The Halpern Home: 13 month update

For starters, at 13 months, Ryder weighs just under 20 pounds. He's wearing size 12 month clothing and size 3 diapers.

Typically, I save all of the photos for last, but I'll mix things up a bit and dish one out up front. Sort of an instant gratification type thing. If you make it to the end of this blog entry (or just scroll all the way through my endless droning), there are more photos at the end.

My handsome, big blue-eyed, pensive little fellow

These days, my favorite thing Ryder does is dance. Dancing is not itself a new thing for Ryder, but he's clearly been working on his moves because his recent dance sessions are freaking awesome. As long as he is in a good mood, he breaks out into a huge sh!t-eating grin the second the music comes on. Then he transitions from grin to full-out dance machine. He has several different dance moves. My favorite is "the hump." This is a dance move that is popular for Ryder when he is standing up (holding on to a piece of furniture). He girates his hips back and forth, Magic Mike style. It's funny stuff. When he is sitting down, he has a few different techniques. Sometimes he bops his head. Sometimes he sways forward and backwards (which is probably the sitting-down version of "the hump"). Sometimes he shimmies his shoulders, which is undoubtedly the cutest of the dance styles. The shimmy consists of lifting one shoulder at a time, while simultaneously shifting his body from side to side. We no longer have to turn the music on for Ryder in order to spur a dance session. He knows exactly which of his toys produce music, and he knows exactly how to turn them all on by himself. It works out nicely that Ryder can now instigate his own dance sessions on a whim, without any prodding.

    Our almost nightly Facetime sessions with Grandi have also become more fun and entertaining as of late. Ryder likes to imitate Grandi while she is on Facetime. If she moves her head down to one side so that her ear is touching her shoulder, Ryder will do the same. And he thinks it is funny. (And it is, in fact, funny). He says "hi" to Grandi several times during all Facetime sessions. Perhaps best of all, Ryder recently started to kiss the ipad screen when Grandi is on Facetime.  He crawls up to the ipad screen and puts his mouth right up to it. It's insanely precious.

    We still make fun of Ryder's unique baby talk. Instead of "bababa, gagaga, dadada" type noises, we still get a lot of "oyoyoy, goygoygoy." We like to joke that he sounds like a little rabbi. His new favorite word is "Dada." He says "Dada" ALL.THE.TIME. From the minute I get home from work until the minute that Blake gets home from work (usually a 15-45 minute interval of time), he asks about/talks about Dada nonstop. When Ryder hears the garage door opening and sees Gaudi get excited, he bee-lines it for the back door. Once he gets there, he looks over at me and lifts his arms (asking to be picked up) so that we can meet daddy outside. Sometimes before Blake even gets home from work, Ryder will crawl to the back door and sit there repeating "Dada? Dada? Dada?" But here's the real kicker... the kid will NOT say "mama." In fact, when I try to ~~demand~~ ~~force~~ ~~bribe~~ coax Ryder into saying "Mama," he looks me directly in the eye and says "Dada." It goes something like this:

Me: "Ryder, say mama. Maaamaaaa. Maaaamaaa." (drawing the word out slowly and enunciating it carefully) "Come on baby, say mama."

Ryder: "Dada."

Me: "Who am I?" "Ryder, can you say mama?"

Ryder: "Dada!"

I know that almost all babies say "dada" before "mama," and that it's the easier word to say, blah blah blah. But seriously? He's totally just being defiant and toying with me. Little booger.

    I don't think Ryder has added any other new words to his vocabulary other than the fact that he now makes a "vroom vroom" sound when he is pushing a toy with wheels, which is really cute. Otherwise, he is stuck at "hi," "hey," "uhoh," and "Dada." He actually doesn't even really bark like a dog anymore like he used to do. I'm hoping for a vocabulary explosion in the near future!

    Ryder has also become a pro at climbing the stairs in the last week or two. He even knows how to carefully back his way back down the stairs. He obviously needs a ton of supervision and spotting, but he's pretty steady.

    No walking yet, but Ryder is definitely a cruising-machine. He will even transfer from one piece of furniture to another, as long as they are close enough together that he can have one hand anchored at all times. He still won't walk with assistance (i.e. while holding adult hands), nor will he walk behind a toy with wheels (i.e. a walker). He's sticking to cruising along furniture for now. I have no guess as to when he'll take the plunge and take those first steps. Could be next week and could be two or three months from now.

    Ryder LOVES to play with the telephone. He is mildly entertained with toy phones, but apparently nothing compares to the real deal.   Playing with a real telephone makes Ryder absolutely giddy with excitement. Blake and I both hate to let him play with it, for fear that he'll accidentally dial 911 or harass strangers with the baby equivalent of "butt dials," but sometimes I'm a weak, bad mommy and I give in and let him play with it. It keeps him quiet and happy when nothing else does, so sue me!

    He is also obsessed with lights right now. This is funny to me because usually lights are one of the first things that babies notice when they are developing an awareness of their surroundings, and most babies become pretty fascinated by them early on. However, Ryder never showed an interest in lights when he was an infant. Now, as a 13 month old, he is suddenly enthralled. He reaches up towards them (an open-handed reach, fingers spread wide, since he doesn't do the one-fingered point yet), and explaims "Ooooooh" or "Ohhhhhh." He also loves it when you switch a light on and off. Bonus excitement if you pick him up and let him switch a light on and off.

    A couple of weeks ago, Ryder went through a phase where he was even more attached to his pacis and lovey blankets than he used to be (if that is even possible). In retrospect, I think he was just needing extra comfort/soothing because his molars were starting to come in. I've been trying to wean him from his pacifier except for during naps/bedtime, but I backed off a little while he was seeming extra needy. I kind of assumed that there was a reason for his clingy-ness, and I didn't want to strip him of his comfort sources while he was going through whatever it was that he was going through.

    During a recent doctor visit to check for an ear infection (there was none), the doc confirmed that Ryder was getting his molars. At least one of them has already popped through. He definitely experienced some heightened fussiness, sleeplessness and clingy-ness (see above discussion re: paci and lovey attachment) while it was coming through. So I'm now kind of holding my breath and waiting for those less-than-desirable symptoms to return, since I know that the other molars are bound to follow suit in the coming weeks.

    There have been some definite sleep pattern changes off and on in the past 6 weeks or so. In particular, there have been a couple of weekends were I was sure that Ryder was trying to cut himself down to one nap a day. But lo and behold, he would resume his twice-daily naps after a few days of napping semi-hell. I'd say that he refuses one of his naps at least once or twice a week at this point. His naps, as of late, are totaling 2-3 hours per day. His night sleep is still stellar though. And his bedtime is finally a little bit later! Instead of melting down/passing out between 6pm and 6:30, Ryder now goes to bed between 6:30 and 7:30pm. Most nights, I'd say that he goes down at about 7pm. It's so nice to spend some extra time with him in the evenings. He typically sleeps about 12 hours regardless of what time he goes to bed. Lately, he seems to wake up crying each night between 9pm and 11pm, but he typically sooths himself back to sleep within a minute or two.  Sometimes I'll go in there to cuddle him for a minute simply because I'm craving the extra cuddles. I'll pick him up and he'll immediatley quit crying and lay his head on my shoulder and fall back asleep. Even though I know that he doesn't really need me and he falls back asleep on his own, I love those sweet cuddles!  As I've explained many times before, Ryder is not a cuddly baby and never has been. He was never one to let me rock him to sleep. So I have to sneak in now and get those cuddles when he cries out at night to make up for a year's worth of cuddle deprivation. Besides these little cry-out episodes that seem to occur a couple of hours after his bedtime and rarely require intervention, he sleeps through the night like a champ.

    Also noteworthy: Ryder got his first haircut! I took him to Cool Cuts for Kids on Saturday, December 29, 2012. Although I had been putting it off, his hair was getting totally out of control. I asked that they just trim his bangs, around his ears and clean up the ends (which were approaching mullet-status). My mom and Grandi (who was in town for the holidays) accompanied us. Ryder wouldn't sit by himself in the little racecar chair, but he did pretty well on my lap. I thought it was going to go quite poorly at first, but all it took was a little bubble-blowing by Ro, and he was perfectly distracted. It wasn't the cleanest, nicest cut that I've ever seen, but I doubt that many first hair cuts yield flawless results. Truth be told, my kid is pretty hairy, and I think there will be many a haircut in our future. Next time we'll know to blow bubbles right off the bat.

    I have one major bragging point for this 13 month update. Within the past week, Ryder started completing his puzzles. We've had some beginner puzzles sitting out for him for several months, and he has enjoyed taking the pieces out and tossing them across the room, or crawling around the room with a puzzle piece in each hand, or hiding the puzzles pieces inside of various other toys and buckets. However, he suddenly has started removing the pieces one by one and replacing them in the proper spots one by one. He's a genius, I tell you! He knows exactly where each piece goes and fits them in the proper locations on the first try. He does still have trouble sometimes getting the pieces to fit firmly inside of the allotted holes (i.e. he knows that the dog puzzle piece goes inside of the dog puzzle hole, but sometimes he won't have the piece turned to the exact orientation that it needs to be in order to fit). When this happens, he looks up at me and fusses, but with a little bit of encouragement he'll get the piece turned properly so that it will fit. Ms. Peggie, who teaches slightly older kids at the school, has told me that Ryder's ability to complete puzzles at this age is advanced. I don't know if she's being honest or if she's just tooting my horn, but either way- I'm proud of my genius baby! I just knew that his huge head must be filled with a huge brain, and now I'm finally getting the proof that I've been right all along!

[Edited to add: On Wednesday, January 16th, Ryder said a new word! It wasn't one that I had anticipated, but it was awesome nonetheless. Sometimes on Facetime Grandi blows bubbles with her bubblegum, and Ryder loves it. This is something that she has done in person during her visits, and Ryder has always been enthralled by it. Ever since her most recent visit, she's been blowing bubbles via Facetime, and he still loves it. On the 16th, Ryder said "bubble." It was clear as day! I would have guessed that it would come out as "buh-buh," but no- it sounds exactly like "buh-bull." The next morning when I dropped Ryder off at school, I bragged to his teacher, Ms. Lynn, about his new word. Shockingly enough, Ryder actually repeated it for her on demand. Yay for new words!]

Loved the reunion of Ryder and Miss Eve. Also loved that we got to celebrate Miss Eve's 1st birthday! (Oh, and also loved spending time with Jess, my Wash U bestie!)