Letting Kids Be Kids

I've been reading some fun blogs and came across this one called "Play Create Explore." I'm all about neat learning experiences for kids, even if they are messy... so the article I linked to was perfect for me to read! I really do need to get some more craft-like supplies so that we can do fun little projects... but the egg shell sensory was something we could do pretty much right away since we had egg shells. I washed them out and let them dry before he played with them.

Here are some pictures of Ryan enjoying crushing the egg shells. I'll be completely honest, the idea seemed so odd to me at first... but he seemed to have fun. Who wouldn't want to smoosh a bunch of egg shells?! I'm sure the texture was pretty neat for him to discover.

[ 12 month photos ]

FINALLY, here are Ryan's 12 month photos. A week before he turns 13 months. ;]

BONUS PICTURES! ;]

 [finally starting to grow some hair!!]

 [signing "all done"]

 [signing "please"]

[signing "more"]

{ embrace the camera : 2.9 }

Linking up with Emily for Embrace the Camera... 

Me and my goofy little love. This is truly an ETC photo... post shower, wet-ish hair, still in sweats... but look at how cute HE is!! :] 

{ 12 months old! }

My oh my... 12 months old! I haven't taken Ryan's 12 month pictures yet... but I thought I would update anyway, because wow, has he learned a TON lately!

I had a proud mama moment the other day... I put him on his little potty after his nap, like I usually do. This time, he not only peed on the potty, but he also signed "T" (what we use for toilet) at the same time! I was seriously blown away... he has been picking up on signing so well!

His signing vocabulary now includes...

...milk
...more
...please
...thank you
...toilet
...book
...all done

And his verbal vocabulary includes...

...mama
...dada
...moo
...ball
...up
...buh [for nums]

I'm not sure on his weight/length... I'll have to check! He was 16.3lbs at the end of December... I'd say he's close to 17lbs now. But I've been wrong before ;] He's been mostly wearing 6-9 month pants, 9 month sleepers, and 6-9 or 9 month onesies. And size two shoes! Tiny shoes are so adorable...

Another huge thing: he is walking. He's pretty much got it down like it's no big deal, too. It is SO CRAZY to see him walk around the corner of the room... it makes me do a double take sometimes because I'm so used to seeing him crawling! He doesn't need to crawl over to a couch or shelf or anything to stand up now... he just pushes himself off the ground, sometimes with a toy in hand. Little multi-tasker.

One of my favorite things he does is when I ask him to go get a book (verbally and by signing). He stands up, stops for a second with his hands in the air like "Where's the book? Where IS the book? I'm on a MISSION!" and walks over to the shelf where the books are... and then he pulls one off, smiles, and carries it back to me to read for him. SO ADORABLE.

He definitely loves the kitties. He loves to snuggle them and chase them. I think they really like him too :] I hope they continue to be pals as they get older. I think it helps that we have super needy (er, cuddly) kittens. He just loves that they are all over him all the time.

He still loves to eat... I wish I had a metabolism like he seems to have. I'm not sure where he puts it all!!

Still only four teeth but he's working on 2-4 upper teeth. Teething seems to come and go. I kind of wish they would just come in already!

I think that's about all of the "new" stuff... but it's late and I'm probably forgetting some things. *yawn* This post is subject to being edited in the morning when I am more coherent...

Crayon Art { tutorial }

If you're on Pinterest, there's really no doubt that you've seen crayon art floating around... like this:

Source

I made one a while back that turned out pretty cool, I think:

I had intended on putting it in Ryan's room. I still could, but... eh. I decided I wanted to make another one specifically for his room... using only the colors that are in his room: white, orange, brown, blue and green. I've seen some people add painter's tape to part of the canvas so that it doesn't get covered in crayon, and I wanted to give that a try. 

I like the look of the unwrapped crayons, so I did the same with this one. HINT: put the crayons in a bowl of cold water and {most of} the labels will just slip right off! All of the slid off for me, except for two of the orange crayons. Annoying. Oh well.

If you want step by step details, then you can go here... I'll just show you the photos of what I did. 

I hot glued the crayons on the canvas, and then cut out a lowercase letter "r" (for Ryan, obviously!) out of painter's tape. I stuck it to the canvas, and then got to work with my hair dryer.

I wanted the "r" to stand out a little bit more, so I outlined it with a marker. 

And here it is, in Ryan's room. It may stay there, it may not... but I don't have anything else to put there at the moment... so it stays, for now at least. 

And hey... there's a sneak peek of the curtains and cornice that we made... at some point I hope to find a white glider that I can recover; then his room will be complete! And then I can share pictures ;] 

cake.

On Sunday, January 29th, we had a family party for Ryan at GiGi and Grandpa Jim's house. Our day had an interesting twist to it: Ryan's first trip to the ER.

During lunch, I noticed that he wasn't signing "please" and "more" like he usually does. I didn't think much of it; I just figured he was being kind of reserved in front of people. After lunch, I saw that he wasn't using his right arm at ALL... and that it was completely limp to his side. He "seemed" okay, other than being a little more anxious about being away from me than normal. I looked at his arm closer, and his finger, hands, elbow and shoulder were all swollen. Jake and I decided that we should take him in to Urgent Care. We didn't know if it was dislocated or if it was broken... so we put the party on hold and we took him in.

Long story short: it was only dislocated. "Only" is kind of a silly word here (it was extremely painful for him to get his elbow put back in), but we are very thankful that his arm was not broken or that there was infection. It was an easy fix! Two and a half hours later, we headed back to my grandparent's house to continue the party, since he seemed to be feeling fine.

And feeling fine he was... he was acting like his normal self when we got there, and he opened up his presents (well, Jake did; Ryan isn't too interested in that yet)... and enjoyed eating his cake!

I made him a modified version of a carrot cake... it was super healthy but super delicious! The yogurt was made out of greek yogurt. Not very frosting-y but it was sweet and covered the cake, so it did its job. Here are some of the pictures of Ryan enjoying his cake!

 ["ALL DONE! Please!"]