Ryan's First Haircut... Well Just the Bangs

In my opinion, Ryan has beautiful curly hair that I LOVE!  But I have gotten sooooooo tired of people asking, "When are you going to finally cut his hair?!"  If he was a girl this would be easy, a little clip or pony tail, or a little head band and it would be great.  But that is not socially acceptable for boys (nor would I ever do that to him), so it has just been curly hair that hangs all wild.  I think its a great surfer dude look.  The back and sides are not the problem, its the bangs.  They really have gotten a little bit too long and they are always hanging in his eyes.  I can tell he was starting to get annoyed by them and I had to finally come to terms with the idea of cutting his hair.  The compromise was that I would cut his bangs, but I am not ready for the full hair cut just yet.

Reasons I don't want to cut his hair:
1.  I can't cut away the curls
2.  I am afraid that if I cut the curls off, they will never come back (I guess I was traumatized as a kid because that is what happened to my brothers curls and I can remember my mom always telling the story about cutting off his curls)
3.  Ryan does not sit still for 3 seconds, never mind the few minutes it would take to cut his hair.  Seriously, there is not a single thing that I can do to get him to sit still (taking 10 seconds to cut his bangs was hard enough).  I have done several other toddlers first hair cuts and they have been fine... but Ryan is not a normal kid and I think giving him a full hair cut would be mission impossible
4.  He likes to play with his hair when he is tired and as he falls asleep at night... I can't take that away from him!  It is seriously one of the cutest things ... pictures to follow.

Anyway, I totally see the irony in the hair dressers child being the one that desperately needs a haircut.

Tonight was the night.  Mike held him on his lap, my mom took the picture, and I made the cut.  It was seriously 1 actual cut and then a quick blending of the bangs and the side, the whole thing probably took 30 seconds.  But it was traumatizing none the less. 

Currently I do not like it at all, I think he looks like a giant dork (but my cute, lovable dork).  It is probably going to take me a few days to get use to it... or maybe a few weeks for them to grow back.  We will see how it goes.  Here are some pictures to document the event.

 

This is what his hair looked like before the bang cut...

 

Now here is the action shots... not the best pictures but you get the idea (side note... we choose to do this at 6:30pm.  I must have been going a bit crazy because this is normally witching hour at our house, not the best time for a first hair cut).

(please excuse the droolly, itchy mess that is my son by the end of the day... and they aren't really that short, the are just brushed to the side)

 

After bath time I tried to get a few more shots...

The problem I have now is that the bangs are short and the rest of the hair is long... but without cutting the rest of his hair, there is not much I can do about it.  Here are some pictures of the back of his hair.  Remember it's wet, so the back will be much shorter after it dries completely.

 

 

I know what you are thinking, a bit mulletish.  Oh well, he will have to deal with it because I am the crazy mom that will not cut off the curls yet.

 

He is about done with the pictures for the night...

 

 

And finally, the super cute, playing with my curls before bed time pictures...

 

 

 

Regardless of his long bangs or short bangs or whether he now has cute curls or a mullet...I love him more each day and he is my handsome little man!

 

 

 

 

 

So much on my mind...

I have so many things running through my head!  I find myself thinking "Oh I can't wait to sit down and finally write a blog post!" just so that I can get all of these thoughts off my chest.  Yes I am definitely one of those people that feels better/less stressed after writing out my thoughts.  I even considered making my blog private so that I could use it more as a journal than a public site... but for now I am not going to do that.  Since I don't have time to write about everything I want (seriously I have a list of topics I want to discuss), I'll just write brief ramblings about all of the different topics.

1.  Ryan update-  I have been really bad on updating about Ryan.  He is currently 19 months, he is exactly 50% on all of his size charts.  I don't have the records around me but I believe he is 26 lbs and 34 inches.  He is all boy these days!  He plays like a boy and acts like a boy... I love it!  He is really into Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Jake and the Neverland Pirates, Elmo, Thomas the Train, megablocks, balls (any kind... basketballs, baseballs, soccer balls, golf).  Ryan loves to put his Yankee hat on every time we go outside, he is obsessed with sitting in the front seat of the car and pretending he is driving the car, he is always cooking using his pots and pans set, he enjoys watching baseball and football, and he is always eating!  Two of my currents concerns are that he is still very slow in his talking skills and he still drools EXCESSIVELY! I personally think the two issues are connected... and I think it goes back to his birth (he had a really hard time nursing).  I believe that he has a week muscle in his jaw, or something like that, which is causing the drool and the speech delays.  Currently we are working on it.  We are practicing words, I have him repeat what I am saying, he is always blowing bubbles and sticking out his tongue (to work on the muscles).  I am going to hold off a little bit longer before calling the early intervention people.  I know everyone has an opinion on when to call and how many words are expected at each month... but for now I am going to hold off until he is closer to 2 before making the call.  Just in the past 2 weeks or so I have noticed a huge difference.  When he hit 18 months I think he had maybe 3 -5 words... but he is already up to around 20 since mid September.  I guess we will see how things play out over the next few months and go from there. 

PS last note on Ryan... I still have not cut his hair.  It is soooooo long (down to the middle of his back when its wet) but I just love the curls!  He seriously has the cutest, tight little spiral curls and I am afraid they will be gone forever if I cut them.  So even though his bangs are in his eye and everyone around me keeps saying "when are you going to cut his hair?!", I am not ready to do it yet.  So my surfer dude continues for a little bit longer.

2.  Work-  Quick vent... Mike and I have been working our butts off and I am tired and I miss my hubby.  He works all day and some nights and most weekends and then I work some days and some nights and some weekends... so bottom line, we never see each other!  The schedule works because we both get to spend time with Ryan and we don't need full time day care... but life is hectic.  The schedule is making time just fly by and we are definitely missing out on some of our favorite things (like football Sundays... can you believe I haven't had the chance to relax and enjoy a football Sunday yet?!?!  I miss the Sundays where I had dinner in the crockpot and we spent the day in our comfy clothes watching football with our friends).  This is not going to change any time soon... we have a few goals we need to meet before either of us get to lighten up on our work schedules.  This leads me right to my next topic........

3.  We want to move!  This has already been such a stress and we have just started the process.  We love our house but hate our street and property.  We are also very quickly outgrowing the space here.  Our house is very much "what you see is what you get".  We have a nice size living area, and the bedroom size is fine... but we are seriously lacking on closed space and extra rooms.  We do not have a basement, or office area, or play area, or laundry room, or storage space, or a garage, or a yard to play in, etc.  It is working right now because I have come to terms with the fact that my living room is also a playroom and there is nothing I can do about that.  We could technically have a second child here... but things would really be tight.  The baby would move into our guest room/office and we would have to move the office into our bedroom and then all 4 of us would be sharing the same bathroom.   I am already feeling a bit claustrophobic.

This summer we were very close to putting an offer on a house and putting our house on the market.  But things got very complicated because it was a house under construction and there were issues with a mortgage.  I guess spending the time planning for that new house really made us anxious to move.  So we have officially started our search.  The Prima's (the builders I use to work for) are currently building a new development that I am in love it!  Its in the North Dover section of Toms River, its going to be an actual neighborhood with quiet streets, and the homes are exactly what we are looking for as far as floor plans and size.  Unfortunately they are still just a little bit above our price range.  As of right now we have decided that it is just too expensive and we are not willing to be house poor.  They are building the neighborhood in stages, so there is still a small chance that we will be able to buy a home with them in a few years.

Here is my frustration.... now is a great time to buy because the prices are so low, BUT even with the prices being so low, the type of house we want is still out of our price range.  So we can stay in our current home longer and save more money ... in hopes that we can buy a home that we really want in a few years or we can buy a home in our price range that needs a decent amount of work but at least we are in the bigger home.  Its also hard to decide because there are some many variables... are home prices going to go up or down, are interest rates going back up, can we sell our house, are we willing to move further south and away from our family and friends to find a house we can afford, what school system do we want to raise our kids in????  Soooooo much to think about!  At this point, I feel like no matter what we decide we have to make a huge compromise.    I get frustrated because I feel like we are doing everything right... we work hard, make decent money, save a lot, don't over spend... but we still feel stuck! 

I am just anxious to know where we are going to be living and where we are going to be raising our family.  This had been the biggest stress between Mike and I over the past 3 months and I think we are both ready to just know what we are going to do so that we can start moving in that direction.

4.  Running-  I have been on my official half marathon training programs for about a month so far.  I am moving along but its been a slow start.  My goal is to run 4 times a week, and its different mileage each time.  Megan created the program for me... its 25 weeks and has me starting off slow since before this month I still couldn't run a mile without stopping.  At this point, I am up to running about 12 miles a week and I add on a mile or 2 each week.  Its still far from easy and I still don't "enjoy" running but I can see that I am making progress.  Last Sunday, Heather, Jessie, Kim, my Mom, and I all ran in a 5k Raise for a Cure and I was very proud of how I did (I was proud of how all of us did... considering none of us are really runners).  Anyway, I ran the whole three miles without stopping and I finished in 33 minutes.  I felt really good... it was just what I needed to keep me motivated.

So my ultimate goal is a half marathon, 13.1 miles and the race is February 24.  With colder weather coming up, I definitely need to do a few things to get me prepared for running outside.  Today I bought my first pair of official running sneakers and a ear band so that my ears don't hurt from the cold.  I also need some long sleeve running shirts and cold weather clothes.  Plus last week I signed up at Retro Fitness so that I have a place to go running on the treadmill if its super cold out (plus they have childcare for Ryan which will need when I have to go up to running 5 times a week). 

That is my status... who thought running this half marathon was going to be a good idea?!

5.  Things We are Looking Forward To- 
-Vegas with my very best friends in 30 days!!  We have been talking about going on a vacation to celebrate our 30th birthdays for several years now and I am excited its finally happening.  It will be so nice to relax with the girls, go shopping, spend the day in the spa,  sleep in, eat at cool restaurant, see a show, and just enjoy each other's company!  Yay for a girls trip!
-My 30th birthday and party!  I am actually very excited about turning 30 and can't wait for my 80's themed party.  Mike is throwing the party, with the help of my girl friends I am sure... and it will be great to have an old school party with my best buds.  Can't wait!
-Fall activities... Apple picking, pumpkin picking, trick-or-treating with the kiddies, friends thanksgiving, and before we know it, the holidays will be here!
-Ryan's first trip to Disney World!  And of course the Disney Princess half marathon!  Our trip is booked, the whole family is coming, plus the friends that we are doing the race with.... it should be a great trip. 



I could keep going, but this is enough for one blog post.