Out with 2011

Happy New Year everybody.  Colin went to his first New Year's party and he enjoyed it as long as he didn't interact with anyone else for more than 2 minutes.  He seems to be recognizing people aren't mommy and daddy... something to work on.  We are looking into 'mommy and me' swimming lessons and also a play group through the mommy group he sometimes goes to.  Hopefully he is able to get some social skills.  He wasn't happy at the last mommy group when another baby borrowed his toy.
Colin is able to do plenty now and the list keeps growing.  He'll reach out for either of us now which is very cute.  He will experiment with taking out the pacifier and putting it back in.  He's batting about .500 on that.  He's pretty good at pushup and crunches.  He'll roll from front to back but the other way we just need one more inch.  We blame the bulky diapers.  He's tried a few foods; rice cereal wasn't a big hit but banana and sweet potatoes were.  Peas and avocado are on deck.

Enjoy his December album:

Pre- Christmas post

Our diaper changes have become a bit of a wrestling match over control of mommy or daddy's arms.  He's grabby and will bring his legs up into a ball.  Needless to say, changing diapers has become a bit more challenging.  We will spend some time playing while we wait for a bit of certainty that Colin is done with that diaper.  We were able to capture a bit of squealing and laughs.  Getting his feet "eaten" is hilarious for him.

4 months old

Dear Santa,
       I feel I've been a good boy these past 4 months.  For my first Christmas I would like:

1. A fist to suck on, either attached to me or not
2. anything crinklely
3. to be turned upside down
4. Ceiling fans 
5. Those decorations I saw in the grocery store
6. Anything to make weird noises, mommy and daddy are doing okay for right now
7. my doggie Hobie
8. containers to store all my surplus drool
9. raspberries blown on my belly

and

Red Ryder carbine-action, two hundred shot Range Model air rifle with a compass and this thing which tells time built right in to the stock!

Sincerly,
Colin

PS  I attached a photo to show off my cuteness.

November 2011

Another busy month.  After Colin turned 3 months he seemed to decide to do a few things.  He made his first laugh, he rolled over, and grabbed at toys and he figured out how to move his feet forward while standing.  He haven't been able to see the rolling or get laughs consistently but they happen.
We had some visitors this month.  The Cockrells came for a few days and we were able to see a bit of Boston but mostly just hang out which was nice.  Sean and Daniel came up for a week and although their sleep schedules were almost the opposite of ours we were able to spend some time together and have a belated Thanksgiving.
Now we are gearing up for Colin's first Christmas, he's not excited but we are.

If you click on the slideshow below you'll be able to see the captions for the pictures in Picasa.

Holiday traditions?

We're trying to come up with some ideas for annual Christmas gifts for Colin.
So far we've come up with:
Legos sets
Guinness book of world records
different collectors items
Year summary book

Got any other suggestions?

3 Months

Colin is now 3 months old.   He's been able to get up to 7 hours at night now, so that is nice.  We've had a pretty consistent week of Mr Furious around dinner time which is not so nice.  We are in the middle of a visit with the Cockrells so you'll have to wait until the end of the month for those adventure shots.  We did Christmas pics and hopefully we'll be motivated enough to send those out in a reasonable fashion.  We can always hope.  We are looking forward to some firsts soon like rolling over, laughing and Thanksgiving.

Happy Halloween

October was a fairly eventful month.  We found out that Colin is a good traveler when we flew out to California and also that mommy and daddy are not.  The infamous Colin pouty face has been captured on film.  Colin was a turtle for Halloween and a glow in the dark skeleton and a cute baby in Halloween duds.  He is very conversational, especially when naked on the changing table.  He enjoys taking showers or baths with mommy and daddy, drooling a ton, standing up while holding onto adult fingers, sleeping for up to 5 or 6 hour stretches at night sometimes and of course ceiling fans.

Hobie is a big fan of snow and unfortunately mud.  She's gotten much better about boundaries inside the house and has learned to knock on the door to come in.  We've finally found toys that are difficult for her to destroy.  Bunny has moved outside into his bunny condo.  Unfortunately you'll have to wait until November to see pictures of the place.

Check back into the "Faces of Colin" album for a couple new additions:
Faces of Colin
For those of you that don't see the slidshow below click here

Here are the pictures this month:

Poor Colin

Yea!!!  Unscheduled doctor visit!!!

Colin is a bit under the weather with his first cold.  He's been very stuffy which isn't fun for anyone here.  Apparently baby colds can go 2-4 weeks so we've got that to look forward to.  The doctor also said that he looks good except for the congestion.  So saline up the nose it is.  Colin isn't to thrilled with that most times.  On the plus side stuffy nose baby talk is quite adorable and he doesn't seem overly affected by this.  I think we may have lost more sleep than he did. 

 

Poor Mr Stuffy

2 month checkup

Two month check up apparently means 2 shots.  The first one brought out Mr Furious, the second was a shock and that brought Mr Evenmorefurious.  He was fine 15 seconds later though.  He weighs 11.5 lbs and is 23.5 in long.  Ceiling has have been discovered and they are the greatest things since cookbooks.  He's more talkative and active.  Can't wait for laughs and rolling.  There will be plenty of pictures for Oct, just you wait.

Wiped out after having shots

2 Months and Counting

So Colin will be 2 months tomorrow.  Since we are traveling tomorrow we are posting today.  In the video you can see his 'conversational' skills are improving.  He talking to the animals on his bouncy seat.  He also getting more aware and interactive every day.  The cookbooks are old news, it's light bulbs now.  His drooling abilities have grown exponentially.  It seems he is able to drool more liquid than he takes in.  He's also developed the habit of being extremely fussy from about 5-8 or so.  On the other hand, he is getting better at taking longer sleep sessions at night.  We can't wait to see all the new things he is going to do.

Sept 2011

Things have seemed to move pretty quickly this month.  Jenny is back at work.  Brad is doing the stay-at-home dad thing.  Hobie is about the same and the rabbit (remember that we have that???) is doing pretty good having run of his room downstairs.  Colin will smile and coo.  He's building up his little muscles.  Eating and pooping oddly coincide making both difficult to do.  Riding in the car and taking a shower with mommy or daddy seem to be relaxing activities.  Colin has been able to go 5-6 hours between feedings at night, but also need to eat every two some nights.  Overall we are tired but very happy.  Here is the link for the Sept photos:

Sept 2011 photos

Happy baby

He takes some coaxing, but he'll and. coo. Ignore all that background noise.  (Sorry I don't know how to flip the video so it's straight.  Just lay down and watch it)

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1 month check up

Colin went to the doctor for his 1 month checkup even though he is 5 weeks.  He's just a smidge under 10 pounds (45th percentile) and he's grown a few inches to 22.5 inches (75th percentile).  Doctor said everything is looking good.  He apparently hates shots, as he vocalized at this past visit.  Jenny will be going back to work next Friday so we'll be doing some trial runs on hopeful feeding and sleeping routines.  We'll be able to let you know how it goes at the end of the month with all the Sept pictures.

Happy 1 month birthday!!!

Mr Handsome

Mr Furious

So Colin is one month old today.  We think he's grown a couple of inches and gained a couple of pounds.  We done some measuring but not quite as accurate as the doctor's office. 


So far Colin has:

• traveled to Ipswich, MA for some clams
• walked around Portsmouth, NH
• gone apple picking at Brooksby Farms in Peabody, MA
• cried, pooped, peed, slept
• developed a fascination with the row of cook books above the couch
• been able to pick up and swivel his head around while on his tummy
• stare and focus a bit on things
• stand, with some help (especially when he's Mr Furious)

We've been collecting pictures of things that have been happening in Sept. and will post those at the end of the month.  I guess that is all for now.

We think we are doing okay...

So it seems that there is somewhat of a routine appearing, although it's not a steady one, but it's there.  We can normally get at least some sleep at night.  Colin is doing the normal healthy baby things: poopin' eating, sleeping, crying.    We've noticed he has a couple of personalities.  He will be very cute/handsome or just furious. 

We have a couple more albums to share so take a look:

https://picasaweb.google.com/plethora3333333/RestOfAug?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCKye9ezfn7OuiAE&feat=directlink

https://picasaweb.google.com/plethora3333333/TheFacesOfColin?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCJKT0c-Wysi3zwE&feat=directlink

First photo album

We'll be posting photos and videos of Colin's progress.  They won't be here forever (we have a data limit) but I think you can download them.  We'll be keeping them on the computer so you could also ask us about the pics if they aren't here. 

https://picasaweb.google.com/plethora3333333/ColinHospital?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCNvGoaWYloqxSw&feat=directlink

https://picasaweb.google.com/plethora3333333/ColinSFirstDaysAtHome?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCK-n_fOzh6HZCw&feat=directlink

We are all happy and things are going well.  The sleeping routine is getting figured out, luckily we are both home for a while.

Colin Richard Rybarczyk

Colin weighed in @ 1:14am Fri Aug 12, 2011. He's 7 lbs 4oz and 19 3/4". Jenny did and is doing very well. YEAAAA!!!!!

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Colin Richard Rybarczyk

Colin weighed in @ 1:14am Fri Aug 12, 2011. He's 7 lbs 4oz and 19 3/4". Jenny did and is doing very well. YEAAAA!!!!!

Published with Blogger-droid v1.7.4

Are we there yet?!

No.

He is apparently biding his time with his little baby nun-chucks, repeatedly assaulting Jenny from the inside.  He just needs to find the right way out we guess/hope.  Jenny has been doing well if you exclude the discomfort, sleeplessness, hunger but filling up quickly, swelling in the feet, etc.  We visit the hospital frequently for checkups and what-not and the baby is healthy, average size and all the right parts.  Now we just wait.  Hopefully our next post will be with the baby......

Almost there...

We're almost there. At our last appointment the midwife told us that other than gaining a little more weight, baby is ready. The crib and changing table are set up and ready to go, and the hardwood floors upstairs are done. We've moved back into our room and just need to get the baby room arranged. Pictures of all this stuff will have to wait a bit

Hobie

We got our dog

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Skip squash and go onto honeydew

Besides tasting better, honeydew is a bit more easy to picture.  There are too many types of squash and don't taste nearly as good.  Therefore we'll will be skipping the "squash" stage and move onto the "honeydew" stage (we're pretty much there anyway).

The baby moves quite a bit, it looks like something is trying to escape.  There is still some time though.  We've taken 1/2 of an intro to birthing class which has given us some good information about what to expect during the birth and some ideas on how to cope with it.  They also gave us a dolphin shape massage thingy which works pretty well so we'll go back this Saturday.

The baby shower was this past weekend and all the gifts filled the car.  Thank you to everyone.  Thank you cards got done right away, now we just need to mail them...

We also will be having another, sooner, addition.  That will be this weekend if things all go well.  Hobie will be our collie/german shepard.  We are excited about that.  Hopefully he'll (because all dogs are boys by default even though he's technically a she) be a quick learner and get trained before the baby arrives.

Baby room - done

We finished the baby room, now we need to do the floors in our room. Thank you to Jed for the help.  Here is a little video to show how the progress went.

This is before we did much work on the room.

Here is the room after we ripped up the carpet

And here is the completed room.  We need to touch up the clouds and probably redo the soccer ball.  They look much better through a camera not close up....

Moving along

Things are moving along.  The doctor visits are more frequent and the baby is doing fine.  He's in the 50th percentile for size and weight, so average is good.  We've been getting a lot of baby things like clothes, toys, things we don't know what they are, diapers. We need to get his room done so we have a place to put everything. His room is all painted, now we just need to put the flooring in (this weekend's job).   August will be here soon, hopefully he'll wait.
We think we have everything where we want it in the house, at least the room it will go in.  After the bedrooms get the flooring we can actually organize the rooms.  We are definitely keeping busy.  It's good practice, right?

The month of the eggplant

We are approaching month 6.  Jenny has had about 1 month of normality (not felling sick) so far.  The 3rd trimester is supposed to be rough from what we've heard.  It doesn't seem fair.  CCR is kicking and moving like crazy, so that is something good.  There will be more check-ups this month so we should have some more images to post in the near future.

We have also completed our move to our house.  Things are slowly getting to where they belong.  We need to decrease the clutter some more before we shoot a video tour of the house.  If anyone wants to keep busy we've got plenty to do - new floors upstairs, sand and repaint the deck, paint the baby room (can anyone draw a good soccer ball or grass on a wall?), take out and replace a retaining wall outside, repair and fix up the fence and many more small misc projects.

Overall things are good, we'll just be busier now.

Papaya month

From now on the size/fruit comparisons go by month.  This month he is roughly the size of a papaya.  Here are some images from the sonogram today.

 He's moving around plenty.  Apparently he can be felt from the outside...this hasn't been verified yet, but we'll keep trying.

End of March update

So we are now officially homeowners. We are excited about that.  We won't be moving in until the middle of April though.  Here are some pictures of the house from the inspection.  We'll have a better video or pictures after we move in.

 

In case the video doesn't work, here is a link with pictures:

http://www.cbumr.com/detail.asp?listingid=71115221&agentid=105123

On the baby front, Jenny has been feeling him move around.  He can't be felt from the outside unfortunately.  He seems to be doing well.  Jenny has been feeling much better these past couple weeks.  Things are looking good overall.

Week 20 - Cantaloupe

Cupcake is as big as a cantaloupe this week.

We're making progress on the house... We are scheduled to close on the 31st of this month so keep your fingers crossed.

Don't forget to post your guesses on little Cupcake's name.

Mango

We're almost half way though... week 19 starts today. C.R.R is about as big as a mango by now. Soccer theme is proving difficult - let us know if you have any ideas on making soccer stuff babyish. (or baby stuff soccerish)

Looks like C.R.R. it will be

We have a couple pieces of news.

We are very close to getting our house.  We are waiting for the paperwork to go through the underwriter (this is where we had trouble last time).  Things look more promising then before so we are optimistic but still hesitant.  Keep those fingers crossed.

We had the official ultrasound and got to see a ton of baby parts (Apparently video taping is illegal).  Most looked like blurs but the tech apparently knew what they were, including a little white spot that is supposed to be the penis.  Yeah!!!  We're glad to know what it is now, no more suspense.

Since it is a boy we aren't keeping the theme down to just one cutesy animal.....  We're going with soccer.  Jenny's working on a registry right now.

Try clicking the images to get them bigger.

There is his foot at the top

I'm guess his back and an arm/hand up top

You can see most of his body

16wk sonogram

Here is some amateur sonography of our baby at 16 weeks.  It's from a blackberry phone so it's kinda small.  Look closely and you can see hands moving around and the baby's body moving.  We have the official check up in a couple weeks.

Avocado Week

BJR or CRR is as big as an avocado this week. He or she should be able to pick up sounds by now. The first sound was very likely the fire alarm going off in the mall yesterday :) Sorry baby!

On a side note

As some of you may know, we have been looking to buy a house.  We tried last spring before the tax credit expired.  That didn't work out well.  We managed to find a home that fit the worst case scenario apparently.  This time we tried to avoid that.  We found a house nearby and put an offer it that looks like it's moving forward.  We don't have a house yet, but we hopefully will have one soon....keep you fingers crossed.

Navel Orange week

As you can tell from the title of the post, mini-Brad/Jenny is about the size of an orange.  Nothing really new going on in the baby front.  Jenny has been feeling better overall.  The frequency of the morning sickness has lessened quite a bit.  Also, food likes and dislikes have started to change some too.

On the non-baby front, we are still waiting on the house, to see if the bank approves the short sale or not.  It is being processed right now so hopefully we find out one way or the other very soon.

February update

Jenny had a visit to the midwife today.  Things are going fine.  The baby has a heartbeat of ~145 beats/min and  is about the size of a lemon right now.  Next month's visit will be about 17-18 weeks so a sonogram should show whether it's a boy or a girl.  That should tell us if we'll have a kid with the initials C.R.R. or B.J.R. (unless we decide differently)

Quick update

Sorry for the delay in getting this out there.  We haven't had this blog as a high priority.  Things seem to be going smoothly now so we'll take time to post things every so often.  We are at 12 weeks so the baby is supposed to be the size of a plum and working it's way to being the size of a peach and eventually a watermelon (The internet has some weird stuff).

Baby names

We've been working on creating a list of names we liked.  That process was about a couple months of work.  We finally finished and pooled the lists and started crossing things off.  There is now a boy and a girl name along with middle name.  We did decide to wait on the name announcement though until the birth.  We could change our minds...there is still quite a while left.  Sorry, but you are going to be left in suspense.

Here we go...

Since you are looking at this blog then you must have found out that there will be a mini Brad or Jenny sometime this summer.  Here is our first look at the baby.  This is the sonogram from around 7 or 8 weeks.  The big head-looking part is not a head, just the placental sac.  The baby is the little thing next to it.  So Yea!!!