Ryder . 12 Months

52 weeks ends the weekly emails, and 12 months starts the monthly ones.  I can't help it that it falls in the same week!

On Saturday, we celebrated Ryder's birthday ALL DAY!

We started out getting pictures taken by Heather Mickey (coming soon)!!!

Then, we headed to the Hogle Zoo.  It was HOT and SUNNY.  But, worth it.  Ryder enjoyed seeing the big animals, and had fun waving to all of them.  Some of the animals were a bit lazy, which caused Ryder to have no interest, since he couldn't really see them.

Waving to the elephants.

Looking at the rhinos.

Watching two little monkeys fight - he thought it was pretty entertaining.

The ostrich was interesting . . . until he saw the giant misting fan that some children were playing with.

I'm pretty sure Ryder thought he could reach the giraffes if he tried hard enough.

Posing with the jaguars.

The zoo has updated the gorilla size chart - Ryder is posing here in front of the "infant" size gorilla.  Patrick's parents have a picture of him standing in front of the old chart (it looks similar), so I had to be sure to get Ryder to stand in front of it too!

Ryder watching the elephant show - this is the oldest elephant in captivity.

Before we got to the zoo I told Patrick that we had to ride the carousel - I thought Ryder would enjoy it.

Ryder enjoyed holding on all by himself.

The zoo doesn't allow children to ride with adults, so Patrick stood next to him, Ryder thought it was pretty fun to be going up and down.

He seemed to enjoy the elephants quite a bit (the real ones!), so we chose for him to ride on an elephant character.

One last snapshot as we left.

Ryder sitting on a giant wooden carving elephant.

We stopped off at Gateway to walk around while he slept in his stroller - but, it didn't last long because he didn't want to miss any action.

Getting a bite of a mid-afternoon ice cream treat.

Finally, we went to dinner at TGIFridays, where the waitress brought him his own ice cream sundae, and they sang to him.  He loved the attention, and enjoyed the ice cream.

Good thing Ryder requested extra spoons - he shared with us.

Mid-bite.

Finally, we went to dinner at TGIFridays, where the waitress brought him his own ice cream sundae, and they sang to him.  He loved the attention, and enjoyed the ice cream.





I caught Ryder mid-laugh.  I love both of these pictures - Ryder thought that Patrick was hilarious - maybe being tickled had to do with it as well.

As you can tell, we had a great birthday with Ryder.  He's ONE.  I can't believe it.

His one year check up was yesterday.  He is in the 65th percentile for weight, and the 97th percentile (32 inches) for height.  I don't remember his head size this time, but it is right in the middle for percentile.  The doctor gave Ryder an excellent bill of health, but he still had to endure five, yes, FIVE shots.  He threw a bigger fit this time than any other.  Poor kid.