Week 34

Maybe it gets redundant, my saying "We did lots of new things this week!", but it's always as true as it was the last time I said it. And yes, we did lots of new things this week.

This week was rainy. As in cats and dogs. Rayler and his stuffed animals surveyed the watery landscape from the window daily, watching our little yard disappear under the water until we were marooned on our own little island. We had our brief sunny interludes here and there and during one such half hour I took Bugs out to experience his first puddle splashes. I really would have liked to get some photos, but as he thoroughly enjoyed splashing I needed both hands to keep him from diving head first into the puddles. Those puddles were ice cold! I was sure he'd hate it and start crying but he splashed and splashed...eventually my toes got so cold that they burned and I was sure his had to be hurting too so I made him leave his puddles. Boy, he was not happy about that. Looks like I've got a water baby on my hands! 

We made sugar cookies this week for the Fire Department and for the ladies at my hair salon. I found a marvelous sugar cookie recipe on All Recipes. http://allrecipes.com/recipe/the-best-rolled-sugar-cookies/  (I used 3 cups sugar and 2 tsp vanilla and made dough balls which I then pressed with the sugared bottom of a glass) They turned out deliciously chewy on the edges and soft in the middle, exactly what a sugar cookie should be. I let Rayler help me put the sprinkles on the cookies. Let me tell you, I needed three hands for that job. Taking pictures with one hand, helping Bugs shake the sprinkles with the other, and preventing him from getting a handful of raw cookie dough with...? Yeah. He then got to wash his hands in the sink for the first time.

Baking with Chef Rayler

Rayler got a hunk of this one before baking

Rayler has had some tummy trouble at nighttime this week. At least, that's what I'm guessing the problem is because when I pick him up out of his crib he burps a lot and is gassy. Poor guy. He goes back to sleep pretty quickly so that's good for him. Not so much for me. I suffered from severe insomnia this week and Tyler ended up letting me sleep in this morning to try to catch up a bit. It was wonderful.

I was so tired that I fell asleep while Rayler was drinking his bottle

Using Toodles as a pillow

Tired after playing hard in nursery today

Now that Rayler can crawl I guess he think he needs to move right along to standing on his own and walking. He sure thinks he can! He'll pull up on something and then try to let go and transfer to something else. Of course that means he took quite a few spills this week, but he's bound and determined to do it until he gets it right!

He let go just after I snapped this

Showing off his mad skills for Daddy

Rayler tried a few new foods this week. Chicken and noodles, baby food style of course. He wasn't sure about the thick texture but he ate it all. And then I gave him some spaghetti noodles. He loved those! He ate and ate and ate those up!

Um, yum?

He was making a "nom. nom. nom" noise 

Uh, Mommy? The spaghetti goes in my mouth, not on my chin.

In an attempt to play peek-a-boo with Bugs this week, I threw a dish towel over his head. He thought it was hilarious, but he didn't play peek-a-boo. Silly boy took off crawling blindly until he ran headfirst into something and then he'd turn and start crawling again until he hit something else. I laughed so hard I cried.

I was in Rayler's bedroom one day changing his sheets when I heard a clinking noise. I peeked out to find Curious George trying to see how many of my keys he could fit in his mouth without choking. Goober.

Can I drive Momma?

He also tried to help me clean in the kitchen...

I really needed to measure Bugs. I "weighed" him the other day on our home scale and it said 19 lbs. Of course, that's not perfectly reliable, but I bet it's pretty darn close. And he is now comfortably wearing 9-12 month clothes and even some 18-24 month stuff! Here he is in our new favorite pj's, which happen to be 18-24 month.

Robot PJ's!

A while back Rayler went through a phase where he blew raspberries all the time. Well, he's doing it again. Tyler said that everytime Bugs raspberries he's going to take it as meaning "I love you". That makes me smile!

Here's some more fun from this week!

I found Momma's exercise ball!

He found all of his binkys 

He is obsessed with this urn! I think he likes it because it rolls around, I have got to get him a ball.

He actually left his sunglasses on for a while!

Is this eatable Mom?

Watching the neighbor mow his lawn.

And, they came off.

Daddy threw his ball too far out. He doesn't like to crawl on the grass, it's too pokey.

He's discovered his thumb, but he only chews on it

Love me some baby toes!

Resting with Daddy after making a big mess in the front room

Watching Tangled with Daddy. Tangled is his favorite movie.

Chilling on Mr. Engelbert

Daddy let him watch Super Why on YouTube while I slept in this morning.

He found himself in the tiny mirror on George's hoof.

Week 33, Lots of fun!

A melty heart smile this one has!

Before I get launched into this post I should warn you that this is going to be a long, action packed post! We had fun this week!

We ended up having to lower Bugger's crib again, this time Daddy moved it down almost as far it will go. He says it could probably move a few more inches still, but we're good now for a while. And he couldn't have moved it at a better time. About three days after he moved it I found Rayler standing up in his bed! If Daddy hadn't lowered it he would have fallen out for sure!

Trying out his newly lowered bed.

I can see that I'm going to be rescuing stuck limbs quite often!

He can reach his own binky now! Which means I have to get up less at night! Yay!

Mommy! I'm awake now!

Now that Rayler can crawl he can find me wherever I am in the house. He followed me into the kitchen and I found him in the front bathroom one day. Opps. Guess I'm going to have to start keeping that door shut or we'll soon be having toilet explorations! He also found the Tupperware drawer in the kitchen but I caught him before he made a huge mess! One day after trying to exercise with Bugger crawling all around and under me I decided to teach him to bang on a pot with a spoon. I know, I lost my marbles temporarily. Yep. He loves to make noise.

I think he's considering trying to climb the toilet.

His face here just cracks me up! He kept shoving this spoon down his throat so I  took it away and gave him a bigger one.

He did not find this amusing as I did.

Climbing over my legs

Sometimes when I'm exercising and not feeling the whole pot and spoon thing, I'll let Bugger watch OPT. I've discovered that he loves Super Why and Sid the Science Kid. I'm so glad he chose those two to like best! Whenever Why comes on he just grins and chatters at him the whole time. I try not to let him watch them too often, but when he does I don't feel too bad because they both are pretty educational.

I've been thinking for a while now that I need to get Rayler a mirror to play with. I had totally forgotten about a toy that came with his infant tummy time mat. Tyler got it out the other day and almost immediately Rayler discovered himself in the little mirror. He's so funny. He likes to get nose to nose with Rayler-in-the-mirror.

One day, after we lowered his crib of course, I put Rayler int it with some toys to play so I could get a few things done. He played really well for a while and then after a while I heard him hollering at me. I went to see what the problem was and discovered that he had thrown all his toys through the slats and wanted them back. Heehee, silly boy.

Oooo! And, Rayler is (knock on wood) sleeping all night again! He does have nightmares though, poor little guy. So once or twice a night he will wake up crying, but he usually grabs his binky and goes back to sleep after just a few seconds.

Yummy cheerios!

Graham crackers!

Messy face!

Rayler got to go a couple of walks this week and he got to play outside too!

Grandma Linda got him some new shades but we're still working on  them staying on his face instead of in his mouth.

Rayler's first Artwalk!

Looking at the fountain in Spiva Park.

Still working on the difference between smelling and eating flowers

A neighbor boy was riding his bike back and forth and Rayler just loved watching him.

Last night Daddy took Rayler on a walk. They brought me back a flower! I'm impressed because  Daddy let Rayler hold it and kept him from eating it before they got home!

This week we went to visit Daddy at the fire department and got to watch some firefighters train!

He wasn't sure what to think about the alarms on the bottles going off

My little Sid the science kid! Needs to investigate everything.

Peek-a-boo!

Another first this week, Rayler got to ride in the seat of the shopping cart while we got groceries! And...he made his first purchase! Grandma Linda and Pa sent him a gift card for Valentines Day so he bought two little trucks.

And here are some more fun pictures and videos from this week!

Saturday was Uncle Thadley's 10th birthday so yesterday we went over to Grandma Bobbie and Grandpa Gary's house for his birthday party. Here are a few pictures from our time there.

Riding his new Rocking Caterpillar from Grandma!

Laughing at Daddy

Auntie M holding Rayler, Rayler trying to get Uncle Thadley

Playing with Uncle Sam and Aunt Beth

He is obsessed with the cup holders...

...he likes to stick his face in them.

Sleeping boys. Daddy and Rayler and Grandpa Gary.

We are looking forward to spending some time with Rayler's cousins Dylan, Hannah and Madison while they are staying with Grandma Linda and Pa over spring break this week. We are hoping for some nice weather so we can go to the park! Unfortunately the forecast is calling for buckets of rain. Oh well, we'll still have fun!