Last night (at exactly 5 months to the day), I discovered that Ryan's first tooth has broken through. We felt that he has been working getting a tooth for the last few weeks, but there wasn't really a visible sign until now. I can feel it and see it. He is growing so fast! and gainng so much personality too.
I haven't had much time to work on a baby book for Ryan, so I plan to take notes here that I can eventually put into a book. n Seems he is developing so quickly that I'm afraid I will forget some of the magical moments. Some recent milestones...
Ryan started DILIGENTLY trying to sit up around 13 weeks...so cute to see him sitting in Mark's lap and fighting against leaning back. He has been getting stronger and stronger and now can pull himself into a seated position. He still topples over, but he is pretty close to sitting unasisted. It's so cool to see him sitting up in the boppy pillow and reaching for various toys.
Ryan arrived a big boy and has enjoyed eating every 2 hours since the beginning. With the support of our pediatrician, at 16 weeks, we started trying solids...it was a slow start. We started with rice cereal in the mornings and worked on it about 3 weeks before he really got the hang of it and started enjoying it. Then we started adding fruits and vegetables. We started with carrots and I have to say they were not an instant hit. As recommended by the experts, we stuck with carrots for 4 days and then moved on to pears. After the first exposure, we have given most things 3 days then moved on. The pears were not a huge success either. I tasted them and thought surely I can do better! I made homemade pear sauce and Ryan really loved it. It was about this time that, at the advice of our pediatrician, we added oatmeal. So Ryan gets rice cereal in the morning with fruit and oatmeal in the evening with a vegetable. This seems backwards, but the doctor said that the oatmeal should be more filling and possibly help him to sleep longer. (this hasn't proven to be the case so far) Next we tried greenbeans...these were better than carrots, but it wasn't instant love. Then we tried bananas. Again, I tried the organic gerber bananas and was very disapointed by the taste and Ryan certainly didn't love it. We tried mashing a fresh banana, but that didn't go over very well either. Next we had homemade sweet potatoes. This was a better success. Ryan enjoyed the sweet potatoes! After a visit to a local orchard, I made applesauce with honey crisps apples. Yummy! Avocado has good natural fat in it and is filling, so we gave that a try...Ryan thought it was ok, but it's too difficult to keep it fresh when he is only consuming a couple of table spoons at the time. Sweet peas are definitely out. We have been trying the gerber organic sweet peas, but Ryan actually cringes with every bite. He trimbles all over and looks like he is going to gag. After 3 days of this, we have put peas on the back burner for a while. It's been interesting to watch his reactions and discover his likes and dislikes.
Our little party animal still likes to stay up late and sleep late. We continue to try new things to "develop a bedtime routine", but nothing seems to make a difference. He likes to get a 15 minute power nap about 9:00 and then he is up until 11:30 or later. He will be very alert and happy. We've even tried keeping him awake at the usual power nap time in hopes of moving his bedtime to 10:00 - as a starting point to get him to bed even earlier- but even that didn't work. He has finally gotten to where he likes bath time and wants to play with his rubber duck in the tub, but that didn't do much to establish a bedtime either. He is cute talking to the baby in the mirror during his bath though.
Ryan and I have been making a game out of "want Mama to get you?" (pick you up) for quite a while and he has always had a fun response. He eventually (eventually? at about 11 weeks) he started putting his hands in mine and then I would pick him up. Now he is really animated...he bounces and lifts his little arms to me. The "get me Mama" look can certainly melt the heart! He is so adorable! Mark sits in an arm chair with him in our family room and allows Ryan to stand between him and the arm of the chair. Ryan loves it, because he can lean against the arm of the chair and look around the room with some sense of freedom. The other night I was coming down the stairs into the family room and Ryan was there with Mark watching me enter the room. He bolt up right, bouncing and raised his arms up. Wow! That stopped me in my tracks and I of course put down what I was carrying, picked him up immediately and showered him with kisses. Precious moments!
Ryan initiated a game of "peek-a-boo"...
I could go on and on, but I'll end for now.
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