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!"

October

October was such a fun month! Warning: This post contains LOTS of pictures.

Our weekend in St. George Island with the Carmichael family was wonderful. We used to all fit into one house (with the cousins all sleeping on the living room floor), and now because of our growing family we need FOUR houses. Tyler absolutely LOVED the beach. Every day, he would just run up and down the beach. He would explore, look at fish, chase birds, run with his second cousins and grandparents, play in the sand and look for shells. Even when he was utterly exhausted, he would just stumble around on the beach until I took him in for his nap. He had such a great time with my cousins, my parents, his second cousins, my cousins and everyone else. I've never seen him have more fun in his life.




We arrived on Friday afternoon and went almost directly to the beach. Tyler and Owen were having so much fun chasing birds.


These tide pools were perfect for little ones.




Tyler wouldn't let go of this toy doggie for the entire afternoon. The first thing he said when he woke up the next morning was, "Woof Woof?"






Thanks, Aunt Cheryl, for the nets!


He fell face first into the tide pool and had to strip down to his diaper. He didn't seem to mind even though it was chilly.








All the kids were so interested in the fish bait. Tyler picked one up and when it wiggled, he jumped and dropped it.




The kids on the treasure hunt set up by Uncle Tom and Aunt Marti.




















Uncle Max showing Rocky to Tyler. It was hilarious. Tyler still talks about Rocky and how he "ate nummies" and drank "water". Today, he picked up his raccoon/Daniel Boone hat and said, "Rocky?"


All the Great Grandkids dressed up in their Halloween costumes. Jack: Peter Pan. Gracie: Tinkerbell. Tyler: Yoda. Owen: Ninja. Benny: Cow.


Typical. All the kids are sitting still for pictures and our little monster is fighting to get away.


My little Yoda.




Yoda with his proud, Star Wars-loving dad.


Cousins Kaitrin, Lee, Lauren, Clay, Lindsay and Danny: Half Marathon runners in Running for the Bay in Apalachicola.


Cousin Colleen


Adams', Laubs and Scroggins'


Cousin Sarah and me. Our due dates are two days apart! Thank you so much, everyone, for the baby shower.










Sister Joy and her husband, Chris



In October, we also attended the Fall Festival at my church with cousin Colleen, her little boy, Benny, and Aunt Cheryl. Tyler loved it! He got to pet animals, play in a bounce house, go on a hayride, ride a pony and eat a few candy corns.


Waiting for "Coco", "baby" and "Cha" to arrive before we left for the festival.


He loved riding the pony and couldn't stop laughing.


Benny rode a pony too!


Petting zoo


This was the best picture we could get of us on the hayride.





Matt and I took Ty to the pumpkin patch a few days before Halloween. It was a disaster. He whined the entire time and after about 10 minutes he started throwing pumpkins into other people's wagons.






He found this noodle thing and then it was hard to get a picture of him without it.








The result of the first pumpkin being thrown into someone's wagon.




Carving a pumpkin with dad.


Tyler loved watching Matt carve the pumpkin, but then when we lit up the final product, he got scared and ran away.

Halloween was so much fun. Matt and I had such a great time watching Tyler go Trick-or-Treating. Before we left, Tyler was eating his dinner and Matt walked in with a mask on. Tyler got really nervous and said, "No..." It's so strange that kids just know to be afraid of certain things. Matt took it off and put it up on the mantle above the fireplace. When Tyler was done with dinner, he hid behind his high chair and pointed at the mask across the room. I had to completely remove it from sight. Once we started Trick-or-Treating, he seemed to know exactly what to do. He didn't fuss very much with his costume at all and he loved going up and collecting candy in his "bucket". At one house, there was a skeleton that startled him and I've never seen him jump so high and back up so fast. He kept saying, "No, no no!" Poor little guy. It was SO cute to see him Trick-or-Treat. He was absolutely adorable. We couldn't convince him to say "Thank you" so people, so we told him to give them a "high five thank you". It was so cute seeing him give everyone a high five after he got his candy.



















When Tyler would get back in his stroller between houses, we would give him an M&M. So, he would just run back down the driveways to get in his stroller and say, "More M.M.?"


All done for the night! Notice the chocolate on his face.


My sweet boys

What a great month. Holidays are so much fun with Tyler. Looking forward to the next few months. It will be quite a whirlwind. First we have Matt's parents (Nana and Papa) in town for Thanksgiving, then it's Tyler's second birthday, then my girlfriends are coming to visit, then Christmas will be here, then New Year's, and then Cora will be here! Yikes.

Pregnancy Update: I will be 29 weeks tomorrow. Honestly, I'm not enjoying it very much at all. I keep catching colds and my body is so sore. I can't believe I have 2.5 more months to go! I can't imagine how huge I'm going to be...I'm scared!

Thank you, Aunt Linda, for taking some of the great pictures from the beach!