The Richardsons: Ryleigh is Eleven Months!!!!!!!!!!!

Ryleigh at 11 months (September 15, 2011)

So I'm not even going to mention the fact that my little baby is one month away from being One Year old. We'll just skip right over that because Mommy isn't ready. We will just continue on and discuss what an amazing month this past one has been...

Oh my! What an amazing month this has been!! It hasn't really been too busy, which was nice after last month's hectic schedule. We spent a lot of time at home and even had some people from church over for dinner. Ryleigh enjoyed having someone to play with, even though I think he enjoyed playing with Lucy a little more.

This month we did take quite the trip and drove up to Michigan to spend a week visiting family and friends. This was our first big driving trip since last December when we drove up to Michigan last time. It was much different with a 10 month old than it was with a 2 month old. I couldn't really tell you which one was better or worse though. You can read all about it HERE.

We also discovered this past month that Ryleigh will be sporting a new "birthmark" on her face for a little while. She has a hemangioma on her cheek right under her left eye. It started out tiny and flat, but grew and became raised after about 2 weeks. We went to the doctor to have it checked out and they told us it is fairly common for children to develop them. It's basically tangled and twisted capillaries that have no place to go other than up and they develop a little red bump. The doctor also told us that it can get bigger and if it becomes an issue we can go see a dermatologist, but if it stays small it should go away. 75% go away by age 2 and 90% are gone by age 3. Ryleigh's has gotten a little bigger since we saw the doctor, but for right now we're just keeping an eye on it and treating it like a freckle.

We haven't learned any new words since last month, we're just perfecting the ones we know now. Ryleigh has started putting Mommy's cell phone (or pretty much anything else) up to her ear when you say "Ryleigh, say hello". It's pretty cute, especially when she does it with some sort of stuffed animal or a book. She likes to point at things and babble now and I never know what she wants because obviously she can't say "hey Ma, give me that book, can't you see I'm pointing at it?!" But I try and ask "what do you want? Is this what you want? Are you pointing at this?" in hopes that she'll maybe catch on. And I know we discovered last month that Ryleigh is a biter, but thinking that she had learned her lesson and was over that stage was a mistake. I learned that Ryleigh deliberately bites when she is mad...and she will chomp down right on your jawbone if she has to to make her point. Let's just say, we're working on it.

Buuuutttt...the most exciting thing about this past month is....Ryleigh started walking!! After months of walking around the furniture and a couple weeks of taking 2-3 steps here and there, our little mover and shaker is venturing away from the furniture! She's been going strong for 2 weeks now. She's still a little wobbly and is working on her balance, but man can she cruise through the house now! Good thing Mommy put all those baby gates up last month. It's so much fun to watch her walk around and look at things and run to Lucy to give her a toy and be able to take her out of her car seat, put her on the ground and hold her hand as we both walk into the grocery store. But the best part about her walking? Watching her run to you to give you a big 'ol hug : )

Sigh...

One month to go? Really? She'll be a toddler in 30 days. A walking, talking, drinking out of a sippy cup, eating solid foods like I do, not using a binkie toddler. No more baby in this house. I guess that means I need to get started on another one, huh?

typical Ryleigh play session on Mommy & Daddy's bed

so cute in her overalls

so many Ryleighs!

how can you not want to just kiss that face?!

mooooooo!

Ryleigh loves watching Olivia on her car DVD player

big yawn

Ryleighs first time wearing actual shoes

playing with Will

With Ms. Steph, Mr. Bruce and Daddy at the Greensboro Grasshoppers game

big blue eyes

Ryleigh attempts walking

at the Detroit Zoo...by the fountain were Yaya and Poppi got engaged

Ryleigh "makes a phone call"

so intrigued by the television

caught playing in Mommy's closet

Since our little booger is walking around now, it sure is hard to get her to sit still for a picture. Here are Mommy's attempts to capture her on camera during our little photo session today