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

Another Sunset Picnic

We had another sunset picnic, this time at Good Harbor beach.  Something about August really lights a fire under your feet to enjoy everything summer has to offer before it's too late!

Playing with his ball at the beach

Lots of pink in the sky tonight- is this sky blue pink?

Our picnic setup