Friday, November 30, 2012

A Darn Cute, Non-Professional, One-Year Photo Shoot

   This coming weekend, we are going to do something that I've repeatedly promised myself I would never ever do again... we are going back to Gara Hill for yet another professional photo shoot.  If you read this blog, you know that Ryder has had three shoots with Gara.  The first, his newborn shoot, wasn't a complete disaster, but that is mostly because he was too young and tiny to cause a huge scene.  He did manage to spray pee-pee all over Gara though.  And he certainly didn't sleep through the entire shoot like cooperative newborns do.  The second and third shoots were 100% epic failures.   He screamed bloody murder and refused to let us sit or lay him down.  He demonstrated behavior that I had never, and still to this day have never, seen before.  We still haven't figured out what the problem was.  We tested numerous theories (Was he scared of the large, professional camera? (no) Was he upset by his stuffy attire? (no) Did he hate being outdoors? (no) Was it a bad time of day? (no) etc. etc.).  We finally narrowed it down to three possibilities: (1) Ryder somehow could sense that Blake and I were tense and it rubbed off on him, (2) he hates Gara, or (3) plain bad luck/timing.  For what it's worth, I highly doubt that he hates Gara.  Ryder doesn't hate anyone.  He can tend to be a bit shy at first with new people, but because he's been going to school since he was three months old, he's pretty good about warming up quickly. 

   Anyway, after the six-month photo shoot, Blake and I vowed to try something different next time.  However, Gara is a talented friend with a brand new studio, and I just can't bring myself (yet) to go elsewhere.  Plus, she's always managed to capture some sweet photos despite Ryder's monstrous behavior, which is pretty freaking impressive.  So, we're going to try one more time.  It's been six months since the last shoot, and I'd like to think that Ryder has changed a lot.  We'll see I guess. 

   A few days ago, Blake grabbed his fancy-shmancy camera, and followed Ryder around for a while.  The photos are casual and precious.  Enjoy!










 





A throw-back to Gara's photo shoots.


 

Saturday, November 10, 2012

11 Month Update


I'm sure I sound like a broken record, but I just can't believe that Ryder is 11 months old.  Because he is growing and developing so quickly now, it is difficult to keep up with his milestones in a monthly blog post, but I'll certainly do my best.

As of 10.5 months old, Ryder was consistently saying "uhoh" and "hi" or "hey."  He now says both of these things ALL.THE.TIME.  99% of the time, it is ridiculously adorable, but the "uhoh" can get old.  In particular, the preemptive "uhoh" can drive me a bit batty.  Ryder loves to purposely drop his lovey, pacifiers and toys.  He says "uhoh" and then drops them.  I've tried to reason with him and explain that "uhoh" is a term typically used after something is accidentally dropped... but to no avail.  Oh well.  Ryder will occassionally repeat "dada" or "mama" if we bait it out of him, but he hasn't used either term with any purpose.  He also still barks pretty regularly.  He barks at Gaudi, at his toy dogs, at pictures of dogs (and sometimes, at pictures of other random animals), and occasionally, he barks for no apparent reason at all.  At the 11 month mark, Ryder also started saying "tweet-tweet" when we pointed to a puzzle piece in the shape of a bird... but that seemed to be short lived.  He did it for a few days, and I haven't been able to coax it back out of him.

On Saturday, October 20th, I first noticed that Ryder was cutting his top two front teeth.  Now, several weeks later, the teeth are still slowly making their way down.  I don't remember his bottom two teeth taking nearly this long.  I keep wondering whether his top teeth are stuck and whether this will require dental intervention, and then I remind myself that I'm a clueless first-time mom and that this is probably the normal pace for tooth development.

Ryder still regularly throws his pacifiers over the top of his crib and then proceeds to get mad.  I only give him two pacifiers in his crib at night.  Some people have asked me why I don't just toss a whole bunch of pacis in his crib.  This is so for two reasons: (1) there is something that bothers me about the idea of my baby sleeping amongst dozens of pacis at night.  It seems messy and chaotic.  And I'm worried that he would roll over them and wake himself during the night, and (2) I'm absolutely certain that he would simply proceed to throw them all over the railing, one by one, until there would be dozens of pacis to pick up and rinse instead of just two.  I'm not claiming that these reasons are rational or legit... I'm just offering an explanation.  Two seems like a good number because it is more than one.

My goal has been to start limiting pacifiers to naps and night time once Ryder hits one year old.  For the most part, I don't think that this will be difficult.  Although Ryder does love his paci at times, he doesn't currently just sit around with it in his mouth.  We do offer it to him here and there during the day if he is fussy.  We also offer it to him during car rides.  But the initial transition to pacis only in the crib shouldn't be much of a challenge.  I'm more concerned about taking the paci away altogether.  I haven't decided when I'm going to try to do this.  Many moms have strong opinions on this issue, and I really have no clue what's best.  At the moment, I think that Ryder is pretty dependent on the paci during the night.  He falls asleep with it in his mouth, and if he wakes during the night, he immediately finds it and plugs himself.  I certainly don't want to mess with his awesome sleep habits, so I guess i'll just deal with the night time paci issue later.

In sharp contrast to my prior posts complaining about Ryder's picking eating habits, he now eats EVERYTHING.  He pretty much doesn't meet a finger food that he doesn't like.  Now and then he'll randomly diss something, but it's pretty rare.  He still loves fruit best (especially bananas, mandarin oranges and kiwis).  He also loves peas.  Just to give an idea of some of the other foods he has eaten recently:  macaroni and cheese, squash, zuchini, turkey, chicken, avocado, broccoli, cheese (he prefers shredded), pancakes (another favorite!), rice (especially Mexican)...



Ryder enjoying mexican rice, tomatoes, shredded cheese, chicken and tortillas at Uncle Julio's




I also introduced Ryder to whole cow's milk once he turned 11 months old.  Ideally, he's supposed to transition from forumula to milk at a year, so I knew it was time to introduce it to him and let him practice with the sippy cup.  He definitely likes (or at least doesn't mind) the taste of the milk.  He didn't make any type of interesting facial expression when he first tried it.  But I'm definitely concerned about the full-out transition.  He is doing much better with the sippy cup but still loses interest quickly and never drinks a significant quantity from his cup.  I've been offering him both milk and water in a sippy cup throughout the day, and I'd probably say that I've never gotten him to consume more than 2 ounces total of liquid in a day (via sippy cup).  This especially concerns me because he has already weaned himself almost entirely from bottles.  By the 11 month mark, he was refusing all bottles except for the one that I give him first thing in the morning.  After talking to his teacher at school about it on several occasions, I finally gave my blessing for her to stop trying (she was still making him a small bottle each day but he was consistently pushing it away and refusing to drink it).  So as of 11 months and 1 week old, he was (and still is) down to one bottle a day (6 oz).  I'm definitely concerned about Ryder's liquid intake in general.  If he is only having 6 oz. of formula plus 2 oz of milk or water.... it just doesn't seem like enough!  But at this point, I haven't found any way around it.  I'm going to discuss it with Dr. Friedman at his next check-up and see if he has any suggestions.  I'm hoping that the issue will just correct itself in time and that he'll just turn a corner at some point and start drinking more from his sippy.  If you are a mom that is reading this post and you have a suggestion, please send it my way!

[Later edited to add: On November 15, 2012, I gave Ryder his very last bottle of formula.  He made it clear that he was quite simply done with bottles.  I'm excited to be done with buying formula and hand-washing bottles, but I'm definitely a little bit sad to be done babying my baby.]

At 10.5 months, Ryder started dancing to music.  It's just as cute as you'd imagine.  He doesn't do it every time he hears music, but he probably does it about 75% of the time (as long as he is in a good mood).  He has two dance styles.  The first one is a head-to-tie bopping up and down (while in the sitting position).  The second one is a swinging motion that he does with his hands.  He clasps his hands together and swings his arms back and forth as if he was rocking a baby.  I love both styles!

On November 8, 2012, Ryder hit a huge and exciting milestone.  He pulled himself to standing!  It was so sudden and seemingly easy for him, that I was convinced that he must have already been doing it at school and that I just hadn't seen it yet.  But I confirmed with his teachers and with Peggie that none of them had ever seen him pull up before.  Yay for getting to be the first one to witness such a cool milestone!  It was a Thursday night and Ryder and I were playing while waiting for Blake to get home from work.  Ryder was crawling around the house like a crazed-loon.  He automatically darts to the dog bowls first.  Once I beat him there and pick the bowls up before he can start splashing around, he pouts at me and then moves on.  His next target is the pantry.  The door is usually ajar, so he likes to swing it open and closed.  Once I beat him there and close the door before he can start his swinging routine (a finger-smashing hazard), he pouts at me and then moves on to Gaudi's crate.  At that point, I sit on the couch and allow him to swing Gaudi's crate door open and shut for a while (much less of a finger-smashing hazard).  When he gets tired of that (or when he gets fustrated because he can't figure out how to actually crawl inside of the crate due to the two inch barrier at the base of the crate that he can't seem to climb over), he typically starts fussing and I have to pick him up.  But on this particular night, something drew his attention to the front door.  He made his way to the door, crawled right up to the window sill next to the door, and pulled himself right on up.  I was absolutely shocked because I had seen no indication in the prior weeks that Ryder was anywhere close to hitting this milestone.  I'd certainly never seen him attempt to pull up on anything, and he whenever I was placing him in a standing position, he was immediately collapsing to the floor.  I ran to get my video camera and was actually able to catch him pulling up for the second time.

I'll sign off with a video of Ryder's pulling up to the standing position for the second time in his life:



And a few more recent pictures just for fun:


Keys!





Thursday, November 8, 2012

Happy Halloween!

Because Blake and I often call Ryder "Spider," it was only appropriate to dress him as one for his very first Halloween.  Our sweet little "Ryder Spider" really was a spider... at least for one day.

Preparing to Trick-or-Treat:

Cutest spider in the world, if I do say so myself.


Momo and Spyder
 
Ryder loves sweet Ms. Peggie!


Cousin love.



 
Not sure what's happening here... but Ryder doesn't seem happy about it.
 
 






 
Venturing Out to Trick-or-Treat:
 


Add caption






Yup... I have a very silly husband.
 

The Strongs joined us on our trick-or-treating adventure.  Ryder and Abigail made for a wagon-full of cuteness.






 
 
 
 
 
 
Ryder's School Halloween Parade/Party:
 

Ms. Lynn trying to corral a bunch of costumed hooligans.


Ryder looks like he was getting the short end of the stick in this scene.

 
 
 




Thanks for snapping some pictures of me at school, Aunt Lauren!!


Ryder's Halloween-Themed TCU Music Class:
 
 



Bear (the Samarai) and Ryder (the skeleton)





Friday, November 2, 2012

St. Louis Saga: Part 3 of 3


I promise that Part 3 of 3 is the shortest of the three-part saga.  It's actually not part of the saga itself at all.  Rather, it consists of a few of my reflections on the St. Louis/Blake mess.

First of all, the experience made me all the more grateful for family.  Appropriately, it is now November, the month of Thanksgiving, and I feel like I am filled with thankfulness in the aftermath of "St. Louis Saga: Part 2 of 3."  I am thankful for Blake's mom, Larry, dad, and Samantha, who cared for Blake while his neurotic, helpless wife was stuck half-way across the country.  I'm thankful that they sent me millions of text messages with constant updates regarding Blake's condition and progress.  And even before Blake was hospitalized, I am thankful for Larry's ready willingness to cart me and/or my parents around St. Louis, which included an absurdly early morning ride to the airport once I got my flight changed to fly home with my parents.  [And hopefully, it goes without saying, that I am thankful for the beautiful party that Randi and Chuck threw in Ryder's honor.]

Blake's absence also reminded me how grateful I am to have an amazing husband.  Blake will be the first to admit that he doesn't handle many baby-related "chores."  Typically, I feed Ryder, I bathe Ryder, I change Ryder, I dress Ryder, I pack Ryder's bags for school, I take Ryder to school each morning, I do Ryder's laundry, I get up with Ryder during the night on the rare occasion that he wakes, I take Ryder to the doctor when he is sick, etc. etc.  However, don't be fooled.  Neither my nor Ryder's world continue to go around (at least not smoothly) without Blake .  While he was gone, I experienced a tiny, tiny piece of what a single mom's life feels like.  I didn't like it.  I depend on Blake to take care of many of the house chores.  I depend on Blake to entertain Ryder while I get his bags and lunch ready for school in the morning.  I depend on Blake to watch and play with Ryder while I run to the restroom or put away laundry.  I depend on Blake for his support and companionship.  And I depend on him for more things than I could ever list in a silly blog.  Morever, I was lonely without Blake.  I must try harder not to take Blake for granted.

Next, I am eternally grateful for the help and support of my own parents.  My mom spent the night with me almost every night while Blake was gone.  As much as I appreciated her company so that I wouldn't have to stay in the house alone, her company was not just a comfort thing.  It was an actual necessity.  I was stuck in trial all week, which meant that I needed to be at work extra early to make it to the courthouse on time.  As such, I physically could not drive Ryder to school and drop him off in time to make it to work.  My mom generously stayed over so that she could drive Ryder to school for me each morning (and also, of course, to generally offer her help and support in whatever way I needed).  Both of my parents provided their love and support, as they always do.  That week truly would have been a complete mess without their help.

Last, but not least, I want to thank a particular group of my friends.  I don't know which of them actually follow this blog, so they may not read this themselves, but I still want to put it down in writing so that I can always look back and remember that the friends that I will undoubtedly still have thirty years from now, were just as amazing "back in the day."  I am referring to my GGN girls.  Emily was the first to know of Blake's St. Louis hospitalization, which is less than surprising because she is the type of friend that doesn't go more than a day or two without checking in to see how things are going in your life (and because she is an avid text-messager in general!).  She was sweet, concerned and sympathetic (as always) and immediately asked if she could pass the word on to the rest of our GGN crew.  As soon as word was out, each of the GGN gals sent texts or emails with words of support.  They asked what they could do to help.  The first night that I was home without Blake, Emily brought me some much-needed groceries.  Amy asked whether she could help with Ryder in some way.  Their texts and emails meant a ton to me, even though I was too anxious and overwhelmed to respond to all of them.  If you are a regular follower of my blog, you may recall that these are the same girls that brought me an AMAZING care package while Ryder was in the NICU.  To make a long story short, these girls are always there for me 100%, in good times and bad.  I can only strive to be as good a friend to them as they have been to me.  What's even more interesting is that I have known these girls for less than five years (even though it feels like I've known them much, much longer). I have friends who I have known for decades who have yet to even meet Ryder and who, to this day, may not even know that Blake had a recent hospitalization.  The point of this shout-out to my GGN friends is definitely not to shame or devalue other friendships that I have.  I wasn't advertising Blake's condition on Facebook, by any means, so many of my friends would have had no way of knowing what was going on in my life.  Furthermore, I have a number of life-long friends that live out-of-state.  My point is simply that the GGN girls are ever-present in my life, and they've never let me down.  If you girls are reading this.... I LOVE YOU!

Enough of the cheesiness.  I'm sorry if I made anyone gag.  Tough patches in life always make you grateful for the good things that you have, and I'm simply writing them down so that I can remind myself to be always grateful and never take things for granted.

[After re-reading this post, I must point out that the GGN girls were not my only friends to reach out and support me while Blake was sick.  I love and appreciate all of the others too.  The GGN crew was just due for some blog recognition, in my opinion.  'Cuz you know... I'm sure they have all been sitting around at home waiting for a Halpern Home blog mention.]

St. Louis Saga: Part 2 of 3


Part 2: The Post-Party Catastrophe:

I dutifully grabbed some steaming hot coffee and headed upstairs to find Blake.  I found him curled up in the fetal position on his childhood bed, shaking violently.  He had the sheets, blanket and comforter pulled over his fully-clothed body.

The prior day, Blake had admitted that he felt like he was coming down with a cold.  His throat was scratchy, and he was a bit congested.  Dreading a cold and not wanting to be sick for the party, he had started drinking some Emergen-C vitamin drinks and washing his hands a bunch (so as not to spread any germs).  No big deal.  But from the sight of Blake on that Saturday afternoon, things had deteriorated quickly.  His forehead was burning hot to the touch.  The only thing he would tell me was that he was unbearably cold (which was pretty evident from the visible chills).  I ran back downstairs to discreetly steal his mom away from the party.  She made him some hot tea (a much better choice than coffee), and I fetched some tylenol and a thermometer.  At that point, Blake's fever was 104.  Not good.  We tended to Blake for a few minutes, and then headed back downstairs to pretend like there was nothing going on upstairs.  The last few stragglers from the party remained. We told guests that Blake was in the bathroom (a very believable excuse given Blake's bowel issues), and apologized on his behalf that he was not downstairs to say goodbye.  Once the last party-goer was out the door, Randi and I headed back upstairs to check on Blake.  He was still burning hot to the touch but complained that he was freezing cold.  In his feverish state, he apologized profusely (in between moans) for not making it to the end of the party.

After some discussion amongst Randi, Samantha, my mom and myself, we decided that Blake probably had the flu.  Our diagnosis freaked Blake out because he was petrified that he had just exposed a whole houseful of friends (and some babies!) to the flu.  We reassured him that there was no way he could have known and nothing he could have done.  While Blake quite literally moaned and groaned in his bed, we all discussed Blake's fever and whether it was high enough to warrant a hospital visit.  The tylenol alone was not working and his fever was hovering in the 104 range for the next hour or two.  My mom suggested an old household remedy that my grandma used to rely on when my mom, aunts and uncles had fever as children.  Desperate to try anything to make Blake feel better, we pulled out some rags, drenched them in rubbing alcohol and began to rub down Blake's neck, arms and legs.  Although I believe that the rubbing alcohol worked (Blake's fever quickly dropped down to the 101/102 range), some after-the-fact Googling revealed that this method is frowned upon by doctors these days.  So, I must include this disclaimer: rubbing alcohol on someone's body to reduce a fever can have dangerous implications, especially for young children, and is NOT RECOMMENDED.  Nonetheless, it seemed to be a short-term fix for Blake in this particular instance. 

Although Blake's fever was more under control, he felt like he was dying (his words, not mine).  We were very worried but did not want to subject him to a hospital visit unless truly warranted.  Samantha called some of her doctor friends, and they all agreed that he probably had the flu, to treat him with tylenol and heavy fluids and that he didn't need to go to the hospital unless his fever continued to rise.  By late Saturday night, Blake's fever was still high and he had a horrible sounding cough.  We pushed fluids on him, monitored his temperature and tried to make him as comfortable as possible.  As the night drew to an end, I was forced to accept the reality that Blake would not be able to travel home the next day.  Unless he had a miraculous recovery overnight, he would be too sick to fly.  This led to much anxiety on my part, as I was not the least bit equipped to travel home alone with Ryder.  We had not packed lightly, and I could not imagine successfully navigating the airport and airplane with my stuff, Ryder's stuff and Ryder in tow.  Thus began a desperate attempt to switch flights around so that I could fly home with my parents.  They had not booked their travel plans until a few weeks prior to the party and because of their tardy planning, they were forced to book an early morning flight.  They were due to fly out at 7 a.m., whereas Blake and I had tickets for an evening flight.  My dad got on the phone with the airlines, and after MUCH hassle and pleading, he was finally able to convince an agent to switch me onto their flight.  I was unhappy about the super early morning flight, and I was even more unhappy about the prospect of flying home without Blake, but at least I would have my parents' help.  At that point, I was worried about Blake, but I was relieved that I wouldn't have to travel home alone, I was reassured that I would at least be leaving my sick husband in the care of his doting mother, and I was convinced that Blake would be flying home one day later once he had a bit of time to recover from the flu.

I got VERY little sleep that night.  Besides the fact that I did not finish my last-minute packing until 1:00 a.m. and my alarm was set for 4:30 a.m. so that I could make it to the airport in time for the flight, Blake moaned and coughed throughout the night.  In the morning, I really didn't get to talk to or check on Blake because he was asleep.  Perhaps taking pity on me, Ryder was superb on the flight home.  He actually slept through 90% of it.  We made it home, albeit short one family member, safe and sound.

As I am sure you have gathered by this point, Blake was not able to fly home the following day.  Rather, I received word on Monday morning that Blake's family took him to the ER.  I learned after the fact that he was having difficulty breathing, on top of the fever and other symptoms that were already plaguing him.  To make an already long story a little bit shorter, Blake was admitted to the hospital and they began running a battery of tests on him.  His original flu panel was negative, which shocked everyone (including the doctors).  His symptoms were, in fact, so flu-like that the doctors ran a second flu panel, which was also negative.  Within his first few hours at the hospital, Blake had a spinal tap, chest x-rays, CT scan and copious amounts of blood work.  He was quickly diagnosed with bilateral pneumonia, which means that he had fluid in both lungs.  His oxygen levels were extremely low, so they put him on oxygen (in addition to massive quantities of IV antibiotics, anti-nauseau meds and painkillers). 

Although we were all a bit relieved to get some sort of diagnosis (pneumonia) and to see that Blake was finally being treated for his symptoms, there was still a heavy feeling of unease among us all.  Even without a medical degree, we all knew that a mostly healthy 31 year old male does not spontaneously develop severe bilateral pneumonia overnight.  Our concerns were fueled by the obvious efforts of the doctors to find an underlying cause for the pneumonia.  From my perspective (a maddening perspective given the fact that I was thousands of miles away), it was apparent that the doctors were looking for something. I know they tested Blake for West Nile Virus and meningitis, for example.  All tests were coming back negative/normal.  The "good" test results did not provide me with any sense of comfort or relief, since there was still no explanation for Blake's condition.  Finally, a couple of days into Blake's hospital stay, the infectious disease specialist decided to run a specialized flu panel that tests for some of the more rare forms of influenza.  BINGO.  Blake was diagnosed with a rare form of flu that generally only affects infants, elderly and those with severely compromised immune systems.  Apparently, Blake falls into the third category.  The injections he takes to manage his Crohn's/Ulcerative Colitis weakens the immune system and makes him more susceptible to germs that his body would otherwise be able to fight off.  We were probably told of this side effect when Blake first started taking the injections, but it is just one of those things that you file away in your memory somewhere and don't think about again unless/until it become relevant in your life.  Now we know that Blake lives his day-to-day life with a compromised immune system, and he has to take extra steps to try to protect himself (though there's not a ton he can do short of living in a bubble).

Blake's symptoms improved significantly on day 3 in the hospital.  His oxygen levels bounced back into the normal range, though his breathing remained labored.  On Thursday, the doctors released Blake from the hospital but forbid him from traveling until the following Monday.  His body and immune system were both still quite weak.  I was dying to have my husband back home, but I understood that staying those extra days in St. Louis was best for him.  Each day, when I spoke to him on the phone, Blake sounded better and better.  He was tired and frustrated by his labored breathing, but there was no question that he was on the mend. 

The entire experience was fairly terrifying.  Unfortunately, Blake has had several hospital stints in the 6+ years that I have known him, but all of those prior hospitalizations were directly related to his digestive/bowel situation.  This felt like it came out of nowhere, as none of us had any clue that it was, in fact, indirectly related to his diseased digestive system until the tail end of the nightmare.  To further compound the crappiness of the situation (on my end), I was stuck in another state and unable to be by my husband's side while he was bed-ridden in the hospital.   

Luckily, this story has a happy ending.  Blake made it home on Monday, October 15th.  Traveling wore him out, but he was finally home, safe and sound.  Blake's recovery has been pretty smooth.  He took it easy and wasn't allowed to work much during his first week back home, but he rested, regained his strength and gradually morphed back into the vibrant Blake that we all know and love.  Now, less than a month after the shit-storm hit (escuse my French), Blake is 99% back to his normal self.

Ryder sent DaDa a message while he was gone:

St. Louis Saga: Part 1 of 3

The first weekend in October, we traveled to St. Louis for the first time as a family of three.  In other words, it was Ryder's first trip to St. Louis.  We left on Thursday evening and planned to return on Sunday evening.  Blake's mom and dad had planned an open-house style, meet-and-greet party for Ryder since none of their friends had met him yet.  We were all very excited about the big weekend, especially the party which was destined to be quite a bash.  What should be a simple blog post about the weekend festivities, must now be split into a three-part chronicle of epic proportions.

Part 1: The Party

The flight to St. Louis on Thursday evening was decent.  Blake rates Ryder's behavior as a "C," but I'd give him a "C+".  It was better than the hellish flight home from Florida several months ago (see previous blog post for a recount of that picnic), but it was by no means a walk in the park.  We knew it would be risky to take a flight after Ryder's bed time, but we also knew that any flight time would be risky, no matter what time of day, so we just went with it.  Ryder didn't sleep a wink and was a bit fussy, antsy and even spastic at times, but he didn't have any major screaming meltdowns.  We made it to Blake's childhood home without significant incident, and Ryder went right to sleep, like a little angel, in his pack-n-play.  We enjoyed the day on Friday, which included lunch with Blake's cousin and his new wife (who we hadn't met).  My parents arrived in St. Louis that day (they didn't want to miss out on Ryder's meet-and-greet party the following day).  It was an uneventful day filled with quality time with family.  On Friday night, Randi and Larry graciously offered to stay home with the sleeping baby so that Blake and I could go out with some of Blake's friends.  We had a great time having a grown-up night out.  We enjoyed the grub and some adult beverages but especially enjoyed the company of the Schweizers (whose son is a few months younger than Ryder) and the Klenofskys (who are expecting twins in 2013).  Poor Sara K. had to excuse herself early due to hellish, all-day pregnancy sickness, but otherwise, we all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. 

On Saturday, everyone woke up early to get ready for the big party.  Randi expected somewhere in the vicinity of 75 guests at the party, which was scheduled between 11-2pm (in hopes that the party would fall between Ryder's morning and afternoon nap).  Randi and Chuck had planned a beautiful, over-the-top celebration.  A huge cupcake stand was filled with adorably decorated mini-cupcakes, iced in blues, greens and yellows.  A caterer set up a delicious lunch spread, including tuna salad, a grilled chicken salad, pasta salad, fruit, bagels, etc.  The caterer and his servers stayed to serve drinks and tend to the party guests.  Naturally, Randi made sure that every detail was perfect.  There were beautiful flower displays and adorable baby-themed decorations.  My in-laws certainly know how to host a spectacular event.  Ryder looked adorable in his big-boy outfit (pictures to follow, of course), and guests started to arrive promptly at 11am. 

The party itself went swimmingly.  Randi and Chuck's friends are so sweet, fun and generous.  They (quite unnecessarily) showered Ryder with gifts.  Ryder was pretty much a rock star.  Despite having a decent morning nap, he became very sleepy within the first hour, but despite his obvious exhaustion, he let me tote him around to meet all of the guests without so much as a gripe.  By 12pm he had his head permanently rested on my shoulder, paci glued to his mouth and heavy eyelids.  Nonetheless, he "marched" on.  It was fun to see Randi and Chuck's friends, most of whom I hadn't seen since my wedding day.  Several of Blake's friends came as well, many of them bringing their own babies along.  At some point, guilt started to nag at me because I knew that Ryder was desperate for a nap.  At around 1:15p.m., I gave in and put Ryder down for a nap upstairs.  I felt badly that a few guests would still come by and wouldn't get to meet him, but I simply couldn't force the sleepy little babe to stay up any longer.  I returned downstairs to the party, sans the guest of honor, and continued to visit with all of the wonderful St. Louis folk.  It was nothing but peaches and cream until approximately 1:30p.m.  My dad found me and said that Blake had text-messaged him and asked that he tell me to please bring him a cup of hot coffee upstairs right away.  It was a very strange message.  I figured that Blake texted my dad since he knew that I was not carrying my phone around with me, but the fact that he was demanding coffee upstairs at the tail end of the party was quite odd.  I had noticed that I hadn't seen Blake for a little while, but I had assumed he was merely in another room or perhaps in the restroom. 

Stay tuned for blog post "Part 2 of 3" to find out why Blake demanded coffee upstairs while the party was still ongoing.  For now, enjoy some pictures from Ryder's party (and the remainder of the St. Louis weekend):


Lunch with Blake's cousin Jeff and his sweet wife Moncy (far left).



 
 


 
 
Decent family photo (other than Ryder's sleepy eyes)
 

Family photo with yummy cupcake tower in forefront.


Adding Ro and Budmo to the photo warranted a smile from Ryder.

The entire crew







 




"Paw-Paw Larry," "Ro," "Grandi" and Grandpa Chuck







Ryder meeting his friend Easton Schweizer

Ryder and Easton


Ryder and Grandi











I looked like a drugged-out disaster, but I have to post the picture since Ryder is actually smiling.

Ryder, sporting a double-chin, with his Auntie Sammie.