My Snuggly Monkey

Ryan LOVES stuffed animals. Despite the fact that his mommy is not a fan, he snuggles up to them, nuzzles his face into them, and his thumb goes straight into his mouth...as if he has found his perfect place (besides me, of course). Here he is snuggling into a super soft blanket that we have.

Any Resemblence Here?

More Milestones

Dan and I went to a childproofing class this past weekend (thanks to Paul and Court for a last minute babysitting favor!). There we learned that one day we would be shocked to find Ryan walking into our room some morning while we thought he was safe in his crib, asleep (at which time we should move him to a "big boy" bed). Apparently, this day is closer than we might think.

I put him down for a nap yesterday and he was having none of it. He was just sort of fussing for a bit and when I finally went in, I saw that he had somehow figured out how to stand up! Now this isn't as much of a shock when he has "stepping stone" like shelves to support his efforts around the house, but in his crib he doesn't have such amenities. We definitely have one very willful child. Have I mentioned that he is the first born child of two first borns? Scary.

7m Doc

Ryan had his 7 month checkup yesterday and everything looks great! Not sure if I mentioned this before, but I LOVE Ryan's pedi doc. Every time we go he tells me what a good mom I am. I know he says this to every mom (at least I'm pretty sure of it), but I don't care. I'll gladly take the compliment! Anywho, here are Ryan's stats:
wt- 16lb 15oz (19%)
ht- 27 3/4" (71%)
head- 49 1/2" (53%)

Spinach Sucks!

I'm "in the weeds" here on the videos. Sorry. I hate what Apple has done to iMovie, except for the fact that they have made it easier to transfer the finished product to you tube.

This is one from awhile ago when Ryan first tasted spinach. Poor guy isn't enjoying it at all but is so good about humoring me. This is similar to his first reaction to solids, which is why I wanted to capture video of it.

It Has Started

Originally uploaded by flowmug

The movement has started. As many of you know, he started army crawling about a month ago and has been "real" crawling the past couple weeks as well. He LOVES to go after cords and the stones in the fireplace - so we have to watch him much more carefully.

When we first found out Ryan could do this, I had just gotten Sharis a video monitor for Valentine's day and we were testing it out. We watched as his face got closer and closer to the screen. All of a sudden, it went black. We rushed in to check on him (and the brand new monitor) and saw that he had pulled himself up to a standing position using the crib rails and was chewing on the antenna! He just gave us a big grin. Nothing like a little motivation to "learn" him a new trick. Needless to say, we lowered the crib mattress then and there.

Now he can pull himself up on most things into a standing position. He is still trying to get his "land legs" (and the picture here makes it looks like he is about to fall) so he has taken a couple bumps - comes with the territory I guess. He is a pretty tough kid though. We try not to make a big deal out of any of his falls. There is definitely only one person in the WHOLE world that can comfort him when he has just hit his head or is in the worst of moods. There is no one like Mom.

Ryan Says Thanks

Originally uploaded by flowmug

Thanks for coming fam. We loved having you and you can visit any time. Too bad Tim couldn't make it.

Babysitters

Originally uploaded by flowmug

This is what happens when Sharis and I try to have a nice night out alone. Despite the fact that Papa couldn't get Ryan out of all his clothes before he put his jammies on, we appreciate them giving us a free night.

Itsy Bitsy Spider

Itsy Bitsy Spider
Originally uploaded by flowmug

3 Gentlemen

Originally uploaded by flowmug

Grammie Gets Her Time

Originally uploaded by flowmug

Papa is a big Ryan hog so Grammie has to fight tooth and nail for every second with Ryan when they visit. I think Ryan is surprised here that she managed to steal him away from Papa.

Shopping For Women's Shoes With Papa

Originally uploaded by flowmug

When my parents and Kerry were in town a couple of weekends ago, we took a walk. The girls would want to hop in a store here or there and Dad would hold Ryan and I would snap pictures. We got this one in a ladies shoe store. It has quickly become one of my favorite pictures. Ryan looks to be so happy and Dad is so happy to be with Ryan (try to ignore the spit up on his sweatshirt). You can click on the picture to see more pictures from that day.

As a side note, I am changing the way the pictures are organized on Flickr. I am now grouping all Ryan's pictures by month instead of week. After 6 months of his life, this make a little more sense.

Mr. Happy

Paula has some great shots over on her Flickr site of our trip to PA to see Andrew's baptism.  I really enjoy this shot of "Mr. Happy."  We are very lucky to have the parents that we do.  Both sets are quite enamored with their grandsons.  Make sure to check out the rest of Paula's photos.

Kylifornia

Sharis' brother Kyle has FINALLY entered the blogging world. He is by far the most technologically advanced member of their family (he has a computer science degree) but had not set up a blog yet - although I guess it was never his ability that stopped him from setting up a blog, just the fact that he had a boring life that no one wanted to hear about.

But now, he has the life everyone wants to hear about. He just moved to California to work at Lucas Films - his dream job. So who would you rather read about - a 30 something couple who posts WAY too many pictures and movies of their 7 month old child or a single 20 something rock star who works in the entertainment industry? If you choose the latter, you can find a link to his blog, Kylifornia, on the right.

Feed Me!

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Originally uploaded by flowmug

Ryan has acquired quite the appetite since we first started feeding him solids. We started with 1T of food, 3x a day and have now worked up to about 4T 3x a day! He hasn't even been eating solids for a month yet, but he's definitely liking the food thing...shockingly enough to his daddy b/c his neurotically healthy mom will only feed him veggies so far. Ryan has developed a taste for these following foods:
green beans
peas
spinach
cauliflower
carrots
Next on the menu is zucchini!
He doesn't love any of these upon his first taste of them, but he gets used to the newness and opens up for each bite by the end of the meal.

Oh, the other cute thing about all of this feeding business?...if he really doesn't like something (i.e. store-bought peas) he puts his thumb in his mouth between every bite (it's a palate cleansing thing--so high society).

False Alarm?

Turns out the tooth we thought we saw isn't there any more. Can teeth
disappear? Maybe it was just first time parents jumping the gun.

Sent from my iPhone

Sharis and the Boys

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Originally uploaded by flowmug

This is from the Baptism weekend again. Sorry the temperature of the light is so cold. I had the wrong white balance on.

Which boy do you think would rather have Sharis be their Mom? Andrew knows who cooks his bacon.

Andrew's Baptism

I was finally able to get the pictures up from the baptism. It was a very special day for their side of the family (we did miss Kyle though). We were very honored to be asked to be the God Parents. Thanks guys.







Click on any of the pictures above to be taken to the Ryan Week 29 set and all the baptism photos.

Happy Valentine's Day

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Originally uploaded by flowmug

Hopefully everyone's Valentine's Day went well. Hopefully you all let everyone that you love in your life know how much you love them. Sharis and I will be going out to dinner to celebrate tomorrow night while her Mom babysits (as she is in town all weekend). Personally, I was glad to not have to fight the Valentine's Day crowds tonight. So tough to get reservations.

This is an old picture but it has a lot of red in it and is a favorite of my Girl and my Little Man.

What a difference!

Here is Ryan in his bumbo at 5/6 weeks compared to Andrew in his at the same age. Watch out Ryan! Your cousin is going to smoke you!!

I Just Want My Bottle Papa!

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Originally uploaded by Cooley-man

While his bottle warms, we read Little Man stories before he goes to bed. "Guess How Much I Love You" was taking a little too long and he wanted his bottle. He was extremely tired too because he hadn't napped very well all day. Believe it or not our little angel can be quite cranky at times.

Again, these are from my Dad's Flickr page.

Ready for Some Rays

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Originally uploaded by Cooley-man

Ryan was modeling his new hat and sunglasses for his Grammie, Papa and Aunt Kerry this weekend. They were in town to get a little Ryan time . . . oh, and they paid attention to us a little when he was napping. He's not a big fan of the sunglasses yet but he seems to get a little more used to them every time we put them on.

We had a good time with the grandparents so look for more posts on that. I also owe everyone some pictures of the Baptism. I am trying to get those out. If you click on this picture, you can see some more pictures of Ryan from this weekend on my Dad's Flickr account (they are his pics).

Little Man Getting a Tooth

Ryan's first tooth is making an appearance. I noticed a small hole in his gum yesterday and a little bit of a raised area on his left bottom gum. I don't see any white yet, but I'm sure it's soon to follow. Poor fella isn't sleeping quite as well so he is a little fussier during the day : (
Overall though he is still such a good little man.


He was able to give Dan the usual big gummy smile when he came home from work today-bittersweet to think that we are nearing the end of that image...I love it so!

I guess this move won't be possible soon either!

Vacation Hangover

We didn't really go on vacation last weekend but it kind of felt like it. We were in Pittsburgh for Andrew's baptism. I always have trouble going back to work after spending time with family.

Ryan continues to explore his surroundings. He doesn't need quite as much attention these days either. Not that we don't constantly hover, but it is good to know that he doesn't NEED us to hover. He is getting faster at the army crawl and seems to be close to crawling any minute now. He is constantly up on all fours but never quite has the coordination to do the whole crawl thing.

Here is a quick picture to whet your appetite until I can get the pictures from this weekend up on Flickr (I had the white balance set wrong on my camera so it might take me a while to fix some of the pictures ).