(Like I’ve done with Chase, I’ll probably still periodically share Ryder updates every 6+ months or as long as I feel compelled to share. You may see his previous updates and other baby #2/postpartum updates here!)
Ryder turned one on June 18 and I was a bit of an emotional mess. I am slowly beginning to embrace the toddler stage of life rather than getting caught up in the emotional side of things (my baby is no longer a babyyyy) and if there’s one thing for certain, it’s that Ryder doesn’t give me much of a chance to sit and wallow in my emotions for too long because he is on the MOVE.
Ryder is on the verge of walking and will take several wobbly steps by himself before he seems to get so psyched with his progress that he launches himself toward me or Ryan and we all just end up laughing as Ryder looks up at us with the most excited toothy grin… and when I say “toothy grin” I mean it! Ryder has more teeth than I can count (because he does NOT like it when I try to count them) but I think he has around 14. He got SIX new teeth the week he turned one and it was a bit brutal during the night for a while there but I think we’re coming out on the other side of teething mayhem. Yeesh.
The minute Ryder became mobile he started to get into everything and his curiosity and propensity to get into anything and everything hasn’t slowed down one bit. He’ll unscrew the knobs of cabinets, turn the dials of noise machines on and off, add water to his baths… the list goes on and on and we’ve learned we have to watch our adventurous little man like a hawk.
He seems to genuinely enjoy the process of getting into things that seem like they should stump him and I’m curious to see if this translates to a child who enjoys puzzles and other mind games in the future.
Ryder’s happy demeanor continues and I love that his default setting seems to be JOY. He’s smiley, excitable, curious and physical and always wants to be a part of the action. He’s taken to pointing all day long to convey what exactly it is that he wants.
Take me THERE.
Give me THAT.
He’s pretty darn effective at communicating his wants and needs and even more effective at busting out some serious sobs if things do not go his way. It’s borderline comical to watch his bottom lip jut out as he lets out a huge wail if we tell him “no” because his dramatic reaction is so immediate and intense but completely dissolves within seconds once he’s distracted and realizes his crying isn’t going to change anything. And then it’s back to happy Ryder and all is right in his universe again.
Ryder is all about observing and imitating right now and it’s absolutely adorable to watch him copy everything his big brother does, especially his noises like the “hiss” of a snake or the “vroom” of race cars and trucks. He has a handful of “baby tricks” up his sleeve and loves giving out high fives, dancing (bobbing his whole body up and down), clapping, rolling his hands around and around and waving to anyone and everyone.
Breastfeeding + Eating
The biggest change since my last Ryder food-related update relates to weaning. We’ve officially started the weaning process and Ryder seems all in for making the transition to solid foods. I started by slowly dropping his daytime feeds (we were down to four feeds a day around 11 months) and sticking with morning and bed time feeds. I meant to continue morning and nighttime feeds for several months but Ryder began to absolutely refuse to nurse at night before bed. It was so odd but he’d arch his back and start to freak out the minute I’d turn him on his side and attempt to nurse him so his protest of our evening feed made that one a pretty easy one to drop… even if I wasn’t quite ready to let go of our snuggliest feed when he decided he was over it.
Now I’m nursing in the morning after he wakes up and I’ve noticed a big decrease in my supply since we dropped the evening feed. Something about the 2x a day nursing did a lot for keeping my supply up but now that we’re nursing only one time, I can feel my milk supply dramatically decreasing. I’m okay with this because Ryder seems okay with it and seems more than ready to dive into the world of solid foods full-force. I’m not sure how much longer I’ll continue nursing him but I have a feeling everything is coming to a close soon which brings about a myriad of emotions.
As far as eating solids, Ryder is a champ! He has such a genuine interest in food and loves blueberries, grapes, peaches, Bolognese sauce, broccoli, muffins, pancakes, quinoa, beans and pretty much any pureed baby food pouch you put in front of him as long as it has at least one fruit in it.
Oh and homemade whipped cream is always a hit.
Mealtime with Ryder is always a bit of a messy endeavor because he loves playing with his food almost as much as he loves eating it. He makes it quite clear when he’s done because he’ll begin throwing his food and that’s a sure sign that mealtime is o-v-e-r.
One small hurdle we’re facing is Ryder’s lack of interest in drinking anything. He seems to love playing with water and milk and will take a few sips before he thinks it’s funny to begin making spit bubbles and starts spitting it down his chin as he laughs hysterically. I’m assuming this is just a phase and that he’ll eventually realize milk and water are for drinking and not playing!
Sleep
Nighttime sleep is good over here for the most part! Ever since we implemented the gentle cry it out method for sleep training Ryder around 6 months, he’s been pretty good about sleeping through the night. The major exception is when he’s teething and then he’ll wake up sobbing and need some love and cuddles before he’ll settle back down. We recently had one night that totally threw us for a loop when he was wiiide awake for two hours in the middle of the night and just wanted to play. It was the strangest thing and thankfully that was a fleeting event.
The aspect of sleep that’s a bit in limbo at the moment relates to Ryder’s naps. We’re in the process of transitioning from two naps a day to one and it’s a slow process. So much of his naps seem to depend on the time he wakes up in the morning. If he can sleep past 7 a.m. it’s much easier for him to make it to the late morning and take one nap but if he wakes up closer to 6 a.m., we’re in trouble. I’m trying my best to go with the flow but can almost always guarantee that a great morning nap means we’ll either get no afternoon nap or a really terrible afternoon nap but if Ryder can hold off and take only one nap a day, it’s usually a fantastic one.
Thankfully Ryder is a flexible dude and seems to roll with whatever we throw his way in terms of naps (if we keep him really distracted, that is) but I’d like to see more of a predictable nap schedule emerge and have a feeling this might happen naturally when preschool begins for Chase in September and the craziness of summer dissipates. In the same breath, Chase’s preschool pickup time is right smack-dab in the middle of the time I know Ryder would ideally nap so any advice on navigating naps when you have to factor in another child’s schedule would be really helpful. I cannot imagine holding Ryder’s nap off until 1:30 p.m. if he’s down to one nap a day which is what we’d need to do if we’re taking Chase’s preschool pickup time into account. I know we’ll figure things out because we always do but naps are definitely up in the air at the moment!
Likes
- WATER (baths, the pool, the beach, the lake… all of it!)
- Chase (his big brother gets the best laughs out of Ryder)
- High fives and waving
- Hide and go seek
- Eating
- Peek-a-boo
- My Gym classes and open play
- Crawling up and down ramps
- Walking while holding one of our hands
- Balls
- Getting into just about everything
Dislikes
- When we tell him “no”
- Diaper changes (this is a major dislike for me, too, because they’re SUCH a challenge as he rolls his body all over the place)
- When I try to check on his teeth when he’s teething or wipe his teeth down after a nursing session
12-13 Month Old Baby Favorites
FEEDING
- Choo-Me Food Pouch Toppers (I basically never give Ryder a pouch without one of these on them anymore! So great for grabby babies who spill pouches and on-the-go independent feeding.)
- Mesh Food Feeders (We put frozen bananas in these and Ryder goes crazy for them!)
- Suction plates and bowls (Avanchy are our favorites)
- Chicco 360 Hook On High Chair
- Snack Catcher Cup (The best for stroller snacks, on-the-go snacks, etc.)
SUMMER ESSENTIALS
- Beach Tent (perfect for a shady spot for long beach days)
- Sprinkle and Splash Play Mat
- Step2 Water Table
- Tuffo Outdoor Water-Resistant Blanket
PLAY
- Little Tikes 4-in-1 Trike
- Dimpl Toy (perfect for little ones who like to press buttons and pop things)
- Mini Spinny (great travel toy)
- Brown Bear, Brown Bear (the hardcover slide-and-find version)
- Water Bugs Bath Toy
- V-Tech Sit-to-Stand Learning Walker
- PlayKidz Pound-a-Ball
- Little Tikes Grow with Me Swing
- Shape Sorter
- V-Tech Drop-and-Go Dump Truck
SLEEP
- Hatch Light
- Wubbanubs
- Infant Optics Baby Monitor
- Sposie Diaper Booster Pads (to help prevent nighttime diaper leaks)
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I’ve been meaning to ask if Ryder takes a pacifier? I remember Chase having one. How did you get rid of it? Do they still sleep with one? My youngest will be 2 in August and I dread the day we try to take away the paci! He only uses it at bedtime. Any tips or tricks?
he does!! he’s in love with his wubbanubs and sleeps with FIVE! ha! we try to limit pacifiers to crib/car only and i will prob try to drop ryder’s around 2.5 years old which is what we did for chase. i had SERIOUS anxiety about dropping them with chase because he was OBSESSED with them but it shockingly went really well and wasn’t nearly as dramatic as i anticipated. here’s the post i did about how we dropped his pacis if you’re interested in more detail: https://www.pbfingers.com/chase-update-2-1-2-years-old/
Will he transfer from the car and stay asleep? If he will, I would try to keep him up until you leave for preschool pickup. It will be really hard to keep him awake in the car until you get home if he hasn’t napped yet. If that will work, it is nice because it will give you some one on one time with Chase once you get back home while Ryder finishes his nap. Or Chase could have quiet time too and that is a great time to get the to-do list done. Having a nap after lunch really helped with the ‘witching’ hour at our house too. Isn’t it crazy how much time and angst we put into sleep schedules? Gosh I wish I had someone scheduling me a nap every day! Hope this helps.
Love reading these updates! My son is a few months younger than Ryder so it’s like a little glimpse into what’s ahead. I was just curious about the weaning process with Ryder dropping his bedtime feed so suddenly. Did you have to pump at first when he started doing that or did your body just adapt without issue? Does he take a bottle of milk at bedtime now instead? I know that weaning is not far down the road for me so I’m curious!
Thankfully it was a pretty easy transition since I was already down to only two feedings a day. I always felt like my milk supply was at its worst at the end of the day anyway, so skipping a nighttime feeding only resulted in very full breasts in the morning for two nights or so before my supply seemed to decrease naturally. And we’re not doing a bottle of milk before bed but just try to time his dinner so it’s pretty close to bedtime. If he still seems hungry after dinner, we’ll offer more milk (even though he just wants to play with his milk cup at the moment…) and a pouch to “top him off” and it seems to work well!
That’s very helpful, thanks for sharing!
We were in a similar bind with naps/preschool pick-up last year & I ended up asking a friend with another preschooler at the same school if she could bring my daughter home & she was happy to! I know that seems like a lot to ask but she was so happy to help me that sometimes I think we don’t ask for help from each other enough??♀️ but also, she lived near me so that might not be a possibility for y’all…
My 11-month-old son does the same pointing gesture as well as the “throwing food when done” thing! But it is more like a food drop or flick on the side of the high chair! ? I love that Ryder is such a champ with solid foods. ?? My boy will usually 2 bites and then just want the milk! Thanks for the update!
Your little one sounds like Chase! I swear he would’ve lived on breastmilk and then solely on whole milk from ages 1-2!
Love the update! My youngest was born at the end of May so I love reading about others his age.
One idea could be a mother’s helper in the afternoon. She could stay with Ryder while you pick up Chase/ help with light cleaning and maybe even entertain one of the boys if their naps didn’t overlap so you could have a little set work time.
I love this idea!!!
I can totally relate! I remember wanting to bawl when I realized my baby wasn’t such a baby anymore (my youngest turns two in two months)!