Every day he seems to act more and more like a little boy than a baby.  He he wants to do things by himself, like eat, brush teeth, put on shoes, etc.  Overall, Ryland is still easy going, but he has his toddler moments and occasionally throws a little fit when he doesn't want to do what he is told.  Usually, though, he remains calm and just doesn't obey.  For example, if we say it's time to change your diaper, he might hide behind the couch instead of going to his room.  For that, he gets a warning, and if he still doesn't obey, then a spanking.  That doesn't generally make him cry, but he does obey and follow us to his room (or whatever we've asked him to do).

His speech and language continues to develop daily.  He has started to put two words together to make a phrase, like "Bye-bye, Daddy."  He thinks it's funny to point to each of us in turn and say "Mommy, Daddy, Mommy, Daddy..." and I think he smirks when I answer every time with "Yes, Ryland?" like it's a great game to trick Mommy into thinking he wants something.  He "talks to himself" a lot and just starts giggling at whatever he's said (even the church nursery workers have observed that).  He counts to ten regularly, but he seems to skip one and start at two.  In the bathtub, he can match his foam letters W, F, S, P, T, B, D to his bath toys walrus, frog, seahorse, penguin, turtle, boat, duck.

We had a busy month in July, as evidenced by all the pictures in the following slide show.  We enjoyed time at the park, had a fun day at the indoor inflatable play place, took advantage of our shaded back porch to play in the water table and swimming pool, and finished the month by going to the East Texas Balloon Race evening glow.