Birthday Boy

Dearest Ryker,

Happy Birthday! 

Today you turned one... ONE!  My word time flies.  You are starting to catch on to things... and remember!  You are almost walking.  For about a month now you've been taking a few steps, but for some reason haven't wanted to take a few more.  I'm sure it's hard to want to walk when you know you can crawl so much faster.  Speaking of crawling... you have a serious speed crawl.  You duck your head like a bull about to charge and take off like a speed demon.  It makes me laugh every time!  You love to pull the books off the shelf.   This makes mom and dad frustrated!  Maybe we should move them, but probably won't!  You've also found your favorite drawer in the kitchen... with all the measuring spoons, cups, rolling pin, etc.  You love to climb and currently your favorite thing to climb on is the laundry basket.  You love to sit on top and bounce up and down.  You also like to spend time inside the basket, especially if someone is taking you for a ride.  You can scream the most high pitch scream that I think I've ever heard and you do it quite frequently.  You're terrified of heights... must be related to your mother!  Currently you are our little vegetarian and will spit out meat if I try to feed it to you.  You have a favorite green blanket that you like to sleep with.  We find it pretty funny that you prefer it to be under you so you can pull it around your ears.  You have 3 teeth on the bottom and are cutting your two front top teeth right now.  You love to give "High Fives".  Your separation anxiety has been full blown for quite some time.  You prefer mom and dad to just about everyone.  It takes you a minute (or hours/days) to warm up to people you don't know.  You haven't really started "talking", but if we say "ahhh, no" you say "ahhh, ya".  You love to play peek-a-boo and have even started to hide your own eyes.  Sometimes you'll try to blow a kiss, but mostly you can't get your hand in the right spot.  It's pretty cute!  You love to follow your brothers, but prefer if they don't follow you!  We are so glad that you are part of our family.  You make each day fun and full of smiles and laughs.  We Love You!

The following pictures are from his birthday celebration.  They are in no particular order and I'm not going to try and arrange them so they are.  The day before his bday Grandma Valentine stopped by with his present.  He got a new chair & a ball and bat (which his older brothers find very fun)!  On his birthday we had Grandpa Mark & Grandma Carole, Tawn, Reese, Bronson & Jess all here.  We had BBQ'd hamburgers and then Ryk opened his presents.  He loved the hammer & blocks from G&G.  The other kids loved his new bubble blower.  After that we let him go to town on his own cupcake.  After convincing him that it was okay if his hands were dirty, he ended up eating the whole thing and loved it!