On New Year’s Day, it’s been tradition for my husband’s side of the family to share what they’ve been thankful for. This year was no different as we went around sharing three things: 1) What we’ve been thankful for 2) What we’re stressed out about, so that we can keep each other in prayer 3) What we hope for in 2012.
Here is what I shared with my family. 1) I’m thankful for many things as we went through several transitions this past year, but the hardest to overcome was when Ryder was diagnosed with infantile esotropia (when the eyes are “crossed”). I plan to write a separate post on this in the future, but I’m so grateful that his eye muscle surgery was successful. 2) What is constantly on my mind and in my prayers is that his eyes will stay this way. There is a chance for them to drift again which is my biggest fear, but I also understand that it’s totally out of my control. 3) Our hope is to get pregnant with baby #3! I can’t believe I’m willing to go through the crazy morning sicknesses again, but it’s so worth it!

While I was making lunch today, I heard Rylie calling Youkeun from the bathroom. (She now goes pee, wipes, and washes her hand all by herself! hooray!)

R: Dad! Come to the bathroom. I see something funny!
Y: What is it?…
R: There’s hair in my booty!!!!

At this point, I was cracking up in the kitchen. I was trying to imagine what she was talking about. She then called me into the bathroom and I took a peek. Lo and behold, I see a strand of hair hanging from her booty. While she was going pee, I guess she decided to peek in the toilet and saw hair hanging. She was genuinely relieved when I was able to remove it from her booty… lol.

While on the topic of potty, I can now say Ryder goes #2 (sometimes #1) in the potty! He starts grunting and gives me a look and I’ll know that he has to go. If I don’t react fast enough, he can even hold it for a little and will keep grunting until I take notice. I only started because he was so regular. Once in the morning and once in the evening, usually after his meals. Even Rylie knows when he has to go! His regular bowel movements made it incredibly easy. We started putting him on the day after we purchased the potty and he had no problems going. If he doesn’t have to go, he starts complaining while arching his back. Rylie also started going #2 at 10 months in the little potty and I didn’t move her to the big potty till much later. It took her some time to get used to it and I’m sure fear had something to do with it. With Ryder, I put him on the little potty and big potty, so he can get used to both. He looks so teeny when on the big potty, but he doesn’t mind at all. It’s the cutest thing when he’s all done, but will still push (while grunting) just to be funny. His humor is so much like his dad’s. I’m pretty sure we have a mini Youkeun on our hands.

After about a month of being sick, Rylie is finally starting to feel better. We went to see the doctor last week since her cough was getting worse. She prescribed some sort of steroid to strengthen her lungs, but I didn’t feel too comfortable giving it to her. We still gave it a try hoping it would ease her cough, but she experienced numerous side effects. Headaches throughout the day, dizziness, and stomach ache, but her cough was still really bad. We took her to another doctor the next day and he said that the steroid should have never been prescribed to her. He prescribed antibiotics instead and I noticed an instant improvement in her cough. I’m really hoping she won’t get sick for awhile because this mama needs to catch up on some sleep.

Since feeling so much better, she was finally able go on a date with her daddy! Here she is excited to see her favorite band, Twinkle and Friends!

Happy 7 months to my little man!

- Will point his hand to where he wants to go.
- Starting to use his knees while he crawls.
- Sits for longer periods of time without falling down.
- Can go from sitting position to crawling and vice versa.
- He likes to go poo poo in private
- Can pull himself up on everything! This means we have to keep our eyes on him all.the.time. While standing, he tries to take steps
- Pulling himself up in his crib. He doesn’t know how to sit from standing position, so for a couple of days I had to go in during his nap times to lay him down again.
- I see two little teeth on the bottom. yay~!
- Can clap his hands.
- Can do “more” sign during his meals.
- Lowered his crib soon after 6 months.
- Takes two naps (one around 9am and one around 2pm)

First it was Rylie and now Ryder. Rylie had it bad last week, but good news is she is finally getting better. Bad news, now Ryder has it really bad. Runny nose, congestion, and the ugliest cough you’ve ever heard. Just hearing him whimper while he’s trying to sleep breaks my heart. He’s been very clingy and whiny, which is totally not him. When I put him on the ground, he’ll put his head down on his arms and cry cause he wants to be held instead. I hope the worst is over cause I want us to be able to enjoy this beautiful weather. We’ve been holed up in our house for almost 2 weeks!

Ryder is already 6 months! I can’t believe how time flies by. Here are some of his updates.

- Continues to do his army crawl and is quite the expert. He’s very mobile and can get to his object of choice.
- I’m reading a book called baby-led weaning and applying it for Ryder. So far he’s eaten apples, oranges, strawberries, toast, grapefruit, bananas, chicken, cucumbers, zucchinis, avocados, broccoli, mango, and carrots. I’ve also given him pureed food: blackberries, garbanzo beans, hummus, peas, and apple sauce.
- Still waking up for night feedings. Anywhere from 3-4am. For a few days, he woke up around 5:30am without any wakings during the night.
- Able to sit, but will topple over after awhile
- Still loves to bounce
- Trying to drop his 3rd nap
- No sign of teeth yet!
- Loves giving big kisses to mommy and noona, but not so much to daddy.
- Can say mom! A couple of weeks ago, I had to put him down to go to the restroom. As I was walking away, I heard his say, “Mmmm-ah.” I told this to Youkeun and he didn’t believe me until Ryder did it again. Since then, he’s said it consistently when I’m walking away or when he’s looking for me.
- He can also say, “ba-ba-ba”
- Can open and shut his fist and do ‘jem-jem’
- Loves climbing his noona. Rylie enjoys this and starts to giggle when he’s on top of her.
- Very affectionate. I don’t remember Rylie being this way, but Ryder is big on hugs. Whenever I pick him up, he’ll immediately shoot me a big smile and lay his head on my shoulder. We think he’s going to be a mama’s boy… lol.
- Moved onto size 4 diapers, size 3 shoes, and wearing 9-12 month clothing