Mac's Baptism

On VERY short notice, Mac had his baptism yesterday. It was a sweet, no fuss day - we went to church and then had a special lunch with Mimi at the Ponte Vedra Inn & Club. Mac slept through lunch, but the rest of us celebrated for him!

Our church has a tradition of having the fathers write a blessing to their children. This is Kyle reading our blessing for Mac.

John McCormac, this morning as we respond for you to God’s call on your heart,

our prayer for you is simple:
· We pray that you will always seek and find rest in God’s never-ending love and faithfulness
· We pray that you will grow to be a Godly man who knows Jesus intimately

and loves people passionately
· We pray that one day you will have a personal and genuine response to God’s call
We Love You

I accidently changed him out of his gown before pictures afterwards! Kyle was relieved the "dress" was off his son!

My Aunt Debbie made this gown for me in 1977 and all of us wore it so it has my intials, Casey's and Brian's along the bottom with the year we were baptized. Unfortunately, Tucker was too old to wear this (he was 2 when he was baptized, but really this thing is TINY and would only fit any baby until about 2-3 months old.) Kyle gave me so much trouble about it, but THANKFULLY the other baby boy baptized was in a gown even more ornate and long and "girly." Her husband was more mad about it than Kyle :) No appreciation for tradition these days!

Tucker was, of course, very excited about this event. You can see him watching intently in the pictures above. In the days leading up to the baptism he told all of us how it was going to go:

"He is going to put water on their heads and then the babies are going to go 'wah wah wah' and then everyone is going to laugh and then they'll be baptized!"

Pretty observant for a 3 year old! Everybody does always laugh at the crying babies.

Obama

ps. My son LOVES Barack Obama. Beware: He will ask you directly if you voted for him. I have no idea how he even understands voting that well other than going with me ONCE in the primary. Despite how you feel about the man or his policies, I am really proud and excited that the first President my son can talk about and is aware of is an African American. He will never know any different. It actually makes me weepy.

A new excuse (or 3)

Just overheard minutes ago:

Me: "Tucker, go to bed."
Tucker: "First I have to call Kelly."
Me: "Fine. Then go to bed."
Tucker talking on his "Nextel" that goes with his workbench: "Hey Kelly. What are you doing? Oh. It's getting late so I'm headin' to bed. Yeah. Well, let's meet at McDonald's. Cool! Okay, see you in 10 minutes."

Then marches back in to my room. "Mama, I've got to go meet Kelly. She is meeting me at McDonald's."
Me: "Okay, bye."


Just came in again while I'm writing this with this news flash: (another stall)

Tucker: "Do you know where Miss Jennifer went?" (if you have listened to him ask his precious questions you know he is lacking no intonation in his question - extremely high pitched at the end.)
Me: "Where?"
Tucker: "To Chaganooga."
Tucker: "And there was a BIG AQUARIUM!"
Me (impatiently): Please get in your bed."

Miss Jennifer is his beloved teacher. And apparently she went to Chattanooga this weekend. Or it could have been last year. But it was important for me to know this very moment. Anything to avoid bed.

ATTEMPT #3
Before I could finish that story, he is back in my room with a level from his work bench.
Tucker: "I need to make sure your wall in here is straight."
Me: "Tucker. Go - to - bed NOW."

My sweet boys

A few more comparison pics.. Mac above.

Tucker below.
I hate that I can't figure out why some of these from 2005 are coming in small? but above is Tucker. Below Mac.

6 weeks.

Tucker has really settled in to his role as big brother and I see his personality returning (for a couple weeks there I thought I lost my sweet, funny boy to a crazed kid!) I think he just needed to get back to school after Christmas break and get used to this new normal. We had a fantastic day today... first, a playdate with his buddy Issie. Then we "napped" which most days is play time in bed for Tucker. But Mac and I napped! And then we made chicken pot pie and cupcakes together in the afternoon. He looked across at me at dinner and declared "Mama, you're the best." It's too much for me...

The only unfortunate news is that it is freezing here. Literally. The coldest night in 3 years tonight. UGH. I've actually worn a wool sweater for the last 3 days. I think I may need to move to Miami to ensure I will never be cold again. JUST KIDDING! Kind of.

Guess the Ryan brother

Above: Tucker

Above: Tucker Below: Mac
Below: Tucker

Above: Mac Below: Tucker

Chill Baby

Before we get to baby Mac, first a sorority pic of Kyle & Tucker.

Sweet little Mac... Have we mentioned how much he looks like Tucker? These pictures could be Tucker at 5 weeks...
Mac is doing well considering his first 5 weeks have included getting RSV, a hospital stay, a double ear infection & topping it all of with being dropped off the bed by his mother when they fell asleep nursing at 1:30am. Poor, poor baby. He has to be chill. He's been through so much in his short little life.

We went to the doctor today for various reasons listed above and he is still growing like a weed... he is 10 pounds and getting chunkier by the day.

Things are going well around here now. We have settled in and Mac is sleeping a little bit more each night. The doctors haven't wanted me to let him go very long at night, but today I got the okay to let him sleep, so hopefully we'll get some better chunks of sleep. He seems ready.

Starting to smile this week!

1 month

His big brother can make him smile...

I wish I had a scanner to put these pictures next to Tucker pics. Week by week they are identical.

And sometimes he cries.

The RSV is now behind us. Praise God! This just has to be documented -- the breathing treatments. Pitiful... and it looks like we are drugging our child which we found mildly amusing.

In the midst of all that my mom and Brian were here. This is Uncle Bri's Christmas present for Tuck... for his new big boy bike. Tucker keeps yelling me he can now go down "super fast ramps!" We aren't sure what this pose was, but he also has on a Nascar Halloween costume to complete the look.

And Tucker really liked Brian's gear - the kid loves an Apple product. He can work an IPhone and IPod better than most adults who own them. Scary.

RSV

Unfortunately this is where we spent New Year's Eve and New Year's... Mac was diagnosed with RSV on Monday and by Wednesday early morning was running a fever that required admission to the hospital. He is actually doing really well now and it never got as bad as it could have. We are hopeful we are on the upswing now - but they have a mandatory 48 hour hospital stay for newborns under 4 weeks with a fever. Poor baby!

Brotherly love

Before Christmas Eve service.

He's not a huge fan of Tucker holding him.

Tucker's Christmas

the new bike...
Aunt Terry hit the jackpot with the easel -- Tucker loves himself an art project!

Spoiled little boy... look at all those toys! He would open each toy and want to set it up and play with it before he moved to the next -- he really appreciated each gift which was fun to watch.

Tucker and Daddio wrote a letter to Santa and put out a personally decorated cookie and carrots for the reindeer!Yet another classic sleeping position. Every night he claims how not tired he is... and then 30 seconds later he is out.

2nd week of life

Sweet Mac. Sleeping well. Eating well. And that's pretty much it.

Ultimate Bed Head

Tummy Time