Dear Ryder - 17 Months

Today you are 17 months old. You have grown up so much in the last month, I can hardly believe it.

You love the computer. You like to turn circles in the chair, you like to bang on the keyboard, and you can run the mouse better than Gramma Jill. When daddy needs IT help, I am going to start sending him to you.

Riding in the Gator is still your favorite thing to do at the farm, but you like helping dad feed cows in the feed truck. I think you mostly like the fact that there is no car seat and you are free to roam around.

You are obsessed with hats, socks and shoes. If given the option, you would wear nothing else. 

You enjoyed making cupcakes for the first time. While baking wasn't really your thing, you sure enjoyed licking the spoon.

You are at the climbing stage. You want on top of or inside of things. I do my best to keep you off the coffee table, but occasionally I find you inside your toy box or the dryer.

When you are in the right mood, you will smile and even say "cheese" when I point the camera at you. When not in the right mood, you slap down the flash on the top of the camera and tell me "no no mama".

You like to mimic what we do in the mornings when we get ready. You pull up your shirt and pretend to put deodorant on your tummy, you brush Callie's teeth (with daddy's toothbrush) and you love to play in my bathtub. Of course that might be because no one has ever pooped in MY bathtub ...

You eat your dinner in your highchair because you are still terribly messy, but afterwards you insist on getting your booster chair and sitting between daddy and I while we eat. Usually you have one hand on daddy's arm and one hand on mine, and you grin the whole time.

You point at everything. Everything.

You gave up your pacifier this month. This is the last photo we have of you with it. You were very good about giving it up, much to my surprise it was really not a big deal at all. Now taking away your spoons? I think that is going to be more problematic ....

You always want to be outside. You don't really care what you are doing, but if given the choice you would rather do it outside.

You love your Thomas the Train chair from Aunt Candy. You sit in it (and fall out of it) every night. Here you are enjoying your new favorite snack - gold fish crackers.

Truth be told, I am in awe of how much you know and can do. I know I am your mama, and I am just a tad impartial, but you blow me away but how much you learn and how quickly you catch on to things. I truly think you are brilliant, and if daddy would let me, I would enroll you in some program for young and gifted Toddlers. If I tell you we need to do laundry, you go to your closet and get your laundry basket. If I tell you it's time to go to school, you get out a (matching!) pair of shoes. 

Oh sure we still have our battles over diaper changes, eating anything resembling meat, and not standing in the bathtub, but as long as I am not trying to discipline you, we get along just fine. You can throw a temper tantrum with the best of them, but in a battle of stubbornness mama still wins. You know who loves you best, and mama is the only one who gets smooches on the lips. 

I love you to the moon and back Ryder Dean, a million billion rumpelstiltskins!

Mama