Ryker in Avo's Backyard

AVO & Ryker

AVO tried to get Ryker to say "AVO." He did get it once but he had no idea what he was saying. Fortunately, AVO still knit him a sweater - a gorgeous, red Aran Isle. She even started another one that is blue/brown/cream. Being the knitting fiend she is, she also made Keelin a lovely purple chenille sweater and got her lots of beautiful dresses at her favorite shop: Sal Armani's.

Kissing THE Virgin

For some reason, Ryker was drawn to the statue of the Virgin Mary in my mom's yard. Several times he crawled over, pulled himself up and started sucking on her head. Who knows what that was all about.

Chasing Ollie

"Oh, wow, a kitty cat. I think I saw a kitty cat." Too bad Ollie wanted nothing to do with Ryker. It didn't stop him from crawling after him again and again.

Revival of the Cookie Monster

AVO pulled out the Cookie Monster again. Ryker was a bit scared of it over Christmas. This time he loved it and kept grabbing it, dancing to "it's a blue Christmas."

Patiently Waiting...

We went to Newport to visit my mom, AVO (Ancient Venerable One). Getting there was a fiasco: my car was in the shop so we had to take a shuttle to the airport, flight was fine, shuttle refused to transport us to Newport because I didn't have a car seat (which was not a problem in DC and they didn't tell me when I called to reserve space), so I went to rent a car, but discovered my driver's license expired - 8 months ago! - so they finally rented me a car seat. We had to wait for the next shuttle (a total of 4 hours). Finally got to my mom's after 9 hours of traveling. It would have been faster to drive, but - oh yeah, my car was in the shop. Thankfully my mom had a glass of wine waiting for me upon arrival...

Ryker was actually very good despite all of these adventures. The weather was glorious and I found a nice patch of grass with trees blooming all around. Ryker and I played peek-a-boo with my jacket.

Check Up

Ryker was 10 months and a week by the time we got in for his 9 month visit. I had to reschedule it because he had a tummy bug. He is now 27 3/4 inches tall, 18 lbs 13 oz. (13 lbs more than when he was born). His head is 45 1/2 cm which honestly doesn't mean that much to me either. He LOVES ripping up the paper on the examining table.