Six months of Hunter-Bunter

Allow me to finally introduce you to Hunter! It's true that subsequent children are ignored much more than the first. I tried not to, but the little guy had the unfortunate luck to be born at the craziest time of our lives. Sorry dude! He is amazing though, such a happy camper. He is easy to figure out and easy to please. We've loved having him along for the ride. 

These two look SO much alike. Blows my mind. 

First haircut, 5mos: trimmed the mullet! He didn't mind the clippers at all. I semi-regretted this decision at the time, but his hair grows fast and I'm already planning another chop soon...

He is wiggly and strong. Daisy loves to "hold" him. We're working on the not-strangling-your-brother thing...

In his happy place: the very edge of the blanket. The only place he likes better is being completely off the blanket. He adores grass!

Finally starting to sit in the tub, a few days shy of 6mos 

One morning, Daisy decided we all needed to wear hats. Hunter was unsure about this plan. 

We don't see this face often which is probably why I think it's adorable, haha. This is his "I can't believe you made me wait THREE WHOLE

HOURS to eat!" face. Please note the impressive forehead vein. 

He picks some interesting nursing positions. He's already training for the nursing Olympics. Daisy didn't start doing things like this until 9-10mos, I wasn't expecting it so soon! He also HATES any semblance of a nursing cover. It has been a baptism by fire for me, with regards to being comfortable nursing in public without one. Haha. 

First time in a shopping cart! He doesn't like them. 

Future phone psychic. The shirt was a fun baby shower gift, it came in a sealed bag and you had to open it to get your  prediction! My neighbor's baby boy got Prize Poodle Breeder. They're hilarious. 

Crummy photo quality, I ain't got time to edit this junk, yo! Trying broccoli for the first time. He liked it better than this photo makes it seem! His face just always looks this way. Haha. 

Two photos accidentally taken by Daisy^

I don't know why I keep thinking the huge shopping carts are a good idea. They are not. I ended up carrying Hunted and steering this beast with one arm, through Target, the checkout line, and back to the car. 

A few additional notes on Hunter up to this point:

- Rolled at 4mos, started pushing up on all fours and scooting at 5mos. He stilll doesn't crawl "properly", but gets around well! Army crawling, rolling, and sitting. 

- Started sitting the day he turned 6mos! He is pretty good at it now. He can go from lying down to sitting up and it's great.  

- Has an impressive worried/concerned/bemused expression, quite a lot of the time. He's just a little serious and unsure about things sometimes, haha. But when you do get him to smile, it's heart-melting be laughs and giggles too, but only if you tickle him with your nose. Or sometimes when you're wiping his thighs during a diaper change (which cracks me up).

- Still nurses every 2hrs during the day, and wakes 2-3x per night (between 7p and 8a). Someday, I will sleep again. Right??? We did do a little sleep-training though, and he generally falls asleep nice and easily on his own. Hallelujah. 

- Started solid foods a couple days before his 6 month bday! He loves being in on the action. Doesn't care for carrots, but has liked pretty much everything else he's tried (sweet potato, apples, banana, avocado, toast/bread, broccoli, pineapple)

- LOVES his sister. When she pays attention to him, he lights up. Until she pushes him over and he smashes his face on the ground (we're still working on the whole impulse control thing...)

- Jumps and bounces allllll the time. Door bouncer = his happy place. The kid never holds still!

- Adores shoes. Especially when he is allowed to eat them (ew). Also adores cords and plugs (ew and danger).

- Is pretty dang tall, not super heavy, but solidly built. He outgrows clothes height-wise before filling them out. He's been comfortably fitting 6-9 month clothes for a while now and I finally stopped squeezing him into 3-6 month onesies, haha. I'll post stats when I finally get him to his 6 month well-check ;)

- Generally a pretty quiet guy, but has started gurgling frequently and will have occasional bouts of screeching. He screeches quite loudly. Even louder than Daisy....which is saying something.

- Runs warm (feels warm to the touch without running a fever), sweats a ton, and is prone to heat rash. Yaaaay! You can thank your Dad for those traits, kiddo ;) 

All in all, he is a lovely baby and a wonderful boy. It has been awesome seeing Daisy start to take more interest in playing with him and "teaching" him things, and I can't wait to see their friendship blossom! 

Blog Neglect

I've been neglecting this blog because I opted not to neglect my family, so, I'd say it was a worthy sacrifice ;)

Anyway we are now in CONNECTICUT, of all places! Honestly every time I remember we live here, I think "who even lives in Connecticut anyway?!" (oops, my West Coast is showing) To be fair, one of my dearest friends is from the good old Nutmeg state, and I know that people are actually living here. Mainly because I can see them like every day ;) It's simply a weird state for me to be living in. It is also the first time I have ever, ever been on the East Coast! Pretty exciting.

We are also thrilled to announce that we have been residents of all 3 C states within the same calendar year, in alphabetical order! California. Colorado. Connecticut. When will we receive our prize? That's what I'd like to know.

Anyway. Here is a timeline that picks up where I left off in my last update. No pictures because, my head hurts and I don't feel like putting them in. Can you blame me???

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

May 18th - arrive in Colorado! 

<Adjust to the altitude. fall in love with the place fast. Keep my family's new home from burning to the ground before they move in. Meet Jeff in Denver to pick up our car that he fixed up. Chris works on his reel and applies for a job at Blue Sky (in Connecticut) and is flown out for an interview!>

June 18-26th - Adams' family reunion in Lincoln City, Oregon! A week of fun family time, beach time, and good food. Chris was offered and accepted a position at Blue Sky during the trip! Which means....

June 26th - arrive back in Colorado and pack, again

July 4th - celebrate America by participating in capitalism and buying a new car!! And by going to see Jeff's Supermoto race in Denver, of course.

July 5th - My family arrives in their Colorado home, and we spend two days with them.

July 8th - leave for Connecticut! Stop in Lee's Summit, MO to stay with the Perry's.

July 9th - Stay an extra day with the Perry's

July 10th - Stop in Columbus, OH for the night

July 11th - Make it to Danbury, CT! Settle in to a hotel while the real house hunting begins

July 14th - By a huge miracle and thanks to connections from the ward, we have a home to rent. We think. Landlord lets us stay in the house until he gets there on July 25th to sign a contract.

July 25th - We finally sign a contract and can breathe easy. Our neighbors are awesome. The home is beautiful.

August 15th - our stuff finally arrives by POD! (significantly delayed because we didn't want to book anything before signing papers and such. Just in case something fell through.)

SO, yeah. We are FINALLY settled, and think we will be here for a good long while! So come visit us! ;)

Double, triple whoops!

Yeah, I kind of let this blog go stale. I've just taken it off of private, so it's easier for our friends and family to find, and I have more of a reason to update because maybe people will actually read it now ;)

Tons of stuff has happened since I posted almost exactly one year ago (it's almost like I planned that. Let's pretend I did, okay?)

To summarize: we now have two children, and we live in Colorado!

To more fully fill you in, here are some links to posts I recently wrote, and then post-dated. Haha:

• June 2014: Rydalch Family Camping Trip!
• September 2014: Grandma Bigelow's Birthday Shennanigans
• October 2014: Utah Vacation
• October 2014: Halloween!
• November 2014: Thanksgiving in Oregon
• December 2014: Christmastime!
• June 2014 - February 2015: Baby Bump Pictures/Pregnancy Post, Hunter's Birth Story

baby cousins!

• In January, Chris was pretty sick with some dumb colds that just wouldn't quit. And then when he finally felt well enough to go in to work, we were hit with the news that Dreamworks was shutting down PDI (the studio in Redwood City, where he worked). After a few weeks of limbo it was determined that Chris was being laid off, but they would honor his contract that he had signed through September. So pay and benefits are continuing through 9/2015. Thank goodness!
• On February 23rd, I went in to labor! Daisy headed out to Danville to spend the night with my folks, and we checked into the (brand new) hospital that evening. Hunter William Rydalch was born at 5:57am on the 24th. He weighed a whopping 9lbs 0.3oz and was 21" long. He is a super mellow guy, and constantly looks bewildered/perplexed.
• Daisy turned TWO!!! I ordered a cake well in advance, because I knew Baby H might throw off my birthday groove :P we went to McDonald's for lunch and played in the playplace with our neighbor-friends, picked up her cake, and had a small celebration that evening. She got a toy Dyson vacuum and some clothes from Grandma Great Rydalch! She was just happy that she got cake. That's basically all she understands about birthdays, haha.
• At the beginning of April, we left on a road trip to Utah. Our intent was to stay for 2 weeks, and to bless Hunter in Chris' home ward. Our car broke down on the way there, in BATTLE MOUNTAIN NEVADA. There is not much in good old BM. Our car problems kept spiraling, and after spending one night in Battle Mountain we had AAA tow us (again) to Elko, NV. Where we stayed another night at a hotel, so Chris' Dad could come pick us up the next day and tow our car the rest of the way to Utah. It was a mess. We ended up staying for an extra week and a half, and by the time we got back home to Redwood City we had been gone 3 days shy of a month. I wish I was exaggerating. 
• Notable things that happened on this trip: Hunter was blessed. I got food poisoning. A toilet overflowed and flooded my in-law's when I was the only adult around to take care of it. We saw lots of family and a few good friends. We decided to move to Colorado mid-May.
• Speaking of that Colorado thing.....well. That's where we are now! My family is moving out here this summer (Dad's job is relocating him). My parents bought their new house already and closed on it last week. It has a huge basement and it's much cheaper than the rent we were paying in California...So we moved in when they got the keys! The rest of my family will be here in July, after school wraps up for my siblings. Our plan for the time being is grad school prep - Chris' end goal is to be a teacher, hopefully an animation professor. So post-grad education it is! He has a few animation projects he's doing on the side as well. He keeps busy.

So that's the update in a nutshell. I'll post more long-winded stories and more pictures soon! For now, here are a dozen of the fabulous shots that my sister, Sarah, took when Hunter was 1 month old (all of the photos in this post are thanks to her)!

Current status of the children: Hunter weighed 13lb 2oz and was 25.5" long as of two weeks ago. That's ridiculously tall for his age. I'm already having to dress him in 6-9 month clothes! He's happy, sleeps and eats well, is starting to laugh, and smiles all the time. We really love him.
Daisy is also freakishly tall (over 3' at her 2yo checkup!), average weight (28lbs as of the same checkup) and talks a LOT. We have a constant narrative when she's awake. She is also two, and throws good tantrums and likes to tell us "I NEED THAT!" When she first sees someone she will inevitably show them her nailpolish and baby bro. She is super duper friendly. If she doesn't know someone's name, she'll call them "friend" (including complete strangers) and she always wants to share her snacks and toys with random people. She especially loves her "bee bee uh-tuh" and likes to take care of him and her baby dolls.

Current status of the parents: Tired. And ready for things to calm down already. We also miss Redwood City a LOT. It was the perfect storm - great neighbors, friends, ward, weather, etc.
We aren't sure we'll ever top that place. But we're looking forward to what's in store!

Baby Bump #2

For those of you who care about this sort of thing, here is a post about Pregnancy #2, complete with pictures! For those of you who don't care, you should skip this one ;) I'll do another post with a birth story. And don't worry....I'll include a jump break on that too in case you don't care to read it!