Even though Ryder is nearly a week past 8 months, I promise I didn't forget to take his picture, I'm just late  posting it.  At 8 months, Ryder is doing (or has done at least once!) the following:

• sat up by himself on Mother's Day - he was 8 months 1 day.
• pulling up on stuff.
• still toothless - but I'm starting to see ridges there.
• gets from the sitting position to the crawling position and rocks back and forth.
• is very alert and aware of everything
• chooses the remote control over any toy on earth
• goes to bed at 7, and usually wakes 12 hours later like clockwork.
• will start stage 3 baby foods as soon as I go to the grocery store.
• still takes four 6 oz bottles a day
• takes two naps a day, usually from 9 - 11 a.m. and 2 - 3ish p.m.
• always wants to be on the floor... until I put him there.  And always wants to be held... until I pick him up.  Do you see a pattern?

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We took two overnight night trips last week.  Thursday we went to Oxford and Saturday to New Orleans for the Ryan Bingham show.  The shows were ahhh-mazing, no surprise to us.  Last time we saw him in Birmingham there were about 20 people there so we got to hang out with him before and after the show.  Now that his movie is out (Crazy Heart - well he wrote the songs for it), both shows were sold out and he was a little too famous to hang out in the wide open.  It was disappointing, but still a great time!  We're going to Texas for Fourth of July to see him again and staying at this resort.  How nice does this look!

Oxford Show - Anna Terrell, JM, Corby (guitar/mandolin player), myself, Kayla

the one and only...

Finally made it to New Orleans on Saturday - love my sis

Surprise, I'm 7 months pregnant - NOT.  The wind got me on this one. I'm not sure who took this picture, but whoever you are (thinking it's Kayla), you're not a very honest friend.  Everytime I look back at this picture I laugh to death.

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It's that time.  To bring the matress down.  Not that he's gotten anywhere near crawling out, let's admit, we don't have a marathoner on our hands, but he's pulled up enough times to give me a good scare.  I knew da da would be hard at work the minute he suspected the chance of an injury.

We got him in this position, but still.

Fact Friday

I'm a scaredy cat.  If I watch a TV show before going to bed that gives me a bad feeling, I have to end the night with something uplifting.  It doesn't even have to be scary, but say I'm watching Grey's Anatomy or Private Practice and something sad happens, I'll finish the show and then make myself stay up 30 more minutes to watch an episode of Keeping up with the Kardashians or something of that nature.  I can't stand going to sleep with a bad feeling.  Along these same lines, if I get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom or get a sip of water, I run like crazy thinking someone is behind me.  And then when I'm at least 4 feet from the bed, I take a huge dive so no one grabs my legs from under the bed.  However, I've gotten much better over the years.  When I was in high school, I would call my sister and ask her to come in my room and walk with me to the bathroom because I was so afraid.

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I've started to read The 5 Love Languages.  I've heard for eons that I've needed to read this, but I'm not big on self-help, non-fictional books (I've mentioned this before), but I've made progress.  I'm on page 30.  And this paragraph caught me, and I think alot of married couples can relate:  It's called Reality Intrudes and it says this:

"Welcome to the real world of marriage, where hairs are always on the sink and little white spots cover the mirror, where arguments center on which way the toilet paper comes off and whether the lid should be up or down.  It is a world where shoes do not walk to the closet and drawers do not close themselves, where coats do not like hangers and socks go AWOL during laundry."

This just makes me feel good, and actually gives me a good laugh because it's become a tradition around here that when I fold JM's clothes, there will be 13 pairs of socks, none matching.  I've just started to wear the mis-matchers when I mop the house.  That way I won't get footprints anywhere.

Have a great weekend :)
I'm off to celebrate Ashlea & Kyle's wedding.