Ryan 7 Months

This post is about 2 weeks late. It has been a busy two weeks! I cant believe Ryan is 7 1/2 months already and he is learning so many new things...

It is near to impossible to get a picture with the blocks where I place them!

 Some of his new skills...
Rolling over from his back to his belly. He has been rolling from his belly to his back for some time now, but he finally figured out how to get back.

He is talking up a storm! "Bababa and dadada" are his new favorite things to say and blowing raspberries at anyone who will listen.

A new tooth! His first tooth appeared last week and he did pretty well. A little fussier than normal thats to be expected.

He is such a sweet boy and we are so blessed to have him in our lives!

Our Trip to KC

This month Ryan and I got to go to Kansas City to visit my family while Josh was TDY. It was so much fun to visit my home church and see my family. On Saturday, Josh's sister Heather and came to visit, since she lives close. Unfortunately I don't think I got any pictures of her with Ryan :( Sunday, we went to see my family where Ryan got his first taste of sweet - which he Loved! Although I'm not sure he actually drank any since it all dribbled out of his mouth. 

On Tuesday, we had dinner at my grandparents house and got to visit with more family. Each time they see Ryan he is so different from the last time! 

On Wednesday, I was able to have lunch with a dear friend from high school and her sweet little boy. 

Rachel and Lucas showing Ryan how to play in the play area!

Thursday was Valentines day and Ryan store everyone's hearts.

I am so blessed to have so many opportunities to see my family even though we live apart. We cherish our time together and as always take LOTS of pictures!

Bath time at Grandma's house

Valentine's Day and a New Tooth

This year for Valentine's Day, Josh had to go TDY (aka on a business trip) so Ryan and I decided to go home and spend the week with my family. We were sad to not be able to spend the day together but I"m thankful it's only for a week and we will be able to celebrate a different day.

Ryan and me smiling for a picture for Josh (daddy).

Ryan giving Aunt Steph Valentine kisses

Ryan made us Valentine Cards with some help from Aunt Steph. I am so blessed to have such a wonderful family to create these memories for us!

My Valentine

I found this cute onesie at Target and thought it would be perfect for his first Valentine's day. He didn't wear it for long so we didn't get a great picture but we thought it was cute. 

Ryan and I spent the day relaxing and hanging out with Grandma and Aunt Steph and Aunt Rhonda, and my cousins Alyssa and Lindsey.

In other news... Ryan has a tooth! Of course Aunt Steph, the dental hygienist found it first - I had no idea. You can just barely feel it but it's there. No wonder he's had a runny nose and has been drooling and chewing on EVERYTHING. We've been expecting it since he turned 7 months last week (a post about that is coming soon) but its exciting to finally see one coming. He has been learning so many new things and we are excited at what is to come!

Daily Bible Reading

Reading my Bible everyday is something I tend to forget about doing. I will be really consistent for about a week but something always comes up and for some reason it's usually the first thing to go when we get busy. So, one of my goals this year is to read my Bible more and to learn it so that when situations or questions arise I know where to find the answers. One of the hardest things for me is deciding what to read. Some books are honestly quite boring and some I really enjoy and read over and over; but the whole Bible is important and can teach us. Before Christmas, my Bible study leader gave us a new Bible reading system and challenged us to try it. It was developed by Professor Grant Horner and is designed to help you read across the Bible and to get a glimpse of the Bible as a whole. It consists of reading one chapter from ten different books each day. This keeps it interesting so you don’t have to read an entire book in one sitting. I have really enjoyed reading my Bible as a whole instead of always reading the New Testament or the same books in the Old Testament and I'm looking forward to reading through my Bible throughout the rest of the year.

http://www.challies.com/sites/all/files/attachments/professor-grant-horners-bible-reading-system.pdf

Sleeping, Sickness, and Solid Food!!

I can’t believe it’s already February!. January was a busy month for us. We tried sleep training Ryan, which was going really well, until he got sick, and we also began introducing more solid food on a regular basis.

I decided to start sleep training Ryan around the second week of January. He has never been a good sleeper; he usually wakes anywhere from 2-4 times at night and was only taking 30ish minute naps. I was spending a good 30 minutes nursing him to sleep each night only for him to wake up 30-40 minutes later and wanting to nurse back to sleep again. It was taking up a good chunk of our evening and the time Josh and I have to spend together. So, we decided to try to sleep train. We went with a modified version of “Cry it out” because it had been pretty successful for nap times. The first night he cried for about 20 minutes, and woke up quite a few times that night, but by the end of the week he was falling asleep on his own for naps and bedtime and he was sleeping for longer stretches!

Two weeks later, we had a wave of sickness in our house. Josh and Ryan both got colds and Ryan wasn’t sleeping well at all. I did a lot more rocking and cuddling and one night he slept with me so he could be upright to help him breath better. Needless to say, we got sidetracked on the sleep training. So here we are in February, he’s still not consistently sleeping through the night, but sometimes he surprises me and I wake up to my alarm clock instead of crying.

We also began introducing more solids and he loves eating dinner with us and being a part of that family time. He loves sweet potatoes, peas, and apples. We have enjoyed recording some of his reactions to different foods. I will leave you with a video of him trying pears from a jar. I think they were a little sour for him!