Christmas is a week from tomorrow and I finally feel like I am in the Christmas spirit! I am excited to do some baking, present wrapping and all that other good stuff. Now if we could just continue this "cold" spell, it would be perfect! Not looking like that's going to happen.

So pretty much in the matter of a day, Ryder went from a combination walker/crawler to 100% walker and is even running! It blows my mind. Tonight he was running around hitting golf balls with his golf club. He is just picking up on things so quickly and it is so fun to watch. He is doing really great with sign language. I feel the "baby" days just slipping further and further away and it is SAD. He is looking less like a baby too and I always think it's soooo sad when suddenly babies look more like little kids. I know that is going to happen with him very soon and it makes me want to cry!

We finally got a tree up last weekend. It's FAKE. WEIRD. We lucked out though ... it belongs to Rudy's parent's and they weren't going to use it (bought a REAL one) so they let us borrow it. It is HUGE! I will say it is nice to not have to water it or clean up needles and to know that it isn't going to die. I miss the yummy tree smell though! Ryder has been really good with the tree so far - much better than we expected! His initial reaction was pretty funny. We put it up one night while he was sleeping, so in the morning it was a complete surprise to him. He kept pointing at it like he was saying, "Hey guys! There's a TREE in our LIVING ROOM! What the heck!?" He just looked at in it awe and of course had to examine it up close. We did put ornaments within his reach, but only ones that are not going to break or be hazardous if he pulls them off. So far he has been extremely gentle and has only touched a few but hasn't tried to pull them off. Most of the time he just ignores the tree all together. Phew! That's a big relief.

Love, love, LOVE this picture!!

I had to take this giant plastic candy cane away from him ... just seconds before he put it thru the TV! He loves to "whack" things. Many tears were shed over this thing, but soon enough he forgot all about it.

Adorable just isn't even enough to describe him!