Christmas Photos!

Got lots of pictures from Rylan's Second Christmas!

Proud

Have I mentioned how proud I am of my 23 month old?? :)
She knows the whole alphabet, can count to 10, knows most colors, and says please and thank you without prompting! Such a smart girl. Hehe.

Christmas

Rylan took all the bows off the presents and lined them up on the bed.

Our tiny little tree this year.

New blog!

Hi everyone! I've started a new food blog!

Colds

Steve has been sick since Thanksgiving Thursday. :( And then Rylan caught it. The poor thing. Her  colds almost ALWAYS start with a bout of vomiting (I'm thinking maybe severe congestion causes her to gag and throw up? I don't know...), so anyway, I was trying to teach her to puke in a bucket and not on the bed/carpet/couch/wherever. But it didn't work, she gets freaked out while puking and just wants to cling to me while she doing it. So I ended up pretty much covered in puke yesterday and doing 3 loads of laundry...washing sheets, towels, and changes of pajamas. She's doing better now, no more vomit. But her nose is stuffy and she's lethargic. Not her usual spunky self. She's laying on the couch right now with her Arial blanky and watching Sprout. 

I'm coming down with the beginnings of the cold, too. Ugh.

Today we're expecting Rylan's new toddler bed to be delivered. But I have no clue what time...so we can't go anywhere until it comes. Which is fine, I guess, since Rylan shouldn't go anywhere anyways. And then tomorrow Grandma and Grandpa will watch Ry while I make the annoying trek up to the Riverside hospital to meet the anesthesiologist so they can see my back xrays and determine if anything special needs to be done for my epidural. I already know from when I had Rylan that the epidural will OK and uneventful...but I have different docs now so they'll have to see the xrays for themselves.

New Bed

Finally! We bought Rylan a REAL toddler bed. As of late, she's been sleeping on a futon-type mattress on the floor. We were going to just go ahead and buy her a twin mattress and headboard but it's all sort of expensive. Instead, I found a cute Tinkerbell canopy toddler bed at Wal-Mart for only $77! I think it's a more appropriate size for her. AND it has guard rails -- she is a MOVER when she sleeps! 

Of course, we'll eventually have to buy an additional crib mattress for Escher's crib...since the bed doesn't come with one. But that's ok.

And -- A Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! Since we already had a traditional turkey dinner with my parents before they left for Fiji, I'm making a ham, baked beans, green bean casserole, rolls, and pickled beets (Rylan's favorite, isn't that weird?), oh and green pistachio marshmallow pudding fruit salad stuff. Wow. I guess that's a lot of food for just 2 1/2 people but leftovers are good. :)

Quick Update

Just a quick update while I take a break from decorating the Christmas tree (yes, early, I know...but I figure I'd better do it while I still have the energy!)...

Per doctor's orders: Escher will be gracing us with his presence sometime on January 24th, 2009 via repeat c-section at Kaiser Permanente Riverside!

His original due date was February 3, 2009 -- so he will be about a week and half early. :)

An Early Thanksgiving Dinner

We celebrated Thanksgiving a little early this year. Mom and Dad are going to be in Fiji this T-Day, so we had our Big Family Dinner last night. As always, it was great! We had our usual: Turkey, lemon-parsley stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, steamed broccoli and hollandaise sauce. Pumpkin pie and Dutch apple pie for dessert. :)

Rylan didn't eat much. She spit out the turkey. Ate some potatoes. Then ate the whipped cream off the pumpkin pie. Oh well.

Not sure what Steve, Ry and I are going to do on "actual" Thanksgiving Day for dinner, though. I don't really want turkey again. We were thinking of making some little Cornish Game Hens. Or we could go totally non-traditional and eat some Chinese food or, heck, we live right across the street from KFC. Haha. 

Election Day

Election Day was uneventful here. I was still getting over a mild cold -- and it was a cool, rainy day so we opted to stay inside. 

Yes, we're disappointed that McCain lost. We are cautiously optimistic in this "change" promised to us...whatever that means. :/  Time will tell, I suppose. It's worth noting that is first election that Steve and I agreed on the same candidate. He's a registered Democrat, I'm an Independent (with conservative Libertarian beliefs, but I just can't bring myself to register as a full fledged Lib). In the 2004 elections, I voted for Bush. Steve for Kerry. This time we mutually agreed that Obama's policies are way too liberal and not what America needs right now. 

It also irks me that several of our friends have commented that they are "finally proud to be Americans" now that Obama has been elected. Say what??? I'm sorry. I am and ALWAYS HAVE BEEN proud to be an American. Even in the worst of times (and during unpopular presidencies) I have been a proud American. 

Let's see -- other than that there's not much else going on. We're excited for the holiday season! I've already got a pretty little Christmas dress for Rylan. We'll be putting up our tree on Thanksgiving Day (or the day after) and take some pictures of her in front of it. 

That's about it.

Pumpkin Patch

We took a little outing to the Peltzer Pumpkin Farm yesterday afternoon. It's still in the 90's here, so it was pretty hot despite being well into the fall season. Rylan enjoyed running amongst the pumpkins, navigating a corn maze, and softly petting the goats at the petting zoo. They even had pig races and a miniature train, but we didn't venture that far.

After the pumpkin patch, we took her to a playground to play on the slides (which she can go down by herself!) and then Daddy took her for a cooling dip in the pool. Steve said that since it's fall, the apartment isn't heating the pool anymore...so it was like swimming in ice water! Yikes. I might have to call the apartment managers about that one...it's still VERY warm here, people still want to go swimming! Anyway, so Steve took her to the hot tub, er, more like warm tub. 

Boring

Not much to write about...

Nothing new going on really. Steve is still plugging away at school. I've also decided to pursue web design/flash design in preparation for returning to work some day, but not to the same level as Steve. I've already got a BFA, another BA would be a waste of money. So, I'll either study it on my own or complete the one-year diploma course that the Art Institute of Pittsburgh offers online. Still got a few years to do that, though, since I won't be going back to work until Escher is pre-school or kindergarten age. Anyway, with 2 web designers working full-time, we should be able to pull in a nice income. :)

Rylan is still as active as ever. She knows the whole alphabet now and numbers 1-10. We're trying to get her to sleep the whole night in her own room, but that's not going so well. She just won't stay in her bed, she'll crawl into ours in the middle of the night. 

Tonight we're all going to get our flu shots. Yippee. Rylan's going to freak out, I just know it.

And....we're looking forward to Halloween next week! I think this is going to the best holiday season we've ever had. She's (just barely) old enough to understand "dressing up". We've already been telling her about Christmas and Santa and all that stuff. She loves to go to Kohl's and Costco, where they've already got X-Mas decorations out in full force. I'll really have to go all out in decorating the apartment this year. Fun!

Last Sunday

Last Sunday we drove to San Diego to see the airshow at MCAS Miramar (Marine Corps Air Station for those unfamiliar with military stuff). We were among the first swarm of people to show up and, therefore punished by being directed to one of the parking lots furthest from the air strip. (Those who arrived late got to park in closer lots, seems backwards to me!) Anyway, they offered shuttle buses from the parking lots to the airstrip, but we had a stroller, lawn chairs, and a diaper bag, so we opted to walk the 2 or 3 miles. Forty-five minutes later, we finally get to the airstrip and WOW, it was like a carnival with airplanes. We've been to many airshows, but this one was the biggest I've been to. There were about a gazillion food booths, carnival kiddie rides, lots of static plane displays, Army, Navy and AF recruit booths, and whole building full of "consumer booths" that we didn't even get to explore. I was pretty tired after walking from the parking lot, so we staked out a spot for our chairs and sat down to watch the show. I think Rylan enjoyed watching the airplanes, although she was a little scared with the jets started flying. They were a little loud and she would cling to either me or Steve and bury her head in our shoulders.

Steve and I were pretty badly sunburned on our faces...of course I remembered to put sunscreen on Rylan! But I missed the spots directly under her eyes (didn't want the sunscreen to sting her eyes) so she looks a little like someone punched her in the eyes. :( 

This weekend should be a bit more relaxing. A belated birthday dinner for me at my parent's house on Sunday. And maybe take Rylan swimming.

Oh, and we finally bought a new drawing table/desk! Just in time, too. Steve has started part-time classes through the Art Institute of Pittsburgh's online program to complete his Bachelor's Degree in 3D Design and Animation. 

Thank you!

Thanks, everyone, for the 30th birthday well-wishes!

For the most part, it was pretty uneventful. Rylan and I woke up early, had breakfast, then met with Grandma for a trip to the Temecula Mall. As always, a trip to the mall is never complete unless we go to the Disney (or as Rylan says, "Nisney") store. So, we spent a fair amount of time chasing Ry around and keeping her from pulling EVERY princess toy off the shelves. I bought her a set of 8 Princess miniature plastic dolls (miniature, but still safe): Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Ariel, etc, etc....(including her new favorite, Mulan!)

After the Nisney store, we had lunch at a Japanese place. Ry gobbled up some California Rolls, tofu, rice, edamame, and they even gave us ice cream for dessert. :) 

Steve came home that evening bearing an armful of gifts for me. An ice cream cake,  several DS and GameCube games, and a mystery gift that has yet to arrive in the mail.

Today we're headed to the airshow at Miramar. Pictures will be posted later...

Our place

Finally, here's some pics of our new apartment. We still have a few things to hang on the walls, we're planning on buying a new area rug for the living room, and there's some unpacked boxes in the bedroom.

Mobile Me sucks

Steve's been trying to post to his blog, but MobileMe (.mac's replacement) isn't working and won't let him publish. Arg. Quite aggravating.  ***Edited: it's working now! Visit Steve's blog!***

This morning Rylan woke up SUPER early. Last night was...LONG. She went to bed at about 8:30. Then woke up at 11:30 and stayed up (laying in bed) until about 2am. I figured she would sleep in later this morning, but nope.

After breakfast, we went to Albertsons for a milk run. I couldn't resist the Halloween stuff. Got some "gel clings" for the window, Halloween Peeps (Rylan likes to squish them!), and some candy. :) Which I don't plan on giving out. I plan on EATING IT ALL!! Hehehe....

Hmm

Rylan got really sick again last night. She wanted to "go beh" (go to bed) at about 7:30 last night, which is unusually early for her. So I put her down and about 20 minutes later she woke up crying and puked all over herself and the bed. :( She cries hysterically when she vomits. Poor thing. So Steve put her in the bath and got her clean up while I put fresh sheets on the bed. After the bath, she seemed fine again. So I don't know if she's just had a little stomach bug or what...no fever...no other symptoms. A little crankiness. But that's it.

Today she seems back to normal. Well except that's she's been taking a nap for the past 3 hours. Maybe the poor kiddo just needs some good rest.

Car sick?

Had a check up appointment this morning. Everything looks great with baby #2.

On the way home, Rylan started puking EVERYWHERE in the car. Poor kiddo. She seems to be fine now, though. Her stomach was empty after all that puking, so she asked for a "nak" (snack). Guess she's OK.

In other Rylan news, she's now able to count to 3 and knows about 10 letters of the alphabet (not in order, though). That's pretty darn good for a 19-month-old! Maybe I'll have her reading by the time she's 3. Haha. She talks a lot, most of it being baby-babble, though. She gets frustrated with her words sometimes, so I'm totally happy with the effectiveness of the baby sign language we taught her. 

Last Call!

Last call for family to submit any original/unique recipes to me for our cookbook! Our goal is to have it done by Christmas....so get 'em in ASAP!

(Patrick & Emma: ahem...breakfast wontons!!!!)

We're making good headway so far. Every morning while Rylan is eating her breakfast (she is a VERY SLOW eater. I wonder who she gets that from??? Not Steve, haha) I sit at the kitchen table with the laptop and revise, edit, and rewrite the recipes. 

This weekend we plan on taking my parents out for brunch/lunch at the French Valley Airport Cafe as a belated Thank You for helping us move. It's a cute little cafe (with good food!) located in one of the terminals at the small local airport. We love sitting and watching the airplanes land and take off...even if they are tiny little Cessnas. Rylan loves it, too!

Steve's New Blog

In case you didn't know...

Steve started a blog!

Busy, busy

Busy morning to start out the week.

Steve and I are still working our family cookbook. I'm currently working on writing and editing the recipes. It's tough with a toddler running around!

Also worth noting: the sonogram was yesterday! It's a boy! His name will be Escher Payden Klock.

So there, that's my update.

Ariel Obsession

It's no secret that Rylan has a *slight* (hah!) obsession with the Disney Princesses. Specifically: Ariel from the Little Mermaid. (Oddly, she's my favorite, too. Isn't it funny that the daughter of a former competitive swimmer chose a mermaid as her favorite character???) Anyway, we hit up the Disney Store today with grandma and Rylan went absolutely nuts. Quite literally a kid in a candy store. Er, minus the candy...

She ran around the store playing with ALL the princess toys, saying HI to the other little kids, and basically just had fun. And even though Halloween is a little less than 2 months away, I bought her the Ariel mermaid costume. :)

Tomorrow is another shopping day with Grandma and then sushi for lunch...

And...I've told Emma already...I just finished the Twilight series and if you're looking for a good series to read I highly recommend it! Yes, it's about vampires. Yes, it's YA (that means Young Adult for you old folk). And yes, it's a bit fluffy (I mean, girly?) to read. But it's highly addictive and, hey, the movie is coming out in November so you'd better read it before then! I mean, it's got NOTHING on the Sword of Truth series...but...

Speaking of which the TV series based on SoT is going to start November 1st and will be called The Legend of the Seeker. You know Steve and I will be watching!

Annoyed

Our air conditioner is broken AGAIN.

How annoying. It's about 85 degrees in our apartment and it's making me cranky and sweaty. The repair was supposed to be here 45 minutes ago...I'm hoping he can fix it ASAP rather than having to order parts. Then we'd have to wait. AGAIN.

I swear, we've had the worst luck ever since moving into this place.

Tomorrow we're off to my parents house for Steve's 36th birthday dinner...steak and potatoes. I'm looking forward to it!

New place, new problems

Our move didn't go as smoothly as we'd hoped. 

I'd dare to say that it was, possibly, one of the worst moves I've experienced. (And I've experienced MANY.) Mostly, it's our fault. We picked an apartment with too many stairs. It's difficult to get big loads of furniture/boxes/groceries/strollers/whatever up and down. Then we discovered upon move-in that the air conditioner was broken. The carpets were still dirty and stained from the previous residents. The ceiling fan jiggled. One of the shower heads leaked. A screen door was off its hinges. *Sigh* Fortunately, the apartment staff is great and they were quick to get everything fixed. The carpets are being re-cleaned as I write this. Things are looking up. 

We did the last of our unpacking yesterday (minus a few book boxes) and hung up some pictures on the way. This place is actually starting to feel like home. :)

As for Rylan, she's doing great. She loves having her own room, (which won't be exclusively hers for much longer!) but it's really more of a playroom than a bedroom. She still likes to sleep in the same room as us; I really can't blame her, I prefer having her close anyway.

As for Steve, he's doing great, too. His 36th birthday is coming up on the 28th. 

As for me, my ankle is not so great. (For those who didn't know, I sprained it while walking down some stairs.) It was hideously swollen and painful -- that's pretty much gone away -- and I've got a nice saucer-sized bruise as a souvenir now. 

Guilt + Napping = Decent Blog Post

Alright, so Rylan is napping and I was feeling guilty for not posting a blog longer than a few sentences...

Here's a decent update on our lives thus far:

As mentioned in a previous post, Rylan had a fever a few weeks ago. I think it was due to teething. I took her in to the doctor and there was nothing wrong with her ears/throat/chest/nose. So...although a doctor won't say it, I'll unofficially chalk it up to teething.

Then Steve hurt his knee. We thought it was a sprain, but after a another trip to the doctor and some blood tests, we found out he has gout! (A form of arthritis.) Then he had a severe allergic reaction to the anti-inflammatory pain meds they gave him, so we had to make an emergency trip up to Riverside to our Kaiser Permanente Urgent Care clinic. I got us a little lost -- and by the time we actually walked into the Urgent Care, Steve was thankfully feeling better. So we went home. He's pretty much recovered from this gout attack and has to modify his diet slightly to prevent more attacks.

And also as mentioned previously, we're moving to the new apartment this weekend. We've bought a TON of new furniture -- so we'll post some new pics as soon as everything gets set up. 

Oh, and my morning sickness is pretty much gone now. Yay! Only to be replaced by a suddenly big belly. Where did that come from? :)

Moving!

Sorry for the serious lack of posts, everyone!

We're moving into the new apartment this Saturday, so we'll be offline for a few weeks until we get the internet back up and running. If you need to get to ahold of us -- just give us a ring on the cell -- or try Steve's email, he'll be checking it at work.

Fever, crankiness

Rylan is sick. She has a low-grade fever, little appetite, and is very cranky. She has no other signs of illness, though, so I'm not sure if this is all caused by teething or.... ?

Luckily, her 18-month well baby check up is tomorrow, so maybe the doctor can explain. I'll keep you posted.

New Link Added

I've added a new link to the bottom of the page, to our online photo album!

Pics from Disneyland are there.

She Can Count

Rylan can count to TWO now. :) 

I know it's not much, but I think it's pretty impressive for an 18-month-old! Now we're working on getting her to THREE. 

Also, sorry to my devout 2 or 3 readers for my lack of posts. I still have evil morning sickness...and combined with fatigue...I have a major lack of motivation to do anything. 

The Next Food Network Star

Rylan's new favorite toys: a large mixing bowl and spoon. She can play with them for hours!

Also, forgot to mention that my first prenatal appointment was last Friday. Everything looks great, new due date is January 31, 2009!

Still sick with cold and cough...so haven't felt like blogging about our Seattle trip. I'll get around to it eventually.

Just wanted to let everyone know that I haven't forgotten. :)

And Rylan LOVES to watch the Little Mermaid. Over and over and over and over.  She does actually ask to watch it, she'll point to the DVD player and say "ya-ya! ya-ya! ya-ya!" and won't stop until I put the movie on. We must have watched it 5 times yesterday. Seriously. It's the ONLY movie she'll sit through. I even went out to Best Buy and bought a new Disney Princess movie (LAME!) and Robin Hood (a childhood favorite for both Steve and me) but nope, she had no interest.

She likes the trailers for Wall-e, too.

Seattle Trip

Here's some Seattle pics!

I'm exhausted and have a cold, so I'll write more about our trip later...

Brief Hiatus

We're leaving tomorrow for Seattle and we'll be back late Tuesday night. I won't have time to post while we're there...but I'll take many photos to share when we return!

Sushi Lover

First: a picture of Ry and her beloved toothbrush. (Actually, it's MY toothbrush.)

Grandma and I took Rylan to Costco this morning to get a few things, mainly diapers and wipes so we'd be stocked up for our trip to Seattle. We were browsing through the refrigerated food aisles and pass by the huge containers of fresh sushi. What does Rylan do? She starts yelling and pointing at the sushi, frustrated that she can't have any!

Yes. Rylan LOVES sushi (california rolls - no raw fish). Most kids will yell and scream at the store because they want ice cream or cookies. Not our daughter! She yelled and screamed for the SUSHI! Haha...

Too bad Costco's sushi isn't very good, I would have bought it for her. But Grandma is going to take us out for a Japanese lunch so that Rylan can get her sushi fix. :)

Fudgsicle

We had a relaxing Saturday...we started the morning off with cheese omelettes and Fruit Loops (Rylan's new favorite breakfast) and then took her to Toys R Us to buy a new toy for the car ride to Seattle next week. I ended up picking out a Sesame Street "laptop" that teaches the alphabet. She seems semi-interested. :) The highlight of her day was when Daddy gave her a fudgsicle! 

More video

Of Rylan blowing bubbles into a puddle of milk in her highchair...

Video

Here's some video of Rylan pointing to various body parts. :)

I tried to get her to dance for you all (she spins in circles) but I guess she doesn't dance on demand.

Anyway, having fun with my new camera, as you can see it takes videos, too. 

I'm feeling OK. The morning sickness is starting to hit me a little harder...and it's hot here...and I'm thirsty all the time. But, despite feeling nauseous I'm always hungry!

New Camera!

Finally got a new digital camera! Here's a few pics from this weekend.

Didn't do much. We set up the little pool in the backyard for Rylan to swim in. She's a total water girl!

Boy or Girl?

Several people have asked me if we'd like to have a boy this time around. I can honestly say that it doesn't matter one bit. A boy would be nice, to have one child of each gender. A boy to carry on the Klock name (Steve's the last male Klock!). Another girl would be nice, a close sister for Rylan. No new clothes to buy. We do plan on finding out the gender...probably some time in September (around week 20) we'll find out.

As for choosing a name, we've decided to wait to pick one out until we know if it's a girl or a boy. Last time, we had the name Rylan picked out before I was even pregnant.

----

Rylan woke up at 6 this morning, charged and ready to play! We have a usual morning routine of Sesame Street (she loves Elmo, or as she calls him "Mel-mo"), then breakfast, clean up, playtime, and nap. But today I decided to take her to the neighborhood park. There's not a lot she can play with there, most of it's for bigger kids, but she likes the swing and the bouncy horse. I think she thought the horse was a real one because she talked to it. She said "hi" to it, then asked "bed?" and some other baby babble I couldn't decipher and then "bye bye" and walked away to another part of the playground. :) 

She's turned into quite a talker lately -- especially on her toy cell phones. I love when she holds imaginary conversations...she'll say "Hi" and then "Yeah......yeah....*laughs*.....no....yeah....no" and then hangs up. Sounds just like me on the phone!

Anyway, that's about all for now...

Beginnings

I've had other blogs in the past, but I'm dedicating this one solely to our family adventures with Rylan and the baby-to-be.

You can expect frequent posts (when time permits if Rylan takes a long nap!) and I just ordered a new digital camera for myself so that I can post lots of photos. (Steve's camera was too professional and complicated for me. Hehe.)

----

So, yes, another Klock baby is on the way. A tentative due date is 25 January 2009 -- just 5 days before Rylan's birthday! My first prenatal appointment is June 27th, so we'll find out then when the exact due date is.

Rylan and I are looking forward to our brief trip to Seattle in mid-June. Our main priority this trip is to see family. Steve won't be able to go with us, he's saving his vacation days for when his mom comes to visit us in July. We're excited for that visit! We're planning on taking Rylan and Nana to Disneyland -- should be fun!

Last weekend Steve and I took her to Downtown Disney (it's next to Disneyland -- basically a Disney themed mall). We had been expecting Mickey Mouse and Cinderella characters to be walking around, but no such luck. I don't think Rylan cared very much. She did, however, enjoy eating at the Rainforest Cafe! We got to sit next to a waterfall and an animated gorilla puppet; she wasn't scared in the least! After that we hit the Disney Store where she got a Disney Princess plate and placemat. (If you don't know, the Disney Princess franchise features all the princesses: Cinderella, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, and Ry's favorite Ariel. She calls them "ya-ya's". Don't ask me why.)

That's all for now. We're off to the mall with Grandpa. :)

Love,

Mellisa and Rylan