lately

Just a few shots from our day to day...

getting into the kitchen drawers

backyard pool 'do

check out that hair!

 

REAAAAALLLY wants to reach that phone

playing in the blinds at Noni & Nono's

yea, massage chair!

how does this massage chair work? 

the highchair ham

 I caught these moments last week, as I was cleaning up after lunch.  Ryan was just having a blast.  

Not crying, but screeching loudly and then laughing at himself for it

And this is Ryan's newest funny face.  He does it when he's excited, "talking" to Eddy on the phone during Eddy's workday, begging for more food, or just plain hamming it up.  I can't help but laugh, which I am sure just encourages him. But how can you hold it in when you see this?

I am certain y'all can imagine what sort of noise is coming out of his mouth at the same time

baby friends

Over the past 2 weekends we have met up with some good friends, and each outing gave Ryan a chance to play with our friends' kids.  It's so much fun to watch our kids play together!

Hadley and Ryan learning to share

Last weekend we had a picnic lunch with my college roommates Lindsey Readel and Megan Westcoat, and their families.  Lindsey's daughter Hadley is 6 weeks older than Ryan, and Megan's daughter Macy is 22 months (unfortunately we didn't get any pictures with Macy, as she was too busy off trying to climb trees).

fun climbing on James

 This weekend we visited our friends Alon and Nicole Rotem, whose son Lucas is 8 weeks older than Ryan, and our friend Jarrett Fisher was in town with his family, so he brought his 21 month old daughter Camille over to play with the boys.  

really hard to get a good picture of these three wiggle worms

this was more of what the scene looked like

Starsky & Hutch

Luc checking out Ryan's hair, Ry tasting the handle of the toy

 

 

And today Ryan got to play with his friend Jack Benson, my friend Kim's son, who just turned 1 last month. Ryan was mesmerized watching Jack show us all his new trick...walking!

story time with Kim

Santa Rosa

Last weekend we spent a day up at Eddy's family's ranch in Santa Rosa, the house his dad grew up in and the place where Eddy and his sisters spent a lot of time during their summers as kids.  Back in the day there used to be sheep, pigs, chickens, and cows on the ranch, but as with most things in life, times are a changin'.  Not too long ago Eddy's family decided to sell the property to the city, and it will soon be turned into a park.  Part of it has already become a garden that the local neighborhood families can use to grow their own flowers and vegetables.  What will be felt as a big loss to Eddy and his family is about to become a big gain to the city of Santa Rosa and to the people who live nearby. 
We had fun listening to the family stories about their adventures in that house, and exploring some of the old toys lying around.  And most importantly, we got a chance to take a few family pictures...it's not often that we're all actually in the same place these days!

a ride in the Radioflyer

standing in the Radioflyer

fun with weeds

In front of the barn 

(after a quick wardrobe change)

Ryan with Nonno and Nonni.  Can you tell Ryan likes waving?  

Ryan with Eddy, in the old pig pen

Family Portrait, with Ryan actually looking at the camera

another family pic, next to the barn

sitting in Nonni's old highchair

Eddy finds an old keepsake at the house from 1940

9 month check-up

Ryan had his 9 month check-up with the doctor this morning, and he weighed in at 22 lbs 6 oz (holy cats that's a lot!  but surprisingly he's only in the 70th percentile for weight), he measured 29 3/4 inches (90th percentile for height), and his noggin circumference is in the 95th percentile.  What can we say, he's a tall and smart kid.  The other good news is that his doctor gave us the green light to feed the little guy pretty much anything we want at this point, so we followed suit by having salmon for lunch.  And Ryan loved it!  Bring on the finger foods!!

Here are the pictures we had taken of Ryan last week at his 9 month old photo shoot.  Once again, he loved being in front of the camera. 

3/4 of the way there

Yesterday, our little man turned 9 months old.  And this has been a big month in the Bayer household...

(note the lovely crib rail cover, to protect from those lovely teeth)

The Latest and Greatest from the last month...

• Ryan is officially sleeping through the night!  We had to let him cry it out to get there, but after about 4 days of short bursts of crying in the wee hours of the morning, he finally figured it out.  And he now sleeps from 7 pm-ish to 6:45 am-ish.  It's heaven!
• 2 naps per day
• 7 teeth (we keep thinking that 8th one is growing in any day now, but nothin' yet)
• He can "cluck" his tongue, is constantly babbling, "mamamama", "dadadada", "babababa" and sometimes we even get combinations like "aaadah".  Now if only we knew what he was saying.
• He has begun to explore the world (or at least our house) from standing height, as he is pulling up to stand everywhere...the coffee table, shelves, the refrigerator, closed doors.....and he is cruising along the length of the couch without even a second thought.  He also just started taking steps on his own while pushing his toys...watch out world, walking is not too far away
• He waves hi and bye (at times a few minutes after the fact, but who's counting), and he has been able to give high 5 a few times as well!
• The kid can cough on command....or at least imitate when his mom does it.  
• Ryan still loves books, especially the lift-the-flap books, and now he can actually turn the pages and lift the flaps himself.  And he even giggles at certain pages.  
• He is an opinionated little guy.  He lets us know when he's not happy with an activity, and definitely lets us know that he does NOT like when we take his toys away.  On the flip side, when he's having fun he is definitely having fun, with smiles and giggles that are so infectious you can't help but join in.  

 exploring under the kitchen table (with awesome nap hair)

yep, Ryan tries chewing everything, even the kitchen chairs

look at those teeth!

helping dad tend to the tomato plant

and everyone knows you need a hammer while working in the garden

as I said before, getting into everything

swim lessons from our good friend Kristi 

Ryan a little bit unsure, keeping his eye on ducky

a little bit more sure with mom

yeaaaa...ducky!

chow time

This is what you get when you wait too long for lunch, and then wipe Ryan's face after he's made a mess of himself eating that late lunch...

The kid hates to have his face and hands wiped.  It's like it's the end of the world, just for those few seconds it takes, and then he's over it and moving on to whatever else is more fun.  Honestly.

Ryan is eating 3 solid meals a day now, and for the most part loving it.  There are moments though, usually when I put something new in front of him, when he takes a bite and then looks at me like I'm crazy for asking him to try that.  Neither Eddy nor I are what I would consider picky eaters at all, but I know there was a time when I drove my mom crazy with my lack of adventurousness (if that's even a word) in the food world.  And that was when she would actually cook meals for me.  At this point the most cooking I've done for Ryan consists of toasting some bread, cutting up fruit, and hard boiling an egg.  I can't wait for when I'm actually cooking his meals and he gives me that "look".  Sorry mom, I now understand how it feels!

He's also been "drinking" from a sippy cup since we started him on solid foods.  I use the term drinking very loosely, as he spends much more time chewing on the cup itself than actually getting water out of it.  So we've resorted to helping him drink from a real glass or cup.  He does great with that.  We let him chew on the cup for awhile, then take the lid off and actually get the water in his mouth in a few sips.  And then it's time for the dreaded washcloth to the face and hands.

  If anyone has any suggestions for how to get him to stop screaming at the sight of a washcloth, by all means please let me know.