18 months

Ryder boy is 18 months and he's such a fun little crazy dude.  We had so much fun with him in San Diego and he was such a sport on all our adventures.  We visited the Dr. and he's following the same growth trend--long and lean.  Here are his stats from the appointment:


Weight 21.6 pounds, 5th%
Height is 32 1/2", 75th%
Head is 19 1/2", 90th%

He's tall & skinny with a big head.  Lucky for him he really doesn't appear that out of proportion.  He's talking and communication so much with us.  I can't really keep track of how many words any more, but a few new ones this month are: Elmo, thank you, please, Ahhh do for I do, Hi Mama, Hi Dada, Hi Baba (Baba is Papa).  He's stringing the the Hi's and Bye's with our names and it's really cute.

He can tell Reese & Ryan apart and I think it's pretty amazing.  He loves yelling out Ryan's name, but Reese is his little caretaker and always looking out for him.


He has taken his monkeyness to a whole new level.  He was climbing out of his crib so we dropped the mattress to the floor.  We were told by others that this was a sure fire way for keeping him in the crib.  Not so much.  He got so pissed one night at bedtime that he found some superhuman baby strength and climbed out of the crib.  He slept with us for a few nights because I was so freaked out about him climbing out again, but my sleep was too compromised and I purchased a crib tent.  So far it's OK.  It definitely keeps him in, but he kinda hates it.  He screams for a bit before giving up and passing out.  I talked to the Dr. about this and she said it's the safest way to go.  She said that a 18 month old can't be in a big kid bed yet for safety reasons.  We can't sleep with him because he kicks us all night long and also wants to nurse every 3 hours like a newborn.  It would be awesome if he just didn't fight bedtime so much.

I'm still nursing little guy and he shows absolutely no sign of weaning.  I actually think he's getting more attached.  There are moments when I love nursing and will be SO sad when it's over, and then there's other moments when he's pulling on my shirt and grabbing my boob out of my bra when I could be A-ok with no more nursing.  We'll see what happens this next month.

Ryder LOVES swimming and he's really good.  I'm impressed with his skill level at this age.  The girls were scared of the pool and would cling to us in the water.  Ryder is a little daredevil that jumps off the steps and can hold his breath for so long.  We have to watch him 24/7 because he'll just jump off the edge, even if no one is there to grab him.  He's such a little fish and it's been a fun summer swimming with him.

Here is our little baby boy after I tried putting him in a sleep sack and he screamed and yelled until I got him out of his crib.  He fell asleep in our bed that night and I couldn't resist taking a photo of him sleeping the next morning.