Ryne 24 and 25 months

So this is supposed to be my last post [insert audible sigh].  I've been putting it off a little, partly because I feel I will miss it, and partly because I've been busy with my photography business, my house and my wild child!

Ryne is doing spectacularly well!  At his two-year well check he got  a good report:

Weight:  25lbs 2 oz (I think that one ounce was actually Blue Bear, which he refused to let go of)  - 25th percentile.  He's been little all this time, but is maintaining a good weight curve, so doctor P is pleased!

Height:  34 inches (50th percentile)

Head Circ: I can't remember the exact measurements but it was the 75% percentile.  The noggin is always the biggest!

It's hard to believe that two years prior (at birth) he was 5lbs and 17 3/4 inches! He is starting to grow a little.  He still wearing 9 month/12 month shorts mostly and 12 month and 18 month shirts.  I think he is about to grow out of his little size 5 shoes.  I wonder if he will get to 3T next summer?  2T and 3T seems so big when I hold them up at the store :(.

He is doing very well with potty training.  He's basically day-time trained!  He wears a diaper or pull up in the car or during naptime and at night.  Otherwise, he is in underwear and uses his potty!  We still have a few accidents from time to time, though.  Usually if he has visited other people's homes over the weekend, he tends to get off his routine a little, but that's easily fixed when the week starts back.  I have to say, it is GREAT not changing diapers all the time, although cleaning his potty is keeping me busy!  Potty training can be a full time job!

Vocabulary-wise, Ryne is really exploding!  He's talking a lot more, but he still is reserved with his speech.  He is learning new words everyday and actually saying them after he hears them for the first time, rather than waiting for days to repeat it!  When he hears a new word, he will watch my lips as I say it.  Such an observant, little sponge!

He is doing better with reading/word recognition.  He actually finds it interesting now, instead of calling every word "Papa!"  Ryne is still quite the trickster though.  He likes pretending he doesn't know what anything is - colors, words, people, etc.  If he thinks you are trying to feel him out for information or teach him anything, he starts playing his little trickster games!  Ahh, being 2!

He LOVES being outdoors - all the time!  Too bad it's been so insanely hot here!  Luckily we have the pool, so we can cool off there and still get our outside time.  Ryne jumps in on his own at the pool.  He swims - supported, blows bubbles occasionally, he goes under water, and climbs out unsupported on the side. He's a little fish!

Soccer seems like it may be his sport, although his baseball skills are quite good too.  There's no doubt that he is built to play sports and to be active.  He is incredibly strong, especially in his upper body (the kid has lats that stick out), he has very muscular legs (like his daddy -  the shape is definitely identical), he is an incredibly fast runner (yes, I keep my "skinny as a rail" figure by chasing after him...all the time), and his coordination and balance are remarkable!  I'm hoping Ryne will be a swimmer.  Adam's hoping for other non-skimpy uniform-wearing sports!

He is still amazing with puzzles!  He is able to do some upside down now - not really sure why he does that, but it's interesting.  He still mostly relies on shape.  Some of the puzzles for younger children (under 3) have too many pieces of similar shape.  He doesn't do as well with those, but he is getting better at actually looking at the image on the puzzle piece.

We are so proud of Ryne.  He is our little masterpiece!  He still has his short-comings - we all do, but he's a very good child - wild, but good, and we love him more than anything!

"No one else will ever know the strength of my love for you. After all, you're the only one who knows what my heart sounds like from the inside"

23 Months

I wish time could slow down, just a bit.  I can't believe we are one month away from celebrating Ryne's second birthday!  This second year has definitely gone by much more quickly than the first.  I am having a hard time deciding the theme for his birthday party this year, since he seems to like a few different things right now.  It's a toss up between, trains, Horton Hears a Who and Elmo!

Stats:

Weight:  25lbs 5 oz.  He's gained a little over 2lbs in 5 months.  That's not great, but with his metabolism and energy level, I'm surprised he's even gained that much.

Language Development:  Ryne is starting to use his words again!  He's demonstrating more and more everyday and picking up more words everyday!  Such a relief!  He also started saying "I love you!"  I've waited 23 months to hear him say it, and it's the most precious thing...even if he just says "I love you Daddy."    Interestingly enough, I mentioned to a friend of ours (a PT) that Ryne had a few months of what seemed to be language regression, and she asked if Ryne had started developing his fine motor skills more recently.  I told her, "yes" and she said that when she worked at Children's Hospital, many of her patients not only had physical therapy, but occupational therapy and speech therapy as well.  She said that they found that most kids would improve in one area and regress or come to a developmental standstill in the other areas.  I guess that may very well be the case with Ryne.

Arts and Crafts:  As I mentioned above, Ryne has definitely developed some fine motor skills.  He is REALLY into art right now.  He has two dry erase books that he likes to "paint" on.  He has also been known to paint my walls and the table with the dry erase marker.  Adam has hidden the crayons from Ryne (and me) so his art activities have been limited at home to dry erase markers, and sidewalk chalk mostly.  Ryne also does crafts weekly at Mornings with Mommy.  He gets to actually paint there and use markers and crayons and glue, which is hard to do in our house since we don't have a good play area.

Pool Time:  Ryne loves the pool!  He kicks very well, and will jump in occasionally.  However, he will not blow bubbles in the water - above the water, but not in it!  So we are working on bubbles and next we will tackle arms!  Adam and I really want Ryne to be able to swim on his own to some extent by the time he turns 3.  I know that sounds a little young, but I've seen it happen before and we think it's really important to learn when you're young.  We don't let Ryne use floaties/swimmies/whatever you want to call the arm float things.  We don't want him to become dependent on something like that.  We've seen too many accidents, even in our own neighborhood pool with flotation devices not working well.

As for everything else related to Ryne.  He is doing well.  He is sleeping in his toddler bed well.  Potty training stopped during the toddler bed transition time, but is starting to pick up again.  Ryne spends most of his time outside!  It's so hot, but he loves it.  He is still as "busy" as ever.  When other parents of toddlers tell you that you're kid is "busy," you know it's serious!  He just doesn't stop going!

Toddlerhood Transitions

That time has come, much sooner than I would like.  Ryne started climbing out of his crib last night, which has changed our lives dramatically, yet again.  We had a two hour battle last night of putting Ryne back in bed over and over again, and thus keeping him from banging on the door and opening it to escape sleep!  Today at naptime, it was just as bad, if not worse because I was having to deal with the mental exhaustion all on my own.

I called the doctor this morning to see what they advise.  The nurse told us that it's time to transition Ryne to a toddler bed, for safety concerns.  She said that a lot of kids end up breaking an arm or leg when they start climbing out.  She also said that we have to continue to put him back in bed over and over again until he learns that he HAS to stay in his bed.  She told me that this was VERY important given Ryne's previous sleep issues.  Maybe one day Ryne will take after me and LOVE sleep!

Another transition we are making is with the potty.  We did not take Ryne's potty on vacation, since we figured he'd be at the beach during the day most days, and we figured he wouldn't stop long enough to actually go sit on the potty when we were in the condo.  However, now, he's decided that he wants to pee standing up!  It's the cutest and funniest thing EVER!  It's like a tiny grown man standing there!  So far he hasn't actually gone standing up, but he has been telling us when he needs to go.  Adam assured me last night that Ryne was just making a game of it again, but as soon as we let him off the stool he stands on at the potty, he peed in the floor!  He did the same things again this morning...on my foot!  So we are trying to figure out a way to overcome the issue of distraction while standing to potty.

My little boy is growing up so fast!  It doesn't help that he does so many things like a big kid or grown up.  He haven't used a stroller in almost a year.  He haven't used a high chair in about 6 months - now the toddler bed and standing to potty!  AHHH!  Can we just freeze time for a little while so I can keep my little boy?!

22 Months

I'm a little late on this post...about 3 days late.  We have been incredibly busy, even though we shouldn't be  (more on that later), but my weekend will be even busier so I'm stealing a few minutes to post now.  This past month seems to have gone by so fast, and with not much change in Ryne.

Ryne has spent the majority of this past month OUTSIDE!  We've had very warm weather here lately and Ryne just can't stand to be inside.  A lot of the usual day-time play-time/teaching activities have gone by the wayside.  Ryne doesn't seem to have changed much to the extent he has in the past months.

Weight:  rougly the same - 25ish lbs!  It's amazing because he eats a lot and eats almost anything we give him.  The nickname of "the goat" seems to be quite fitting!

Language Development:  Ryne still knows over 200 words at this point, but he's not learning a new word on a daily basis - that we can tell.  Ryne is still VERY reserved with language and seems to use it mainly when the occasion specifically calls for it.  Adam and I feel his enunciation is getting worse to some extent, but the rest of the family says it seems to be getting better because they can understand him more.  The reason Adam and I are a little  concerned is because Ryne is dropping the end of a lot of words that he has been able to say fully in the past months.  Apple has become "app", etc.
However,  I did come across some research recently that discussed use of pronouns in toddlers around the age of 2.  Ryne has been using pronouns correctly for several months now - since roughly 16/17 months old.  He uses "I", and "me" correctly.  He also seems to understand possession quite well, but then again he seemed to understand that at 13 months when he started saying "my baba", "my dadda", etc.  He likes assigning seats now or telling us which items belong to whom.  All in all, Ryne is still doing quite well, but I'm eager to see if he has another language spurt before in the next few months.

Comprehension:  I think I say this every month, but it is truly amazing what children this age understand.    You can explain complex things, mumble, talk to casually to yourself, talk to someone else and he understands every bit of it.  He just soaks it right up!  He also seems to understand time to some extent.  He knows "tomorrow" is not today and "later" is not right now.  We are going to start working with an actual clock and days of the week soon to see if he can understand it better.  He also knows that when I say "Mom" or "Dad" it means my mother or father.  So if I ask him, "who is my momma?" or "who is Momma's momma?" he will say "Boo Boo," which is his name for my mother!  He does the same when I ask him who is my daddy.  He's a huge PaPa fan, so any chance he gets to say "PaPa, " he's a happy boy!

Puzzles:  Still rocking the jigsaw puzzles!  We are trying to move him more into puzzles with no board underneath and he will assemble some off their board.  It is getting harder to find puzzles/toys that are age-appropriate since he is still so young, but seems to fly through them.

Potty:  Ryne pooped in his potty all on his own the other day!  It scared him a little, but he got several Elmo stamps for his accomplishment!  He actually covered himself in Elmo stamps!  In the next few weeks we are going to make the move to real underwear.  Last week (before he did the aforementioned accomplishment in the potty) Ryne was playing games with us when it came to potty time.  He would say he had to go and then he'd run into the bathroom, lift the lid to his potty, take his diaper off and then he would say he wanted to get in the bath...but he wouldn't.  Then he'd try to make a break for it and run through the house naked!  If we mentioned a diaper, he'd say he had to pee pee again and go back to the bathroom, only to pull the same trick on us.  What we've found with other activities that Ryne does, he gets bored of an activity before he even masters it.  He gets bored very easily!  He pulled tricks on us when he was doing puzzles, ABCs - anything.  It's as if he has to make a game of it to make it interesting, even though we read, sing, etc to him when he's on the potty to keep him occupied.  
Several mothers have told me to stop potty training because he's too young, but if that's the case and if that is what we had decided to do, what do you tell a child when they tell you they need to use the potty and then actually go use it?  I don't feel like it's the best thing to tell him "No" when he can actually use the potty on his own.  I feel like if we up the ante with underwear, and Ryne meets the challenge then he's obviously ready.  If he doesn't...then he's obviously not and we can stop for awhile.  Either way, I don't feel like he's too young.  Our pediatrician, the nursing staff and a specialist all recommended we start trying months ago.  I know some think we are probably pushing him but we really aren't.  This has been in the works for 5 months now, so we are taking it rather slow and we don't really have a deadline set for when we'd like for him to be potty-trained.

Arts and Crafts:  Ryne is really enjoying coloring, drawing, making things, etc.  He almost holds a pen correctly, which is great.  I'm hoping to make a felt board soon so we can teach him some Bible stories and do other fun felt activities on there.

Pretend Play:  This has really taken off this month.  Everything becomes a car these days - a shoe, a block, anything that he can move and say "vroom vroom" to!  He likes pretending to talk on the phone by holding his hand up to his ear.  He will also pretend play with his stuffed animals, which is the cutest thing ever!

Outside play:  Do you need your yard mowed (with a toy mower that only blows bubbles) or mulch strewn about wildly distributed in your flower beds?  Well Ryne's your man!  Do you need some handy man work done?  Ryne loves playing with is toy tool box set - driving nails, turning screws, etc.  We bought a nice wood toolbox from Smart Toys and Books and Ryne can't seem to separate himself from it!  He has been digging in my parent's garden, helping plant some flowers, and watering the trees we transplanted at our house.  Our pool also opened last week, so Ryne and I spent a day splashing around in there as well!  Ryne just wants to be outside!  Ryne already has a insane farmer's tan and apparently he's inherited my Native American blood because he's getting DARK on his arms.  Can you imagine how gorgeous he'll be by the end of the summer - dark skin, his hair will lighten up, and those deep navy blue eyes!  Get ready to swoon!

Sports:  Ryne is really getting into sports now too.  He has an arm on him for sure and his aim is getting MUCH better.  However, what's most impressive is his ability to kick a ball!  He's been able to kick well since 15/16 months, but he's getting better!  Ryne still stumbles and falls some when he's running, but if you give him a ball to kick, his balance seems much better!  He looks like a little soccer player when he runs and kicks a ball - so fluid, so effortless, so efficient.  I wish I could get some video of him, but every time we pull out a camera or video camera, he just wants to play with it!  I also plan to teach Ryne some swimming skills this summer too.  He kicks very well, but we need to work on some other skills.  Adam and I are adamant about Ryne learning to swim at a young age and not relying on arm floaties or life jackets to swim in a pool.  There is a time and a place for life jackets.  But from what we've seen and experienced, especially as lifeguards, the moment your lifejacket-wearing child is around a pool without a lifejacket on, they forget they aren't wearing the lifejacket, jump in as usual and almost drown.

Well that's all I have time for this month.  Seems like a lot considering it seemed like a rather slow-learning month!  I think Ryne is learning A LOT from being outside - physics, technical skills, etc.  He seems to understand time to an extent.  He's also having a lot of FUN outside, which is probably the most important thing!

Until next month...!

More Memorable Moments

I forgot some of the more memorable moments of Mother's Day!  I'm surprised that I forgot to mention them in the last post.

Ryne gave me one other gift for Mother's Day.  Ryne has really been enjoying creating artwork lately!  While I was out buying groceries for the dinner we cooked for Mom and my family, Ryne decided to display some of that artwork on our bedroom wall -  a Mother's Day mural in red crayon!  Adam walked me in the bedroom to show it to me and I literally gasped!  Ryne thought it was hilarious and Adam freaked because I was looking at a different spot on the wall than he had seen before.  Adam thought Ryne had just drawn a little on the wall under the light switch.  Oh No No No, my friend!  He drew on a total of two doors, and three walls!  He really went to town with that red crayon!   Ryne thought my gasping was funny and kept pointing out his masterpiece!  It was hard to be mad about it because it's something that almost EVERY kid does at some point in their life, but at the same time, it's not acceptable on the walls!  So we are having to be even more watchful with the crayons these days.  Ryne used to be so good about dumping out his crayons and then putting them back up after he used them - not so much anymore!  Oh well, he meant well and it's the thought that counts...and luckily Mr Clean Magic Easer worked wonders!

The other memorable moment from Mother's Day was after we were done eating and cleaning up the kitchen, a bug decided to walk across the kitchen floor to greet me!  I freaked out!  I screamed, squealed, and did a little dance of disgust!  We were all barefoot so Mom threw a moist paper towel over the bug to stop it until someone with shoes could come dispose of it!  [In swoops Dad with the wrath of Ron!]  Everyone was laughing at me until Ryne came in and decided to give his rendition of the event that just transpired!  He scream, squealed and danced a little jig with his crazy legs.  Everyone erupted in laughter, but that wasn't all.  Then Ryne grabbed a cloth napkin and placed it on the floor and continued to scream, squeal and dance.  Then he started walking through the kitchen stomping one foot over and over again.  This kid doesn't miss a beat!

A mother's job isn't always glamorous - actually it rarely is.  However, it's the most rewarding, even if it means cleaning red crayon off the wall and watching my child imitate my worst moments!

Mornings with Mommy

Today has been so crazy and it's only 1 o'clock!  Ryne JUST went down for a nap (spoke too soon - he's still awake)!  Emphasis on "JUST" because he's been up since 5:30 this morning!  Ryne keeps me constantly running throughout the day, even on rainy days like yesterday, when we were stuck indoors.  I will admit that I do not usually wake up until he does in the morning, because I'm SOOOO TIRED everyday!  Days like today are even worse, because I've been up since way earlier than usual.

The past few weeks, Ryne has been taking his diaper off before I can get to him, every morning and peeing in his bed.  It's not the end of the word, but a little annoying to change his sheet every day and sometime again after his nap...for the same reason.  Today was much the same, but much different.  From what I can assume, Ryne probably removed his diaper last night before he fell asleep, because when he woke up screaming this morning bright and early  before the crack of dawn, his crib mattress was soaked completely - hardly a dry spot on it.  I think that was the work of multiple pees.  His pj shirt was soaked.  His blankets were soaked.  His stuffed animals were soaked and there was a good size wet spot in the floor!  That's a lot of pee, my friends!  I figured Ryne would probably take a little nap around 7 or 8, but NOOOOO!  He was rip, roaring and ready to go!  I was so tired, I just let him sit and watch TV for awhile because I could barely keep my eyes open.  On the few occasions that I did doze off, Ryne would come by and poke me in the eyes!  Nothing says "Good Morning" like a little eye gouging!  Needless to say, Ryne and I had a looong morning together.

Also this morning was our first time going to an event called Mornings with Mommy that a local Lutheran Church does twice a month.  I had considered taking Ryne there back in November, but we got caught up in all the Holiday hustle and bustle.  Again in January, I considered it because Ryne's semester at The Little Gym ended then and I wanted him to have another activity to do outside the house.  He got RSV shortly after, so we couldn't go then and after that, I just flat forgot about it.

A few weeks ago, my friend, Brooke told me that she had taken her daughter Brylee recently and was going back this week, so I signed Ryne up to go also.  Then about a week ago, another friend of mine mentioned she was wanting to go to Mornings with Mommy and I told her that we were signed up for this week, so she brought her son too.  It was a nice little gathering!  There are different stations set up with different activities such as arts and crafts, a sensory station, a gross motor development station, felt story boards, books, etc.  They also provide a snack at the end.  It's only $5 and lasts an hour - that is awesome!


During today's activities at Mornings with Mommy, Ryne colored some acorns, and he actually held the markers correctly quite a bit of the time!  I was so proud of him because we've never explained that to him!  He colored a cut out of a watering can, which had "Happy Mother's Day" written on it.  He also added a few stickers and some glitter paint to jazz up the watering can cut-out.  Then for sensory development, they had some big storage containers full of dried lentils and silk flowers.  The kids could dig around with plastic garden tools in that.  Ryne was wild with the lentils!  Then at the end, he made me a flower pot for a gift!  They painted his hands and put his hand prints on the pot for us to take home!  It was so fun and so cute!  Ryne didn't participate in the group stuff at the beginning (which he never does), but he did have fun at all the stations that he went too.  It was hard to get him to leave one station and go to another.  He gets so engrossed in an activity, but I wanted him to experience as much as possible.  If I got him to another station, then he didn't want to leave that one!

Oh well, it was a great experience, and lots of fun and I think we will be going back as often as we can!

Update:  Ryne didn't actually fall asleep until 2!

Potty Time

Well Ryne peed in his potty again today!  Adam was here, even though he stepped out of the bathroom moments before Ryne actually peed.  However, Adam still came in and got excited and gave praises, hugs and kisses!  It took about ten minutes or more for Ryne to go, but he went and that's what's important!

Ryne has a few different pee pee cues that I've been noticing.  Sometimes he will tell you that he has to "pee pee" and then we go to the potty.  Sometimes, like today, he will start trying to take his diaper off and when I ask him why he's doing that, he will tell me that he has to pee.  As you probably know, if you've ever read a blog posting about Ryne, he is an extremely high-energy child, more so than most toddlers, so it's hard to get him to stay in one spot of longer than a few seconds (unless he's doing puzzles or playing with trains).  He actually sits on the potty quite well, especially for the length of time it takes him to actually go.  Adam asked me today if it always takes "this long" and I said, "yes because he doesn't know how to make himself go all the time."  Ryne does get up off the potty every so often and I ask him if he wants to put his diaper back on.  He immediately says "I pee pee" or "I need to pee pee" and sits back down.  I also sing silly songs to keep us both occupied!

Potty training is definitely a process that requires patience, but Ryne seems so excited about it...and getting Elmo stamps for doing it.  Hopefully Ryne will be potty trained soon, but we aren't pushing him. We want him to continue to get excited about using the potty!

Easter Weekend

Our Easter weekend was hoppin'!  It started out on Good Friday.  That morning my brother graduated from college, which is a big deal!  Adam stayed home with Ryne, and it was a darn good thing too because the commencement speaker was TERRIBLE!  Ryne would have been bored to tears, as I was during the speech, and would have probably been carried out screaming anyway, seeing as that's kind of become the norm here lately.  Anyway, Ronnie did graduate and River did very well during the graduation and was so excited to see his daddy walk across stage.  River also liked playing with Ronnie's tassel - maybe that will be motivation to wear his own tassel one day!  Adam and Ryne joined us later at Parkside Grill for some yummy lunch, where Ryne ate like horse goat!

Mom and Dad took Ryne back to there house to stay the rest of the day and night.  They wanted Ryne to come down for a slumber party of sorts with River, and Adam and I had a Baby Party to attend to that night!  Ryne and River played well together all day and even dyed Easter eggs that night!  Mom put Ryne in the bed with River later that evening and Ryne rolled over and started screaming in River's face, so Ryne ended up in the pack n play by the end of the night!  Maybe we'll try the big boy bed another day!

Friday evening Adam and I drove up to Kodak to my best friend's house for her Baby Party!  I've never heard of a party like this but it was so cool!  Charlotte and Kris went to the OB Friday morning for an ultrasound of their baby to find out the sex of the baby and check out all the inner workings of Baby T.  They asked the ultrasound tech to write the sex of the baby in a card and include the ultrasound pictures of the gender-specific parts in the card.  They went to Magpies bakery and gave the sealed card to them. Magpies put gender-specific colored icing (blue or pink) between the layers of the cake, and covered the outside of the cake in sort of an ivory color.  So basically, Charlotte and Kris would have to cut the cake to find out what they were having!  So of course, they invited about 30 of their closest friends to come eat some fabulous food and view the cake-cutting.  They even did a drawing for a prize, if you guessed the correct sex of the baby.  I just knew it would be a girl...until I started taking pictures of the cake!  I noticed a faint line through the icing, that no one else noticed!  So when they cut the cake, I knew the icing in the middle would be...BLUE!  They were so excited!  Now Ryne will have another little guy friend in September!

Saturday morning, we woke up to a text from our realtor that said we had a viewing at 4:30.  Adam and I were expecting to pack and leave for Kingston for Easter dinner with my family, but the viewing threw a temporary wrench into that plan.  We had to clean like crazy!  We had a spill on the carpet from the night before that had to be cleaned up with a steam cleaner.  So we had to go get that and then put fans on the carpet in hopes that it would dry before the viewing time.  We got the house spotless in just a few short hours, showered and then packed for Kingston.  Ryne had been outside all day at Mom and Dad's - no nap. He hunted eggs all day and ran all over the back yard trying to love on my dog, Hannah or "Nanna" as Ryne calls her!  We had a fabulous Easter dinner:  shrimp, steak, some kind of roasted onion, etc.  It was all so good!  I think Dad was excited to break in the new grill!   Later that evening we went to Adam's parents' house to see his brother and his family.

Easter morning, we woke up early...because Ryne woke up early, and started getting ready for church.  We showed Ryne his Easter basket, which was an Elmo basket, filled with everything Elmo!  At first Ryne didn't seem interested until we started pulling stuff out of the basket.  Then he'd say "whoa" or "wow" after each item was pulled out!  It was so cute!  While getting ready for church, we experienced the power outage, like the rest of Kingston!  I thought I'd be going to church with a raggedy ponytail and wrinkled clothes, but luckily the power came back on with enough time for me to straighten my wavy mop of hair.

Ryne did pretty well during church, until the last half - the crying room was full so we ended up sitting in the back of the church.  He couldn't sit still after awhile and started getting fussy.  He just wanted to go outside and who could really blame him on such a beautiful day!  Finally Adam took him out and then right before communion, I left as well so that Adam could come in for communion, since I can't participate in communion at the Catholic church :(.  We were able to stick around long enough to get a little Holy Water on us - Thank the Lord!  Ryne and I walked down the street and looked at bushes, trees, flowers and cars.  As we walked back towards the church, the people living right next door to the church decided to try to pull a fence post up (during the service) with a big, loud truck.  Ryne was fascinated by it all!  He stood there and watched until they finally got the post out.  Ryne is really into some man-work:  mowing, climbing ladders, weed eating, etc.

After lunch we headed back to Adam's parents' house for lunch and some fun with the water hose! Ryne was soaked, head to toe from playing with the water hose, but he had SO much fun!  He just wants to be outside, and I don't blame him, since we had wonderful weather this weekend!  I guess ABCs, 123s, puzzles and books are going to be on the back burner this summer.  Although, yesterday at Mom and Dad's house, Ryne got the water hose again and instead of playing with it, he studied it - like total concentration on the water coming from the hose, how it hit the porch and where the water went.  I think he's learning a lot by being outside, even if it's not ABCs and such!

I hope everyone had a Happy Easter!

21 months

I cannot believe that Ryne is 3 months away from being 2!   Ahh!  It's killing me!  It seems like yesterday that we celebrated Ryne's first birthday.

So here are his stats:

Weight:  25lbs 2 oz.  Really this kid eats like a horse and barely gains an ounce.  His level of physical activity is through the roof so I guess he's burning calories like crazy.  We recently started buying summer clothes and we've had a bit of a change in size.  Ryne is wearing 9 month shorts and 12-18 month shirts.  I'm going to assume since Adam wears a size 36 in the waist of his pants that Ryne has my waist!

Language Development:  During this age, it's so hard to keep up.  We know Ryne says over 200 words at this point, which is wonderful.  He is using some interjections like "wow", "whoa", "yay" and conjunctions like "and."  He is getting a little better about naming things when we ask what they are, but he is still quite reserved with his language.  He talks to me and Adam the most, but when he's around other people he uses less words and shorter phrases.  He also likes pretending to be asleep and making the snoring noise...through his mouth!

Comprehension:  At this age, the level of comprehension is quite astounding!  It's hard to believe kids this age even understand half of what we say and do.  He understands complex directions, details and storylines.  He has for quite some time, but his understanding seems to be evolving even more.  He is very good at problem solving, but sometimes solves problems so well that it's actually quite scary.  He wants to be a grown up so bad that he will do almost anything a grown up will do.

Speaking of doing things that grown ups do, he can undo almost any babyproofing device.  He can completely unbuckle himself from his carseat - which is a BAD thing.  He can also put car keys in the ignition and start a car and buckle himself up in the front seat, with no carseat.  We did not teach him this, so obviously we NEVER leave Ryne alone in the car, even if it's turned off with no keys, because that's just a dangerous combination with little Houdini Knies!  He can unplug the HDMI cord from the DVR and put it into the PS3 all by himself because he wants to watch Elmo.  He can put his shoes on the correct feet, do a zipper and button pants.  He can almost completely dress himself and tries to put on his own diaper - which means it's time for training pants!

Potty Time:  or "pee pee time" as Ryne calls it.  Ryne is working hard at potty training.  He is still not consistent enough with potty training over an extended period of time, but there are days when he does quite well!  Some days he will only tell you when he wets or dirties his diaper.  Some days he will tell you that he has to use the potty and he will sit on it patiently, but we wait and wait and nothing comes out!  Either way, he's getting there and I think he could be in mostly training pants by 2, but we aren't pushing it.

Music and songs:  oh my goodness, Ryne loves music!  He loves to dance to it!  About the only time Ryne watches a show on TV is when the music comes on.  He sings songs that he makes up and he will hum other songs that he knows, but he wont really sing a song, like the Wheels on the Bus or the ABCs.

ABCs:  Ryne seems to know quite a bit of his alphabet.  He usually will not tell you what they are if you ask, but he will just bust out the letters when he's not prompted to do so.  While doing one of his jigsaw puzzles the other day, he saw the title "Picture Puzzle" at the top of the puzzle and pointed and said "P" "C" "T" and "E".  Some of the letters were lowercase, which I've never exposed him to.  He still will not say them in order, even though he knows several chunks of the alphabet in order.  Order is not Ryne's way of functioning, apparently!

Puzzles:  Ryne is doing jigsaw puzzles with little to no help.  I finally figured out a way to teach him how to do puzzles by looking at the picture some and not just the shape.  He can do puzzles that have no outlines, guidelines or pictures underneath.  Since he has mastered most of his puzzles, he is putting them together off the cardboard frame thing and learning animals names and the names of the United States in the process.  As long as he masters puzzles and enjoys them, we are going to keep challenging him.  I really recommend puzzles to any parent because Ryne is learning so much in the process.

Reading:  he is learning to read a few words.  My mother taught my brother around 18 months so she suggested seeing if Ryne could as well.  He can read a few words and sometimes we wonder if he's not reading more than we realize or if he has somehow deduced the meaning of words from other things.

Ryne is such a sweet little guy, but he is still so challenging!  It's becoming more and more obvious to us that he learns in a dramatically different way than most.  However, we are also learning that he learns VERY much like Adam!  I am blown away almost daily and challenged daily.  These monthly postings are just a glimpse into Ryne's monthly achievements and some things are leftovers from previous months.  As I'm sure almost every other mother of a toddler can attest to, there's not enough time or space to write down even half of what toddlers accomplish during this time of their life!  It's such an exciting time and again, we can't wait to see what the next month holds!

Orange You Glad I Didn't Say Banana!

Today we all went to Sam's to stock on a few essentials.  Sunday is probably busiest worst day to go to Sam's.  It was insanely busy with people crawling all over the place.  As soon as we walked through the door a lady was handing out slices of navel oranges!  Everyone knows you go to Sam's when you're hungry to take advantage of the samples...and Ryne did just that!

Ryne LOVES oranges (and lemons).  He will shove it in his little mouth and get it all over his face...and he did just that!  However, when Ryne got through eating the pulp part, he started eating the rind!  We just laughed at him as he ate the whole orange slice.

Adam said Ryne was a like goat or a garbage disposal.  I said, " well, I wonder where he got that from?"  Adam claims to not know where Ryne's good eating habits come from.  Ha!  Any of you who have seen Adam eat know EXACTLY where Ryne's goat-like/garbage disposal eating habits come from.  I guess this explains why my grocery bill is so high.  My boys can put it away!!!

Not So Puzzling

Ryne has FINALLY been able to do an entire jigsaw puzzle on his own!  Whoo hoo!  I'm so proud of him!  He's been working on jigsaw puzzles recently and doing quite well; however, I figured out the way for him to start completing them on his own.

I had an inclination that Ryne is more of spatial thinker.  That's probably why he has done so well with peg board puzzles.  So jigsaw puzzles created another level of complication with puzzles.  He does have a board puzzle that requires more visual awareness to complete it and he has been able to complete it for quite some time, but it didn't come as easy to him as the other puzzles.

Ryne is very good at matching.  We use the cards from a Memory game to do matching.  That obviously requires the visual perception, so he obviously has that ability, but he tends to rely more on spatial awareness and perception when completing puzzles.  So, I decided to take a two jigsaw puzzles that have a board underneath them to contain the pieces and outline the shapes of the pieces.  It made a huge difference!  Ryne completed the 9-piece puzzle almost instantly!  It's like it finally clicked!

Ryne actually did better with the 25-piece jigsaw than the 9-piece, prior to outlining the pieces.  The pieces were more complex in shape on the 25-piece, so Ryne could distinguish where they went better.  Now that I have also outlined that puzzle.  He is now able to complete about 75-80% of it on his own and finish the rest of it with some coaching.  He understands if you tell him a pieces should go "up at the top/bottom/left/right."  We also didn't realize that he knew left, right, top and bottom, so that was a cool discovery as well!

Ryne will sometimes pick up the right piece, but try to put it in upside down.  That's where some coaching comes into play, and we discuss what's actually on the puzzle piece and where a similar thing is on the puzzle.  Sometimes he will also try to stick a piece into the wrong place and if you ask him where it goes, he will point to the correct location.  What a stinker!  Sometimes I think he just wants someone to tell him or do it for him!  He does have a 24-piece jigsaw puzzle that has no board under it that he can almost do on his own completely.  It's one of his favorites and one he has had the longest so I think he's possibly memorized where the pieces go by this point.

I'm so proud of Ryne!  He definitely doesn't work a puzzle like I do.  I'm such a visual person.  I can pick up almost any piece of a 500+ piece puzzle, look at the picture on the box and tell you where that piece goes.  I hardly look at shape.  Ryne is totally different!  Maybe he's more like Adam - he seems to be in almost every other way!  Anyway, I'm glad that I have finally found a method to teaching Ryne the visual aspect of puzzles without either one of us getting frustrated.  I'm also glad that I have cracked the Ryno code at least in one aspect of his thinking and education.  Although sometimes I wonder if Adam should take over all the teaching stuff, since he and Ryne seem to be on the same wavelength.

Anywho, puzzles should be fun and I'm glad they continue to be to Ryne!  I hope one day that Ryne will be able to jump in on the family puzzles that we do at Mom and Dad's house.  We all dive into a 500+ puzzle and have it done in no time!  Ryne sits and watches us and tries to put a few together, and I just know he wants to be able to do what we are doing...he always does.

Dirty Photo Shoot!

Literally, dirty!  When Mom, Ryne and I visited my grandparents last weekend, Ryne LOVED playing in Papa's plowed up garden.  Papa lives in the Sandhills of North Carolina, so his garden is different than most I've seen around East TN.  He doesn't really have much dirt, it's more sand or dirty sand!  I guess some of the dirty aspect to the sand may be from years and years and years of adding compost to the sand.

Anywho, Ryne wanted to go out one evening so I took him out there and slowly but surly his shoes started getting dirt all down in them.  He took his shoes off and thought he'd just walk around in his little white socks.  I thought differently about that so I took his socks off too, and he had the best time playing in the dirty sand!  Every boy needs some dirt and give a boy a stick and they will cooperate for photos!

I haven't had much of a chance to edit these photos, since I'm still new at Photoshop and I've been editing another real photo shoot that I did this weekend with a little cutie pie and his parents!  Such a beautiful family!

But I still wanted to share.  These pictures may not be works of art, but it captures the essence of Ryne in real life.  I think that's sort of the root of my photography:  REAL life, especially with children because they are more relaxed, cooperative, and fun!  I love great poses too, but my child isn't posable, so I take what I can get!  I am going to make an album for my grandparents to enjoy and to keep the memory of the family going!

Pre-editing.  Notice in the header of the blog, this picture has no house and removed some drool stain from Ryne's shirt!  This is my favorite picture from this photo shoot!

Bark off a log!

Playing in a brush pile 

 Dirty Sand

 Ryne likes to get REAL close to the camera!

 Exploring

 Crawling 

 Found a hole!

 In the hole...with four inches of drool coming off his lip! 

 Whoops!

 Trying to fill the hole back up with more dirty sand.

 Bubble Mowing is hard work!  

 More exploring

 Speak softly and carry a broken fishing pole

Chickens!  

20 months!

Yikes!  We are only 4 months away from Ryne's second birthday!  Where does the time go?  Seriously, it feels like he just turned 1 a few months ago!  These past few months have been so exciting that I hate to see them pass so quickly.

Stats:

Height:  He seems to have stopped growing for the moment.  The past few months he was growing like a weed, but that seems to have slowed down for the moment.

Weight:   Ryne's weight has picked up a bit.  I think he's roughly 25 lbs, maybe a little less.  It's getting so hard for me to hold him for an length of time now.  I gained 25 lbs when I was pregnant with Ryne.  It was hard enough carrying the weight around, without it being all in my arms like holding a toddler!

Language Development:  Ryne continues to learn a few new words a day so it's getting harder and harder to keep up with how many words he knows.   It is so exciting to hear him say new words.  They really do soak things up like sponges!

Comprehension:  He really seems to understand just about anything we say to him, which is exciting.  However, it makes his whining and tantrums seem extremely unnecessary, since he knows what we are saying/explaining to him.  Ryne constantly asks what different things are, which I think is wonderful to have such interest in things.

Music:  Ryne LOVES music.  He is likes to sing now to the tune of his favorite songs.  He can also keep time with music by tapping out the beats with his finger.  He will tap out the entire alphabet song while I sing it, even through the "next time won't you sing with me" part!  He dances to music as well, which is so cute to watch!

Pretend play:  Ryne is really getting into pretend play, which I find fantastic because it gives me a bit of a break from my "high needs" cave-tot!  I do play with him, but he also enjoys pretend play some on his own.  I think it gives him a great outlet for to learn and explore more without wanting me right by his side.

Puzzles:  Ryne is taking a great interest in jigsaw puzzles, which is wonderful!  It seems that we might be getting past the puzzle stalemate soon, since he is now willing to tackle the jigsaw puzzles.  Ryne understands the concept of the how the shape of the puzzles pieces work and go together, but he doesn't look at the actual picture. That concept seems to make the jigsaw puzzles for younger kids more complicated for him because all or most of the pieces will technically go together because the shapes are simple and the same.  The peg board puzzles are becoming teaching aids rather than actual puzzles now, but Ryne will still do them from time to time.  He is using the pattern blocks puzzles in a different way - off the grid, I guess.  He knows how to take two right triangles and make a square and two squares to make a rectangle!  Occasionally he will use triangles and squares to make a rectangle!  The level of excitement with the pattern blocks puzzle didn't last long, so we had to think outside the box.

ABCs and 123s:  Ryne is learning more and more, but not in order!  Ha!  At this age, if he enjoys learning them, I don't care what order he learns them in.  Ryne's not one for order anyway, so I wouldn't expect him to learn them in that way!  He's the same way with his numbers.  Eight was the first one he learned and said, and I have no idea why.  Zero or "roro" is another favorite.  He will sometimes say the next number if I say whatever number he's holding (so, if I say four, he will sometimes say five afterwards), but he doesn't even put the puzzle pieces in order.

Hugs and Kisses:  Ryne is starting to give hugs and kisses to people other than close family!  It's really cute!  He gave the little boy across the street a hug the other day.  Last week we told Ryne to give River hugs and kisses when we were leaving Mom's, and he ran right up to River to give him a hug and started smacking his lips to make a kissing sound and gesture.  This weekend at my grandparents' house, he went around the room giving hugs, without being asked!  I think that was one of the sweetest moments for my grandparents, especially since they don't get to see Ryne much!

These are exciting months!  I have really enjoyed Ryne's toddlerhood and know I will continue to enjoy watching him learn, explore and grow!  There is so much more he is accomplishing, but this blog posting would be a mile long, take too much time to write, and I know this stuff is really only appealing to family who read it.  Until next month....

Potty Mouth

Wow!  Today was an exciting day again in the Knies house!  Ryne had a couple of 'firsts' today.  I gave Ryne a bath about mid morning because he played outside ALL day yesterday and I knew he was probably a little sweaty after all that time outside.  Anywho, Ryne said the word "poop" and I asked "Do you have to poop?"  Well of course, while I was asking, he started going!  I was sitting on the lid of his potty so I didn't have to sit on my knees to bathe him.  When I realized he was starting, I hopped up, lifted the potty lid, tried to get the pee pee guard up, grabbed Ryne and sat him down on the potty.  I wasn't sure if he'd go or not since he did do a little in the tub (ewwww!).  He sat there about a minute with a stunned look on his face and finally I got him up to see if he had actually gone.  To my surprise, he did!  I was so excited!  Ryne kept pointing at it and I gave him tons of hugs, kisses, praises and we clapped our hands!

After I got him dried off (he just came from the tub so he was dripping wet) and in a diaper and clothes, I went back in to clean out the potty...and the tub.  I dumped it all in the actual toilet and put the lid down and flushed it.  [Side note:  did you know that if you don't put the lid down when you flush, toilet water can spray out up to 6 ft in almost any direction?  Usually your toothbrush is within 6 ft.  'Nough said!] Ryne pointed to the real toilet and said "this where poop go."  Again, I was so excited!  I think he understands this whole pooping thing!  He was so excited when he got a sticker on his Elmo Potty Chart!  A big shout out to Potty Time Elmo!

I think what threw me off when Ryne first said "poop" was two different things.  We had been discussing "purple."  He has a purple octopus and a purple fish tub toys.  He said "purple" for the first time today and seems to be able to tell me what's purple.  At first though, purple sounded more like "poople" - he was dropping the 'r' sound.  So when he said "poop" I didn't know if he meant purple or poop.  He's also never said "poop" before.

Again, I know I may sound like a broken record from my last post about Ryne's language development, but it seems like he uses words when they are actually relevant.  Today is a good example of how it is hard for us to know what Ryne knows or understands sometimes.  It's as if words to him are like 'good china' - he only brings it out when the occasion calls for it!

Ryne NEVER ceases to amaze me!  I love his charisma and his passion, and all his little quirks!  I can't wait to see what the rest of the day and the rest of his life holds!

Confessions of a Toddler

Ryne and I have been having some interesting conversations lately.  It's so great to be able to talk to Ryne and have him talk back (in conversation, of course - this Momma isn't into back-talk!).  He makes me feel a little less crazy, like in the early days of talking to an infant and in a sense, talking to yourself!

So last night was one of the cutest conversations ever, although a short one!  We bought Ryne a pattern blocks puzzle.  Ryne likes to dump all the pieces and all the puzzles boards out on the table or floor, thus every piece was out and scattered about.  I think the puzzle board was a house, so I pointed to the rectangle and asked Ryne, "which piece goes here?"  He picked up an oval, which is smaller than the rectangle so it does fit in the hole, and Ryne said "Is it this?"  And then he said "Noooo,"  "it's this!" and then put down the oval and picked up the rectangle!  Note:  he said the word "no" which I thought would never happen!

Now a bit of explanation.  I'm not big on letting Ryne "watch" TV; however, he rarely actually watches it. He likes the music on the Disney shows, so for the most part he runs around playing with other things and then stops when he hears the music to dance and wave his arms like a orchestra conductor!  Most of these shows have times when they ask the audience which path they should take or which shape goes in place, etc, and they will give options saying something like "Is it this shape or is it this shape" while showing different shapes.  Anywho, you probably get the idea!  So I guess Ryne has been paying a little more attention that I realized.  My nephew does this too a lot and it is just so darn cute!  It's almost like you get to see their brains working to problem solve.

Earlier today, Ryne went into our bathroom and looked behind the door for his ball, which hasn't been there in awhile, but he always likes to look.  Ryne asked "Where's the ball?"  and I said "It's not behind the door anymore" and then he said "I doe,"  which is I know.  He even used a hand gesture to kind of show his disappointment.

Also earlier this morning, we were looking out the window of the back door.  Ryne has a ball that lives out in the back yard.  He asked, "Where's the ball?" and I said "I don't see the ball" [because the patio table was blocking it] and Ryne said "There's still a ball!"

If Ryne ever runs for President, which I personally don't think I can handle because I get enough criticism about my child and it kinda sucks, but he would not have the word "honest" in front of his name like good ole Honest Abe!  Ryne told his first lie this week.  Now I know he doesn't necessarily know it's a lie or what a lie is or that he shouldn't tell his mother lies, but he did...and I thought it was kind of funny considering the situation.  Ryne was wanted to look out the back door window again for "the ball," but the blinds were down.  Ryne likes to whack the blinds around to try to see past them and we have told him time after time, after time, after blue-in-the-face time that he cannot touch the blinds!  So Ryne whacked the blinds and I said, "Ryne, do not touch the blinds."  He whacked them again.  This time I got down on his eye level and pointed to the blinds and said, "No touch."  So he said "tuss" for touch for the first time.  I got excited about him using a new word and grabbed my phone to message Adam about it.  I was still looking in Ryne's direction but didn't have eye contact with him and lo and behold, he whacked the blinds again!  Again, I said, "Ryne, don't touch the blinds," and he said "I di'int tuss" with his little hand gesture, showing some attitude!  I was so shocked, but started laughing (I couldn't help it) because he just lied to me...at his age!

Ryne also had conversations with his stuffed animals.  We've noticed that it takes him longer to actually fall asleep when we put him down for a nap or at bedtime.  I listen to him over the monitor.  He talks to Blue Bear, Tad and Duck Duck quite a bit.  The other day, he asked, "Tad, where's the ball?"  He will ask them if they want a bite or a baba.  It's so cute to listen to!

So what I've recently come to grips with is the fact that Ryne learns in a incredibly different way, than what I've ever seen during my various experiences with children and different from the way I learn things.  I remember my first day of Latin class in 9th grade.  Mrs.  Crossno (Oh how I love that woman!) said not to memorize Latin, but to learn it.  I kind of feel like Ryne learns through learning, not  memorizing.  Ryne is an asker.  He asks, "what's this?" all the time.  He may ask about the same thing a few times in a row.  He doesn't repeat my answers usually.  Then sometime later, it may be hours, days or weeks later, he will bust out his knowledge, and we are totally blindsided!

It is very difficult to know what he knows and what he doesn't, and what words he can say and what he can't because he uses words on his own time - when he wants to, not when we necessarily want him to!  I am racking my brain trying to figure out more ways to challenge him, so he won't be so bored.  If any of you experienced mothers or teachers have any ideas for teaching the child who doesn't like to be taught, let me know!

19 Months!

Another month has come and gone.  Time seems to fly by when you're child runs you ragged everyday!

These are Ryne's stats for this month:

Weight:  He's still in the low 23 lb range.  However, that is enough to make my arms burn when trying to hold him and do other tasks like shop, tiddy up, etc.  It's almost like having a 23 lb Shake Weight that goes in every direction, not just up and down!

Height:  I think he grows every day.  He's really sprouting up.

Head:  It now looks bigger thanks to the haircut that Adam gave him!

Language Development:  Ryne learns a new word almost daily!  He's probably up in the 90s now with words, although it is getting harder to count, since most of his new words are being used in phrases or sentences.  One interesting note:  Ryne knows and understands the word "No".  He knows how to pronounce other words that start with an "N" so he knows the "N" sound.  However, he will not say the word "no" or "know!"  For instance, he has started saying "I don't know" with arms up and shoulder shrug included, but when Ryne actually says something like "I don doe," which is common because the "d" sounds is easier to make.  I wonder if he thinks by saying "no" or "know" that it will actually start to take affect on him!  I'm still anxiously waiting for him to say "I love you!"  I think we are getting very close, but I'm so anxious to hear those three words!
Not every word or phrase is profound.  He still rambles off a bunch of nonsense from time to time.

Comprehension and Recall:  Again, Ryne understands almost everything you tell him.  He also pretends to not understand.  He also has a dang good memory!  He remembers playing with certain toys in certain places in the house and will ask where they are if he's in that place.  Friday, Adam told Ryne that his Nana and Granddad were coming to see him.  Hours later, Adam asked Ryne, "who's coming to see you" and Ryne said "my Nana."

ABCs:  Ryne will repeat his ABCs after me, not all of them, by any means, but the first few and then a few others later on in the sequence.  He still LOVES his ABC puzzle so I'm trying to use that and the ABC song to teach him more.  He can identify a few.  He always points to the "V" when I say "B."  It is very similar sound, so that's understandable.  He will also pretend to not know which letter is which.  I asked him  where the "H" was the other day.  He stared at the piece for a long time, picked it up, looked at me, put it down and said "I don doe" (again, shoulder shrug and hand motions included!).  What a stinker!  I will admit that it is very hard to 'teach' Ryne anything.  If he thinks you're teaching him, he won't have anything to do with it!

Puzzles:  Ryne still loves them.  He is finally taking an interest in jig saw puzzles, but not able to complete one without some help.  Adam and I also got him some new puzzles for Valentine's Day.  They are the beginners pattern block puzzles, which is sort of the beginners step to tangrams and such.

Books:  Ryne still loves books.  He really enjoys being read to and flipping through the pages.  He is very good at identifying things in the books as we read to him.  He usually sits in my lap for a book, but he has started sitting in his little chair or on the couch to read look through and says words about the pictures.  It's so cute.

Other Faves:  He is really into cleaning and cleanliness.  He wipes up messes, likes baths, brushing his teeth, washing his hands after he takes his diapers out to the trash, and picking up his toys.  He is still OBSESSED with the vacuum.  I have to hide it in different locations in the house so he can't find it.  He moves his potty to the sink all by himself now to use the lid as a stool.  He also does this for me when I use the potty, although I am tall enough to reach without it!!!  We also just bought him Potty Time Elmo and he likes feeding Elmo, giving a sippy cup to Elmo and putting him on his potty.  He likes putting his utensils away after he eats.  The only problem with that is he thinks it goes back into the drawer where the clean utensils are!

This is a fun, yet crazy age!  Ryne is a blessing and we are really enjoying him right now, even with the Terrible Twos and cutting canines in the mix.

Realtor, RSV, Sinus and Super Bowl

In that order!

The past ten days have been a whirlwind!  Last Friday, we finally decided to bite the bullet and get a realtor!  It's a decision that is sort of hard to swallow, but most likely necessary.  We need more space and have our eye set on another neighborhood and house to build, so we need to move this house.  We are hoping that even though we have competition in the neighborhood, that it will sell quickly!  Fingers crossed.  Prayers appreciated!

Adam went out of town that evening, for the weekend, and I was left getting the house ready to show and for the realtor to take pictures for the virtual tour.  I have been working on the house for months now.  It takes months to do things like that when you have a toddler....and a husband that doesn't know how to spackle, sand, paint, organize, decorate or clean!  I obviously married Adam for love and not his man-skills!  He married me for my man-skills!   Anywho, I still had work to do.  The realtor wanted us to depersonalize the house some, which means taking down the pictures on the frig, controlling/removing the toy mayhem, etc.  She also told us to start packing everything we wouldn't need for six months because it would save us time and stress later on down the road.  The realtor thinks the house will sell in 2-3 months!  Lord I hope so!  So I had A LOT of stuff to do while Adam was gone.

Meanwhile, Ryne had a cough that progressed into something quite nasty - RSV- the most dreaded three letters to mothers of infants and toddlers!  We missed the birthday of a friend's kid on Saturday because I was worried this runny nose and cough was contagious, seeing as Ryne got it from River  only days before.  Sunday, it was worse and Ryne was really starting to act sick.  So Monday morning I took him to the doctors office.  They tested him for the flu and RSV and the RSV test came back positive!  Then the scary talk of breathing treatments, etc came up and my heart started breaking.  Luckily for Ryne, he didn't have to do breathing treatments, but there's not much you can do for viruses.  So Tylenol and Pedialyte have been my friend!

Ryne has hardly eaten in a week.  He just felt awful and acted sick, which is rare for him.  It was so heartbreaking!  I took him back for a recheck on Thursday and he was literally running through the waiting room with no shoes on and yelling "AHHHHHH" from one end to the other.  He got a good report.  As of tomorrow (Monday) he shouldn't be contagious anymore, so I am hoping to get him out of the house some!

Also, meanwhile, I got a lovely little sinus infection.  It's my fourth or fifth since September!  This one has been a beast!  I have felt terrible since Monday or Tuesday.  I finally had to make an appointment on Thursday for myself, which means I had to take Ryne with me.  I have been able to avoid taking him to doctors visits because Adam is off on Fridays, but I couldn't wait until Friday.  I also got some not so wonderful news at the doctor.  First the doctor wanted to know for certain that it was a sinus infection - um I'm the Sinus Queen, I know what I'm talking about!  The bad news is that I can't/shouldn't have antibiotics anymore for sinus infections because I have them so often, the doctor thinks I will build up a resistance to them.  That's bad if I need them later on down the road for something more serious.  There were other medication options but some I can't do/take because I have some allergies and such to those meds, so basically the doctor said that I was out of luck.

The doctor asked if there was a day that I EVER felt normal.  He was surprised when I said Yes.  He asked if I was from the area.  Again, he was surprised when I said Yes.  He was also surprised that I am not taking a daily allergy medication.  Basically, the doctor believes that I have a pretty serious daily allergy problem that is not being treated that is causing all of the sinus infections.  That news is in a way surprising to me.  I had allergy shots in college and have taken as many as two allergy medications daily since then as well.  I stopped the allergy shots after two years, even though I was supposed to have them for four years, and I had to stop taking all my allergy meds when I got pregnant with Ryne.  After Ryne was born, I didn't feel like I had a serious enough problem to need daily allergy medication again, so I never started back.

So where I stand at this point is, no antibiotic, so I'm totally roughing it on this one, and I will have to use a saline sinus rinse daily for the rest of my life!  Yippee!  I am going to call my old allergist this week to see if I can get an appointment to discuss allergy meds and shots...again.  And in the mean time, I have been through two entire boxes of Puffs plus lotion (only kind I will use),  2/3 of a roll of toilet paper (the day I ran out of Puff plus lotion and felt too terrible to go get more), and enough sinus rinse to brine 5 Thanksgiving turkeys!  And now, after have some allergic asthmatic attack in Kroger, I will be sporting my fancy inhaler again!  You know you're jealous.

So now to the sports highlight of the season...Fergie totally bombed!  I noticed that her mike wasn't up enough when she first started singing and I think they should have kept it that way!  Sorry Fergie Ferg, but that was anything but G-L-A-M-O-R-O-U-S!

18 months

It is soooo hard to believe that my baby is a year and a half!  I still don't want to believe it.  Time is passing too quickly, even though this little phase that Ryne is in is driving me bonkers!

So here's his stats:

Weight:  whopping 23 lbs and 0.5 oz, which is 18% (he's gained half an ounce since 17 months old)
Length:  32", which is 50% ( he was in the twenty-something percentile at 15 months, so he's growing like a weed.
Head: 19", which is 55% (this is down.  He was in the 75% percentile at one time.  So basically his body is catching up to his big brain!)

Language development:  good - too bad whining is not language development or Ryne would be getting higher marks here!  Ha!  I read on the little 18 month info sheet from the doctor that he should be saying 6 - 10 words.  I decided to count all the words that I could remember that he knows and uses and he's at least in his 30s, if not more - it's hard to remember them all.  He is also getting better at pronouncing words properly too.  He used to call an apple a "babble" or "bapple".  Now he can say "apple."  He makes weird sounds a lot too.  Adam things he is trying to make more sounds for new letters and words.

Comprehension:  more than you'd imagine and more than he lets on!

Ryne is really enjoying Dr. Seuss books right now.  He actually lets me read to him again, which I really enjoy.  I was worried for several months when the books in our house started collecting dust bunnies!  They say that reading to your child is one of the best things you can do, but reading to a moving, screaming target is less than enjoyable!  I am going to take him to the library and the bookstore more, so we can explore more books.  Today I saw some of my old favorites - the kid with the purple crayon.  I don't even remember the actual name of it, but I saw the cover and had a moment!  Memories!

Ryne is also really enjoying blocks, of all kinds.  He has the old wooden ABC blocks and tons of Mega Blocks.  He really likes knocking down any tower of blocks I build.  I have to admit that that is a little disappointing.  I work really hard on my towers of blocks, and for some strange reason I think that Ryne will be in awe when he sees my magnificent tower.  He does do his little "O"face for half a second and then brings down the wrath of the right hand and in one fell swoop, my tower is obliterated - one tiny block left in a pile of rubble!  Ugh!  All that hard work!  At least Ryne is sweet enough to help me build it back...and then knock it down again!

He likes to color with crayons and markers and he LOVES play dough.  He tries to eat them all!  I have to watch him like a hawk.  If I blink, he will lick play dough or have red crayon all over his pearly whites!  Nothing like brushing your kids teeth and thinking his tongue might be bleeding profusely!  He is also getting better at putting toys away - thank you Lord!  Our house looks like Toys R Us exploded.  Throw in some Cheerios, Goldfish and Craisins and you got a toddler party mix!

Ryne is also dancing more!  He loves to dance.  He really doesn't watch TV all that much, but when the music for a TV show comes on, he will dance, bounce, keep up his feet, head bang and drop it like it's hot - all at one time!  The cutest thing ever is when he dances with his Elmo (aka: "Mo Mo") house shoes on!  I took Ryne to Kindermusik at Borders today thinking that he would like the music, songs and dancing.  I was wrong!  He'd rather read Fox in Sox and the Olivia books or crawl under tables and in between bookshelves!  And to think they usually do these classes at Smart Toys and Books!  Are you kidding me!  My child was running through the group today like his head was on fire and the only way to put it out was to pull every book off the shelf!  What do they think would happen in a toy store?!!  Adam witnessed a few minutes of this and we unanimously agreed that we aren't throwing away our money on group classes at this point.

Sadly, I'd like to take Ryne to group stuff so he will learn, in a fun way, that there are rules to follow in different places and that he can't always run around like a maniac.  However, why do I want to pay a couple hundred dollars for a 45 minute power struggle?  UMMM, no - it's like that enough at home!  I'm that mother that gets the looks from the other mothers that say "you don't discipline your child!"  Someone told me about a book for the "strong-willed child" and said that basically the author says that everyone should have a strong-willed child because they would have more empathy for other mother/parents!  Empathize, don't criticize!

We discipline Ryne, plenty!  However, he's as strong-willed as they come - 45+ minute tantrums over wanting bottles, vacuums, and popsicles!  He follows me around the house, torturing me with his screams, pushing and pulling me in the direction of the object of his heart's desire!  I think we could probably beat Ryne within an inch of his life and he'd still want whatever it is that he wants.  Good thing we don't use corporal punishment!  And no, spanking won't solve the problem (I know what you're thinking).  I read in a child-discipline book that most spanking is really a parent throwing their own temper tantrum...and essentially taking it out on their child's rear end.   Ryne has enough of those.  He's coming into his Terrible Twos (doctor confirmed it today), so one less hissy fit is helpful!  Someone's gotta keep their head about them - it might as well be me!

The next few months are going to be exciting for sure - whether I like it or not and for good reason and bad!  Never a dull moment.  Also, Ryne is available for babysitting/birth control purposes for all teenagers!  Seriously, you'll have to beg them to give you grandchildren one day!

17 months

Yesterday, Ryne turned 17 months!  This means we are a month away from the big 1-8!!!  These bigger milestones drive me crazy!  I worry because I want Ryne to be on target for all the 18 month old accomplishments!  They also drive me crazy because he's getting older and bigger and not so much my "baby" anymore (even though he will be my baby for his entire life)!
So what is going on in the world of Ryne?  Everything!

Language:  Ryne is saying new words almost daily!  I'm surprised sometimes by what he learns.  He is now busting out full sentences.  Yesterday he said "I want my dadda." (tear) and "help me."  He still has his baby jabber as well.  It's not like he speaks full sentences or phrases all the time, but before 17 months is pretty darn good!

I started "teaching" Ryne (sorta).  We are going over a new color and a new letter of the alphabet every week, although the ABCs may be 86ed shortly.  I'm  not sure if he's ready for them.  He can pick out an A and he can say "A" but he's still not quite grasping the concept, and I'm not sure he should!  He now uses "A" in phrases.  So "bite bite" has become "a bite", etc.  Who knew a child could learn to use articles so early!  He also picked up the word "apple" which usually sounds like "babble" but he can point one out...and he loves to eat them!

Physical:  Ryne is continuing to climb on EVERYTHING - coffee table, tv console, chairs, sofa, etc.  He has also started sitting in a regular chair when he eats, instead of the high chair.  He will occasionally sit in the high chair, but he wants to be a big boy, I guess!  He's also using a spoon and fork (toddler size and regular size) very well - anything to be like Mommy and Daddy!
Just today, he learned to turn the vacuum on.  He is obsessed!  I had to vacuum the entire house...twice, to keep him from screaming "back back" at me!  I guess I'm glad we are still in a tiny house!

Sleep:  Tonight is night #2 of the "Back to Sleep" campaign.  I'm not sure why Ryne started waking up at night about a month ago, but it's been torture.  I took him to the doctor yesterday to get him checked out to make sure he wasn't crying at night for a legit reason.  The doctor (who we LOVE, by the way, ) crossed his legs and said "you're going to have to suck it up!"  We had been letting him cry with no success and we had been rocking him, with no success, and Adam committed Baby Sleep Sin by letting Ryne watch TV in the middle of the night one night!  Nothing was working.  So we are now back to controlling his bedtime a little better and last night he didn't wake up (YAY!!!).  Pray for us that this works!

Bottle:  I'm cracking down!  I've declared Momma Law!  Dr P. said 18 oz of milk is more than enough right now.  Ryne is having double (sometimes more than double) that in a day!  He won't drink milk out of a sippy cup, but he will drink juice and tea from a sippy, so I've decided to use that to my advantage.  His reflux is 100% gone (Praise the Lord!), so we have been able to give him watered down juice and tea in a sippy cup with no problems.  Today I got him down to 24 oz of milk and honestly, if I can't get him lower, I'm not going to worry.  That basically leaves him using a bottle just in the morning, before a nap and bedtime.  I'm fine with him drinking mostly milk, but he's not eating as much so we have to cut back.

Puzzles:  He's now completing some of the harder puzzles for 3+ years!  He's obsessed and it's something we can do together so I'm happy to let him do it!  Next we are going to work on jigsaw puzzles!

Music and Dancing:  Ryne loves both!  I think we are going to try out Kindermusik after the New Year in lue of The Little Gym.  I think Ryne would get more out of Kindermusik right now.  He participates, to an extent, at TLG.  He's strangely not into the group stuff at TLG, even though he is incredibly social there.  He likes to sit off away from everyone else and do the activities, but some activities he just refuses to do!  If you put on a good beat, though, Ryne will drop it like it's hot!   It's the cutest thing EVER!

I'm excited to see what the next month holds!

Gifted is Challenging!

So, I'm not expert on the matter, but as I have mentioned before, Ryne seems to be a little "advanced" in some areas.  He is now completing an entire ABC puzzle (26 pieces, obviously), although he has two pieces that cause him trouble at first so he sometimes saves them for last!  I will say that the reasons, I think, he has trouble with those pieces are that they are the same color and shaped similarly to other pieces.   Ryne has mastered every toddler puzzle in the house and the ABC puzzle is for 3+ years!  I am amazed!  I wouldn't have even opened it for him, except he saw it and wanted it opened.  I had no idea he'd be able to master in such a short time.
Anywho, I Googled "being good at puzzles" or something similar and several "gifted" websites were listed, so I decided to check them out.  One listed early signs of giftedness in children, and my jaw dropped.  "Nail on head" were the only words I could say!  I felt like I was reading a checklist that very accurately described Ryne, except for a few of the signs for older children and things that he has not really been exposed to.
It was comforting to know that some of the issues we have with Ryne, are early signs of giftedness, and not psychosis!  High activity level was one of them.  I know I tell people my child is high energy, and most people say that all toddlers are, which is true.  Then they meet Ryne, and they are blown away (almost literally because he runs by so quickly!).  He's non-stop, which is one thing that surprised me about his puzzle skills.  It requires being in one place for a certain amount of time.  Even when Ryne is sitting, he is moving - squirming, tapping his foot, shaking a leg, etc.).
Another sign was "seems to require less sleep".  If you've read my posts before, you know my child hardly sleeps!  Tuesday night, Ryne didn't go to sleep until about 10:30 pm and woke up at 5:30 am Wednesday morning!  He took an hour and fifteen minute nap on Wednesday and didn't go to bed until 11pm Wednesday night!  I love spending time with my little guy, but whoa, that's too much!  That's a lot of time to keep him stimulated/entertained!
Over the past few weeks, I thought Ryne was saying "I want ba ba," but the "I" sounded weak, so I didn't give it much consideration.  However, now, the "I" is more pronounced and he uses it in other phrases.  He started using two-word phrases at 12 months and now 3-word phrases at 16 1/2 months.  That's almost a complete sentence!   He seems to have the concept of possession down pretty well.  He says and understands "my", "I" and now "mine" or "mine mine mine."
He also has started understanding other concepts.  When he wakes up in the morning, he usually walks around looking for Adam, saying "Dadda, Dadda."  I tell him that Dadda is at work and Ryne says "bye bye Dadda Dadda."  Interestingly, Ryne has hardly ever seen Adam leave for work because Adam leaves at 6:30 am and Ryne is usually not up by then.
He has great problem solving skills.  I remember when Ryne was about 6 months old, he was obsessed with his spoon.  I set it down on the tray of his highchair at the front edge so he couldn't get it.  He grabbed the burpcloth that I had sitting on the tray and held onto one end and threw the other end at the spoon, to drag it towards him.  Earlier this summer, while at my parents' house, Ryne wanted a spice out of the pantry, but couldn't reach it so he grabbed the wok lid from a shelf, put it down on the floor and stood on the top, so he could reach the spice jar he wanted.  His newest (and dangerous) problem solving (timeout causing) trick is climbing on the tv console.  Why is that problem solving?  Well, Ryne likes to push the button on the TV to turn it on and off - all day long.  So I call him down every time he stands in that corner where the button is.  So now, he goes to the other side of the TV console and climbs up onto it and across to try to push the button...although he gets caught and goes to timeout before he can push the button and sometimes before he actually climb up on the console.  Find a way or make a way - that's his motto!
There are some other things that Ryne does or has done that were on the checklist, but this would be a lengthy blog!  I'm so excited and comforted to know that Ryne's not some wild child, who derives energy from the devil, and might just be a little "gifted".  However, we may have new challenges to face and I don't know what to do!  Gifted children often have discipline trouble and issues with depression and such, if not handled appropriately.  That's the last thing I want!  Ryne has his 18 month well check in January, where I will most definitely talk to his pediatrician about his little gift, but in the mean time, I don't know really what to do.  I've read that they need to be intellectually stimulated - if they are completing advanced puzzles then give them more advanced puzzles, etc.  However, I don't want to rob him of a childhood.  I want Ryne to be happy, which he seems to be.  I'd rather he continue to have a warm personality than be able to recite the ABCs forwards and backwards by the age of 2.  However, with all the little fits he throws and clinginess, I wonder if he isn't bored out of his mind and need more stimulation.  I feel like I'm walking a tight rope and waiting a month and a half to talk to Dr. P seems like forever.  I mean, the child completed a puzzle for a 3 year old in just a matter of days - a month and a half is a long time to wait if he should be learning more or challenged more!
If any of you have raised a gifted child and have advice, PLEASE let me know.  I know our parent's are good sources, but there is so much more known about giftedness in infants and toddlers now than there was twenty and thirty years ago.