Dylan Matthew is here!!!

(this post is out of order and eventually I will fix it, but thought would be easier to find this way)

5 days after his expected due date, Dylan Matthew joined our family at 11:33 p.m. on Sunday, March 15th. I woke up the morning of the 15th not feeling well and within 2 hours, realized that I was having contractions. They went on throughout the day but were very inconsistent. Jay and my mom convinced me that Ryan should probably spend the night with my parents in case we needed to go to the hospital in the middle of the night. Around 8:30 p.m., we called the on-call doctor to tell him we thought I needed to go to the hospital and he encouraged me to continue to labor at home since my contractions were still not consistent. We decided to head to the hospital anyway and it is a good thing that we did - we arrived at the hospital at 9:30 p.m. and 2 hours later, our son arrived (quite different than the 14 hours we spent at the hospital waiting for Ryan to make his appearance). This time, we were so late to the hospital in fact, that after they inserted the epidural, they realized it was too late to turn it on and Dylan was born less than 10 minutes later.

We called everyone right after Dylan was born and everyone was so surprised that he came so quickly - last time they heard from us, it was around 10 pm and we were not even sure if they were going to admit me to the hospital. Since Dylan was born so late at night, we decided that everyone would wait until the morning to come meet him, but since Michael lives so close to us, he and Jasmine came to the hospital that night.

When he was born, Dylan weighed 7 pounds, 9.8 ounces and was 21 inches long. He has big, bright blue eyes and like Ryan, started opening them and looking around before the night was over.

As I predicted, Dylan had a full head of hair, but to our surprise and as further evidence that the old wives tale is true about heartburn equaling a baby with hair, Dylan also had the hairiest shoulders we have ever seen on a baby. He also couldn't wait to eat.
We were pleasantly surprised to be allowed to go home on Tuesday morning. After spending the first 2 days of his life in an NYU hospital hat, onesie, and the hospital blanket wrapped around him making him look like a little burrito, it was time to get Dylan dressed in his coming home outfit that he got from Aunt Erika and Uncle Richie.

Too bad his jacket was a little bit too big!! It was Ryan's and maybe we should have gotten a new one for Dylan - luckily the weather is starting to warm up and he shouldn't need it for much longer.

Like typical New Yorkers, we took Dylan home in a taxi and I am sure the cab driver thought I was nuts when I made him take our picture. The first few days with our new son have flown by but things have been great. We were lucky enough to have one wonderful son already and we feel truly fortunate to have added another healthy, beautiful boy to our family.

Dylan's first outing

After 36 hours in the hospital and 2 days in the apartment, I was starting to get a little bit stir crazy. Since we had good weather today, Jay and I decided to take the boys out for a little while so we all could get some fresh air. We went to the park right behind our building and it was great for all of us, especially Ryan who was happy to be pushed on the swings, run around and play in the dirt, and most of all, push his brother in the stroller. As soon as we put Dylan in the stroller, Ryan told us that he wanted to push Dylan and show him where the park was.

As usual, Ryan had brought some trains to the park and once we were there, he quickly lost interest in Dylan, Jay and I because "Peter Sam need go in dirt". I am not sure who was dirtier at the end of our time at the park, Ryan or the trains, but the all ended up in the bathtub as soon as we got home.

Dylan slept for his entire first trip to the park, but he sure looked adorable all bundled up.

I forgot how hard it was to get little baby arms in a coat and am really looking forward to the nicer weather and spending time outside with my two sons. I still can't believe that I am the mother of two boys - two of the greatest, smartest, funniest and most handsome boys ever!!!

Brothers

The night Dylan was born, Ryan stayed at my parent's house and I could not wait for him to come to the hospital to meet his little brother. We had talked about the baby for months and the time was finally here - I guess months of telling Ryan that we need to be gentle with the baby and that he will be very tiny must have made Ryan nervous though because I was surprised at how shy he was.

Ryan told my mother later that day that he did not like "Dylan's house" - I think the hospital was just overwhelming for him and seeing me in that environment was probably confusing for him. Ryan did start warming up to Dylan after the exchange of gifts, perhaps thinking "This baby can't be too bad if he knows about Thomas". The longer Ryan stayed at the hospital, the closer he would get to Dylan but he said he did not want to touch him because he was afraid.

Being a family of 4 has been wonderful so far and here is our first family picture, trains included.

We are thrilled that Ryan seems happy about being a big brother and Jay and I are so excited to see the boys grow up together - I know that they are going to be best friends.

Friday Funnies

1. Ryan probably watches more tv than he should but some of the shows are educational and Ryan seems to be learning some things from them. Sort of. For example, the other day, Ryan was jumping from couch to couch yelling "Say Stupid, Say stupid" and I couldn't figure out where he learned that. I finally realized he was trying to say "Say Sube!" which Diego always says when he climbs up something, which is pretty much every episode. (sube is spanish for to go up)

2. Ryan is not happy when his tv turn is over. As soon as we turn off cartoons, he promptly declares "No no, I don't like peoples" - peoples being any non-animated tv show.

3. Ryan has been working on his jumping lately. I would say he should probably hold off on the hurdles for a while




4. Sometimes, I think that Ryan is going to have a tough time with the new baby and getting used to me being around, but not necessarily there for him. My last day of work was Tuesday and on Thursday, I went with Ryan and Elizabeth to see what story time at the library was like. When we got there, I planned to drop stuff off at the Salvation Army (2 doors down) and told Ryan I would be right back. When I came back 5 minutes later, Ryan and Elizabeth were outside waiting for me and Ryan was crying. When I asked why they were waiting, Ryan said "Ryan screaming" so I asked why he was screaming and he said "Ryan so, so, so, so, so sad mommy. Mommy Ryan best friend. Mommy no go byebye. Bebet go byebye" In some ways it was adorable and I love that he says I am his best friend and that he wanted to spend time with me, but it also made me feel sad for him that soon he will have to share my time and Jay's with the new baby.

5. On the other hand, it seems that Ryan is getting very excited about becoming a brother - too bad I don't really think he knows what that means. This weekend, Jay and I tried to finish up final preparations for the new baby and Ryan was very excited to help. He wanted to help wash all of the baby clothes, "helped" Jay put the baby swing together and even practiced swinging the "baby" (a stuffed dog) by pushing the swing since there were no batteries in it. I remember when Ryan was a baby, he never wanted to sleep and the only way to get him to sleep was to rock him. As soon as you would put him down though, Ryan would wake up and one of the few ways to get him to stay sleeping was to put him in the swing. My dad often said he didn't like the swing because he thought that it went too fast and rocked the baby too hard. If he didn't like it before, my dad definitely won't like it now since Ryan's version of "gently" pushing the swing is basically the highest level and then some. As soon as Elizabeth got to the house this morning Ryan couldn't wait to tell her all about his weekend and said "Bebet, baby is coming. I brother" and proceeded to tell her about the swing, the clothes etc and that "Swing baby - Ryan too big, I brother".

Pizza Anyone?

I love cooking with Ryan although we don't get to do it as much as I would like because our kitchen is too small and there is no real counter space. For Christmas, Ryan got his own chef's hat and apron from Omi but we had not had a chance to use them yet until this weekend. Chef Daddy decided to try and make pizza with Chef Ryan and we all had a great time and a delicious dinner. Since our counter is very high, Jay brought Ryan's table in to the kitchen so he could reach the pizzas and participate more (I am not sure why I never thought of that idea but it certainly made cooking together much better)

Once we got the pizza crusts ready, it was time to add some toppings. The first step was to coat the crust (Boboli) with a little olive oil and sauce. Because this part had potential to be very messy, Daddy helped Ryan, although Ryan got the hang of it quickly and decided he wanted to do by "Ryan self".

Next step was the cheese.

Now any time Ryan sees a bag of shredded cheese, he calls it pizza cheese -haha. The final step was to add the pepperoni, which Ryan was not too thrilled about touching.

When the pizza was finally finished, Ryan wouldn't eat it but he definitely missed out because it sure was delicious!! I am not sure what we will make next, but I love my little chef and his interest in doing different things.

Reading

Almost everyday since Ryan was born, we have read him books at bedtime. We love the quiet cuddle time with him and he loves looking at the pictures and asking questions about the books. Ryan has really been paying attention while we read to him, and we have recently found him more frequently trying to read the books on his own. I don't think that he really looks at the words but I think that probably will come with time. I recently found out that many of the New York city library branches have a story time and I mentioned it to Elizabeth and she has started taking Ryan at least once a week. Jay and I have yet to have the chance to go, but Elizabeth says Ryan loves it and sits very quietly as the librarian reads to the group. After the first story time, Ryan and Elizabeth walked around the children's book section and read some more books in the children's section. Ryan was very unhappy when he could not take any of the books home so we decided to get him a library card and told him when he behaves at story time, he can borrow some books. Ryan was so happy and excited when he got his card

Elizabeth helped Ryan pick out some books and everyday since he brought them home, Ryan has sat at his table and read his books.

I didn't ask but I am guessing that Ryan picked out the book about Engines and Elizabeth picked out the books "Baby on Board" and "Mommy/Daddy love their baby". I LOVE the mommy/daddy book and Ryan loved the engine book and in theory, the baby on board book should have been perfect for continuing to prepare Ryan for the new baby to come. I am sure that is why Elizabeth picked it out but I am guessing she didn't read the book first. It goes through the different stages of pregnancy and changes that happen to mommy over 9 months. I was not surprised to discover the book was written by a man when I read the lines "Mom gets cranky a lot at the moment", "Mom says dad should practice sleeping on the sofa", and that dad brought sports magazines and his game boy in mommy's hospital bag. It is lies, all lies that mommys would do any of the above things, I have had wonderful behavior for the past 9 months and Jay I am sure has no interest in looking at sports magazines in the hospital. As a result, this book will be heading back to the library asap. (just in case any readers think I am being serious, the entire time I was in labor with Ryan, SportsCenter was on the tv and on more than one occassion over the past 9 months, I have told Jay he better bring home cupcakes or else!!)

The Bathtub Artist

A while ago, Jay came home with a present for Ryan that I immediately hid in the closet - a bathtub paint set called "Rub-a-dub-dub, Let's paint in the tub". Based on the box alone, it looked like it would be more trouble than it would be worth and when I saw the warning "May permanently stain tile and grout", I pushed it farther in to the closet. I came across it the other day, and after being too lazy to go out of the house all day, I felt guilty. I thought maybe Ryan was bored and he deserved a little fun, even if it would be a huge mess. I learned an important lesson: sometimes the biggest messes can be the most fun! Ryan was very excited to get something new and loved the paints. He was a little hesitant at first until I started filling up the paint tray and then he demanded that I put paint in each of the fingers.

I stripped Ryan down to the diaper, plopped him in the tub and let him paint away. It didn't take Ryan long to ditch the tray and instead used his hands as the palette, often informing me I was not giving him enough paint. For more than an hour, Ryan had a blast alternating between painting the wall and himself.

Every time I tried to put an end to painting time, Ryan would say "No mommy, one more time please". We definitely would have used all of the paint in one day if Ryan had his way and he was not a happy camper when I finally put the paints away.

Surprisingly, the paint was very easy to get off the wall and turned into bubbles when it was scrubbed. As a result, Ryan had almost as much fun cleaning off the wall as he did painting. We will definitely play with our bathtub paints again soon, although we are not doing it as frequently as Ryan would like: he has asked to paint everyday since.