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