9 Months!

December 2013

Ryder's first Thanksgiving was a big success- he got to eat dinner with everybody!  He had mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing and a little turkey, all of which he seemed to enjoy.  He is having a little more variety in his day to day meals too, although not as much as I  had figured, since I make dinner after he goes to bed.  He has had turkey and ham and now he can have some breads, so he's had pumpkin bread and some O cereals.  He practices with his spoon every day, so someday I will trust him with food on it- all he can have now is cereal that sticks to the spoon.

He is a crawling machine and cruises around the house at top speed now.  He is interested in everything, so he is always taking off after something; a noise he heard, some light he sees or a cat. The cats are onto him though, and go in the other direction the minute they see him coming to hug and kiss them.  He can scoot back into a sitting position now too.

Sometime this past month, Ryder decided his bedtime should be around 5:30 and on weekends/vacations when I don't have to get him up, he will sleep 14 hours!  He still stirs in the night, but doesn't really wake up unless something is really bothering him.  The universe is making up for the fact that he almost never slept more than 90 minutes for the first month or so home.

He is making a lot more noises now.  He is still saying lots of consonant sounds, dada, mama, etc... and he also babbles to himself when he is playing or in his crib.  He intermittently responds to his name and usually responds to 'kitty."  In fact if you ask him "where is... " he will find the baby, the kitty and daddy pretty consistently.  

Oh you want me to sit up and take a picture?  I hope you have something to keep me entertained!

 Why yes, this snowman tastes delicious!

Sorry Mom, me and the snowman have gotta go.

8 Months!

November 2013

Another month has passed in a blur of working full-time, laundry, dinners, hugs and kisses.  It seems like I finish the dishes just in time to go to bed each day!  Despite the busy-ness, Ryder keeps growing and doing new things- no slowing him down!

Ryder is still sleeping well, he wakes me up but he doesn't wake up himself much.  He's still pretty good at falling asleep at night, but he doesn't much like naps unless he's really really really tired. Otherwise he seems to do 20-30 minutes quickies.

He's eating more foods, we added some cereals and baby wafers.  This month he gets to eat table food, so the variety will increase a lot.  He really loves the oatmeal and scarfs it down. 

He loves to play with his toys now, but he really loves to play with things that aren't toys: papers, stuff he finds around and most of all the phones/computers.  Perfect!  He goes crazy in his jumper now- bouncing up and down like a mad man.  He can sit up perfectly and can push himself up without too much problem.  He also started crawling- taking a couple of steps first and then quickly moving to take over the house.  Big doings around here!  As usual he is all smiles and enjoys (almost) everything.

He looks like he's sitting up, but he's on the move.

Got into the position, tongue hanging out.

On the move!

He went from these few steps to owning the downstairs!

7 Months!

October 2013

I don't know how it's happened, but another month has gone by!  Ryder keeps getting bigger and bigger, right before our eyes.  He is making progress by leaps and bounds and it seems like every day he is doing something new and exciting.

At 6 months (ish) Ryder moved into his own bedroom and that was a smooth transition.  I am definitely waking up less each night, some nights it's even zero times!  Love those nights.  He seems to have no trouble falling asleep in his new room, so that's helpful.  Until he moved into his own room, we let him sleep downstairs with us until we were ready to go to bed.  Now he just rolls over, hugs his friends and listen to his seahorse play him music til he falls asleep most nights.

He also started solid foods at 6 months.  It took him about 4 tries over the course of a school week to get the hang of it, but the fourth time we fed him sweet potatoes he gobbled it down.  We have added apples, pears and peas.  Ryder is still unsure of the peas!  He gets some fruit/veggies for breakfast and for dinner so far.

Ryder has nearly mastered sitting up, with only the occasional fall forward.  Now he can sit up and play while we take care of things around the house.  He can now creep backwards in addition to turning himself every which way.  This past week he has started getting up onto his knees and rocking back and forth, so crawling should be coming soon.  He can pick up his binky and pop it into his mouth no problem, as well as hold his small bottles to feed himself.  He has way more manual dexterity and wants to touch and grab everything he can and pop it into his mouth.  He smiles so much and is interested in everything; it's so much fun!

Sitting straight up!

Trying to eat his ball

Oh those feet are interesting

6 months!

September 2013

This month Janda and I went back to work, so Ryder spends his days with his grandmothers.  Luckily for everyone it was a pretty smooth transition.  He is still sleeping very well at night.  He's actually going to bed earlier on week nights since we get up earlier.  So far he still sleeps in on the weekends, luckily.  Plenty of snuggle time!

He still doesn't sit up on his own, but he sits up against things well.  He realized that he can reach his feet and spends a lot of time holding them and trying to shove them in his mouth. He loves to roll over now and does upward facing dogs to look around the room.  He's trying like mad to crawl, but so far can only do 360's.  He really really loves to stand and try to walk.  He can't pull himself up, but if you stand him up he holds himself up on stuff.

He plays a lot more with his toys now, moving them around in his hands and trying to eat them.  He giggles when you play peek a boo and when you snuzzle his belly.  One of his favorite activities is "zombie baby," where he tries to eat my entire face all the while with a devilish grin!  He also makes tons of noises now.  Lots of squeaking, giggling, gurgling and the occasional consonant sound.  We're pretty sure he accidentally said "oh yeah" one day!

Just chillin'

Always smiling!

Getting mobile

21 Days of Summer : 16-21

Day 16: Sushi night with a bunch of friends.  Ryder slept through this after he got cuddles from everyone!

Day 17: We went to Boston for a check up and had a burrito and bottle picnic on the Cambridge side of the Charles River.

Day 18: Meat laden cookout that Ryder slept through!

Day 19: Family walk around my favorite new route.

Day 20: Stroll along the boulevard.

Day 21:  Spent the day snuggling the little man and making him smile!

5 months old!

August 2013

Well, another month has flown by!  Unfortunately Janda and I have to go back to school next week, so I will no longer be spending all my days with Ryder.  :(

This month we moved Ryder into his crib and that upset his sleep routine a bit!  He is still falling asleep pretty well, but he has been waking up a bit at night.  So far putting a little light on and finding him his binky takes care of it.  Sometime soon (or not!) he'll be moving into his own room, and we'll see if that disrupts his sleep routine again!

He is sitting up more, not quite on his own yet, but he's getting there.  He sits up in the corner of the couch and plays with his toys for a while before he falls to the side and ends up chilling on his stomach.  He learned to roll over reliably this month, but I guess he also learned that he doesn't like it, because he rarely does it anymore.

He is much more into playing now.  He laughs and giggles when Janda and I play games with him, but he can also entertain himself.  He rolls around on the floor and makes noises and giggles to himself. He grabs anything within arms reach and pulls it onto his face, which eventually results in panic, although he now realizes that that can be a game too!  He also loves to play with the baby in the mirror.

Of course, he is still getting bigger and bigger.  Pretty soon he'll be holding his own bottles and eating solid foods and before we know it he'll be walking and talking!

I can sit up!

Not for long!

21 Days of Summer : Days 13-15

Day 13: We hit the sandbar at low tide.  He's getting used to the river.

Day 14: We had a little cookout and Ryder got to hang out with his 10 month old cousin.

Day 15:  Between having company all weekend and Janda teaching a teacher training, all we did was hang out at home together.  Not exciting, but at least we were together

21 Days of Summer : 7-12

Day 7: We went down to the river in the morning at mid tide.

Day 8: We went down to the river at high tide to jump off the rocks.

Day 9: We had a cookout with some friends (and stayed out til midnight on a weeknight!)

Day 10: After dinner we hung out on the couch and read- Janda had a climbing magazine and I got a new X-Men Omnibus with a birthday gift certificate.

Day 11: We took a walk to the end of the point at sunset.

Day 12: Today we had a nap en masse.  Definitely something we won't have time for in the school year!

The Garden is Going

In spite of my lack of constant care, the garden is still going strong.  The string beans have produced like crazy, we have a great crop of kale and corn and the tomatoes have taken over, completely covering the carrots and beets!  I'm moderately happy with the amount of basil we have, but once again, the cilantro is disappointing.  Maybe I"m doing something wrong?  My cucumbers are weird this year, the three plants I grew from seed are producing slightly white cukes and the one I bought from the garden center is producing yellow ones!  Not so good.

The sprawl

Mr. Stripey

A baby cucumber

Lots of kale

A good days' harvest

I'm already planning for next year though, since I can do that while inside holding a baby!

21 Days of Summer 4-6

Day 4: Our family activity was soothing and bathing a crying baby!  Not quite what we planned!

 A happier bath day!

Day 5: Rainy day, so we did cookies and a movie.

Day 6: We had a hot dog cookout on the patio.

21 Days of Summer 1-3

Day 1 : We walked down to our friend's house for dinner after dark.

Day 2 : We walked down to the river after sunset.

Day 3 : We watched the sun set.

21 Days of Summer

Since we are now in waning days of summer, I have concocted a plan called the 21 Days of Summer. For the next 21 days, until we go back to school, each day Janda, Ryder and I will do one thing in honor of summer.  We all must do it together and we cannot repeat any activity.  They don't all have to be outdoor activities, but they have to be something will be less likely to happen during the school year.  Some activities will be big events and some will take 5 minutes- but each day we'll do one together and savor the lingering moments of summer.

                                                            Photos from a previous August night