15 months!

Ryder is now an experienced runner and can climb everywhere.  He can get himself up on the couch, at which point he jumps all over the place and throws himself into the pile of blankets.  He loves to go outside and explore.  He takes off down the street every chance he gets!  He really enjoys going to the beach this summer and doesn't seem to mind the water, although he freaks out when he falls in.

He is all about playing with his toys.  He picks up just about anything and pretends that it is a phone and he "talks" into it and then hands it off to me and Janda so we can talk too.  He will endlessly chase his cars back and forth across the room and now can push them himself very well. He can stack up his blocks now, all on his own.  He loves to have books read to him; he brings a book over, sits down next to/on top of us and waits.

He still isn't really talking, although he's making strings of sounds that I imagine he thinks we sound like when we talk.  He understands almost everything we say to him now.  If we tell him it's time to go outside, he will go get his shoes and sit and wait for someone to put them on.  Then he stands by the gate with his arms up until we bring him over and then goes over to the door and waits to go play.  If he wants to go outside, he will bring us his shoes and our shoes- which doesn't always mean that we go outside, much to his dismay.

He is still a great eater and sleeper.  He realized that I pick the strawberries in the garden and tries to pick them for himself.  He picked a white one and promptly spit it out!  He will follow me around the patch, snagging berries from the bucket and making a huge mess.

All the smiling photos were blurry!  Bummer.

He can get right up on that couch now.

And then he does all kinds of silly stuff.