Matt, Christen, Derek & Rylie

Rylie 8 Months

Rylie has learned a lot of new skills this month. I guess this is what she had been working on during her no-napping phase. I cannot believe how fast she has learned these skills...it was a matter of three days. I guess Rylie learned everything from all of the time she spends watching Derek!! You can tell she wants so badly to just run after him and play with him. Its so cute to see the 2 of them "play" together! She crawls after Derek as he does sprints down our upstairs hallway (one of Derek's favorite activities).

Crawling
Rylie is crawling all over the place and exploring everything. She loves her new freedom and enjoys moving around. You can tell she likes making her own decisions about where she goes. She is quick and loves to crawl after Derek and his toys (especially his bike and trains). Rylie can crawl and then push herself up to a sitting position. We caught her trying to grab Derek's chocolate chip cookie the other day. It was hilarious to see Derek realize that Rylie was the one taking it. Here is a video of the first time we really caught her crawling (Oct. 30th). She is MUCH faster now!

Pulling herself to standing
One day after they started crawling Rylie began to pull herself up to a standing position. Rylie's eyes light up and she squeals with glee when she pulls herself to a standing position. She reaches for my fingers and wants to walk around. One of her favorite places to stand up is next to the train table, especially when Derek is playing trains. We hear Derek say, "Rylie, no. That is my train. I am playing with it!" We lowered Rylie's crib and put toys in the crib too. Before she goes to sleep and when she wakes up Rylie sits up and plays quietly in her crib. Its so fun to watch on our webcam. It is so fun to see her mobile. Here are a few pictures of places we have found Rylie now that she is mobile. She is now able to hold on with one hand and bend over and pick something up or sit herself down. It won't be long before she is cruising around!!

Walking

Rylie loves to hold onto our fingers and walk around the house. She gets a big smile on her face. Rylie will crawl over to you and even on top of you...whatever she has to do to find your fingers. Then she grabs our fingers and pulls herself to standing and off she goes. One of her favorite things is to walk laps in our house around the Derek motor speedway (as we have nicknamed it).

Video of Rylie when she first started walking. Matt had just come back from a week in Sydney and was catching up with all of Rylie's new skills. (He still has the boot on his foot from breaking his little toe.)

Clapping
Rylie loves to clap. She often crawls somewhere, sits up and claps with a big grin on her face. Then repeats. It is precious to watch. She is such a happy baby.

Eating table food
Rylie has been eating solids 3x/day for the past 2 months. This month she has begun to eat table food. She is grabbing cheerios and puffs and other small bits of food and getting them in her mouth. It is nice to have her eat what we are eating. She grabs everything (within her reach) and tries to eat it, so we have to watch her. The other day at Costco I was getting Derek a sample of chips and salsa and wasn't paying attention. Rylie had grabbed a chip and had taken a bite of it. I made a big batch of baby food for Rylie when she first started solids, but then started buying it and dinnertime is much easier and happier for all of us.

All these new skills have been wearing Rylie out because she has been napping so much better these days! I am so thankful! Right now she seems to be napping 30-45 min. in morning and 2 hours in afternoon. She continues to sleep through the night, going to bed around 6:30/7:00 pm and waking up about 6:30/7:00 am. We are so proud of Rylie and just love her to pieces. She brings so much joy to our lives. Her determination and curiosity are so fun to watch!

first ride in coupe (Big brother Derek pushing her of course)