St. Patrick's Day

A pretty uneventful day around here today.  I'm busy getting ready for our trip to Montana in a couple days so we decided to just hang around here.  We did get to the park for a picnic lunch, which unfortunately didn't go as planned.  Hey not every day is a perfect day in Decker land :)  It was too windy to really eat outside and Rilyn had two accidents so we called it an afternoon and headed home for naps.

Of course I had to take some pictures of the kids decked out in their green.

Feeding Giraffes

We love the Colorado Springs Zoo!  We got a membership there this time around instead of the Denver Zoo because although they are about the same distance we don't have to worry about traffic and it is a gorgeous zoo!

Feeding the giraffes is probably the coolest part of the zoo.  For a minimal fee you can buy some lettuce  (breakfast) or crackers (lunch) and hand feed them.  Rilyn got some money from her great grandparents for Valentine's day and decided to spend it on feeding the giraffes as well as a carousel ride.  Thanks grandma and grandpa!

It was a beautiful day!

Gotta Love Colorado

Only in Colorado can you go hiking one day and sledding the next, with the likelihood to go hiking again in a couple days.

On Thursday, Stacey and I took the kiddos for the first hike of the season.  We went up a trail right across from the street from Tyler's parents house.  According to Yvonne and Rilyn - we went up to Grandma's rock.

The trail was pretty muddy with snow in some spots, but Rilyn did really well and only wanted a lift from Stacey a couple times.  She even tried climbing some rocks after seeing some boys scale them like Batman.

Of course all my "good ideas" usually turn into failures - this one ended in a nice little fall for Ryder, Rilyn, and myself.  Ryder came out unscathed thanks to the protection of the carrier and one of my arms, but poor Rilyn got dragged down by me and ended up with a bleeding lip and a scraped up hand.  My leg probably got the worst of it.  The good news is the kids are okay and I've learned my lesson to wear pants when hiking.

Then yesterday we got about a foot of snow so we had to take advantage of what might be the last good snow of the season.  And Tyler and Rilyn created the cutest little snowman ever today!

And nothing to do with this post but we had to do some practice for some egg hunts coming up and lots of cuddling :)

Stayed tune for some gorgeous weather pictures coming up this week since it's supposed to be in the high 60's this week!

Ryder at 7 months old

Ryder is 7 months old!  He is now closer to being one than a newborn.  I can't believe in just a few months we will be planning his 1st birthday!  

Tricks: staying on his stomach longer and attempting to crawl, imitating his sister, laughing more frequently and definitely more at his sister, entertaining himself for longer periods, drinks from a sippy cup, holds his own bottle at Grandma and Grandpa's,

Eating:  he is still usually nursing every 2 hours, but is starting to have more frequent periods of going longer.  If we are out he won't ask to nurse which has been nice for going places.  He loves food, but already is picker than his sister was.  Tonight he scowled at us when we gave him broccoli after he had been eating some delicious cheese rolls that Tyler had made.

Sleeping: Ryder is sleeping through the night with one feeding.  Typically that feeding happens between 2 and 4 AM.  Most nights we don't have to get up at all to give him his pacifier either!  His morning nap is getting pretty short 30 - 45 mins and most days I don't push for a longer nap so he is ready to go down again when Rilyn's ready for her nap.  His afternoon nap is usually 1 1/2 hours to 3 hours.  

Stats: No stats until 9 months, but I just switched him into 12 - 18 month clothes.  Pajamas and shirts that don't button at the bottom are 9 - 12 months.  He also got his two canine teeth on the top a couple weeks ago and looks like a vampire with the two teeth on the top!  He has 3 more trying to pop through!

He is really starting to try and move, which is funny to me since he still doesn't sit up long on his own.  When I sit him up I will put the boppy pillow behind him and next thing I know he has fallen over and rolled over and off of the pillow.  He LOVES story-time, being outside, and has enjoyed lots of time in the carrier lately.  

when I left him he was sitting up in the boppy

ready to crawl

First Foods

A couple weeks ago, February 16th, to be exact we decided to start Ryder on solids.  We were trying to wait until he was more sturdy when sitting up on his own; however, he has very little interest in sitting up.  He can sit up and has for more than 2 minutes at a time but he throws himself back quite quickly.  He's just a mover and can't move much when sitting.

So, anyways....we decided to give it a shot.  We have planned on the Baby-Led Weaning approach again because it just worked well for our family.

His first meal was scrambled eggs and toast for breakfast.  He definitely had to figure out how to get the food into his mouth and struggled a little knowing he also had to chew and not just swallow the foods.

But, two weeks later and he is a champ.  He rarely gags anymore (a total normal occurrence with baby-led weaning)  and has eaten quite the variety.

So far he has eaten: sweet potatoes, toast, yogurt, applesauce (grandma Decker's homemade of course), squash, cucumber, blueberries, blackberries, eggs, pears, bananas, broccoli, potato,  and cream of wheat.  I think that is it.  His favorite is pears and cries if we take them away when he is eating.

We really try to push the veggies at this age and it's been nice to really focus on that because Rilyn wants to eat whatever he is eating so she has been getting quite the fill of veggies too.  She also loves to help prepare any meals for him :)  She is such a great big sister!

waiting for his first meal

working hard to get it in his mouth

not sure of this....

yogurt can be quite messy...