Sunday, November 23, 2008

It's a new season

Last night we WERE going to go to the Christmas tree lighting at the domain. Big out door event, light the tree, music, fireworks, shopping, etc. So we got all dressed in our warm, cute clothes, all ready, Christmas music in the car and everything, and we headed out. We get a couple miles from the domain and the traffic stops. We sit there for about an hour just trying to get to the area. uhhhggg. So finally we realize this is a bad idea. If we did even get in & parked we'd never get out. (I had no idea everyone in Austin was going!) So while driving around deciding what to do we saw a Freebird burrito - and that was it. We said, forget it let's just eat a burrito and call it a night! :) For all Ryder knew that's what we were going to do in the first place! Plus, we left Freebirds just in time to watch the fireworks. And unlike 4th of July when he fell asleep he was SO into these! As we were watching I found myself watching HIM and not the fireworks. I didn't even care to see the fireworks, I just wanted to see his reaction! It made me think about the coming holidays and how this year it's going to be all about watching him experience things for the first time. It's a new season... literally. So here are are at Freebird - Ryder has a new vest! :)



And this morning at church Ryder helped Daddy run sound while mommy sang- is this not the sweetest picture ever!?!

Friday, November 21, 2008

Baby Food!

Several people have asked me about making baby food. So I thought I'd do a little blog about it. I try to make most of Ryder's baby food at home with organic veggies. I heard of people doing that before I had him and thought it was crazy and a waste of time. It's actually very easy, very simple, and VERY cheap. I am not all crazy against using a jar of baby food though, we buy jars here and there for travel and such. Ryder's been eating ALL kinds of things and so far he's liked everything! He loves avocados & bananas - and they are the easiest. So this is kinda how it goes...
Frozen organic peas ($2.00): cook in the microwave or boil

blend:

Ryder sits and watches and drinks water from his sippy cup - look what a big boy! :)

Butternut squash ($2-$3): roasting in the oven

pull the inside out and stick in the blender:

Most of the time I just use it fresh for the week or so. Sometimes I freeze the food in ice cubes, then just pop it out and microwave it when needed and it looks like this:

So there you have it... Baby food. a la cuisine!

On another note - I've started working for IWL (Interactive Worship Live) doing admin/publishing stuff from home a few hours a week. This is the same company Daniel does editing stuff for. It's been a little process getting in the groove with Ryder, I'm learning to value nap time! :) Wednesday I was really trying to get a few things done and Ryder just wouldn't slow down! We were in the guest room while I was trying to print some stuff out, do stuff online and talk on the phone. I had toys all over the floor, but that was not what he wanted. At one point he was drumming on the printer, at one point he was trying to crawl in Rocky's crate and at one point I look down to see this...

By the time I grabbed the camera he was on his way out, at first all I saw was feet! :)

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

So over the weekend we made a little trip home so that Daniel could paint his parent's house for them. So while he painted Saturday Ryder and I hung out. We had the girls over for breakfast, then went to Northpark with Mimi & Poppy before coming back to get ready for Dinner Under the Cedars. Grandmommie & Grandma of course had to stop in and get a quick minute with Ryder too. :) I didn't take a bunch of pics, but did take a few. Apparently Ryder discovered his TONGUE this weekend. All weekend he was sticking it out. People kept asking, "What's the deal with the tongue?!?" Notice it's sticking out in 3 of these pictures!! He also started REALLY crawling - video to come! :)
Ryder & Mimi:


Ryder & Grandma

Dinner under the cedars is the Mesquite Historic Society's (where Daniel's mom works) annual fundraiser dinner. It's outside in a tent at the Lawrence house and it happened to be very cold Saturday night! Ryder was all bundled up...


THIS is what the tongue looked like all weekend! :P



Sunday we went to church with Daniel's family for C life's first service in the new building, had lunch with the family, Daniel finished up the painting and then we hit the road. It was a quick & busy, but good weekend!

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

My nap problem...

THIS is what Ryder is doing right now... Napping, good right? Except he's in MY bed. I am not winning the nap war. I am a self admitted sucker. But he takes such nice long naps in my bed! He sleeps in his bed fine at night - usually from 8-8, great I know. But for some reason (well, many reasons, several of them my fault) he does not nap well in his own bed. THIS is what he does... Last week I decided I was gonna play hard ball and I let him cry for 40 mins, then rocked him for 20 more till he crashed, and I've done close to that several days. But I do not have the patience for that most day - thus, he's in my bed today. Bad mommy. On another note he is SO extremely close to taking off crawling. He took a tiny little move on his own yesterday and did learn how to get back up on his own now too. He's already scooting all around and getting all over the house doing the army crawl. I took a little video I need to post (since I never posted a 7 month video!) so I'll work on that. But here are some pics of him in action playing and scooting - almost crawling.

Notice his big new book below, thank you aunt Renita - he LOVES this book! :)

Sunday, November 2, 2008

The little Sweet Pea

We've had a busy weekend! For halloween I of course wanted to dress Ryder up for no reason really except that dressing up a baby is the funnest thing every! (Yes, I know 'funnest' is not the correct word! Funniest would work there too though!) Ryder was a SWEETPEA! (A pea in a pod) Thursday we went to story time at the library and for this week everyone came in costume! It was HILARIOUS. Just think of 30 babies around Ryder's age all in the floor in costumes. Most couldn't move very well and couldn't stop staring at each other either. We sang and played and had a good time. Ryder seriously couldn't move (cause his legs were stuck together like a mermaid!) so he really just sat and took in all in. Here we are...


Ryder and his buddies from church


So then Friday Poppy came to visit! Mimi was going to a conference in AZ and Daniel was going to the deer lease on Saturday, so my daddy came to hang out with me and Ryder and watch Ryder while I worked Saturday. So Poppy got in on all the action. We didn't really have anything to do, but we of course had to dress Ryder up to take some pictures. And we did take him by to see a few people on our way to and from dinner! So we figured we might as well put Rocky in his pumpkin outfit too! Ryder seemed to like it...

having a little chat with Rocky...

Poppy & the Pea



Really the funniest part of the costume is that it didn't fit. It was a 0-9 month, but it would not snap across him and as soon as I put it on one of the snaps came flying completely off! It was like a million degrees in it - AND at one point his foot came poking (through the material) out the bottom! ha! Oh well, it was worth the laughs and the pictures too!

Our little sweet pea!