Rain Rain go AWAY

We had Rob's sister and her family to town last weekend. I had many possible activites planned like the Zoo and Rivermarket. As is usually the case when people with children come to visit. It rained. And rained and rained. So we went to Jaunitas and had some good old fashioned time at home to talk and play games.

Things you don't learn in the baby books

1. A quiet baby is not necessarily a good thing. You know right where a screaming baby is. A screaming baby isn't silently pulling the toilet paper down the hall in his walker.

2. A bath shouldn't last longer than 5-10 minutes, even if they are having fun. Certain things get "relaxed" in the nice warm water and gross stuff happens. I actually gagged and Rob had to deal with the mess. Apparently when his wife took a job as a pediatric GI nurse, he thought he was in the clear when there was a pediatric GI issue. He was mistaken. Take me out of the scrubs and the hospital setting and you got yourself a plain old female. Sorry.

3. A rash can last forever.

4. Babies with 8 teeth bite.

5. The term "human garbage disposal" can start very, very early. I have yet to find something Rylan won't eat. The video a few weeks ago where he was gagging on watermelon? Still ate about a cup of it.

6. Growth curves are for the birds. Rylan's is right on track for a 15 month old. He's 10 months old. Whatever.

7. Just because something says 9-12 months on the label doesn't mean you should still try to queeze your baby in it.

8. When you breastfeed you give your child your immunity. When you apparently have no immunity to offer, you breastfeed, then you catch every illness your child comes near. Stay away Swine flu, H1N1, or as I like to call it the Hiny flu (H1N1 looks like Hini and its more fun to say than Swine)!!!! We don't want your pigtastic fevers and chills and cough in these parts. We've done our time.

9. Rylan Qualls is the coolest baby in the world.

Over 2 billion delivered, no late fees

Huge step in Rylan's growth. He got his first Netflix movie. I was surprised that this isn't an entry in the baby book, because I saw it as a big step for my little Puddin' Pop. I was very hesitant to get movies for my baby, afraid I would become yet another mama that used them as a babysitter. But, oh, that Baby Einstein person is sooooo smart, cause she sure tapped into something that babies love. I don't know what it is about those strange animal props dancing across the screen, but Rylan is in love! He looks at the screen, then at you as if to say "are you watching this??? Its amazing!" then back at the screen.

Netflix Milestones

Baby Einstein Baby Shakespeare

He loved it so much, he ate it

Its a duel!

Lola finally found some competition.

His bumps, his bumps, his sad red Cheetah bumps

Rylan has a rash. The nurse in me thinks its a viral thing, maybe even Fifths Disease. Totally okay, nothing to worry about. But that psycho mom in me keeps wondering if its a flesh eating disease or if he's going to stop breathing in anaphalactic shock soon. I even turned the apnea monitor that we'd long abandoned back on the other night. Its really pitiful when it flares up. The lucky thing is that Benadryl works pretty well on it (even though it doesn't appear to be an allergy), the unlucky thing is that he can only have Benadryl every 8hrs. Their is an hour or so in between doses when he looks like this:

Notice the red welpy legs. Welpy is a word, to me anyway

B.B.E.

Best Baby Ever!!!

The Razorbacks kicked off their 2009 season and the Qualls fam embarked on a new adventure-tailgating with bambino. And, oh good golly, do we have a good baby. Rylan sat the rain out while we had Mexican food and margaritas at Senor Tequila, then hung out while we tailgated, THEN the true-blue fans went to the game and Rylan, my sister, Tammy, and I held the tailgating fort down and watched TV in the parking lot. Rylan sat on our laps and "woo pig sooied" and clapped like a true fan. Besides me locking my good friend Deb's keys in her car, it was a fantabulous day. Rylan kicked it from morning to night with only a splotchy nap while we ran errands, such a trouper! We have the greatest friends, Debbie and Justin. They really take tailgating up that extra notch, with a car full of flags and Hog stickers, all Razorback camping chairs, a table with a football field painted on it, and a satellite and TV to watch pregame on.

When they went to watch the actual game, Tammy and I totally chicked it out and watched Ruby, Bulging Brides, Househunters, and Biggest Loser on it. Just to give the TV a little estrogen.

Awesome TV set-up

One of the crowd

Lovin' Aunt Tam

Rylan' s BFFs Debbie and Justin

Every good day must end

Chariots of Fire

I'm putting this in writing. Well, in typing. I'm walking/jogging a half marathon the first weekend of December. There. Now I've said it to the masses (or the 4 that read this, whatever). Now, if I turn into a loser and drop out, I'll have all four of you out there going "Sara, how's the marathon training going?" and I'll have to explain that I'm a loser dropout and I'm not going to give my money and walk for childhood cancer (its a St. Jude's Marathon). I can do this, I can do this, I can do this.

I don't know if you've met my trainer. He is a stickler to our exercise regimen. He is there for every step I take. And he doesn't like a slow walker or a complete stop. He's awfully short to be so very bossy, but I guess bossiness is what everyone needs in a trainer. Here's a pic of him.

My favorite husband Rob is also helping out, he's the systems administrator for my mp3 player. He's keeping it stocked with books on cd for me. I've already listened to Just Take My Heart by Mary Higgins Clark. Very creepy. Nothing like a good murder mystery to get you moving. I swear I walked by someones house, muttering "no way!!!!" when something good happened. They probably feel sorry for Rylan, having to live with a mama with so many friends in her head!

Here, son, have some poisonous adult food

It was not only the cost benefit that had me making homemade babyfood. It was nice to know that I was giving Rylan preservative free yummies(most of the time). I'm not trying to get all Kate Organic Gosselin on us. Its just that after the bedrest and then Rylan's attack of RSV, then Rob and I have caught EVERY little daycare illness Ry has brought home, I had the idea that we could all use a bit of a healthier lifestyle and maybe I'd start with the infant. His system was the least congested with grossness. So for the first few months of Rylan's solid eating life, he was given homemade green beans, peas, carrots, sweet potatoes, apples, and bananas. I eventually perfected my art to try mixed veggies, chicken, beef, and fruit medley. I saved the hard-to-make (peaches, pears, squash, and all those gross meat concoctions) to the pros and bought those for him to have his 3 days/week at daycare.

He is now taking big boy bites of peices of whatever we have for dinner and having a little babyfood chaser. He's a fan. Last night I broke up a meatball and some spagetti noodles and he looked at me with a noodle hanging out of his mouth and down to his chest and gave me a cheesy "you are my favorite mama" smile. I'm a little excited about the end of the pureeing days. Making homemade babyfood is kinda like breastfeeding. In the beginning you are supercharged at providing your child with the very best that life can offer and making him the healthiest he can be. You are amazed at your capibilities and you don't notice the extra work because the reward is so great. Then, all the sudden, you say "I'M DONE!"

The problem with all the healthiness I gave my child in his early eating months is that, now that he has all his shark teeth and loves to chew, we find ourselves giving him bites of our preservative, fake sweetener, and chemically induced yum yums. And he is more than happy to accept Rob and my offerings.

So if he has all natural baby food and bites of Weight Watchers Ice cream bars does that even out at the end of the day?