Chatterbox Boy

Yes. What he said. 

Taking a Stand

For the past couple weeks Ridley has been pulling himself up to a standing position on anything he can reach. He also cruises around on the furniture with ease. 

The past couple days have brought cooler temperatures to St. Paul, which has been nice. It's been easier to get outside and enjoy the summer when going outside doesn't mean "melting." 

Last week we purchased a cheap collapsable stroller from Target and we have already used it several times to walk from Josh's parents' house to a park several blocks away. It takes up so much less space in the trunk and weighs so much less!

I can't believe June is almost over - in four hours it will be July 1! On Sunday Ridley will be eight months old! I can't believe how soon he will be a year!

A B-B-Q

Yesterday we had a barbeque over at Steve and Heidi's house. Josh made ribs, chicken, brats, potato salad (with some help from Steve), and some other delicious things.... including BBQ sauce made from scratch, which tasted great!

A few friends and family joined us as well, just a small group, but it was a good size considering we had two babies and two kittens there. (Not our kitties, but Stacey and Scott's new kittens, Bender and Fry. So cute!!)

Ridley's little friend Laila came over and since the weather was so beautiful they got to play outside in the backyard on a blanket!

Laila is three and a half months older than Ridley, and he was a little scared of her yesterday, but I think it was just because he was tired. She is a very sweet little girl and I can't believe she will be a year old in less than a month!

Ridley had so much fun! And thanks to Diane for all the beautiful pictures!

Beat the Heat

For the past week, the temperature has been hot, humid and miserable. So here are some of the ways that Ridley, Josh and I have been beating the heat. 

1. Swimming Pool. Fortunately, Ridley LOVES the pool. He can splash and splash and splash... so much fun!

2. Bathtub. For the same reasons as swimming pool, but it takes less effort on the part of mommy and daddy. 

3. Air conditioning!! Whether it's in our living room, at Target, in the car, or at Grandma Heidi and Grandpa Steve's house, there's nothing like a little AC to keep us cool. 

4. Outside. Yes, some of these days it has been hotter in our little sauna of an apartment then it has been outside, so just getting out and enjoying the weather has been good too. (But only some days. Some days outside has been just as bad/worse). 

Just Keep Swimming

Yesterday, in an effort to be the heat, Ridley and I went swimming in
our apartment complex's indoor pool. Most people were at the outdoor
pool, so we almost had the place to ourselves - there was just one
other little guy there (3 or 4 years old) with his aunt.

It took Ridley a few minutes to get used to being in the water again
since his first swimming experience two weeks ago. But before long he
started putting his hand in the water (we have a little flotation
device for him, so he only sits in water up to his waist).

Before long, he discovered he could make splashes!

He made little splashes, big splashes, open handed splashes, splashes
with his fist....anything he could do. He had so much fun! He got
water in his hair and all over his face and he didn't care, just kept
on splashing.

Funky Times at Funkie Gardens

The weather was absolutely beautiful today, so Ridley and I decided we didn't want to be cooped up inside all day. We debated going to Como, but decided it would be way too busy, so we called Diane to see what she was up to, and ended up deciding to join her on a trip to one of her most-frequented garden centers: Funkie Gardens. 

After a half hour car ride to Stillwater followed by another half hour car ride to Prescott, WI, Ridley was done with the car nd excited to get out and look around!

We helped Nana pick out new hostas for her garden. Here Ridley is posing next to a "T-Rex Hosta." It was taller than he was :)

We also looked at some really pretty peonies. The ones pictured below were near the check-out, but they had many others around the yard and in their show garden. 

After picking out new hostas for Grandpa Jeff and Nana's gardens, we went and walked through their show garden, which was really pretty. Nana showed Ridley many things that she would like to plant, but can't because their yard doesn't get enough sunlight. 

We both had a really fun time!

June 11, 2008

Ridley. One year ago today. (not sure why it's sideways).  

Today Ridley continued to master crawling, which he really picked up on yesterday, used our couch to pull himself up so he was standing, and looked at Josh and said, "da da." 

Insomnia

Ridley has been sleeping fitfully for nearly a week now. This, of course, translates to much lost sleep for me as well. 

So, of course, it figures that on the first night he actually sleeps well, I still would not be able to fall asleep nearly two hours after going to bed. 

This is much to Tweak's delight of course, since I have know abandoned the notion that simply being in bed will bring about sleep. No, I am sitting on my couch, soft kitten next to me, in hopes that my inability to sleep won't bother Josh. 

When I think about how tired I will be at work tomorrow, it depresses and exhausts me. Being tired and being home with Ridley is one thing, but being that tired and chained to a desk under florescent lights is another "can of worms," as they say. 

So here is my plan:

Snuggle with Tweak a bit more. 

Go back to bed, where hopefully sleep will be waiting. 

Use my handy iPod set to shuffle and high volume as a means of keeping awake at work tomorrow. Hopefully my iPod will be in a "hard rock" mood and not a "classical music" mood. Or worse "Ridley's lullaby CDs" mood.

Good night. And good luck. To me :)

Creeping Baby

Here you go, mom! Video of Ridley creeping/scooting across the floor. When he wants something, he is very determined (in this case he's after season one of 24). 

While feeding Ridley a delicious dinner of pureed sweet potatoes, apples and peaches tonight, I couldn't help but notice that he and I agreed on three things:

1. We both LOVE sweet potatoes. 

2. We both HATE banana and avacado.

3. We also LOVE pears.  

Welcome Summer

June is here and we've had a busy start to the summer! Ridley is seven months old today, and becoming a pro at balancing up on his hands and knees. He's taken a few crawling steps, but nothing consistent yet. He's become quite the master at scooting around the floor though, so last night we made a trip to Babies R Us to get a "super-yard" which is basically a series of connected baby gates which make a large area for him to play in. We have ours open and tucked into both ends of the sectional in our living room, so it gives him a nice big area to safely play and throw his toys around in. 

Today we received the voucher to go get a new crib, so we'll soon be back to Babies R Us to pick that out. 

We also took Ridley swimming for the first time today! We have both pictures and video, but it's on Josh's video camera, so I don't know how to upload it to the computer. Once we have it on here, I will post it! Ridley LOVED swimming. We brought him down to the indoor pool in our apartment complex and he has a floatation device that we put him in and he just had a blast kicking his little feet and splashing!

The video above is one of my many failed attempts to get footage of him scooting for my mom to see. No movement here, but it shows off his sweet, adorable personality!