So glad we didn't waste money on a Halloween Costume...

The best investment ever!!! The mobile (sp) is an awesome addition to his crib as he wants to play at 6am and I want to sleep so I pop him on his back, turn this on night light mode and nature sounds and he squeals with delight. Its stars and moons and it rotates so its good for another 30 minutes of sleep...its like mobile gold.
Thursday afternoon, Shannon came down to Morgan Hill to have lunch with Rhys and I. As you can see he likes hangin' with the da.

He kept sticking his hands in my fries and then licking his fist...must like salt. The jury is still out on the pickle.
Here are some pics from Rhys' Kiddie Academy. Today it was just him and Riley a little girl who is a month older but 5 lbs less and 4 inches shorter than him. This is his cubby.

Him sleeping in his corner crib....well more like catching flies.
Note the cool Boo socks. He starts on his side and rolls onto his big belly for optimum snoring.

Here he is with one of his favorite teachers, Miss Maria. She only speaks to him in Spanish and he absolutely loves her. I'm trying like a fool to get him to smile for me but he wants nothing of my shenanigans. His Halloween outfit says Guess Whooo's 1st Halloween?...with a little owl on it.

He's so adorable today until...we get him home and I give him a quick feed. He sits up and gives a great big burp and then a little toot. The little toot turns into a toot toot...toot, toot,
toot, toot, toot, toot, toot, toot, toot, toot, toot, toot, toot, toot, toot, toot, toot, toot, toot...at this point he's got this HUGE grin on his face. We bring him to the change pad, take off his pants...

Only to discover this...

Which brings me back to the title of the post...so glad we didn't invest in a Halloween costume, he would have just "tooted" his way out of it. We're not even going to bother washing this outfit, its going straight to the incinerator.

Sick as...

Rhys is giving hell to one nasty cold. It has settled in his sinus' and since he has "a button nose" (quote from doctor today), his little nostrils get clogged really easily. For the past week, his sleep has been steadily getting worse b/c he can't breathe thru his nose. Believe me when I say we've tried everything...humidifier, bed raised at an angle, hot bath, steam from my shower, chest massage and lots of time with the bulb syringe. Even though we know he shouldn't use it anymore, its the only thing that's giving him at least a couple of breathes thru his nose. Last night was the worst with him waking up every hour. Today at work his usual 2 hour naps were replaced with 20 minute rests. Needless to say Shannon and I were at our wits end and luckily between my mom and his pediatrician we tried lots of things tonight to hopefully make him feel better. Below are some pics from our efforts.


I threw on a bathing suit and hopped in a steamy shower with him. He is such a water baby...as soon as the water hit him, his body goes limp and he acts like he's in a coma. The pic is a little funky b/c its so steamy in there.

The new thing we're trying tonight is a HOT steam humidifier. The doctor said that we'd have the perfect room for him if it felt like we just entered the jungle. Shannon is super excited about this...me...not so much.


AAAAHHHHH- CHOOOOOOO

Hehe momma, I just sneezed. Did ya see that live action??? I rock.


Here's Rhys with his organic eucalyptus chest rub...stinks like vics so hopefully it helps. I just put some on his nose but of course, he starts to giggle so a bit ended up on his cheek...all shiny :)

Diwali & Football

Saturday night we went to our friend Rajs' parent's house to celebrate Indian New Year, Diwali. We had a blast...curry puffs, naan, lamb, catered bar and the best live music. Rhys and I sat in the living room with lots of other people and sang and clapped with the performers who treated us to traditional Indian music. Rhys was a bit sleepy until the music started, loud and cheerful. He perked right up, eyes bright and bopped along to the beats. Below is a picture of Raj holding Rhys. We only had Shannon's iphone so no flash. No matter, Rhys adores Raj and snuggles right into his shoulder.

Sunday we watched some football: Giants vs Steelers. When Rhys sat on Shannon's lap, he was glued to the blood, guts, and glory. However, on my lap he's only interested in making sure he's the center of my attention. I don't mind b/c he's pretty darn cute. Oh the picture below shows how Rhys kisses...I give him a peck on the cheek, he turns his face and bites my nose. He's going to make some lady feel super special :)

His favorite game is to be shaken HARD and high above my head. He giggles so much his belly shakes and then his legs get into the act and pretty soon his whole body is one big laughing baby.

3:20am

For the past two weeks, Shannon and I have been trying new bedtime routines with Rhys. His normal evening consists of feeding, bath, massage, book, feeding, and finally bed. We've tried doing this at 7:30pm, 8:30pm, and 10pm. Each time he does his routine without any issues but still consistantly wakes up at 3:20am for food. I don't think it would matter if we put him to be at 6pm or 11pm b/c he wakes up at the the same time. Not 3:10 or 3:30...always 3:20.

New crib

It has been a long time coming but we could no longer stand waking up to Rhys kicking the heck out of his bassinett. He is getting so long that his superman sleep position wasn't working anymore so we moved the big crib into our room and he had his first nap in it. I think he's going to sleep much better now because this is very much like a mini Cal King with bars...all to himself. So far, so good.

Giada

Shannon and I are big Giada De Laurentis fans (food network chick who specializes in Italian food). She was signing books in a cooking shop in Santana Row at noon so we got in line around 11am. We knew that it was going to be a long wait so we shared Rhys duty and walked around until we got to get into the store 3 hours later for her autograph. She was super sweet and talked to us a bit about Rhys and her new little one Jade. Below is a pic of her at the signing. After our time in at the Row, we went to Campbell for Oktobrefest. Nothing says complete afternoon like a cold beer, smoked turkey leg and a sleeping bubs. This is the life :)

The Hooter Hider

As promised, a post about the best invention ever, the hooter hider. My mom is one crafty chick, she was a home maker in a previous life, this life she was reincarnated into a Principal that kicked a$$ and took names later...wonder what she'll be the next time around? Growing up she made a lot of my dresses for special occasions and there wasn't a button she couldn't sew down so it would NEVER even think about coming loose again. Anyways, back to the story, out here in the ridiculously rich area of San Jose is a little neighborhood called Santana Row. The cars are Lamborghini's, alpha romeos and the like (my little scion xA covered in squirrel warfare fits right in). The street is very much like Church Street in Burlington, full of boutique shops and awesome restaurants. When I was pregnant with Rhys, Shan and I would go out on a Friday night for dinner and see all of these women with babies enjoying a night out. When it was time to nurse the babies, they whipped out this piece of fabric (most ugly as all get out, think patterns made by the teletubies), slung it over their neck and discretely fed the little ones. I checked them out online and they were going for $50-$75 and called some snotty French name which probably translated to what I think they should be called "Hooter Hiders". I sent mom the measurements and she made 3 really beautiful ones in the time it would take me to buy one online and it only cost like $15 bucks for all of the fabric and neck holder thingy. Now when we go out, Rhys can be fed in the privacy of his own hooter hider and no one knows what the heck you're up to...however I think the kicking of little feet and sounds of a snorgling horse are a give-away. They're awesome because Rhys is always grabbing at it and yanking but since its around my neck like an apron, he fails every time. :) The one I had on tonight was ivory with an eyelit pattern (um I think it was that, not entirely sure...its darn cute though) If anyone wants one, give mom a shout. I've gotten lots and lots of compliments when I'm out and about with him...no more are the days of the blankets that fall off your shoulder. Do not pay attention to how my hair looks, there's always something I forget to do when we leave the house.

While enjoying dinner, Rhys and Shannon both got a bit distracted by the chocolate brownie dessert we ordered. Tomorrow we're heading back to Santana Row for the Farmer's Market and to meet Giada De Laurentis, the Food Network Italian chick. Shannon LOVES her food and casually mentions certain dishes in the hopes I'll try to replicate them.

And this time daddy fails...

Shannon dressed Rhys this morning. Note the ugly brown outfit with matching neon green fuzzy socks.
One of the socks is even inside out. The kicker is that Shannon got a good 8 hours of sleep the night before so no excuses!!!

This is where Rhys sleeps when he is with me at the office. He'll have to share this office with me once we get the new person in...I'll have to learn to type with only a small light on my keyboard and white noise blaring from the CD player.

I took this after Daddy gave him his evening massage. He was way more interested in me updating the blog than to pay attention to his dad.

You know you're over tired when...

You dress your baby in this outfit.

Rhys got my little sinus bug so he was up snorgling ALL night long. With Shannon up in Portland, Rhys and I had a midnight tea tree steamer, hot bubble bath for him, tea for me, plenty of snot sucking from the bulb looking thing, lots of time rocking in the chair and finally against my better judgement, he fell asleep on my chest around 6am. (we had to be at work at 7). I got out of bed, put my clothes on, grabbed what I thought was a matching outfit for him and out the door we went. Upon getting to the office, my coworker Yolanda got a huge kick out of his attire...blue fishies cap, brown and blue striped onesie, and blue leggies with vines on them. None of the blues matched and the leggings made him look like he auditioned for a supporting role in Footloose. His vacant expression in the pics is from lack of sleep...no pics of me as I look like hell. Tonight he got a bath (which he pooed in), was then hosed off, massage, books read and then one last feed before I tucked his tush into his bed which I imagine he'll grow out of in the next week or so. The last pic is of Rhys nomming on Yolanda's shirt...he really goes to town on her clothing, I think its her fabric softener. After a day at the office, I'm always picking out little lint balls from his cheeks from where he had a feast on her shoulder.

Hmmm...maple syrup

We interrupt this blog for a quick service announcement:

I have just started taking Fenugreek to help keep up with Rhys' ridiculous feeding schedule. (growing boy bellies up to the milk bar about 10 times in a day at 6 oz each time) So in utilizing my infinite research skills, I discovered the side effects of the herb: "Sweat and urine smells like maple syrup; milk and/or breastfed baby may smell like maple syrup."

Being a good ol' North Country girl that I am, I like a good dose of pancakes and maple syrup on a cold morning. However, I find it a bit hard to swallow that the signs that the herb is working is if Rhys and I smell like a Sunday brunch at Ihop.

Best seat in the house

When Jena's rocking chair arrived she had visions of relaxing and rocking herself. Little did she know that Rhys had decided it was a good spot for him to play with the chicken rattle.

I touched Donnie

Ok so this blog is all about Rhys but we must take a break from our regularly scheduled posting to talk about the amazing evening we had last night at the New Kids on the Block concert. Imagine 14,950 screaming 27-35 year olds wearing t-shirts of NKOTB that probably didn't fit them in high school let alone popping them on again for last night. The other 50 people were men, one of whom was my husband who at the end of the concert said "I have never witnessed as much insanity or experienced that many women crammed into an arena screaming like their life depended on it". That pretty much summed it up, and I was one of the screaming puddle of chickiness going gaga over Jonathan Knight!!!

It was everything I have been dreaming of ever since I saw them when I was much much younger. As for the title of the blog, Shannon and I had floor seats near the stage and about 3 seats from the isle...after doing a set in the middle of the stadium, the boys ran down my row!!! Unfortunately for me, my shy Jonathan was enveloped by his bodyguard so I didn't get to touch him but I did manage to pat Donnie Walhburg's arm. I'm not so much of a fan of his but my little sis is so I did it for her.

Rhys had quite a night with the babysitter, Liz. He wouldn't let her put him down except for bathtime so when we got home our little mister was wide awake at 11:30pm. Oh and he had his vaccines earlier that day so he only got in 1 of his usual 3 naps. Needless to say, the nap till noon today was a welcome break from the past couple of days.

A couple of tired koalas

Those who have had the pleasure of holding Rhys know that he grips tightly like a baby koala. In the photo he is playing with one of several koalas he got on his trip to oz.

Nanny's bday

For Nanny's birthday this year, I asked her what she wanted Rhys to get her...the response "a red shirt". A red shirt?!? In my entire life of buying things for my mother, clothes are so far down the list that I would rather send money and still think that it is more personal. Rhys agreed that the red shirt thing was a dumb idea so we thought that maybe get his 12 week photos taken. We found this awesome photographer at like 2am on a Friday night (I was up trying to think of alternatives for "the red shirt"). The photographer's name is Racquel Reyna and she worked her magic with our little one. http://www.racquelreyna.com/. So she came over on Saturday around noon. Rhys was not cooperating (ie sleeping so we could get some angelic photos). He tends to sleep like Super Man, arms straight out, with his bottom high in the air...not so cute I assure you. Anyhoo you can't have adorable photos without some nakie baby action, so off comes the diaper. He doesn't want to lay on his tummy so I pick him up several times throughout the session. I was peed on at least 3 times but who cares right?...this is for a good cause. The last time, however, when I picked him up and stood against the futon, he let out this rip roaring fart/poo that was probably heard around the block! He had shat so hard that as I was moping the floor later I found a mustard colored trinket in front of the fridge, a good 25 feet from where we were standing. The look of relief on this kid's face was priceless, I was mortified but Racquel was a pro and thought nothing of it. I went through 3 outfits that day but in the end it was all worth it because we ended up with photos like this:

Picture time

Every Sunday we grab our canvas bags and go to the farmers market in Campbell for some fruits and veggies. Stone fruits are in season so Shannon and I spend most of the morning snacking on peaches, plutos, and nectarines. The first picture is of Shannon carrying Rhys in Starbucks while I order a tall Salted Carmel Hot Chocolate...yes is as delicious as it sounds and even worse for your arteries.

Rhys is starting to STARE intently at us when we eat. Shan and I went to an organic wrap shop and apparently Roast Beef is looking mighty tasty for the little one. He will literally stick his head in whatever we're trying to eat.
I ordered the corn soup, got a bit on my hand and had the little one hoover it off. Unfortunately he's not a fan of corn so the face that followed this one was a mixture of utter disgust and complete displeasure with me for having such a vile flavor touch his precious tongue. We've got a bit of work to do.
Tomorrow I will post about Rhys pooing so hard that when I was holding him in the living room, a little mustard colored trinket made its way into the kitchen. Thank god we have tile floors.