moving, racing, and eating!

Ryan has officially started crawling!  Our big boy finally figured out how to move forward lots of steps instead of backwards!  Sometimes he drops down and does an army crawl on his belly, but for the most part, he's on his knees or on his feet, kind of like a bear crawl.  Either way, it's super cute!  He has also perfected sitting up by himself and does it all the time!

This past weekend, we finally hooked up Uncle Carl's Christmas present to Ryan.  It's a race track, complete with little cars, lights, and a "finish line".  Watch the video to see for yourself:

I plan on using this toy to teach Ryan all about inertia and centripetal force when he's older (like 12 months).  

Over the past week, we've also discovered that Ryan LOVES sweet potatoes:

And while it looks like he made a big mess, this is huge progress, my friends.  Sure, he has some on his shirt and has smeared it all over his tray, but it's not in his hair, his ear, his eyes, or his nose like the first few times we gave Ryan solid food.  We also discovered this past week that feeding him is so much easier when he has his own spoon to play with and to distract himself with.  

He also enjoys avocados, but not as much as sweet potatoes:

We tried avocados before sweet potatoes...can you see the difference in the mess?  He's learning his manners!