Ryan's 4-month Appointment

Today we took Ryan for his 4-month-old check-up and immunizations. He is doing great! He weighs just over 15 pounds, and is 27.5 inches long (almost the exact same measurements Kevin had at this age!).

Ryan was all smiles for the doctor until he got his shots--ouch! But he is sleeping off the effects of the shots, in his swing, right now.

Here's a picture from Saturday, just before we left to go to a birthday party. It is the first time Ryan has worn a sun hat. He wasn't too sure what to make of it, but Mommy thought it was adorable. :)

May 2-4 Weekend 2010

Boy, did we have a busy long weekend! On Saturday, Uncle Chuck and Brigitte came over for a visit and a BBQ. We were having fun making Ryan laugh! He started laughing just over the long weekend. Uncle Chuck coaxed a few giggles out of Ryan by tickling him, and Daddy got Ryan to giggle with his "phew, stinky feet!" act.

On Sunday morning, Andrea and Kevin had their last swim classes until the Fall. They are both doing really well. In September, Andrea will move on to Preschool C, and Kevin will be starting Preschool A (his first class without Mom or Dad!). Andrea swims first on Sundays.

doing back floats and swims with her teacher

Andrea always waves "hi," gives a big thumbs up, and yells, "Did I do a good job?" to us after she has her turn.


Below, Andrea is practicing blowing bubbles/putting her face in the water, and swimming to the teacher.

Andrea's favourite part is jumping in. The teacher moves back when it's Andrea's turn, because she does such huge jumps!

Kevin's class starts right after Andrea's ends. He is still swimming with Daddy, in Parent and Tot 3. He usually enjoys swim class, but kind of likes to do his own thing (not follow instructions!).

swimming after a ball he wants to play with

front floats

Kevin likes it when Daddy lifts him up high, and bobs him down into the water.

Ready, set . . .
. . . yahoo!

Ryan and I have only gone to swimming with the kids for the last two weeks. He likes the sights and sounds at the pool, but it does get really hot in there!

Poor flushed baby . . . the heat puts me to sleep, too.


Kevin found some pool noodles to play with: not part of the lesson, but still fun!

Andrea wanted to pose in her new bathing suit.
Kevin's class has to practice wearing life jackets. He does NOT like it.

We decided to leave a bit early because Kevin was having an "off" day. He was happy about that!

Bye-bye, swim class. We'll probably be back in September.

After swim class, lunch, and a nap, the kids went over to Gram and Papa's to help Gram plant the flowers we ordered for her Mother's Day present (they came in this week). I hear they had lots of fun filling pots with soil, digging holes, and placing and watering plants. I wasn't there, but I have some pictures from the first of May that show how much the kids enjoy working in Gram and Papa's garden.

If you hadn't noticed, their favourite part seems to be watering the flowers.

Later in the evening, our friends Dave and Mel invited us over to join their fireworks party. The kids enjoyed the big swing set, sandbox, some munchies, and playing with other little people while we waited for it to get dark enough for the fireworks. Andrea especially loved their trampoline!

This is the only time I saw her take a break, until it got too dark to jump!

The fireworks were great, and after such an active day, we had three super-sleepyheads on the way home!

Andrea's JK Spring Concert

Today, Daddy and I were so happy we could attend Andrea's Junior Kindergarten Spring Concert. We went to school with her this afternoon and visited her classroom. The children sang songs for us, we had an indoor snack-time picnic, and we made a craft together.

The Program

Andrea was not shy in front of the visitors. She was/is one of the most expressive (and loud) singers. Below, she's doing the actions for "Kiss Your Brain."

Andrea had a special part in the "Green Jelly Bean" song. She got to be the "1 green jellybean!" Here she is, getting ready for her part.You have to watch the video to see all the "emotion" she puts into her part. ;)

Later, some brave moms and dads were invited up to do a silly dance with the teacher and the JKs. Daddy did a great job!

After all the songs, it was snack time. We brought a beach towel, and sat down and shared a snack of apple juice and fruit twists.

We had a few extra minutes before it was time to make the craft, so Andrea picked out a book to share with Daddy.

The craft we made together was a spring-themed place mat. The teacher had everything arranged really well, so all we had to do was pick out our paper and pre-cut decorations, and arrange them as we wished. We let Andrea pick out all the decorations, and glue everything in place herself (we just helped apply the glue).She is so proud of her work, and we are so proud of her. We had a wonderful time visiting Andrea's class!

Ryan's Developmental Check-up

This morning, Papa and I took Ryan to see Dr. B. (the "preemie"-specialist-doctor) for his developmental check-up at 3 months of age.


Weight and length-wise, Ryan is right on track. He weighs 14 lbs., 1 oz. today (but I didn't get his other measurements). The doctor said he is following the growth curve perfectly. Both he and the nurse saw Ryan smiling and cooing, and said he's a big baby, which are all great developments for him.


As I mentioned in the last post, Ryan does hate tummy time, and both nurse and doctor noticed this. They said he needs to work on his core body strength a bit more, which means, tummy time! They showed me how to prop him on his belly in a more comfortable position, and it did work. Ryan's tummy-time tolerance increased by a few minutes. They said he should be doing his own little push-ups (of head and chest off the floor in tummy position) by the end of next month, to keep on track developmentally. So, that's what we'll be working on this month.


We'll go for another developmental check-up when Ryan is 9 months old. It seems so far away, but I know the months will fly by!

Miscellaneous in May :))

Wow, I am getting behind in my posts! It's been almost a month; most of May has already passed by us! We haven't had much in the way of special events this month, but I have captured lots of cute videos and pictures of the kids having fun during our day-to-day routine.

Bath Time

Andrea and Kevin generally enjoy bath time; Kevin often gets mad when it's time to wash, but he likes playing in the water. A few nights ago, he was in a really silly mood, singing and laughing in the tub.

His silliness was contagious: Andrea wanted in on the laughs, too!

Kevin's favourite song that night was, "I'm washing up my baby bumblebee . . ." (appropriate for bath time). He kept singing it, but he threw in the "Ew!" (squish part) at the wrong time, with the comic result that it sounded like something in the bathtub had disgusted him. Then he said, "Oh, it's soap!" The timing was too funny.

Look at this lovable little face. Would you believe he could be such a stinker? Well, he's really testing his boundaries right now. A good example is below. He was singing a different version of the "bumblebee" song, using the word "dinosaur," and commenced to knock all Andrea's toys in the water, grab my body wash, etc. The irony is, the song has a line that says, "Won't my mommy be so proud of me?" which he sings as he's flinging everything in the water! It's typical Kevin right now.

Family Photos

Whenever they're willing, I try to get photos of the three kids together. They are growing and changing so fast, especially Ryan, as he develops each week. Andrea likes getting her picture taken with Ryan. In fact, the group pictures are usually her idea, then Kevin joins in because he sees they're getting attention from Mommy.

Andrea asks to hold Ryan once in a while, but Kevin's not interested. Poor Kevin is having a rough time adjusting right now. It's like delayed-onset jealousy. Suddenly, he is climbing into Ryan's bouncy chair, swing, and crib; he's tried to push Ryan off my lap a couple of times, and once, he even dumped him out of the bouncy chair when I was in the other room (but Ryan was fine--he didn't even cry: just looked surprised!). We have tried to give Kevin a little extra loving, and it seems to be working. We've seen an improvement the last few days. However, his general testing of the limits and screaming tantrums continue to exhaust us. At this point, I can't even think of potty training! Let's just get poor Kevin in a better place maturity-wise and emotionally, first.

Ryan: Something New All the Time

Like I said before, Ryan is zooming through the infant stage, and is constantly doing new things. I can barely keep up with posting all the pictures and videos I've taken recently. Most of them I just take to capture the moment, because he's so sweet, and he's changing so fast!

Ryan is usually happiest in his swing. I took the picture above to show how he is always smiling at something off to his left when he's in the swing. I'm not sure who/what it is, but it amuses him greatly. He also sleeps best in there (we are trying to get him sleeping in the crib the past few nights, with moderate success). One day, he was fussy, so I put a cuddly puppy in near his face. He curled up with it, and fell asleep.

Ryan is also getting more interested in sitting up. I have put him in the Bumbo chair a few times this month. He usually likes it for a few minutes, then gets tired. Notice how he's always got his hands in his mouth, too. He's constantly chewing/sucking on his hands/fist/fingers. Maybe he's getting ready for teething? He's been drooling a lot, too.

A new game Ryan likes to play with me is simply me pulling him up to sitting position from lying down, and then he holds onto my hands/fingers and tries to stay up. Like I said, he enjoys the new point of view in sitting position. When I can feel him getting ready to fall back, I help him flop back gently on something soft, and make some funny "ooo"s and "uh-oh"s. This usually elicits big grins.

Speaking of big grins, here are a few of Ryan's early ones I caught on video.

Ryan is also getting much more chatty. He gurgles, coos, and makes new noises all the time. Here's a video from a few weeks ago (at about 13 weeks) when he was starting to "chat" more. For some reason, his favourite place to chat is on the change table (maybe because my face is closer to his?).

Ryan's Play Mat

I am having a hard time getting Ryan to do his tummy time. He cries and gets angry every time we try. I thought maybe a new play mat, with more interactive gizmos on it, would grab his attention and make him forget he's on his belly. Well, it kind of worked. He still hates tummy time, but he does like the new play mat. (I like it because I got it, gently used, for $10.) He usually lasts a few minutes on his tummy now, but is still much happier playing on his back.
Old Mat: contrast colours are visually stimulating, but only visual overhead, and the toys are kind of boring.

New Mat: colourful, things to do on both belly and back, comfy pillow. Lights and sounds activated by touching or kicking. It's much more fun!

Tommorow, Ryan goes to see the preemie specialist for his developmental check-up. I'm sure the doctor will have only positive comments. You'd never know this baby arrived 5 weeks early. :))