Hope each of you had a great Memorial day weekend. Our clan did! Max had given me a two-night stay at a bed and breakfast in Grand Haven (30 minutes West on Lake Michigan) as a Mother's day gift. It was so relaxing and Ryan did great. We were really nervous about him disturbing other guests, but he did so well. Honestly, the most he cried was 30 seconds when someone accidentally mistook our room for theirs and tried to come in.

I know we've said it before, but he's changing and growing so fast. It was a weekend of firsts: first family trip, first picnic, first time sitting up un-aided! He's laying in his pack n' play right now talking to himself and playing with Frog.

The changes in our lives has taken really hit me this month...A few observations:
- This weekend our bed and breakfast was on the main strip of Grand Haven. In high school we spent many nights of cruising this stretch in convertibles scoping for guys. This past weekend I "cruised" the same strip, but while pushing a stroller with my two guys.

- We had dinner out 3 nights in a row, which was more than we've had cumulatively since Ryan was born.

- The other day I took Ryan for a walk across the street from our home at Aquinas college. It struck me so funny that the kids I was passing had book packs filled of books while I had a front pack full of baby! Sadly I was still wearing a sweatshirt from college thinking I fit in.

- My record for photos is 1,500+ over a summer spent in Europe. I have far exceeded that count with Ryan...he's my new favorite subject....far better than a castle.

In other news, our home went on the market Friday (for sale by owner). You can check out our website to see our place: 109Mayfield.blogspot.com We really hope that our network of friends will spread the word and that we can sell soon. The place we want to purchase is still on the market and we're committed to not having two mortgages until 109 sells. In truth, if we cannot have this new place, we'll probably take the house off he market. We walked through the new place last Friday for the second time and are convinced it is the place for us. It's on almost an acre, though it's in a subdivision so Ryan will have friends up the street (we hope). Its 104 years old and in GREAT condition. So if you know of anyone that may like our place, please send them the link to our site. (We're offering $300 to anyone the refers our buyer.)

Well, I better get to dinner. Max played "daddy daycare" today since our sitter had commitments and our back up plan had a fever and runny nose. The boys did great... Max is just finishing the turkey burgers now after selling my 20-year old ten speed bikes for $70 on craig's list! Who said teal and yellow is an out of date color-combo?

Love to each of you,
Courtney, Max and Ryan













Ryan and Papa on Memorial Day after a cookout.
















Ryan and his new shades:
Not so impressed.













Very Impressed!
Very Elton John.











Here's the Harbor View Inn where we stayed. The best part was that you could see the Musical Fountain from the front porch. It's the largest musical fountain in the world. (Bill senior: It has an 8,000 kilowatt speaker sound system! Max said that is a lot.)










Ryan is getting chubby again...ok, more chubby. He's just moved to his bouncer and is laughing and trying to pet the dog.
















Ryan's first picnic.











The weekend consisted of lots of playtime on the king sized bed. Ryan's wearing my new favorite shirt: It says: Dr. Poopsie













Yes, Ryan was as shocked as we were when he sat up on his own for the first time.


















Ryan and a million dollar yacht. Oh the good life!











We ended our stay with a memorial parade straight out of a Normal Rockwell painting down Washington street in GH.













I would like to pretend that we planned our patriotic themed outfits or the position of this photo. We did not. But we're super themed down to the blue binkie.

5 Months!

Hi all,
This week's post borders on obsessive, but the cuteness cannot be contained. And it was Mother's Day, so this gives me the free-pass to love on my baby over the blog. It's been a strange week for us. Max is wrapping up baseball...we're suppose to be at a game right now, but someone's nap interfered with that plan! His last game is Wednesday. I have been working a lot. And Ryan has been leaving the infant stage behind to be a full-on baby.

In the midst of all this, Max and I have been toying with the idea of selling the house to move into the district he teaches in. We've done so much to this place and are finally finished so it's nice to just ease back and live in the house. However, the story we have to tell a potential buyer about all the new changes doesn't get any better than right now. Plus, we found a gem! A 100 year farmhouse in the midst of a neighborhood on close to an acre of land...and the price was just reduced $50k. It needs some attention, but it's weaknesses are all the strengths that Max and I have as home renovators. It's beautiful and the location could not get any better. We'll see what happens...Our next steps are to find out what we can get for our home given the improvements we've done and to see what's on the seller's disclosure for the new house. Stay tuned...And if anyone out there is interested in our place (or has a friend that's interested), speak up. We'd MUCH rather pass this place to someone who will love it as we have. And if we can do this as a private sale, all the better.

As for Mr. Ryan...He's 18 lbs as of today. No Joke! We had his monthly check-up (Yes, Dr. Bush said that we're his favorites, so he schedules us once a month. Then again, Dr. Bush thought frazzled old me with my sloppy pony tail was 24 years old last check up, so I cautiously wonder if the check ups are more about making sure I'm keeping up my end of the bargain as a "teen" mom! J/K) Anyhow, Ryan is now off the pro-biotics since the doc thinks they did the trick. We're staying on the reflux meds for now and seeing what happens. I am still off dairy just to keep from changing too many variables at once. However, Ryan is like a new child. He's happy and curious and clearly out of pain. We're so thankful he's on the mend. No solids for now until we get this completely cleared up, but those days are around the corner. Other developments with the little man:

- He's blowing bubbles outwardly
- He mimics us when we stick out his tongue. And when he smiles, his tongue twists clockwise.
- He fully roles from back to stomach in search of toys
- His favorite song is "I see the moon" as well as a song we've made up "I see the boy of my heart"...and yes, he also loves "Hello Dolly" but only when my mom sings it to him
- He recognizes who Daddy, Mommy, Cali and Jenny (his sitter) are and searches for us visually when asked
- Cali and him are completely into each other now. Unfortunately, Cali still howls when he cries.
- He loves playing peek-a-boo with daddy
- He hates his car seat (when strapped in), though that's where he generally takes his naps (not strapped in)
- He is in silent awe when we go outside. He's just on full alert whenever we're outside, especially now that he is happy facing outwards when I wear him in our front pack
- Checking our voice mail on speaker stops him from crying
- He's almost out grown his bassinet in our room and will have to move to his crib in his room pretty soon
- He's starting to sit up though needs support

That's all for this GR crew this week. Love to you all,
Court, Max, Ryan & Cali

My first mother's day. This was taken at my parents. Max surprised me with a 2-night stay at a bed and breakfast in Grand Haven next weekend. Our first family trip. Could Ryan look anymore like Max? I swear, all I provided was womb rental.
Mother's day: Aunt Kirstyn showing off a gift for me (read the bib). He's sporting his collared shirt and plaid shorts since we had brunch at the country club (I was tempted to put him in jean overalls to see if we'd get ejected for illegal textile wear, but thought better than to rock the boat this time.)
Ryan's getting the hang of the jumper and now bounces around, especially when Daddy sings "Jump Around," (Cyprus Hill) to him. He's destined to be a hip hop fan. (He still loves Jay-Z's "Unplugged", thank you Uncle Brian)
We call this "Me and my Dog". This is honestly how I caught Ryan sitting with his favorite new toy, courtesy of Uncle Eric and Aunt Kirstyn's trip to Disney. He's obsessed with the Pluto.


This is Ryan in what we call "The Frog Sessions". He love this toy and was rolling all over the bed to play with it. I went a little over-board with the pictures from that day.


Ryan trying to sit up. He looks like such a little man in this outfit. Check the shoes.

Daddy and the jailbird on Mother's day.
"I love my jumper!"

Happy Mother's Day

We know we have some Grandmas out there that would love to celebrate today by "seeing" their grandson. So check out our new YouTube channel with 8 new videos of Ryan. Note to all our followers...some of these are more suited to family that want to see EVERY aspect of Ryan...in other words, they may lack a plot or story arc.

Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/user/maxandcourt

Almost 5 Months

Hey all,
Spring has come to West Michigan and we could not be happier. Actually, all I care about as I write is that I got a full hours of sleep last night for the first time since I got pregnant. Ryan slept though the night! (Yes, I checked that he is breathing.) We have started a new protocol with him since having the blood in his diaper again. Our doctor did a ton of different blood tests and everything came back normal, including an allergy panel, so he came up with the following theory:

• Ryan actually has two conditions. We were trying to find a condition that fit all his symptoms and could not find one. Meanwhile he was suffering while the grown ups tried to figure it out. It kills us!

• Condition 1 is a colitis of the intestines, which causes the gas and bleeding. The thinking is that because he was on 4 high does IV antibiotics when he was in the hospital at 3 days old (the time your gut flora is getting set up) he has an imbalance of the good and bad bacteria. So we're adding probiotics to a small amount of pumped breast milk every night to help him find balance. (If only finding balance for the rest of us was so easy!)

• Condition 2 is acid reflux which explains the "colic", the pulling off the nipple when eating and the congestion at night. As I learned that there is no such thing as colic as a disease, it's rather a symptom and we needed to get to the bottom of it. Ryan is now on Tagamet for children twice a day.

All in all, Ryan is doing great now. So great that Sunday he traveled with me, Max and my mom to a shower in Detroit (3 hours away) and was fantastic! I paid for it the next day as he was very grumpy, but who could blame him? Our sitter, Jenny, cannot get over the difference.

Ryan's developing at a rapid pace. Not only is he a big boy (almost 18lbs and very tall) but he's learning new things right before our eyes. Here's his new tricks:
• He can take the binky in and out of his mouth.
• He's poised to crawl, but has yet to figure out the legs.
• He sings and talks a lot. The other day in the car NPR was on and a woman from Afghanistan was speaking Farsi which sounds a lot like how Ryan talks. As soon as she would speak, Ryan would too!
• He's rolling from back to side or from front to side.
• He recognizes daddy and can track each of us as we walk in the door.
• He LOVES being outside and watching the neighborhood kids.

Max and I are doing well too. Baseball has been nutz and it has been a LONG season. 3 weeks and he's done. Ryan has been to a few games and loves it. And so do all the mom's watching their teen aged sons who like to remind me that before I know it, Ryan will be on the mound.

Work for me continues to be very busy, but fulfilling. Max and I are toying with the idea of selling our house to move closer to the district where Max teaches...We're very unsettled about the idea, but are thinking that a backyard that was big and fenced would be very much appreciated by our under-exercised dog. Anyhow, it' s just an idea for now. Yesterday we spent the day with Max's Step-dad—Jack‚—on our mind as it would have been his birthday. And we're keeping my Grandmother—Lila—in our prayers as she is still in the hospital after open-heart surgery because shes developed some other complications.

I hear Ryan awake upstairs cooing to himself, so I better scoot. He's going to be hungry after a full night's rest. Love to each of you,
Court, Max & Ryan

Ryan on the move at my mom's house. He's got the knees down with the crawling....now for the arms.
Ryan celebrating the blooms on the tree in front of our house.
Ryan's favorite thing to do is suck on his hands. He has a constant supply of drool these days.
This is Ryan sporting his new 6-9 month onsie! Time to rotate to the next round of clothes.
Conked out after a nap with Mommy on the couch in the piano room (no we do not have a piano, it's just what we call the front room since the previous owned had a piano). He looks like Max when he's sleeping and he's starting to look more like me when I was a baby and he's awake.
Ryan and Aunt Kirstyn after an afternoon walk.
It's tulip time in West Michigan as evident by the blurry patch of color to Ryan's right.
Grandma and Grandpa Stevens bought Ryan a jumper this weekend. This is his first time using it. Check out those chubby legs.
Ryan doing his newest binkie trick. Amazing!
Perfectly posed. I hate that this shirt says "Property of Mom"...like I am going to try and sell him with our house!
This is the last time Ryan could wear his "Ithaca is Gorges" shirt, my favorite...He's too big now! Daddy was making him do push-ups before bed.
Naked and napping is how our boy is the happiest (just like daddy...kidding). Yes, he still has the pink binkie, though he also owns blue and green too.

My two favorite men.