Dear Ryan (23 months)

Dear Ryan (22 months)

a little late...but better late than never :)

Dear Ryan (21 months)

Dear Ryan, 20 months

So I never got around to finishing his 19 month post and to avoid that happening again I thought I would make it a bit simpler....I think next letter will be at 2 years! WoW!

Dear Ryan (15 months)

Little man is 15 months today! (October 24th)

Giddy up cowboy! Biggest news this past month is that you started WALKING! That's right, no hands - full on walking! Yee-haw! With that being said you are still a huge fan of crawling and walking with support...love my little cowboy!

Routine:
Not much has changed on the routine since last month. You seem to love your routine and so do we. One happy family!

Meals/Solids:
All is well on the eating front as well. One of your new favorite things to eat is the chicken salad from Whole Foods. It's a little random but you just love it. You also are a huge fan of yogurt covered raisins. Another favorite that you just discovered is KETCHUP - yum yum yum! Apparently your dad was also a huge fan of ketchup growing up - thats how Grandma got him to eat his green beans!

Development/Milestones
Walking!
You are also working hard on some new teeth and we can't wait for them to get in. Your bottom left one popped though (Mommy first saw it when we got back from Houston) but when we went in for you 15 month appointment it was gone! Dr. Neely said that sometimes happens and it has to recut its way back up - gee wiz. Anyhow, we also can see that your molars are about to come through as well.

Firsts
You had your first weekend away from us (mommy and daddy). Grandma & Grandpa watched you Thursday and Friday and then Yia Yia and Papu came in town to watch you over the weekend. You did great and had a lot of fun with them. Mommy and daddy were so happy to see you when we got back from our trip.

Sizes:
Weight: 21lbs 3 oz - 8%
Height: 30.5 inches - 30%
Clothes: 12-18months
Shoes: thinking 5!?! He grew out of his 4s so we are headed to the mall tomorrow!
Teeth: Four top front teeth, two on bottom. NEW: bottom left (October 4th)

Words:
Da - Dad
Mooooma - Mom
Ba - Bob or Dog, sometimes Ball, Book or Bubbles
Uh oh - uh oh

Love my boys!

Random notes:
You LOVE turning on your noise machine. It entertains you for quite a while. Sometimes you walk over to your machine, turn it on then head over to your crib and grab your sleep sheep to turn on. So silly!

You are a fan of reaching up. You love to reach for door handles and anything else that is out of reach - its really cute to see you try.

Love you bunches! Love, Mommy!

Dear Ryan (14 months)

Little BUG -

You turned 14 months today little man (well, four days ago)! So what's new?

Your Routine: 

You wake up around 7:15 in the morning and your dad usually goes to get you (since he’s already up). You guys share a bowl of cheerios on the bed while I wake up. You usually search for Bob and are thrilled when he pokes out from under the covers. Once mommy is up we head to the living room where you have some yogurt (sometimes more cheerios with it) and watch a little bit of the Today Show. 

At 8am (or 8:30 depending on the day) we meet Stacey and Jack to go on our walk. You love going on our morning walk and on days when we don’t you get a little angry. I know if you could talk you would be saying “Mommy LETS WALK”!

Our days are usually filled with activities, play dates, and errands. Now we always try and make it home for your nap. Since you only do one a day it important for you to get a good one in your crib. I try to get you down around 12:30 - sometimes its easy, and sometimes there is some screaming. You typically nap for around two hours and have been known to hit almost three, but that is pretty rare. 

In the evening you have dinner around 5:30 or 6:00, which is before dad gets home. Most of the time you are done and ready to give daddy a big greeting. You usually give our a BIG squeal when you hear him coming - its so cute and your daddy loves it. Your greeting wrapped up with Bob’s greeting makes coming home pretty special!

We give you a bath every night because you love it plus it also helps your calm down. After bath time you read some books, hang out and then hit the hay around 7:30ish. 

Meals/Solids:

You eat like a little champ but the one thing you absolutely LOVE is mac n’ cheese. Goodness gracious - and you are particular, you like Kraft the best. I try and give you the Annie’s Organic but you know the difference. Oh well...

I also rediscovered the squishy food pouches that I use to give you when you were younger. They are great now because they are an easy way for you to get your veggies AND you also like to hold them and feed yourself - score one for mommy!

Development/Milestones:

We got rid of your night bottle (the last one! yay!) for good this month. You really didn’t even seem to mind (I think it was harder for your dad to give it up than you!). Now you chug a little bit of milk from your sippy cup then sigh and collapse on either my or your dad shoulder. It’s adorable. 

I think your official first word is “Uh-oh” ...either that or “Bob”. You have been saying Bob for a while but you tend to say it even when he isn’t around, so I am not so sure. The “uh-oh” thing is on purpose and when you drop something. I also think that you are saying Dad now.....hello, what about mommy? :)

You like to hand me everything which is super cute. You also are really intrigued by putting caps on things and taking them off. 

Sometimes you bite - yes, that’s right - a little vampire. I am not sure if it is going to be an issue or not but you are pretty deliberate about it. Whenever I (or your dad) tell you “No” you take a chunk out of our hands. The first time was at dinner and you were trying to stand up in your high chair. You dad told you NO and had his hand there to keep you in the chair and you looked at him then opened up your mouth and bit him! It was shocking...and painful! You have done this to me a few times but hopefully you will learn it is not acceptable. 

Firsts:

You started Mother’s Day Out this month and it was a little bit of an adjustment. You have never had separation anxiety before but I think you had a little case of it - luckily it didn’t last long. Now you love it when you see your teachers and you reach out for them when they take you in the morning!

You starting standing up all by yourself this month but you really don’t do it all that much. 

You learned how to slide down your slide in the backyard - and you LOVE it!

Sizes:

Weight: Guessing 20-21lbs?

Clothes: 12-18 months

Shoes: size 4
Teeth: Four top front teeth & two bottom front

Likes:

Pretend sneezes

Peek-a-boo

Music class

Mr. Barry & his guitar

Balls

Bubbles

Playing outside

Books

Shakers

Thomas the Train scooter

Other random notes:

I always forget to mention how you twirl your hair when you are tired. That’s how we know when you are about to fall asleep - the hair twirl. It’s cute!

You still sleep with your booty up in the air and your hands shoved down underneath you. It’s pretty darn cute as well!

You are at that phase where you think No is funny. I am trying to be consistent and let you know that I am serious...but you still think its funny. One day...


You Uncle Bryan babysat you all by himself (Kevin was out of town). You guys had a ball but you did end up with an upset stomach which kept you up until 3am! I think it was from the pureed broccoli that I gave you for dinner!


Whenever I put on Chapstick (which is a lot since I am addicted to it) you want it too. I try to get it on your lips but you just want it on your tongue. So cute!

Love you to the moon and back!

Dear Ryan (12 months)

Well little bug, we made it. Here we are one year later. I can't believe how fast it has gone. You are getting so BIG and growing so much everyday. It's amazing watching you play because it's almost like I can actually SEE you learning - it is so incredible to watch.  Everyday you bring so much joy into our lives and we cannot imagine life without you.

What's going on with you?
- You still LOVE peek-a-boo and now will pop up yourself and hide again (mommy says pee-a-boo for you and you think it is hilarious)
- The pool is still your favorite summer place! You love floating around the baby pool in your little raft because you can do it all by yourself.
- You are mastering your toys - you are figuring out how they work and how to play with them (instead of mommy having to make them work)
- You can put balls into things with control AND actually let go of them! You will roll the ball back and forth with me (until you get distracted)
- You can stack rings but still would rather have them unstacked.
- You starting DANCING. It's ridiculously cute and I love to see it. The intro song to The Backyardigans gets you going every time

You favorite thing to do is walk alongside the couch and it's usually to get closer to Bob so that you can poke him. Poor Bob.

Clearly by the looks of those thighs you are eating well. You are eating a lot of real food which is great! Over the past month you have been eating a mix of breast milk, formula and real food. You nursed first thing in the morning and then in the evening until the week before your birthday when we dropped the evening feeding. On your birthday we had your last feeding and it was a little bittersweet (nursing post to come).  Now we are going to start working on weaning you off the bottle - hopefully it won't be difficult. The good news is that you enjoy a sippy cup with a straw! We had to bypass the "sippy" sippy cup because you just weren't feeling it. 

This is a new face that you have been making. I have no idea why you started making it but it's pretty funny!

Here you are with your little walker toy. Everyday you are using it and you are getting more and more confident. I know you are going to start walking soon and I am not sure if I am ready for it!

You are a lot more difficult to get a picture of these days...you squirm all over the place!

Here you are looking a little tired...perhaps it's time for a nap. Speaking of naps, I think you are TRYING to give up your second nap and only have one long one, which I am totally ok with. The only problem is that sometimes you are super grumpy by the time dad gets home if you have only had one nap. The good news is that you are sleeping really well at night - you had been waking up at 6:15ish but since we got back from Montana you decided that 7:15am would be better. Mom agrees :)

You LOVE your new chair that Yia Yia and Papu got you for your birthday!

We went to your 12 month check up the day after your birthday and it was NOT much fun. Poor little man got FOUR shots and you were not a happy camper. They also took blood (from you foot) to test for lead. All good there. Here are your official stats:
Weight:  19 lbs 14 oz - 10%
Height: 29.25in - 35%
Head: 45.1cm - 15%

As you can see you are still on the small side which is so hard for me to believe because you don't seem small at all!!!

In other news, I just ordered more stickers for picky sticky so it looks like I will keep up with these monthly posts for a bit longer!

Dear Ryan (9 months)

Happy NINE months little bug!  It is so strange to think that you have now spent as much time outside my belly as you did inside. I feel like the past 18 months have really flown by!!

The BIGGEST news is that you are crawling! Yay! I have been trying to upload video of this monumental milestone but I am having problems. You pushed yourself backwards for about two weeks and then three days before you turned 9 months it just clicked. You are so happy now!

Over the past month we have been going to occupational therapy twice a week and you are doing so well. It's so hard for us to tell if it's the therapy that is helping or just that you are getting older and stronger and would have progressed this far at this rate anyways. Oh well, you really enjoy playing with Sandy and it gives you a change of environment. She does push you to try new things so it's always nice to have something new to work on.

You have pulled yourself up a couple of times but the first time you did it you fell backwards and onto the wood floor and that did not make you happy. Having Bob around really peaks your interest. You are always trying to follow him and play with him - even when he clearly does not want to play. His growls don't scare you! I think he will be the reason you learn to pull up - he is usually on the couch and you crawl over there and get stumped. Pretty soon you will pull yourself up and get a little closer - watch out Bob!

You are eating a mix of baby food and table food. For breakfast you usually have apples with cinnamon and oatmeal or peaches and bananas with oatmeal - those are your favorites. We tried egg yolks and you thought they were ok.  For lunch and dinner I try to give you what we are eating, but if that doesn't work out then I give you some baby food (stage 3). You LOVE chicken...well you basically love anything I give you now. I guess babies don't really get picky until around 2 or so. However, whenever I give you something new to try you usually make a disgusted face when I put it in your mouth - but then you eat it and want more.

What else is going on:
You have two (almost 3) teeth (Your top left is so close to poking through)
9 month clothes or 6-12 months
Size 3 diapers
You nurse 5 times and take an 8 ounce bottle of formula at night
You had your first non family babysitter this past month and did so well
You went to the nursery at church for the 1st time and did really great
You still take a paci randomly throughout the day and for nap time but never need it at night
You take three naps a day (around 9am, 1pm and 5pm) and they typically last 1.5-2hrs
Bedtime is still 9pm

Playing tug-o-war with Bob

Happy man!

And you are not so happy here! So versatile for your photo session...lol

Love you!

You LOVE tails....watch out Bob!

I love that you give kisses now! They are full on open mouth kisses but they are the best! You even give me hugs - I have been waiting for this and I love it so much. These past nine months have been amazing and we love you so much. Ready for the next one!

Dear Ryan (8 months)

Dear little bug -

You are such a happy little man! I love your little 2-tooth smile - it's ridiculously adorable! I love that I get to spend every day with you and can't believe time has already gone so fast.

You are doing really well eating solids and eat them twice a day. You have some oatmeal and a fruit in the morning and then in the evening you have a veggie and fruit. In the morning you are a little more difficult to feed and usually don't open your mouth for mommy. I have to wait for your to smile or sometimes get upset so that little mouth opens and I can shove that food in. Once we get going you are ok with it. At night it is a different story and you are a little eating machine. You seem to eat best when we go out to eat and you sit in a high chair at the restaurant. You want to be just like the rest of us and eat a meal - so cute! Also, the whole sitting in a high chair at a restaurant is NEW too! We no longer have to get a sling to pull up to the table, you sit like a big boy in a highchair! You also sit in the grocery cart at the store and love it. 

We are working on sippy cups and you are doing well. You seem to be able to get the water out of it if I help you hold it up otherwise you just like to bang it around. You still love to grab my tervis tumbler and stick the straw in your mouth. It's pretty adorable.

Physically you are doing well. You are such a chunky monkey and weight about 16lbs but you feel so much heavier!  You sleep on your side or on your belly with your right cheek down (which probably feels good because thats the way you tilt). We are really working on getting rid of that tilt but it has been difficult. I try to lay you on the other side but you whip over so fast and get settled in the way you want. In other big sleeping news you are basically out of your swaddle - yes, we swaddled you until you were 7 months old! Now we just wrap you up in the swaddle and let your arms out and you seem happy with that. We just lay a blanket over you for naps. 

You are a much more of a social baby than you are physical. You give EVERYONE big ol melt their heart smiles. You chat and play and are so content to just sit and are not trying to move around like a crazy man. You are better at rolling over but still only like to roll over the right shoulder and not the left. You do go from front to back and back to front but sometimes your right arm gets stuck behind you and you can't get back on to your back. You love to sit up and you are SO good at it. You don't need your hands to help steady you and are so sturdy! We are working on trying to get you to be able to sit up on your own and of course getting you ready for crawling. We can help you get on to all fours and you rock back and forth (which is the first step).  You have recently taken a liking to standing up with our help. I am sure you will be pulling yourself up in no time!

Thumbs up:

Beads - OMG you love beads. They make you so happy and I love to let you play with them but you always want to put them in your mouth. I try to keep a paci in so that you can't but sometimes you figure it out and then I have to take the beads away.
Remote control
iPhone
Bubbles & toys in the bath tub
Shake Farm (iPhone app) You learned how to shake the phone to make the animals change! You do it really fast so I am not sure you completely understand what you are doing...but it seems like it!
Spinning - not yourself, but you LOVE to spin things now. There is a bird on your activity center, a frog on your jumper and the eye balls of the crocodile that you play with that you love to spin. It makes you so happy!

Thumbs down:

Mommy taking away beads, iphone or remote control. You actually started to get upset when I do this and I think its adorable but also makes me sad when you get upset. Luckily you are still so little bitty that I can quickly entertain you with something else.

Got your lion's tail!

I think this is a "Vassilaros" face...

 Still chewing on everything!

Right now I am most excited for the day when you can give me a hug and tell me that you love me, but until then I will give you lots and lots of hugs and kisses and of course tell you I love you multiple times a day! Love you bunches!

Dear Ryan (7 months)

Happy 7 months little R!

You are getting so big these days - I weighed you on our scale and you are up to 16lbs! You have been wearing your DOC band for 5 weeks now and the therapists say that your head it looking great. We are still going to therapy and you have really good rotation with your neck now but we need to work on strengthening your muscles now. Your left arm muscle is so much bigger than the right! You are sitting up now - you started that about a week after you turned 6 months. You sit so well and don't even need your hands to lean on. You also have TWO teeth!!! You got your first one x and then your next one came a week later.

Here is what you are up to these days

In the morning you wake up with a big smile on your face anytime between 7am and 8am and I nurse you. It only takes you about 15 minutes these days, which I still can't believe! After nursing we usually go hang out with daddy while he is getting ready for work. Once he has left we play on your play mat and do some stretches. Next we eat! We are still working on making this meal more routine so that you get use to it but you are doing pretty well so far. I give you either rice cereal or oatmeal with a fruit. I also let you play with your sippy cup and you love to put it in your mouth but haven't quite mastered actually getting anything out of it.  After this we watch Baby Einstein and then you are ready for your morning nap.

Daytime is never really routine. You play, nap, nurse, and run errands with mommy and we always have so much fun.

Your night time routine is still the same and you still love it. Since you are sitting up we got you an inflatable tub that you sit in and splash around in - you really love it. You splash the water all around and scratch at the animals on the design. Afterwards you read with daddy and then get your bottle. Your last bottle of the night has changed a little - you use to down 8 ounces without even stopping, now some nights we struggle to get 5 ounces!! You fall asleep and are so not interested in any milk. Luckily it hasn't affected how long you sleep so I suppose thats ok. I guess you are just getting more during the day so you need less at night? Not sure...

Life has been amazing these past seven months and we your dad and I couldn't be happier. We are leaving for Hawaii on Saturday and are excited but also a little apprehensive. I am a little worried about the flight time as well as the time change and hope that you are able to adjust easily. You have such a wonderful schedule and have been so good at sleeping though the night (which I appreciate so much) and I am going to mess that up for you. Oh well, the memories we will make will be worth it! I am so excited for you to play on the beach and have fun in the water!

We love you forever and always!

Dear Ryan (6 months)

Dear little R -

Someone around here is totally getting chubby.....and it's not mommy! OMG I swear you have grown so much just in the last two weeks.

Check out those chunky thighs

Every morning I wake up to you cooing through the monitor. When I get into your room you find me with your eyes and give me a huge smile! So sweet - melts my heart! I love that I get to wake up every day with you!

You are not rolling over consistently but you have done it. I have found you on your stomach before so you have gone from back to stomach and you actually rolled over from stomach to back (for the first time) when I was taking all these pics! I know you are going to add rolling over into your playtime any day and I am sure you will be like - What mommy? It's no big deal. Although you are not rolling over you are definitely getting stronger. Every day you are doing something new and now you really love trying to sit up. I help you since you can't do it on your own but it's only a matter of time until you don't need mommy anymore.

Taking a break

Not ready to get back up...thinking of maybe rolling over. 

Pee-a-boo! Right after this you rolled over! 

And ended up on your back! So proud!

Last month I said that you put everything in your mouth but this month your do it even MORE. Everything you get your sweet little hands on goes right to the ol mouth. When we went to the grocery store you grabbed at everything I was putting into the cart, so I brought it closer to you so you could touch it but all you wanted to do was put it in your mouth. You love your paci and have learned how to take it out of your mouth but you can't quite get it back in. It comes back to your mouth but usually the wrong way - which makes you a little angry but we get it fixed and you are happy again.

You LOVE to talk. You make these super cute loud squeaks and love it when we talk back to you - like we are talking your own special language. You really love it when I say Mama or Baba or Papa - it makes you giggle. The first time you giggled was this month and it was when I was saying Pa Pa over and over again. It actually started hurting my mouth but I kept doing it because you were so darn cute GIGGLING!

You LOVE Bob. I am not quite sure how he feels about you but you don't really care at all. He makes you smile a lot and sometimes you even laugh at him. When we take Bob out to pee we wait for him together at the back door and get excited when you see him come up to the door. It's super cute. We give him a treat together and I am sure one day you are going to love doing that yourself.  Sometimes you try to pet him but it is more like a grab - and your grabs are a little fierce but he has yet to bite you - only growls - which you totally don't mind.

We go to physical therapy every Monday and you give Sandy the BIGGEST smiles when you get there. You are such a HAM! Sandy stretches you for an hour and you are pretty ok with it for most of the time but then you get tired and hungry. You always fall asleep on the way home - all that stretching makes my little man tired.

This month we started Little Gym and Kindermusik and you LOVE them both! We go to Kindermusik on Wednesdays and Little Gym on Thursdays - you are a busy little man. In Kindermusik you have two friends that are around your age - Mica and Grant. The rest of the class is a little older but they all love to play with you. You love the shake the rattles and look around when we are all singing. At Little Gym you have a lot more buddies that are around your age and you guys are all so cute! Barry is your teacher and he is so nice and fun.

Got my TOES!

Loving this new giraffe

Thumbs Up:
Tummy Time - Yay!
Bath time
Kindermusik
Little Gym
Baby Einstein
Bob


Thumbs down:
Taking your bottle away before you are done
When you can't get your paci back in


Your daily schedule is still pretty great. We wake up sometime between 7am and 8am and you nurse. We play together and stretch for about 30 minutes depending on how long you will tolerate it. Then you watch a quick baby einstein video which you really love. After your video you are usually ready for your morning nap so I help you fall asleep and you take a nap in your crib! You nap anywhere from 30min to an hour and a half. Obviously mommy digs the hour and a half because then I can get things done around the house. When you wake up you nurse again and then depending on what day it is we venture out for your activity. You continue to nurse every three hours but you only take 20 minutes to eat now so we can basically do it anywhere which is nice. We try to get home for an afternoon nap but sometimes you fall asleep in your car seat. It's pretty comfy so you don't seem to mind. Then when daddy gets home you basically still have the same routine. Play with daddy, bath time, then you guys read some book and hang out before your last bottle. You last bottle has always been 6 ounces of breast milk until you were 5.5 months, which is when you got hungrier and we had to start supplementing with formula (bottles changed to 6 oz of breast milk and then 2 oz of formula).  Sidenote: I stopped pumping in the morning at 6 months because after two weeks I was still only getting 1 ounce total.  Anyhow, I still pump at night so I will continue to give you as much breast milk as I can and we will supplement the rest with formula, which you don't mind at all.  You are basically passed out by the end of the bottle and daddy burps you and swaddles you up and tucks you in. Once you hit the crib you are a goner and you sleep soundly through the night.  Yay!

Our last big event this month was getting your Doc band. It really doesn't bother you at all and we think you look quite handsome in it! We have to take it off 4x's a day so that we can get your stretching in and you don't seem to mind taking it on and off either - so thats good.

We love you to pieces!

Love,
Mommy