Meghan's 30th Birthday

The weekend of the 5th we began a long celebration of my 30th birthday. On Saturday, my Mom and Dad came down for the afternoon and for a yummy dinner at Alexander’s.

On Sunday, Ryan hosted a party for me, with friends coming over to hang out, watch some football, eat, and play a little Beatles Rock Band. It was a perfect day, casual and relaxed, and Ryan did pretty much all the work! I didn’t get a lot of pictures, but I did get a cute one of Patrick and his friend Henry:

Tuesday, my actual birthday, was a wonderful and strange day. First thing, Ryan got up and made me a hot breakfast croissant sandwich – yum! I headed to work, looking forward to a relaxing birthday dinner with my boys. I was very excited because after years of worry, Ryan finally had a doctor’s appointment to discuss his sleep/snoring issue and it happened to fall on my birthday. What a gift! I was thrilled when Ryan called after his appointment to tell me that the doctor referred him for and scheduled a sleep study in January. Hooray!

Anxious to get the issue under control, Ryan called the sleep center to see if he could get in sooner (say, this insurance year!) They confirmed that his appointment was the soonest available, but they would gladly add him to the long cancellation waiting list and would call if an appointment opened up.

A few short hours later, Ryan and I were back on the phone – the sleep clinic called and had a last-minute cancellation. Ryan was the first person to answer and was offered the spot for that night. After making sure that I wouldn’t be upset (not an unreasonable concern!) he accepted the spot.

So, the home cooked dinner and a relaxing evening with my hubby was replaced by a super quick celebration – which Ryan still made incredibly special. I received a bouquet of 30 gorgeous roses, a couple of wonderful gifts, and a cards from both Ryan and Patrick (Patrick signed his himself!) We ate a quick dinner of pretzel dogs before Ryan was headed to the hospital. I wasn’t thrilled to be spending my actual 30th birthday alone, but I had trying to get him in for a sleep study for years. It was bittersweet that it finally all came together on my birthday.

The best part? The sleep study quickly concluded what we had all suspected, that Ryan has severe sleep apnea. He will be receiving a CPAP machine to use in the near future. As soon as he does, I’ll post a picture! What a birthday gift!!

But wait, there’s more! Thursday night at our usual Guadalajara after bowling dinner, I got the whole sombrero on the head, whipped cream on the face treatment. (I’m sure there are pics of that somewhere, but I’m pleased to say I don’t have any.)

We’re not done with the birthday celebration quite yet, but there were a couple of things that happened in before the final celebration. In the interest of chronological accuracy, I’m going to skip that last one for now.

6 months

Instead of a traditional list of accomplishments, in honor of this milestone birthday, we’re going to change things up a bit.

My beautiful son,

Happy 6 month birthday! I can hardly believe that I’ve been able to hold you in my arms for 6 months now. Your daddy and I love you so much more than you could ever imagine. You are such a handsome little dude, with fantastic hair that stikkumups in all different directions and seems to be a different color every day. Your beautiful eyes are darkening, but still have the most gorgeous blue in the center; they look very much like your daddy’s eyes. Your smile is infectious, and you are so generous with it. Everyone says you’re the happiest little dude, and they’re right. You love to laugh, and your big laugh is a hilarious guffaw-squeak noise. I can’t help but laugh every time you laugh.

You are a champion sitter and desperately want to figure out how to crawl. You lean forward and pound your fist on the floor as if to say “c’mon floor, help me out here!” When you get on your tummy, you scoot backwards, in what daddy and I call ‘lobstering.’ You’ll be moving forward in no time, little man.

You are a little daredevil! You love diving forward on to your face when you’re hanging out in mommy and daddy’s bed, and love being tossed into the air. It’s only a matter of time before you’re hanging from the ceiling fan! (Kidding!)

You are the best sleeper ever – an 11 hour night is pretty standard for you. You usually go to bed without a fight and most nights sleep straight through. Every once in a while you get into a few day phase of waking up around 4, but we can’t complain.

You love your cereal, although sometimes you love the reaction you get for spitting it back at us more.

I can’t begin to imagine what the next few months are going to be like, but I know that they’ll be an adventure. We’re so blessed to have you in our lives. We love you, pnut!

P.S. Dr. Sanjay says you’re growing like a champ! You’re up to 18 lb 3 oz and 26.5 in!

Look at those rolls!!

Hanging out with your brothers

Cap'n Cruddy Eye and the Busy, Busy Weekend

Once Thanksgiving was over, we were FAR from done with our weekend. Friday morning, Grammy Dorothy, Patrick and I headed north for my dear friend Mara's wedding festivities while Ryan and Grandpa Phil stayed behind to work on the old house. Patrick was sniffley and had a little bit of a 'booger eye' thing happening, but we didn't worry too much. We headed straight to Mara's rehearsal and then to Grammy and Grandpa's to get Patrick settled in. Friday night, I headed back down to Rolling Meadows for the rehearsal dinner, while Patrick stayed with Grammy.

Saturday morning, I headed to Addison to get ready for the wedding with the other bridesmaids and Mara while a boogery Patrick stayed with Grammy. His eyes were a little more boogered, but again nothing too bad, and his cough seemed to be subsiding. Fast forward a few hours - the wedding is over, the pictures are being taken, and of course, my phone is being stored away with all the bridesmaid stuff. Unfortunately, this meant I missed my poor mother calling to tell me that Patrick had a fever. When I finally heard the message, I felt awful for not only leaving a sick baby home, but for not being there when mom called. I was a mess with worry. With no infant tylenol in the house, and no car mom was willing to put a car seat in, we were in a bit of a pickle (i love that saying!) until Super Aunt Pat swooped in to save the day with a trip to the store. Thanks again, Aunt Pat! Love you! With all under control, I was able to relax again and enjoy a bit of the reception. Congrats again, Mara and Adam!

Think the weekend was over? Oh, no.

Sunday morning, Grammy Dorothy, Patrick, and I packed up early and headed back to Clinton so P & I could get Ryan and head to Peoria. Unfortunately, at this point, Patrick's eyes were a goopy, globby, nasty mess. Ryan and I decided to make a quick stop at a Prompt Care on our way to P-town. During the 5.6 seconds the doctor spent in the room, he diagnosed Patrick with conjunctivitis (aka pinkeye). He gave us a gel to put in Patrick's eyes 4 times a day for the next week. Patrick loves them. [Dear reader, please sense dripping sarcasm when you read the previous sentence. Thank you.] We then made our way to have dinner with Grandma Triiish & Papa, Uncle Don, the Wilsons, the California Morges and the Decatur Morges. Once dinner was over, Ryan piled his exhausted wife and sick baby back in the car for the trip back home. Thanks to the pinkeye, Patrick couldn't return to daycare on Monday, so Mommy stayed home with him. (And then ended up home sick on Tuesday)

Although I didn't get a lot of pictures over the weekend, I did manage to get a couple of shots of Patrick's goopy eyes for posterity:

Cap'n Crusty Eye borrowed Grandma's spoon for teething

Don't I look AWESOME?

Don't worry folks, I didn't forget that Patrick turned 6 months old on Tuesday, but with battling a nasty cold as well as now my own case of pinkeye, I haven't felt up to posting. We head to see Dr. Sanjay today and I'll do a 6 month post complete with stats in the next day or so.