Merry Christmas

We hope everyone has a fantastic Christmas Day. Quiet day here. We're still on the fence about visiting Monteray Bay. Here's Ryan in his Santa suit and Carol in her new pyjamas (as well as some video footage).




Merry Christmas!

Christmas Greetings

It's been a while since my last update. Sorry about that. Things have been pretty hectic since the move. We're starting to settle in to the new house, which is just around the corner from Shirley Way.
Tree is up and we're all very excited to be able to spend a couple of days with Aunt Sarah and Uncle Jeremy before they take off for Asia.
We hope to speak to everyone soon. Lots of Skype calls over the holidays...
Picture and video are of Ryan this morning. He's a very happy little fella!

Thanksgiving Video Highlights

Good times in Phoenix over the Thanksgiving long weekend. Here are some video highlights.

Dog Walk

Sorry for the lack of posts. It's been a crazy couple of weeks. I hope everyone's doing well. Here's a quick video of Ryan in action. He's quite a busy little fella these days! Happy Thanksgiving!

Halloween

You know someday he's going to hate it when we pull out these pictures from Halloween 2009...

12 Months of Onesie Shots

By request, here's the montage of monthly pictures of Ryan in the same onesie.

Leslie Visit, Walking, Riding the Horse

Haven't posted an update in a while. I hope everyone's doing well. Since our last update Aunt Helen and Papa Doug have had birthdays - Happy Birthday!

We had a great visit from Leslie Mitchell last weekend. She is one of our oldest family friends and it was great to catch up and introduce her to Ryan. Here's a picture:

Speaking of Ryan, he gains more confidence by the day with his walking. Check him out in this video.


Carol also took him to a pumpkin patch and petting zoo this week. It's quite unbelievable how well he did on the horse!

More October pictures here and September pictures here.

Learning to Walk

Quick vid of Ryan enjoying his new truck. He'll be walking on his own any day now...

Hanging with Nana

Good times with Nana last week. Unfortunately I wasn't around for most of the trip but I'm pretty sure Ryan misses her already.
Happy Canadian Thanksgiving!

Ryan Turns One

Here's some video footage of the little man on his first birthday. We'll celebrate next weekend when Nana Jane arrives to see us. Here are a few September pictures as well.

Electric Avenue

It's definitely time to get some new Karaoke cd's. Here's a quick video of Ryan and Carol laughing through an 80s classic.

A Few Pics

First birthday is approaching and the little man is now consistently sleeping through the night (knock on wood). Here are a couple of recent pictures of him hanging out.

Quite a Singer

Ryan clearly has his mother's beautiful singing voice...

Kingston Highlights

It's now been a week since our trip to Canada and we're starting to settle back into the homefront routine. Things seem to have gotten a little worse on the night time sleep front, so we're about to embark on another attempt at "sleep training." We'll see.

Here are some pictures from the trip (before the wedding) and a few video highlights. Thanks to everyone for making Ryan's first trip to Canada so special!

Sarah's Big Day

A great time was had by all on the weekend at Sarah and Jeremy's wedding at Lake Tamakwa. Here are some pictures and a few video clips from the big day. What a fantastic weekend! Congratulations once again to the new Mr. and Mrs. Birnie.

Breakers Crawl

The vid is a bit windy, but I think you can tell how much Ryan enjoys hanging out at the cottage. Next stop...Algonquin Park!

Good Times in Canada

Ryan's having the time of his life in Canada. After a night in Toronto we've been in the Kingston area the whole time, staying out at the cottage and at Nana Jane's. He's been swimming, canoeing, playing with the dog and cat, duck watching, and generally soaking up all of the attention from family and friends as well as the new sites and sounds. I'll post pictures next week, but here's a quick iPhone video of the little man learning to drum with Uncle Mike. We're all very excited about Sarah and Jeremy's big day this weekend.

Big Day at the Discovery Museum

Last week we took Ryan to the Children's Discovery Museum in San Jose. He loves it. Here are a few pictures from the day (my favorite is below) and a short video.

Well it's back to work for me on Monday. I'll still try to post updates when I can. Less than two weeks until the big Canada trip for Aunt Sarah's wedding. Very exciting...

Good Times with the Grandparents

Here is some footage of a very busy (and chatty) Ryan spending lots of quality time with his grandparents. Hopefully the video turns out a bit better than some of the HD vids I've been trying to post lately.

Something New Everyday

Ryan's treating his grandparents to something new each day. It's mostly chatter and new noises along with lots of laughs and smiles. Here he is getting lots of attention from the Li ladies.
And here's another video of the little man laughing with his Mom (view it in HD mode on YouTube for best results).

Da Da Da Da

We've entered the baby babbling stage. Here's a short video of Ryan starting to say Dada (sorry Carol - Mama's next I'm sure...)

And here's the little big man posing in his 10 month onesie shot, as well as more pictures from the last couple of weeks.

The Li's Have Landed

After a long trip to China, Carol's parents have arrived for a 10 day visit. As you can see, Ryan's already enjoying all of the attention from Gong Gong and Poi Poi.

Quick Update

I've been slacking on the updates lately. It's just too nice outside to be in front of the computer I guess. Here are a few recent shots of Ryan. His two front teeth are currently coming through.

I haven't gotten back into the swing of video editing since we starting using our new computer. Even so, there's not much I could do with the singing in this video...

9 Month Onesie Shot

Here's the 9 month onesie shot. At over 23lbs, he's a pretty big boy. You can compare to previous months here and check out more pics from June (and a few from this weekend) here.
Also, here's video of some attempted Karaoke followed by more laughter (and some father and son roughhousing).

Happy 4th of July

Quiet 4th of July so far. Ryan and Carol are catching up on some sleep (the morning nap) and I'm catching up on getting some videos posted. Every day we seem to discover something new that will get Ryan laughing hysterically. Here's a good example. More coming soon. Have a great weekend!

Canada Day Firecracker

Happy Canada Day! Here's a shot of Ryan in his Little Firecracker t-shirt experiencing watermelon for the first time. Clearly it was a big hit! He's a very happy (and healthy) little boy.

Working the Blackberry

Ryan's loving his new Blackberry. He finds it very easy to use...and eat. Turns out he prefers Apple...

Happy Father's Day!

We found out this week that at just a few days shy of the 9 month mark, Ryan is in the 85th percentile for height, weight and head size. He's a very healthy little guy. Now that's a great first Father's Day gift!

I just found out about swim diapers. We're off to the kiddy pool for his first swim. Good times. Happy Father's Day!

Encore Crawling Vid

Due to overwhelming popular demand (from Uncle Alex), here's another quick vid of Ryan crawling. Time to baby proof the house. He's getting good!

Now back to watching the hockey and basketball playoffs...

Crawling

You wouldn't believe how active Ryan has become. He's still got a fairly intense focus on something (or someone) new, but ultimately he just wants to grab things and put them in his mouth. The two bottom teeth are coming in nicely, but no signs of any others yet.
Here's a video of him working on his crawling. He's getting better and better...

Ryan in Action

Just heading out to my first Stroller Gym class with Carol and Ryan. We had a great barbecue with some friends yesterday - Amy, Frank and their 10 month old boy Theo. Picture below and some more May shots here. Happy Memorial Day!

8 Month Onesie

Ryan hits the eight month mark today as we enjoy the Memorial Day long weekend in the US. Lots of barbecues and play dates for us. Nothing too crazy. Here's the 8 month onesie pic (you can compare to the others here) and a video of the little man doing one of his favorite things - eating.April:









March:









February:

Feeding Himself

It's a beautiful weekend in the Bay Area. We're getting set to head up to San Francisco to catch up with some friends and hopefully check out the always entertaining Bay to Breakers race tomorrow. There seems to be quite a bit going on in the Cunningham and Li family these days:

• Nana Jane is enjoying a Potter family reunion in Ottawa with her brothers Andy and Jim and Aunt Anne before she moves to Kingston later this month.
  
• Papa Doug is enjoying the Twitter spotlight of a big trial in Ottawa.
• Uncle Mike just returned from a great trip to Belgium with Nigel, Jen and their kids.
• Aunt Helen and Eric are en route to China for 3 weeks.
• Poi Poi and Gong Gong Li are planning their summer travel to China for a family reunion (and then visiting us for a couple of weeks).
  
• Uncle Alex is dating up a storm in Chicago (and hopefully coming to visit us soon).
  
• Aunt Sarah and Uncle Jeremy are finalizing all the details for their big day in August (we still need to finalize our travel plans!)

Meanwhile, Ryan's rocking. Here he is piling in all kinds of new foods and managing a bottle of pumped milk on his own.

Play Dates

Catching up on posting after the London trip. Here are a few pictures and a video of Ryan hanging with some friends. He's now 7.5 months and has 2 bottom teeth that are pretty far along. He's a pretty active little fella as you can see.

Good Times at 7 Months

Friends are on their way over for a "play date" with their daughter Michelle so this is just a quick video post with some highlights from the week. Ryan's laughing and rolling a lot these days. Good times.

I'm heading to London on Tuesday for Fion and Emma's big day so Carol and the little man will be flying solo. I hope to be back for the last few hours of Mother's Day...

Rolling into Month Eight

Ryan hit the seven month mark this week. He's at the stage where he grabs anything he can and try's to get it into his mouth. We have some serious baby proofing to do around here as he gets set to crawl. Here's some video footage of his front-to-back roll in action. It's still not pretty, but becoming more frequent. This afternoon I found him on his stomach in his crib (picture below).
Ryan hit the seven month mark this week. He's at the stage where he grabs anything he can and try's to get it into his mouth. We have some serious baby proofing to do around here as he gets set to crawl. Here's some video footage of his front-to-back roll in action. It's still not pretty, but becoming more frequent.

This afternoon I found him on his stomach in his crib.

Broccoli for Breakfast

The little man has been waking up pretty early lately ready to play. Yesterday I guess I was still in a bit of a morning daze and ended up whipping up a wonderful breakfast for him, which consisted of rice cereal, breast milk and broccoli mixed together. (Never so good with colors, I was really hoping the frozen cube would be apple.) Ryan didn't flinch and enjoyed every bite. He is clearly not going to be a fussy eater.

This weekend he finally completed the back-to-front roll and is getting closer and closer to crawling. It's pretty funny to watch. Here are a couple of recent pictures.

More Laughing

We've been making some Skype video calls this week to Nana Jane and our friends Jeff, Michelle, and Jack Neasmith in Kingston. We hope to connect with more family and friends this way so be sure to email us your Skype address. Here's quick video of Ryan laughing. He's now over 19lbs and, as you can see, a very happy little guy. Happy Easter!

Clips of the Week

No footage from yesterday's 5 year birthday celebration of Nicholas Kreisa, but a good time was had by all. Here are some videos from this past week:

1) More and More New Foods Introduced


2) Talking, Laughing and Hanging Out

6 Month Onesie Shot

I'm a bit behind on posting the monthly onesie picture. Here's the latest:

To track his progress, you can compare to:

• 5 Months
• 4 Months
• 3 Months
• 2 Months
• 1 Month

It's Saturday morning and I think it's safe to say that the sleep training routine has been a success. Ryan and Mom are both sleeping after a morning feed and I'm setting up the new web cam, which we know Nana Jane will be happy about. At this point he goes down without much of a fight in the evening and is sleeping from about 6:30pm until 3 or 4am. He goes back down pretty quickly after that and sleeps for a couple more hours. Occasionally he'll wake up at around 11pm for a feed and then sleep right through. The daytime routine is still coming together. We've definitely learned that timing is the key to avoiding too much crying before he falls asleep.

More Solids Introduced

It's a beautiful day in the Bay Area today. Spring has definitely arrived! Carol and I also picked this weekend to attempt sleep training (we're going with a modified Ferber approach). Fingers crossed, but so far it's going really well. Last night it took about 25 minutes before he fell asleep on his own. He went on to sleep for 8.5 hours! This morning he was back down for a nap after less than 10 minutes of crying. Maybe it's the solids. Maybe it's the routine. I'll keep you posted.

In the meantime, here are a couple of new vids from the week.

Ryan at 6 Months

The 6 month mark is officially on Tuesday so here are a few recent pictures and other Ryli resources.

• New Pictures on Kodak Gallery
• All of his YouTube Videos
• All of the Pictures I've Posted on the Blog
  
• Picasa Pictures taken by Philip Smeed

Enjoying Solid Food

Here's Ryan eating solids for the first time. Big day!

Enjoying the Giraffe

This morning we fed Ryan solids (rice mix) for the first time. I'll post the video shortly. As you can see from this video, it's pretty obvious that he's going to enjoy just about anything that gets near his mouth these day. Watch him go to town on his favorite giraffe Sophie!

Catching and Swinging

One more video from the weekend. Check out the hand-eye coordination on the little fella! We haven't heard from some of Ryan's regular readers lately. I hope everyone's doing well.

Happy Birthday Nana Jane

Big birthday best wishes going out to Ryan's Nana Jane today, who is somewhere in Italy or France at this point on a school trip with my sweet Aunt Kathy. Happy Birthday Mom!

On the home front, we're digging in to sleep training this weekend after a seminar yesterday and a week of wake-up calls every three hours. I did manage to get out to enjoy a great Golden State Warriors basketball game last night with John Kreisa and his daughter Lea. You can read about the big night and see a few pictures on his blog. What he doesn't mention is that Ryan was up and ready to play as soon as I arrived home from the game.

Cool Little Dude

Yesterday we took Ryan out in the stroller for the first time without the car-seat carrier. No problem at all. You'll see from the picture that we also have him wearing some pretty snazzy new sunglasses these days. Jury's still out on the hat though...
And here's a new video of some of the highlights of the week. The first minute will definitely make you smile! I had trouble posting the HD version on YouTube this time around.

Ryli at 5 Months

Quiet Saturday afternoon. We took Ryan's 5 month onesie pic today. It actually fits him well right now so next month should be pretty funny. Last weekend our Philip and Dea came over and took a ton of pictures of him for portraits. You can check some of them out here.


And here's an HD video of the little man enjoying the day.

Some Classic Family Pics

Ryan hit the 5 month mark yesterday and is doing great. His sleep pattern is a bit off right now, but otherwise he's definitely a happy and healthy (+16lbs!) little guy.

I thought I'd take a minute to post a few classic family pictures that have been sent my way recently. The first is a great picture of my grandfather hanging out with Canadian hockey legends Toe Blake and Harry Sinden. That's Ebby Hare on the right teaching them a thing or two about coaching I'm sure.Speaking of great skaters, here's a picture of my sister Sarah and cousin Jen back in their glorious figure skating days. One of these days I'll post some video footage of the girls on the ice. It's good.
And last but not least, speaking of my sister Sarah, check her out in this eTalk segment on Oscar-night make up. Looking good Sarah!

Nana Jane on Video

Here are some of the highlights of Nana Jane's visit. Good memories!

A Little Behind...

I had to get a new laptop so I'm a little behind on Ryli updates. I'll get some new videos up shortly. We're also planning on getting a camera for Skype calls. Last week we had a video chat with the Neasmith's in Kingston and it was great to see little Jack in action.

It's a rainy weekend here in Menlo Park. After a great visit, my Mom left on Tuesday and it's seemed fairly quiet around here ever since. We spent yesterday with our friends Philip and Dea Smeed taking pictures of the little man. Philip is doing some family portraits for us and he and Carol had Ryli in a number of great poses and outfits. This outfit was my favorite.

Obama-fied Ryli

I was playing around on the site Obamaconme the other day and created these pictures. BTW, after a busy day playing with Nana and visiting the Kreisa's, Ryan slept for 9 hours last night.