Little Ry-Ry...

I feel like so much has happened over the past couple months with my little guy! He’s constantly amazing us with ways that he’s more advanced than the other kids were, and ways that he’s perfectly content at being way behind the “normal” – like with moving. Or teeth.

Everything goes in his mouth. If he grabs your fingers to play they are immediately brought up to his mouth. Thankfully, he doesn’t have a hard bite :) And he’s not a bad drooler so far, which is so nice! He has the biggest, most amazing blue eyes, and the little hair he has is very light blonde (which is so different from the other kids' dark hair).

The first way that he amazed us was at around 5 months he was able to take his paci out and put it back in by himself. Do you know how huge that is? When he’s sleeping, if he can find his paci, he’ll put it back in and go back to sleep! He also claps his hands...very well! He started this about 1 1/2 months ago and I don't remember the other ones doing that this early either.

And he is a talker! He babbles and babbles like crazy! About a month ago he said his first “word” – dadadadada :) My dad has a theory…dads are called dads because that is usually the first set of sounds a baby says, and when guys first hear those sounds, they decided that they should be called dadda :)

He decided that rolling over was a good thing around 6 months. Even though he had been able to do it since before he was 3 months, he just chose not to most of the time. But at 6 months he really did start rolling back and forth a lot. He also wanted us there with him constantly. I’d lay him in his little jungle-gym thing and go make dinner and he’d be fine for a few minutes, but then he would start screaming (not crying, screaming), and as soon as he saw me, he would smile and go back to playing. He just wanted me to sit there with him while he played :)

He only just recently has decided that sitting up is a necessary thing. A little after 7 months he really started working it, and that has made life so much easier! I can finally leave him sitting and go into another room without worrying about him too much. He’ll still topple over occasionally, so I have to set him in the middle of the room so that if he falls he doesn’t hit anything, but most of the time he’s good to go. Now I can set toys in front of him and he will play with them while I go and made dinner.

When he’s on his belly, he shows no interest whatsoever in moving. No pushing up. No rocking. Nothing. Nada. But that’s OK…the other kids were late on crawling too…

He finally, just a few days ago, cut his first tooth! I’m nervous because Kylie didn’t cut her first tooth until 8 or 9 months, and it was so hard teaching her to eat real food (we had a lot of choking scares). But Joshie cut his first tooth when he was 4 months and ate like a pro – not one single choking scare! We’ll see how Ry does!

He is eating like a cow! Does this surprise me? No…he’s big and fat! The other day he ate 5 jars of food and 2 8oz bottles while I was at work. That’s a lot of freaking food for that little belly! And since he shows no interest in moving, he’s packing on the pounds :)

At his six month check-up:

Height: 27 inches (75%)
Weight: 18 lbs. (75%)
Head: 44 cm (70%)

He does not like cereal too much, and loves just about every type of baby food they make (as did the other two kids). And he’s still nursing great! But I’m still counting down – only 4 ½ months of pumping!

About 1 ½ months ago I decided that I had had it with him sleeping in our bed. He gave up the bassinette at around 2 months when he got his first cold. Since then he was sleeping in my arms and you had to hold him to get him to go to sleep. I was waking up sore every morning and I was a grump! Now with Kylie, she was such a problem sleeper and stayed that way until about 3 (we tried to have her cry it out and she screamed for 3 hours every night and we finally just gave in since we needed to go to work the next day!). With Josh, at around 8 months we went right to the crib and had him cry it out – night 1 was 45 minutes and then after that it was 5 minutes and then he was a dream sleeper. We weren’t sure what to expect with Ryan, but at 6 months we started trying him with naps in the crib. He screamed, but sometimes he would put himself to sleep. So we went back and forth for a while, and then about 3 weeks ago the magic started happening…we put him down for naps and bedtime, and he would play for a little bit, and then go to sleep. At night he would wake up after about an hour, and then I would bring him to bed, but that hour at least let me get ready for bed and have some “me” time! And then he started sleeping for hours at a time, and now, he only gets up to eat, and then I can put him back in his bed!!! It’s like we have two new parents…who get sleep and aren’t cranky because they have a baby that sleeps! He’s definitely following in Josh’s footsteps and by 7:30 he’s rubbing his eyes and cranky, which is hard for this late-night family, but hopefully he’ll switch over in a while like Joshie did. It’s hard to only have 3 hours with him in the evening! This is why I really don’t mind too much that he still gets up at night to eat. Another way he is like Joshie is that now the only place he will sleep is his crib or in the car. So if we’re out, I can’t put him to sleep in my arms anymore. Which is a pain!

And all of this, the eating, the sleeping, and the sitting up, has left us with one incredibly happy baby! He’s so happy, and smiley, all the time. When I go in to get him in the morning (and in the middle of the night a lot of times), he smiles as soon as he sees me and starts kicking those chubby legs! He smiles when he sees Kylie and Josh too…he loves them!

To say I’m in love with this little guy would be an understatement :)