First Combine Ride (November 2017)

Ryan finally got out there for his first combine ride with Grandpa, and I tell ya what: The kid didn't really even need Mama to go with him, as he was totally fine all by himself. I went along to document, of course, though. But he made it very clear that he was a big kid and didn't need his Mama to keep him safe on his combine ride.

Grandpa had to hold onto his coat so he didn't go for a tumble. It was super cold and windy out, and the ground was hard and uneven.

Ryan's 2016 Videos

I finally got around to organizing the videos for our family this year and uploading them to YouTube, so here you go!

This is Ryan's birth book, and then also his first year book :)

18 Months

Oh this kiddo :) Ryan is absolutely full steam ahead these days, and it'd do us well to just realize that it's not ever going to slow down with this one. I regularly refer to Ryan as our "troublesome tot", and the nickname fits him so very well right now. He is absolutely blossoming in every way right now, and has turned into his own little man. He's super independent (unless he's sleepy or hungry, in which case he is ALLLL about his Mama and cannot function without her), and wants to do things his way. He is growing like a weed, and runs everywhere, wagging his little arm back and forth when he goes.

Physical Development

Ryan is growing at the speed of light, it seems! He's solidly into size 2T clothes and pjs, and size 5 diapers, although he comfortably fits into size 6 diapers as well. He is 32 inches tall and weighs 28lbs 6oz.

When Ryan waves, he doesn't wave side to side, but rather up and down like a floppy wet noodle. It's pretty adorable, but hard to capture with a picture :)

He runs all over the place, although he ends up falling a good chunk of the time.

Teething

Ryan still has the same 19 teeth (as you recall, his one bottom one takes the place of two, so he only has 19 instead of 20). We keep thinking that maybe we're working on molars, as we've had some rough nights of sleep and a cranky little dude on occasion, but still nothing to show for it. His other teeth are coming in a lot more pronounced, though, and his cheesy smile shows his two front teeth pretty well. It's adorable :)

Sleep Habits

Does "on Mama" count? This kid is a major mama's boy, and he gladly sleep like a champ right next to me all night long every night. He'd nap there too, if I let him. Every time.

He's not sleeping great, if I'm being completely honest. He's always up at least once in the night, and we've pushed the newborn back into her rock 'n play so that he can join us in bed again, so we all can get some sleep. He DOES go to bed in his own bed, though, and doesn't tend to join us until after midnight. We continue to put him down in his own bed on the offset chance that he'll just sleep through the night, but it has happened exactly once in 4 months, so we're not holding our breath.

On the weekends, he and Kinsley end up usually napping at the same time, and usually both of them will be napping on me, which I don't mind at all, as long as I don't have to pee lol

In order to fall asleep, he has to be sucking on his two fingers of his left hand while twirling my hair with his right ;) Those two fingers are going to be such a problem for us in a year or two :(

Speech Development

Ryan is just starting to really pick up more words going into this month. While he started his second year with a solid grasp on "Mama", he now has that down pat, plus "Dada", "Pa" (for Grandpa), "Yeah", "Nah", "No", "Down down down" (to get out of his high chair), "Woof woof woof" for the sound a dog makes, "Dis", "Dat", and probably a few others I can't think of right now. It won't be long before this kid is jabbering nonstop!

He makes this sort of hissing sound when he doesn't know a word but is interested in something, which is accompanied by this look. I don't really know why he likes to make that sound so often, but he has done it since he was a baby, so it's just one of his things.

Eating

Ryan is a pretty decent eater overall, but he has his days. He's very opinionated about what he will and won't eat, and if it's one of those things he won't eat, it'll end up on the floor. He likes to eat with utensils these days. It can be frustrating for people to try to feed him who don't know these little quirks, because he might be cranky because he's hungry, but you gave him the wrong thing to eat, so he's now hungry and mad because he wants something else but can't tell you what he really wants. Or...you might have gotten the food right, but forgot to give him a fork and spoon, and therefore he can't eat it, even though he wants to and even though he's ravenous.

We have, however, managed to do well with getting him to say "done done done!" when he's ready to be finished, but I have to remind him a lot, and Mark isn't good at reinforcing it, and we haven't told them at daycare to do that either, so...sometimes he forgets.

Toddler Behaviors and Discipline

This kid has hit the tantrummy toddler stage hard already. We've got everything from flailing limbs to huge crocodile tears to screaming to just about everything else you can think of. I'm mostly used to it by now, but being in the thick of it for the third time, I can just say that I'm really weary of this stage of development. I'd like to say I do my very best to avoid them like the plague (i.e. make sure he gets solid naps, eats enough, and things are pretty level), but who am I kidding: We've got 4 kids, including a newborn. We see his tantrums more than we'd like to.

But really, the kid is mostly happy most of the time. We find him laughing way more than we find him crying. However, we do have the whining, simply because it's hard to know exactly what he wants with such a limited vocabulary at this time.

As far as discipline...we're mostly sticking with re-direction at this time, but if he's being dangerous (i.e. kicking at his baby sister), we'll give him a little swat on the leg, and we get the face above for a minute or two, and then he'll stop. Since every kid is different, we're hoping that time outs are MUCH more effective for this kid than they ever have been for his big brothers. We'll be heading into that territory soon!

Likes

• Being one of the big kids ;)
  
• Being a big brother
  
• Checking stuff out with his Daddy :)
  
• Being sweet to his baby sister. He LOVES her. ADORES her. Wants to kiss her every 2 seconds and hold her hand :)
  
• His big brother Kendrick
  
• Leading the pack
  
• Corn on the cob
  
• His big brother Cashel :)
  
• Sucking on his fingers and playing with Mama's hair :)
  
• Riding in the Tula
  
  
• Being part of the fam :)
  
  
• Dancing like a WILD MAN! (I SO wish I'd taken a video by now - I've GOT to capture it because it's adorable)

Dislikes

• Being told "no"
  
• Being constrained when he's got places to go and people to see lol
  
• Having his diaper and/or clothes changed.
  
• The "changing of the guards" at the church nursery. However, this is a huge improvement from the crocodile tears and wailing until we got back when we left him during Sunday School.
• Not being able to come up on Mama's lap with Kinsley.
• Not getting to do what the big kids are doing.

First Ride on the Jet Ski (Summer 2017)

Ryan is probably my absolute bravest little guy on the water. He took his first short spin on the jet ski with Daddy last weekend, and was totally enthralled. We'll probably wait until next year for another ride, but he seemed to have fun, anyways!

15 Months

I know. Don't even know how we got here. Ryan is just...well...he's becoming this big kid, and I'm not even remotely prepared for that mentally.

Ryan is growing like a weed these days, and he is seriously the happiest little man. He's very seldom cranky, although he certainly has little periods of separation anxiety that are a major struggle for us. He stayed in that separation anxiety phase SIGNIFICANTLY longer than his big brothers ever did. We kinda wonder if it has to do with Mama's ever expanding belly and the baby to come, but for the time being, it isn't too bad, which we're grateful for!

Physical Development

Ryan is still the smallest of all our boys at this age, but he still is growing like a weed! He's wearing size 4 diapers still (although he would easily fit into size 5), and approximately 27lbs and last we had him measured, he's over 30 inches.

He's beginning to really fill out those 18 month clothes he has been swimming in since he was 8 months old, and we had to switch him up from his "baby" shoes to the big boy ones.

Teething

Ryan has almost all of his first set of teeth in, aside from his 2 year molars. His incisors aren't really very far through, but they have all broken the surface, which is good. We're really hoping that whole process takes a big break here for the next six months, as historically, 2 year molars take a LONG time to come in. We've hardly touched any OTC pain meds during his teething process, as he just likes to suck on his fingers and play with Mama's hair in the midst of it. Life has been wild and crazy these past few months, so I tend to enjoy just kinda relishing in it, and he seems perfectly content to let that be his coping mechanism, so the fewer the meds, the better ;)

Sleep Habits

Ryan sleeps approximately 12 hours in an average day. I feel like that's not really enough, but he doesn't seem sleep deprived in the least bit, so I guess we'll just go with it. He is down to 1 nap most days now, usually for between 1-2 hours. On the weekends, however, if I'm laying with him, or there when he wakes after a couple hours, he'll go back to sleep and average more like a 3 hour nap. We're actually trying to add in a morning nap again, since he never makes it to lunch before passing out in his food without really eating. So far, so good with that. He'll nap in the morning around 9am for a bit, and then again around 1pm.

For night sleep, he sleeps usually from approximately 8pm-6am, and most of the time wakes up on his own. This isn't without a wake up a time or two in the night, usually just to search for Mama. We've been working so hard to wean him from sleeping with us in preparation for when the new baby arrives, but before much longer, Daddy is going to have to start being the one to sleep with him in the night, or else we're going to have a problem come August.

Speech Development

Ryan knows only a few words at this point, but he understands a LOT more than that. He clearly will say, "Mama" (which sometimes he switches and purposely says "Ama"), "Dada", "Dat (that)", "Dis (this)", and "Yeah". He understands when we ask him to bring something to us or put something in the garbage can or in the sink, and he'll do it. When we mention time to "eat" he gets excited if he's hungry, and when we say it's time for "tubs", he gets REALLY excited.

Eating

Ryan is typically a really great eater as long as he isn't teething. He tries about anything, but especially loves sausages, blueberries, grapes and spaghetti. I have been trying (unsuccessfully, a lot of the time) to steer clear from tomatoey-sauce type meals (i.e. spaghetti, goulash, lasagna, etc.) as they give him a rash around his mouth, but those are some of his favorite meals, so it's hard to deny him. He's big into milk like his big brother Cashel was.

We've been slowly working on introducing utensils, but he mostly just likes to flip things around when he uses them, and still prefers using his fingers to get things to his mouth, even yogurt and such haha :)

He's still taking a bottle while we do our bedtime routine before bed with slightly warmed vitamin D milk, although he usually just takes sippy cups during the day. He likes milk or water, and if we notice he seems cranky and gassy, we'll give him apple juice sometimes. He loves to drink ice water out of Daddy's Nathan water bottle, just like all our other kid have.

Toddler Behaviors and Discipline

Ryan has certainly been working to perfect the toddler tantrums, but it's VERY obvious that so much of it is due to how slowly words seem to be coming to him. I'm probably wrong, but I swear by this point with the other boys, they had more words than just, "Mama" and "Dada" under their belts. I know, however, that once he can start talking and communicating better, that all starts to get a little better.

For the most part, we're just going with re-direction as far as discipline is concerned, and while he really seems to enjoy slapping ya in the face, it helps to just hold his hand and say "no" firmly for now, even if it takes a few times.

Likes

• Sucking on his two fingers on his left hand
  
• Blueberries and Grapes
• Being part of the action
  
• Making messes
  
  
• His big brothers
• Playing with Mama's hair
  
  
• Taking of sunglasses and putting them on.
• Squawking
• Doing things himself (especially eating - don't you dare try to give him a bite while holding on)
• Dipping food in sauces (ranch, ketchup, applesauce, etc.)
• Eating like a big boy with utensils
  
• Swimming
  
  
• Books! Especially his favorite: Where is Baby's Belly Button
  
  
• Bath Time!!
  
  
• Drinking out of our Nathan water bottles
  
  
• Running around nekkid

Dislikes

• Being told "no"
• Being left out of the action
• Teething
• Not being able to get through the baby gate at the top of the stairs.
• Big brothers trying to carry him around
  
  
• Being constrained
• Getting his diaper changed or clothes changed
• Getting buckled into his carseat. He's so ready to see what's going on in the car these days, but at bare minimum we need to go at least a few more months of rear-facing before switching him.
• Baby Einstein, if big brothers will ever let him watch it.
• Being strapped in his high chair. We need to pull the booster seat out soon, I think.

First Night in the Big Boy Bed (April 2 :: 13 Months)

With the new baby coming soon, and Ryan being really, REALLY attached to sleeping next to his Mama (in fairness...I'm REALLY attached to sleeping next to him too), we needed to start the transition to getting him out of our bed and into his own.

We started by bringing up the double mattress from what will be his new bedroom (it's currently the toy room) and putting it on the floor so that if he rolled off, it wouldn't be much of a fall.

He did alright his first night, just waking a couple times to grab onto my hair and fall back asleep, and wanted some milk around 3am.

In a couple months, if he's doing better about not falling off, we'll move the mattress down to his new room, and I'll start sleeping down there once he wakes up the first time, hopefully making it a pretty easy transition for him. Hopefully, by the end of July, he'll be sleeping on his own better every night just in time for the baby to get all of Mama's attention.

1 Year Well Child Check

This smiley little guy had a great 1 year well child check! He has grown a little under 2 inches since he was 8 months old and is up just under 3lbs since then as well, currently at 24lbs 8oz and 29.25 inches long. Crazy enough, this puts him on record as the smallest of my kiddos at a year, and he has grown 14lbs 5oz and 7.25 inches in a year!

He is now up to date on all his immunizations with zero side effects and hardly a tear.

He doesn't have to come back until 18 months, and won't have any further immunizations until before preschool.