Ryan has adopted a new "mama" -- his stuffed panda.


It started with one of his favorite books, "Mama, Mama", which has pictures of various animals with their babies, and rhymes on each page that begin with the words "Mama, Mama."


Whenever Ryan "reads" this book, he says "mamamamamama" the whole time.


And now -- apparently because of the pandas on the front cover -- he has started calling his stuffed panda "mamamamama" too! It's so fascinating to watch him make and verbalize all these connections.

Ryan is very proud of his latest accomplishment -- being able to climb up onto the couch by himself. This usually also allows him to get his hands on the remote control. (He long ago lost interest in the "decoy" remote we gave him from our old VHS -- he knows which is the "real" one.)


"I got the remote!"


"I know I'm not supposed to have this one..."


"...but I'm too quick for Mommy and Daddy!"


"And too cute to say no to!" (Well, sometimes.)


He especially loves to hang out on the couch at night, to wind down from his busy days of watching out the back window for deer, following the pets around, playing with Rubbermaid containers, and finding new things to get into.




Passed out on Aunt Liz's couch after skipping his nap on Easter Sunday:


Unfortunately, refusing to nap is starting to become a regular occurrence around here. The usual result (crankiness and whining) is not this cute, so I had to take a picture this time!


Ryan will be 18 months old next week, which also means he has now been with us for almost half his life! (He was 9 months and 9 days old the day we met him.) It's been so much fun to watch him grow, although it seems to be happening too quickly!

Ryan had an early visit from the Easter bunny (sponsored by Grandma and Grandpa G) last weekend, since we'll be away visiting my family for Easter.



He especially liked the new ball that was in his basket! (Along with deer, balls are currently his favorite thing in the world.)



We also celebrated Rob's birthday that day, and Ryan enjoyed indulging his sweet tooth again.








"Happy Birthday, Daddy!"

Ryan is going through that phase where he puts everything on his head....bowls, boxes, colanders....sometimes even an actual hat.























Ryan's latest nude (almost) photo shoot:

















I came across this picture of our living room pre-Ryan, and I had to laugh at how much things have changed.



Post-Ryan:



(Even though a lot of our pictures make it look like we keep Ryan in a pen with all those gates in the background, you can see that he actually has a nice big play area!)

Getting so big!





February was a crazy month for us. Ryan and I traveled to my sister's for my nephew Elliot's 4th birthday party, and ended up getting snowed in for an extra two days. Then, the day after we arrived home, Ryan came down with both a stomach virus and a cough/cold. A few days later, Rob picked up the stomach virus, and a few days after that, I picked up the cold. It was about two weeks until all three of us were finally healthy again. For Ryan, the virus seems to have had the effect of curing him of his picky eating! In the past 10 days since he has been better, he has been scarfing down food all day long.

The pictures below are of Ryan eating birthday cake at his cousin's party a few weeks ago. He immediately dumped the plate in favor of eating straight off the coffee table (with two spoons), and he ate a lot more cake than he did for his own birthday!

















Ryan was _glued_ to the screen when his cousins were watching Mr. Rogers (my childhood idol too!)



His latest fixation is the group of deer that live in the woods near our home and often come out on the hill right behind our house to eat. Rob pointed them out to him when they were out on the hill one day last week, and ever since, Ryan goes to the back door every few hours to see if they're there. He points and says "de!" (whether they're there or not). We can't wait to take him to the zoo this spring!