I have a ONE year old!

 What an AWESOME year.

Actually, in most ways - this has been the hardest year we've ever had.  I would not recommend having a baby during your husband's unpaid 9 month-long internship and a long, grueling, job search process.  If we had not had Ryland - I would have been able to continue to support us the way I had been doing the past couple of years - a baby truly changes EVERYTHING!  He has been so good for us - exactly what we needed in our relationship and lives.  And he's just plain awesome.

Now, things are on the up and up and Brent has more than enough work coming to him these days.  But if things get messy again, I'm so glad we have this little guy to help us get through!

 Everyday, we look at him and tell eachother "he is so cute! Did WE really make him??"  

 Mr. Personality is changing so much.  He has strong likes and dislikes - he voices his opinion all the time.  He celebrates his accomplishments for giving himself a round of applause.  He takes some steps, he falls down clapping.  He throws a ball, he claps... He eats his veggies, he claps...

I love that he is learning to be proud of himself!  Even if it is more of an attention-seeking "look at what I did!"...

 Curiosity should have been his middle name.  I am dreading the day I have to call poison control because this guy gets into everything!  I am constantly asking, "where did you find THAT!?" and saying "that is NOT food!"  If he sees a cupboard - it must be opened...

 He is taking steps daily.  Yesterday, when trying to get outside (and away from me!), he took four sturdy steps before getting into a crawling position.  Usually it's just two at a time.  He used to lead with his left foot and drag the right - not they are nice, even, and BIG steps! We're on the brink of full-time walking, here.  Can't believe I have a toddler!

 His talking just cracks me up.  He calls for "mama!" when I leave the room.  He calls for "dada!"  when he plays with his toys.  He points at Shelby and the neighbors' kitty and say "DAH!" (dog).  Any and every desired food item is "mum-mum" and the hungrier he is, the louder and more persistent the "mum-mum" gets.  he knows "mum-mum" lives in the fridge and he'll go to the fridge and yell "mum-mum!" while patting it.  That's how I know he wants a snack.  He is starting to imitate what I say when I tell him to (this is HARD - but it's emerging...) 

 He'll say "JayJay" to his friend Jacob but has yet to do this without my prompting.  JayJay will in turn say "Rylie!"  They are the cutest duo ever.  I love that Ryland has a best buddy.  They give eachother hugs, hold hands, have light saber fights, and chase eachother around the house. 

 Not sure on his exact stats - we'll go to the doctor later this month.  He has three teeth (2 on top and 1 on bottom) and some more coming in on top (this kid's teeth come in the weirdest order!).  He is tiny for his age, I think he's right about 19 pounds (I think that's about a pound more than I was at his age).  He seems long though.  He can wear 18 month clothes, but the waist is a little big. I think he'll be a "string-bean" kid. Have to find some baby-belts!  Most importantly he is HEALTHY :)

 He loves:

climbing, reading books, taking baths, mom's bangle bracelets, pushing trucks around the house, shoulder rides, potstickers, spinach ravioli, any kind of snack food, his buddy JayJay, dogs, chocolate milk, wearing shoes, and being outside.

and he really loves mom and dad!

Happy birthday, sweet boy! 

Early-Birthday Celebration

Ryland shows us how many years he is: "1"!!

We were very lucky to be faced with the problem of "we have too many people in our lives that love our little boy - how are we going to get everyone together to have a birthday party for him?"  With so much family and friends (who, to us, really are just extended family) we began looking for facilities to rent for the big day - and the price tag was getting pretty BIG!  So we settled on 2 parties - one for our families in Ephrata, and one for our friends in Seattle.  So this weekend we drove back to Ephrata - it was a much needed trip.  My poor mom ("mimi")had not seen her only grandbaby in  3 months! 

We had his party at Time Out Pizza - really one of the only places to host a group in Ephrata and the same restaurant we had our rehearsal dinner at so many years ago :)

 

Mimi, Auti, and Callie decorated the place really cute

 Grandma Allred picked out a fun cake for the birthday boy

 Mimi, Chuky, and Auti - all were with us when Ryland was born.  What a great year we've had with them!

We've survived a year of parenthood!

 We rarely get a pic with all 3 of us 

 Not all the Allreds could be with us - but we got grandma, grandpa, uncle Russ, uncle Rian, Izzie, Isaac, and Ian.  We missed the rest of you!

 "G-Pop" and Lisa.  G-Pop gave Ryland the cutest book - the recordable kind.  I love that my dad can now read Ry-Ry bedtime stories 200 miles away!

 Ryland thought cake was pretty awesome.  He's going to be so excited when he gets to do THAT again this coming weekend!

 He's totally spoiled - and got so many fun toys and cute outfits for his special day.  Thank you, everyone.  He has been keeping himself very busy today with his new blocks, books, and puzzles and I love that he can entertain himself!

 Showing his cousins the Zany Zoo!  Such a cute toy

It was such a fun day - thanks to all the family that joined us to make it so special for Ryland.  He was hyped up after we went home and didn't go to bed till almost 11!  Little stinker.  He was all smiles the whole weekend.

Now the official birthday weekend is coming up - I've been crafting up a storm making decorations for his monster party.  Looks like we'll have 20-30 friends joining us to celebrate the past year.  Feeling so lucky to be able to share our little guy with so many great people! 

a hospital visit

"B" enjoying her new tiara

 This weekend, our good friend's 22 month old baby girl  had a pot of boiling water spill on her and burned her sweet little legs and abdomen.  They live a few hours from here but she was airlifted to Harborview, which has a fantastic burn center.  Also, it is 15 minutes from our house so we got to visit this little sweetheart today.  She is still in the pediatric ICU and we're crossing our fingers she'll be well enough tomorrow to move to acute care.  We hope she won't have to be here too much longer - but if they do we'll be keeping them company.

Ryland with B's daddy, Jordan

greeting eachother like old friends!

"B" is such a funny gal - clapping and saying "yay!" when she had her catheter removed.  Love it!  She was a little down today when we came (I would be too if I were stuck in a hospital room, my legs so sore and bandaged that I was unable to walk around!) but she perked up so much when she saw the treats we brought for her.  It made my day to see her so happy. We can't wait to see her up and running around again. 

Happy St. Paddy's Day!

He is my lucky charm, for sure.  And March 17th was EXTRA special to us because Ryland took his first steps!  2 tiny steps with arms reached out for me.  Awwww, little boy is growing up!

Mini-Vacation to the Kitsap Peninsula

The whole trip was worth it just to get this picture.

Brent and I were getting that itch... the traveling itch we get too frequently.  But since we are in economic recovery from student teaching and baby-having, we decided to do a close-to-home adventure instead.  We got a great deal on a hotel in Silverdale - right on the beach - that included our meals in the package.  Sooo, we took advantage of it and took off for a mini-vacation this weekend.

 I wish we had taken pictures of the room we stayed in - it was really nice with a huge balcony looking out at the inlet, and a fireplace.   We upgraded our standard room to a suite so Ryland could have a quiet space to sleep while we watched movies at night - somehow the upgrade charge never made it to our bill.  LUCKY!

We made sure to pack LOTS of snacks for Ryland, since he eats nonstop.  This yogurt seemed like a good idea, but it was so messy.  We put him in the bathtub to eat it.  

We mostly hung out in the hotel since it was pouring rain all weekend (and there was a tsunami advisory!) The beach was out of the question.  The bowling alley was actually a lot of fun though.  Ryland liked to keep score for us.

And what's a trip to the bowling alley without a surprise from the quarter machines?  This mustache was definitely worth the $0.75. 

Ryland's favorite part of the weekend was the giant swimming pool.  We were the only ones using it because the entire hotel was booked by people participating in a medieval convention (yes, they were all dressed-up in medieval dress.)  It was weird... but apparently they weren't interested in the pool so we were happy about that.

Ryland is getting really good at stacking things.  He first has to unstack things before stacking, however.  Like these pancakes - which were supposed to be his breakfast.

It was a really great, stress-free weekend.  It's nice to getaway when Brent and I are used to working on weekends - to have all three of us together for 2 whole days was so fun.

Oh, and our car broke down on the way home.  Luckily, we were close to Firestone and they fixed us up within an hour.  But it made me really really want to get a newer, reliable car.  The Hyundai has been great - but the warranty is expired and we've put 70,000 miles on it since we bought it (and it had 60,000 when we got it). Ugh...

My child has weird routines

Ryland is a great napper - and I'm super thankful for the many hours of quiet time I have during the day.  BUT in order for him to go down for a nap easily - he needs to have multiple pacifiers.  One in his mouth, and one in each hand.  Throughout his nap he'll switch them around.  What a weirdo. 

But whatever it takes to have good naps - I'll do it!

11 months old

 

We are almost to the one-year mark.  Holy Cow!!  We love this little guy - he manages to get funnier and smarter every day.

•  He's become a very good "helper" lately.  In the above picture he was helping daddy stir dinner.  He also likes putting laundry in the washer, taking it out of the dryer, and cleaning up messes (putting his toys back in the toy box!)

•  He got his first black eye from climbing in and out of a toy box - he slipped and hit his face on a toy. I'm sure this will not be the last!

•  He still mostly crawls from place to place but is pretty good at cruising along furniture.  He stands alone for a few seconds but usually plops down onto his behind instead of taking of steps. 

•  His favorite new thing?  Shoes! I bought him these ridiculously adorable See Kai Run shoes off EBay and he LOVES them.  When you put them on his feet, he gets a big goofy smile and his face and does his "happy head-bobble" (the head bobble thing is hard to explain, you just have to see it!)

•  He's learning all about sharing... and taking... and hitting... and grabbing. He's pretty cute when he shares - he likes to feed people (and Shelby) whatever he's eating.  He loves it when the doggy licks his fingers clean (ewww!)  The grabbing and hitting is not so cute... but that, of course, is a big part of being a toddler

• He is so silly.  He catches on to when things are "funny" or out-of-place now.  When I went to get him from his nap the other day, I had a towel on my wet hair.  He took a good look at me and started cracking up.  I love that he is noticing these things.

Other fun 11-month old facts:

• he tries to say some words. The ones he's been successful at are "mom" and "ball" - so cute!
• When he is hungry, he crawls to me or the refrigerator and says "MMMMMMM" really loudly.  He also did this the other day when we walked into a restaurant and he saw someone's yummy plate of food.
• He loves bananas and potstickers - he could eat both of these things until he explodes
• He does not sleep through the night anymore.   He wakes up at 4 am to nurse.  Boo.
• He is a good napper - he is usually taking two 2.5 hour naps per day but sometimes he'll take one 3.5 hour nap instead.  I love naptime.
• He points to things he wants, makes choices when I give him options, pushes away food he does not like or picks through it to just eat the pieces he does like, signs "all done" furiously when he is finished eating
• Loves his daddy so much and cries when he leaves for work in the mornings
• loves bedtime stories
• is so ticklish - especially on his thighs
• Still a little guy - but actually gained some weight the past couple of weeks.  He's been plateaued for the longest time.  We've started giving him some whole milk with his meals, and letting him eat snacks all day long.  I don't know that this has made a difference in his weight though - he's always been a big eater.  I get frightened at the idea of feeding him when he's a teenager.  He can put away so much food.  He's also started nursing a lot again lately - so we must just be hitting a growth spurt.  He seems really long to me
• We went swimming for the first time and he LOVED it.  He must have been a fish in a past life.  The second I put him in the water he was kicking his feet, sticking his head under and blowing bubbles, and screeching with delight.  I can't wait for this summer!