9th Month

I know I say it every time, but honestly, where does the time go? Rylen has just turned 9 months and he has grown so much. About a month ago, Rylen was sitting next to his cousin Brooklynn and I just looked at them in awe of the size difference. Rylen used to be even smaller than Brooklynn!

Rylen is crawling faster than ever and pulling up on EVERYTHING! He is still a sleeping champ and sleeps from 8:30p until 7:30 or 8:00 in the morning. We have officially dropped nap #4 and so he typically takes 3 naps approximately 45min - 1.5 hrs long. This is the time that i get most of my work done. He has made it all the way up the stairs (with mommy or daddy behind him) and crawled into every nook and cranny of the house. So, we are finding extra cash in the budget to put a gate upstairs by the landing in front of the stairs. That way he can crawl to his hearts content and all we have to do is close doors of the rooms we don't want him in. Rylen has also moved to eating a lot more foods. Sweet potatoes, squash, carrots, green beans, mangos, apricots, pears, etc. He has quite the variety in his diet. Just this past week I have started giving him small whole foods, like peas and "Simply O's" (an organic brand of cheerios broken in half) He does pretty well with them.


I also ventured this past month and made homemade baby food. Oh my goodness! It was soooo easy! I can't believe I waited so long to do it. I even made it with organic food it was still so much cheaper! I will definitely pick my battles on the food i continue to fix, but i will definitely do it again. Pears and avocados were easy and I will probably do those again since they are a staple in his diet anyway.

We have also started implementing some discipline. Rylen has learned "Don't Touch" and we use that on VERY IMPORTANT items, as not to overuse the phrase. He has learned with only a couple of uses, not to touch the cat bowls, the glass door to the TV electronics, and a picture frame that we really should just hang up. I even used it at the grocery store today and he was very good at pulling his hand away and not reaching again. i am hoping this will be a blessing when we are at houses that are not baby proofed yet. We shall see when we visit my brother in a week! :)

For our month comparisons, Rylen has now teetered just below 18lbs and seems to be 25 inches long according to my measurements, though he seems like he is longer. He is also really starting to use his "b"s and make noises with his lips, mostly in the morning. As the day progresses, he becomes more vocal and we move into screeches and screams.

Here is a snipit of the strange sounds that come from him. Boys will be boys.


Our family is still doing well. Robby has now hit an all time low of 184.2 lbs. That is a loss of approx. 41.2 lbs since October. He is wasting away in front of my eyes. Ha! I am still doing well with my arthritis. It seems that my ring fingers and my feet still have noticeable swelling and aches, but the rest of my body seems to be pretty good. I am by no means pain free, but probably 90% better since I flared over 7 months ago. I continue to ask for prayers that my improvement continues.


Our family did experience a bump with a car accident that occurred on 4/4/08. Robby was driving the SUV to do a formula run for me and T-boned a lady at 1960 and Steubner Airline. It was not his fault, but our vehicle is totaled. I wish that insurance paid for inconvenience, because this is a major inconvenience on our family since that is what we use to transport Rylen and the MS150 is coming up. But, with God's guidance, this experience should not be too painful. We are obviously happy that Rylen was not in the SUV and that Robby seems to have come away without any injuries.


As mentioned, the MS150 2008 is in 1 week. So, please pray for safety for Robby and the team members and volunteers. Rylen and I will be traveling to Austin to wait for them there. My mom and Granny will be visiting Austin also that weekend to see Brooklynn and Rylen. So, this month will continue to be busy. Before we know it, May will be here and another month will have zipped by!