Blessed

Nana and Papa came to Tallahassee to spend Thanksgiving with us this year and we couldn't have been happier! Tyler really enjoyed spending time with them. Every time they were out of sight, all we heard was, "Where'd Nana go? Where'd Papa go?" We had a great time with them and even got to see my parents and Gigi for a little while when they stopped by in the morning on Thanksgiving Day.





We spent some time exploring Maclay Gardens.












Daddy helping Tyler climb a tree. Ty was pretending to be a monkey and was saying, "Oo-oo ah-ah".








Tyler, Daddy and Papa spent quite some time throwing holly berries at eachother. Ty thought it was hilarious.

We picked up our Christmas tree on Saturday night. As Matt carried the tree to the front of the lot, Tyler said, "That's heavy, Daddy." We decorated a little bit with Tyler but all he really wanted to do was play with the ornaments, so I did most of the decorating after he went to sleep. I baked some Snicker Doodle cookies and let him have one. He doesn't get cookies very often so he was very pleased.


Family picture while our tree was getting put on our car.


Tyler loves Nana.


Decorating





Nana wanted a picture in her Halloween costume (a giraffe) with little Yoda. He got an M&M for allowing us to put his costume on him.



On Sunday after church, we went to a playground for a little while. Then we had a nice birthday lunch for Matt at Outback. I love this picture that was taken with Nana's phone:



On Sunday afternoon we went to Funstation Junior where Tyler got to play "backeeball" with Daddy. He was one happy boy!









It was such a great visit with family who live much too far away. It went by too fast, but we look forward to seeing them in a few months when they will meet their granddaughter!

Pregnancy Update:

This is me at 32 weeks on Thanksgiving Day:



I have my final ultrasound tomorrow and I'm going to the doctor every 2 weeks now. As far as how I'm feeling and sleeping...Let's just say I'm ready for January 19th to be here. I'm looking forward to meeting my little girl.

Tyler Updates:

-I bought an Elmo potty a while back so that Tyler would see it in his bathroom and become interested. I accidentally ordered a bilingual one by mistake, so Elmo congratulates him in English AND spanish. A few weeks ago, I put him on the potty and he actually went a little bit. So, I made a big deal and said he could have an M&M. You would think that he had just won the lottery. He was SO happy. I've never seen anyone savor an M&M like this kid. He takes about 5 minutes to eat one. So, he started begging to go potty constantly so that he could have an M&M. He became so obsessed with getting "M.M.'s" that I decided to put the potty training on hold for a while. All he wanted was candy, so he wouldn't wait until he actually had to go to the bathroom; He would just push and push until a few drops came out and then would whine and beg for an M&M. It just got crazy and I don't think he's quite ready yet. I want to fully commit when the potty training time comes. Maybe in a few months we'll try again.
-Tyler naps great when his dad puts him down. He rarely cries and usually sleeps for 2-2.5 hours. Whenever I put him down, he will scream for the longest time and almost never sleeps for more than 1.5 hours. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong! Daddy just has the magic touch. He's definitely in a daddy-favoring stage right now. He goes through phases where he will prefer one of us to the other. Right now, he can't get enough of his Dad!
-He is typically sleeping from 7:30pm or 8pm until around 7am. He's still napping at 1pm.
-His favorite foods (and really the only foods he will eat) right now are: "Abababa" (AKA: Raisins), apple sauce, grapes, PB&J, crackers, cereal, toast, almonds, cashews and pizza. He will sometimes eat chicken (only Boar's Head BBQ Chicken, shredded - lunch meat) and cheddar cheese, shredded. He is extremely picky and refuses almost every new thing we try to give him.
-He loves to ride on his Daddy's back. He will get up there and purposely fall off and laugh. Then he'll say, "More ride!"
-He loves to hide. He will hide under pillows and blankets and giggle like crazy while we pretend to look for him. Then he'll jump out, laughing, and say, "More hide!"
-He loves when I pretend to act scared or startled when he yells, "BOO!"
-Lately he has been looking at the Itsy Bitsy Spider book in the car. So, whenever we are in the car he'll keep saying, "Where'd the Pitsy Pider go?" It's adorable.
-He recently watched the Toy Story movies and he loved them.
-He absolutely loves the playground.
-He loves being outside on our deck. We just leave the sliding glass door open during the day and he goes out there to sit, use his hammer and collect acorns. He's like a little squirrel; I'm constantly finding acorns all over our house.
-He loves to sing. I love when he falls asleep by singing or when he wakes up singing.
-He loves stuffed animals. He has a basket full of them and he loves to carry them around, hug them, roll around with them, etc. Lately, he's been asking for specific stuffed animals to sleep with when it's nap time or night time.
-He loves going on walks in his stroller. He talks the entire time, pointing out everything he sees: "backeeball hoops", squirels, "woof-woofs", "kitty-cats", cars, etc. When we see a cat, he says, "Here kitty kitty kitty kitty".
-He usually asks to bring a toy (or a few) when it's time to get in the car or go on a walk.
-He used to respond to questions with "yesh" and "no". Then, instead of "yesh" he'd say, "yes pease!" Now instead of "yes pease" he says "alwight".

Tyler will be two years old this Saturday and we're having a little bug-themed party for him at the park. He still loves bugs (or "bees", as he calls them) so I think it should be fun for him. I can't believe how grown up my baby boy is. We are so thankful for him and so proud of him. When I say, "Tyler, how old are you going to be?" He says proudly, with a big smile as he holds up one finger, "TWO!"