11 Months Old

It's been a mobile month!  In the past few weeks, Ryan started crawling! Even though he can do it correctly using both knees, he still prefers to use only his left knee and his right foot to propel himself forward. He is getting pretty fast--in just a few seconds, he can go from the living room all the way across the kitchen, straight to the dog dish! Yes, he has had a taste of Nika's dog food, but luckily I fished it out before he actually chewed.

Ryan has become a little pickier in trying solid foods. He still loves his baby food in jars and doesn't really appreciate the new textures of "real" food. So far, he hates wheat toast, scrambled egg yolk, most vegetables-especially cauliflower, pears, and mandarin oranges. All of these things he has thrown from his tray, scraped off his tongue, screamed in protest, and otherwise shown his displeasure.  Thankfully he still loves Cheerios, bagels, peaches and watermelon. He refused to close his mouth when I tried to feed him some potatoes on Saturday, but scarfed down the leftover tonight, so maybe it's a matter of hunger vs. motivation.  He is getting better at using a sippy cup--it's still a mess over his chin and down his chest, but at least he's figured out how to hold and tip the cup.

Ryan continues to nap usually twice a day. The formula for a happy boy seems to be a 1.5 hour nap in the morning and a 1.5 hour nap in the afternoon. If he skips his afternoon nap, he is very crabby at night.  He is usually in bed between 8:15 and 8:45 which I know is really too late for him, but logistically it is how we can get supper, a walk, a bath, a bottle, books and goodnight in after I get home from work.  Tonight he fell asleep on a walk at 7:45 and couldn't be roused for a bath, so he's currently in bed, having skipped the rest of the routine. Hopefully he'll still sleep until 6:30am!

Ryan loves to walk/run holding on to our fingers, especially if we are chasing Nika around! He can pull himself up on furniture, his toy chest, bookcase, the wall, and the dishwasher, but he rarely side-steps to move along it. We discovered tonight that he can also crawl up stairs!  He likes to go up to the loveseat to bother Nika by grabbing her ears or playing with her paws.

Ryan likes books most of the time and I've been rotating out board books checked out from the library. He loves to play Peekaboo, especially if you hide behind the wall and jump out when he crawls around the corner. I'll do just about anything to hear him laugh! He still loves his tractor and can put blocks into the shaped holes. It's fun to watch him discover how to push buttons, shut doors, turn knobs, and throw balls (and toys, food, his sippy cub, his bib, et. al)

Ryan has been displaying a bit of an attitude this month, such as throwing a fit if you put him down or aren't paying attention to him, covering his ears when you tell him "no" for reaching for the dog dish or the lamp cord, and sweeping food he doesn't like off his high chair tray. But overall, he's a pretty sweet kid and we love him to pieces!

(Double click pictures to enlarge)