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?