Ryan is 3 months!

On November 5, 2016, we were en route to Oahu for a week. I thought about bringing Ryan's clock blanket so that I could properly document each month for Ryan's first year in the same pose on the same setting.  Then, I got distracted packing for 2 boys, 1 man, and me.  Just kidding, Luke packed for himself.  So, there's no cute diaper picture of Ryan on the blanket, but I do have plenty of cute Ryan pictures for his 3 month blog.  See below!

As the days pass by, Ryan continues to calm down his crying-ness.  He still fusses a bit, but he doesn't cry inconsolably like he used to (at least as much as he used to!). 

Ryan is still huge. We were on the plane for Oahu, and sitting next to us with this adorable little baby girl. She was petite, but she was maybe as long as Ryan.  I was hopeful that she was around Ryan's age so that I could commiserate with the mother on how nervous I was to fly with our 3 month old babies.  I asked the mother how old her daughter was, and she replied, "10 months."  Wooops!

Ryan is juuuuuust starting to grab at things, but he doesn't have much coordination and so he isn't successful most of the time. Ryan has found his hands, and he happily sucks on his fingers.  He smiles a lot, especially in the morning when he first wakes up.  He also has started laughing, which is soo fun!!

I think Ryan is starting to develop his own look, which of course would happen. I think I'm only commenting on it because in my opinion Ryan and Clay were identical when they were both newborns.  At around this 3 month mark, I think Ryan distinguished himself as his own baby with his own looks.  

Clay has started to be more interested in his brother, which is adorable. Each night, I have Ryan do tummy time. Sometimes, I have Ryan do it with Clay and Luke while Luke is putting Clay to bed.  One night, Ryan flipped right over onto his back during the tummy time exercise right in front of Clay and Luke. Clay squealed with delight and started clapping and shouting, "Good job Ryan!!" He was just so genuinely happy for his brother's success! I loved it. 

Ryan and his dad enjoying a fancy lunch at Turtle Bay on Oahu.

Ryan and his mom, enjoying a martini with her fancy lunch in Turtle Bay, Oahu.

Grandpa Jay with Ryan.

Grandpa Tim with Ryan.

Crying baby in paradise. 

Ryan.

Ryan. Different pose. :)

Ryan at the beach!

Halloween

Halloween with a 3 year old is fun!  Clay was really into all of the fun this year.  His school prepped him for the festivities with ghost walks through the walnut orchards, decorating a pumpkin man in the garden, and many many sketches and drawings of Halloween related items.  At our house, we're not especially Halloweeners, but Clay and I did paint some pumpkins, ghosts and a Happy Halloween sign for our kitchen.  

I told Clay that he could be anything in the world this year for Halloween. I was thinking I could swing a dinosaur costume, and so I tried to play with Clay's plastic dinosaurs more with him, and commented a lot on a Sesame Street episode on dinosaurs.  Despite my attempts, Clay said he wanted to be a dog, again, this year. He said he wanted Ryan to be a dog too. A dog? Again? Surre! What an easy and cute costume!

October went by in a blur. We ended up going to Bishops Pumpkin Patch with some friends.  It was a really neat set up with a train, zip line, corn maize, etc. But, it was way too crowded for me. I don't think we'll be back next year.

We also had fun at a couple wedding in October - my friend Gabrielle's in San Rafael, and then Liz Harper's wedding in Colusa. 

Halloween night - family costume success! Luke and I are Colusa Animal Control employees with our nightly catch: two stray dogs. 

The night before halloween - carving pumpkins. Luke carved all of them. I asked him to carve my interesting greenish tinted pumpkin with two large leg holes for Ryan. I even drew them on the pumpkin for Luke to follow. I had this great idea that we would be able to photograph Ryan sitting in the pumpkin.  It was going to be sooo cute. Unfortunately, Ryan was too big for the pumpkin! I totally underestimated how big he is, and over estimated the size of my pumpkin. 

Bishops Pumpkin Patch: Train ride!

Clay and his tractor at the pumpkin patch.

Ryan was really good on the ride over to get pumpkins (meaning, he slept of course!).

Clay is pretty excited for the hale bale ride out to the pumpkins! He picked a tiny decomposing pumpkin at first.  Then, Luke convinced him to get a normal medium sized one. Luke got the obligatory "dad" sized pumpkin. Ryan got the obligatory baby, small pumpkin. And, I allowed myself to get a really interesting greenish one - typical mom move. 

Blurry family portrait. 

Pumpkins, pumpkins, everywhere!!

Ryan is 2 Months

Happy 2 Months Ryan! This is probably the last month you wear those cute little shorts!

Our baby boy is 2 months now!  And Clay is 3 years and 2 months!

Boys on the couch

Ryan is a stubborn little baby, but he is getting easier.  He wakes up a few times a night: usually he'll give me a long stretch in the beginning of the night, and then wake up every 2 hours afterwards.  So, I'll usually end up putting him to bed at 8:30 pm, and then waking at 1 am, 3 am and 5 am.  That's a lot of waking up in the middle of the night! Believe it or not, I've gotten used to it and I can pretty much function normally the next day.  At least I've convinced myself that I'm functioning normally ...

Ryan is so smiley! We all love it! Those big round cheeks and his beautiful eyes definitely make me forget that he woke me up last night at 3 am, and then again at 5 am.  He coos too at us a lot. I just wish I could get him to laugh.  He seems close, but I must not yet be funny enough.

At Ryan's 2 month appointment, he weighed 15 pounds, 8 ounces.  So big! I love his rolls and the little fat creases around his wrists and thighs.  

September was a fun month.  It was my last month completely off before returning to work part-time the beginning of October.  I think I spent most of that month holding Ryan and bouncing him on a bouncy ball to sleep, but I was also able to get in a lot of play time with Clay, and of course Luke. :)  We finally finished our pool, and got to enjoy the cool water in some 90 degree weather.  Clay LOVES jumping in.  It's pretty fun. We went to Marin for a few days to hang out with my family.  And then Clay and I had a couple of day trips - one day to the Woodland Tractor Museum, and another day at the Sacramento Zoo. 

I am happy to go back to work part-time - I'm only working mornings for the next two months.  It seems like a nice way to slowly easy back into work, while still giving me most of my day with Ryan and the Clay-o.  I feel lucky that I can choose to go back part-time.  I also feel guilty about putting Ryan in childcare while he is so young. It's hard being a working mother, but I also feel confident that in the long run it's the right decision.  

The main take-away for me from the last two months is that if it's this hard with two kids, people with three or more kids are crazy! Luke and I still want to have more kids (maybe just one more) in the long run.  However, experiencing the chaos of the first 8 weeks with two just shows me that increasing family size means that you and your spouse become lunatics in the process!

We go to Cronkite Beach with Auntie Annie for a short hike overlooking the ocean and deli sandwiches on the beach for Labor Day Weekend.

Clay finally got to play on the beach this summer. He and Luke walked down the beach looking for shells. He loved it!

Meanwhile, Ryan had to stay back with Auntie Annie and I.

We love these smiles!

Family portrait on the couch...

More boys on the couch.  It looks like we spend a lot of time on the couch these days.

Bedtime stories.

Tummytime!

Kristen Haynes and her adorable son, Bodhi, came to Colusa one day for a visit. 

Who would have thought that we'd be bathing our kids together! What a dear friend, and it's so fun to go through life together!

Ryan is 1 Month!

Happy One Month Buddy!

Ryan the Lion is huge at one month! My mom and I weighed him on Labor Day weekend, and he was 13.5 pounds.  Both Clay and Ryan were large babies!  Ryan is doing a good job of establishing himself as the fourth member of our family.  He cries a lot to make sure either Luke or I (or Clay, if Clay had his way) are holding, or rocking/bouncing him in some way.  Once we pick him up, he stops crying, so we really can't complain too much!  

I've been giving Ryan a bath each night to try to establish some sort of bedtime routine (as in: get the hint Ryan, it's bedtime!!).  He LOVES the warm water and always settles down as soon as he gets into the bathtub.  Also, believe it or not, Ryan is actually smiling at us!  My sister, Maile, swears she got Ryan to smile at her at 2 weeks.  Whether or not I believed her then, I certainly believe it now.  He is such a monkey with a grin!

Speaking of monkeys, Clay had his three year check up this week.  He is 35 pounds and 40.5 inches tall.  According to Luke, this means Clay is going to grow to be 6 foot 7 inches tall. Clay has been such a good older brother.  From answering, "Are you a good older brother?" a trillion times, to bringing me things from the other room, and wanting to hold Ryan; we've been really impressed by Clay's willingness to welcome Ryan into his life.  

Clay trying to play with his little brother.  Ryan, on the other hand, trying to defend himself. 

Luke and I couldn't remember what it was like to have Clay as a newborn.  I think it's on purpose that we forget what the early months of parenthood are like, since no one would have a second child if you had to go through the sleepless nights again with a crystal clear recollection of the last time.  Instead, Luke and I continue to vaguely recall taking on similar actions to survive with Clay, like using the bouncy ball for months, etc.  Today, Ryan is 5 weeks old and he is just now allowing me to sleep for one 4 hour stretch in the beginning of the night. Yay! I'll take it happily! 

Grandpa Leo meets Ryan Leo for the first time. 

The Kessi's came by to visit and meet Ryan and our new pool!

If you're interested in hanging out with a crying baby, please come by our house tonight between the hours of 5 - 7pm.  

Grandma Cindy meets Ryan for the first time. 

I love his hair here!

Brothers!

Melissa meets Ryan. 

Stacy, Melissa and Sarah came up to Colusa to visit me and Ryan.  They brought up a gourmet lunch and spoiled me rotten with treats.  Stacy is an amazing photographer, and she took some adorable newborn shots with both Clay and Ryan.  Stay tuned!

Karen!

Ryan's First Bath.  Clay can't believe Ryan is taking a bath in the SINK! That's hilarious!

Ryan looks like he's at the spa here. 

Luke and Ryan look like twins here!

Kyrstin and Cal also brought us dinner, and then played baseball with Clay. 

Luke and his boys.  

Ryan smiling on camera for the first time. 

Uncle Eric!

August Birthdays x 3

Even more than ever, I am surrounded by August birthdays.  According to the internet, these Leo boys of my life are, "Fun, adventurous, genuine, generous and highly charismatic.  They like to be larger than life and enjoy showing off, being admired, praised and appreciated."  Ahh!  And now I have three of them in my life.  

Everyone in my family loves their birthday, and so I try to make it something fun with a special cake and some enticing wrapped presents.  

This year, with Ryan being born on Clay's birthday, we did his 3rd birthday on Sunday, August 7th.  Clay was such a good sport and didn't know the difference.  

For Luke, he "enjoyed" a long day of working in our backyard with my dad and brother.  They finished a portion of our redwood fence, which looks amazing.  Although Luke said that was enough of a fun day for him, Clay and I brought him to Cool Hand Luke's Steakhouse in Yuba City.  It has been a topic of conversation for the last 2.5 years since we've lived here how it would be so funny to take Luke to Cool Hand Luke's Steakhouse Restaurant for dinner, since, well, Luke's name is also Luke.... Being that I had a newborn and wasn't up for cooking, Luke's birthday seemed like the perfect time to make that joke into a reality.  It was a nice dinner, and we survived an outing with a newborn!  

Then, that weekend, we went to the Sierra Nevada Brewery since we both love the beer and it was a fun excuse to have a birthday lunch there.  

Clay has been bananas for cranes this year, and so I tried to decorate his cake with a yellow crane.  

I can't believe how much Clay and Luke look alike!

Clay has really enjoyed playing this game with Luke and I. 

This picture is from Luke's birthday.  Clay is just as excited as Luke to open this gift. 

This is the first time we go out as a family as four in public! I was nervous to breastfeed Ryan in a restaurant, because I didn't want him to cry and upset any of the other people dining out.  However, he did a great job and I think we snuck out of there without offending or annoying anyone. 

Clay LOVED the tractors on Luke's cake. 

This is what Ryan was doing as we were all eating cake.  I guess he also wanted some cake!

In Chico, at the Sierra Nevada Brewery Restaurant.  Yum! Here, Clay is unhappy that I made him share my veggie burger with me. 

Fence Party on Luke's birthday!

Luke, my dad, brother, and my sister-in-law Christina's brother, Kenny