15 Months Old

My little cheeser! 

"Playing" Wii with Brody.

 Coloring...

He loves Dexter so much!

Ryker is 15 months old today!  My little man is growing up too fast.  He's learning something new everyday.  It seems like only yesterday that he was a tiny little newborn letting me cuddle with him as he would fall asleep on my chest.  Those days are sadly over, but I absolutely love the age he's at right now too.

Even though he's not as cuddly as he used to be, he is still a mama's boy.  I'm not complaining at all.  He'll still cuddle at bedtime while I'm reading him books and rocking him, but throughout the day he is busy, busy, busy.  I cannot take my eyes off him for a minute.  He is a climber!  I can't believe I already have to worry about it.  Brody was never a climber and so this is new to me and he seems really young to be climbing on EVERYTHING!  I turn my back for one minute and he's on Brody's bed trying to climb onto his nightstand to turn his lamp on.  Another time I found him on Brody's train table.  He can climb onto the couch and dining room chairs.  The only thing that gives me a little comfort is that he does really well getting down/off whatever he climbs on.  This surprises me too.  He can come down the stairs like a champ and he can get off the couch really well too.

My Ryker D. is such a sweet and friendly little boy.  He acts shy sometimes and will put his chin down and look down and act shy, but once he warms up he is so friendly and will just smile non-stop.  Even at complete strangers.  We get comments all the time about his smile.  It is so contagious.  Sometimes I wonder if his cheeks are always sore because of how much he smiles.  He often makes little short laugh noises while he smiles too that just make my heart melt.  I hope he is always this happy throughout his life.  He makes everyone around him happy and in a good mood as well.  Someone can be having a really rough day and he'll smile at them, and no matter what, that person always can't help but smile back.  I love this about him.  I think this is one of the gifts he was given.  To be happy and to make others happy too.

He is also a little jabber mouth.  He can say, "more," "mama," "dada," "dede,"(Dexter), "da,"(Brody), "dat,"(what's that?), and "hi."  Everything else is just gibberish, but he thinks he can talk.  I love his sweet voice.  He still does a few signs.  I'll admit I haven't been as consistent with teaching him sign language, but he still seems to be able to communicate what he wants just fine.  I'm hoping with how much he tries to say that he'll be an early talker.  He'll still sign, "please," "thank you," "eat," and "grapes."  The sign for "grapes" is his go-to sign.  If I tell him to say something, he'll do that sign.  Haha.  It's pretty funny and it makes me wonder why he chose that one sign.

What once was my perfect eater has become quite picky.  He goes through spurts.  One day he'll eat everything in sight and everything I give him and the next he won't touch anything.  Oh well, he's gaining weight and that's all that matters.  He loves any fruit, especially grapes and blueberries.  He also loves raisins and granola bars as snacks.  His favorite breakfast is a muffin and yogurt.  He also has a big sweet tooth and will eat pretty much every dessert that is given to him.  He loves anything that has chocolate and ice cream.  Some things he's tried and hates are: broccoli, and green beans.  His two favorite vegetables are cucumbers and tomatoes.

Ryker loves to do anything that his big brother is doing.  He loves to wear a cape like Brody and pretend to shoot guns...(I know I'm a great mother...they're boys, what can I do?).  He also loves to play cars and trains.  He loves to sit on the couch with Brody and "play" Lego Batman on the Wii.  Brody loves it too.  He isn't actually playing of course, but Brody is such a good big brother and will randomly say to Ryker, "You are doing such a good job, Ryker.  You're playing video games with me."  Ryker will look at him and smile like he's so proud of himself and like he's so cool like his brother.

They have such a special bond.  I love that Ryker already looks up to him and wants to be just like him.  This is also good leverage for Brody when he's misbehaving.  He wants to be a good big brother...and he is.  The sharing is getting better and they play so well together.  They also like to gang up on me already.  They tackle me to the ground and "tickle" me.  They like to color together and run together.  I hope they can always be best friends and watch out for each other.  Just a little story:  I teach nursery at church and I have Ryker in there with me.  Jayson had picked Brody up and they came into the class while I was waiting for all the kids parents to come and pick them up.  One of the bigger nursery kids came and pushed Ryker down and was completely on top of him, smothering him and purposefully being mean to poor little Ryker.  Jayson whispered to Brody, "Are you gonna let that kid pick on your brother?"  Immediately Brody ran over and picked the kid off of Ryker and pushed him away.  Haha.  I shouldn't be prompting Brody to push other kids, but I know he would never let anything happen to Ryker even if we aren't around to see.


Happy 15 months Ryker!  We all love you more than you'll ever know!