We are blessed.

I can't believe Ryder is 14 months old. He is beyond a bundle of joy and we are so blessed to be Ryder's parents. He is constantly cracking us up. Here's what's going on:

• Ryder loves brushing his teeth but instead of moving his toothbrush back and forth, he shakes his hips. He has both teeth next to his top front teeth coming in (slowly).
• Ryder can't help but to smile from ear to ear and do the hand motions when we sing him the Itsy Bitsy Spider.
• He LOVES to dance and clap. Anytime we sing to him or music comes on we'll catch Ryder clapping his hands and shaking his little bottom. SO cute!
• When we ask him "where are your chompers?" Ryder will point to his teeth. He also knows ears.
• He's a big fan of pointing.
• He drops things just to say "uh oh".
• I'm pretty sure MeMe & PawPaw's house is one of his favorite places to go.
• At work, he loves taking walks to feed the ducks. Ryder has become quite good at throwing the ducks food.
• Ryder no longer is afraid of the grass...he is all over the place when we go outside to play.
• The kid can eat! For breakfast he'll eat a 1/2 cup of grapes, 1/2 a banana, 1 large scrambled egg and yogurt! He'll sit in his high chair for up to 30 minutes just eating away. He must have a pretty good metabolism because he's barely 20 lbs.
• When he starts to run/walk fast he throws his hands up.
• Ryder is constantly smiling (not a new thing).
• He loves playing with his picture cards.
• Ryder gets into everything!!! If cabinet opens; he'll be in it.
• He's such a good helper. Loves to close the dishwasher door, give the dogs bones and throw stuff away.
• The last 2 Sunday's we've dropped him off to the church nursery, he's gone open armed to the nursery worker (who he's never met)...a big change from the crying.
• Ryder loves picking up leaves, rocks, etc and collecting them.
• He loves trips to the zoo. The animals make him laugh.
• Poor guy has allergies so he's had a runny noise for weeks.
• He had his first trip to the ER a few weeks ago. The whole family got a REALLY bad stomach bug (first Logan, then Kyle, then Ryder, then me and finally my mom). I took him because I was worried about dehydration; he wasn't keeping down anything, hadn't had a wet diaper and was super lethargic. We got there around 1pm and he already seemed to be doing better than he was at home. They gave him some medicine and I gave him 5ml of fluid every 1-5 minutes until he had a wet diaper (at 5pm).
• He LOVES to play outside on his new climber/slides. He's only had them for about a week and he is a pro at climbing up and sliding down on his own. He'll clap for himself as he's about to go down and when he gets to the ground.

Ryder is seriously one of the happiest toddlers. We look forward to every day with him.

Playing with mama's necklace. (Finally able to wear necklaces again!)
"Helping" daddy with the dog house.

Big smiles for my big boy.