9 Months Old!

Ryan turned 9 months old last week and we can hardly believe it! The time has gone by so quickly and it seems like he was just born the other day and here we are approaching summer again (I'm not sure that Derek would agree with me about the time going by so quickly). Ryan also went to the doctor last week and he is healthy. Here are his current stats:

weight: 16 lbs 13 ounces (5th percentile)

height: 26 3/4 inches (10th percentile)

He is our small boy! We don't know how much weight he had gained from the nearly 3 months between his 6 month appointment in January to when he was sick with RSV at the end of March/beginning of April, but both the doctor and I think he lost weight when he was sick. We're just not sure how much. Anyway, he had gained almost a pound back in the 2 weeks since he was sick. I try to avoid comparing the boys (okay, it's hard not to!), but I looked back at Sean's baby book and at this age he weighed about 2 pounds more than Ryan and was nearly 2 inches longer! I was surprised that there was so much of a difference. I think Ryan will start to gain more weight because he is starting to eat more table foods and less baby food. He loves to eat chicken and cheese and I just started him on that yogurt for babies and he loves it!

I was happy because I didn't think Ryan would need to get any immunizations at this appointment, but he was behind on one so he did have to get just one. That is my least favorite part of the doctor's visits. He also had to have his little foot pricked to check for anemia (he didn't even notice). The doctor said his levels were perfect so he's getting enough iron in his diet.

As for development, Ryan likes to take it easy! He gets into crawl position, but hasn't yet decided to go forward and crawl. He's been sleeping a little better the last few nights, but still wakes several times a night even if he just goes back to sleep. The doctor said that he is just being strong willed and it's going to take longer for him to get it (great - that's 2 strong willed boys now!). I'm not sure how much more I can take! I need sleep.

Ryan is such a cutie and I hope you enjoy the recent pictures. I recently gave him a snack container to play with and as you can see from the picture, he managed to get it open and dump them all over the place! My friend Kimberly is going to come over and take some pictures of Ryan for his 9 month pictures in the next couple of weeks and I will post them soon. We decided that since Ryan was petrified at the photo studio that we would wait a bit before going back. We'll probably try again when he is 1 year old.

The past weekend was very snowy again. We saw a little bit of everything: snow, rain, and hail. Today was beautiful though and this week is supposed to be in the 60's and 70's. We are so excited to get outside. Amidst the cold weather, our first tulip bloomed in the backyard and Sean was so excited.

I also joined the YMCA and actually managed to make it through a workout class last week. Sean is excited because he is going to go swimming this week. We're also going to sign him up for swim lessons in June.

Oh, a note about the picture of Sean sleeping. He just loves stuffed animals (mommy and daddy aren't so fond of them) and he decided to take every single stuffed animal out of his closet and sleep with them on his bed during his nap.

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter from the Wilson family! We are first and foremost, so very thankful for God's love and the fact that he loves us so much that he gave us Jesus who died for our sins and that Jesus is Alive and Risen! What an awesome God!

We enjoyed our Easter Day. The morning started with snow, snow, snow! We are so ready for warm weather. We started our day at church. The boys wore their special Easter outfits and they looked so handsome. I had hoped to wear a "spring" outfit, but the weather really didn't permit! We took a couple of pictures and Sean was ready to take off of his blazer as soon as I put it on him. Oh well, he looked handsome anyway.

After a wonderful worship and service, we came home for our Easter hunt. Sean gets so excited; I just love watching his excitement and joy. We hid eggs in the house (our plan to have an egg hunt outside was spoiled by the yucky weather) and we also hid his basket. He ran around the house and is actually really good at finding the eggs. His basket was filled with many goodies and fun toys.

Our friend Christie and her daughters Gracie and Mary Ashlynn came over for one more egg hunt and dinner. We spent the rest of the evening relaxing.

Catching Up

Derek had the day off last Friday and we took advantage of some extra time with daddy. He's been working a lot lately and also has an MBA class one night a week and is teaching a college class one night a week. Those are very long days for daddy and the boys really don't get to see him.

After Ryan's morning nap, we went to Itz which is a family place where you can eat and play games and there are also a few rides. Sean had a blast and he picked out a Spiderman Bingo game with the tickets we won. Daddy also won a really big stuffed "Hulk". After naps on Friday, our friend Christie and her daughters Gracie and Mary Ashlynn came over to decorate Easter eggs. Sean actually took a bite of one of the hard boiled eggs - I was surprised!

Then, the best part of the day, Derek and I had a date night while the in-laws came over and watched the boys. We were very thankful to have some time to ourselves. We were trying to decide for days what we should do on our date night. We wanted to see a movie, but there really weren't any movies that we wanted to see (especially for $10), so we decided against that. We had a big lunch that day, so we weren't up for a big dinner. In the end, we decided that we would just run errands. Sounds kind of lame, but we were just happy to spend some time alone. We went to the YMCA to get a membership, had appetizers at Chili's, and went to Kohl's (my favorite place). At the end of the night, we were exhausted! We are getting old!

That leads me to a problem that I'm struggling with right now. We didn't leave for our date night until after Ryan was in bed because he is really suffering from separation anxiety. He screams and cries when he is away from me. It was easier for us to put him to bed so he would just sleep while we were gone. I'm also still nursing him, so that may be part of the problem. We've been trying a bottle and he wants nothing to do with it! I'm trying to create opportunities when I can leave him with others to try and get him used to being with others. I haven't tried to keep him from others, it's just worked out that way since he is with me like 98% of everyday. He's been going to the nursery at church and my mom's group since he was like 2 months old, but he still doesn't like it. If anyone has any suggestions on how to deal with this, please send them my way. Sean wasn't like this, so I've not experienced this!

Okay, back to our weekend. On Saturday, we had a car appointment and a hair appointment. We went to Golden Corral (not my favorite choice) for lunch because Sean has been asking to go there. We let him pick out the foods he wanted to eat - very interesting. Do you think we are bad parents for allowing him to pick this much candy from the dessert bar? Thankfully, he didn't eat it all. I guess he takes after mommy! All of the candy was supposed to be toppings for ice cream. As for the sprinkles, he said he just wanted to eat them with a spoon. Yummy!

These other pictures are from the 1 day last week that they weather was decent and we were able to play outside. I'm so ready for spring weather!!