Happy Halloween

Feet Eater

Did someone order up some feet to eat? Mmm... yummy!

Skull Cap

Tia Janina sent Tyler this cute skull cap. It's hard to tell in the photos but the eye sockets are little hearts.

Short Video Clips from Brad & Megan's Wedding

We just got back from New Orleans for Brad & Megan's wedding, which was fabulous! I still need to sort through all the photos and get some from my Dad and other folks, but wanted to post a few short video clips from the wedding.

[Video of Tyler dancing with Uncle Brad.]

[Video of Tyler hanging out with his Great Granny and Great PawPaw]

[Video of Michael holding our nephew Noah, who is 9 weeks old]

Restless Sleeper

Like me, after getting in bed Tyler tosses and turns until he finds that one sweet position to drift off to dreamland and then later he adjusts all over again. Even though we put Tyler to sleep on his back (like you are supposed to), he almost immediately flops over on to his stomach. As you can see above he also wiggles and rotates to wherever he pleases. Apparently it's okay for babies to sleep on their stomachs once they are able to roll over from tummy to back and back to tummy on their own. I stopped swaddling Tyler recently because most of the time he was squirming his arms out of the swaddle anyway and had started rolling over onto his stomach while swaddled. I have a feeling it won't be long until we have to lower the crib mattress because tonight after I put Tyler to bed I watched as he grabbed the crib rails and tried to use them to maneuver about the crib and he almost looked like he was trying to pull himself up.

Devin & Dane's Birthday Party

Tyler attended his first kids' birthday party this weekend as he helped celebrate Devin and Dane turning one. I was too busy socializing to take many pictures, but Tyler is definitely a social little guy and liked all the commotion, playing with the other kids, and smiling at all the adults.

Dane dug right in to his cupcake while Devin was a little
less sure about whether he wanted to eat his or not.

Here are Dane and Devin crawling amongst their new loot. Their favorite
part seemed to be chewing on all the endless sheets of tissue paper.

Tyler made a grab for Daddy's beer, which was way too cute!
Don't worry- we only fill Tyler's bottles with formula.

Laundry Basket

Who says laundry can't be fun? Michael and I put Tyler in the laundry basket to see how he would react. Tyler was quite amused by it and so of course I had to snap some photos and video.

First Tooth

A tooth finally broke through Tyler's gums today! The tip of a bottom front tooth is poking through but is not all the way out yet. It's barely even noticeable unless you look really close when Tyler is grinning big or you pull his lip back.

Squealer

Tyler has been exploring his vocal range for a while now. Currently he loves making hard "d" and "t" sounds and he also loves to squeal. If we had a dog, I would be convinced Tyler was talking to the dog because the squealing is more animal-friendly than human-friendly. Just click on the video to find out for yourself. Last week Tyler decided to let out a nice happy squeal as we were checking out books from the library. So much for maintaining a quiet library atmosphere!

Still Congested

Tyler is still congested, but he hasn't had a fever since Friday night. He was much more playful today and didn't need any Tylenol. He also took several long naps today (one was even an hour and a half) instead of his normal micro-snoozes.

Under the Weather

Poor little Tyler has some kind of virus. It all started with a runny nose on Wednesday evening. By Thursday evening he was coughing in addition to the runny nose and last night he had his first fever. Michael took his temperature around 4 pm yesterday and it was around 99 degrees and then when we got him ready for bed around 7:15 pm Tyler had a fever of 101.7 degrees. He went right to sleep at 7:15, but did wake up a few times during the night. The fever was gone by this morning but he is still pretty congested. Tyler seemed pretty normal this morning and early in the afternoon, but he got really fussy after 4 pm. Tylenol seemed to help but you can definitely tell he is not feeling his best. One of the after-hours advice nurses I talked to last night (after being on hold for an hour!) thinks it is probably just a virus and not the flu. Apparently there are a lot of bugs going around right now. Hopefully Tyler will start feeling better soon. It's heartbreaking to see him in distress, especially since he can't tell us specifically what is making him feel bad.

Bear-y Cold in the Morning

It has been cold in the morning in Portland and I have been having fun trying out all the hand-me-down hats that Tyler has in his wardrobe. This picture doesn't do justice to the cute bear hat.

The Zoo

Now that we have a zoo membership we will probably head to the zoo more often. Tyler and I went to the zoo with Lourdes and Calvin yesterday. Although the boys are a little young for the zoo, they both seemed to enjoy taking it all in. Of course Tyler also took a long nap in his stroller while I wheeled him around. There are some statues around the zoo that are perfect for bigger kids to climb all over and we couldn't resist this cute wooden horse complete with mini saddle.

Latest Developments

It's amazing how fast Tyler has been developing lately:

• Sitting: While Tyler can sit for short periods of time unassisted, you still have to watch him and catch him when he tips over. He sits up for long periods of time when he has some assistance, such as a pillow, rails on a high chair at restaurants, or shopping carts.
• Grabbing: Tyler has been grasping for items for a long time now, but recently he seems to have stepped it up a notch. You really have to pay attention because he will grab anything within reach. And that little sucker has quite a grip! It's a good thing Tyler can sit in shopping carts now because I was having trouble grocery shopping with him facing forward in the Baby Bjorn carrier because he would pretty much grab every item I picked up. This made it very difficult to do things such as put apples in the produce bag or get my wallet out of my purse. Tyler is strong enough that he could carry my purse around for me!
• Movement: Although Tyler looks like he wants to crawl, he still hasn't figured out how to make it happen. When all else fails he rolls. Recently I left the room for a minute and when I came back I panicked because Tyler was no longer visible in the middle of his blanket on the floor. It turns out he had rolled over until he was wedged against the couch and he was gnawing on the bottom corner of the couch! Time to think about babyproofing the house!
• Eating: Tyler has been expanding his list of solid foods. To date he has eaten rice cereal, peas, carrots, and sweet potatoes. Green beans and prunes are next on the list.
• Talking/Babbling: Tyler has started to make consonant sounds when he babbles. We mostly hear him make hard 'd' and 't' sounds. And of course he still loves to blow raspberries.
• Interacting with Strangers: Babies always draw lots of attention with strangers. When we are out and about Tyler is super friendly and smiles at just about anyone who gives him a smile. It's great to see him brighten someone's day.

On Friday we bought an Exersaucer off Craig's list. The thing is huge and Tyler loves it! We ended up buying the same one some friends bought because their son Calvin has been really thrilled with it. Tyler pretty much lit up in a smile as soon as we sat him in it. He also figured out pretty quickly that the seat rotates so that he can get to whichever toy suits his fancy. It's nice to have another option for keeping our little guy entertained.

Eaves Visit

Eaves Visit

Our good friends Martha and Brad flew out from Houston with their kids Lydia (age 7-1/2) and Andrew (age 4) for a few days over the past weekend. I sifted through the hundreds of photos to narrow them down to the highlights include in the above album. Tyler really enjoyed all of the attention and especially liked watching Andrew.

Sliding

[Video of Michael getting stuck halfway down the slide.]

This cute clip of Tyler's first trip down the slide with Daddy will surely make you chuckle!

Swinging

[Video of Tyler in the swing.]

This was Tyler's first time in a swing at our neighborhood playground. It was getting close to bed time so Tyler was not particularly excited. Michael did get some smiles out of him by touching Tyler's nose, which he really seems to love for some reason!

Crazy Busy

I haven't had time to post in a while because I have been crazy busy! Plus Tyler brought home some germs from daycare that gave both Michael and I a nasty cold. Work has been insanely busy (mostly because a client decided to move up a deadline by a month!). All the transportation agencies have been rushing to get projects out to bid because of all the stimulus money they received and so we are busy helping out. Our good friends Martha and Brad were in town for a few days this past weekend with their kids Andrew and Lydia and we had a blast catching up and showing them around Oregon. Tyler was unusually fussy after they flew back to Texas and I think it was his way of telling me he was sad they left. What a sweetheart!

I have numerous photos to sort through to pick out the gems for posting, but I will post a few videos right now to tide over you die-hards who have been missing your Tyler updates.