I feel a little guilty. I haven’t posted about Ryken’s life as I did with Zayden and I have felt terrible about it so I keep putting off writing updates. So, here is my attempt to play catch up…

They say you follow all the rules with your 1st then your 2nd you are like, eh sure have a little sugar or go do that, that’s safe. And I always thought that was a crazy mindset, but it’s true. And for me personally, it has nothing to do with caring or being more careful with one vs the other, but after having 1 survive for 3 years, you realize not all the unsaid “rules” they give to parents are meant to be followed. Also, children are crazy and keeping up with 1 vs 2 there’s not a ton of time to follow ALL the “rules” or even take a minute to write a blog. So I’ve been doing my updating of little miss via pictures on our Facebook pretty regularly. I mean, I can’t NOT post photos of that smile!

5-11 months has been a lot of the same (pandemic-wise), limited places we go, no travel unfortunately, only ordering out vs eating out (that’s hard on these foodies, we love the restaurant experience and just hasn’t been the same ordering out) and seeing family, a few select people in more recent months, our neighbors, and enjoying time at home/hikes/etc. Then the snowpocalypse hit and kept us even more confined, as literally, getting out of the driveway was near impossible and probably comical for those that saw my attempts. We were even forced ha, I saw partially kidding, partially serious but we were forced to purchase a new bouncy house. Our last one was struggling to survive the wrestling matches of a 3 year old and a new bouncy house has already gotten so much playtime I don’t know what we did before it. Trust me parents, worth that purchase if you’re needing to burn some extra energy regularly.

Zayden is still keeping us on our toes on the regular. He is always talking, literally, even in his sleep he talks. He LOVES zombies, playing “indivisible” aka invisible and has no issues telling me when we don’t talk that way lol. “Shut it” and “stupid” and maybe another word or two have been learned and quickly added to the do not say list. He has no issue telling me that, “We don’t call that box stupid mommy,” after I struggled to put the box together and gave up lol. He started “Cool” aka school at our church and although he hated it at first because he would miss us, he seems to enjoy going now, just occasionally gets nervous and bored as he would say. “What’s nervous again? I get nervous because I’m going to miss you,” with a quiver in his voice and a little lip shake. Momma & Daddy hearts melt and hurt all at the same time with this. And he usually comes home very happy and tells us about his day (sometimes) and tells me if he has any “drips” aka tears come down during the day or not. The only time he’s had drips is at naptime when he missed me. Ha, melted and hurt heart all over again. He’s REALLY loving sister lately, he likes to have her watch him play games but doesn’t always want her to play. He likes to show her things and brush her hair and tell her what she can and can’t do. He’s my little helper most days! He still loves me more than I think anything haha and still sleeps in bed with us and still is in diapers – we’ll get there one day but for now we’re just embracing these little moments that won’t last forever.

Ryken is ON THE MOVE. She started crawling around 4-5 months and became a professional power crawler until 10.5-11 months and she decided to walk and hasn’t stopped since. She’s happy 99% of the time, ornery the rest of the time, with a smidge of fussiness here and there, but generally speaking she’s only fussy when she doesn’t get her way. She knows how to get what she wants, when she wants and talk about nervous, ha, that makes me nervous for the future but for now it’s pretty dang cute and I commend her for being a boss baby! 🙂 We’re trying to raise a young woman that commands respect, knows how to get what she wants, and knows her worth, and I think she’s doing pretty good about doing it so far. She LOVES to be outside. Rain, shine, snow, doesn’t matter to this girl, she wants to be outside and she wants to be on the go. I remember when Zayden was younger he liked being outside, but not like her. And she’s a straight up daredevil. I watch the things she does sometimes and I know in my heart that she’s too young, but I let her attempt and am always pretty impressed by her rebound or success in it. We always thought Zayden would be our little motorcycle rider, but starting to think Miss Ryken may do it before he does. Ha. Lord help us.

Ryken is loving most foods, prefers to do acrobatic nursing or drinking from a big cup, the bottles are hit or miss. She’s decided a pacifier is no longer her thing. She loves loves her brother and her daddy and Ollie is her favorite dog. She likes to pester Charlie, not in a mean way but in a – I’ll pet him when he’s sleeping because he will growl at me way lol. He’s a trooper but loves her just as much! Jason and Ryken have this sweet special bond that I guess I’ve never seen but Jason would compare it to Zayden and my bond. They even have a special handshake (kind of) 🙂 I’ll leave that for just them, but I want to note it because I don’t want to forget it. She also loves to mimic us, if she hears a word or sound – she’s going to try to mimic it the best she can. Today I said “better” randomly and she said “better.” Wait, what did you just say? She smiles and runs away! Other words she has said, Hi (to everyone by the way), bubba, daddy, momma, OLLIE (but only yelling Ollie’s name when she steals something from her ha), Charlie is an attempt but can’t quite get there, up and uh oh are said all day long. And then the random words she likes to repeat once and then act like she never said them, unfortunately I haven’t kept track of those but it’s safe to say she’ll be talking early like her brother.

She hasn’t traveled like her brother did when he was her age, but she has taken 1 trip to New Mexico and recently to St. Louis, MO. Last weekend, we took the kids and my brother’s family to the zoo, City Museum, and the aquarium and ran amuck in STL for just a little getaway. We were able to see some friends and family but it was a short and sweet break for us and for them. They need that change of scenery, and to enjoy the experiences that we all have been missing. We have our next trip to Arizona planned for next month, so fully looking forward to some flying with them again!

Sweet girl turns 1 in less than 2 weeks and I honestly don’t know where time has gone. 2020 was the slowest and fastest month. I’m glad we were able to be slightly sheltered from what others had struggled with in the city, but I also want to be realistic with them about what 2020 brought. Nothing like being born in a pandemic, but she has been such a light to us. Ryken Spree is exactly what 2020 needed and I’m so thankful we were able to have her during this weird, sad time.

We are looking forward to many more laughs and smiles together this year! Stay tuned. 🙂