I have been a complete slacker about updating since Ryker's first birthday. The Nelson's have been busy, unfortunately not with anything fun! We are stuck in the everyday busyness of work, errands, chores, and adulthood..
Scott is working on the hell that is Yellowstone Ave. right now. My sincere apologizes to those who have or have had to travel that disaster of a roadway the last three months. If something could go wrong with this project, it's gone wrong 10+ times. The guys cannot seem to catch a break. Not to mention the general public and the media are up in arms over it and, sure they report stuff on the progress (or lack thereof) but it's half truths. It's very frustrating to sit on the opposite of the argument and hear people bad mouth not only my husband, but the entire company. Do these people really think Scott and the rest of his crew want to work from 7pm to 7am? Do they truly believe that they want to see their families - in our case - for 30 minutes each night before they have to leave for work? Do they not think the works don't want this job finished just as bad, if not more so, than everyone else in this town?? It's been a very tough summer. The only day Scott gets off is Saturday, in a way.. He'll get off work sometimes around 7am, sometimes later, come home and sleep for a few hours. We try to shove our family time in when he wakes up, get our grocery shopping done, things like that. By dinner time, he's so wore out form little sleep he crashes really early. Then Sunday, he lays down in the middle of the afternoon in prep to leave at work for 7pm.
It's been very stressful to say the least. I can do being alone, I've done it for years now. But being alone with a toddler... That takes the issue up a notch. Not to mention, Ryker likes his dad. The poor boy will cry when Scott leaves at night, it's heartbreaking. We are hoping and praying he is on the downhill slide of things. He's ben having some issues with quality tests coming back unacceptable and now that we are in mid-October, it's getting too cold at night to pave. It has to be 40 degrees or higher to lay asphalt. If you're the praying kind, please keep Scott in your prayers. I really want my husband home and Ryk needs his dad back!
Speaking of Ryker Kay, my baby is no longer a baby! He took his first steps for me Tuesday, Sept. 30. Wouldn't you know if, Scott wasn't home to see it because of work. He was so crushed. I can't remember the reason why, but he did have the next day off and Ryker put on a performance for him. I swear within two days, he was walking like an old pro! He has such a cute, wide stance, and he always keep his arms up. We call him drunk baby when he wobbles around the house. He thinks he is pretty dang spiffy now that he's found his sea legs. Up until the 30th, he really had no interest in walked assisted. He would push his ride-along toys around the house and chase us or the dogs around and cruise the furniture, but that was it. I was just kind of messing around with him and sat him on his own two feet. Once he got his balance he just stood there for a few, not really knowing what his next move was going to be. We tried a couple times and I bribed him with my cellphone and that's all it took. Three steps. I cried! I tried to convince him to do it again so I could record it.
I must say, being there for that moment was a huge highlight for me. I've spoken many times about being afraid I would miss the important stuff, and while I really feel like I am missing important things, I was here for this. And that's what counted. He walked for no one but me. It was a pretty big moment in the Nelson house. I feel like him being upright aged him so much. No longer is he crawling on the ground to get places; he wants to go and see and get into stuff he wasn't able to beforehand.
He's doing really well on his words too. In addition to the ones he was saying at a year, he says "meow" "this" "uh huh" "yeah" and an occasional "no". I know there are others, I just can't think of them right now.
Ryker hasn't gotten any teeth since he was around 11 months, but within the last 3 weeks he's decided he was going to cut three at once, two molars and an incisor. Lord help us... He is the most miserable teether. Doesn't sleep to save my life, bites, cranky, fussy, you name it... His bottom molar has completely broken through, and I think that gave him some relief, now we need to get the others in. Maybe we'll get a weeks breaks before more come in!
He battled his first case of the flu this last week. Wednesday the 15th my MIL said he wasn't acting well, didn't eat much, had way too many poopy diapers, and slept more than normal. I was seriously hoping to chalk it up to teeth and move forward, but that isn't how it happened. When we got home around 6, he wasn't up for eating and Scott left for the night. Let me add, at this point I am not feeling so great myself. I'm really sick to my stomach and just not feeling like myself. I got him ready for bed, nursed him and we went down early. It was around 2:30 and he was being really fussy and wouldn't sleep, and wham! he pukes everywhere. And I mean everywhere. I've never seen so much stuff come out of something so small. I had to strip the bed and we went to lay on the couch. He was finally able to rest a little while and he wanted to nurse again around 6, so he did. Well, 30 minutes later he starts puking again. Everywhere. This time on mom. I was getting the two of us ready to get in the tub and I had him down to his diaper as I was turning the water on (lessoned learned, take diaper off after water is running) and I turned to grab him and he was shaking, hard. Well, he had such a high fever he had the chills. That really bothered me, so I called the peds clinic and they wanted me to get him in immediately. Mind you, I am still sick. Like, really sick. I had to keep myself together to drive the 30 minutes to Pocatello and then 30 minutes back home.
Long story short, he had a pretty serious case of the flu! They didn't want me giving him too much liquids as to not upset his already sick belly. Just a Tbsp of liquids at a time and then gradually work our way up. It was so awful not letting him drink, he was so thirsty and would just cry when I wouldn't let him continue. I felt awful. By Friday he was definitely making major improvements. He had a little attitude and I was able to feed him some rice which he kept down, same with the water and milk. His fever was nearly gone too. By Saturday, I would have never known anything was wrong with him. So I'm glad it was only a two day thing. As he improved I started to feel better myself. Having a sick kid and being sick at the same time, with no help, is a really terrible thing to have happen!
I do have some pictures to share that I'll so on another post, it hasn't been all work and no play, I've taken Ryker to a couple pumpkin patches as a yearly tradition! Will share soon!
