Last pregnancy, my wife was more sick than hungry. This time around it's like reading a whole new story.

When my wife tells me that she has never ending hunger I am quickly reminded of the movie, Never Ending Story. One of my favorite movies of all time but not one that I wanted to live out in real life. In the movie, the Nothing was essentially eating up the entire world in darkness. I can't help but imagine my wife as the Nothing. She is literally eating everything she can and shows no signs of stopping.

Now my role in the story is that of Atrau. The main character with the job of stopping the Nothing but has no idea on how to do it. How can you control something of this magnitude? Simple answer is you cannot. You can only help to contain it. Think you beat the Nothing? Think again. As soon as you think the Nothing has had all they could eat, it devours more.

The movie ends with Atrau (me) defeating the Nothing and all things going back to normal. The trouble is, the movie played over only a couple of days time while my story still has 5 months to go. I have never felt more like I am simply a character in a book than right now.

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Another year passes for me. I am now 26 years old. My wife likes to call me old. Physically, I can feel the years stacking up but mentally I do not feel old. I have always said that I never felt that I was my age. I have always felt like I was a kid just getting older. One example that I liked to give my wife was that I still like to spin around in my chair at work.

I was talking to the owner of the company I work for and he was telling me that his kids keep him young. I have to fully agree with this. While at work, I dress up, I act professional(most of the time) and otherwise I just do the adult thing. When I step in the door of my home, I am just dad. I walk into the door still with a very happy smile from Rylan which can't help but make you smile and respond with a big "hello!".

Regardless of how my muscles ache, when I am playing with Rylan or doing other things, I know that I can sit down and makes things up as I go just like a kid would. This, to me, is what makes a father more than just a father. It makes me a dad. I can only hope that my mind will never slip and that I will always be able to use my imagination with Rylan and our next child to help enlighten their own lives. I think it is important for all of us.

Now that I have Rylan, I get to spin around in the chair at work with him. How great is that. I wouldn't give it up for the world.

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Everyone will tell you that each pregnancy is much different than one another. This is confirmed as my wife has just simply not been as sick as she was in her first. There is one thing that we have already noticed though. The babies kicks.

Throughout the pregnancy, Rylan would kick my wife from the inside and being the nice wife that she is, she tried to get me to feel them as well. She would always tell me that he was kicking really strong but when I put my hand on her belly, I simply felt nothing. This can get quite annoying after months and months. Over the weekend, my wife has felt stronger kicks and she was able to feel a few of them from the outside. When she told me to feel her stomach what did I feel? Nothing. The baby seems to be as shy as Rylan was.

Let's hope this doesn't occur throughout the pregnancy again.

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The other day I got to hear my baby brother or sisters heart beat. The doctor said it sounds very good. Last time we heard it, my mom wasn't able to so she was a bit worried but this time everything was great. I can't wait to see the baby on the screen in a few days.

My dad's birthday is coming up soon so my mom and I have been planning a few things. This year, he is asking for dress shirts because he is looking for a new job. I think he just wants to feel more like a dad but I know that he will always play with me like he was a kid. He had an interview yesterday that went well. When we move out of town it will be a 40 mile drive but the increase in pay makes up for that so that is really good.

The other day we made a trip to my Aunt's house. She even gave me some cookies to help keep me out of trouble. It worked. Sort of. They are having a baby soon so they have a lot of fun stuff in their room so I was trying to climb into their swing. Mom kept telling me I was too big but I didn't care. I was playing with a table that my dad had when he was a kid. My aunt keeps it now for her kid. Talk about a blast from the past. I like going over there because I get to see my Uncle Sean and my other Aunt Erica as well. I think that they like me a lot.

I think that we will be meeting up with my grandpa this weekend. That should be fun because last time we went to Peter Piper Pizza. I really like their pizza and I like the rides and games even more. They splurged on me last time and I drove the bat mobile a few times. Boy was that fun.

Have a good weekend.

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My wife and I stopped by the doctors office yesterday for her checkup and all is well. Everything is looking great in fact we were able to successfully hear the baby's heartbeat without question. My wife's weight is increasing at a good rate and all tests came back great. The pregnancy this time around has been much easier on my wife. Little sickness compared to last time but she is finding it difficult to fight off the sciatic nerve pain.

The nurse that my wife saw had not seen Rylan since she was still carrying him and she was simply amazed at how big he was for only being 16 months. She couldn't give enough compliments about how cute he was as well.

We will be having another ultrasound on March 1st as both a checkup and to discover the sex of the baby. Could it be a girl this time? My wife thinks so.

We took the time out recently to start a new baby registry at Babies'R'Us. This time around it was much easier and much less time consuming. We knew what we wanted or needed for the new baby. Rylan helped us out by sleeping through the trip.

Expect pictures from the ultrasound soon.

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We like to think of Rylan as our little Einstein. His hair is even sometimes as crazy as Einstein's once was.

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When I began this blog, nearly 2 years ago, it was always on the back of my mind that I may be able to make a few dollars from it. After a couple of months of getting everything initially settled I added some Google Ads in unobtrusive places (I hope). It took along time before the ads began getting clicked on and when they were mere cents was accumulated. As time went on though, more ads were clicked and higher paying ones at that. This has worked out well for us as I have always said money from the Google Ads will go towards Rylan's savings account. While his savings account is certainly not amazing, it is a wonderful thing to see something waiting for him. It's even more amazing that the ads people click on are helping my son establish a savings account that he can tap into years and years from now. The few cents that each ad click gains certainly ads up.

Now here comes our second child. I have been wondering lately how can I give the same opportunity to this next child. Yes, I could cut the checks that I get from Google but seeing as they do not come frequently enough, it may not be worth dividing the money between them. I am now on a hunt to find the next best thing to be able to give extra money to both our new child on the way and help Rylan's saving as well if possible. This can be a difficult finding just the right thing.

I am curious to see how other families are able to fund their children's savings accounts. Do you do side jobs? Do you run a blog with ads on it? Do you just do a better job at budgeting and deposit money when available? I would love to know.

On a side note, we signed Rylan up for an ING Direct savings account that has a nice interest rate of 4.5% rather than the crummy 1% we were getting at our local bank. If you are interested in signing up, contact me and I can get you a referal code worth a free $25.

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Just in the past couple of weeks my wife and I have noticed a huge increase in words that Rylan has been saying. Furthermore, he responds to many more words now. Here is a quick list.

Says:
Mama
Dada (rare)
Cookcook (cookie)
Bear
JayJay
Bops (when talking about the Doodlebops)

Responds to:
Where is your water?
Sit in your bumbo.
Give him a hug.
Where's daddy or mommy?
Lay down (we are still working on this but its improving)
He knows each of the words that he speaks so he is quick to respond to them as well.
He knows the word food and will try and will commonly find his bumbo to sit in waiting to eat.
If you ask him to look at something he now will hunt out what you are pointing out.
Will you share?
One of the funniest things that we have recently seem him take on is the fact that he will now laugh if he burps or farts.

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This week began with a trip to Ikea with grandma. There was some big confusion on my grandma's part so she ended up driving to our home rather than Ikea. We had to wait a whole long time while she drove across town. It was boring.

I am told that my chiropractic work will not be necessary soon as I have done so well. I go with my dad once a week for us both to get looked at. Everyone thinks its funny when I get adjusted because I just lay there perfectly still. My dad says I have a very concentrated look. My dad is nearly done as well. He had to go because of his accident that he was recently in. Crazy drivers.

Good part about this week is that my hives are nearly gone. They started going away soon after getting a bit of medicine from the doctor. We unfortunately do not know what caused it though which can be a problem I suppose. The doctor didn't think it was a food allergy though so that is good. I know that my mom has a bunch of food allergies so I really hope that wasn't passed to me.

We stopped into my dads new office the other day. I got to hang out there for a bit and explore all of the new hiding spots. He has his own office now rather than sharing with another person. Now my mom doesn't have to worry about me removing stuff from the other person's desk. It's pretty neat in there. I surprised my dad by drawing him a picture. He now has it showing off for everyone to see.

I think that about covers it for the week. Have a good one.

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We celebrated Valentine's day on Tuesday so that we could beat the rush of traffic to all of the popular dinner places. My mom and dad decided on a French restaurant that they used to frequent. It is a place called La Madeleine, it was really good. They had a couples dinner and dessert but I actually got to eat a bit of it as well. It was yummy.

Yesterday while we were out, my mom wanted to finish her Valentine's day gift for me. They like to make a small gift bag of goodies for me. I certainly couldn't turn it down. They bought me a few cat and dog Valentine related board books. Dad has already started reading them to me and I like looking at the pictures. Very good book choices mom!

The books were nice but let me tell you about what I have been wanting for months and months but never had received. A personal back massager. Every time were are in a store that sells these my dad grabs one and puts it on my back. It tickles but it's fun. My mom decided this was a good time to pick one up for me. Boy is it cool. Both my mom and dad were both giving me massages last night. This may be one of the best gifts ever.

For my mom and dad, I got them a semi peaceful night at the restaurants the past couple of nights. I know that they really appreciate it.

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We saw Rylan give his first real hug on Christmas morning after his grandma had given him a stuffed Little Einstein plush doll. He immediately looked at it, gave it a kiss and hug. It's definitely one of those things that sticks with ya. The best part was that I have it on film.

His hugging went dormant after Christmas but in the past week, we have seen a huge increase. We have been working with him asking him to hug this or that doll and a good portion of the time now he actually does it. Last night we saw him grab a blanket from inside the car and snuggle up with it. This too was a new thing.

One of the things that we have always been looking forward to was the day that Rylan came and wanted to snuggle with us. In the past, he simply couldn't stay still long enough but as time goes on, his snuggling continues to get longer. When he wakes up in the morning, my wife can now pull him into bed and they can lay there together for a bit longer. Definitely some good mother-son bonding time.

The next thing will be teaching him further on how to give kisses. He went through a couple days of doing it on his own but it is a very rare thing these days. Just one more thing to work on.

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Well let me start out with my most significant thing that has happened this week. Starting last week actually, my mom and dad started to notice little spots coming up on my left leg. They didn't have any idea what it could be so we ended up checking it out with the doctor. They thought it was hives but we are still not certain what could have caused it. They have me on a bit of medicine and cream and I think its working. They really don't effect me though because they don't itch or hurt so that's really good.

This last weekend we celebrated my mom's birthday at my grandma's house. She cooked us a delicious lasagna and even got my mom a birthday cake. Boy was it great. I devoured it and impressed everyone on just how much I can eat. My mom got a Mickey Mouse toaster that plays music when its done. That thing is awesome! It even burns Mickey's face onto the toast. How cool is that?

So lets see, I have begun working on some new words. The most improved word of late has been 'cookie'. I do my best and it comes out as cookcook. My mom knows what I'm trying to say though so it does the job. Dad has been reading to me a lot lately which is helping me. I like to learn new things because then everyone gets excited and claps. Of course, then I clap too.

To wrap the week up, we will be going back to Ikea with my grandma. She has never been there so I am excited about showing her. My mom and I really like to think of it as the next best thing to Disneyland. My dad sees it as dollar signs. He's a funny guy. I can't wait until I can sink my teeth into some nice tasty Ikea meatballs. Yummy Yum Yum!

Have a good weekend.

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My wife has been keeping an eye out for a small chair that we could put downstairs for Rylan to sit in while he watches television or just to eat some snacks. We have found some great ones and some that are way to kiddie for me or my wife. I am atleast not a fan of the Elmo, princess or Sesame Street themed cushy chairs that you commonly find at Walmart or similar stores.

Babies'R'Us has always been a great place to find some nice looking chairs but the prices were not something we wanted to pay. We have been looking everywhere for something that works out for us. Ikea also has a few of these types of chairs but again were not something we wanted to pay that much for.

On our recent trip to Ikea however, we happened to see one of the kid chairs in the As-Is section. This is simply the section of Ikea where they sell returned or damaged items. My wife spotted this chair (Tullsta) at only $18. The Ikea worker said that the zipper tab was broken but we figured that wasn't too terrible and we decided to purchase it.

After getting it home and tightening everything down, my wife was reading the bottom of it which has instructions. The instructions clearly state that the zipper tab is purposely not there and that you are supposed to use a paperclip instead. This is so that children have a more difficult time getting it off we assume. We picked up a "damaged" chair that was not in fact damaged at all.

Rylan loves this thing. He immediately helped me when we got home by tightening some screws for the feet. We figure he gets his handy man skills from watching Handy Manny on the Disney channel. He uses this chair all of the time. He will even grab a book, sit in his chair and begin to read it. I think my wife found one hell of a bargain here that should work for a long time.

The chair is basically hard foam that is slip covered so it should work extremely well with 2 children using it. The fabric was certainly not our first choice but for the price, we just couldn't pass it up. Rylan couldn't agree more.

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We have seen in the past Rylan seem to be drawn to some of the television commercials that will pop on from time to time. His latest favorite is the one displayed below. The other day when we were camping out we thought he was asleep and when this commercial came on he rolled over and started pointing at it. It is definitely a sign that he inherited my wife's gene of wanting a zoo in the house. I think I am climbing an up-hill battle. It's two against one and I have another one on the way. Yikes.

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My wife and I decided that this past weekend would be our big push to clean up our home and prepare it for selling. We will be putting it on the market any day now. As any homeowner would know, there is a lot of touch ups that need to be done for a home to sell, we are certainly no exception. We took Saturday painting our walls and evacuating the rest of the day. When we arrived, the paint smell had gone down but there was still a bit more than we figured would be good. We decided to have a camp out down stairs.

We let Rylan stay up as long as he wanted that night in hopes that he would be so tired that he would be able to sleep in a different place other than his normal bed. What we hadn't told him was that he would actually be sleeping on his inflatable sleeping bag that we bought for him a long time ago. When my wife opened up the box to assemble and inflate it for the first time, he was amazed. He couldn't help but stand on the non-inflated bed and proceed to sit on it. After my wife and I got to pumping it up, Rylan helped out and pushed away as well. It amazes us that he really knows what to do and follows along quite well. After a while of Rylan's help, the bed was inflated and again Rylan was amazed.

It didn't take long before Rylan went off to bed after we had put him in his temporary bed. He watched a bit of television and when that got boring, he simply dozed off. Our plan worked out well. He only woke up once for a split second that night. He is such an awesome sleeper.

I think that family room camp outs may be a common thing in our house. It's always nice to change things up a bit. I know that I enjoyed these types of things when I was a kid and it seems that Rylan will as well.

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The other day was my mom's birthday so my grandpa threw a small party for her. We got to eat pizza and even have a Ben and Jerry's ice cream cake. Boy was that good. Me and dad pitched in for a gift this year. It was kind of related to the wrong holiday but we picked her up a Mickey shaped Christmas wreath. I had heard her talking about it a long time ago and since Disneyshopping.com always has good prices in their outlet, we couldn't pass it up.

Last night I had a chance to stay up late. We all sat down and watched Nanny McPhee. It is a pretty good movie. Good enough that I watched almost all of it. I occasionally like to sit down with mom and cuddle while watching a movie or a television show. I know that she likes it a lot as well.

Since my dad was in an accident recently, he has been going to the chiropractor. They have been working on him for a few weeks now and I have been tagging along. The doctor has been working on my neck as they said some of the my disks are not moving like they should be. My mom holds me while he adjusts me and I am just as calm as can be. It's not scary at all. I went when I was very little because I was biting while breastfeeding and they fixed that up. I know my mom appreciated that.

To top the week off, I blew my dads mind last night when we were playing. He was asking me to touch my nose and my eyes and my ears and I did it. So we ended up playing together for a bit just touching our noses. I like when he squeezes his nose and talks funny. My dad always gets a kick out of it when I do the same thing. He says I talk really funny. He's such a joker.

Have a good weekend.

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