Adjusting to a Family of 4

Wow - 2 kids are definitely harder than 1. But it has been so worth it. Ryan is already fitting in well with the family. He "plays" with Nathan every day. Ryan has had some problems with throwing up that we are seeing a specialist for, but he has been put on an antacid that we hope will clear it up in the next week or so.

We just ended a week of having family in town. I was bad at taking pictures, but we want to thank Nana, Papa, Grammy, and Charlie for all their help during the last week.

Here are some new photos of our boys.

First bath - can't say he enjoyed it. Look at how well they play together. And look how messy the house is!

Welcome Ryan Mitchell Rivera!

We welcomed our son, Ryan Mitchell Rivera, into this world on Saturday, September 3rd at 9:21am. He is 7lbs 14oz and 21.5 inches long. He looks so much like Nathan did as a baby. We are so happy that he is finally here. Here are pictures from his first few days.

My Potty Animal

We did it! We potty trained Nathan before his little brother is born. Everyone was skeptical of my no nonsense approach, but we were diligent and it worked. We convinced him that diapers were "disgusting" and he has since told everyone we come in contact with how "disgusting" they are. We followed "The Potty Boot Camp" method and it worked so well. Anyone interested in learning about the method can find it here: www.thepottybootcamp.com I'll also send anyone that is interested a copy of the e-book that I purchased. It was $7 well spent.

I won't post many embarrassing photos of the time spent on the potty, but here is one of Nathan holding onto his new baseball glove. The glove was his present for graduating from Potty Boot Camp. He is so proud of himself and obviously so are we. Nathan is an amazing child and he is going to be a great big brother.

I couldn't pass up snapping a shot of him after his bath. He just looks so innocent.

Nathan reminds me every day how good of an eater he is. This picture was taken after his breakfast a few mornings ago. He eats all his cereal, then drinks the milk, then uses the napkin to clean up after himself.

He is also so proud that he can ride a bike like a big boy. It finally cooled off enough where we could enjoy some outside time. I had a hard time keeping up with my little BMXer.

This weekend we went to the Please Touch Museum in Philadelphia. I was pleasantly surprised about how fun it was. Nathan really enjoyed himself.

His favorite part by far was the ShopRite exhibit. They fully stock shelves of fake food and the kids can go shopping. If you look closely, you can see a box of TastyKakes on top. He bought those for his Daddy, not for me...I swear.

Then he gets to ring up all the groceries. It was really, really cute.

So we only have a few more weekends until Baby #2 arrives. For those wondering, we still do not have a name picked out yet. It's probably going to be a game time decision at this point.

Let's Catch Up

The summer has been going by rather quickly and I can't believe its almost August. We have 5.5 weeks until the new baby arrives and we are trying to get everything in order before that time.

We finished Nathan's new room. The final touch were the fish and shark decals. He loves his "fishy" room and we are so happy that he is happy with it. I wanted nothing more than him to be happy with his Big Boy room.

We finally made the trip up to New York for our first Mets game at CitiField. Nathan and Randy had their matching Mets outfits and they looked adorable.

There were many sights to see at the ballpark. Too bad we pick the 100 degree day to visit.

We had great seats. Pujols hit a homer right below where we were sitting.

This was the ride home. I think it says it all.

And with our new addition only weeks away, its time to say goodbye to the Corolla. We are upgrading to a super cool Toyota Sienna Minivan!!!

Making Room for Baby

Nathan has been promoted to his Big Boy Room! The theme of the room is boats and fish and we have 99% of the room done. The only thing left to do is put the fish decals on the walls. But here are pictures of where we are so far. He has already slept in the bed twice this weekend and loves all the room to spread out.

Here he is in the queen size bed. Doesn't he look small?

Every 2 year old has got to have a Steeler shrine.

He even has a fishtank to go along with the theme.Didn't Randy do a fantastic job with the painting?

We moved some of his toys upstairs to make room for baby stuff downstairs.

"I Saw the Fishes"

Nathan has made us super proud again. This time it was showing off how smart he is. We have been practicing writing letters with him. Up until now, I hold the crayon in his hand and write his name in big capital letters. Then he tries to mimic it by scribbling all over the page. Well, yesterday morning while I was making breakfast, he yelled for me to come see his letter "A". I of course run in, expecting to see a scribble, and this is what I found.

I was so proud, I just had to take a picture with him next to it.

Then, later in the day, we went to the Adventure Aquarium on the NJ Waterfront. Nathan is the perfect age to enjoy seeing all the different types of sea life. He has been talking about it nonstop since we got home.

Here are the 2 hippos that are on display at the aquarium. Being 6 months pregnant, I feel like one of them...

Who can resist one of these cheesy photo ops?

So update on Baby Boy #2 - He is a mover and a shaker already. At 27 weeks, he is very active. The books tell me he is the size of a head of cauliflower. Looking at my belly - I can believe it. We still don't have a name picked out yet. We're hoping something will "come to us" in the next few weeks.