Too young

I received some awful news last night. While putting Rylan to bed last my phone rang and someone left a message. Once I was finished putting Rylan down I looked at my phone to see that one of my former divers had called me and I quickly checked my messages wondering why she would be calling me on a Saturday night. She had left me a message to let me know that another one of my former divers, Jake Rachford, died in a house fire early that morning. I quickly called her back and got on the computer to find an article on Ann Arbor.com that had some information. He was only 20 years old and the second diver I had coached to pass away in the past 6 months.

I know my divers aren't my children, but spending so much time with them, watching them grow, and trying to keep them on their path, I really grow quite a bond with some of them. And Jake was no exception. To hear of his passing hit me hard and is continuing to even more today. And for as awful and sad as I feel I can't even begin to imagine how his parents are feeling and what they are going through right now.

I feel so fortunate to have known and coached Jake. Even though he came to me as an awkward freshman with no diving experience, he was always sure of himself. He didn't care that he had never dived, didn't know anyone on the team, he wanted to try diving as something new to tackle. He spent four years getting better and eventually becoming a state meet qualifier his senior year. And although there were lots of changes in him on the outside, he was still the same self-assured, confident kid on the inside. Jake always knew who he was, and I truly admired that in him. Most of us take years to figure out who we really are and he already knew by the time he was 14. I told his parents at our banquet his senior year that I hoped my boys would be as sure of themselves as he was.

I will miss Jake and likely never forget him. My heart is with his family.
Rest in Peace Jake Rachford...

Rylan's first tooth

So for about 2 months now we've been dealing with teething and all the joys that come with teething. Rylan has drooled, chewed, cried, bit, and done just about anything to try to get relief. We've gone through 2 bottles of tylenol and used orajel. There was one night she let out screams every 45 minutes for about 4 hours straight. And then, on Sunday morning when I put my finger in her mouth to check for any signs of a new tooth I was so incredibly pleased to find one! Her first tooth on her lower gums popped through! Unfortunately though it was only one. She is very pleased to have her first tooth cut, but you can tell the one next to it is trying to push through as well. Hopefully it will only take a few days instead of 2 months :-)

In other Rylan news, she also seems to be going through an attachment phase. She wants to be held almost all of the time. And if you do put her down on her mat or exerciser she wants you right there along side. She cries if you leave the room or if some else tries to hold her and she can't see me or Chris. Its starting to get a little annoying, but I know its a phase lots of kids go through. Chris has noticed she's better with him letting her do her own thing. I've tried using my baby sling a few times and she seems to like it, but she's really grabby these days and wants to get her hands on everything in sight, including the raw chicken and knife I was cooking with the other day! So I'll keep trying to leave her to play by herself and I'm sure she'll continue to cry until I come back and hopefully she'll start to work through this phase soon enough. Oh the joys of motherhood :-)

Rylan and me cooking dinner

Jake turns 6!

I can't believe my baby, my first born, is 6! The saying the days go by slow and the years go by fast seems to really be true.

Jake ended up with a birthday weekend. On Friday we made chocolate chip and M & M cookies for him to take into school. It turns out there is another boy in his class that has the same birthday, so Jake got to bring in a treat on Friday and the other boy will bring in a treat today. I was told the cookies were a hit and I know we all enjoyed them here. It was also a treat for me to spend some time with Jake making the cookies, I know these moments are few and far between.

On Saturday, Chris took Jake and Brenden to Jungle Java for a small get together with some of Jake's friends. We asked him if he wanted to invite some friends and go do something or have them over for his birthday. He chose Jungle Java and 4 friends from school, we were only able to get a hold of 3 of his friends, but they were all eager to join Jake. They met at Jungle Java at 2pm and played nonstop until around 4pm. Jake got some presents from his friends as well and it sounds like they all had a great time.

Later in the evening we got visits from Uncle Chris and Uncle Jim. Jim came into to town for a short visit and was so nice to bring Jake and Brenden birthday presents - Brenden's birthday is next week. Uncle Chris was the big hit though, he came in with two giant balloons and lots of presents! Jake loved the gifts and Brenden was a little bummed (to put it mildly) that it wasn't his birthday yet and he'd have to wait to get balloons and presents. It was also nice to all hang out for a bit and watch Jake with his new toys.

For his actual birthday on Sunday it was a pretty low key day - he told me it was actually boring and Saturday had felt more like his birthday :-) We all got up and made a nice breakfast and Jake had about 2 bites before he started pestering us about opening presents - the kid really loves presents, but then again what kid doesn't? He had presents waiting for him from me, Chris, Aunt Meredith, and Uncle Todd. He ripped through them all very fast and loved them all. When I asked him later what his favorite was he said all of the Transformers - he got them from just about everyone. Brenden also got to open a couple of gifts as well, there were two presents that were for both of them and we let Brenden open them so he wouldn't feel so left out.

Birthday breakfast - Chocolate waffle with whipped cream!

Presents!!

Brenden gets a turn

At lunch time my dad came over and took both of the boys to his house for lunch and presents. They both had a nice time. My dad was also going to take them to my brother's basketball game, but when I got home from practice they were already back and had changed their minds about wanting to go to the game. Jake said he just really wanted to be home and play with his new toys.

For dinner Jake requested we make chicken picatta and pasta and of course we would have my homemade chocolate cake for dessert. Dinner was excellent and the cake was my best yet. The night was finished off with a long bath for the boys, some stories before bed, and a card for Jake from Grandma and Grandman. It was a great birthday for Jake!

The Cake!!

Happy Birthday!

My cute and crazy boys...

With a new baby there are lots of pictures to be taken, but lately I feel like I've been missing out on some cute pics of the boys so I decided to take a few the other night.

Bedtime

Bath time

I love my cute and crazy boys!

More Proof

Well in case you need more proof that Jake is Chris's kid, here it is:

The boys got army men for Christmas from my Aunt Steph and I don't know who was more excited, Chris or the boys! They started having battles lately and the above pictures are Jake's set-up for an upcoming battle with Chris.

Yesterday on his day off from school he sat in the living room for about a half hour setting them up just right. Its hard to tell from the pictures, but he set them up in a pattern. When Chris saw this last night he was incredibly proud:-) Not only was his son prepared for battle, but he had set them up so perfectly, just like dad would do!

Time to explore!

It seems that Rylan's curiosity button has been switched to on lately. She's been trying all sorts of new things, some good and some that could cause some troubles ;-) Most of it is your usual, trying to pick up more things, trying to move around, etc. But some of it seems a bit early and/or advanced! Let the crazy begin!

So here's what we've got...

She's gotten a lot better at rolling over from her stomach to her back. She now knows when she's doing it as opposed to doing it by accident in her sleep - which still happens a bit. And she can now do the back to the stomach roll, but that still seems to take a lot more effort. I've noticed that if she's on her play mat she tries to grab onto something to help pull herself onto her side, sometimes it helps and sometimes not so much. If I get her to her side she finishes the roll with no effort at all, I think its just putting it all together in one sequence that she's still having a little trouble with, but trust me she's working on it and she'll get it soon enough.

She can sit up now! Most of time when you put her in a sitting position she leans over and holds herself steady with her hands and can stay that way for quite a while. I've also been able to get her to hold herself upright for a few moments before toppling over. And she has no trouble sitting if someone holds one of her hands for a little support. It should be no time at all before she's able sit with no support for longer periods.

She has figured out a form of crawling, its on her back! I think this is quite funny. When she's on her stomach she's able to lift all the way up, but really doesn't try to go anywhere. But when she's on her back you see her digging her heels into the floor and moving all about. She's not going more than a few feet, but I don't see that lasting too long. Jake starting crawling at 4 months and had it mastered by 6 months, Brenden had the army crawl at 4 months and "regular" crawling by 7 months, so Rylan crawling on her back at 4 1/2 months seems about right.

Another new thing I've noticed over the past few days is that when I give her a pacifier at naptime/bedtime she's trying to pull it out and then seeing if she can put it back in her mouth again. This seems good in theory, and eventually when she gets it it will be good, but for now its a bit annoying because she's keeping herself up and then getting frustrated. Tired and frustrated are not a good combination for 5 month old babies, or for 32 year old mothers. She only gets the pacifier in bed, but today I gave her one while she was in her exerciser to see what she would do and the same thing happened. She first tried to take it from me so she could put it in herself and then once it was in she tried to take it out and repeat the process.

The last thing I've been seeing more of lately is she doesn't seem to want to stay put. Meaning whatever contraption she's in she wants out. I put her in a bouncy seat while I take showers and the other day I saw her trying to figure out how to unlatch the buckles that keep her in. She sat there fidgeting with it for five minutes determined to figure out how it worked. Also, at the pool on Monday she figured out how to get out of her carseat when I didn't have her strapped in, luckily the carseat was on the floor instead of the bench, that could have been quite the head bonk otherwise! She stretched her body out to move down the seat and then she could feel it tip forward and she started moving a bit faster until she slid right out onto the floor, it was quite the sight to watch.

Needless to say, things are about to get a whole lot more crazy around here! Chris has also been working on walking with her...because you want to get the third child walking ASAP (said with A LOT of sarcasm). I took my first steps around 6 months according to my mom so its not out of the question to see her walking soon, but I would be MORE than fine with her waiting a bit.

I just have to accept that have movers and shakers and that's the way its going to be. Quite frankly, I don't think I would know what to do with a quiet, chilled out kid ;-)

On another note, the boys are great, driving me crazy at times, but great. Chris's parents left for warmer climates for the winter and offered to take the boys for the weekend before they left. The boys had a great time and it was really nice for Chris and I to have some quieter time. We left Rylan with a sitter one night to go to dinner, which we hadn't done in forever. The boys had a lot of fun and were spoiled to death, as they should be when they are with their grandparents:-) I think it was good for them to be the center of attention for a couple of days and to get away from Chris and me. As much as we love the boys and the boys love us, it is always therapeutic to have some time away, Thanks so much Ginger and Pete for taking the boys!

A year in review

2010 has come and gone, but certainly won't be forgotten. The Eby family had a great year, one that might not be topped for a while.

January

10th - first ultrasound of Rylan to see that everything was looking good - we found out Christmas day I was pregnant

23rd -Jake, my baby, turned 5!

February

1st - Brenden turned 3 and soon would no longer be the youngest

10th - Second ultrasound of Rylan, we weren't supposed to have one, but she was hiding and we couldn't get a heartbeat so they brought out the ultrasound

March - kind of uneventful, dive meets and work

April

9th-11th - First time coaching at Nationals! Legacy finished 3rd!

12th - It's a girl! Rylan's 20 week ultrasound where we found out we would be having our first girl!

May - another quiet month

June

4th - The boys "graduate" from Pre-school. Jake would be moving on to Kindergarten in the fall and Brenden would be one of the older kids in his class

14th - boys start their first official class of swim lessons - Jake did great and Brenden wasn't too interested, but by the end of summer seemed to be coming around

July - INSANE MONTH!!! So busy with work, coaching, kids, pregnancy, you name it! The boys and I did travel to Arizona for 10 days so that I could coach at summer nationals and so the boys could have some time with Mana (my mom). It was a lot of fun, but really tiring and made me more than ready to deliver Rylan!

August

16th - started my eigth season with the Pioneer Women's Swim and Dive team

17th - Welcomed Rylan Josephine Eby to the world at 6:12pm

30th - Back to coaching at Pioneer...world's shortest maternity leave! :-)

September

8th - Jake starts Kindergarten, my little man is growing up!

October, November, December

A total blur! After having Rylan, Jake starting kindergarten, Brenden back in pre-school, Chris traveling for work, and me back coaching it became hard to separate the days, weeks, and months! I do know that it was a lot of fun most of the time and a lot of work all of the time, but I wouldn't change a thing.

I have felt immensely blessed for my wonderful family. They keep me going each day and support me 100% so that I can be the best mom, wife, and coach that I can possibly be. 2010 was a great year! And looking forward to another great one in 2011!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!