry-bear

Serious

Fake Smile

SUPRISE!

Precious Happy Angelface

Sidenote:Thank you sister Angie, for donating this door hanging jumpy thing! It is because of you that I can shower!

Laughter is the BEST medicine

You know what makes memories of bedrest, feeding all night long, RSV hospitalization, teething troubles, and crazy numbers of ear infections go away?????

Do you love the way he realizes there's a camera and gets scared at the end?

Happy B-day Roberto!

Its a birthday havin-swimmin-beer-makin-father's-day-celebratin kinda weekend here at the Qualls household. We had some (hopefully) good family and cute baby pics taken Friday evening at a park. It was approximately 200 degrees, so I'm nice and shiny and our clothes were stuck to all of us, but I have faith in the photograper! We went to a nice dinner at Boscos to start the Celebrate Rob weekend. We learned that our little babe is no longer the sit in the infant car seat and snooze or kick while you eat a late meal little boy he used be.

1. He no longer fits in an infant car seat that you take into restaurants.

2. He doesn't quite sit up yet, so the highchair doesn't work super well either.

3. He likes an 8pm bottle, a quick rock in the rocking recliner and a coma-type sleep by 8:45.

We had a bit of a breakdown. It was temporarily fixed by a few bites of Dada's birthday Coconut Cream Bread Pudding.

Saturday we had some family pool time.

Then I tested my culinary skills with my first Mexican Chicken casserole and Brownie Mosaic Cheesecake. If I do say so myself, both were very tasty. Of course I took pictures!!!!!!!

Rob got a new grill from Ry and I

Just under 31 candles

No matter what I did, this uploaded sideways, so here is a sideways view of the brownie mosaic cheesecake. Its cheesecake with brownie baked in, with a chocolate ganache, First cheesecake and ganache all at once.

What's grosser than staying home with your son who has Amoxicillin inspired poos and pukes?

Deciding to make homemade baby green beans

Its one of my ways to save money so I get to be part-time and stay home with this cutie-patootie

Sorry its taken me nearly a week to report that Rylan had his surgery Monday the 15th and all went well. He is now the proud owner of 2 ear tubes and a tongue that he can move about. He was such a trouper the day of surgery. Because he gets his feeds thickened, he couldn't even have clear liquids after midnight. For my boy, that is serious business. But, they provided him with enough stuff to get his mind off it. And he had all the girl cooing at him and talking about his beautiful eyes. One can't be crabby when trying to flirt, after all.

Cheesin' for the ladies

McCutie in hospital clothes

Later that day, smiles already

Pistachio Dream Cake

I have come to enjoy it when people post recipes they enjoy on their blogs, so I'll return the favor. This is a delicious recipe, especially if you enjoy pistachios. It is also low-fat, only 3 pts if you are doing weight watchers. The only con is that you end up with a green cake. I made it on St. Patrick's Day, it worked. Try it, its yummers!

*a side note is that I used a reduced sugar white cake mix. I was also unable to find diet sprite, so I went through the drive-thru at Sonic, they have it there, just in case you are in the same boat.

Pistachio Dream Cake

Makes 20 Servings

Ingredients

1 pkg light cake mix
1 pkg sugar-free instant pistachio pudding
1 carton (8 oz) non-fat vanilla yogurt
3 egg whites
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup diet lemon lime soda

Frosting

1 1/2 cup cold skim milk
1 pkg sugar-free instant pistachio pudding
2 cups light or fat-free whipped topping

Combine cake mix, pudding, yogurt, egg whites, vanilla (beat at low speed for
a minute). Gradually beat in soda. Pour into a 9 x 13 pan sprayed with nonstick
cooking spray. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes or
until toothpick comes out clean.

Frosting: Mix the milk and pudding for 2 minutes. Fold in the whipped topping.

Sleep trouble

Dear Quallsblog checkers,

    I like to flip on my belly now. My mom and dad were getting nervous that I would never roll over, so in a way this is good. The bad news is that I still don't like being on my belly. So, I flip onto my belly, then get angry about it. I sleep on my belly, then get angry when I wake up on my belly. I like to shimmy to the top of my crib and ram my head against the crib, which also makes me angry. All in all, no one is getting good sleep right now.

Love, Rylan