Trav played the Gold Strike for New Year's and I went to wedding before heading to "the boats". I had such a fun evening with my girlfriends and even discovered a little hidden preggo within our group. It isn't "out" yet so I will make everyone mad and wonder WHO it could be, hehe. Erin's wedding was so beautiful and one to remember! I quickly left to head to Tunica so I could have my special midnight kiss with the hubby and hang with my Gabby Wives.
I just realized I didn't get ANY pics with my hubby on New Year's! UGH!
As soon as I got to the casinos Travis started complaining about being nauseous, thinking maybe he overate. We rang in the New Year with the rest of the casinos and that next break Trav was PUKING HIS BRAINS OUT! I will just throw this out there since I'm sure your thinking it, we weren't drinking so it was definitely the first New Year's that we couldn't have alcohol to blame. It was an early night for Trav and Gabby had to play without him. Not THAT big of a deal, you can ONLY imagine the kind of onlookers at the casinos at 2 AM! I'm sure half of them didn't even notice Trav was gone. We headed home and poor T was hugging the toilet the whole night! I felt so bad for him until I was jumping out of bed at 4 AM! I WAS NOW SICK! We spent the whole next day holed up in our bed taking turns BARFING! It was HELL! Thank God my mother in law was available and free to watch that sweet baby while we recovered and Thank God he didn't get it. Trav bounced back rather quickly while I was just a weakling for a couple days. We still are not sure if it was something we ate or something we caught running around the casinos! Either way, it was disgusting and I pray we never get that sick again!
Ryder started DayCare again at the very end of December and, of course, I waited last minute to get him on the waiting lists of my top choices! Who knew DayCare was SO cut-throat!?!?! These mommies don't play around here. Last time I checked he was just learning numbers not getting a Harvard Degree. Like always though, God came through and lead us to the one place I had the highest doubts about and I am NOW LOVING IT! I couldn't imagine him anywhere else. The staff is friendly and amazing and he loves going. Just another lesson of "don't judge a book by it's cover." I definitely did because it wasn't as "nice" and "new" like the other facilities I visited. ANYWAY, the whole point of this paragraph is Ryder has been SICK since he started! I know his little immune system will have to build up since he isn't in the comfort of Nana's house anymore but I wish it would hurry up and BUILD UP!
We had our 18 Month Checkup in Early January. It turned out to be 1 of our 3 visits that month! He was 26 pounds, 34 inches and I'll keep his head measurements to myself- almost off the charts. Our check-ups always come at the perfect times! I always am so sure he has an ear infection before we go but it always turns out I'm wrong. We have been VERY lucky with the ears considering some of my friends seem to go through it way too often. It's so sad. Turns out what I thought was an ear infection was really just TEETHING! The next week was followed with Ryder having to be rocked to sleep every night and waking up in the middle of the night screaming because of his poor teeth! He would just toss and turn while moaning! It was so sad and it made me feel like I had a NEWBORN again. Guess I'm not ready to pop out #2 for everyone who loves to ask that question. P.S. why is that always the "next question"?!?!?
ROLL TIDE! We had some good friends over for the National Championship and Trav's team won! I could really have cared less but it was fun having all of our friends with lil boys over. They are all about 6 months apart from each other and they were NOT getting along very well. It wasn't bad by any means but just a lot of jealousy and tempers. Ryder was in RARE form that evening. I don't want to be "that mom" but he was struggling to make it on about an hour nap from DayCare and it was the start of the worst TEETHING we have ever experienced. The funny thing about the timing of his teething is the fact that I randomly caught him trying to BITE Jude and Grey about 100 times. Like I said, he was in rare form! I spanked that butt a few good times and he hasn't tried bitting since. I would just like to think it was my amazing disciplining that stopped that right then and there (yeah, right).
Ryder and Grey playing on the couch.
Jude dancing for me!
Found Ryder playing with his trucks in the kitchen. Think he was mad other kids were there playing with his stuff. Wonder where he gets that selfishness from!?!?!
I can't move on from the National Championship party without mentioning the Brooke Mitchell/ Throw-up fiasco! If anyone knows Brooke, you know she is obsessed with children. She walked over to Ryder and picked him up over her head and shook him (not violently, just a little playful nudge) and YAK!!!!!!! Ryder barfed his milk ALLLLLL over Brooke's face and chest. Thank God he had his paci in and it didn't really get her good but it DEFINITELY made it in the corner of her mouth! I almost puked myself and peed in my pants! I can't believe she didn't throw him on the floor or go hurl in the bathroom! It was sooooooo disgusting, looked disgusting and the smell was BEYOND disgusting. SO that was our laugh for the night.....
Later that night was the start of our week long, midnight wake-up calls from a screaming baby!
A few days later we had our 1st poop-in-the-tub incident. I thought Ryder was going to D-I-E! I was sitting on the bathroom counter watching him and I just couldn't understand why he was spazzing out! He LOVES the bath and lately it's the one place I don't have to listen to him cry for no reason! I got closer and to my surprise there is DIARRHEA EVERYWHERE! It was the first time this has EVER happened but the month of January brought 3 total poop-in-the-tub incidents! EW and YUCK!
DayCare gave Ryder a lil surprise one Friday afternoon- HAND, FOOT , MOUTH DISEASE! I have heard of this but I had NO IDEA what it was until I really googled images. He had what looked like a cold sore on his mouth Friday night and I checked his hands and feet and saw nothing so shrugged it off. Saturday morning came around and it was DISGUSTING! He had little bumps all over his little mouth, one was even huge and white which was the infection. We went to the pediatrician and it was definitely HFM and an infection. I called his DayCare Monday and pretty much the whole place was sick with it. They barely had any kids there Monday and had a cleaning crew come in to gut and clean the place. To my surprise, Ryder had a very mild case of it. When I dropped him off on Tuesday you could see some of the kids faces COVERED in the bumps where Ryder only had a few around his mouth. Poor babies!
Ryder and Daddy at the doctor!
Taking a nap! Poor baby felt so bad!
The following week we had ANOTHER sick weekend! Ryder came home Friday with PINK EYE, runny nose and the nastiest cough I have EVER heard. I felt SO bad for him. He JUST got off antibiotics so my pediatrician wanted us to treat this a little more naturally. It's been almost a week and he still isn't better. The pink eye has left the Russell's house, it was actually mild compared to the time he had it as a baby. The cough and runny nose are worse than it was last week. Guess I'll be going in for my record visit of 4 in a month.
Ryder has REALLY done a 180 overnight. I feel like I just woke up one day to the world's most independent kid. We no longer are needed to help him use a spoon, brush his teeth, wash his hair and even take his medicine. He seriously WIGS out when I try and help do all of the above. I stand back with my arms crossed thinking he won't be able to do any of that by himself and he has proved my wrong every time, minus the teeth brushing. That was something he always loved me to do, now he SCREAMS if I don't give him the toothbrush. He just SUCKS on it and doesn't actually brush his teeth. As a control freak, this really erks me. I don't want him to have nasty little teeth and I want him to still need his mommy for things like that.
January also brought the words PooPoo, Samson and Phoebe which he screams ALL THE TIME. I love hearing him say PEEBEE, it's hilarious! We now know ALL the cast members in Dora and he loves to scream them every time they pop on the screen: Dora, Boots, Map, Backpack and Swipper. We have all those DOWN!
Another little thing Ryder loves to do right now is roll the dog canister (yes, it's on wheels) out of the closet and into the living room, open it up and pour hand fulls of dog food onto the floor. I literally let him do it for 30 minutes one night while I cooked. The dogs had dinner and the baby was entertained. I can't go to the pantry without that dog canister coming out. He even indulges in a little dog food himself. UGH, I really have to watch every move this kid makes. He is a CLIMBING, DOG FOOD EATING, CRAZY person and I love it!
