Ryder—17 months

This is a really fun age. Every age has been a fun age though. Overall, traveling with him at this age is definitely harder than traveling with a baby. He just doesn’t like to sit still…and a lot of traveling involves waiting.

Words: He only babbles right now. He gets most excited and chatty when around other kids. He says “gooboy gooboy gooboy” a lot. I think he is saying “good boy” because we always tell him that. He knows how to ask questions by raising his tone at the end.

Friends: He is fearless when he sees other little boys playing. He goes right up to join them.

Food: He eats anything and everything. His favorite is peanut butter—he’ll dig the empty jar out of the trash. Same goes for watermelon. He also tries to steal my chewing gum. He can operate a spoon and feed himself pretty well.

Potty: He now allows us to hold him over the potty and when he goes, he gets a reward.

Fun: He loves riding in the boats around the lake and is always trying to walk down towards the embarcadera. He likes riding in tuktuks and will go up to a parked one and get in and sit by himself.

He loves music and dancing to it. And he loves to be chased. When I want to put a new diaper on him, he starts running just for the game of it all. And he loves bottles with caps. Here he is in action:

Bathtime: One of his favorite times, he can entertain himself endlessly. He just loves water. I guess that’s a kid thing.

Quiet time: There is almost no quiet time with Ryder. He is always on the move. He doesn’t sit. He doesn’t listen to stories. UNLESS he is nursing, that is the only time he is still, and even then he is pulling my hair, tapping me on the arm, kicking the person in front of him, etc. He is such a boy.

Daddy-son relationship: As soon as Ryder sees Jacob, he sticks out his tongue and blows raspberries. They love to wrestle. Daily Jacob talks about how much he loves his little boy.

Constant struggle: To keep his shoes on. He loves to take them off. This is not unique to this age though. He has never liked anything on his feet. He likes shoes on MY feet, though, because it means we’re leaving the house, so he brings them to me. He likes to wear them, too.

Sleeping schedule: He just went through a horrible spot where I was at my wits end—he was inconsolable when waking up in the middle of the night.  I think he was just thrown off because I let him cosleep with me when we visited Antigua and then returned him to his bed when we returned to Lake Atitlan. Now he’s back to sleeping until about 4:30 am or so—when the night begins to turn to day here. Yeah it’s a downside to living in a nature-y destination. Early sunrises.

Habit I have not been able to get him to stop yet: Hair pulling. He will pull people’s hair as soon as they get their face up close and personal with his. Everyone says he’s just going to grow out of it? All I know is that pulling it back does NOT work. I think he likes getting it pulled.

I get embarrassed when: Ryder begs for food from others. He begs from anyone who has food, at the airport, on the boat, at restaurants…and most assuredly, he does get enough to eat. He eats nonstop. The kid loves food. I think that’s from my genes. Plus, he always gets what he asks for, so I guess he figures his tactics work—why stop? Here he is with some ice cream he bummed off of someone:

Fears: As of yet, none. He most especially is not afraid of dogs he SHOULD be afraid of, like the mangy man-sized ones all over Guatemala. He really loves animals.

Favorite chore: He likes to sweep.

Ryder and I are always together and we have a pretty good time!