Fun with Friends

April 2013

I'm still working an 80% schedule, which means I'm able to stay home with Rhys on Fridays. I really love our Fridays together and feel super fortunate that I get to have that time with him.  Although sometimes it can be hard to plan and schedule around nap schedules, Rhys and I often try to have play dates or other meet-ups on our Fridays.  Usually our "play" dates involve mostly parallel play, but lately there's been a bit more interaction with Rhys and his friends.  

For example. when we went to the park with Nico, they decided to hold hands for a bit:

It was super cute!  Nico's mom and I both commented that while we'd seen them hold hands with us and other adults before, we'd never seen them hold hands with other kids before.  I guess sometimes it's nice to know you have a buddy with you on the playground.  :)

Then, when we were over at Drew's house, while they were having some grapes, Rhys decided to feed a few to Drew.  Again, a very cute moment and another first!

Finally, while this does not represent a first, I just like this picture of Drew and Rhys looking out the door together.  :)

Yay for Fridays!

Easter

Nana and Grandpa Jeff came to visit us for Easter.  We had a lovely weekend and Rhys had a great time with them (Nana's ipad was a huge hit.).

We went to a community Easter egg hunt, but were two minutes late and all the eggs were gone.  Fortunately, Rhys just really loved carrying his Easter basket around and was pretty pleased when he found a nice stick that he could put inside it.  He was also pretty excited Easter morning when he discovered that somehow his basket had been filled with treat-filled eggs (that is, eggs filled with dried fruit, sesame sticks and yogurt-covered peanuts).

Sometimes it's nice how easy to please an 18 month old can be.  :)

Back on the Slide

And a little more catching up:

March 29, 2013

Just in case anyone was worried that Rhys has any lingering fears of slides, not to worry, he's definitely back on the slide, so to speak.  :-)

Catching up and Spring Snow

So work has been busy lately, which unfortunately has meant that Rhys on the Rise has been silent for over 2 months.  :(

I have however been thinking of things I want to share, so I'm going to try to do a little catch up now. First up: snow in late March ...

March 25, 2013

Kids and weather can be kind of similar.  Both can have a huge impact on your life.  Both can both brighten or complicate your day.  And both can be rather unpredictable, making it hard to plan for them.  Case in point: snow for us this winter.

In keeping with my Type-A desire to plan, when shopping at an outlet mall in November I bought snow boots and a snowsuit for Rhys, figuring that we'd get snow at some point last winter.  I of course wanted to be ready.  It turned out it was a pretty mild winter.  (We did get a bit of snow in February, but that unfortunately coincided with Rhys's cast, which, as you might expect, didn't fit into a snow boot.)  So I kept seeing the boots and the snowsuit in his closet all winter and finally got to the point that I just figured we wouldn't end up using them after all and felt sad that Rhys hadn't gotten to learn about snow . . . until late March when it snowed in D.C.!

It was a Monday morning.  We actually got enough to stick and to cause them to delay school opening times (granted, this is a low bar in D.C.).  The school delays then delayed our nanny who texted that she would be late to nanny share, which in turn delayed when I could leave for work.  So, I decided to seize the day and get out that snowsuit and snow boots!

Our whole snow adventure lasted less than 15 minutes, but it happened (and Rhys got to use the snow boots and snowsuit).  He wasn't so sure about the snow, but he was curious and at least he had the experience.  It was fun to watch him trying to figure it out (and wondering why he was so bundled up!).  It's a good thing we jumped on it too since all the snow was melted by the time we got home that night.

I definitely considered it a victory.  And who knows, maybe next year he'll get more than 15 minutes to check out snow.

Here's Rhys in action.  (Warning: he really doesn't move all that much.)  :-)

No more cast!

About a week ago, we went back to see the pediatric orthopedist and Rhys got his cast off! As they predicted, he ended up having it on for about three weeks.  It was a soft cast, so they just unraveled it, giving Rhys the added bonus of something to play with once he got reacquainted with his leg:

They then x-rayed his leg again and everything looked great.  The doctor said he might walk with his toes pointed out for a bit, but that should correct itself.  Otherwise he should be back to normal - no physical therapy or anything else needed.  In usual Rhys-fashion, Rhys has adapted to walking cast-less again just fine- he does not seem any worse for the wear. That's our boy!  :-)

Thanks again to all our friends and family for all your support and please keep sharing our cautionary tale!

Good-bye, cast! 

Budding Bookworm

Rhys has started taking a much stronger interest in books lately (which is to say, he now seems to be interested in books!).  He now even brings them over to us and motions that he wants us to put him in our lap and read to him!  I must admit that I really like this new development.

When Rhys was about seven months old, there was a chain on one of my moms' lists about their babies' favorite books.  There was all sorts of discussion about all these different titles.  I was jealous.  And maybe secretly thought they must be lying ...  I was lucky if I could get Rhys to stay still for two seconds to listen to a single page of a book.  The only thing that came close to holding his attention back then was this lovely series by Sara Gillingham, which all have a little finger puppet you can wiggle through the back of the book.

But now, we've entered a new phase.  Rhys still often likes to close the book prematurely, enjoys throwing books on the floor (he really likes emptying the three books from his Eric Carle boxed set out of their box), and sometimes rejects the books we've selected to read all together, but he does now have favorites and they don't all include finger puppets.  :-)  Current favorites include Dear Zoo, Where is Baby's Belly Button, Peek-a Who, and amazingly, two books that don't even include flaps to lift (!): Snuggle Puppy and Peekaboo Baby.

Here are Jeremy and Rhys enjoying another favorite, his subscription to Baby Bug from Nana. 

 

 

We just might raise a book lover yet!  :-)

A First I Could Have Done Without / Lessons from Parenthood

So it turns out that letting your child go down the slide in your lap can be dangerous.

I did not know this.

Two weeks ago, Rhys and I were at a park that we don't usually go to and the slide struck me as too steep for him to go down by himself.  So, I went down with him in my lap.  I've done this before with no problems and we were perfectly fine doing it several times that day ... until the last time when his sneaker caught on the slide and he was crying by the time we got to the bottom.  :(

And so began another first: Rhys's first trip to the ER.

Of course, Rhys, in his usual good-humored, laid-back way, was not very upset once we got to the hospital. He rather enjoyed playing with (and throwing) his cups while we waited for the doctor, x-rays, etc. At some points during our visit, I wondered if I had overreacted and shouldn't have brought him to the ER at all.

Right after getting his cast
(before I went to buy 5T socks
socks that can fit over the cast)

It's good we went though.  It turns out that he has a probable fractured tibia and now has a below-the-knee cast on his leg that he'll have for about 3 weeks.  He can walk in it, has really taken it in stride, and the pediatric orthopedist we followed-up with says the break should heal quickly and completely with no long-term repercussions.  (Specifically, he said,"Whatever he is pre-destined to do, he'll still be able to do."  In other words, I have not ruined any future professional sports career.)  But I of course still felt awful, particularly once I learned that this is a surprisingly common injury scenario (#1 cause of fractured tibias in toddlers!). For more information, see here and here.  Now it's my mission to spread the word so that others will know of this risk.  (Hence this blog post.)

We're only using one
sneaker these days ...

All in all, while I certainly don't recommend you follow my lead and slide tandem, I think this has been more traumatic for me than Rhys.  I realize he probably won't remember this, but it's awful to think something you did injured your child.  Rhys has been a huge help to me on this front though.  The morning after the accident, he wouldn't put weight on his foot and instead resorted to crawling.  This broke my heart.  Rhys didn't seem to be concerned though.  At one point, he was literally crawling around laughing while I was watching him with tears in my eyes thinking that I had regressed my child!  (I'm pleased to report that he's now back to full-time walking.)

Through this all, I have been amazed by the way he's adapted and just gone with the flow: he woke up, his leg didn't seem to be working like it usually does, so he went back to crawling - no problem - he's resilient and he's still getting around.  I would also have thought he would've been a little more confused about the presence of this hard, heavy thing on his leg, but he doesn't spend too much time contemplating it.  He just goes about his day.  He's still got a whole world to discover and explore!

  

This experience has emphasized for me that our boy really doesn't waste too much time fretting.  He doesn't sweat the small stuff.  (And apparently in his world, a cast on half his leg qualifies as small stuff.)  I'm thinking I could take a page from his book.

So today's life lessons from Rhys and me: 1) Don't go down the slide with your child in your lap and 2) Don't waste time worrying over things you can't change.

We're all just living and learning here . . . this parenthood thing really can be educational.  :-)

Checking out the cast foot

Cruising on the cast

Time for a Trim

As you may have noticed in some of the pictures of Rhys at the beach, his hair had been getting rather long in the back.  Some might (and did) call it a rattail. (Others called it a mullet.)

                                         Before:                                                  

The rattail development was actually kind of fortunate though.  A first haircut can be traumatic.  (Yeah, I'm talking about for me more than for Rhys.)  I definitely felt wistful about him growing up and having his hair cut, but the rattail made it less traumatic for me.  I still felt sad, but my sadness was very much tempered by my happiness that he would no longer have a tail.  :-) 

My bigger concern though was that his haircut might be like cutting off his security blanket. As Rhys is very helpfully demonstrating in the before photo above, when he gets tired and/or wants to self-soothe, he sucks his thumb and rubs his hair.  Fortunately, we discovered that the tail did not seem to be instrumental to his process.  Granted, he now pulls my hair more than he used too if I'm holding him and he starts sucking his thumb, but he still has enough to rub in the back and seems unaffected.

Final analysis: I think it's an improvement and he did very well during the actual cut.  The salon we went to had children's books and toys that helped keep him distracted and he got to sit in my lap.  It didn't end up being too traumatic for anyone.

          After:

(sigh) My baby is becoming a little boy.

Another Photo Shoot: 15 months old and Dad in the picture ...

Twice when we've gone to visit my parents in Florida, we've gotten pictures of Rhys taken by a local photographer (see here and here).  I think the pictures turned out really great and keep books of both sets on my desk at work.  However, since Jeremy didn't come with us on either trip, when people look at them, they keep asking me where Rhys's dad is.  (I swear, I'm definitely not trying to pass myself off as a single mom- I find taking care of a baby hard enough with two people!)  

Fortunately, we were able to rectify this problem with a new photo shoot after Christmas.  I think these turned out really nicely too and love having great pics of all three of us.  

I look forward to sharing these at work as well.  :-)

And showing off his dad's eyelashes