{ 25 }

It's my 25th birthday today. I first got to celebrate by eating raisin bran at 2:30am with my 10 month old. He was very restless and would not sleep (darn teeth!) so we got up and had a little snack. Thankfully, after being awake for two hours, we went back to bed for three... so I feel mostly human today ;]

Last year by this time, we had almost 3' of snow... and this year, we've had very little. I can count on one hand how many "brown birthdays" I've had... I used to wish relentlessly for it when I was younger, but now I don't care. It was nice, however, to be outside in 47 degree weather yesterday! 

Check out how brown it is outside... no snow!

[my friend abri made me this beautiful wreath]
[hello, baby boy in the window]

Jake, Ryan and I spent the afternoon at Ikea. We bought some things to finish Ryan's room... a new floor bed (because his mattress was too big for my comfort; I wanted something lower to the floor), a dresser, and a lamp. It was fun wandering around the store, and there were very few other people there... such a bonus to going on a week day! We tried out a bunch of chairs and beds and let Ryan explore. He had a blast. 

Other things that made my day great...

 [a birthday card from my love]

 [i am blessed to be married to a man who buys me fun wrapping paper to wrap my presents in, instead of christmas paper!]

[coffee!!]

We had a really nice day together. I am so blessed to have another year... thank you, Lord, for giving me every single breath that I have breathed, and for everything in my life. <3

[ 10 month photos ]

10 months already, he is (well, on the 3rd, he was. I'm not very good at posting on the day of!). Can you believe it? I can't. The last 10 months have been so precious, so cherished... and they have flown by! I am so thankful for him. So much growing has been done by this guy. He stands alone so often, and walks, unsteadily, while holding our hand... it will be a little while until he cruises on his own, but he is definitely far from immobile.

Here are his 10 month photos :] Went with a little Christmas theme this time, since it is December. He was far too intrigued by the shiny lights and ornaments to look at me or the camera much... but they are still pretty cute!

[ 9 month photos ]

Here are Ryan's 9 month pictures!

Terrified.

That's how Ryan felt about the Christmas tree when we put it up. We have an artificial tree, and it scared Ryan pretty bad when Jake took out all the pieces and laid them on the living room floor. Ryan wanted to be held by Jake, but Jake was setting up the tree... and Ryan didn't want to get near the tree. He'd look back and forth from Jake to the tree, as if he was deciding if it was worth it to crawl to papa.

He sat down on the floor but didn't know the top of the tree was behind him... it scared him so bad when he turned around to see the green prickly thing! He touched it a few times and seemed to decide that it wasn't all that bad.

He had more fun playing with the kittens in the tree box.

[yes, he has a naked butt... don't you let your kids run around naked sometimes?]

He wasn't so scared of the tree after a few days, though. 

And he loved sitting with me on the couch, in the dark, gazing at the beautiful lights :]

{ embrace the camera : 12.1 }

I know I say it every year around this time... but boy, December sure came up fast! In just two days my little boy will be 10 months old... this has really been one of the most fun years ever! It has also come with a lot of challenges, as any parent knows... but I am so blessed to be a mom to this little guy.

Lately we've been dealing with teething. Ryan already has his bottom two middle teeth, that he got around 7.5-8 months... but now he's working on his top two middle teeth. It's been four days of very obvious discomfort. I feel so awful for him! He's been snacking on frozen grapes a lot; that seems to help some. Other than that and just spending most of the day snuggling, I'm kind of at a loss as to what to do... it's kind of one of those things that just needs to happen, I guess. He's been sleeping with us the past few nights (and I've loved every minute of it).

Anyway, my husband Jake snapped this picture when Ryan and I were snuggling on the couch on Sunday. Ryan had just woken up from his nap, and I went in to get him... and he nuzzled into my arms and fell asleep again. We snooze on the couch for 45 minutes. I love my snuggle times with him :]

Linking up with Emily for ETC... Emily is pretty much my hero right now. She has 5 littles under the age of 7 and she's anout 39 weeks pregnant with their sixth. What a rockstar!