Holiday's can't come soon enough!

I love holidays! I mean, I LOVE them! Any of them....all of them, but especially the ones at the end of the year. In addition to the upcoming holidays, we will be having Ryan's first birthday party on Halloween, so that will be a very hectic, but exciting day!

I have already bought pretty much everything for her birthday and I also ordered her Halloween costume yesterday. I have a list of things to do when we get back from the beach telling me exactly what to put out 'decoration-wise' for autumn (yes, I put mine out in September even if it is still extremely hot outside). I decorate everything....inside and outside. It usually takes an entire day to do it all, but it's worth it :)

I'm excited about Christmas this year. Growing up my mom always did a ton of Christmas baking with all of us kids and I definitely want to keep that tradition going with Ryan. Jarrod and I have already started discussing "gifts from Santa" for Ryan and I can't wait to see her on Christmas morning. I think this year will really feel like a 'family' Christmas for us 3 and it just can't get here soon enough :)

Stress.....lots of stress!

I've never done well handling stress. Ever. I get very emotional and overwhelmed. I have become a lot more patient ever since having Ryan, so that has helped me somewhat deal with stress better, but I still have a long way to go!

The past few days have been extremely stressful. Ryan is going through a really wierd phase. All of a sudden she hates to be alone. You can't put her down, walk out of a room, or even take a few steps away from her before she starts screaming. And I'm not talking about just a little whining, I'm talking full on blood curdling screaming! Since she was about 3 months old she has always slept about 12 at night. Now I can't even start to put her down in her crib before she goes nuts. I know it's just separation anxiety (her doctor said this may start), but how do you deal with it? They say not to pick them up every time they cry (mainly at night), but Ryan screamed for almost 2 hours straight the other night and finally I just had to put her in the bed with me. I don't want her to make herself sick.

Do all babies go through this? I mean it literally came out of nowhere! Saturday she was fine and Sunday she woke up an entirely different baby. I hope this is a short phase because I really want my happy baby back.

On top of Ryan spazzing out, I started a new class....math. Ugh! I am terrible at math and this class is not making any sense to me whatsoever! Last night while I was trying to do my chapter quiz, I had to deal with Ryan screaming every 30 minutes and that just about sent me over the edge. I literally just wanted to throw my hands up, quit school, and cry.....but I didn't. (Partly because my husband would kill me and there's no way I'm ever going to be an x-ray tech again).

Will school ever end? Will Ryan ever stop crying? Will the laundry ever just wash itself? (Okay that last one is a little far fetched). Stress seems to pile up and finally just take its toll on me. Hopefully I will be able to handle it better this time than in the past. I went to the gym this morning and that did help a little so we'll see. Just pray for my sanity....

Disciplining is harder than I thought....

So, Ryan is getting to the age where she wants pretty much everything she can't have....picture frames, dog food, plugs, moss from the palm tree plant, you name it! I'm trying to start disciplining her so that she knows right from wrong, but it's emotionally harder than I thought it would be, but I'm doing pretty good so far. Time out obviously doesn't work on a 9 month old because they don't understand it, so I have started telling her 'no' and popping her hand. When she's getting into something she's not suppose to, I tell her 'no' and pry the object from her hand. When she reaches for it again I pop her hand and tell her 'no.' I repeat this process until she finally crawls away from it. By that time she's crying hysterically and has a red hand, but I haven't seen her mess with any of those objects since.

Ryan loves remote controls and I usually can't fix on the tv whatever button she's hit.

About to eat mommy's coupons and sale ads.

I know some people will probably not agree with this tactic, but I want my child to know right from wrong and respect authority, and I believe this should start at an early age. I see so many kids now-a-days that run wild and don't listen to their parents or any other adults for that matter and I refuse to let Ryan be one of those. When she's older Jarrod and I will find what kind of discipline works best for her, whether it be spankings, time out, or taking away toys. I'm determined to stick to what we have decided even though it can be emotionally tough. No parent wants to watch their child cry, but I have to keep telling myself it will be worth it in the end.

Ryan heading over to the palm tree to eat some moss!

Ryan broke through my pillow barrier and found a plug....go figure.

Our Oerman Clan

Our daughter, Ryan, is currently 9 months old now. Where have the months gone?? I feel like I just had her yesterday. I already find myself looking back at her newborn pictures and videos and can't believe how much she has changed in this short amount of time. Last week she started crawling for the first time and now she's so fast! She has started pulling up to stand now and since she can't 'stay' standing up she has been taking quite a few tumbles. Today she took a pretty hard fall and her little forehead must have taken most of the impact. She's probably going to grow up being just like me....plain clumsy!

On another note....school is going okay. I did a year of college at a local University and then did 2 years of x-ray school. After deciding that x-ray was just not the right fit for me, I decided to go back and pursue something else. I started at the University of Phoenix Online in February of 2007 and finished my Associate degree in December 2008. I started my Bachelor's program for elementary education in January of 2009 and won't finish until the fall of 2011. Needless to say, I'm pretty burnt out! I just want to be finished and I feel like it's so far away. The good news is that since I'm still in school I get to stay home with Ryan. I love being able to spend all day everyday with her. She truely is a miracle baby :)

Lately Jarrod and I have been going back and forth on whether or not to have another child. I flip flopped on the subject numerous times. For one, Ryan is such an easy baby. She's always so happy. I worried that if we had another baby that we might not get as lucky as we did with Ryan. On the flip side, I wanted Ryan to grow up with a sibling. I have a brother and sister, not to mention 3 step-sisters, and I love it. I can't imagine being an only child.

We discussed it for a while and have finally come to the conclusion to try for another one. We're going to give it one year and if it doesn't happen then we're just going to be a happy family of 3. I do not want a big age gap between Ryan and another baby, so that's why we have set a deadline. I guess we'll see what happens...