What?! I'm updating only a week later? "How in the world did you find the time to do that?" you may be asking. Well my friends, this brisk Monday morning, I put my child down for his first nap at 5am. 5AM! This little boy is draining the soul of out me slowly, but surely. And thanks to the "on this day" section of Facebook, I saw that one year ago today I was posting about my successful first week as a mom. It was touching to go back and read and see just how far we've come. It's also a great reminder to re-live that pain and exhaustion I was feeling back then, in case I start thinking about a second child.

Speaking of second child... I have a doctor's appointment today to go over birth control options for when I start weening Ry. I am SO ready to ween. We have zero issues with breast feeding and it's been such an amazing experience, but we're both just ready. He gets too distracted to drink these days. Plus, he drinks out of sippy cups, straws, and regular cups so we really don't need to worry about transitioning. We hit our recommend ended 12 month mark at the breast so it's time to move on. The main reason I want to ween (other than being sick of pumping!!!!) is we are getting ready to move to CO next month. They won't ship one of our cars this time, so we both will have to be driving and it's going to be a hell of a lot easier and safer to not have to worry about pumping while behind the wheel. I'll still stop to feed him regular food every couple hours because I'm not comfortable with him eating alone back there in case he chokes, but it'll just be much easier on everyone to have him off the breast at this point. Plus, I think we're both just kind of over it.

My happy boy

With that being said, my whole BC roller coaster has been nothing short, so I'm a little nervous as to what lies ahead of me. Before, AK doctors took me off the PO pill and the dose of estrogen about killed me. I was so angry and moody and got frustrated at the tiniest things. When I came here, the doctor took me off that and said I'd be fine going back to the POP while I'm still breast feeding. I really don't want to be Mr. Jekyll and Mr. Hide again.. so I'm considering an IUD (which I rejected last time) even though I'm still pretty iffy about having something just hanging out in there all the time. I know there's a shot too, but if we do decide we want to go for #2 in the future, I don't want that in the way. We will see how the appointment goes and what the doctor recommends (did I mention I hate talking to men about women's bc? Oh well.)

We had more family in town to see Ry this past week. I feel like every time he hangs with someone new, he immediately matures. He's so grown up and I can't stand it. His walking is so much more refined than it was a couple weeks ago and he's definitely into that toddler phase of imitation. His uncle stuck his tongue out and spit at him, so guess what Ry started to do back to him? Too funny! He's got so much personality, I can't take it. I think my boy is the most loving being on this planet.

Although, he's also getting that tantrum thing down pat. He whines like crazy when something doesn't go his way. He's still not saying "Mama" and "Dada" to us, but he's saying the words just in general. I'm pretty sure his new cry is now just, "Mamamammaamama." I think it's because I call snacks, "Yum yums" and "Mama" is his way of saying he's hungry. Not because he wants me.. So we'll see. He understands words and phrases but he's not really showing signs of wanting to communicate. I think his favorite command is, "Go get Stitch." He has this giant stuffed animal from Lilo and Stitch and he'll stop what he's doing, walk to his bedroom, and give the thing huge cuddles and kisses. He's OBSESSED with Stitch and it's adorable.

Ry and Stitch

He's cutting more teeth on the bottom. His next two incisors are coming in. Mix that with the shots from last week and I had a very grumpy baby for two days. Two days of grumpy baby + sleepy mommy = face broken out this week and body run down for the rest of the month. I feel like I'm losing energy and the will to recover these days, but I'm pushing through and working on it one day at a time. I keep telling myself, "Tomorrow will be the day!" and then 4:30am comes and I'm ready to just curl up and hibernate til Spring. I think I sometimes confuse my child with a T-rex because I have that thought process that, "maybe if I stay still, he won't see me." I need to learn-he always sees me.

Tuesday baby and me library time started up again last week! FINALLY. When you have a child under the age of 2, it's stupid to have a "summer break". Most of us are first time moms so we don't have a "summer break". Our babies aren't in school so.... let's just keep the program going so we can socialize and not be ostracized by society during the hottest months of the year. We went last week and Ry mostly just wanted to play with the toys in the middle of the mat instead of sit in my lap and sing. Understandable I guess. I'm not nearly as cool as I used to be, in his eyes.

Of course, I bought the book What to Expect the Second Year. And, of course, I praise it. Unlike the first two books, it's not broken down into months. It doesn't go, "Okay, month 13 you'll expect these to be issues," rather it just is a huge book full of information about everything in the second year. It's awesome, yet overwhelming at the same time. I don't like to jump around when I read, so I have this urge to just read from cover to cover this month to have all the information I could possibly need for the next year. Unlikely. I'm only on page 40 of like... 500. But I have learned a lot so far! Thanks to this book, I may try to make a dental appointment for Ryan in the near future. We used to do what we called, "Happy Visits" at the office I worked at, and it's just to get the little one accustomed to the dentist. I should probably wait until we're in CO, but i know once we get there, we're not going to be settled in until we find a house, which could be a couple months so I don't want to keep putting it off. I may as well book and appointment while I have time to kill out here.

But it's given me really great ideas about getting Ry in the habit of brushing his teeth (which we've already been doing since he got his first 2 teeth) in the morning at night, and our next step is flossing and learning to rinse and spit. Not an easy task, but I think repetition will help instill the mindset of good dental care throughout his life-mostly because my "family has bad teeth" (really, my family has bad dental hygiene practices) and he'll be prone to lots of cavities like I had as a child. Really, I'm trying to save him from paying thousands of dollars worth of dental work when he gets older and realizes insurance only pays so much. Now if only I could get my husband on board...

I've been doing most of my reading on hygiene in general-skin care, teeth, hair, baths, etc. Also about weening. Lots of good info. I know this is the last book in the What to Expect line, but I really wish it would continue every year for the rest of his life. Especially since none of these military doctors out here have gone over ANYTHING. Everything is like, "Wait for your doctor to okay these items for your little one," and I'm over here like.. crap. As I mentioned, our whole appointment was mostly Ryan freaking out and us trying to console him so naturally, I forgot to ask most of my questions about what he could or couldn't eat. The doctor seriously didn't go over anything other than his height and weight statistics (the nurse already did that) and answered my question about the blemish on his chin that's been there for a few months (he claims it's an inflamed capillary that will fade as he grows). He didn't say anything else. Just poked a bit and told us he was healthy. So you can understand why these books are so useful to me.

Okay, I better quit while I'm ahead. This little munchkin should be awake within the next 20 mins and I have a little more relaxing (or dishes) to do before that point comes. I love everyone that reads this so thank you for taking your time to hear me rant about motherhood. Xoxoxo

How far he's come!