Out and About in Our Neighborhood

I have been trying to encourage ball play outdoors especially now that Tyler is getting pretty good at throwing. Tyler's larger soccer ball and beach ball have been designated as outdoor balls only so we have been playing with them in the backyard or at the park. Here is Tyler in action at the park.

After the park we cruised over to the grocery store with the wagon and Tyler had the coolest wheels in the store! It was actually easier to navigate the wagon through the store than those big crazy grocery carts with the two kiddie steering wheels at the back end of the cart! I hadn't take the wagon in the grocery store before but Tyler got lots of smiles and a few compliments on his wheels.

At the Park and Playground

Why climb up the stairs to the play structure the easy way when it's way more fun to hoist yourself up on the platform? Tyler especially loved the bridge. He ran back and forth on the bridge a gazillion times and giggled and giggled when he sat in the middle and Michael bounced the bridge up and down.

Whee-ooo

Tyler loves a book called "Trucks Go" that we checked out from the library earlier this week. It shows different trucks and the many sounds they make. He particularly likes that "The fire truck goes whee-ooo whee-ooo whee-ooo." Tyler has been saying whee-ooo all week. He won't say it if you ask him how the fire truck goes. He just says it repeatedly at random times and it is really cute.

The Zoo

Tyler met up with his buddies Calvin and Christopher at the zoo today. It has been a few months since we went to the zoo and Tyler is definitely much more interested in the animals than previously. He got really excited about seeing many of the animals and would point and babble incoherently. Tyler loved all the exhibits in the Predators of the Serengeti section that had glass walls with nice open views. Of course being able to bang on the glass was another plus! Here's a video of Tyler banging on the glass along with Calvin at the lion exhibit:



Click on photo below to access the album:

The Zoo

Walking in Daddy's Shoes

Tyler loves to play with Michael's sandals when they are left out around the house (which is often!). This morning Tyler was able to get his foot into one of the sandals and needed me to help him get the other sandal on so he wouldn't fall over. Tyler did a pretty good job walking around in the sandals. And the reason Tyler's PJ bottoms aren't on is because I had just rinsed them in the sink after he dropped a bunch of yogurt in his lap during breakfast.

Smelly Feet

After taking off Tyler's sandals this evening Michael told Tyler that he inherited Mommy's smelly feet! Hopefully Tyler also inherited my weak sense of smell and not Michael's sophisticated sniffer.

The 'N' Word

Tyler said "no" for the first time today. He did not use it in the right context, but he did go on a few "no" rants as shown in the video. I'm not sure what inspired this, but I sense a "no" rebellion is brewing.

Silver Falls State Park

Silver Falls State Park

Click on photo for entire album. We spent the afternoon at Silver Falls State Park and during a 3-1/2 hour hike we hit 7 of the 10 waterfalls on the Trail of Ten Falls.

Planes and Space Ships, Oh My!

Evergreen Aviation & Space Museums

Our friend Rip (who majored in aerospace engineering) is in town this weekend so we headed out to McMinnville today to visit the Evergreen Aviation and Space Museums. Tyler had a ball- click on album above for more photos.

Tyler Speak

Tyler is starting to speak actual words. Most of the time he still babbles incoherently like in the video above. In the video he is excited that he saw an airplane.

No translation needed:

• Hi
• Bye

Translation:

• Whazat?: What's that? (he says whatzat constantly)

Used correctly some of the time:

• Mommy
• Dada
• Uh oh! (it's not an uh oh when you intentionally throw it on the floor!)

Crib Play

Usually Tyler wants out of his crib right after he wakes up. Yesterday after his nap he wanted to play in his crib and played in there for about half an hour!

18-Month Check-Up

Tyler had his 18-month check-up yesterday and got a clean bill of health. Thankfully his ears finally cleared up after all his recent ear infections. The latest stats:

• Weight: 26 lb 0 oz (53rd percentile)
• Height: 33" (73rd percentile)
• Head Circumference: 18-3/4" (46th percentile)

The nurse gave Tyler the sticker he is wearing above after he got 2 vaccines. He cried when he got the shots but recovered quickly.

Rockin'

Last week while at IKEA I let Tyler walk (er... run around, play with stuff, climb on displays) through the store with me. In the children's section he climbed into a little toddler-sized rocking chair and excitedly rocked. I half thought it might be fun to get him some kind of chair his size. But then yesterday he climbed into our regular rocking chair (it took a few tries) and rocked like a pro.

I fear Tyler will start getting better at climbing soon. Earlier this week in attempt to throw his little soccer ball all the way over the peninsular end of our counter, Tyler's soccer ball landed on the counter. I had already told him if he kept throwing it over the counter I was going to take the ball away. When the ball landed on the counter I just left it there. So what did Tyler do? He started pushing one of the counter stools away from the counter to give himself more room to try and climb up the stool to get to the counter. Unfortunately when you push on a tall counter stool from the wrong place it is somewhat easy to push over, which is what Tyler unintentionally did. I think the loud thud of the stool onto the kitchen floor scared him a little bit. Thankfully nobody was hurt! And I held my ground and didn't give Tyler the ball back. Mommies are such meanies

At the Playground with Calvin and Christopher

Napping in the Wagon

We just got a wagon and Tyler loves it! I pulled him in the wagon to our neighborhood park this morning before it got too hot. Tyler has been transitioning to one nap a day and I thought I had timed it perfectly. We left the park around 11 am and I had planned to feed him lunch when we got home and then put him down for a nap. We made it maybe about a third of the way home and Tyler gave in to the nap! He still had his hand gripped around a cracker inside his snack trap container too.

Day at the Beach

Seaside

We headed to the coast yesterday and spent the day on the beach in Seaside. Tyler has been to the coast before but this was the first trip we took to actually play in the sand. Click on photo above for album of our trip.

Exploring at OMSI

Exploring at OMSI

OMSI (Oregon Museum of Science and Industry) has a great room for children to explore. We were there on Friday and didn't even have time to explore the whole thing before Tyler got tired. Click on photo above for album.

Post Bath

After a bath, Tyler loves to roll around on the bed in his towel and burrow his head in the blanket.

Sleeping

I got Tyler a fun pillow and duvet for his crib yesterday. As you can see he is still content to sleep in his favorite face down position with his arms and legs tucked under him and his bottom in the air!

Little Sweetheart

A few of the sweet things Tyler did today:

• Said "hi" to just about everyone at the grocery store (not many can resist such sweetness and returned a "hi" along with a big smile)
• Handed me pillows from the floor when I was making my bed
• Handed me items from the grocery bag to unload into the pantry

Throwing

As a softball player and baseball fan I am proud of how well Tyler is throwing these days! As a mother I am absolutely horrified at how far he is throwing and what he is throwing- balls, toys, books, food, you name it. I have already been hit by a few flying objects and he has come close to hitting other kids with thrown objects. We just keep reiterating that only balls are for throwing. Apparently the concept of gravity plus throwing skill is particularly appealing to most toddlers. I can see why, but please just stick to soft objects!

Hair Accessories

Since Tyler is my shadow, he hangs out with me in the bathroom in the morning while I fix my hair, etc. He is tall enough to open the drawers but not tall enough to see what is actually in them. He has been pulling out all of my hair accessories. I seem to have tons of them even though I wear them rarely! This morning I decided to show Tyler that headbands are worn on the head. He was quite amused that I put a headband on his head and happily ran around the house with it on. And of course I needed some photographic evidence for future embarassment. Somewhere my parents have photographic evidence of my brother Brad in one of my dresses and a headband with flowers on it when he was a couple years old.

Bridge Pedal

Bridge Pedal

Click on photo to get to the album. Michael and I have enjoyed participating in Portland's annual Bridge Pedal in past years and were excited to take Tyler on his first Bridge Pedal today. We did the 5-bridge family ride (11.5 miles). It is a rare opportunity to bike without traffic and on some bridges that don't normally allow bike traffic (I-5 and I-405). Michael pulled Tyler in the trailer the entire ride, which can be quite a challenge on the inclines up to the top of some of the bridges. Tyler took about a 30-minute nap during the first part of the ride, but seemed to enjoy the rest of the ride. We have been using a pillow in the trailer to make him more comfortable because he is still a little too short for his head and helmet to be up high enough to reach the helmet "pocket".

Dancing

Tyler loves to dance and it always makes us smile! When we recently turned Tyler's car seat around to face forward, we removed the mirror from the car that helped us check up on Tyler when he was rear facing. The mirror also plays kiddie music when activated by a remote you can attach to the driver's visor. We never used the music (why listen to kiddie music when you can play the radio?), but when we brought the mirror and remote inside Tyler wanted to play with them. Now he loves to use the remote and dance to the music. It's like a brand new toy!

Adventures in Eating

Tyler has enthusiastically been wielding a spoon for a few days now! I have been taking advantage of the novelty by cutting stuff up into bite size bits (e.g. enchilada casserole) and putting it in the bowl. He is much more likely to eat it!

This morning I put Tyler's yogurt in a bowl and let him have at it. He got it everywhere... and even managed to get some in his mouth!

Look Mom- no hands!

Eating while falling asleep! Tyler has slowly been transitioning to 1 nap a day. He only gets 1 nap a day at daycare but often takes 2 naps for us. The key to a long nap when it's only once a day is to make sure Tyler eats lunch first. Tyler was pretty tired today when we got home from storytime at the library. I got him started with a piece of cheese while I started getting his lunch together. However, Tyler was too tired for lunch! He ate some of his cheese while falling asleep and then conked out. Then of course he took a much shorter nap than he needed because he was hungry!

When Tyler did finally eat lunch, he decided it might be easier to eat his cottage cheese directly out of the bowl instead of with his spoon. Tyler quickly went back to the spoon though.

This afternoon I bought a bowl with a suction cup on the bottom that promises "less mess" for toddlers. Yeah right! At dinner Tyler grabbed at the bowl for quite a while trying to pick it up. It probably didn't help that he wasn't wild about the pasta salad in it. Eventually he pulled the bowl loose, dumped the pasta salad out, and tossed the bowl on the floor.

Summer Reading

Tyler finished his summer reading requirements and earned a t-shirt from the library. I tried to get a good photo of him in his shirt before dinner but he was too busy playing. Essentially we just read about 15 minutes a day to work up to the t-shirt. Tyler loves reading these days so it was pretty easy to get lots of minutes in!

Tyler is currently fixated on his shapes book that has big foam pages with four shapes (square, circle, rectangle, and oval) that you take out of the book and then try to match back up in the book. He wants to take the shapes in and out over and over again. Tyler doesn't quite have the finger dexterity to get the shapes out on his own or press them all the way back in so he needs our help and is not shy about asking.

The Ape has become Human

The opposable thumbs are starting to work! Tyler managed to use a spoon at dinner tonight. It was messy but definitely a step in the right direction.

Tyler in a Bin

Tyler decided to empty the books out of the bin in his room today and move the bin to different rooms and climb inside it.

Champoeg State Park

We enjoyed the bicycle trail and disc golf course at Champoeg State Park this weekend. Tyler napped during a good portion of the bike ride. He definitely enjoyed roaming about the 15-hole disc golf course with a disc in each hand.

Hi!

Bye Bye

Waving

Waving to the cashier after we bought Vinny the beaver.

Crossing the Bridge

Tyler could have gone back and forth across this little bridge at Bear Creek Park in Medford all day long! I liked the fact that it was really low to the ground.

Spider Boy

Tyler enjoying the spider web play structure at Lithia Park in Ashland. Don't worry- he didn't hurt himself when he tumbled at the end of the video!

Southern Oregon/Crater Lake Trip

Crater Lake

Click on album for photos from our trip to Southern Oregon and Crater Lake. Without stops the drive to southern Oregon is about 4-1/2 hours. This was our first big family road trip with just the three of us. Considering Tyler doesn't like to sit still, he did really well on the trip. He didn't nap as much and stayed up way past bedtime, but hey- isn't that what vacation is all about? Prior to the trip we decided to go ahead and turn Tyler's car seat around so that it faces forward. He really enjoyed the new view and being able to see the front seat.

Blog Junkies

My dad sent me this e-mail today:

Dearest Mama Frog,
Failure to post family holiday outings on the HURTADOFAM blog within 72 hours is a serious offense punishable by up to 50 blank vouchers. You just can't string out BLOG junkies that way.

PawPaw (avid Blog reader)
_____________

Photos are coming soon. I promise! We had a fantastic 4-day trip to southern Oregon/Crater Lake last weekend. I've been swamped at work this week with a big deadline and haven't had time to post.