Ryleigh Lately

Ryleigh is 15 months today! Where does the time go?
I was watching her run and swim and play on Mother's Day and was thinking about what a difference a year makes. Last Mother's Day, she was three months old. A little teeny baby just learning to roll over. Now she is a walking, talking, laughing, person....with attitude might I add. I can't say I'm surprised considering who her parents are.

Here's what our sweet girl has been up to:

Hanging out at the park. We start every morning at the park by our house. It has a large lake filled with ducks, geese, and turtles, and Ry loves to wave hello and "bu buyyy" to all of them. Lately, though, she's quite happy staying in the swing for our entire park stay. She also has mastered the slide and loves it. Now that the temps are rising, we have been spending many of our afternoons in the pool. She LOVES the water. She also adores the splash park at the shopping center by our house. I used to think splash were the strangest thing. The idea of sticking your kid in a swim suit and letting them run around the fountains right outside a Victoria's Secret and Banana Republic seemed a little weird to me...I mean, why not just take them to a pool? Alas, we now take part in yet another activity that I swore I would never do once I became a mom. I mean, kids just go nuts for it! Now, when I have to make a quick stop at the Shoppes, I have to purposely avoid going anywhere near the splash area or else I will have a very unhappy toddler on my hands. Girl knows exactly where they are and will make a beeline for them if left to her own devices.

Learning. I think every mom thinks her kid is a genius, and since I don't have other kids to compare milestones with, I will just assume that she is one. Genius or not, Ry is definitely one clever cookie. I love just looking at her and seeing her little gears turn. She is really into figuring out how things work. She will remove caps/lids from water bottles, yogurt pouches, cups, etc, and then screw them back on. Once she gets the cap back on she will applaud herself. You really can't get anything by this kid either. The concept of out of sight out of mind doesn't work with her. If she wants something that she can't have like my phone, or daddy's glasses, I will hide it under a pillow or behind a table. She instantly starts digging through blankets, looking under pillows, and searching the general area until she finds what she is looking for. She gets so proud when she finds it, that I usually give in and reward her by letting her play with whatever it is. Oh well. She also loves "re-organizing" her drawers, grandma's kitchen cupboards, and mama's shoes. We have nicknamed her Hurricane Ryleigh. She is also really into mama right now. She watches me get ready, and then finds my makeup bag, locates a compact and a brush, and pretends to put makeup on. She will rub the makeup brush on the compact lid, and then brush it on her cheeks while saying "awwwwww, petttty". So funny! We have to be very careful right now, as she thinks anything remotely resembling the shape and size of a q-tip is a q-tip and will insert it into her ear. Same thing goes with anything resembling a toothbrush.
She has several baby dolls, and she is very sweet with them. She will share her water with them. If I ask her to give the baby some water, she will run and get her sippy cup and put it up to the baby's lips. She will also clean the baby's ears, and rock and pat it. Ready for a sibling? Haha
Her vocab is growing as well. She has mastered all of the animal sounds that we taught her: cat, dog, horse, monkey, bird, duck, snake, dragon (she got this from a show we watch and it's so funny), bear, owl, and cow. She says the following words: mama, dada, papa, up, cat, mer-mer (merlin is our cat), water (pronounced waf), cookie, banana (pronounced nana), bye bye, ni-night, shoes, hat, that, this, more, again, hi, oh no, stop...there's more that I can't think of.

She is pretty independent, and when she wants her space, she will say "bye bye mama" and blow a kiss. If I don't get the hint, then she will waive her arms in the air and say "No, Stop!" and will proceed to lecture me in babble.

She loves bath time, and all we have to say is "It's time for tub, and she will run to the bathroom door and start banging on it.

She is also sleeping like an angel, which is amazing since sleep was hit or miss for her first 9-10 months. Now she's down anywhere between 8-9, and sleeps until btwn 7-8, only waking when she's having a bad teething spell, or if she is battling a cold, like she has twice in the last month!

I have thought every age is the best yet, but I am truly enjoying this stage right now. It really seems as if she understands everything I say, so I feel like we are truly interacting. She will also sit through a cartoon or long chunks of a movie, which makes me happy. I am so looking forward to the day when we can sit on the couch on a cold day, wrap up in blankets, and pop in a movie. I think it will be here soon (well, minus the cold day part).

All in all, this kid is just a joy to be around. Even when she's being a feisty she-devil telling me No No No, she still manages to make my heart melt.

Happy Valentine's Day!

This time last year, I was getting ready to head out to my 38 week check up. I was one day shy of being 38 weeks along, and knew that this would be the first appointment where the doc would check me for progress. I was hopeful that all those contractions I'd been having were actually doing something, but I was prepared and expected to be told to sit tight. My doc had been drilling the fact that I would probably be late into my head since about 30 weeks when I started complaining of being very uncomfortable. As I expected, the doc reported no dilation, not even a little bit. He did say that baby's head was very low, so that meant any contractions I had would be effective, but other than that he said he expected to see me the next week where we could talk induction if I wanted. I left feeling a little defeated. The idea of possible being pregnant for another 3-4 weeks horrified me! I was, however, excited that we would be able to have our Valentines date night. The next day, Feb 15th, I pulled all the tricks to make this baby come. We ended the day with the normal long walk that I had been taking every night. Our route included lots of hills in hopes that it would help. It must have, because our little Valentine arrived the next day, Feb 16th!

It's tough to believe that the teeny baby that only opened her eyes once every 5 hours a year ago is the same walking, talking, laughing, dancing, singing, SCREAMING little love that we have with us today. We are spending this week prepping for her big birthday on Saturday. I can't wait to celebrate our big girl!

Months 7-10

Well, I took a nice little 5 month hiatus from the blog, but I am back. I am putting Ry's baby book/1st year book together, and the early days of the blog were a great resource to see when she did what. So, I will keep it going to document these things that she may want to look back on one day.

At 7 months, Ry took her first international trip. It was her first plane ride, and as a result, she got her first cold. It was hard seeing her sick and being in another country. It was just a cold, but when her fever was spiking in the middle of the night, all I could think of was how it could go wrong and we wouldn't have any access to our doctors. Luckily I was paranoid for nothing and after a couple days, she was as good as new! We had a wonderful time in Scotland. Ry was christened there, and she got to meet all her family.



At 8 months, Ry celebrated Halloween. She was crawling up a storm at this point and standing up as long as she had something to pull herself up with. She also finally got her first tooth.



At 9 months, Ry weighed in at 17 lbs 4 oz, and was 27" tall! She was able to cruise all around our furniture and was able to get into EVERYTHING! She started waiving and blowing kisses at everyone who would look at her. She also learned to point out "nose", "kitty", "mama", and "dada" when asked.



At 10 months, Ry could stand on her own for long periods of time. She could now point to a nose, teeth, eyes, her blankie, the kitties, grandma, papa, LuLu her Ladybug rocker, and more when asked. She calls me and John by mama and dada. She also can say "mow" when asked what a kitty says. She loves her bananas, and shouts out "nana nana nana"when I am cutting it up for her in the morning. She has a cute way of letting us know she wants something (other than yelling and shrieking). She points out what she wants, and then waves at it frantically. It's so cute. She gives hugs and kisses. She is more inclined to kiss her own reflection, her toys, and other little kids than she is to kiss her mama or dada, but that's ok = )
Just four days shy of 11 months, she took her first real steps. She had taken a couple wobbly steps earlier this month, but on Jan 12th, she took off and took about five real steps. She has been getting better and better, and now can walk from her toys to the couch across the room. She still prefers crawling as she can get to where she wants to be faster, but she is walking more and more each day. I'm sure she will be running laps around us by her first birthday.

Speaking of her birthday, I cannot believe that I am planning it already!She will be one in exactly one month! Invites will be going out this week and I can't wait to see them in person! We are doing a farm-themed party, complete with a mobile petting zoo (think Mrs Doubtfire, minus the horse in the living room). My parents are very kind in allowing us to bring farm animals to their perfect backyard! As an 11 month old, R doesn't have too many real interests yet, but she does love animals. Her favorite books are the ones that have animal pics, and she lights up and laughs anytime we see an animal.

Those are the big month-by-month milestones. I will be back with updates on x-mas