The biggest development this month: Ryland has given up his pacifier in bed completely.  It took several days of fussing before falling asleep, and a few additional days of looking under blankets and asking for it, but we all lived through the ordeal just fine.

Ryland's favorite toys this month have been his cars.  He loves to send them down the ramp and say "Whee" as they roll off the end.  He can also stay well occupied with any toy that has a hole to push something through.  He continues to love anything to do with the alphabet: puzzles, books, magnets, videos, words on shirts and walls, etc.  He even "reads" letters on signs as we drive.  His mind is like a little sponge, and although I work with him regularly on basic academic skills, it still amazes me how much he learns and remembers.  He is starting to "read" more of his favorite books, saying a few words from each page of the story and/or labeling the things in the pictures.  He tries to find things to match with the pictures in a book (for example, holding a toy tiger or tiger puzzle piece up to the picture of the tiger in the book).  He does the same with magnetic letters or alphabet puzzle pieces, holding them up to the same letters he sees in his book.  

Although Ryland still eats reasonably well, he's starting to express his preferences more regularly.  He seems to be "in the mood" or "not in the mood" for some foods at any given time, so it's anyone's guess as to whether we will battle to get him to eat a PB sandwich (as an example) or he'll chow down on it like it's his all time favorite.

Most of the pictures we took last month were part of our San Antonio trip or Cousin Camp, so we don't have a lot of miscellaneous pictures from August.  Enjoy the ones we do have, including helping Mommy unload the dishwasher, doing an alphabet puzzle, pretending to be an eye doctor...