Ryder 8 months

Ryder is 8 months old now!  He is the happiest baby.  I love it!  He smiles and laughs all the time.  We have so much fun with this little guy.  Dalton especially loves playing with Ryder lately.  He can really get him cracking up.

Ryder has started army crawling all over the place!  He is really strong.  He gets any where he wants to go now.  His favorite place to crawl is to the curtains on the patio door.  He loves to play in them.  I love to watch him try to "catch" the light reflecting on the wood floors with his hands.  It makes me smile. 

He can sit up alone really well now but he still prefers to be "on the move" on his tummy.  He loves crawling and rolling around everywhere.  It always surprises me where he ends up from where I set him down.  He can really cover some distance.  

One time Ryder crawled in a space between the couch and the rocker and got stuck.  He wasn't complaining at all but Brooks was in the high chair and noticed Ryder was stuck.  Brooks was so upset!  He started yelling, "Mom, Ryder stuck, Ryder stuck!  Help! Help!"  I thought it was so cute.  He really does love his brother. :)

Ryder's hair really started growing in more this month.  It looks so cute.  It is still pretty dark and he is keeping those blue eyes so far. Yay! :)  

I think Ryder is such a chunk but he is 50th percentile for height and weight.  I guess his round face and chubby cheeks make him look bigger than he is. He's funny when he sees something he wants he just goes for it even if it is far away.  There is no stopping him when he has an eye on something.     He is very strong and wiggly; when I hold him he will try to reach for something and practically jump out of my arms to get it.  I really have to hold him tightly or I'll lose my hold on him.

Ryder loves his bottles.  He is good about letting Ashby or even Dalton feed him the bottle.  He likes holding his blanket while he eats too.  Especially playing with the white tag on the blanket.  That is his favorite.  I love to snuggle him when he eats.  It is the best!
He has also been loving the baby food in the highchair.  He is a good little eater and quite efficient too. He downs a jar in no time at all.  Some of his favorites are rice cereal mixed with bananas, applesauce, pears, squash, and sweet potatoes.  I need to try more green veggies with him.  He seems to like it all.  

We also tried the Gerber puffs finger food with him.  He wasn't too sure at first and would just gag when he put them in his mouth.  Even though they would just dissolve.  A couple more tries and now he seems to really like them.  It is still weird to see him sitting in a high chair.  Especially since Brooks still eats in the high chair too. I guess we will have to move Brooks to the big table pretty soon. :)  Either that or become a 2 high chair family.  Yikes!

We finally moved Ryder into a crib in his own room this month.  He was sleeping in our closet in a playpen up until now.   It has been going good.  His naps were a little harder for him for a couple of days.  He never used to cry for naps or bedtime now he will cry every now and then for a minute.  He is still doing 3 naps a day (2 hours for the first two and 1 hr-1.5 hrs for the last nap of the day).  He has still been sleeping 7pm-7am.  It is a great little schedule he is on.  

I love this stage so much.  Ryder is so interactive and playful.  He really likes playing with toys and he is so fun to be with.  I love snuggling him and kissing his chubby cheeks.   When I give him kisses he leans his head into me like he really likes it.  It is so cute.