Oh my goodness has this been a busy past month! You can tell we've had too much Christmas when your preschoolers both ask, "Can Christmas be over now?" haha We did have a great time celebrating with family, though, and are so glad we had the chance to see everyone!
Overall, though, the month has gone well. We're all a little stir crazy with such a cold start to 2017 and ready to go on vacation in about 3 weeks to (it had sure as heck better be) sunny San Diego! I'm a little nervous about how that will go with Ryan's newfound skill: taking steps here and there. A 4 hour flight could prove to be really "fun". But really, anything to get away from these sub-zero temps right now. Brrrr!!!
Ryan is such a sweet baby boy, and this in spite of all the craziness surrounding Christmas as well as a lot of teething, he is doing exceptionally well!
We are finally down to him only waking up ONCE in the night for a bottle (can anyone say "HALLELUJAH!"?), which leaves us all significantly happier as a whole.
He now has five teeth: his two top ones as well as three on the bottom, and we know it probably won't be long before he has a few more through, as he has the telltale diapers and chomping on everything in sight going on.
He knows exactly where the action is, and knows how to find where everyone is. He always knows where Mama is, and although we went through some separation anxiety at the beginning of this month, the only time he fusses when I leave is if I leave him somewhere he can't get to me if he wants to. Most of the time he's content as long as he knows I'm not behind a closed door or he isn't stuck in his crib or behind a baby gate.
Ryan is slowly transitioning to dropping the third nap in the evenings, but still seems to take entirely way too long to go down to bed at night. Some nights (okay,
most nights) he doesn't go to sleep until about 9:30pm. This has been a frustrating development, as it means we have to take him down to help put his big brothers to bed, and that just drags things out down there, as they would rather play with Ryan than listen to stories.
Ryan loves to walk while holding on to everyones' hands. Cashel mostly likes to carry him around places, but Kendrick will hold onto his hands and walk behind him while he walks, and he gets such a kick out of that. He stands all the time anymore, but has only just started to take a few steps before he falls down. I'm still hoping we don't have a walker until his birthday at least, but it's not looking promising that he'll wait until then.
It's hard to believe that this little man will be a year in just two short months. We've got a busy next couple months ahead, including big brother Cashel's 5th birthday, and Ryan's first trip in an airplane for a family vacation to San Diego!
Ryan is starting to be a little stinker just since Christmas. He really likes to play peek a boo and wants me to chase him around. He'll crawl a little ways away, then turn around and look at me to see if I'm looking. If I am, he squeals loudly and then turns around and keeps on going. He especially loves it if I say, "No, no, buddy!" and the squeal gets louder and he laughs. It's really kinda adorable right now, but I have a feeling my giggles aren't helping set the right precedent haha
Ryan is a little human garbage compactor these days: He'll eat anything presented to him no matter what it is. Even if he doesn't like, it he just shakes it off and tries it again. He eats better than his 3 and (almost) 5 year old brothers many nights. We give him about the same amount of food as we have in the past, the difference is that while in the past, about 50% of it ended up on the floor and about 25% of it ended up either on his tummy or under his seat, now about 80% of it ends up in his tummy. He especially likes anything with meat in it - and LOVES diced up turkey smoked sausage, ground beef, shredded turkey or chicken, and anything with any sort of sauce. He also loves pretty much all cooked veggies - especially carrots and green beans. It's fun to have such a great eater! I'm hoping he's the ONE kid who actually skips the picky toddler stage. If there's anything you DON'T want this kid to eat, you've got to go to great lengths to keep it out of his reach, because if there's a way to get at it, he'll find it. (Noted from incident pertaining to Christmas cookies haha)
We have done a lot of traveling and stayed in two hotels this month, and Ryan has done remarkably well through all of it! We'll be doing this again in a couple weeks for Cashel's birthday weekend in Sioux Falls, and then a week and a half later when we go to San Diego for 5 days. We're hoping he turns into a good little traveler, as we just love to get away in the winter for a bit.
I'm exhausted most of the time, even after these significantly better nights of sleep. I'm so fortunate that Ryan is such an easy, sweet little baby boy. I'm also fortunate that he only wakes up once a night these days.
I absolutely love the way Ryan's little face lights up when I smile at him. I do not absolutely love the way he wakes me up for his 3am bottle with a hard slap in the face and pulling my hair, though. lol He loves to grab my hair and either eat it or sniff it when he's tired or just feeling overwhelmed. I'm shocked I have so much of my hair left, truthfully!
We joined a smaller local gym in our hospital for a 3 month weight down challenge, which I hope will help us beat these winter blues. I mostly joined it just so I could keep moving, but wouldn't complain if I dropped a few pounds on top of it. I just miss our old gym that was so wide open with lots of room for free weights and a separate room to spread out and not bump into people. I may end up joining that one again for a year after I'm done with this challenge, but time will tell.
Daddy just absolutely loves little Ryan and has so much fun tickling him and picking on him. Ryan loves to crawl all over Daddy before bed at night, and likes to snuggle with him every night around 5:30pm while I'm getting supper ready and he's ready for a cat nap.
I'm rooting for him to win the weight down challenge we joined at the gym, and he seems a little more motivated now that I told him the prize is a $100 gift card to Scheel's. :) I think he secretly enjoys moving again, even if we're both so sluggish that a "workout" for us is nowhere near what it used to be. We'll get back there, though, I feel confident ;)
Mark has been staying busy this winter with Wednesday night basketball at the high school, where a fun group of guys gathers to play a few games, although my only request with this is that he makes it home by bedtime, so he only goes for an hour now instead of two like he used to. It's a good compromise for us, so that he still gets to go, and I don't come unglued at bedtime after picking up Cashel from AWANA.
Ryan is starting to roll with the punches with big brothers these days, and hardly fusses when they drag him around anymore. Kendrick is just starting to really come into the realization that Ryan is actually kinda a fun little dude. The two haven't really been super close (nothing like Cashel and Ryan) until just this past month. Both Cashel and Kendrick cannot WAIT for Ryan to start walking and running after them.
Cashel is constantly telling us every.single.time. Ryan stands on his own, and he comes completely unglued excited when he takes a step or two. It's cute ;) But Cashel (and Kendrick) both just cannot leave the poor kid alone! I'm constantly telling them to put Ryan down and to just let him get where he wants to go by himself. Cashel has this thing about putting him up on higher surfaces (couches, beds, chairs) and then walking away, so we have to really watch out for him, as he hasn't quite figured out how to get down yet without head planting. We're still trying to figure out how he hasn't fallen yet, but somehow we are always there to catch him.
We're very ready for winter to pass so we can get back outside again! This winter, although it had a later start than usual, has been VERY cold so far, and it's hard to take little kids out to play when it's below 20 degrees and windy. We haven't had very much snow, either, and none of it has really been great for packing, so they're antsy to build a snowman, but we haven't been able to.
Life with 3 little boys (especially with the youngest entering the busiest years of toddlerdom) is hectic and chaotic and crazy a lot of the time. Cashel is just getting to the age where he gets annoyed when people don't do things that make sense (of course, he is absolved from this judgement haha). He will be, unfortunately, in for a long ride through all these younger siblings and the 18 months-age 4 stage.
The boys really do all love each other, but I think it's safe to say that both older boys seem to have better relationships with Ryan than they appear to with each other. I know C and K love each other, but they're just at the age where most of the time they annoy each other. Hoping this changes in the next year :)
