11 months

My baby is 11 months old today. He's so full of life! Busy and happy and most happy when he's outside with Daddy and brother, copying everything brother is doing. He's so responsive to everything; and very different from his even keeled brother. Last week he started dropping his morning nap. He just doesn't need it, and if he sleeps longer than 30 minutes in the morning, his afternoon nap will be ridiculously short. He only feeds himself and doesn't like his bottle anymore. I think his first word will be "ball." He chases after them like Wyatt chased after trucks.

He's a sweet blessing to us!

Friday Night Fights

Wyatt often greets Randy at the door with, "Wrestle Daddy!" I'm sure there are days when the last thing Daddy wants to do is wrestle. Like on Wednesday, for example. He left for work at 5:20 in the morning, and 12 hours later walked in to such a greeting from an energetic 2 year old.

Friday night that 2 year old got wrestled. He got wrestled good. And his 5 month and 1 week old brother even got to join in the fun!

I have videos, but they wouldn't upload properly. Well, one wouldn't. The other one looks like carefully supervised brother abuse, at least Little Brother was laughing and shrieking! He thought it was much more fun to participate than it was to watch from his play gym.

Get him, Ryd!

1,2,3, go!

Wrestle him, Wyatt!

Got him!

Oh no! Wyatt, Ryder is sitting on you!

Happy 200th

This is my 200th post. So I thought it was fitting to share some really precious pictures Randy took today while I was at work.

Wyatt really loves his brother. And so does Ryder. It melts my heart to watch them interact. Ryder is so accommodating to his brother, too. He smiles and laughs so easily and encourages Wyatt to make him laugh more.

We talk a lot about making Ryder laugh instead of making him cry. "Ryder cry. No no!" Wyatt says. Wyatt also likes to do tummy time with Ryder on his play gym. We just have to remind him that we put Ryder on his tummy, not Wyatt. Believe me, he has tried. Speaking of trying, Ryder is trying to turn himself over! He started last week and keeps working hard at it.

I hear Wyatt was full of kisses today. Thank you, fever, for finally going away, so the kisses don't spread you!

A couple weeks ago, I picked up a bag of big, funky buttons at a junk shop. Now my button jars have turned into great (and educational) fun for Wyatt. We sit at the table and sort them, looking for matches and learning our colors. Ryder sits (carefully supervised) in his bumbo while Wyatt sorts buttons (also very very carefully supervised). Ryder learns to sit up straight and Wyatt teaches him, "Look, Ryder! Fower!" (Flower). "Look, Ryder! Boo button!" (Blue). Love, love, love it! Please pardon the laundry basket.

And last but not least, this extremely contagious grin is often gracing Ryder's chubby chubby cheeks.

Isn't that the best?!?

Milestones

On Tuesday Ryder-Roo turned 8 weeks old. This week his brother started calling him Ryder-Roo after he heard me use the nickname. It's really adorable when he says it, but his daddy thinks it's a silly name.

Sweet little Ryder-Roo is growing super duper fast! He's getting really close to growing out of his 3 month clothes already. Wyatt didn't do that till he was about 4 months, so he's definitely more of a chunk. We keep telling Wyatt to watch out because his brother will take him on soon!

He started smiling and talking to us last week. LOVE that! And he also started sleeping 6 1/2 hours at night this week. Love that too! He's such a good, content little guy. He's on a schedule (flexible but a schedule) and I feel like we're ready to settle in and enjoy this time, busy as it is.

I went back to work a couple weeks ago, and adding a couple hours of work from home has been a little harder than I thought. Our day goes something like this: feed a child, change a diaper, feed a child, change a diaper, somehow get us all dressed for the day, maybe get something done around the house, feed a child, change a diaper, repeat, nap time (hallelujah!), feed a child, change a diaper, repeat, make dinner, feed a child, change a diaper, repeat, baths, bedtime, crash! Oh yeah, and do laundry and work.

Here's Ryder hanging out on his new quilt from Grammie. So soft and cute.

Wyatt also had a milestone last week. He turned 1 3/4 years old - 21 months already.

He's talking talking talking. I stopped to think about what he talks about, and it made me wonder what it says about him.

"People" is a new favorite word. He loves to go to "church" and he repeats his friends names a lot. He's also concerned with the locations of his loved ones. For a long time he stuck to grandparents and daddy. It sounded something like this:

Wyatt: "Daddy? Work?"

Me: "yep, Daddy's at work today."

Wyatt: "Mimi? House? Papa house? Mimi's house?"

Me: "yes, Papa and Mimi are at their house today."

Wyatt: "Mama? house? Papa work?"

Me: "yes, Papa is at work and Grandma is at her house today."

We went through that multiple times a day. Now he's added cousins to that conversation - "Emmy? Tyler? Tock (Scott)? Macie? KK?" and then all his church friends. But it always has to do with their location. I think the real goal is that maybe just maybe I might say that one of his loved ones is coming to our house today or that he might see them. One thing I know, Wyatt loooovvvesss people!

And a pic of the whole family for the church directory that we took a couple weeks ago. Wyatt only had a half cheese and Ryder's eyes were open. Two victories!

Multiple Posts in One

So I've had at least 3 posts running through my mind for the last couple weeks. It just hasn't been priority to get them out. So here they are.

4 Weeks

Last Tuesday Ryder turned 4 weeks old...already! I'm borrowing a couple ideas from my sil and a friend. We'll see how the owl (thanks, Aunt Lindsay!) shrinks next to Ryder over the next 12 months.

He looks like Wyatt's twin, except when he opens his eyes. Then I see Ryder very clearly even though they're blue just like Wyatt's. There's just something about those beautiful eyes!

He's a great sleeper! If I feed him around 10, he makes it till 2 or 3 and then through the rest of the night. YAY! That just happened this week, and I'm very thankful for it. There's something about that 2nd nighttime feeding that just wipes me out. Oh and he can sleep through his brother's yelling and the vacuum cleaner. Must be my child.

He's also a good eater on a 3 hour (roughly) schedule.

He's a content baby. But when he wants something, he wants it NOW and he has serious lungs to let us know.

He's not a big fan of tummy time. He does move his head from side to side (started at week 2), but it takes convincing.

Wyatt still loves his brother, and Ryder doesn't mind Wyatt. A couple days ago I found Ryder wearing Wyatt's toy hard hat. Apparently he must have been gentle putting it on because Ryder didn't seem to mind for the 30 seconds he had it on.

I'm posting this pic so that you can fully appreciate the incredible cuteness of this outfit, complete with matching striped socks.

And this one just turned out better. See those beautiful blues?

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Spoiled

Last week I was incredibly spoiled and blessed by a few special people.

- My mom came over one afternoon to cuddle Ryder and play with Wyatt, and I got to clean the kitchen in peace (and have a conversation with an adult!). Thanks, Mom!

- Ryder only got me up once at night for the first time. Thanks, Ryder!

- My mother-in-law picked up Wyatt one morning and kept him all day. I got a day practically to myself and a date with my hubby. And Wyatt had so much fun with Mimi and Papa that he cried when we walked through the door that night. Thanks, Mimi and Papa!

- I got a massage. Thanks, Hubby!

Huge blessings, every one.

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Snow!

Or "No" as Wyatt calls it. "No outside. Brrr!" he says. Monday we got 3-5" of the stuff.

I've decided that I like the first day it snows. Especially when it's fluffy and there's no wind - a rare day around here! But it needs to melt and warm up to 50 or 60 degrees by the next day. Yep, I'm a weenie. I'll freely admit it.

Right after breakfast I took Wyatt outside. He was all excited to get bundled up for the snow Kansas-style (two pairs of pants, two pairs of socks, and tennies). I'm too cheap to buy snowpants and boots for as much snow as we get here.

We need a sled, but we don't have one, so he played with summer toys - a dump truck and a garden shovel. He loves those two things!
Oops! This romp in the snow was definitely not on purpose, and I almost expected tears, but he was tough.

After a little while in the backyard, we headed up to the front where Randy was shoveling the driveway. As we got there, our neighbor from across the park was out for his morning walk with his 11 year old German shorthair,Kris, and his 6 month old German shorthair, Abby. It was Abby's first snow and she loved it - whipping across the park and all through our yard. Even Kris joined in the fun. Wyatt had so much fun watching them play, and when we came in, he ran up and down our family room, spinning and falling. "Doggie! Doggie" Yep, Wyatt, that's what the doggies did. Silly kid.

One thing we know for sure is that we need to convert our wood fireplace in the family room to a gas fireplace that puts out significant heat. The family room is an addition, so it's the hottest room in the summer and the coldest in the winter. And it's a few steps lower than the rest of the house, so in the morning as you walk into the room you can feel the temperature drop. Brr! Did I mention we're weenies who really dislike being cold? It's been so cold in there that for the last two days I have brought the toys into the living room where it's warmer.

Wyatt got to watch a little "Cat in the Hat" while I made his breakfast on Wednesday morning. He sat bundled up like that for about 15 minutes till his eggs were ready.

Okay, I think that's it. I've had a request for pictures of the house since we made changes, but I've got a few projects that are almost done. Then I'll get working on that one.