Catching Up

I try hard not to compare Ryker to other kids but I usually fail two or three times a day. It’s just that Ryker is a super cute, handsome, and happy baby with the best smile and whose teachers love him more than the other kids at school (see, I can’t help it). Comparing Ryks to other kids only became a problem when I started to worry that Ryker wasn’t crawling yet. After all, his cousins and friends started crawling around six months only to start walking between seven and nine months. Ryks is almost eight months and hates tummy time, won’t roll over, and doesn’t want to crawl. So we spent time this last weekend trying to get Ryker to crawl. Predictably, this was a failure. However, after looking at the milestone chart in the baby-first-year book, I learned that not only should parents not compare their kids to others (nothing like learning a lesson over and over again), but Ryks is doing great. He can stand holding on to someone, throws a fit if you take something away from him, plays peekaboo, claps his hands (thanks Grandma Robertson!), passes toys from one hand to another, responds to people talking to him, and says “mama” and “dada” indiscriminately. And he now has four teeth!

I love how these little things amount to so much when we think about how much he is growing! Speaking of which, Ryks is now 25 pounds and wearing 18 month pants. You’ll notice the awesome rolls on his legs in the pictures below. I love chubby babies!

And thanks to Aunt Shelley and Uncle Dave for Ryker’s Vancouver 2010 shirt! He wore it to a party on Friday night for the opening ceremonies and everyone loved it! He looked adorable!

Graham and I are doing great. Graham is back in school working on his other degree. I think managing such an aggressive school schedule, working full time, spending time with Ryks, and then having to deal with me makes Graham the husband and father of the year. I am so impressed with everything he does. Graham was even a superstar when I had to go out of town for work. I hated being away from my family but Graham and Ryker sent me videos and photos every day making the first time I was away from Ryks manageable.

Nigel and Kylie are still doing great. Like us, they are excited for the crappy weather to move out so we can play outside more often. Meanwhile, they continue to be sneaky in their attempts to sleep on beds and couches while we are at work. I guess they will always be puppies.

Next month we head to Oregon to visit Grandma and Grandpa Weddick. I’m already getting excited at the thought of Ryker getting to spend time with them (and the thought of Graham not having school for an entire week).

Enjoy these pictures – next time we’ll include more of the dogs, Gray, and me.