Minnesota

So after our Ohio Christmas, Ronan and I packed up and headed to Minnesota for a very brief visit. Once again, I was very happy with how well Ronan did on the plane. I also really enjoy flying Southwest - the seats are bigger and with the choose your own seating, I can usually avoid having someone sit right next to me and if anyone does sit by me, I don't worry so much about what they'll think if Ronan does get fussy - they chose to sit there.

Anyway, we had a really good time there. It was great to see my family and I also got a chance to see some of my friends as well. On New Year's Day, my grandparents, aunt and uncle (who were visiting from New Mexico), and my cousin, his wife, and their almost-2-year-old daughter came over to celebrate Christmas. My cousin's daughter is just adorable and it was fun to watch her. She would get very concerned about Ronan when he would fall over and ask him if he was ok.

I do wish it was easier to get back and forth. I hate that Tom is rarely able to travel with us because of his schedule. Not only do I miss him, but I know he really cherishes whatever time he gets with Ronan and I hate taking him away from that. Likewise though I wish my parents could see him more often. Not much I can do about it though at this point, other than continue to hope for the invention of transporters, a la Star Trek.

Other than that, things are going pretty well. Ronan is walking all over the place now. It's so fun to watch. He walks with his hands held above his head, in what Tom calls his "Godzilla" mode. He's also fascinated with doors. He could spend hours just opening and shutting them.

We're also in the process of weaning now. I haven't been able to keep him well-fed with nursing alone and the fact that he actually lost weight between check-ups was a wake-up call that I tried to ignore. But now that we're supplementing more with formula (as well as continuing to increase solid foods), he's doing much better with sleeping through the night or else only waking up once. I also have medication that I can switch back to once I'm completely done breastfeeding, which I'm looking forward to. I do have to say that I'm not a huge fans of bottles - it's just a pain to have to get the water, mix up the formula, make sure I got the bottle top on correctly, etc and then have to wash bottles later. I'm definitely glad I made it this far - I don't have the patience! But once he turns one, we'll make the transition to cow's milk. I can't believe how fast the time has gone!