Thursday, April 23, 2009

So much to learn

Renner playing with his buddy, Colton.
Mommy, Daddy & Renner at church on Easter.
Gran, Pa & Renner at church on Easter.
Renner in Great Pop Romig's cowboy hat!

Renner is quite the funny little guy. Renner is climbing on everything, loves being outside, is finally eating really well, loves to look at books, likes to dance and is learning new words constantly.
Mimi, Renner & cousin Jayden hunting for Easter eggs.
We've had to turn all of the kitchen chairs over onto their sides so he won't crawl on them and then fall on the tile. He has really great balance. He enjoys climbing on things that will give him a perspective from a higher level. He can get off our bed and the couch on his own. He prefers it that way.
He whines when he has been outside and then we bring him indoors. He would much rather be out than in. He can walk up inclines with ease and can even walk up small steps on his own. Today Gran took him outside in his highchair for breakfast. She said he loved it and I have no doubt about that. Our back patio is starting to become his second play area.
As for eating, we finally figured out a way to get him to eat meat. Last week I drove through Culver's on the way home and bought a chicken strip meal with sweet and sour sauce. When we got home I put some of the chicken and sauce on his tray and he went crazy over it. Since then we went to the grocery store and bought some chicken nuggets, fish sticks and popcorn shrimp. We also saw some sweet potato fries so we baked those up with a little bit of cinnamon sugar (like they are cooked at Miss Katie's at Stone Mountain) and he really liked those. He also loves fruit and yogurt.
He has about a gazillion books. His favorites being about baseball and Winnie the Pooh. Today his Gran was reading books with him and he has these small board books that are the letters of the alphabet and she taught him the letter "D". When Mommy came home today Gran says, "Renner, what's this?" and he says "D". I was one proud Mommy.
This little boy also has some rhythym. Daddy bought a Happy Meal and in it came a Madagascar figurine that sings "I like to move it, move it" and he dances like crazy. He's just started swinging his arms back and forth too when music is played.
Renner uses so many words now ~ "Dider" for "Ryder", See, Daddy, Momma, bye, hi. Those are his favorites. He constantly surprises us by copying what he hears.
I'll leave you with one final "funny" that happened a few days ago. I was feeding Renner fish sticks with a little ketchup and was letting him watch a little tv. When a segment comes on that teaches children a word in sign language. The word for the segment was "eye". The woman says the word and then points to her eye. So what does Renner do as he has a fish stick in one hand and ketchup on the other hand? You probably guessed it...he stuck the ketchup finger into his eye. At first I didn't make the connection of what he was doing. I just thought he poked himself in the eye and started crying because of the ketchup in his eye. But then he did it again and I realized "Oh my gosh" he's doing the sign for eye but is so focused on the sign that he doesn't even realize he has ketchup on his finger. It was so funny because he kept doing pointing at his eye, putting ketchup in it and then crying. Well, at least he was attempting the sign! Daddy & Renner at church on Easter.