Making Daddy Proud or is that Worried??

Well, Daniel has decided that he likes to wear one of mommy's purses. It came about like this. One day I was cleaning out my closet getting rid of some old clothes and Daniel saw one of my purses on the ground. He first did the normal thing and went through the purse. When he did not find anything interesting in there he decided to do something else with the purse. He decided to put it over his shoulder and wear it. Here are some pictures.






He also recently has decided that he wanted to try to put on lipstick. He has also put on one of my shirts and wore it like a dress. I just have to laugh as he is so cute with his exploring everything. Daddy is not so sure if he thinks it is cute.

Eating Better, Getting Into Shape

Well, since Daniel has been born I have lost thirty pounds and since my last weight check when I was pregnant with Daniel I have lost 60 pounds. I still have a long way to go (about 70lbs), but I am happy so far with my weight loss. I know right now you must be thinking geez how big was she. I was never skinny before my three pregnancies, but having three pregnancies in a row, just caused me to gain a lot of weight. I have now started to concentrate on getting my weight down and get healthier, so I can keep up with Daniel who is an active child.

To help myself lose weight I have tried to eat better. My eating habits before were not the best. I guess I was making up for not being able to eat what I want when I was pregnant due to Gestational Diabetes. The new cookbook that I got called Cooking Light has so many great recipies in it. It is the first cookbook that I have gotten that so far does not have a recipie in it I do not like. I really love the BBQ porkchop recipie in there. I have also made the sugar cookies, the BBQ Chicken Pizza (I altered this recipie a little), and I have made a chicken with black bean salsa. The black bean salsa was so good. I would recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a good cooking light recipie book.

I have also been using Weight Loss Chews from Arbonne, which give you a little energy boost and help curb your appetite. They definitely give your a energy boost, which is great. I like all the flavors, but have not tired the Pink Lemonade. I have also been using this Dietary Supplement . The are great, as they help curb your appetite and they really do. They are also suppose to increase your metabolism. I really do not know if they do this, but I know that they have helped me curb my appetite, as I use to be one that would snack a lot during the day, but I do not do so anymore. I would recommend that if you need just a little help with losing weight or curbing your appetite to try the Weight Loss Chews or the Dietary Supplement. I have notice that even if I do not take the Dietary Supplement as often as they suggest, due to taking them frequently in the beggining I do not feel I need to eat as frequently. I figure I probably will use them for another month or two and then stop using them to see what happens.

My exercise for now has only been chasing and playing with Daniel, which is great exercise and taking a walk with Daniel.

Now, you are probably wondering why is she telling us all this stuff. The main reason is because I know that there are so many people who struggle with weight issues and I just want to show that you an lose the weight and lose the weight the right way, slowly. You just need to have the confidence in yourself and the dedication.

What Daniel is Up To!!

It is so amazing how fast they grow up. I cannot believe how much Daniel has grown.

Daniel's new favorite word is "ight" for light. It sometimes actually comes out light. He is always pointing to the lights.

The newest word he has learned is "ash" for trash. He sometimes pronounces it "rash" or actually trash.

He loves to go outside. He is always going out, out and waves bye-bye. He so loves to go outside and play. He loves to go for walks.

I love the cute look he gets on his face and how happy he gets when he knows that daddy is home. I usually say go look at the window daddy is home and he gets so happy and goes da da.

He loves to share everything with the dog. It can get frustrating as we do not want he dog to have his toys.

He gets into everything. I mean every drawer and every cabinent. When you do not let him go into a cabinet or drawer he throws a five second tantrum and then gets over it.

He can say so many words now, even though they are not all extremely clear - "acker" for cracker, drink, out, dog, I did it, yes (likes to say this after you say no), no, "ight", "ash", out, get, uh-oh, brush, want, toes, sandle, shoes, "plse", it, eat, and there are more he can say that I am drawing a blank on now.

He will show you his belly when you say where is your belly.

I am amazed at how much he really does now and understand. It is so cute when you say do you want to take a nap or go nite-nite and if he does he will go to the stairs to go to his room.

He is afraid of thunderstorms. We had the first thunderstorm that he was awake for and he was so scared that he did not want me to put him down and then he just sat on my lap for half an hour.

He loves to look at his books. I think we go through at least 3-4 books a day. He is always bringing a book for us to look through.

He loves Clifford, Pooh, Piglet, and Elmo.

He is now into cars and trains. He loves to push them around and make the sounds that they make.

He loves music and likes to dance to it. It is so cute to watch him do that.

He will try to do paty cake with you, but he just ends up clapping his hands.

Right now he is being so cute by laying in our bed and putting himself under the blanket with just his head out, as if you would if you would be sleeping.

There is so much he is doing, I cannot even put it all down. This is just some of what he is up to right now.

Some new pictures!!

Here are some new pictures. I had not taken pictures of Daniel in ahwile so I thought I should take some.



Here he just looks so cute and actually had a smile on his face for a picture. Messy eater he was on this day. He was going to share his cracker with me. Now why is it they want to share their food after they have slobered all over it.



This is a picture of his looking for the light in the ceiling. He now has a thing for lights. He is always looking up at the ceiling and pointing and saying light if there is a light there.




This is what our new countertop looks like:



He also loves to go into one drawer and get screwdrivers. Karen, I guess Nathan is not the only one who loves them. I think he saw his daddy using them so he had to use them.

Memorial Day Weekend Pictures!!

Thought I would share some pictures from Memorial Day weekend at the beach. Yeah, I know just a little behind.



This is a picture of him in his chair on the beach. He was so happy to have his own chair, even though he fell over in it once because he was moving so much in it.



He really loved playing in the sand, even though right here he has the what is this stuff look, as he was moving it with his foot.





Here he is standing looking around. Wonder if he was looking at the girl that all the men that were in our group were gauking at. That is one of our friends Mark in the picture.



This is a picture of the tatoo on dh's back memorializing all of our angels and Daniel. You cannot see it too well, but in the wings of the Angel it says Liz (for Elizabeth) and David. Below the angel is Daniel's name with his handprints at around 6-8 weeks old surronding the banner.



I thought he just looked cute in this picture:

Chef Like Daddy?

Now I do not know if he is going to grow up to be a chef like daddy, but he looked cute in daddy's chef hat and stuff.

Bad Fever - Roseola

Well, Daniel has been sick for about 5 days now, but he is finally getting better. He has had a high fever for four days, with it being at it highest 104.6. That is something to make any mother worry, no matter what the doctor says. I took him to the doctor on Monday and he stated that it most likely was Roseola, but really could not be sure. The main reason for that diagnosis is that he has a high fever with no other symtpoms. He did break out a little bit of a rash after his fever broke, but there was nothing much of a rash. I am just glad that he is better now. I know that this was a short entry and really did not go into much detail, but trying to get on track with my blog again.

Yum Ketchup!!

When we went out to eat on Mother's Day we got Daniel his usual favorite of chicken tenders and french fries; however, we did something different in that we gave him some ketchup. At first Dave just put a little on his chicken nugget and Daniel would such the ketchup off the nugget without eating the nugget, then he would eventually take a bite of the nuggett. Finally we we said on forget that and just put some ketchup on his plate. He loved that and was so happy that he could did his food into the ketchup or should I saw his fingers. Below are a couple of pictures of the experience.

Here is one with him having a lot of ketchup on his nugget:

He has the look of wow is this ketchup for me:

First Molar

Daniel is getting his first molar in. I really did not realize that he was until I was cleaning his teeth and felt it. I was like now how did I miss that. However, it would explain why he has been so cranky. Along with his molar he is getting in another tooth. I know he is in pain as he keeps putting his hands in his mouth with this look of mommy make it better. I cannot wait until he gets all his teeth in and does not have to go through the pain of getting new teeth in, well at least until he gets his grown-up teeth in.

Reflections!!

Now that the anniversary of losing my two sweet babies has passed I can look back and reflect on how much that has changed my life. Before I lost David Ryan I thought you got pregnant and had a baby and that there was nothing that could go wrong. Life taught me differently. Dave and I had to endure the loss of two babies and in the process have realized how precious life is and how wonderful having a baby is and what joy that brings to your life. I have realized that no matter what you do in life a curevball can be thrown at you any minute and you have to be ready to deal with them. I met an amazing group of women that helped me get through the loss of both my angels. Without them I do not know where I would be, as they are an amazing group of women who understand what I was feeling.

Daniel is the light of my life and I could not imagine life without him. It has been such an amazing experience being a mother, a experience I was afraid that I would not have. Watching him change everyday, learn about the world, and grow up has changed me. It is amazing looking at life through a child's eye. There is not a mean bone in a child's body, they are so sweet and wanting to please you. The smile that they get on their face when they see you, just melts my heart. Everytime Daniel looks at me with those baby blue eyes and smiles I know how truly lucky I am to have the love of such a wonderful child. When he gives me a hug and a kiss it is the best thing in the world. I cannot wait to experience things that will be new for him with him, like the zoo and watching a baseball game.

I have also learned that life will not give you more than you can handle. At the time you might thing why me, why is this happening to me, but for every bad experience you have in life you get that much stronger as a person.

Daniel at the Beach

May 1, 2007

On the day that we were flying back home we decided to take Daniel to the beach with grandma and grandpa. Last time he was at the beach he hated the sand and everything to do with the beach. This time was different as he played with the sand and he walked in the sand. Here are some pictures:

Having fun in the sand:

He started to try to eat the sand, as you can see:

New Things Daniel Can Do

Daniel has changed so much in the past few weeks to month that I thought I would post what he has started to do now.

His new favorite thing is to be mommy's little helper. In the morning he will help me unload the dishwasher. He starts with the silverware and pulls them each out one at a time and hands them to me so I can put them away. He then moves on to the plates and other items. He is actually pretty strong. He at times like to life up two plates at a time and has this look on his face of boy these are heavy. He also tries to help with the laundry, but that never goes to well. He likes to just throw the clean clothes into the hamper or pull the folded ones out. Although now he has started to hand the clothes to you to fold.

His favorite thing to do now is to hand you one by one his blocks, or little books or whatever. It is so cute.

He also has for the first time gotten some food on his fork and then put it in his mouth. He has only done this once though. For now he just likes to play with the fork.

He also said nite nite for the first time a couple of days ago. He does say a lot of words now, but still says more babble than anything.

He is also now starting to follow commands better. The other day I told him to turn off his aquarium thing that is attached to his crib and he did that. I ask him to get a book and he can do that.

A few weeks ago though he started giving kisses. This has been the best thing. He has always given me hugs, but now he will give kisses. It is so cute as he like to give the open mouth kiss. I love that he can give me hugs and kisses. Ah, the joys of being a parent.

He is now trying to walk up the steps like a big boy. Still not doing so well at that, so it is like half waking/half crawling. Now he likes to hold onto your hand and walk down the steps. Boy if were were not there to hold his hand I am sure he would fall down as sometime he likes to walk too fast.

There is so much he is doing now, that I have only touched a little of it. Boy they change so much every day.

First Airplane Ride!!

April 29, 2007

April 29th was the day that Daniel first went on a plane ride. Believe me I was dreading it as I was so scared he would just cry the whole time. I did not sleep very well the night. It was nice to be able to pre-board the plane, so that we could get a bulk seat, so we had more room. Drawback was that there was no tray, but it was worth it to have some room. It was only about a two hour flight so no big deal there with no tray. It was so cute watching Daniel after we got him strapped in his car seat on the plane. He had a look of where am I. The plane started to move backwards for about a two seconds and Daniel was out. It took him that long to go to sleep and I mean he was asleep. So he did not get to experience the take off. I was worried about his ears and the popping issue, but there did not seem to be a problem with that. He did well, but woke up with about hour or so left on the plane ride. We gave him some of those ritz chips that they give you on the plane and he was so happy with those, well for at least five minutes.

I had to take him out of his carset for the last fifteen minutes of the airplane ride as he just did not want to be in his carset anymore. Another good thing about having the bulk head seats as he could go on the floor to play. The best moment of the whole plane trip was the landing and the look on Daniel's face. When the plane hit the ground and then the pilot put on the reverse throttle to slow down the plane, well you should have seen the look on Daniel's face. He had the look of fear that what the crap is that and can you make it stop as I do not like it. I wish I had the camera to take a picture of his expression.

In all he did great on the plane I was so proud of him.

First Haircut

We decided that Daniel needed a haircut, as his hair was getting kind of long in the back and starting to go over his ears a little bit. I was kind of sad to give him a haircut, as I knew that meant my little baby was growing up on me and becoming a toddler. If I was not sure by the walking that he was doing or the climbing he is doing.

We decided to take him to Cartoon Haircuts in hopes that would make it easier as I knew that he would not like it one bit. When we first got there, there was some toys for him to play with so he thought hey this is alright. When we put him in the chair he was still fine, but had this look of like what is going on. The lady then got the water bottle to get his hair wet, and she first squirt the smock a little to try to get his use to it, but it did not matter. The second she sprayed some water on his hair the crying started. She started to cut his hair, he was fine if she was cutting the hair on the top of his head, but when she went to cute the back he would turn his head and put his fingers back there. We got him to calm down (one of the other hair dressers went and got him a toy hoping that would help), but he would still move his head whenever she went to cut his hair. Then she went to get the electronic razer, oh my. Everytime she went near his head with those he had a meltdown. I hated that Daniel was crying and so upset, but I was happy at the end that he got the hair cut. There are parts of his hair that are not cut the best but what could I expect when he kept moving his head.

The pictures I have are not the best as you cannot see the front of his face, as it was hard for me to get a facial shot since everytime I went to click to take the picture he would turn his head. Here are some of the pictures.

We had to hold his hands so he would stop reaching at the back of his head.

The toy helped him out a little bit. He really could care less about the cartoon on the TV, as he is not one to sit still and watch TV.

Here are some pictures of what his hair cut looks like.

I know I am bias, but I think he has such amazing blue eyes. You can kind of see that in this picture.

You can kind of see where the hair cut is not perfect, but he was moving so much it was hard to get it perfect.

Next time we are taking him to the Barber that his grandfather and father went to. I hope his hair grows very slowly.

Feeling Better and New Game

Daniel is starting to feel a little better. I feel bad that I gave him the cold that I had, which I still have but not that bad anymore. I feel so bad that he has had so much snot coming out of his nose for the past couple of days, sometimes he has like these two bubbles of snot coming out of his nose. Today the runny nose is not as bad, as the cold has started to work his way down to his chest. I hate to hear him coughing and waking up at night coughing, but I know that he is getting better.

Well, he absolutely loves for you to push him around in his Mickey Plane . He loves pushing the buttons on it to make the propeller spin around. He sometimes gets mesmorized by the lights on the propeller. Right now he cannot push himself around while he is on it, but he has another ride on toy that he can do that with. Yeah, he got two ride on toys for his birthday. Dave and I did not get either one. However, he loves both of them so much. So his new game is to give mommy exercise and have her push him around on his Mickey Plane. I love the smile that it puts on his face.

One Year Pictures

I realized that I did not share Daniel's one year old picture with pooh. For comparison, I am posting his one month old pooh picture:

Easter!

Easter is so different this year. Daniel was so small last year - here is a picture around Easter last year:

and here is one of Easter this year, such a difference:

Here is a picture of his Easter basket. You can see the candy for mommy and daddy below his eggs:
Here is a picture of him with his Easter bunny, he was so happy to get the bunny.

The dog so wanted to get the bunny and chew it up. Daniel had thrown it on the floor and it is like a chase to get it from the dog and then to get him to let go of it. But that is what Daniel does, he will give the dogs some of his toys and it is so difficult sometimes to keep the dog from running away with them and destroying them. O.K. got a little side tracked, back to Easter.

We let him dye eggs this year. We figured that it would be something he could enjoy. He liked dipping the eggs, but he also tried to eat the eggs. It was fun though watching him try to dye the eggs. He did pretty good that is until he started to want to splash in the dye. His hands were stained after the dye. Here are some pictures of him dying his eggs:

We also did a little Easter egg hunt for him at Grandma's house. You know the type where the eggs are very evident. He did a good job at that. Here are some pictures of him getting his Easter eggs. Sorry that the one is sideways.

In all it was a good Easter (minus the one argument, there always seems to be a little arguemnt during the holidays) and I enjoyed watching Daniel dye his eggs and finding the eggs.

Uh-oh!! and Using a Spoon

Daniel has been trying to say uh-oh for the past week. It is so cute to watch him try. He gets the Uh part but cannot say the oh part afterwards. He will say Uh and then kind of studder and then have his mouth wide open.

Also, today is the first time he actually dipped the spoon into the oatmeal and then put it in his mouth. Usually he was just dip the spoon and then bang it. However he was not neat as you can see:

First Birthday Party!!

Today was Daniels first birthday party. Dave is creating a great spread of food to include a vegie platter, fruit platter, cheese and crackers, hamburger and hotdogs, jambalaya, meatballs, pasta salad, and potato salad. Everything was great.

I made two cakes for the adults and Daniel one cake for himself. The cakes were pooh cakes. I had made them saturday night, but iced them on Sunday morning. That was a two and a half hour job. Here is a picture of one of his cakes (you can see his individual cakes in one of the pictures of him eating his cake):

You will have to excuse the horrible handwriting in the balloon. My handwriting is horrible and I do not have the templates for the alphabet to use.


Here are two pictures of the chocolate lolipops I made:

Daniel's grandpa and aunt had come into town for the weekend, so they were there to help us with the party. Daniel had no idea what was going on, as it was to him just a normal morning. I am sure this will be different next year, but then again next year his party will be on his birthday. When Daniel took his morning nap we decorated the house and his grandpa and aunt blew up the ballons with the helium tank. Daniel loves ballons. We got some with pooh, tigger, and the gang on them.


Even though Daniel had no idea what was going on he was loving the buffet of food, especially the cheese and crackers (his favorite). Once people started showing up Dave went to man the grill and then the party reminded me of those school dances where the boys were on one side and the girls on the other. Daniel started getting cranky, so I knew that it was time to do his cake. We had gotten Daniel a hat to wear, but he really was not into it.

Now I thought I was going to have one of the kids who just dove into their cake and pushed their face into it. Not Daniel. He was acting like he was at some high class resturant and was every so gently picking some icing off and putting it in his mouth. I tried to help him out a little by getting to the cake, but no such luck. Eventually he took a little bit of the cake, but the only time he actually got it all overhimself was when he was doing his little cranky thing and rubbed his hands all over his head. Here are some pictures:

He was so tired he then fell asleep on grandma taking a nap:

When moved on to gift time. He still was not so sure on how to open his gifts. I had to help him. He tried a couple of times, but as soon as a gift was open we only wanted that gift, so we had to put it out of his sight.

All in all it was a good day and Daniel was so happy. It has been an amazing year watching him grow up and learn.

One Today!!

I cannot believe that Daniel is turning one today. It is so hard to believe that a year ago today I gave birth to my little boy. He has grown up a lot from his 5lb 11.6 oz size when he was born. Where does the time go. I remember when he would sleep next to me in his bassinet and the getting up every couple of hours to feed him a bottle in the rocking chair, now he is dropping bottles and only wants two a day. A sure sign that he is growing up. He has gone from not being able to move around to walking-almost running around. He has gone from only being able to cry to saying a bunch of words. His first word being ba ba for his bottle.

I got all sentimental looking back at his pictures, saying I cannot believe how much he has grown and how adorable he is. His vocabulary now includes the following words, ma ma, da da, drink, eat, want, all done, tur ta (turtle), no, yeah, and dog. He has also said the following, but not really more than once or twice - water, babbles (bubbles), and bfast (breakfast). The baby babble is so cute and trying to figure out what he is saying.

He now likes to get into everything. If it is in a drawer or a cabinet then it must be for him. If something is plugged in an outlet that must mean it needs to be pulled out. If there is a glass in his reach then that must mean he needs to try to get it and drink whatever is in there.

Watching him just exploring his entire world and figuring out how everything works is an amazing thing. Having him learn how to put a block in a hole or how to turn a light off and on, is just amazing to me. It is so amazing to me how much a baby an learn in just their first year of life.

I love that he gives me hugs and kisses and that his eyes light up when I enter the room. He is a momma's boy and always wants mamma to be with him. If I am having a bad day, his smile can always make me smile and put me in a better mood. I love my little boy and his is the joy of my life.

I never thougth I would have a baby of my own. However, I was given the best gift in the world, my little boy Daniel who is turning one today.