9 Months

We have a crawling baby! Ryan learned how to crawl at 8.5 months.  He was pretty awkward for a couple weeks as he was scooting around.  He would mostly lunge forward again and again to get places.  Then, he started figuring out he could move his legs too, and so he began a more "proper" crawl.  Once his arms and legs started getting in sync, he took off quickly! Now, he can buzz down the hallway at our house, in and out of rooms, following our voices to try and find us. 

Also, we have both boys now sharing a room.  The first two weeks were a bit rough at bedtime.  We tried putting the boys down together for bedtime.  Ryan would scream when we put him down, and so Clay would get out of bed again and again letting us know he had to use the bathroom, that his stomach hurt, that he forgot to tell us something, then asking us what we were doing ... neither boy would settle down.  In the morning, I discovered that Clay was putting toys in his brother's crib, I'm guessing to try to soothe his little brother!  Then, I finally talked to my sister, Maile, who suggested I try putting down Ryan first, and then Clay.  This worked amazingly! We first put down Ryan around 6:45 pm.  Then, we read a story (or two ) to Clay.  Clay goes to bed around 7:00 pm, and amazingly at that time Ryan has already fallen asleep.  Clay is much more inclined to stay put in his bed it seems when there's not a screaming baby in his room as well.  So, we're slowly getting the hang of these kids.

We've also been venturing into putting Clay to bed without pull-ups.  The other night, Clay said to me that he wanted to go to bed without pull-ups.  I know this is a good sign, and so I was very positive and encouraging to Clay's suggestion.  Well, it has been a whole week of bed-wetting, and our positive parenting attitude is starting to diminish at each 2:00 am waking/bed stripping.  Just last night though, I actually picked Clay up out of bed at 1:00 am and placed him on the toilet.  He sort of slept through the midnight peeing in the toilet.  But then this morning he woke up without peeing the bed!  I think we'll just take last night as a win and hope we're on our way.

Good morning Ryan!

I couldn't do a blog post in May without mentioning our beautiful fence and all of the hard work and time Luke has put in! My sister in law's brother, Kenny, drove up from Marin County to do the fence.  Luke ordered all of the wood from a lumber company in Oakland through my brother. Luke also spent so many hours mapping out the fence, and I am so happy with his vision.  

Who knew a fence could be so fun.  I guess that's what adulthood brings - joy for fences. 

 

We ordered the metal wire panels from a company down near Los Angeles.  It was a bit of a gamble to order $1,000 of material from Ishmael, from a company that we've never heard of that we randomly found on a google search. But, everything ended up being fine: attentive customer service and we are very happy with the wire we received.  As soon as that semi-truck signaled left onto our gravel driveway to drop off the pallet of wire mesh, we knew we had success!

Kenny and Luke have such great attention to detail!

I'm trying to get one picture of the boys both smiling.  Clay isn't helping here with sticking his tongue out.

Ryan won't sit still.  Clay is giving me a weird smile.

Eyes open please. Look at me please.  Stop moving.

I thought putting Ryan in Clay's lap would be better...

That didn't work.

Then, I tried taking off Ryan's clothes because, well, he has such a cute belly and I thought taking a break from photos would help.  But, by that time Clay had enough picture taking.

Then, Clay decided he would give me one last smile. Ryan said he wouldn't give me a smile, and that he would only briefly look at my camera, and that was going to be it.

Cantaloupe by the pool!

PB&J sandwich picnic!

8 months

The months are flying by, and after such a wet winter we are getting excited as the weather warms.  In April, we made a special trip up to Skappoose, Oregon to see the Kessi family.  Clay was in cousin heaven, and attached himself to Kate's hip for the weekend.  We had a blast seeing their new home, exploring their hometown and then venturing into Portland for an adults only outing.  

On Ryan news, he still isn't crawling at 8 months, but he is definitely scooting around.  As mobility opens up his world, he is becoming more and more curious.  Ryan will sit and entertain himself for long periods of time, which allows me to do things like make dinner, or hang out with Clay.  All that Ryan needs is a wooden spoon and a metal whisk and he can amaze himself with the clank and banging of the utensils.  It's so cute!

On the food front, he's eating everything.  He loves bananas, sweet potatoes and waffles.  

I'm still nursing him, but less and less.  Ryan seems to prefer bottles, which is understandable since it's easier to drink out of a bottle.  As his mother though, I feel guilty that I'm away from him so much that he doesn't prefer to nurse.  For about a week, he completely refused to nurse.  I continued to pump at least three times a day.  After his nursing strike, he resumed to nursing in the morning and sometimes in the evening as well.  I keep telling myself that I should be happy that he's at least getting some milk!

Clay is hilarious, and he continues to bring Luke and I joy every day.  He says he wants to be a baseball player when he grows up.  But, he also says his favorite color is pink, and so I'm not too worried that he's feeling masculine pressure here in the country. :)

We left at 4:30 am, and arrived sometime around 2:00 pm.  Clay got to watch 9 hours of movies, and so he was thrilled with the car ride.  Ryan was less enthused, but I had lots of snacks so he was a good sport.  As soon as we arrived, we took a walk around the neighborhood to get our Skappoose orientation.

The Kessi backyard is fantastic!  The green grass yard backs up to a creek.  The kids played until the sun went down and came inside muddy and dirty, as they should.

Annie is getting ready to be a big sister herself!

Clay really loved being one of the kids for the weekend.  

We went into Portland one day for a kids outing and ended up here, at this amazing play structure.

Of course Uncle Luke had to play catch with Will, who is really competitive, just like Luke. 

These three quietly played for a really long time outside making a river on the side of Mary's house.

We were able to leave the kids with Pat's parents for an afternoon to sneak into Portland for lunch.  We also got to see Pat's Lake Oswego project, which was extremely impressive! I can't wait to see the end product.

Look at Pat's project in the background! I asked Pat if he would save a luxury condo for Steidlmayer family visits.  I think he said no. 

I think Ryan is wondering where all of the kids are.

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