34 months!

It's hard to believe that Ryder will be three in two short months!  On the one hand, he is getting so big and developing so fast, and on the other hand it seems like just yesterday he was born!

This was the first Christmas that he really had an idea that something special was happening.  He kept saying all month long that Santa was going to bring him lots of trucks!  On Christmas morning he woke up at his regular time and we had to tell/remind him that it was Christmas and Santa had come last night.  Santa brought him a table with a track set that had lots of cars and trains and other little parts for the scene.  It was a HUGE hit and he didn't even really want to open his other presents.  He and Vivien have been playing with that and all of the other new toys ever since.  The only downside to Christmas was that Ryder didn't understand that it would be over and that Santa wouldn't be bringing him new toys every night!

He is definitely in a "boundary pushing" phase.  The good news is that he knows what is right and what is wrong; the bad news is that knowledge does not inform his choices yet!    Right now, when the moment passes, he is pretty good about giving "please forgive me" kisses.  Usually it just takes a few minutes of freaking out before he moves on to something new.

This month Ryder hit a milestone that he probably wouldn't have minded skipping.  He had his first real sickness and threw up, while on my lap of course.  He was down for the count for two straight days.  In fact, he was only out of my sight for about 45 minutes for those 48 hours!  He spent most of the time on the couch, sleeping or watching Curious George or Bob the Builder.  It snowed that first day and he wasn't even a little bit interested in it!  The poor boy really must have felt miserable.

Ever since my maternity leave, Ryder has been even more attached to me than ever.  I don't know if the vacation jump-started that or what, but he has been very snuggly lately.  He always wants me to be with him and gets upset when I leave, plus he has been cuddling a lot.  He wants to sit on my chair when we eat and will walk over and hug my leg, especially if I'm holding Vivien.  That being said, he still never minds when I leave for work in the morning and say good-bye to him at my mom's!

Enjoying his apple

What a face

Just chilling, eating his apple

Goofing around

Getting a little tired of this photo shoot

A little break on the hippity hop cheered him right up

13 months!

Vivi's biggest milestone this month is drinking milk from a bottle!  I've been back to work for over 4 months and she is finally drinking from a bottle.  Until now all she would take were a few sips of water from a bottle, but now she's drinking the whole day's milk from a bottle.  Now we have to think about transitioning her to a sippy cup!

In addition to the 4 top teeth and 2 bottom teeth that are firmly established, a least one more bottom tooth, maybe 2 have poked through.  With all those teeth, she is very good now at biting her food and pretty much only eats fingers foods.  The only exception to that is yogurt or cereal with milk and I can tell she's itching to get that spoon in her own hand!  For the past couple of months, Vivien's appetite has been bigger than Ryder's!  She eats as much and occasionally more than he does.  She has been wolfing down pancakes and potatoes, plus all the clementines I will give her.

Vivien has a few words down pat now and is making new babbling sounds all the time.  She clearly says "mama" and "dada," as well as "bye-bye" and "all done."  Every morning when I leave her at my mom's she says "bye-bye" to me; once she sees me near the door she says it, sometimes even before I say "bye."  We're pretty sure that she is also saying "cat" and "no" now too. Mostly she says "no" to Ryder when he is pushing her or grabbing things from her- its pretty funny.

She is a super speedy crawler now, but she is ready to walk, even if her legs aren't quite there yet. She loves walking holding onto things or someone's hands and has just started trying to stand up on her own.  She has pushed herself up and away from things and been upright for a couple of seconds so far.

She and Ryder both have been very busy playing with all the new toys that they got for Christmas.  She loves all the musical toys and she really loves to play with whatever Ryder is playing with, not that he always appreciates that.  She still likes to be held a lot, especially if she's sick, hungry or tired, but she is usually happy to play on her own with her toys and Ryder for much longer now.

Much to everyone's relief, Vivien now sleeps through the night almost every night!  She goes to be between 6;30 and 7pm and sleeps 12 straight hours or until I wake her up.  She goes down to bed very nicely now with almost no crying and has settled into a 2 nap a day schedule with almost no crying then either.  We are all very happy to be getting more sleep!

Playing the triangle!

What a happy baby!

Oops, Ryder left his snack out and now Vivi is going to eat it!

Hey Mom, I lost a shoe!

Crawling around

Silly surprised face!

Ryder coaxed this beautiful smile out of her!