Ryan at 14 Months

Since I've been so bad at keeping track of Ryan's developments, I was going to skip this entry, but I figure, why not? What's so great about consistency anyways? :)

Ryan learned to clap soon after his first birthday. He started with one hand stationary with the other hand doing all the work. He didn't make much sound at first, but now he's quite loud! He claps when he hears other people clapping. For instance, on his learning puppy, if you press the puppy's hand sensor, it makes a clapping noise. When Ryan hears it, he likes to clap along. Whenever he thinks that he's done a good job, he claps for himself, even though he may not have gotten that puzzle piece completely in. What can I say? I clap along for him too. :) He claps when you say "yay" or "good job" too. He loves clapping and his whole face brightens up when he does.

Ryan's really been into self-feeding lately. If I try to feed him with a spoon, he'll take a few bites and then attacks the spoon until he gets ahold of it. He likes to grab the spoon with his left hand and then he switches it over to his right hand where he'll use it. He's not very good at scooping food up, but he's managed to stab it and push food around his plate. Ryan is a biter, so I try to utilize that by having him bite into as much of his food as possible. We started with bananas soon after his first birthday and we've moved on from there. Yesterday we shared a tuna sandwich from Quizno's at the mall. I break off a smaller piece and then let him bite off what he wants to eat. It works out pretty well and it keeps his hands a little bit cleaner. He's really good at biting! I don't know if that's a good thing or not!

Ryan has gone overboard sucking his thumb lately. I think it's because of the ear infection that he had a few weeks ago. He likes to suck his left thumb while he pulls his right ear. He can even walk and do it! It's a bit ridiculous. He's always sucked his thumb, but it's really turned into an obsession so much so that we've decided to do something about it. We ordered some stuff called Mavala Stop. It's suppose to come in the mail soon. I'll let ya'll know if it works out or not. I'm tired of having the only kiddo who sucks their thumb!

Ryan has developed a particular affinity for our white haired canine. Poor Button, he "pets" her, which is fine, but he had a tendency to get rough. Ryan eventually starts yanking out handfuls of Button fur and she just sits there and takes. It drives me nuts. I always yell at Button and tell her to run away from Ryan, like Carrie is smart enough to do. Sadly, I don't think that Button gets as much attention as she's used to, so she'll take whatever attention she can get, even if it's Ryan pulling out her fur. We're trying to teach him to do it gently, but he's so attracted to her that he follows her around the house and sometimes we just can't keep up! Poor Button!

Ryan's current pet peeves are diaper changes (aren't they always?) and getting dressed. When he sees me pull out clothes for him to change into, he goes running off in the opposite direction. When I say run, I really mean run! He runs away and giggles. He's so silly, he knows when he does things he's not suppose to. When I catch him going up the stairs, he goes up faster and giggles. When I caught him pulling down a towel off of the towel rack, he giggled and did it anyway. We haven't really disciplined him minus biting, and we've been lucky so far. He has started throwing some fits, but there's usually a way around them, or we just let him go at it. Usually when he throws a fit, he'll sit on the ground, lean forward and bang his head on the ground. He hasn't done it since his ear infection a few weeks ago, so we've been lucky. He was really acting up and fussing last week, but we think it was just teething because the minute we gave him some orajel, he was instantly better. The biting is definitely related to teething. When he bites me excessively, I know now to bring out the orajel!

Ryan has become a walking pro. I've heard of kiddos taking steps here and there and then eventually walking, but Ryan didn't let go of our hands/walker until he was ready to walk. He did a few steps the week before his birthday, but it only took a week until he let go and was walking all over the house. I've heard that soon after learning how to walk, they learn to run and that's the end of having a good child. I didn't see it at first, but now I can totally tell that he's running and he sure is fast, especially if I'm chasing after him with clothes!

At the kiddie gym, Ryan hasn't really wanted to hang for the past month. I can't explain, but it's just not his thing right now. On the other hand, he loves the ball pit. Once he gets in there, he's hooked and doesn't want to come back out, which would be fine except that he loves to throw the balls out of the pit. He also loves the tunnels at the gyms. When he sees one, he likes to dive right in.

Ryan hasn't been into vegetables lately. It's probably because we give him so much fruit. Even if I try to hide some veggies in a spoonful of food that I know that he likes, he can magically tell and spit it out. That's another thing that he got from being sick, spitting out food. Apparently, when kids get ear infections, it hurts to eat so they don't eat as much. When Ryan got his ear infection, he learned how to stick out his tongue to spit out food. Even though the ear infection is gone, he's already learned the habit. So much for having the baby who'll eat everything. I'm trying to cut back on his fruit intake, but what can I say? Ryan's a fruit-aholic!

Okay, I think that's enough of an update for now. I need to take more pictures!!