I've been reading to Rylan since he was just several months old. It was mostly in the evening and to help with a bedtime routine. Overtime, we started to read more and more throughout the day and he even started favoring certain books. Just the other day, when I thought he was being oddly quiet, I found him in his room, on his bed, flipping through books and 'reading' all on his own!
Rylan's current reading list includes: Goodnight Moon (his all time favorite), Sadie and the Snowman (his new favorite), Ferdinand the Bull (thanks to his Aunt Lindsay and Lauren who gifted him this one), On the Night You Were Born (Mommy's favorite), and The Pup Speaks Up (of course, because it is about a dog).
Rylan and I decided to make smoothies this afternoon...organic frozen berries, peanut butter, and orange juice (I was all out of apple, my first choice). I poured Rylan's batch into his straw sippy cup, and I decided to be the heathen I often am these days and eat mine right out of the blender cup with a spoon. When Rylan saw this, he wanted in on the fun! After all, a sippy cup is entirely too neat and tidy, right?
Rylan is showing big interest in all sorts of things lately...two of his favorites are cooking in the kitchen with Mom and helping Dad fix stuff around the house.
I was trying to make Carrot Zucchini bread and Rylan just had to help grate the goodies. Impossible, holding him, so we did it on the floor together. 'Course, he threw the carrot stubs into the ALWAYS lingering (like a hungry shark) dogs mouth.
Dad was putting some locks on the cabinets (because boy does he want in everything these days) one morning and Rylan watched oh so intently.
Doesn't that last one look like he's saying, "Mom, no girls allowed, we are fixin' stuff in here!"
They say when babies start walking, they look a bit like zombies, arms stretched out to balance their newly upright mobile bodies and legs moving one in front of the other but slowly and without much grace. Here's a clip of our walking zombie. Cutest on the block, if you ask us!
And about a 5 days later, a bit more perfected (never mind the meltdown, it was bedtime and Mommy was pushing it with video time)!
Now that Rylan does more than just cry and poop, he and Harley are becoming fast friends. Rylan is fascinated with Harley these days. He wants to cuddle in Harley's bed with him, stand up with the help of Harley, pull Harley's tail, put his hands in Harley's mouth, etc, etc. And Harley, well, he's realizing there is now a third human in the house to entertain him (and feed him, but we covered that in an earlier post) and I think he's really coming to love his new pal.
Peter took a couple great videos of the twosome this weekend.
Last year when we took Rylan to see Santa, he was merely two weeks old. Slept through the whole thing. Even if he'd been awake, he wouldn't have known up from down. So this year, we couldn't wait to take one year old Rylan to go see Jolly Ol' St Nick. Would he laugh? Would he cry? Would he pull Santa's beard the same way he tugs on just about everything else these days?
Just chillin' in the big boy chairs, waiting for his turn to see Santa. No tears so far! (how cute are those crossed legs?!)
Quick pose with Mom, because before I know it he'll be slamming a door in my face so I better get all the pictures I can of the sweetness now.
"So listen Santa, I'm really into airplanes right now. And lights! I love lights. Puppy dogs are cool too, but we already have one of those. I could use some loud banging toys. The more the better of those! Oh, and please don't forget my dog Harley when you come. He might like it if you left him a bone. Cool?"
The picture above makes it look as if Rylan and Santa were just two old pals, shooting the breeze, right? Wrong! The kid couldn't get off Santa's lap fast enough. We have video to prove it. But come on now, if you were 1, and your parents plopped you down on the lap of some stranger dressed in a red and white velvet suite, white gloves, and a fake white curly beard then started flashing away with the camera, wouldn't you want out too?
You know how after a stressful situation, adults sometimes like an adult beverage? All Rylan needed was a couple licks from a candy cane. Tis the season!
Did you ever see the movie, "Something About Mary"? Remember when Cameron Diaz got some, um, ah (*throat clearing*) GUNK in her hair?
After Rylan's bath tonight, his hair had a mind of it's own and bore quite the resemblance to sweet Mary. No matter what we did to smooth it down, back up it went!
Maybe tomorrow he'll wake up a green ogre and we'll rename him Shrek.
Of all the toys Rylan has scattered across this sweet little home of ours, his play things of preference over the last month or so are...you guessed it, the dog bowls! They are stainless steel. They are LOUD. They are dirty. They are LOUD. Did I mention they are LOUD? That must be the attraction for him because he has pure joy written all over that darling little baby face of his every time he tosses the bowl down onto the hardwoods and BOOM, it makes that noise only stainless steel can as it hits wood floors!
The added bonus of this "game" Rylan likes to play? When the dog bowls are FULL! Well, let's be honest, the food bowl is never full because Harley devours whatever is in it in what seems to be a new record time everyday. But the water bowl, well, that's usually full because I'm neurotic about making sure the pup has clean, fresh water all the time (there simply aren't any spots in this house for Harley's food and water bowl to call home where the baby couldn't get to it and Harley would still have access so you can forget that suggestion). Rylan didn't start crawling until 9 1/2 months but make no mistake about it, the kid is FAST. Really fast. We usually get to the water bowl before he does but today, my skills failed me - TWICE. Hey, at least my floors are clean tonight!
Water Bowl Dump #1 Today
Water Bowl Dump #2
(yes, I get it that water doesn't show up well in pictures - see Exhibit #1 - the pants!)
Trying to break out of jail as Mom cleans up the mess!
When we brought Harley home at 8 weeks old (almost 4 years ago), he weighed 16lbs. At the Vet last week, the scales tipped at about the 87lb mark. Thankfully, I had Rylan in my arms so the Vet held back the lecture and instead gently reminded me that a healthy weight for Harley would be closer to 80lbs. Now, tell me, someone, how when you have a "finger food eating almost toddler" who LOVES his puppy dog, and loves DROPPING food to his puppy dog, how we are to get the brut to lose 7lbs?!
"Hey kiddo, drop that morsel. No one fed me today. I swear. "
We should have named him Hoover. Not Harley.
These scenes are a daily occurrence in my happy little kitchen of which we spend half our day. What I couldn't admit to the Vet was, as a SAHM who is obsessed with cleanliness (I've relaxed on it considerably since baby, believe me) I secretly LOVE when Harley mops up my floor with his salivating tongue after a messy baby meal. Wouldn't you?! One less chore, sign me up!
I can promise you many of our blog posts will be about this subject - FOOD. Rylan eating it (or not eating it), Harley begging for it and acting like he never gets it (and always eating it - he never NOT eats it), me cooking it, cleaning it and if it's been a rough day, combing it out of my hair.
