11 Months and Counting

It has been way too long since I’ve updated this blog, but as life goes this time of year, it has been super busy. We had our first Halloween with Ryker, and it was super fun. We had a Halloween party complete with a Spooky House for kids. Apparently it was scarier than I realized because I think a couple of the littler kids cried. Ooops. All in all though it was fun. I loved being able to dress all of us up. Adam was a hunky Hercules, I was Medusa, and Ryker was a dragon. He was so darn cute! My sister Kelly was Cat in the Hat and Ryker kept pulling his dragon head over his face so he wouldn’t have to look at her. So funny.

Then there was Thanksgiving, which we enjoyed with my mom and dad and Adam’s Grandma Grace. It was nice to just relax and hang out with family. Ryker of course was the center of attention as always. He loved the mashed potatoes, stuffing, and one bite of sweet potato casserole I allowed him. Also, in November, Ryker got his first ever hair cut from his awesome aunt Monica, so cute! He kept trying to look at the clippers, so poor Monica had to give a hair cut to one squirmy baby, but she did an awesome job!

Now we’ve moved into the wonderful Christmas season and it’s so fun having Ryker during this time of the year especially! We went to the Festival of Trees and he was mesmerized by all of the Christmas trees and Gingerbread Lane, constantly trying to reach out and grab everything. We got our tree up at home, but in order to protect the tree, but more importantly Ryker from himself pulling the tree on top of him, we put it on a table in a corner and then blocked it with a chest and couch so it’s just barely out of his reach. He still loves to look at when all the lights are on and constantly tries hard to reach for the decorations.

Ryker, as always, is the light of our lives. He is so mobile and independent, he’s becoming quite the handful. Here’s a list of things Ryker loves to do these days:
• Opening drawers and cupboards and unloading the contents
• Pushing chairs around and using them as a walker
• Climbing all over Shady like she’s a hill and he has to be king of the hill
• Feeding the dogs from his high chair. He takes a bite then he throws a bite down to the dogs
• Sticking toys in his mouth while he crawls around so he can take them with him without the toy getting in his way while crawling. I think he learned this from the dogs..
• Speed crawling down the hall and trying to make it into the dog room and out the dog door before Mom or Dad can catch him (so far he’s only made it part way into the dog door, but never outside)
• Dropping toys and saying “Uh, oh.” Or saying “uh, oh” and then dropping his toy.
• Reading books and then promptly eating them
• Pulling Mom’s hair
• Playing with all of his Grandmas and Grandpas (2 great grandmas, 2 grandmas, and 2 grandpas all on the same street)
• Pushing a ball around the room and chasing after it
• Sticking everything possible into his mouth, except he still isn’t much of an eater and is only in the 3 percentile, go figure
• Playing with Mom’s cell phone and any remote control he can get his hands on
• Being outside. Every time I open a door to outside he speed crawls over there to try and make it out the door
• Holding on to anything semi-stable and walking as much as possible. He’ll be walking on his own before we know it!

For fun, pictures of the last couple months

My little handful

Now that Ryker is crawling like a pro, and pulling himself up to standing position all the time, and starting to walk while hanging onto things, he is becoming quite the handful. He now likes to pull himself up on the changing table (it has 3 shelves, two beneath the actual changing station so Ryker can reach those) and then unload all of the diapers and spare clothes, and anything else he can reach. In his bedroom he likes to open the dresser drawers and pull everything out. And now, he has discovered the wood burning stove in our place and has quickly decided that is his new favorite place to play (and make Mommy nervous). See how happy he is playing there:

Ryker update

Ryker is now 9 and a half months old! I can't believe how time flies! At his 9 month appointment he was 15 pounds 14 ounces, in the one percentile! He is a tiny little boy, but I have to admit, I love it! I know he'll catch up someday, but what he lacks in size he makes up in strength and personality. He crawls (more like an army man, but crawling nonetheless), and pulls himself up to stand, and just this week he started walking by holding onto the couch and walking along. He chases the dogs, pulls their tails, laughs when they lick him, feeds them food from his high chair, and overall just loves the dogs. He feeds himself and likes to think he's a big boy now and doesn't need Mommy or Daddy to feed him. Occasionally he decides he's too big for a bottle and will only drink from a sippy cup. He loves to read books, but he equally loves to eat the books, so that can make story time difficult at times. He's a huge tease! He thinks it's hilarious to pull Mommy and Daddy's hair. He's is so wiggly! We have to distract him with toys or bottles when we change his diaper or he decides he's going to get up and crawl away.

He just made it last week to 16 pounds 1 ounce and I was way excited! He's still in 6 months size clothes and size 2 diapers. He's healthy at the moment and I hope it stays that way. He has always had a weak immune system, but his doctor assures me that will make him stronger in the future.

I'm so excited for Halloween! I haven't made a final decision on costumes yet, but you better believe it will be good!

Cruise

A week and a half after Ryker and I got home from Texas, I turned around and flew back to Texas to head out on a 5 day cruise with Jen, Brooke, and her friend Julie. We went to Cozumel, Mexico. It was fun stuff, although it was really hard for me to leave Ryker. He had his grandma Dalton during the day and then Daddy at night and on the weekend, so I knew he was well taken care of, but I sure did miss him a lot! Although, it was nice for me to take a break and have some fun with the girls. I'm glad I was able to spend more time with Jen since I usually have to go so long in between visits. Here's a pic from the cruise.

September Texas visit

In the beginning of September Ryker and I flew to Texas to help my sister Jen out for 16 days while she recovered from back surgery. It was nice to spend time with my sister and her family because we rarely get to see them. The bummer was that two days after we got there Ryker got super sick and spent the next 9 days with diarrhea and vomiting. We didn't know it until after the fact, but he had gotten sick from the recalled Similac formula (of course this happens to be the time there's a problem with formula, a month after I stop breastfeeding). Anyway, in the end it all turned out okay, even though Ryker lost some weight. When he was not sick, he has fun playing with his aunt, uncle, cousins, and their cute dog Daisy. Here are a couple pics Jen took with Ryker and their awesome family.




(By the way, doesn't Jen look awesome! You'd never know looking at her that she just had major surgery!)

A little late, but Triathlon pics from this summer

I didn't do a very good job of taking pics of my triathlons this summer, but my friend Michelle who was with me at every tri except one, took some. Here are a few pics thanks to her. As a recap, I did the Daybreak tri in May, the Saratoga Springs tri in June, the Rockcliff tri in June, and the Stansbury tri in July. I took third in my group at Daybreak, fifth at Saratoga Springs, fourth at Rockcliff, and second at Stansbury. I would have done more, but I unfortunately received an injury in my right side that now prevents me from running. The docs are working on trying to get this fixed so I can run again (I still have severe stabbing pain in my right side anytime my body is josteled around, like in running), but hopefully I can get back in the tri game soon. In the meantime, here are a few pics.

East Canyon in August

The end of August we did Adam's family's annual reunion at the East Canyon Resort. It was just two weeks after we got home from Mexico. It was fun! This time when we went 4-Wheeling I actually didn't get scared at all. It's amazing how much confidence I now have from doing triathlons over the summer. Anyway, I forgot to use my camera most of the time, but here are a few pics I took. On the Sunday morning, Adam, Ryker, and I went on a hike and then listened to conference talks on our ipod. It was great!

Our Sunday Morning Hike




Ryker liked to play peek-a-boo during the hike


After a while he fell asleep



And this is when we got home. Ryker was happy to be home playing with his toys :)

Finally, Mexico Pics

Here are a few pics from the trip to Mexico Adam and I took in August

Travel Log

From August 9th through the 16th Adam and I went to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. We left Ryker home with Grandma Dalton and Aunt Julie. It was really hard to leave my sweet little boy, but Adam and I REALLY needed a vacation. And I knew Ryker was in good hands, so we didn't feel too guilty about leaving him.

Adam and I had a great time in Mexico. On the way there we got stuck in the Dallas airport while our plane was being fixed. We finally left 2 and a half hours late, but at least we made it to Mexico safely. By the time we got to our hotel it was super late and we just crashed. The next day we went to the beach, which was out our back door, and went parasailing and kayaking. The parasailing was more peaceful then it was anything else, but we were up in the air flying behind the boat for exactly 12 minutes. That was much longer than when I went parasailing in Hawaii 5 years ago. The kayaking was fun to do in the ocean, which was a new experience from doing it in a river in Provo. It was a little more physically challenging, but fun.

Our next day we went a did an "Outdoor Adventure" through Vallerta Adventures." If you ever go there, we HIGHLY recommend this adventure. It was our best day of the vacation. We took a speed boat to an island. Then a hummer type truck up half the mountain. Then mules up the other half the mountain. Then we hiked the rest of the way to a zip line platform. The first zip line was 300 meters long (985 feet) and 200 meters high (about 650 feet). From there we did a series of zip lines until we got to the top of a huge, over flowing waterfall. From there we repelled straight down the rock, right next to (or in my case, I ended up under the waterfall halfway down) the waterfall. Then there we crossed rope bridges, more zip lines, more repelling, and then finished it off with hiking, in which we crossed some rivers on foot. There were a couple of times where even Adam go nervous throughout this adventure, but it was the funnest day either one of us have ever had in our life!

Next day we went snorkeling and played on the beach. The snorkeling was okay, but the scuba divers said they saw a lot of variety on their dives, whereas I didn't think we saw a tone of variety in our snorkeling. We took a catamaran out to an island to do the snorkeling and while the catamaran was just sitting there I started getting a little motion sickness, so I got my own goggles I use for racing and jumped in the ocean just to do some freestyle swimming until it was time to go. When we got back we went to downtown Puerto Vallarta and walked around for a few hours, got a meal, and even checked out their local Walmart. :)

Next day we went horseback riding in the Sierra Madre mountains for 4 hours. This was super fun! I wouldn't recommend it if you've never ridden a horse before, but if you have and you're okay with risk, it was way fun. We went through some treacherous terrain and even crossed rivers on horseback. In fact, one lady almost fell off her horse in the middle of the river. One time we were crossing a ditch/stream and Adam's horse decided he was not going in the ditch, so he backed up and full on leaped. The guide calmly said to Adam a few seconds before, oh he doesn't like to cross here so he's going to jump. Adam grabbed on tight just in time to go flying through the air on his horse. Some of the trail we went on was really steep, parts I wouldn't even be comfortable walking down by myself, but the horses did great. I actually felt safer on the horse than if I was trying to do it alone. At the end of the day they made us an authentic Mexican lunch and it was the best meal we had the whole time. Great day!

On our final day we relaxed at the resort during the day and then in the evening we took a catamaran to an island to see the show Rhythms of the Night. It was a Mexican story that dated back thousands of years. It was really beautiful. Then they gave us an incredible dinner by candlelight and we got to walk around the island and then chill in hammocks right off the water until it was time to go back. On the way back our catamaran crew did a hilarious show, followed by dancing for the passengers. It was fun.

Overall it was a super fun trip, and as long as we were staying busy I did okay with missing Ryker, but every night when we went to bed I had to look at pictures of him. Though it was a fun trip, I was happy to come home to my baby.

We didn't do a very good job of taking pictures, but we did take some. Once I get them downloaded on the computer I'll post them.

7 Months

Ryker turned 7 months old on Thursday the 29th.

(This was taken while we were visiting family in Alabama)

I can't believe how quickly time flies! I went to the dentist on Thursday and I said to the dental assistant, I just had a baby. She asked how old he was and I said, 7 months old today. Wow, I "just" had a baby 7 months ago. And then her and I busted out laughing. I guess I can't say I "just" had a baby anymore. He's now closer to 1 year old than to newborn. Crazy!

No new major milestones this month, but he is rolling all over the place still. I'll lay him on a queen size blanket and then go to the other side of it and tell him to come to me and he'll happily roll his way over to me and then look so triumphant when he makes it. I try to get him to crawl or scoot to me, but just ends up rolling to me. He has started scooting a little, but mostly rolling. He also sits up by himself for a few seconds, but then he usually falls over. We're working on it still.

A couple things happened with me and Adam this month. I completed my 4th triathlon on July 24th and took second place in my division. Yeah go me! I actually had a HORRIBLE week that week, so when I went to the triathlon I tried to take all of my stress and anxiety out there and it must have worked since I had my best time ever, and I placed.

Adam got a certificate in the mail, he made the Dean's List at UVU. That's right folks, he's a smart cookie! He managed to make the Dean's List on his first semester back in school while working full time, going to school full time, and having a brand new baby. Pretty impressive I think.

Anyway, here are some fun pictures from this month.

Taking a nap with Mommy


We babysit our niece for a few days. This was after Adam had fed both kids. Notice the food everywhere, but the happy faces on the kids :)


The family at Livy's baptism


Us at the Coke Museum. Ryker slept through a lot of it.


More of the Coke Museum with my nieces



The cool Coke bottles

How the heck did he do that?

Before I write this I must warn you, it is not for the weak stomach folks. So if you get grossed out easily, probably want to skip this one.

Quick post about a funny, gross thing Ryker did yesterday. He was in his new favorite toy (the jumping thing you hang up in a door way) happily playing away. Then he started getting a little fussy, so I went over there to check it out and before I reached him, I smelled the problem (since he started eating solids his poop is much stinkier). When I got to him I looked on the floor and saw a pile of orange baby poop (he had sweet potatoes for breakfast). I quickly grabbed him out of his jumper before he could jump in the poop some more and smear it all over himself and the floor. When I pulled him out I fully expected to see poop all over the seat, his onsie, and his diaper. I put him on the changing table and buckled him in so I could check out the damage, but I was totally surprised by what I found. Somehow Ryker managed to poop out of the side of his diaper, completely missing his onsie and the jumper seat, only getting a tiny bit on his diaper. I have no idea how he managed that! He must have pooped mid jump or at the end of his jump and it squirted out the side, onto the floor without hitting anything else. And then he didn't want to jump in it and managed to jump all around it, only getting a tiny bit on his toes. Whew, that was lucky. Dodged the bullet there!

Anyway, I think it's pretty funny that the first time I had to clean poop off of the carpet it was from my son, not my dogs. Go figure.

Good news, it didn't stain the carpet.

And for those of you that aren't grossed out yet, I couldn't resist taking a picture of the event. Just don't scroll down if you don't want to see it.

Ryker's Dr Appointment

Ryker had his 6 month doctor appointment today and it was not the most pleasant thing in the world. He has a GREAT pediatrician, so that wasn't the problem. Ryker apparently has a lot of hair in his ears (for a baby) and that is why he is accumulating a lot of ear wax. The poor doctor ( Dr. Tew) had to use a tiny ear tool to pull wax out of Ryker's ear because it was so clogged with wax he couldn't see into it. Once Dr. Tew got the wax out he was able to see that poor Ryker has an ear infection.

Another interesting thing Dr. Tew found is that what I thought was a top molar or canine tooth, is actually a cyst. Apparently it's pretty common for babies to get cysts in their mouth. Anyway, Ryker does now have two bottom teeth that look perfect, so that's good.

Our doctor appointment finished up with Ryker getting a couple shots. He was already pretty mad by that point because of the whole digging wax out of his ear thing, so by the time we left, I had one unhappy baby. The only good thing is that by the time we got home from picking up his anitbiotic prescription he wore himself out and has been sleeping ever since. I hope he feels better when he wakes up. Poor little guy.

On a good note, even with an ear infection and teething, he's overall a pretty happy kid. Just for fun here's a cute picture of him from this morning.


By the way, he is still a tiny baby and measures in at the 3 percentile in weight and head size. He weighs 14 pounds 5 ounces. His height is in the 25 percentile. He is now 26 inches long. Looks like I'm going to have a tall skinny boy. :)

6 months

I’m two weeks late on this post, but that’s because we have been on the road traveling. Anyway, Ryker learned and tried some new things this month (although some of these were just in the last two weeks).

He discovered his toes and how fun they are to play with!


He learned it’s fun to ride on Daddy’s shoulders.


He learned he prefers to hold his own bottle and feed himself.


He learned Daddy is still one of his favorite beds.


He learned he still small enough to fit in a bathroom sink (ok, so really Mommy learned that when trying to figure out where to give him a bath while out of state visiting the Hiatt family).


He flew on a plane for the first time.

(This was a cool certificate Southwest gives to kids flying for the first time. We got this on the way home, so technically this was his second time flying, but close enough.)

(It's hard to see, but we were actually on a Southwest plane in this picture)

He visited 5 new states (Nevada, Alabama, Georgia, Texas, and New Mexico). We flew to Alabama to go visit my sister April Hiatt’s family and be there for Livy’s baptism. On the way there we flew from SLC to Las Vegas. Then Vegas to Alabama. While there we drove to Atlanta, Georgia to visit the Coke factory (more on that later). Then on the way home we flew from Alabama to Houston, Texas to Albuquerque, New Mexico, and finally back to SLC.

(on the road in Alabama)

He met his Hiatt cousins for the first time and learned he sure loves them! Kiera even makes a great bed!


He also learned how to roll across and around the room in record time, and he’s really enjoying his new found mobility!


He learned he loves his new jumping toy! First time we put him in it he squealed with glee and jumped for 40 minutes straight.


He began eating solids. Bananas are his favorite, closely followed by sweet potatoes.



He learned that even though he likes eating solids, watching the dogs is still more interesting than eating.


He learned that if he's not careful (and if Mommy's not fast enough) he may end up with "help" getting that pesky food off of his face while admiring the dogs. Naughty Shady.



And finally, he cut his first tooth! I haven't been able to get a picture yet because that makes him very mad (his first tooth was on the top left. It's either a canine or a molar, weird. His second tooth made it's appearance yesterday and it's a normal bottom front tooth.)