Welcome to My Disorganized Kitchen!

We only put latches on the kitchen cabinets and drawers with items that could be hazardous to Tyler. That means the cabinet with the tupperware is unlatched. Although Tyler frequently opens this cabinet and wants to play in it, I usually distract him with his drawer, the dishwasher, or other toys. He was pretty determined to get in there Monday night while I made dinner so I let him have at it. This kept him entertained for a good half hour! And he probably would have played longer if I had let him.

It all started so innocently with only a few lids!

Thankfully Tyler gave up on the top shelf and just concentrated on the bottom shelf where it's mostly larger items.

Tyler was fascinated by all the lids and the fact that many of the containers were stacked within each other.

This is so much fun Mommy!

I didn't realize how much stuff I had crammed on the bottom shelf!

The fun had to end at some point in the name of dinner. This is the dramatic response Tyler gave me when I put everything back in the cabinet. Don't worry- the tears were short-lived. Tyler has had a flair for the dramatic lately.

More Playground Fun

I am amazed at how mobile Tyler is these days! He was able to navigate most of this play structure by himself. He had no problem climbing up the steps and getting into the tunnel. Tyler wasn't quite sure how to get down from the tunnel but managed to figure out a way to get one leg down and then the other one without toppling over. He probably would have gone down the slide on his knees and done a faceplant had I not stopped him and sat him down at the top before sliding.

The Sunday Paper

Tyler is fascinated by the sound paper makes when he crinkles it. We let Tyler play with many of the ads in the Sunday paper that are printed on magazine-style paper (so his hands don't get all inky). This usually keeps Tyler occupied so that Michael and I can actually read the paper without Tyler grabbing at the sections we are reading.

Walking More and More

Over the past few days Tyler has been taking more and more unassisted steps and walking for longer stretches of time. Tyler can take about 10 unassisted steps at a time before collapsing to his knees. We have been amazed at how many times in a row Tyler will take a series of steps, fall, and then take another big series of steps. Tyler also loves making multiple laps of the house while pushing his truck or while holding on to one of our hands. These new skills take mobility to a whole new level! And Tyler never stops grinning while taking all these new strides.

At Play

Tyler's favorite playground feature these days is the slide. We go down the taller and steeper ones with him since he's still getting the hang of it... well, and because it's such a good excuse to go down a slide! Tyler is finally starting to realize he has to lift his feet a little bit so his shoes don't create drag. Here is Tyler ready for action on his own.

This is the smile of sheer joy as Tyler reaches the bottom of the slide. This particular slide creates crazy amounts of static, which causes Tyler's hair to stand on end.

A few times Tyler even climbed the stairs to get to the top of the slide. We were really impressed by this since stairs are fairly new to Tyler as we don't have any in our house.

Hanging out!


What exactly are these things? Tyler doesn't know but he likes to shake them!

Let Me Try That

While Tyler eats lots of finger foods (Cheerios, fruits/veggies/meat cut into small pieces, etc.), we still feed him baby food mixed with rice cereal too. He was grabbing at the spoon during dinner tonight so we let him have a go at feeding himself. Not once did Tyler actually try to spoon any food into his mouth. He was perfectly content feeling the food with his fingers and banging the spoon on his tray and in the bowl. Dinner was followed directly by bath time!

Little Mr. Indpendent took about 10 steps on his own this evening. We think Tyler will be walking on his own (and then running, of course) in no time. Sometimes now Tyler even walks on his knees instead of crawling.

Other recent happenings:

• When we read to him Tyler likes to help turn the pages in the book. It's hard for him to grab just one page so we usually pull the next page out a little bit so he can easily grab it and turn it.
• Now that Tyler is in the wobbler room at daycare he only gets one nap in the middle of the day. All the kids go down at the same time. This is a big adjustment since Tyler was previously taking a morning nap and afternoon nap. Because of this he is usually pretty worn out in the evening and has been going to sleep earlier than his normal 7:30 bedtime.
• Although a little cranky about it, Tyler has been getting by without formula and bottles. He is drinking more milk out of a sippy cup now and is eating plenty of food. This means we finally get a little more free room in the dishwasher and on the drying rack. (Nobody ever mentioned how much laundry and dirty dishes kids create! Tyler probably creates more laundry and dirty dishes than Michael and I combined.)

Farewell Formula

Little did he know it, or he would have relished every last drop, but this was Tyler's last bottle of formula. Tyler's pediatrician wanted us to keep him on formula until his adjusted age reached 1 year, which falls this week. This bottle (from right after Tyler got up this morning) finished off the formula we had on hand and so now Tyler is switching to whole milk. We're also going cold turkey on the bottles. Tyler will only get sippy cups from here on out. Tyler is used to sippy cups as we have been giving him water in them since he was 6 months old. Daycare has also been giving him some of his formula in sippy cups to help him transition. We survived the first day and although Tyler was a little frustrated that I didn't give him any formula today, I just kept giving him food plus a sippy of milk and sippy of water when he was hungry. He probably only drank about 3 oz. of milk today, but I think once he transitions he will drink more. Plus, he will probably drink more milk at daycare over the next few days because his teachers work magic and also have the mob mentality working in their favor. Hey- if all the other toddlers are drinking milk it must be good, right?

Wooden Shoe Tulip Festival

Tulip Festival

Click on photo to see album from the Tulip Festival. It was hard to photograph Tyler amongst the tulips because he wanted to grab the flowers but of course you're not supposed to pick any of them! At one point Michael sat Tyler down by some tulips and Michael didn't realize I was squatting behind him with the camera to snap photos of Tyler as soon as Michael moved out of the way. Michael backed up suddenly to get out of the way and ended up knocking me over. I started laughing because it was pretty funny and Tyler also found our little comedy routine hysterical.

Rearranging Furniture

Here is a glimpse of Tyler in action exploring. It seems like we spend half our time putting the house back in order!

At the Park with Calvin

We have been having fun exploring the area parks now that it's spring. The steering wheel and wind chimes were definitely a hit with Tyler and Calvin! The swings and slide are a usual favorite too.

What? Is This a No Parking Zone?

I was out of the room briefly yesterday and when I came back Tyler had somehow managed to reverse his truck behind the rocking chair and end table and wedge it between the wall and the sofa.

Movin' on Up... to the Wobbler Room

Today Tyler graduated from the infant room at daycare to the wobbler room. The wobbler room is co-located with the toddler room. As you can probably guess by the name, kids are in the wobbler room while they get the hang of walking. In preparation for the move Tyler has gotten to spend some time with the wobblers and toddlers over the past few weeks and he absolutely loves hanging out with the big kids. When it's not raining he also gets to join them on the playground.
Wobbling around the living room a few steps at a time.

And we're back to pulling all the books off the bookshelf!

Baby Steps

For the past few weeks Tyler has been able to stand on his own, keep his balance, and then take a few steps. Then he either falls to his knees or bottom or if he's near one of us he dives into our arms.

Still Obsessed with the Dishwasher

I'm not sure why Tyler loves the dishwasher so much. He can be out of sight in the living room playing with toys and as soon as he hears me open it or start loading/unloading dishes he comes a'crawling. Thankfully he can't really reach items in the top drawer yet, but this does make it challenging on the bottom. While the silverware bin does come out, I have to be fast to get plates in and out. As you can see by his wet sleeves, Tyler likes to swish around the water on the open door of the dishwasher. Yesterday he also tried to climb inside and this resulted in a very wet belly.

I Love Pillows and Stuffed Animals!

Rolling around in pillow heaven

Doing a faceplant in the middle of the pile

Loving every minute of it

Don't Drink and Drive...

... or you might run into the coffee table!

Pink Eye

Earlier this week Tyler came down with pink eye (or technically "bacterial conjunctivitis"). Apparently it has been going around- other kids from daycare had it and Tyler was the 4th case his pediatrician had seen the day we went in. Although Tyler's eyes didn't look very pink, he did have large amounts of yellowish goopy discharge coming out of his eyes. Eye drops cleared it up within about 2 days, but he has to continue with the eye drops for a full 7 days. Michael and I have finally mastered the art of dropping the meds right next to the inside corner of each of Tyler's eyes so that the drop rolls into his eye whether open or when he chooses to open. We read this helpful hint after a very torturuous first set of drops that involved lots of screaming and crying as we tried to keep his eyes open to get the drops in.

Kitchen Mischief

Making sure the dishwasher is running!

The kitchen table and chairs are so easy to move on the tile floor.

I can't tell if the dirty knees are from the mess Tyler made at lunchtime or from the dirt he is probably picking up crawling around on the floor.

Look What I Found

Tyler found the door bell chime extender plugged in behind the living room curtains. I guess we'll need to move it behind the sofa where he can't get to it.

Happy Easter!

Easter

Click on above photo for album. Although it was dry this morning, by the time we'd finished Easter lunch with friends it had started raining. We held an indoor Easter egg hunt for the kiddos, and Tyler was oblivious to the whole thing. He was much more interested in playing with toys.

"Pick"y Eater

Now that Tyler has figured out his finger fits up his nose, he really likes to do this during meals despite our efforts to discourage this. Michael tried to stop me from getting any photos, but any good mother knows she needs a stockpile of embarassing photos for later in life.

Little Reader

Tyler has stopped pulling all the books on his bookshelf to the floor. Instead he plays with the books on the shelves or pulls down a handful of them and then flips through the pages.

Neatness is Over-Rated

When Tyler was in the NICU during the month after he was born, my dad wrote lots of fun little songs that he sang to Tyler. I never got a chance to post them on the blog since that first month was so hectic. After seeing the "Yucky Milestones" post from Tuesday my dad added another verse to the "Neatness is Over-rated" song he wrote during March 2009. The song is intended to drive me nuts because I have always been a neat-freak when it comes to order and organization. So here is the song, including the new verse at the end:

Neatness is Over-Rated
(written by Tyler with a lot of help from PawPaw)

Neatness is over-rated,
I'm gonna throw my stuff on the floor.
My room will be so messy,
Mom will beg me to close the door.

Any place I toss something,
It is where it is supposed to be.
I'm taking after my Uncle Brad,
And it comes so naturally.

Neatness is over-rated,
I just a messy little boy,
My Mom's so disappointed,
But PawPaw's filled with joy!

Cheerio Thief

Tyler LOVES Cheerios and he could probably eat them all day long instead of other foods if we let him. Apparently yesterday at daycare he thought nothing of taking a big handful of Cheerios from the bowl of another toddler at daycare. This of course made the toddler cry. We are definitely at the stage where we need to work on sharing and seeking permission!