Happy 1st Birthday Ryan!

To my Ry-Ry (aka, “Little Man”),

I cannot believe that a whole year has passed already. I can still vividly remember being pregnant with you, my maternity leave, and your first Christmas…I feel like all of those things just happened.

But here we are, one year later, and to try to remember what life was like without you only shows a picture with a huge hole in it. When I think of you, the first thoughts that pop into my head are pictures of your blonde, almost-white hair and your gigantic blue eyes. And your smile…we can’t forget your smile!

You took a while to enter this world…longer than we all thought you would. But when you were born, you were calm – almost no crying at all! You just laid on my stomach and looked around at all the lights and the people.

During my maternity leave I spent almost every afternoon snuggled with you on my chest on the couch. I could not get enough of you! I kept telling daddy that having you made me want so many more babies! I think he got a little scared at that point :)

Over the winter months you continued to grow and develop. Not to be outdone by your brother and sister, you too were a super fat baby! You slept wonderfully until you were about 2 months old, at which time you got your first cold and never really made it back into the bassinette again, much to my dismay.

You rolled over for the first time a few days before you turned 3 months old…I was worried…that was so early! But then after that, even though you did it occasionally, you really didn’t feel the need to do it a whole lot. You didn’t start sitting until you were 7 months. And crawling? Ha! You have finally mastered that…at 11 ½ months! But that was OK! You knew that any little whimper out of your mouth and someone would come and get you! Why crawl when someone would carry you wherever you wanted to go? You are kind of starting to try to pull yourself up (I say kind of because you pull yourself up to your knees and then stop) and if we stand you against something, you haven’t grasped the concept yet that you need to hold on!

You have been babbling up a storm for a while now. You will talk and talk to us, although the only real word you say is dadda, and sometimes, momma (although I’m beginning to think that “dadda” means mommy or daddy!).

You have 6 teeth…2 on the bottom which have finally completely come in, and 4 on the top that are still not completely in! You eat anything we give you! You definitely prefer “real” food, but will still eat baby food too. You love yogurt, cheese sticks and fishies!

You are a very happy baby…you are easy to put to bed (just lay you down, cover you up with 3 blankets (and you play peek-a-boo with us) and put on your aquarium). You are getting close to sleeping through the night, which is wonderful!

You like to do what we call "silly paci:"

I just can’t tell in words how much I love you. I love your personality that has been developing over the last couple of months, and I love how you fit into our family so perfectly! You love playing with Kylie, and I see you longingly look at Josh playing sports and know that soon you guys will be playing together! And I love the times I have watched you and Joshie playing cars when he didn’t know I was watching…you guys are going to be such great friends, on top of being brothers!

Every day I thank God that He gave you to me. I can’t imagine my life or family without you – you are such a special boy!