Ryker Wayne | 5 Months

RYKER WAYNE | 5 MONTHS

How big is Ryker?

age: 5 mo's

clothing: 3-6 and some 6

Milestones:

You are eating baby food! After unsuccessfully trying twice, you are finally ready to indulge in something other than milk.

Foods you have tried:

rice cereal

sugar snap peas

apples

bananas

You really don't like anything but the rice cereal. No matter what it is, if it isn't just rice cereal you make the cutest yuk face ever!

You are no longer nursing and I have quit fighting the obvious. I can't produce enough to support your intake needs so after talking to lactation and your pediatrician, we have all agreed my efforts are more stressful than helpful to you. I had around 2 weeks of total sadness until I accepted that I am just not able to nurse you anymore. 

You are rolling child. Rolling all over the place. I will put you on your play mat and by the time I get settled in a chair or grab my cup of coffee, you are already off your play mat. I love it. 

You talk and talk and talk and talk. 

You are no longer sleeping through the night. You are waking up around midnight to eat and then again around 3-4 to eat again. You are a wonderful sleeper and daddy and I are both completely shocked as to why you aren't sleeping through the night but we were told this is normal. We have started putting a little bit of rice cereal in your milk to help you sleep longer and stay full.

  

A Day in the Life:

You are rolling from one side to the other all day. We love it. You get your leg over and it hangs sometimes for a while until finally you get the strength to roll. You get over on your tummy and hate it. We keep wondering why you roll over and hate it so much :)

You don't sleep through the night anymore. Ever since we stopped nursing you wake for food twice each night. It makes us super grumpy in the morning but we still love you.

You take VERY short naps during the day. Your first nap is around 10am. Maybe 30 minutes. Then you take another nap around noon. Maybe 30 minutes. The only time you sleep for around 1.5 hours is your 3:30 nap. Then you take your last nap before bedtime around 6pm.

You are a playing fool. You coo, dribble, drool and play. That's your life in a nutshell this month! You are always looking around, smiling and staring. We love getting on the floor and playing with you.

You finally go to church with us. You love the nursery and are always tired when we pick you up after nearly 2 hours of nothing but play time.

Your family loves you:

I have a feeling this will never ever change (until Colten's moves out) but he's still your biggest fan. He loves to help take care of you, play with you, talk to you and keep you busy. He helps me the most when daddy isn't around to help me with you. You LOVE Coco. Tyler has finally gotten used to you and comfortable holding you from time to time. Morgan loves getting on the floor and scooting around with you. She enjoys playing with you as much as you enjoy playing with her.

Note from Mom:

 Ryker, you tied our family together perfectly. It seems weird some days to look at my almost 13 year old and then take a look at you. How did I get so lucky to have such amazing and beautiful children? God loves you. He loves me. I'm so thankful for you each and everyday!

Watch Me Grow:

newborn

1 month

2 months

3 months

4 months

5 months

~ Our Shank Family

Happy Easter 2015

The celebration side of the day went something like this:

Easter Breakfast

Baseball game out at Evans

 

Dinner as a family & Dessert / Easter Basket Hunting

Easter Basket Hunting Family Tradition and How To in next post!

Happy Easter everyone!!

~ Our Shank Family

He is Risen!

Happy Easter!

or should I say Happy Resurrection Day?

Kale and I aren't at all where we would like to be in our Christian Faith and the way we live. We are definitely a working progress. With each new struggle life brings, with each blessing we receive, we know we are being pulled back to Christ our Savior.

Easter morning prompted me to read from the bible before the kids woke up. To learn about "Easter" and why..where does the Easter bunny come into play? What is up with Easter eggs? A bunny and an Egg?

So. What is Easter. Well, I quickly found out that Easter really has nothing to do with the day that Jesus was resurrected. WHAT?!!!

You mean all these years I have been buying Easter baskets, decorated hard boiled eggs, giving and this whole time I really thought that Easter Sunday was connected with this Holy day. I'm so embarrassed.

But...I did some self teaching this morning. Then I taught my children the meaning of today. Colten and I are both learning slowly through God's word and together we read to everyone from Scripture what today was truly about.

{yes, we knew what today was really about not not REALLY}

We read Matthew 28 together. It was awesome. It felt so good. I don't really know what got into me today other than maybe being tired of celebrating holidays and really not knowing if I'm doing things right, celebrating for the right reasons or even supposed to be celebrating this at all.

Today was a great day.

Kale had to work but the kids and I had fun doing all sorts of park play in the morning. A small photo-shoot in the afternoon. Egg Decorating, a good meal,  Easter cupcakes, Easter basket hunting and a movie to top off the evening after Kale came home. I took NO photos of any of the events that happened today except the one shot of the kiddos for our Easter Cards for 2015 and a few others. The kids would only cooperate for so long before they started running around like wild children through this pretty field at the park :)

~ Our Shank Family

Ryker Wayne | 4 months

Ryker Wayne |  4 months

How big is Ryker?

age: 4 months

clothing:  3-6  mo

Milestones:

You have eaten your first bites of baby food! This is just the beginning of those super messy but adorable moments to come!

Foods you have tried:

rice cereal
bartlett pears
applesauce

You are rolling!! We can't even believe it! You roll to your side and kick really hard to get over to your tummy. We absolutely love it!

You are cooing more than ever. You know us and you know when we are talking to you. You look at us and if we call your name you look to see who is talking to you. Once you recognize mommy, daddy, sissy, bubby or coco you are nothing but big smiles.

A Day In The Life:

Nursing is slow. It's coming to an end. I'm not ready to give up yet! I have been doing all kinds of things to get my supply up and we will see what happens. I have decided to put most of my daily chores/activities to the back burner to focus on pumping and increasing. For now, I give you what I can and supplement the rest.

You are still sleeping really well. We are so thrilled to be able to get such good sleep during the night!

Your Family Loves You:

Colten helps more than ever these days! I love how much he loves you!! You typically spend your days with mommy and morgan but as soon as Colten comes through that front door you are all his. You guys like to go to his room and snuggle in his bed for hours. Sometimes you will watch a movie on his Nabi, sometimes he will just talk to you and there are times when he will get you to sleep for your afternoon nap.

Note From Mom:

Ryker, goodness. I love you so much! You are so much fun to be around. I have had to make sure to clean the family room each day instead of weekly so that when you start rolling around (because it is coming) you are licking a clean floor! You are always full of smiles. When I am having a rough day you make my day brighter! I love this about you.  I love that I get to stay home with you and watch you grow every single day.

Watch Me Grow:

newborn

2 months

3 months

4 months

Spring Break 2015 {Part 2}

We took off down the road for Spring Break this year. It was a 10 hour trip to Kansas for some country side fun.

The truck was loaded full of kids, a dog, luggage and don't forget the bikes!

 We had a blast! It was SO nice to just getaway, visit Grandma and Grandpa Shank and see the beautiful sunsets out in Kansas :)

Here's a photo-recap of some fun times :)

Kale named them T-bone and Ribeye!