Weekend at Gigi's House

My mom, my aunt Linda and my cousin Lindsay met us in Eastpoint this weekend. It was so relaxing and Tyler had a BLAST. He was certainly the center of attention and loved every minute of it. He was so fun, silly, happy and was constantly showing off. Tyler went over there on Thursday with his grandma and great-aunt Linda, and Matt and I didn't drive over until Friday evening.


Tyler playing with my mom and aunt Linda at our apartment on Thursday.

When Matt and I got to my grandma's house, I thought Tyler might be happy to see us, but he was actually just excited to see Buster. For about half an hour he was chasing Buster around the deck, laughing and yelling, "Bubba!" He did a lot of playing outside.











Aunt Linda was playing with Tyler on the deck and found a snake right where Tyler was playing (behind the green thing Tyler is in below)! Of course, all the women screamed and scared Tyler, but Matt was excited and came to the rescue. Tyler liked the snake once we all calmed down.







My mom and Linda both sang to Tyler a lot this weekend, and he loved it so much. When they'd stop, he would say, "More!"

Aunt Linda also taught him how to "make eyes". She'd say, "Tyler, make eyes!" He would smile, squint his eyes and start laughing. I wish I had a picture of it because it was too cute.







This was Tyler's "boat". He would get on and say "Woah, woah, woah" so we'd sing, "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" as he was bouncing up and down, throwing his head back and laughing.







He is such a little explorer.












So handsome and grown up!



Tyler LOVES his grandma (He calls her (and my dad), "Yawee". I'm not sure how he came up with that one.).





As always, we had such a great weekend at the Eye of the Storm.







A special thank you to my Aunt Linda who took all of these great pictures!

Baby Scroggy

Today, I had my first appointment with Dr. McAlpine and we were able to see Baby Scroggy. If you look closely at the first picture, you can see the eyes, nose and mouth...Amazing!





We decided to bring Tyler with us to the appointment, and saying that it was a huge mistake is a major understatement. He cried, fussed and whined the entire time. The doctor had to have him and Matt leave the room during the ultrasound, so Matt didn't even get to hear the heartbeat. When I was on the exam table, Tyler seemed concerned as he kept whining, repeating "mommy".

The heartbeat is strong and the baby looks healthy. He/she is about an inch long. It was such a relief to see the baby and to see and hear the heartbeat. I have to admit that it wasn't quite the "magical" experience that I had with my first pregnancy since I was so distracted by Tyler this time. Also, the doctor thinks that I may have a bicornuate uterus ("heart-shaped" uterus), which I found very strange since I've asked multiple doctors to check for this at previous appointments, (especially during my prenatal care with Tyler) and I was always told that my uterus was normal. The doctor didn't seemed concerned about it since my body can obviously bring a baby to full term, however, he still referred me to a Maternal-Fetal Medicine physician to be looked at further. I'm trying not to worry, but it definitely tainted my visit a little bit today. I really wish I could get it overwith soon, but my appointment isn't until July 8th.

So, we are so happy that we have a healthy little baby and that we have a healthy, although wild and crazy, toddler as well.

Big Brother

It's true! Tyler is going to be a big brother! We recently found out that we are expecting a second baby and we are so excited. I am almost 7 weeks along in my pregnancy and I'm feeling pretty good except for the constant exhaustion and occasional nausea. My first ultrasound is on June 14th, so I'm really looking forward to seeing this baby and making sure he/she is healthy. We decided to "try" to have a baby in April. I took a pregnancy test on Mother's Day, but it was too early so I got a negative result. Matt and I were both more disappointed than we thought we'd be. Thankfully, I took a second test on the following Wednesday and we got a positive result! I am so thankful and I realize that we are extremely blessed to have no difficulty getting pregnant.



We told Matt's parents almost immediately and they were so happy for us. This will be their 5th grandchild...less than two years ago they didn't have any! We decided to wait a few weeks to tell my parents since they'd be visiting for the long Memorial Day weekend. They arrived right at the end of Tyler's morning nap. He was wearing his "Big Bro" shirt when they went in to see him. After 5 or 10 minutes, Matt and I kept looking at each other like, "When are they going to notice his shirt?!" Finally my mom read the shirt, got really loud saying, "Big Bro? His shirt says Big Bro! Are you pregnant?! NO!! NO!!!" It was awesome. They love being grandparents and they are so excited for a second grandchild.

We had a wonderful weekend with my parents. Matt had the day off on Saturday and we went to the aquatic center that has the most incredible kiddie pool. There is a playground in the water with fountains spraying everywhere. That evening my mom cooked an amazing meal and we celebrated my upcoming 27th birthday.








Tyler loves baths given by his Grandma.

On Sunday, Matt had to go back to work. My parents, Tyler and I went to church in the morning. When we brought Tyler to the nursery, he got down, ran through the gate, started playing with the toys, and didn't look back. When we came to pick him up after the service, he saw my mom, squealed so loud, ran to her and jumped into her arms. It was so sweet. That afternoon, my cousin Lauren came to visit us since she was in town for the weekend from D.C. While she was here, we kept telling Tyler to call her "Lala", and by the time she left when we asked, "Tyler, who is this?" He would answer, "YAYA!"









On Monday, we all went to explore Maclay Gardens State Park after Tyler's morning nap.



























Last night Tyler and I went to my aunt's and uncle's house for dinner. My cousin Colleen, her husband Tai and their new baby, Benny were visiting. When I picked up the baby, Tyler started crying. Not good!





Tyler would not let go of these balls, even as he was eating his chips:



Tyler Updates:

-We think he might be transitioning to one nap per day. He has probably only taken an afternoon nap twice this week. He gets so sleepy in the morning, but he just doesn't seem to want to nap in the afternoon. We still put him in his crib just in case he wants to nap, and he usually spends about an hour talking to his stuffed monkey.
-New words: Goat, baby, more, mine, alright. I don't know where he picked up "alright", but when he gets excited he screams, "Alright!"
-If we ask, "What does the car do?" Tyler says, "Beep, beep, beep!"
-If we ask, "What does Cookie Monster do?" Tyler sticks out his tongue and put his hands up to his mouth like he's eating cookies."
-If we ask, "What's in here?" while pointing to my belly, he says, "Baby!"
-If we ask, "Where's the baby?" Tyler points to my belly.
-When we go outside, Tyler sometimes says, "Bye-bye, Bubba!" (Bubba=Buster)
-When I get him out of the bath tub, he says goodbye to his toy boats by saying, "Bye-bye boats!"
-Last week I said, "Tyler, grandma and grandpa are coming to visit this weekend. Are you going to give them a hug?" He walked over to the computer and gave it a big hug! He's so used to Skyping with them...Hilarious!
-He loves putting Matt's Jaguars cap on backwards.
-His obsession has shifted from Goldfish crackers to blueberries. We are very excited that he's eating fruit, but the kid goes through a pint per day if we let him! He just keeps shoveling them in and saying, "More!"
-He's finally getting some veggies in his diet because we discovered that he will eat peas. This is strange since peas were the one baby food that he absolutely hated.
-I took Tyler and Buster outside the other day. When Buster started peeing, Tyler pointed and said, "Pee-pee!"
-A chick-fil-A commercial was on T.V. the other day and when Tyler saw the cow he said, "Mooooo!"
-If I ask him, "How much does mommy love you?" He throws his hands up in the air and sometimes says "Dit Muh!" ("This much!")

He is understanding just about everything we say now. He is so amazing!

Mother's Day

We celebrated Mother's Day as a family on Saturday and it was just perfect. I spent the morning with Tyler, playing and watching Sesame Street. Then after he got up from his morning nap, Matt and I packed a picnic lunch and we all headed to Maclay Gardens. We ate lunch, swam in the lake, saw lots of fish, ate lots of fish (Goldfish crackers), played on the playground, and explored around the crew boats. Before heading back home we walked around the gardens for a while. We love it there! It's so beautiful. When we got home, we all took a nap. Naps are a rarity in my life, so I was very thankful to get one! My sweet cousin, Mary Rose, came over at 5:00 to babysit so Matt and I could go to Kool Beanz Cafe for dinner, TCBY for dessert and then to the movie Water for Elephants. I'm so glad I have such an amazing husband and such a sweet little boy. I felt so blessed this weekend. Being a mother is the most incredible thing I've ever done and I am so thankful that God has entrusted Tyler to us.



Tyler has been learning so much, doing so much, and changing so much...

-When asked, "Where's your______?", he can point out his tummy, teeth, feet, toes, hands, and fingers. He can sometimes point out his ears, nose and eyes.
-When asked, "What does the _______ say?", he can tell you what the monkey, sheep and cow say.
-He has 16 teeth.
-When we tell him to go and get his shoes, he runs into his room and always brings us back a matching pair.
-I was recently going through some of Tyler's old clothes, and there were about 6 tiny pairs of shoes scattered across his bedroom floor. A few minutes later, I looked over to see what Ty was doing and he had put all the shoes into matching pairs!
-I forgot to mention something funny he did at my grandma's house in my last post. She has this very annoying clock that chimes extremely loudly every half hour. Every time it would chime, no matter what Tyler was doing, he'd stop and say, "Tick-tock!" When we were up with him in the middle of the night, he was so sick and the clock chimed. My mom and I watched to see what he'd do, but he was so exhausted and we could tell he really wanted to say it, but he just didn't have the energy.
-He has a few new words: Tick-tock (That counts as a word, right?), Bike, Bubble, Poo-poo, Uh-oh (he says this whenever he falls or when something else falls).
-We have been playing a game where I say "KISS ME!" and I give him lots of kisses, he laughs and tries to kiss me, bite me, etc. And he's started to say, "Kiss me!" It sounds more like "Kit me!"
-When we were driving the other day, I pointed out a new store coming to town and I said, "There's that new Hobby Lobby." I immediately hear Ty's little voice from his car seat, "Hobby-obby!" He mimics us so much!
-He is constantly walking around with his bucket on his head.





-He has a Goldfish cracker obsession. Sometimes he'll wake up from his nap saying, "Fish?" We are trying to break him of the habit because he doesn't need to be snacking constantly. I wonder if Pepperidge Farm has a rehab facility.
-Tyler loves Sesame Street. He thinks Cookie Monster is hilarious and laughs every time he stuffs his face with cookies. He smiles and dances every time "Elmo's World" comes on.
-When Matt watches Sports Center on ESPN, Tyler will look at the TV and say, "Football!"
-Tyler and I had a picnic in our back yard yesterday. I handed him a napkin for the first time and he immediately wiped his mouth with it.
-Matt was pushing Tyler in his stroller at the mall recently. They were in a sports store and of course Tyler kept repeating, "football!" Matt said when they left the store, Tyler continued to say "football" over and over. After a while, Matt finally realized that Tyler had stolen a football from the store! He had to go all the way back to the store to give it back.

(Mommy miletone side note: I recently trained for and ran a 5k, and lost 15 lbs. I never thought I'd be able to say either of those things! After Tyler's first birthday came and went, I decided I could no longer claim the "baby weight" excuse.)

This munchkin is such a joy to watch and to be around. I love this little guy!