Lingering

Barefoot, pregnant and in the kitchen was my dream and I'm blessed to be living it out daily! It's way better than I could have ever imagined and mommyhood is the BEST job ever! Oh how I love my Ryder Jeremiah! He made me a mommy - something I always wanted to be. I love lingering with him!  

3rd Trimester - She's Coming!

I officially hit my third trimester this past Monday - eek! Good news? The house is officially redecorated, kitchen is redone, all of the interior of the house has been repainted and we love our new home. Bad news? Baby Joy's room still isn't near ready, we still have to transfer Ryder Jeremiah's room into a toddler room and the garage is a huge mess! Little by little we are getting things done though and we've enjoyed the transformation of our home - can we say nesting?!

I've been making an earnest effort to linger and have been savoring every second of my time with Ryder J. We both can't wait for baby Joy to arrive (that's a lie - Ryder isn't interested in having a sibling) but we are both cherishing our mommy/son days. 

Hello third trimester. It's WAY different being pregnant while chasing a toddler all day. 

Morning kisses.  Don't mind my morning face - I think I slept all of 2 hours because baby Joy loves to kick mama ALL night. 

Breakfast in mommy and daddy's bed. 

This morning I was really craving blueberry scones so.....30 min later homemade blueberry scones and strawberry lemonade were served! 

The hubs and I also did some banana muffin/cookie making the other night too.  A rare event but it was fun baking together! 

Baby Joy is coming! This last trimester will fly by and we can't wait to kiss your sweet face. 

Papa's Birthday!

It was Papa's 61st birthday last Thursday. We celebrated with the family on Sunday and as always, enjoyed every playing second with all of my cousins. What a circus it is with 6 little ones running around but cousins are the absolute best! Such sweet memories in the making. 

Happy 61st birthday Papa! You are the true patriarch of this family and what an incredible example you are of what a Godly, loving, hard-working man should be for his family.  How blessed we are to call you daddy and Papa! 

No birthday party is complete without birthday hats and cake!

LA Appointment - Dr. Magee

Last Thursday we did the 4 hour commute to Los Angeles (2 hours each way) to consult with a new plastic surgeon by the name of Dr. Magee.  Dr. Magee works out of Children's Hospital of Los Angeles (CHLA) and comes highly recommended from our circle of cleft friends. Dr. Magee is the son of the co-founder of Operation Smile - an incredible non-profit organization performing cleft surgeries all over the world....you've probably seen infomercials on television about their amazing work. Anywho, our purpose in meeting with Dr. Magee was to gain some more insight on our road ahead.  Ryder Jeremiah's palate holes are limiting his speech and oral development so we are trying to figure out next steps and the best way to navigate through this journey. Dr. Magee was able to evaluate Ryder and confirmed what other doctors have told us thus far- there's not much we can do right now as far as "correcting" his palate holes.  His palate skin is still healing and performing another palate surgery is too risky and may potentially create new holes so for now....we wait and see how his speech/oral development continues. Dr. Magee did suggest exploring a retainer-like device (aka an optertator) that would act as a temporary palate and cover the roof of Ryder's mouth allowing him to suck from straws and close off the palate hole which is limiting his speech. This suggestion wasn't new but comes with its share of concerns and challenges. One being that this device would have to be adjusted a couple of times a week (Ryder's mouth is constantly changing/growing so weekly adjustments will be needed to ensure the opterator is fitting properly). And as you can imagine, having a retainer-like device in a 19 month old's mouth can create a bounty of challenges - keeping the retainer in properly, cleaning it after every meal, possible infection and those bi-weekly adjustments probably won't be awesome. We also have to find a local orthodontist who has experience with opterators for children with clefts and that can be a huge challenge. So for now we do some research, continue with oral and speech therapy, patiently wait but most importantly continue praying for God to lead and direct our steps as we travel through our cleft journey. We tend to get so bogged down with information and different "routes" we can take (this surgery, that doctor, this device, that speech therapist) that we feel like shutting down but just like any parent, we want the absolute BEST for our baby and will do everything in our power to make sure we make the best decisions for Ryder Jeremiah's overall care and development.  We are confident that God will continue guiding our path as long as we continue to seek His direction...afterall, before Ryder Jeremiah was in my womb, He knew him and He has set him apart - Jeremiah 1:5. 

We got to spend more time with daddy on the morning of our LA appointment. 

Waiting to be called back for our appointment....checking out this cool aquarium and trying to find Nemo. 

Daddy makes everything fun! Even doctor appointments. 

Peekaboo! 

All smiles! 

Some more waiting but this time we are in a room. 

Ryder was entertained by the TV for all of 10 seconds before he decided to climb up and down these steps. 

After an hour and a half of visiting CHLA we were finally on our way back home. It's a good thing Chester was along for the car ride! 

Chester has been with Ryder to every cleft appointment since he was born - he's the best buddy a boy can have! 

5 o'clock somewhere!

It's 5 o'clock somewhere right? Enjoying this summer weather.....oh wait. It's supposed to be winter still. 

I love that my cousin Grey is almost one. We play together all of the time. I show him the big boy ropes. 

We sometimes even give each other a smooch but our daddies told us to stop doing this. 

I told cousin Grey that he can't have a backyard milk-tail until he's at least one....it's a good thing his first birthday is next month because it's always 5 o'clock somewhere. 

Precious Moments

Savoring these precious moments. 

We went to buy buy Baby to register for baby Joy today. Somehow Ryder Jeremiah ended up with a new toy. Must have been a "thank you" from daddy for all of the help with the yard work.

My hubby finally got to wear his Valentine's gift today. Nope - didn't get him clothes....or chones.  Now he can have sound with his play station while Ryder J is sleeping. Boys will ALWAYS be boys...and I wouldn't have it any other way. 

 

Celebration of Love!

In typical "Ryan fashion" my husband, once again, outdid himself this Valentine's Day. Because of all of the home renovating we agreed to have a quiet Valentine's Day (aka continue to sort through and put together the house/garage). Well this morning he and Ryder J grabbed some donuts as mommy slept in a bit. I came downstairs to a new kitchen trash can, a pair of running shoes and a card, signed by Ryder Jeremiah. Then Ryan told me to be ready by 9am and handed me an envelope that read "clue #1". The rest of the morning was followed by more clues and a scavenger hunt which happened to recreate our first week of dating. We had breakfast at Knowlwoods, played miniature golf at Boomers and the morning concluded with him handing me a certificate for a booked hotel room at Aria in Las Vegas for 3 nights (which is scheduled for July - post baby delivery). I, of course, cried my littles eyes out as he kept asking "why are you crying?" and Ryder just looked up at me kinda confused as well. I was so overwhelmed with how blessed I am to call him husband, lover and best friend that all I could do was cry (I'm sure the prego hormones had something to do with things too). Today was definitely a celebration of love and I am more in love with my husband than I ever thought possible. He is the calm to my storm, the anchor to my craziness and the reason I belly laugh so hard I sometimes pee my pants. 

Ryder J opened some v-day gifts too! 

Breakfast. 

Miniature golf. 

Some dance moves in the arcade. 

My collection of flowers that my husband sent me every day this week. 

Then my two boys did some more house stuff when we got home - they hung a couple of TV's and curtains. 

My hubby also opened his Valentine's Day gifts and we finished eating the remainder of the chocolate covered strawberries Ryder sent to his daddy at work yesterday. 

The day ended with homemade pizzas (a Valentine's Day tradition), a movie and some couch cuddles! A celebration of love indeed!