:: 2 months young ::

Today my little Ryker guy turned 2 months. Wow time does fly by. I can not believe we have had our little man with us for this long already. He is the light and joy of our lives. I am so blessed to be entrusted with this amazing little man who I love with all of my heart. 

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Ryker went to the doctor today and came back with some AMAZING stats 15 lbs. 9oz. and 24 1/2" tall. What can I say my milk must be pure cream and this guy LOVES to eat! 

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Ryker has graduated to his big boy bed AKA his crib and I am sleeping much better now that I don't hear his every grunt.

He has moved up to his 3-6 month jammies - he is just so tall.

He loves to smile and giggle at me.

He this his elephant is hilarious with all of the funny sounds it makes.

His best friend (other than me of course) is Z his zebra.

He loves reading books.

He is getting really good at holding his head up and now likes to stand up. He is getting so strong.

He loves his play mat and is really good at kicking his toys and watching the lights.

He is very attentive to things going on around him and is quick to find me in a room. 

He hates tummy time.

He does not like being in his car seat unless we are in the car.

He loves to go running with mommy in the stroller. 
He loves making new friends. 

*****

Happy Birthday Pappy!

 I love you so much and you are such a wonderful example to me. You have such a strong testimony and teach me so much. 

:: year of the tiger ::

{Chinese Calendar}

So Brady and I have a long lasting joke about what animal we are on the Chinese calandar. I mostly like to rub in his face that I am a tiger and he is a rat. This is the conversation that took place yesterday and I was dying of laughter and HAD to post it so I would never forget it.

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Lindsay: guess what 2010 is the year of the Tiger. Ryker is a Tiger like me!!
Brady: when is the next year of the Rat so we can have a baby that year so I'm not the only Rat in the family?
Lindsay: I'm not sure lets look and see
Brady: we need to have a baby 2020 so I wont be the only Rat in the family.
Lindsay: hahahahahah.......... heehehehehehe..........
Brady: man I am the worst animal out of all of them.{rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, roster, dog, boar) I would rather be anything else. All of the other ones would kill me.

So silly that we even care what animal we are but I found it cute that Brady wanted another rat in the family. Gosh I love this guy of mine. I can always count on him for a good laugh.

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Now with all of this tiger talk I have the song "in the eye of the tiger" playing in my head and it brings only one thing/person to my mind (mugs, kels, or pappy you should know this one) ...... yep 5:30am freestyle and Niko warming up on the ice at the rink. Wow what a memory.

:: music class ::

Ryker and I attend music class every Friday with a bunch of women in our ward. It is so fun to sing silly songs, play instruments, and dance. I know Ryker is only 2 months old and most would think why am I going to this class he is too young, but I think he likes it. I sure love the social interaction with all of the other mommy's. I am amazed at Ryker's awareness of everything and ever one around him. We love having play dates already. Yeah for happy days. 

*****

It is 4:30am and Ryker has gone back to bed after sleeping for 6 hours (WAHOO!!) and now I can not fall back asleep. Funny how that works.  

:: laying on the floor ::

Ryker in bed and not screaming - Check

Cookies for Brady to take to class tomorrow baked - Check

House picked up - Check

Brady home from school - ha yeah right 

So what better way then to spend 75 minuets on the phone with a girlfriend at 10pm right? As I lay on the floor of my apartment chatting we begin to talk about blogs and how she likes when people write "normal life" post and not just the super fun and exciting post. It got me thinking that we have had so many fun and exciting things going on since Ryker has been born that I have not slowed down to blog about things on mind and not just events. While we are talking I look up at the ceiling and a funny thought came into my mind "how fun would this ceiling be as a floor?" "what if we could switch the floor with the ceiling for a few days? that could be cool right?" Then I remembered as a child I would lay on the sofa at my parents house and look upside down at their ceiling and have the same thought. I know it is a very silly thought. Have any of you ever had this same thought before? If not I bet after you are done reading this you will try it out. It's kind of fun to think about. 

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Life has slowed down some this past week and it has been nice. Ryker and I are trying to still find balance in our life and I feel like we are getting closer to it.  I am still trying to get this little guy feeling better and over his silly cold/congestion and I think he is finally on the getting better side of it. 

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I feel so blessed to be the mother of such a sweet spirit. Ryker has been my best friend since I could first feel him wiggle in my tummy so many months ago and I hope that he stays that way for many years to come. I am so blessed to be able to stay at home with him and snuggle and play all day. Sure some moments are harder than others but life is never easy. Being a mom is the best for me. It comes so naturally for me and I hope that someday we are entrusted with many more sweet spirits like Ryker to fill our home with love, joy, happiness, and craziness. 

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I think it is good to sometimes just slow it down a notch and remember what is truly important to us and enjoy the small and simple joys in our daily lives. That is true happiness. 

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Right here, right now I have found true happiness and a purpose to my life. Thank you Brady. Thank you Ryker. Thank you Atlanta. Thank you family. You have helped me see this.

:: white coat ceremony ::

Yesterday was Brady's white coat ceremony. It was a very nice event. The speakers were great and gave the students wonderful advice. I love that here at Emory they focus not only on their education while in school but also how to keep learning once they are in the working field and that they will learn the most from their patients. I know Brady will make a wonderful physical therapist. 

Dr. Hoder dressing Brady in his white coat.

 Doctors started wearing the white lab coat in the 1860's because they were more than just medical doctors they were scientist. Just a fun fact that we learned at the ceremony. 

I love Brady's ear to ear smile here. He looks so good sporting his white coat. I am so proud of him and all of his hard work that has gotten him this far. Way to go sweets!! 

The Bro's 

This is what all of the guys in the program call themselves. Oh and they even do a bro's night and invited Ryker to join them. I learned that our son is the class mascot. I love how the entire class loves him and they have only met his twice. Ryker was the hit of the event. Everyone wanted to see and hold him and all of the girls in the class were showing him off to their parents that were there. 

Ryker went to Brady's class on Friday and his teacher tested his motor skills and reflexes. He did really well and is in the 91%. So pretty much our son is AWESOME. He did amazing for the class also. He was striped down to his diaper and picked on for an hour and didn't fuss until the last few minuets when he decided it was eating time. He even showed off his new love of gibber.jabbing. and everyone thought he was just so cute. 

Our happy family.

We are so proud of Brady!!

My two handsome guys! I love them so much and am so blessed to have them both for all of eternity. 

After the big event all 3 of us were beat and came home to take a nap. When I woke up Brady and Ryker were watching football together. It was so cute. Ryker is just like his daddy and already loving watching sports. Check out his smile. 

*Ryker side note: he has started cooing and it is just about the cutest sound in the world. I am going to try and get a video of it. Oh and he now makes a really good dolphin sound. We love it! 

:: visitors for ryker ::

This past weekend was a party here in Atlanta. Ryker got to meet his Grandma and Grandpa Wood and Nana (he got to see again) and Papa. Friday morning before our guest arrived we had some play time and discovered how much Ryker LOVES his zebra. Z makes him laugh and smile like crazy. 

After story and play time we had to get dressed up to meet everyone. Ryker even sported his Tour de France hat for the first time. 

After meeting everyone and showing off Ryker decided to take a nap on Papa while we played some games. He is such a sound sleeper. He slept like this while we played lier's dice and shook dice and laughed and were crazy loud. 

On Saturday we went to the largest aquarium in the USA here in Atlanta. It was a first for everyone other than Brady. We got to see all kinds of new fish that I had never seen before and I am even an avid aquarium go'er on vacations. Have you ever seen an elephant fish? Well now you have (bottom right). Mom and I got to touch the anemones (bottom left) and YES they are as squishy as they look. Their little fingers are kind of sticky also. It startled me at first.  

This tank was HUGE and full of thousands of fish, sharks, shark-wales (4), and many other creatures who live under the sea. I have never seen a tank like this before. It was AMAZING and I can't wait to go back and see it again. 

Under the sea. 

I just love jelly fish even though they are deadly. Oh have you ever heard of sand worms? Yup they are these crazy little guys that dance around in the sand bobbing their heads up and down in the sand. Saw fish anyone? 

Sunday was Ryker's blessing day. He was a champ and didn't make a peep through the entire blessing. Brady did such a wonderful job and the spirit was so strong. I am so proud of Brady for being such an amazing priesthood holder. It was so fun to have all of our parents here for this weekend. Ryker is one loved guy and I know he is going to miss his grandparents spoiling him. I think the only time he was not being loved on all weekend was the few hours he slept in his bed at night and he loved every minuet of it. 

Family = Love

I know Ryker looks sad in this picture with Brady but I thought that his pouty lip was too cute. 

All dressed in white. 

Ryker did really well with me taking a hundred pictures of him all dressed up. 

I love this little man of mine so much and I love how he adores me. He is my little best friend. 

Ryker has been smiling like crazy this past week. We practiced really hard all weekend and it looks like it paid off. 

Ryker got lots of loving on from his Nana and Papa and Grandma and Grandpa. He is a pro cuddlier. 

He is really funny when he sleeps. He likes to make really loud animal sounds like a dolphin and a cat. He kept us laughing all weekend. 

 On Monday we went to Roswell to check out some plantations. Too bad they were all closed. We did get to walk around the gardens and relax in the rocking chairs and have the mosquitoes chew on us. It was a nice relaxing day. Roswell is a really fun town about 20 minuets from us (yes everything is 20 minuets from us) and they have all kinds of events year around. We will be heading out there again soon. 

Embracing the culture of the laid back plantation life. We lucked out with the weather also. It actually started to cool down and the humidity was not bad. So it was perfect weather to be outside. Oh and Ryker was a trooper through all of our adventures. He slept through most of them so we could just go go go. 

Grandma and Grandpa Wood

Nana and Papa 

It was so much fun having our parents here for the weekend and Ryker loved every bit of it. It is always so fun to have family come visit. No pressure but we are always open for visitors!!! 

And we ate LOTS of this AMAZING ice cream. My pappy LOVES his Blue Bell ice cream and he spoiled us good with 5 new flavors of ice cream this weekend. As of right now we have more ice cream in our freezer than we do food. It is heavenly. Our newest favorite flavor is snicker doodle. mmmmm. 

Now it is back to reality and Ryker and I are trying to figure out a schedule. We have way too much fun playing with our friends and need to be better about getting some of my projects around the house done and find balance between work and play and exercise. My goal is to get back down to my pre prego weight by Thanksgiving so I have a LOT of work to do. 

Ryker has his first cold and sounds so sad when he tries to breath or cough. Poor little guy we hope he gets feeling better fast because he gets to go to school with Brady on Friday to be the demo baby to demonstrate infant motor skills in one of Brady's classes. It should be fun.