Baby it's Cold Outside

Ryan you experienced your first snow. It was actually mostly ice here in Tulsa. Most of Oklahoma was effected. Schools were out for 3-4 days. That means we stayed in too. Most of the time we stayed in our pajamas. It's fun to stay in our pajamas to stay warm all day.

It finally got warm enough for us to venture out and see what snow is all about. You mostly just sat there and looked around. I showed you how you can touch the snow, but since you had mittens on you weren't really interested.

Look out World!

Ryan, you've started crawling EVERYWHERE! In some ways that's good and in some ways it's good. Here is a list for both...

Good:
* Instead of sitting in one spot and crying when we leave the room you crawl after us.
* You are meeting appropriate milestones.

Bad:
* I'm not completely sure the house is babyproof until I see where you're going and see a hazard.
* You can go where ever you want, i.e. kitchen while I'm cooking, bathroom, office where there's lots of cords out.

You're also pulling up on things now. You especially like pulling up on Mommy and Daddy when we're on the floor playing with you or when you're sitting in our laps. Same as above there are good and bad sides. For example:

Good:
* You're meeting appropriate milestones.
* It looks like you're going to walk soon!

Bad:
* You're growing too fast!!!!
* When Daddy went into your room this morning you were up on your knees in your crib. That means all you had to do was bend at your waist and you would plop out and fall to the floor. Yikes! Daddy thought it was funny...I did not.

So, Daddy has lowered your crib mattress to the next lowest setting. It makes Mommy so sad! You're growing big too fast!!! Stop it!

I love you!

Wearing us out!

Oh RYAN! You are wearing Mommy and Daddy out! The last week (or maybe even two) you've been waking up at 5am or earlier. I'm not a morning person, so that's not very fun for me. This morning you woke up at five. We don't like to feed you before 6am so you won't get into the habit of waking up too early, but for some reason it hasn't mattered lately. When you woke up today we let you cry/scream for about 15 minutes. I went and got you and we went to lay on the couch hoping that you and I could sleep a little longer. You still cried and Daddy came in and made a bottle for you. Apparently it was not enough because you cried some more. Eventually it was 6am and we fed you and put you back to bed. I was so mad and crabby. I wasn't the nicest to you or Daddy, but you both forgave me.

You've also decided to stop eating (solids anyway) the last couple of weeks. It's been so frustrating. You were such a good eater before. I couldn't get the spoon to your mouth fast enough. Now you're crying the entire time we feed you. Today has been the first day in a week or two you've eaten three full meals (with bottles in between). The only thing I can think of is that I changed something without realizing it that threw you off. I did try raspberries and you didn't like those much.

Here's hoping this will all pass....SOON!

CRAWLING!!!

RYAN YOU STARTED CRAWLING YESTERDAY!!!! We were in Mommy and Daddy's bedroom cleaning and all the sudden I looked down and you were crawling!! You've been "army" crawling like a champ for about a month. You got anywhere you wanted to doing that. Now you're going to get better and better at crawling with your belly up.

I tried to get a good video of it, but the batteries on the camera died. This is what I got.

Swinging at the Park

We just had baby swings put in at our neighborhood park. We've enjoyed them a few times now. The weather was nice today so we went for a while. Ryan, you liked swinging in the swings. Sometimes you would laugh and scream with joy. Other times you would get very mellow and just relax as you swung back and forth.

9 Month Check-Up and Self Feeding

Ryan you had your 9 month check-up. I can't believe you're already NINE MONTHS OLD!! It can't be possible!! How did this happen!?!?!

You weighed in at 20 pounds (50th%) and you are 30 inches tall (95th%). I was thinking that you looked kinda skinny. It turns out you're not underweight...you're just stretched out! You're gonna be tall! You got one shot and you cried. You actually cried a little longer than you usually do, but you were still okay. You were a little cranky for the rest of the day. Dr. Harmon said you can start on solid foods like chunks of soft fruits and vegetables and cheerios, etc. I talked to her about how you're not eating much lately and she said it may be that you want to feed yourself. So...we tried it.

We tried banana (that's all we had that could be cut up into little peices), puffs and peices of breakfast bar. You did really well.

The bananas were a little slippery and hard to pick up, but you got the hang of it.

Into the mouth...

"I like this mom!"

Got a little bit messy.

Getting Brave

Ryan, you may not be able to crawl on your hands and knees yet, but you're not letting that stop you from getting where you want. You're getting pretty good at crawling like a wounded army soldier.

Here you are behind the recliner investigating the floor vent. "Oh...hey Mom....I didn't see you there!"

You even crawled over to the sliding glass door for the first time. Our cable cord goes by it. You enjoyed playing with it. Our good friends Kyle and Vicki are staying with us until they go to be missionaries in the Dominican Republic. Their dog Gus stayed in our back yard. I would like to know what you were thinking when you were checking each other out. I don't think you've ever seen a dog before.

And FINALLY you crawled over and took an ornament off of the Christmas tree. Yes, I know it's been two weeks (or more) since Christmas and my tree is still up. You inspired me to put it away, though, when you started pulling off the pretty red balls.

Pretty soon Daddy and I will have to start putting up gates so you don't wander off.