loving the tub!

Even with a nasty headcold, this kid loves the tub. And at the end of the day when all else may have been a disaster, I'm happy to settle into our nightly routine which always includes this wonderful event.

sniffle, cough, sniffle

Three days ago, Dylan woke up with a nasty headcold. Poor baby. We were still in Chicago visiting family, but had to cut it short to get Dylan back home. So, we packed up the car and headed back to St. Louis. Thankfully he slept most of the way!
It is his first EVER cold and he is pretty miserable at times, but surviving. I called his pediatrician's office and they said that he didn't need to come in or anything. I just hope he doesn't wind up needing any antibiotics, because my pre$cription coverage ends with the new year!
He has a runny nose, a little cough (which breaks my heart), and a scratchy throat (that I can hear when he cries). Ryan hasn't gotten it yet, thankfully, but I've been stuck with a nagging sore throat and keep warding off the full-blown cold as best as I can. One thing is for sure: it is harder to care for a fussy, sick baby... but MUCH more difficult when you are fussy and sick yourself!
I'll raise my hot cup of tea to that! Amen.
Now off to take a nap while the baby is still asleep.
Update 12/30/05: Ryan called Dr. Liu's office again this morning and got Dylan an appointment this afternoon at 3:45pm. I'm glad we are taking him in. Last night he was on a major sleep boycott for 8 hours and cried most of that time! Sounds like it is settling into his chest too, which worries me.

Merry Christmas!

We are in Chicago at my (Ryan's) aunt and uncle's house. Grandma and Grandpa are here too. Last night they had a bunch of people here for dinner, and this morning we opened presents and went to church at noon. Dylan has been faithfully boycotting all his naps since we got here. He bounces between super happy and super grumpy. Must be par for the course with a trip during the holidays with so much excitement and new people around for him to play with.

Dylan sitting on Uncle Roger's lap...

hanging out in Aunt Polly's kitchen...

...and attempting to eat the wrapping paper on EVERYONES presents. I'm not sure if he liked the paper better than what was in them or not! Silly boy!

Dylan got a LeapFrog toy from Roger and Polly. It is pretty cute (and just the right amount of annoying for them to get a big kick out of giving it to our son). Uncle Roger liked to watch Ryan squirm when Dylan opened yet another battery-operated, noisy toy.

Happy Festivus!!!

We celebrated Festivus today, as the 23rd of December is the traditional day for the "holiday" according to Seinfeld. Our buddies Rob, Julie, and Katie came over to help us do the honors. Dylan opened a couple of his presents from his Grandma and Grandpa Drenan. The first was a cute set of "keys" that makes noise, and second is a baseball that makes the sound of broken glass when you throw it. The genesis of this gift is an inside story between his Dad and his Grandpa.
We also had a gift exchange with our friends while we watched the classic Festivus Seinfeld episode.



The Feats of Strength!
Festivus would not be complete without a metal pole (in our case: a halogen lamp) and the Feats of Strength. This year the participants were Briana and Julie, the "feat" was arm-wrestling...the winner: Briana.
Thankfully the girls arm-wrestled versus leg-wrestling (since based on previous workouts at the gym, Julie has Briana beat with the leg workouts and Briana has always breezed through the arm part!)

Thanks for a good time tonight guys!

Crummy Tummy

This weekend was full of Christmas parties. On Saturday night we had Ryan's lab party, Sunday afternoon was one with my mama-roos group (consisting of a lovely bunch of mommies, daddies, and babies), and Sunday night was our C-Group church party at the Wiggers. All went well until last night (Sunday) around 11:00pm.
We had thought maybe Dylan wouldn't do too well with all the holiday running-around, and headed home earlier rather than later after our last party. Dylan seemed tired, so we put him to bed around 9:30 for the night and I thought for sure he would wake up before long in a state of fussiness from a day filled with overstimulation. But to my surprise, it was I who ended up in tears.
I was on the phone talking to my mom and dad before heading off to bed, when all of a sudden a wave of extreme nausea came over me. I headed to the bathroom, where I stayed for the next hour and a half. I'm not goin g to go into any further detail, to spare you... but I know SOMETHING did NOT agree with me. Either it was some kind of flu-bug or perhaps something I ate. In either case, I ended up staying home with Dylan today from work to ward off the potential spread to others. Anyhow, I'm still recovering from a violent night and hoping that tonight is much less exciting at the Drenan household!
One nice thing to add: Ryan came home from lab tonight with a dozen beautiful pink roses for me. What a sweetie!

Speechless

Sometimes we are overcome with joy and happiness at being Dylan's parents that we can't speak. Today, looking down at him when he was swaddled up in his crib (just like this picture), we just stared at him. And he stared back. And smiled. No words describe it sometimes. Yes, sometimes there are words that describe the frustration or joy that describe parenthood, but sometimes not. For a brief moment today we were speechless. Beautiful child.

Update: After Ryan wrote the above blog, our precious child threw up and had a major blowout (twice!). Life sure keeps us on our toes, no matter how speechless we might be from time to time. (sigh!)
Now Ryan is in the other room, working on getting Dylan back to sleep for the night (who is bound to put up a fight, I'm sure).

Winter Wonderland

We had our first real snowfall yesterday. Ryan took some pictures for the record, of course. Dylan wasn't too interested in the snow, but seemed perplexed & amused with the coldness. There was about 3-4" of snowfall throughout the day. The roads were horrible, so Dylan and I stayed in the whole day and just snuggled! Today hopefully it will be a bit better outside because we have a trip to Joann's Fabrics planned with Julie and Katie this afternoon. I'm sure Dylan is as excited as I am about going and looking at fleece fabrics for the bunting blanket I'm going to make him!!!

Pictures by the tree

We took pictures of Dylan in front of the Christmas tree the other day. Julie came over to help us get some family shots, which we appreciated. Dylan was fussy for about 75% of the time, but once we popped in a Baby Einstein dvd, things got better. I never realized how hard it is to get a baby to cooperate during photo shoots, until now. Thankfully we have a digital camera. We take about 100 pictures and end up with about 2-3 that we like enough to have printed. What did people do before digital?!?

We sold our couch and two chairs last week on ebay and the lady came by today to pick them up. It was kind of sad. We decided to wait before buying new couches for a few months until we are more settled, which means we are now going to be celebrating the holidays and Ryan's defense next month with no livingroom furniture. It should be interesting. We moved the glider rocking chair from the baby nursery into the living room so we have at least one nice chair to sit in. It feels strange now in there. I'm excited to get different (more comfortable) furniture in a few months, but nevertheless it feels strange to sit (on the floor) in an only partially furnished livingroom now.

Today we ventured out to Chesterfield to work on some holiday shopping. Ryan, Dylan, and I left after Dylan's morning nap which should have been ideal timing for a not-so-fussy-baby. NOT. He was not a happy little boy. He either was needing a day at home inside where it was quiet and predictable, or was EXTREMELY irritated by the new winter bunting suit we bought him at Target last night. I'm not too sure he likes that new bunting suit. We might need to take it back. Hmmm.
So anyways, after about 45 minutes of wandering through the store for gifts with a very unhappy baby, we decided to cut our losses and head home. I'm starting to think that ebay might be the best option now for shopping this year. I'm sure Dylan would agree with me.