Outside

Tyler is obsessed with being outside. The other day he even went over to the basket that holds all of his shoes, and he picked out a matching pair of sandals and brought them over to me. I can't even mention the words "outside" or "shoes" unless I either plan on taking him out or plan on listening to a toddler tantrum.





Favorite outdoor activities include pointing at birds, picking up sticks, climbing stairs, looking for Cleo (our neighbor's cat), playing with his neighbor friend, Caden, and sitting on other peoples' door steps. He gets VERY excited when he finds a dog.







He has been doing some very smart and cute things lately. Behold, the cuteness:

-The other day, Matt and I were tickling his belly for a few minutes and when we stopped, he started tickling himself.
-He was in the bath the other night and was hiding his toy fish under his legs. I'd say, "Where's the fish?" and he'd release it and I'd say, "There it is!" After doing this a couple of times, he hid the fish again and I didn't say anything. So, Tyler lifted his arms up in a shrug and said, "Fish?"
-When he wants a snack, he runs to the pantry and says, "Fish!" That means he wants Goldfish Crackers.
-He holds his toy cell phone to his ear and says, "Hi, Gigi!" or "Hi, Daddy!"
-When I let him play with his thermometer, he sticks it in his ear because that's how we take his temperature.
-When he finds a hairbrush or a comb, he tries to brush his hair.

He's done a few not-so-cute things lately too.

-Last week, he hit his head SO hard on the brick fireplace that within 20 seconds, he had a ping-pong ball sized welt just over his left eye. He still has quite the shiner. It was horrible.
-He got his first ear infection this week and has been on antibiotics. His fever is finally gone.
-I think his fourth I-tooth is coming in because he's extrememly cranky and I can just feel that it's almost here. I wish it would hurry!































We are looking forward to spending some family time at Gigi's next weekend with grandma and grandpa. Today, we're off to a pig roast and Easter egg hunt with Wildwood Church!

Home

Matt and I recently returned from a week away. What a wonderful trip. We spent the week relaxing, sleeping in, eating good food, drinking good beer, reading (We each finished a book...That hasn't happened in a long time!), lying on the beach, and swimming in the ocean. Talk about different from our everyday routine! It was wonderful to be together without any responsibilities or distractions. Another great part of the week? Coming home and seeing Tyler. I try to ignore the fact that he ran with outstretched arms right past me to his dad. (Burn.) We spent the evening in our apartment getting lots of hugs from our boy who looked tanner and blonder, who talked a lot more and whose voice sounded slightly different. I never realized how much he changes in a week's time. He now says the following words (although most people besides me, Matt and my parents probably wouldn't understand most of them):

Ball
Football
Mama
Dada
Fish
Boat
Moon
Bubble
Bird
Bye-Bye
Hi
Eye
Up

He attemps to say other words like Duck, Balloon, Dog and Cat.

We know he had such a great week with his grandparents at GG's house. They took him outside constantly, he got to see birds, play in boats and go to the beach. To watch Tyler interact with his grandparents is such an unexpected joy of motherhood. He loves them so much. Thank you, Mom and Dad, for everything you did for us last week. You're amazing.

Daylight savings occured while we were away. I was so excited, hoping that Tyler would just naturally transition into a slightly later schedule, meaning I could start waking up at 7am instead of 6am. I don't know how, but the child just knew he could wake up an hour earlier than usual, keeping his wake-time as 6am. Oh well, I'll just reserve sleeping past 6am for future husband-wife getaways.

My grandma gave Tyler her old cell phone. It looks a little bit like the cell phone Zach Morris used on Saved by the Bell - It's that old. Tyler loves it. He likes to pull out the antenna, and he even holds it up to his hear and says, "Hi!" It's just about the cutest thing ever.

Tyler and I went on a date to Moe's last Monday night. He was so cute the whole time. Dinner is usually a difficult time due to toddler pickiness, but he loved his burrito and chips. He was happy and laughing all throughout the meal. It was very special and I think maybe I should make it a weekly tradition. When I put him in the car after dinner, I noticed that 3 new teeth have poked through. He now has 15 teeth! I think a few of the molars are still working their way out even though I can see most of each tooth. He has been slightly off the past few days; He's been cranky, he's not sleeping very well, and he's even gotten a fever which makes me think more teeth are on their way.

Matt and I took Tyler to Funstation Junior the other day when I got done with work. It's an indoor arcade/playground/bounce house place. We tried to put Tyler in the "3 and under" bounce house when we got there and he cried because he was scared. Within a few minutes, he was laughing hysterically, attempting to climb in on his own, and diving head first down the slide all by himself. We had a couple of unpleasant incidents such as a busted lip on a car ride in the arcade, and an accidental front flip/face plant down the big bounce house slide which made us realize that we should never have taken him on it in the first place. He wasn't hurt at all, just terrified. No big deal...It's an awesome feeling scaring your child half the death. Not really. I felt horrible. We will definitely be sticking to the toddler stuff next time.

Tyler got his first official haircut the other day. He got to watch a DVD and eat some raisons, so he did just fine.

Before:



During:



After:



Other things going on:
-If asked, Tyler will point to his teeth, ears and belly. We're still working on his nose and eyes.
-When we read his bible, I'll ask, "Where's Jesus?" and he points right to him. It's so sweet.
-After seeing his grandpa do it on Skype, Ty can now blow kisses.
-If he's playing outside and getting dirty, he wipes his hands together to get the dirt off.
-The other day when Matt was walking around outside with Ty, he found a puddle so he approached it, timidly stuck his foot in, and then jumped into the puddle and started stomping. Then he found another puddle, jumped in and stomped around, and then sat down in it and started splashing. He was a MESS. He definitely took two baths that day.
-Matt works during the day on Sunday and gets home about an hour before Tyler goes to bed. It is one of my favorite times of the week because Ty is just so happy to have his dad home. After giving him big hugs, he goes right over to his basketball hoop and starts making baskets so he can show off. It's so sweet how much he laughs when Matt plays with him. I love my boys!

We definitely miss vacation, but it's also good to be home.


Happy St. Patrick's Day!








Pointing at birds.






I'm sure our neighbors appreciate soccer balls and sticks in their pots of herbs.

Baby Showers and Snake Bites

The past few weeks have been pretty standard, but life always seems busy these days. Four of Tyler's molars are coming in. They had all poked through a couple of weeks ago, so I thought the hard part was over. I was wrong. Molars are so different from the other teeth and they are taking their time coming in. Tyler has been a trooper, just a bit crankier than normal and a lot harder to get to sleep some nights.

We have been trying to transition Tyler from baby food, but he gives me such a hard time with a lot of different foods. He won't eat vegetables and even though he loves baby food fruit, he won't eat "grown up" fruit. He just throws everything on the ground and I get extremely frustrated. So, I ordered the book Deceptively Delcious by Jessica Seinfeld and it is saving us! I would highly recommend it to anyone trying to get their kids to eat well. It is full of healthy recipes with hidden pureed vegetables...Tyler loves the things I've made so far.

I recently babysat for our neighbor's son who is five months older than Tyler. So I got a small taste of what it would be like to have two boys...I must say, I loved it! They played so well together that I was able to cook dinner, do dishes and tidy up the apartment before Tyler went to sleep. I heard them talking in Ty's room, so I poked my head in the doorway to see them sitting together looking at books. Precious.



The other day Tyler and Matt were walking around outside while I was working. When they came in, Matt said "Tyler had two 'Firsts.' It was the first time he's seen a snake and the first time he's been bit by a snake." Needless to say, I was not thrilled about this particular milestone. It was a small, baby cornsnake and Tyler ran up to it and grabbed it by the head. Matt said the snake attached himself to Ty's finger immediately and Tyler didn't even flinch. The snake didn't break the skin, thank goodness. What a fearless little guy.



Tyler and I drove over to St. Augustine on Friday afternoon to stay with my cousin, Lindsay, and her husband, Danny, for the weekend. Traveling with Tyler by myself is very stressful and every time I do it I vow that I never will again. We had a fabulous weekend with family. I saw my cousins, my mom and 3 of her 4 sisters. We were all there for my cousin Colleen's baby shower, which turned out really nice. She is about 5 weeks away from delivery so we are all very excited to meet this little boy or girl very soon.













I've never done any sort of photo shoot, but when Colleen got pregnant, I asked her if we could do a maternity shoot so I could get some practice. I still don't have Photoshop software and I really had no clue what I was doing, but I thought some of them turned out pretty good. She looks so beautiful pregnant, so that helped tremendously. Here are a few of my favorites, taken at the fort in St. Augustine:



































Before coming back to Tallahassee, I also got to meet up with two girlfriends from high school. They are from Indiana but live in Jacksonville now with their husbands and little boys. It was great catching up and watching the boys play. It blows my mind to think about how much has changed in our lives. My ten year high school reunion is next year!

Matt and I are looking forward to some alone time together next week while Tyler spends the week with grandma and grandpa. I'm going to miss him so much, but I know that husband and wife time is very important. I think the only time I've been away from Ty was for 2 days back in September. I know Tyler won't have a problem being away from us because he'll be with his grandparents. He's not going to want to ever leave them!