At the Zoo with Amanda and Sophia

Yesterday Amanda was nice enough to bring Ryder's girlfriend Sophia up for a visit. She wanted to come up and show Ryder how she learned to walk last week! She is seventeen days older then Ryder which means he has about two weeks to figure it out or his woman is showing him up :)

After letting the babies play for a while, we headed out to get some lunch and went to the Sarasota zoo. The zoo lacked most of what a zoo was suppose to offer. It had a couple monkies that the babies could hardly see, a couple birds, and flamingoes. The flamingoes were actually quite a hit with us mommies. I literally thought they were going to attack us until we realized they were extremely gentle. Even though the zoo was kind of a bust, we had a great time with great friends and can't wait to see them soon!

Ryder showing Sophia his ball pit!

Sophia diving in
Ryder's girlfriend checking him out
Ryder sharing his music toys with Sophia
The babies watching their mommies look like idiots with the flamingoes
Amanda trying to get food out of the machine for the flamingoes not realizing the they see people do this all the time and know to go to it!
Realizing the flamingoes are going after that food she just got
They were so sweet once we realized they were gonna bite us!

Ryder was way more interested in this duck instead of the flamingoes
Amanda, Sophia, Danielle, and Ryder
Amanda and Sophia
The only way Ryder would smile :)
Our Jungle Babies

Thanks for coming to visit..... we had a blast and hope to see both of you soon!

Park and Ice Cream.... Lovin' Summer

After being locked up for what felt like F-O-R-E-V-E-R with Ryder being sick and all, I was dying to get out of the house! Anyone who knows me well knows that I am an on-the-go type of girl and I was ready to pull my hair out. Noticing that Ryder was feeling MUCH better we tried really hard to think of something to do once Derrik got home. We are trying to watch what we spend with another move quickly approaching, and honestly we happen to be trouble when we go out together into any place you can buy anything! No self-control with us two! So we decided a trip to the playground would be fun, and given it's still a thousand degrees outside we did ice cream after. Enjoy some pictures... I have no clue why some of these are to the left. It won't let me fix them... oh well!

Tooth... Sickness... Fever... Hello NO SLEEP!

So after my last post about how I can't stand teething Ryder woke up feeling warm from his nap. I assumed it was just a low grade fever which usually accompanies those darn teeth when they come in. I grabbed the thermometer, popped it in the little mans mouth... 103.1!!! I figured there was no way... I did it wrong. I put it in Derriks mouth... 96.... Put it in my mouth... 96.8.. Put it back in Ryder's mouth... 103.5... got 103.5 twice! Yeah... that is when I called the doc. I don't consider 103.5 just any kind of fever. Luckily when we were here for spring training Ryder turned six months and needed a check-up and shots. The Reds had hooked us up wiht a pediatrician so I found their number and called them. They were great and got us in immediately. She said a fever that high has nothing to do with teething. She thinks he probably caught something one the plane or traveling. She said it was viral and to get him on tylonel/motrin every three hours and get lots of fluids in him. She gave us all sorts of stuff to look for in case it was something awful and he would need to be hospitalized... lucky for us we just dealt with the fever and now think we have gotten rid of it!! WooHoo! Lucky for our doc she told us he would break out in a rash once the fever broke. She said it was the virus finally coming out and that he was no longer contagious at this point. Thank God she told us... because I would have thought he was dying or something! Smart doc! I'm sure she's had moms freak out calling about this!

Can you tell he doesn't feel good? Look at those glossy eyes! Amazing to me how babies still wanna play when their sick... I just wanted to cuddle and love on him!

Through all of this that second tooth did pop through... look real close and you can see it here
"Mom, I'm all better"
Oh... and Ryder has learned the way to get out of food he doesn't want....

Random Thoughts from a Stay-At-Home Mom

So our days are finally settling into a routine here in Sarasota. We get about a month of stability before Ryder's birthday festivities begin and our move to Arizona happens. For the first time I feel like I know what it is like to be a stay-at-home mom even though i've been one for a little over ten months now. Our morning start a little after 8 in the morning. We get up, change Ryder's diaper, take Chloe potty, get our morning tv shows on, and give Daddy kisses good-bye as he heads off to the baseball field. Ryder then hopefully plays for about an hour (hopefully) before breakfast while mommy gets some of her work done. We then try a good mix of play, eating, and distraction while I continue to try to get work done. When Ryder goes down at about eleven, and I usually get about 2 1/2 - 3 hours of freedom to get stuff done. It's always a mad dash. Work is always a priority since it MUST get done, and then it's a toss up between laundry, dishes, bottles, vacuuming, a shower, and trying to convince myself not to browse random social networking sites (this usually wins!...i'm such a sucker!). Derrik usually gets home around 2 when we will go get done whatever needs to be done for the day. It is nice to finally have some kind of routine in our lives again, but i'm sometimes grateful for our crazy life because I think I could get bored of it very quickly!!!

Anyhow... All this stay-at-home time has given me lots of time to let my mind wander... which should lead to some pretty random posts...

Random Stuff:

1. Ryder is pointing now! Ryder points to the fan to show us it's spinning, to people when he wants their attention, to the animals, or to toys if he wants them. Pretty cute :)

2. TEETHING!! AHHH!! Where are you tooth #2?! We are ready for you to make you grand entrance... because we like our sleep and want our happy baby back!!! We had a night last night that consisted of four bottles, multiple pacifiers trips, two diapers, and a very sad baby! Today we went and got the disposable teething tablets (Thanks Aunt Sherri!) and the little man is taking his usual nap... fingers crossed these work!

3. Halloween in July?! Seriously what are retailers thinking? There is Halloween stuff out everywhere. I even saw a few random Christmas things the other day. It is July people! It is a thousand degrees outside! Who is thinking pumpkins and costumes? Any child who buys a costume now is bound to be completely over it by the time Halloween actually rolls around. BUT with seeing all the Halloween stuff out it has made me realize that for Ryder's first holiday season he might slightly grasp things we won't have our stuff! I am a HUGE holiday person that LOVES to decorate!!! This leaves me two options... Buy all new stuff and have it shipped back to our place with our stuff up in Cape Cod once we're done, or have our original stuff that we already own shipped to us and shipped back. I will NOT leave our place barren and empty of holiday decorations. I feel a serious argument in the making between my hubby and I over this!!!

4. Ryder's Birthday!!! Yes it is coming up very quickly. One month and ten days away! I have been all over the internet and am very happy with the stuff I have found... plan on ordering today :) We will be having Ryder's birthday down in Fort Myers so anyone close by let me know!!!

5. New Food... Found one Ryder loved yesterday. Raviolis!

6. GUM! SO yesterday, when Ryder was first showing signs of his fussiness, we had about an hour to blow before we should have put Ryder to bed so we deciding to head out in the thousand degree weather and go for a walk. Ryder loves them and I think Chloe has been on one since we left North Carolina (it is just TOO hot... trust me we miss them). We got downstairs, got the stroller out, and in the process of putting Ryder in realized Chloe had a huge clump of gym in her hair!!! Just our luck.... This picture is after I already ripped out a few huge chunks outside.

7. And last night but not least.... The Baby Gate!!! Got one :) We moved our kitty litter box into the kitchen and officially gated it off. What a relief that our two major issues are now no longer accessible to our little man!

Courtesy of the new video function on my iPhone...

if you want to turn the music off so you can hear the actual video.... scroll all the way down to the bottom of the blog and his the pause button on the music player.... enjoy!

Ryder at the pond

Ryder enjoying a swim the day we went boating

Ryder waving bye-bye

Ryder loving his new push cart... this thing is definitely making walking come sooner rather then later!

Ryder absolutely LOVES when the tailgate on our car goes up and down for some reason... watch how excited he gets with his Papi!

Life with Ryder

So let me tell you about life with Ryder right now... Oh how things have changed! Ryder is not that sweet little baby who laid around in one spot, played with one toy, and had no opinion! It is amazing to me how every day we face a new challenge. I am constantly on the internet looking up the "right way" to do things, trying to figure out what he "should" be doing/eating at his age, and how to let him have his freedom to explore but still keep some kind of authority so he doesn't turn into a terror child... sometimes I just wish I knew if I was doing it right.... here are some of my dilemmas.

Talking: You here all the time of these ten month old babies saying all sorts of words. Ryder looks at us like we are dumb when we try to get him to say certain words. Ma-Ma and Da-Da he has conquered with no problem. He says them all the time in all sorts of situations. Everyone is his da-da... It is definitely his choice word. We are currently working on the words kitty and Chloe (a good friend's little girl loved to say their dogs name Cody at Ryder's age... so I figured it's close). Ryder is very interested in our animals lately so we figured since they pop up a lot it would be good to start relating their names to him. When we say the names he just continues to get excited, but definitely not talking. How do you go about getting them to actually talk?!



Eating: This is a subject that makes me so proud sometimes and so discouraged at other times. Sometimes our little man can chow down some food... which is usually the case. Ryder has completely given up on baby food. His Grammy didn't try to work past his stubbornness while he was visiting with her and now it's a lost cause! It is ok minus the days he won't eat anything I give him and it upsets me because I feel like he's hungry. I guess if he's hungry enough he'll eat it! Anyhow... in the mornings he has fruit, some cinnamon raisin bagel, yogurt, and some juice. Fruits he likes to eat are strawberries, banana, blueberries, apple, and cantaloupe. Sometimes he doesn't want to eat the fruit after a few bites so I push them into the bagel and he doesn't even notice :) For lunch he always gets some sort of meat.. usually turkey or chicken. I usually get some more fruit in the mix, and he seems to love tomatoes so I cut some of them up. Veggies are a big issue for him. He almost always doesn't like them. Potatoes are pretty easy, but as far as carrots, corn, peas, green beans... they usually end up back on the tray all mushed up. I do what I can, but am having a hard time. Any suggestions? For snacks we are trying to get creative. His new love is raisins!!! It is so nice because we just put the little packages in the diaper bag and he can have them in public when he gets fussy. This is also a food he has mastered picking up and getting in his mouth on his own so it's very nice! He also has been liking granola bars and still loves his yogurt melts. Sometimes we also give him some Publix macaroni salad.... a huge favorite of his! He seems to love pastas, but the doctor said to try to lay off them a little. Sometimes is all we can get him to take though.



Music: Ryder loves music! Especially when I sing and dance for him... which no one else will ever see :) If he is upset I'll play some music from the computer and it calms him right down. We just bought a cd at babies 'r us yesterday which he already loves :)



Tantrums/Screaming: We are getting these under control at the moment, but wow like a week ago they were out of control! Ryder was learning to just scream when he wasn't getting what he wanted. Remember my story about his breakdown at the pond? The other day he was hitting the cable box and after me telling him no quite a few times Derrik finally took charge. When his da-da told him no he held his breath and screamed the loudest scream i've ever heard come out of his mouth and then hit the box again... oh how he loves pushing our buttons! Derrik and I both laughed pretty hard about this situation when he wasn't looking... with this screaming comes my next question...

Punishment: at the age of ten months old what kind of punishment do they understand? Right now we tell him "No" very firmly and he gets his hands spanked (lightly of course!) when he is into something he shouldn't be. His favorite things to get into that he shouldn't be into are the kitty litter box (promise he only gets close!), the animals food bowls, and cords. We tell him no and spank his hands, but literally it doesn't look like it is sinking in what-so-ever! At what age do they start to get that things are good and bad?

His Noggin': Ok... so with all of this wandering and exploring Ryder does to find new things his poor head is taking quite a beating! All the time he is falling and bumping and I feel like at a certain point it's got to be too much. Sometimes if he's really having a bad morning or afternoon it can happen quite a few times. It's like he becomes uncoordinated or something :( Do all babies hit their heads this much or is my baby just hopelessly destructive :(


Clapping and Waving: We've got it folks! Ryder loves to clap. We clap when he's a good boy and eats his food, when we are singing and dancing, or when he learns something new! He loves to clap when he accomplishes things... or sometimes just for fun! Waving bye-bye has all of a sudden taken off too! Just yesterday someone told him bye-bye at babies 'r us and he waved without me even telling anything to him! We are going to start working on blowing kisses next :) He thinks it's pretty funny when we show him!

Walking: don't get too excited... not yet! But... He wants nothing to do with us taking his hands and helping him walk (Thank God because that stuff hurts my back!) He is scaling furniture with no problem and just yesterday we bought him a baby shopping cart that is helping him to walk. He's doing great with it so far! I think we'll have it down soon :)

That's all for now... I thought i'd update some on my little man and his personality right now. He is just so full of life! He loves smiling at people and playing with his toys. His new found love... watching our tailgate on our suv go up and down... i'll get a video up later! Ryder misses everyone and is so glad he can show off for you all on our blog :)

a GRAND ole' time

Ryder and I were welcomed home from The Cape with a visit from this Papi, Papa, and Nini! It was really great getting to spend some quality time with them this week and let them get to see Ryder and all his new tricks :) Friday night before they left Ryder was lucky enough to go out to dinner with four of his great-grandparents and his grandpa! One lucky little boy :) Ryder was being a butt-head for picture taking that night so the pictures aren't the greatest... but they still deserve posting!

Ryder with NiNi

Ryder with Papa

Derrik and his grandpa

My grandma and I

Derrik, Papi, and Ryder

Papi and Ryder

Ryder with his Great-Grandparents

Ryder with his goofy Waffle House hat on