Ryder plays catch

So this is a little video of Ryder playing catch. He actually gets the concept---you sit across from him and toss the ball in his lap and he will try to throw it back to you. He totally loves playing catch and will seriously do it for like 10-15 minutes (which in baby world is a long time to be entertained by something like that!) Sometimes he has a really good throw, but he's still learning his motor skills because sometimes he doesn't let go at the right time because the ball will go straight down or even backwards. So cute!!

Ryder's girlfriend

Last night, the Starkey clan came over for dinner and to hang out for awhile. We hadn't seen them in months, so it was really nice to catch up with everyone. I had to post these pictures below because they are too funny!

Ari giving Ryder a smooch :)

I love the shocked look on Ryder's face in this picture....maybe he's not quite ready for first base yet....ahahaha

Thanks for coming out Teri, Eric, and Ari!!

Baby's First Christmas!

We had a wonderful first Christmas with Ryder. Lots of family time, laughs, and of course: presents! We found out this year that Ryder is now at the start of the age of BIG toys. I swear, everything we got came in a GIANT box!!

Anyways, we headed up to the Haskins' cabin in Park Rapids on Wednesday afternoon. It's so nice and cozy up North at this time of year--worth the drive. We spent Christmas day opening gifts, eating appetizers and then headed off to church. First thing Christmas morning, we packed up and headed to Maple Grove and spent Christmas with my side of the family. It was so nice to see everyone...and again...Ryder was spoiled rotten (or, as Joe says endearingly "blessed not spoiled")!! Lots of gifts, but I think more kisses for him than anything. There are so many people on my mom's side that he's rotated from person to person. He did so well though, never complaining---even as he's cutting two teeth right now! He's such a good boy. Here are just a couple pictures for you all:

Our little santa!

The cozy fireplace at the Haskins' cabin.

Packed to the gills (mostly Ryder's gifts) on the way home.

I hope everyone else had a wonderful Christmas as well!!

No changes at physical therapy

We had Ryder's monthly PT appointment on Wednesday this week. Long story short, he has not gotten worse but he has not gotten better either. Also, since he still is just sitting and developmentally has not done anything different, Nancy (the therapist) said that there is not much we can do new until he progresses more. So we have the same exercises to do along with a few exercises that are new that are not aimed at strengthening his neck, but at getting him to progess developmental-wise. For instance, we are working with him on moving from sitting to all fours for crawling. We are also supposed to start working on him kneeling infront of the steps to start to strengthen those fat legs :) So for now, there are no changes, but at least he hasn't gotten any worse I guess.

Well everyone enjoy the weekend!! ...I work all.weekend.long. BOOOOOOO.

Family time

Every year after Christmas, my grandparents (my mom's parents) go to AZ for the Winter, so we were very happy that we were able to find a time that worked for both of us that they could come down to spend the night. See, the Johnson side of our family is rather large and they all fight over who gets to hold Ryder...he is so loved... So it was really nice that they were able to come down and spend some quality one-on-one time with him (and us too, of course). They came down yesterday around lunch time and stayed till Ryder's morning nap today. It was probably the sweetest thing ever that happened when they were leaving today. He was tired and was ready for his nap and when they were about the walk out the door, I came over so they could say bye one last time to Ryder and as my grandma reached over to kiss his cheek, Ryder leaned over to her with stretched out arms and as she scooped him up, he wrapped his little arms around her like he was giving her a hug. And then, my grandpa took him to give him one last kiss bye and he did the same thing to him where he wrapped his chubby arms around his shoulders and it looked like he was hugging him. It was so sweet, and I know they just loved it too!

Ryder and his Great Grandma Bunny

(I am pretty sure Ryder's head is almost bigger than Grandma's!)

Ryder and his Great Grandpa Bob

A little extra shot of Ryder as "The Tin Man" with a gas funnel on his head (don't worry, we just bought the gas funnel and it had never been used before...)

Baby dreams

The other day at my 3rd annual Christmas cookie decorating day with my girlfriends, we were discussing Ryder's sleep habits and it came up that sometimes he'll wake up in the middle of the night screaming bloody murder (the kind of cry he has when he gets his shots) but yet, his eyes are closed and he's not awake when you go in there. My friend Camille brought up the good question, "What could a baby possibly dream about?" I mean, they have so little experiences to draw upon. My answer was that he must have had a bad dream that all the milk dried up in mommy's boobs. That's my guess at least! Then this morning, Ryder woke up at 6am and cried and cried and even cried harder after I left the room when I gave him his paci (which usually he falls right back to sleep with the paci). So because I wasn't ready to get up yet, I brought Ryder in our bed with Joe and me (I always said I would NEVER do that...which I normally don't--infact that was only the second time I've ever done that...BUT, I've learned that you do what you have to do!) Anyways, Ryder fell right back to sleep the minute we put him between us and it was so cute, not long after he fell asleep, he started laughing in his sleep. It was so stinking cute, Joe and I were trying to be quiet as we laughed together over how sweet it was. My guess of what he was dreaming of: a room filled with boobs bursting full of milk :)

To answer the question of whether or not babies dream, and more importantly, to find evidence supporting my theory that babies dream of boobs and milk....I took to google.com! I found out that babies spend 2x as much of their sleep cycles in the REM (rapid eye movement) stage of sleep, which is when humans dream. Experts say it's safe to assume babies dream, but unfortunately, we 'll never know what they dream about since they obviously are unable to tell us. Here's a cute little article blurb that I found, and I couldn't agree more with the author! (taken from parentdish.com)

"Babies dream," says Dr. Charles P. Pollak, director of the Center for Sleep Medicine at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell hospital in the New York Times.
....because infants have REM sleep," Dr. Pollack says, "it is a well-based inference that babies are dreaming in REM sleep."....
But what do babies dream about? Dr. Pollard does not even hazard to guess. Dr. Pollak says that asking him what babies dream about "is like asking whether your pet dog or cat is dreaming, because they can't communicate, and you can't ask. We presume that infants dream infantile things, but we don't really know what it is that they dream." My old dog used to bark while she dreamed and her feet would move like she was running. Clearly she was dreaming about what she spent 80 percent of her day thinking about (chasing squirrels). I will state on the record that my baby dreams about nipples. Gigantic pink nipples atop rapturous breasts....

The article continues for a short while after that, but I laughed right out loud when I read the above bolded sentence. I laughed simply because I totally agree that was what Ryder was thinking about this morning when laughing happily in his sweet, sweet baby sleep :)

We feel dumb....

A couple of weeks ago, our neighbor knocked on our door and handed us an invite to a neighborhood Christmas party. When we answered the door, I was holding Ryder and our neighbor said, "yeah, bring the little guy if you'd like". So we automatically assumed that it was a family Christmas party and that everyone was bringing their kids. The party started at 7pm (which I did find odd considering most people in the neighborhood have young kids...) so we had ryder take a late afternoon nap so he could stay up later than his usual 7pm bedtime. When the wife answered the door and saw all three of us standing there, she looked a tad surprised but welcomed us.

Instantly I felt like an idiot as I looked around and saw that our neighbors were all there and there were NO children. Yeah, sweet. So everyone was asking us if we got a babysitter for after he went to bed, etc. Joe and I basically were like, uhhhh....no. So I went home at 8pm and put ryder to bed and am sitting here writing this blog entry about feeling dumb (thanks neighbor guy). Joe is still next door visiting with neighbors and then in about a half hour, I'm going BACK over there (since i was only there for 45 min in the first place) to play the games they had set up and visit--and joe will come back here and stay with Ryder.

How dumb. Especially considering we EASILY could have found a babysitter between both of our parents. My guess is that the neighbor guy who came over to give us the invite had no clue that his wife was probably telling people that it was adults only. I should have figured it out when I saw the party started at 7pm....whatever. Anyways, party etiquette is always so hard, especially when someone hands you an invite that has nothing written on the front as to who is invited (i.e. "The Haskins Family" vs "Joe and Carly Haskins") Oh well, what are you going to do.

Well I should probably call Joe so we can rotate. How dumb. (can you tell I'm annoyed??)

On a positive note: my girls are all coming over tomorrow for santa exchange/cookie decorating/vikes game. Yaaahooooooo!

Lazy??

After discussing how I never want to work I asked Joe tonight, "When did I get so lazy?!?" I used to have such good work ethic and was always about working hard. But his reply is just one of the many reasons why I love him so much. He said, "you're not lazy, your priorities have changed." Ahhh, so good that he can make me feel better about never wanting to work

In a way, I guess he is right (or at least that is what I'm telling myself so I feel better about it! haha). I mean, I work hard when it comes to family, ryder, the home, etc. And that is not easy work!! I used to think that stay at home moms didn't do much, but until you actually live it...you dont know! I couldn't imagine working full time AND having to run a family--that's like two full time jobs. Kudos to the women out there who do both!! It makes me really appreciate my mom. I do come from a family where my mom always worked when I was growing up, so I always thought that was just how it was and how it would always be. I feel very fortunate that I am able to work so part time and stay home most days with Ryder. Just another reason to thank the Good Lord and his many blessings :)

Speaking of blessings....