Matthew Herbert Nelson is born!

We have been blessed with a new family member! My brother Robert and sister in law Jen welcomed their beautiful little boy Matthew on March 22nd. After a weekly Dr. appointment, her Dr. said baby needed to be delivered via c-section...right now! As soon as we got that call, we frantically packed up our things to drive to Bloomington. Right before my mom got to my house to pick up Ryan and I, I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket... text message from Robert with a picture of sweet baby Matthew. I cried for 2 reasons; one, I was overjoyed that he was born beautiful and healthy and two, because I wasn't there. My mom, Richard, Ryan and I drove down as fast as we could! All 2 hours, Ryan didn't sleep a wink...he must have been as excited as we were! We were able to go see them in the hospital that night and spent the night at their house. My mom, Ryan and I went back again a day later and spent a few days at their house helping out with their sweet baby. Our family is so lucky!!!

11 Months!!

Running around the house yelling with his walker
Basketball

Happy after a nap
Playing with his cousin Jackson, they are too adorable together
LOVES Penny!
Ryan's first pets, Henry and Nemo. Grandpa Nelson bought them for him, he likes to watch them swim around :)

Only one more month until this little boy is ONE year old! This has flow by faster than I ever imagined it could. Yet at the same time, I have zero recollection of what our lives were like before Ryan was born. I miss the newborn stage at times, but for the most part, watching him grow has been so exciting! Luckily, Robert and Jen's baby is due in less than 3 weeks, so I can hold one again soon! :)

Ryan took his first real step on March 8th and by March 9th, he was able to take 5 steps at a time. It's very adorable to watch! He can crawl faster than any baby I have ever seen, so I think he will prefer to crawl for a while. We'll see!

He still loves bath time! LOVES it! Sometimes if he is crabby during the day, I strip him down and let him play in the tub. The minute we get into the bathroom, he crawls up the tub and stands up and looks at me, he is ready to go! He plays with his toys, splashes around and likes to see the water go down the drain. Mostly, he enjoys standing up, and then sitting down trying to see how big of a splash he can make. Very cute...and also very wet. I have to have a towel on the floor next to the tub to soak up the water as well as a new shirt handy for myself.

One of his favorite toys is a little basketball hoop he got from Grandma and Papa Derus for Christmas. I taught him how to put the ball into the hoop. So now he thinks that everything that has a hole, needs something to go inside of it. Smart kid, right? Well, the other day he opened the bathroom cabinet, took the hairspray out, and then proceeded to drop it into the toilet... hilarious, but not exactly where I want my bottle of hairspray! He makes me laugh every day thats for sure!

He is a GREAT sleeper now! If someone told me 3 months ago that Ryan would be sleeping about 11 hours straight with no wake ups as well as napping twice a day, I would have told them they were crazy. But it's true! It's wonderful! Doesn't happen every single night, but for the most part, he is a great sleeper/napper now.

He is also a very good eater. Last week him and I went to Lifetime and after my workout I was starving. So we went into the Cafe and I ordered the turkey and swiss cheese sandwich for Ryan and I to "share". Well, that didn't work out so well, my little munchkin ate the WHOLE sandwich!! I'm sorry, let me correct myself, he was sweet enough to leave me the crust. Next time I will have to order more food!! He loves mac and cheese, grilled cheese, nilla wafers, yogurt, chicken, pasta, meatballs, bananas, I don't know why I am listing right now, he loves almost everything. This week I made him some pasta with hidden veggies to get him to eat more vegetables and luckily he loved it... otherwise I would have wasted about 4 hours of my life because thats how long it took to make it! Now it's all frozen into 2 oz. cubes in my freezer, ready to be defrosted when he is hungry. Feels good to feed my baby such healthy meals.

Now, we are just waiting for the weather to warm up so we can enjoy the outdoors again!

9-10 Month Picures

Family day in downtown Geneva- Amazing fondue!

Ryan's 1st Haircut! February 19th, 2011
Ryan zooming around the kitchen with his walker while Joe makes us french toast for breakfast :)

Just playing in his room
Standing on his own for the first time- February 10th, 2011
Blizzard of 2011
Family day downtown Chicago- Ryan's first trip to the Shedd Aquarium

10 Months!

Well, it is officially time to start planning Ryan's first birthday party! 10 months and counting. This is most definitely shaping up to be the best year of our lives. Having Ryan has changed and molded our lives in such a way that we can't even begin to fathom what it was like without him. I am with him all day, everyday, but still at night when we put him to bed, I actually miss him! Joe and I just watch him on the video monitor and talk about how cute and sweet he is. Then I say "I think I should go get him" and Joe says "babe, don't wake him up" and I say "okay, fine...." It's a dialogue that happens often :) He is just so very loved!

We took him in for a weight check at 10 months and he gained almost 2 pounds in one month!! At 9 months I received the go ahead to let him eat anything he wanted with a few exceptions. He LOVES food!! All food really, except for the normal baby food purees. I tried making it myself and tried Gerber, he hates it all. But take the kid to Costco, and he will eat every sample they give away! It's so adorable to take him there, he just sits in the cart and waves at all the sample ladies... they love him! He loves to wave at people and if he is having a hard time getting someone to notice him, he will put both arms up in the air. Then he usually starts clapping. It's like he is clapping at himself for a job well done. Whenever we say "Yay Ryan!" He immediately throws his arms up in the air too, it's so cute! It's his world, we are just livin in it :) This boy also loves to dance!! If I start either singing or put on the radio, he starts wiggling his little butt and gets a huge grin on his face and sometimes starts laughing or clapping. He really likes the Justin Bieber Baby song, gets him going every time. He will be embarrassed by this years from now. :)

He is sleeping soo well now. I guess after months and months of a rough sleep schedule, we were due some good nights sleep! He is still napping really well too, it's nice to have some sort of a "schedule" He naps everyday at 10 and then again at 2, we'll see how long that lasts.

He will go down around 8:00-8:30 at night depending on when Joe gets home from work and sleep until 7:00! It's wonderful!

He is definitely teething again, so we are just waiting to see when those little teeth will pop through. Lots of drool until then!

I started going to the gym a few days a week so that Ryan will have some interaction with other children when I leave him in the child center. It was REALLY hard for me to leave him in there the first few times. Joe had to literally drag me up the stairs to the fitness floor the first time. And the first time he cried when I left... I almost cried. My friend Dana who I have been working out with just had to assure me that her daughter Mia did the same thing in the beginning and now she loves it. So far, she was right. He is getting better everyday!

Great news in the Santilli household... Joe will be starting a new job March 1st. He will be the Sales Department Head at the Lifetime Fitness in Warrenville, which is over 30 minutes closer to our house! So now I can go workout there and we can visit Joe in the middle of the day. We are very very excited about the transition and very proud of Joe, he will be so great at his new job!

9 Months!

Ryan is 9 months old!! Time flies! Soon enough we will be planning his first birthday party! I am so happy that I keep this blog because I often forget what he was doing at what month, so some day I will have to print it all out and show Ryan what a good baby he is!

He is such a good natured loving little boy. He is crawling around like a maniac and standing up on EVERYTHING! He loves to cruise around the family room by holding onto the coffee table on one side and the couch on the other. He can walk the entire length of the couch that way. Ryan is obsessed with the stairs....obsessed! He can crawl up our entire flight of stairs (with me RIGHT behind him of course) almost as fast as I can. I can't believe how quick he is! He must know that Penny usually sleeps on the futon upstairs in the office because he will crawl up every step and crawl right into the office and pull himself up on the futon and look for Penny. The dog drives me nuts, but it is pretty adorable!

He has a little toy that he can walk with, I thought he was probably too young for it, but he pulled himself up on it and started walking with it on Christmas day. Shocked the heck out of me...

He still says dada all the time, but now he is starting to say mum a lot. Not mama, but mum. Especially when he is tired or crabby, then its more of an exasperated muuuummm. I love it :)

My favorite thing he does is when Joe gets home from work. If he is playing on the floor when Joe walks in, he crawls as fast as he can with a huge grin on his face all the way to greet him at the door. After a long day of work and an hour commute, it makes Joe's day every time!

He has finally started waving a lot. The other day we were out to lunch and he sat in the highchair staring and waving at ladies at the other table for a good 3 minutes. Then when he got their attention and they looked at him, he stopped. Go figure. He will wave back at me about 50% of the time, but he usually seems to just do it to other people to get their attention. Or he will cough, he thinks thats like saying" Hey, look at me, I'm over here!" He can clap too, but it is pretty rare. When he does, he usually only moves one hand to hit the other, so I dont know if it's quite a "clap" but Joe thinks it qualifies :)

He enjoys giving kisses, and by kisses, I mean opening his mouth and sucking on my face...it ends in a slobbery mess, but he is so sweet I can't help but let him drool all over me!

Still only 2 teeth, thats enough for him to be able to eat whatever I give him. I give him tiny pieces of bread a lot, and he chews on them like its a steak. Then opens his mouth for more. He loves puffs too. If I really need to get something done, I'll put him in his high chair with a bunch of puffs on the tray and put on channel 11. That works for about 20 minutes so I can get things done around the house, it's amazing!

At his 9 month Dr. appt. he weighed 15 lbs and 13ozs and was about 28 1/2 inches tall. He is only in the 1.5 percentile for weight, so we bring him in for a weight check when he is 10 months old. At the 9 month check up, he was given the okay to eat anything except for seafood, nuts and honey, so we are letting him try everything. Turns out, the baby who I thought didn't really like to eat, just doesn't want his bottles anymore. He thinks he is a big boy now! So put pot roast, bread, spaghetti, nilla wafers, any of those things in front of them and he will eat it all up! He loved pot roast so much that he literally put his face down to the table to eat it instead of picking it up with his little fingers, I guess he figured that would be faster? Who knows, but I think he will start puttin on a few lbs now :)

He is so much different than the teeny baby he was when he was born, but soooo much more fun now! Can't wait to see what the next month holds.

8 Months!

Well, I am officially exhausted! Our child has endless amounts of energy and is ALWAYS on the move. This month he has cut another tooth and learned how to stand up on his own. He pulls himself up on everything! Tables, couches, stairs, my legs, really anything that he can get his little hands on. Every time I put him down for a nap, I get downstairs to put the monitor on, and he is already standing in there. He is really enjoying practicing his new skills and likes to scale the 4 walls of his crib.

He also seems to be experiencing a period of separation anxiety. It is adorable, because he always wants to be with us and we feel very loved :) On the flip side, naps and night time sleeping have gone down hill!! It's okay, I know it won't last forever and I love how much he loves being around Joe and I.

We had finally figured out a way to make him sleep through the night (one bottle of formula before bed, it keeps his tummy fuller longer) and I was SOO happy to only be waking up with him one time in the night to eat. That is over for now. The life of a parent... never consistent!

This month has been really fun. We were able to enjoy our first Thanksgiving with Ryan and also went to cut down our Christmas tree. Everything is so much more fun with this little man! The 3 of us decorated our tree listening to Christmas music and it was one of the best nights ever.

He is "talking" up a storm now and has the most precious little voice I have ever heard! This is the conversation that takes up a good portion of my day:

Me: "Ryan, say mama"

Ryan: "Dadadadada"

Me: "Ryan.... say mama"

Ryan: "Dadadadada"

I think you get the picture :) Mama better be coming soon!!!

Joe and I agree that we have never been happier before in our lives. Joe is really enjoying his job and I am LOVING my job. Staying home with Ryan is truly the best job in the world. It's tiring but more rewarding than anything I have ever experienced. We love making Joe breakfast and lunch to go before he leaves for work and making dinner for when he gets home. I enjoy cleaning the house and doing all the shopping and just keeping our house in order. Sometimes I feel the effects of talking to a baby all day, but for the most part, I would not want to be doing anything else.

I feel very blessed and I think Ryan does too :)

7 Months!

Playing with his cousin Jackson, or climbing over him :)
Waiting for Penny to come in and play
Goin for her food....
My present from Ryan, he looks so proud of himself
Carrying his basket around the block
Cutest lion and monkey ever!
Our little lion :)

I thought a lot of changes took place in the 5-6 month time span, but 6-7 has been crazy! A month ago we had a toothless baby that couldn't really move around and now we have a crawling baby with a tooth! How does that happen?? His first tooth popped through on October 23rd and he started crawling on November 8th. I guess I should take as many opportunities to snuggle with him as I can because I have a feeling it won't last too much longer! He has always been a busy baby, but now it has really gotten crazy.

Halloween this year was sooo much fun! Ryan was a little lion and his cousin Jackson was a monkey. They were the cutest lion and monkey I have ever seen! We really didn't trick or treat, just kind of walked around the block with them, but it was still a lot of fun. Ryan was adorable and carried his little pumpkin basket all the way around the block, dropping it only 1 time. Next year will be even more fun when they can walk, and we have an excuse to get more candy :)

On November 2nd, I was able to enjoy my first birthday as a mommy, it was wonderful! I received sour candy from Ryan (my favorite!) and roses from Joe and a sweet card from each of them. It was really nice to enjoy the day with my boys. Ryan and I also went to lunch with my mom, grandma, cousin Meghan and her daughter Gianna. After lunch we went to my grandmas and watched the babies "play" together. I think she may have shown Ryan how to crawl because only a few days after that, he stopped rocking back and forth and started flyin around the house!

We kind of thought that once he started crawling, it would be a slow process. Yeah, not so much. He woke up from a nap, and he knew how to crawl. By the end of the day, he was chasing Penny around the house. It was like once he realized how to do it, he just took off! Now that Ryan is on the move, I can't turn my back for even a second. He has spilled Penny's water dish, gotten fists full of her food, he grabs cords, knocks over the DVDs, its so funny. That was on day one of him crawling, so who knows what this boy will get into. We had to put up his pack n play downstairs so that I have somewhere to put him while I do dishes and stuff, otherwise I will turn around and he will be trying to get into Penny's cage... true story.

Once he learned how to crawl, he decided that napping was unnecessary. For about a week, he napped for about 45 minutes a day, TOTAL. Everytime I would put him down for a nap, I would look at the monitor 20 minutes later and he would be crawling back and forth in the crib. So proud of his new skills! Not good for me though, the cleanliness of our home sure took a toll! I think it's so funny that people, myself included, try to have their babies on a schedule... lets face it, these babies make their own rules! Thankfully, he is back to napping for me though!

He is eating a lot more solids now, so that has been fun to see him continue to try new things. As far as nursing is concerned, we have to go in his room and shut the blinds otherwise he won't eat because he just wants to look around and play. He is SO much like Joe it's not even funny! SO BUSY! He also looks like Joe when he was a baby. We held him up next to a picture of Joe when he was around Ryan's age, and the resemblance was incredible!

He is really vocal right now too. He loves the sound of his own voice (another similarity to his father ;)). He says eeeee, ooooohhhh, da ba, muum (hope that turns into mama soon!) he likes to yell, grunt and cough. So weird, but he loves to hear himself cough!

Can't wait to see what he is up to next month!