Thought I'd post this for comparison.

Ryder @ 1 Year old


Zoe @ 1 Year old

Ryder is 1 Year Old!!!


Ryders Birthday was Feb. 26th. We celebrated it Feb. 27th.

Grandma came over to help celebrate.

Some notes:

• Ryder signed "Potty" the other day. I was trying to put him down for a nap and he wouldn't fall asleep. I'd give him his pacifier and leave the room and he'd take his pacifier and toss it out of his crib. This happened at least 7 times. Finally I went in to his room and he was laying down looking up at me signing "Potty". I looked and low and behold, he had gone potty.
  
• Ryder refers to his Sister Zoe as "Yaya". He'll scream out Yaya!!! When he wants to see her.
  
• We have Ryder and Zoe in daycare 1 day a week. Ryders "overseer" is a woman named Miss Fran. He seems to have taken to her well. It took a few weeks, but he seems to like her.
  
• Ryder has observed us all talking on the phone so much that he likes to imitate us talking on the phone. He'll grab his toy phone, put it up to his ear and start babbling into it.

Current Events:

• Kia and I went to see the movie Avatar today; we saw it in 3D/iMax. It was an incredible experience. The movie was fantastic and both Kia and I were blown away.
  
• The US lost to Canada in OT in the Olympic Hockey Gold medal match. Booo!!!
  
• A monster earthquake rocked the country of Chile. It was 8.9 on the Richter scale.

As I type this, I'm feeding Ryder his favorite thing in the world... Bananas.

He'll pretty much eat an entire banana. He's also a big fan of mac and cheese.

Ryder First Words
Ryder has been saying "dada" for a little while now. He has also said "Mama". Whether or not he is referring to US is up for debate. However, this past Saturday (the 13th of February) he said his first definitive word. Kia and Zoe were at Zoes ballet and me and Ryder were "kickin it" at home. I was practicing some sign language w/ him. I was trying to get him to sign "ball". So, he's watching me do the sign and I'm saying "ball". Rather than sign it, he said "ball".

Speaking of sign language, Ryder also signs for:

• Milk (when he wants mommys milk)
  
• More (when he wants more)
  
• All done (he signs this one frantically)

Current Events:

• We just survived one of the, if not THE worst snow storms in Washington DC area history. It was actually 2 snow storms, one after the other. 2 weeks ago, it snowed roughly 30 inches. A few days later, it snowed an additional 20". It was kind of cool actually because I had about 6 days off from work (paid).
  We did lose power one night. That wasn't so cool. Fortunately, it was only out for a few hours; although the temperature in our house got down to 58! We all huddled onto our couch to stay warm and slept that way.
  
• The New Orleans Saints won the Superbowl. They beat Peyton Manning and the Colts in a great game.
  
• There was a disastrous earthquake in Haiti about a month ago. Really bad.

One other newsworthy item:
2 Days ago, Ryder began to clap his hands. He'll pick up a ball and "throw it"; and by throw it I mean drop it, but after he throws it he looks at me and starts clapping.