egg hunt

Tyler spent the evening before Easter with the Jones side of the family. He really enjoyed the egg hunting. Especially when he discovered the surprises inside!

chicks dig me

poor sick boy

Tyler came home from daycare on Monday without his usual spunk and energy. I should have known when he wanted to be carried on our evening walk and would barely touch his dinner. Sure enough he came home from daycare on Tuesday feeling sick. Stayed home Wednesday and Thursday. His low grade fever broke and he went back to daycare on Friday. He's still not himself, but he's finally shaking the yucks. What a trouper!

happy st. patty's day

The Campbells made sure to wear their green today!

to cut or not to cut

That is my mommy dilemma. Tyler's blonde curls at the nape of his neck hang over his collar. But it's his long hair on the sides of his head that is just a pain. They hang in front of his ears and look like 3-inch sideburns. I'm constantly tucking them behind his ears. Is it too early to cut his beautiful locks? And do I take him to a professional the first time since I've not cut boys hair EVER? Your thoughts? Leave me a comment.

more words

New words seem to sneak out of Tyler daily. He's added tink que (thank you), bye, car and kuck (truck).

lookout

It's a good thing that we have a little scout or two to keep an eye on the neighborhood!

a few of my favorite things

Tyler's most recent loves: bananas (he eats them like a starving gorilla), planes, cars, coloring, running and getting into ANY- and EVERYTHING!

my boys

Here they are getting ready for a walk. Aren't my boys the cutest?

16 months

1 and 1/3 years old. I remember how important those extra fractions could be when I was in school. I'd write my name on my lunch bag and then my age 5 and 3/4.

evening walks

Walking the dog as a family in the evening is one of my favorite things. Tyler loves to run through the grass, point at planes, feel the bark of trees and say hi to passersby. We ask him, "Can you point to the sky, Tyler?" And he points up to the sky, and then we ask him, "Can you point to the grass?" He stops, bends down and points and pokes at the blades of grass.

dot and mommy

Tyler is so communicative. He uses words like Hi, Doggie, uh oh. Mama became Mommy today for the first time and Dad still sounds like Dot. He says "Hi Dot!" nearly every morning. And he uses sign language. He knows milk, more, bath, and telephone. It seems his only limitation is how many signs mom and dad know. And we're maxing out, so we're going to head to the library later this week to brush up on our signing vocabulary.

tampon

I had my hands full getting ready for work and carrying Tyler downstairs to leave. I made the mistake of letting Tyler help me carry some of the items. And one particular item kept him giggling: a tampon. The green crinkly wrapper was very interesting! When I tried to trade a tin of mints for the tampon, he ended up with both. Poor mommy couldn't stop giggling herself.

auntie deb

Auntie Deb, who is a DHS star in DC, hopped the Metro out to join us and Oma for brunch and then some sister shopping time. Tyler loved having a new fan in his audience.

big on balloons

Boy these are fun! Tyler likes to hit them together to make noise!

ahhh

Tonight Tyler was enjoying his milk at dinner so much that he added a big AHHH after each sip. Adorable!

mister independent

Our baby is a baby no more. He is a little independent thinker with his own ideas of what he wants to do. FIERCELY independent! He still likes to have us close at hand for cuddles, but he wants to walk places on his own, not be carried; wants to feed himself; and wants to get dressed when he's ready. But despite these stubborn times he's still really giggly and easy going. What a fun little guy!

signs

Tyler really knows his sign language. He was facing Daddy when I asked, "Is it bath time?" Immediately he started rubbing his chest which is the sign for bath.

airplanes

Today was the first break from the bitter cold and the Campbell family took full advantage of it! It was such a gorgeous day that we walked our dog without needing to wear coats. We took our time and watched several planes approaching or departing from BWI. I don't think I've ever seen so many planes overhead. Tyler loved it! He pointed to each one, sometimes spotting them before us. As he watched them he pointed to them and tried to say "airplane," which didn't sound remotely close yet! And then we walked to the nearby playground and watched the other kids and ran around. Fun fun!

uh oh

Tyler is such the little mimic. If I tap my hands to the beat of a song, he does the same. He was playing with a little toy truck and Tyler rammed it into the wall. I said, "uh oh." Then I heard this little "uh oh," copying the same tone.

hi doggie

Last weekend as we drove past a man walking his dog, Tyler exclaimed, "OG!" We thought out loud, Did he just say Dog? Well, apparently he did. He's used the word at daycare when playing with Snowball, Deb's little dog. And this morning as I got him out of his crib, he looked down at Daisy, waved hello and then said, "Hi doggie!"

blueberrries

We offered blueberries a while back. He ate a few but wasn't convinced. I had a full package and offered them to him thinking he'd down a few. He ate every last one of them at one sitting in addition to his dinner!!

happy feet

Tonight we watched part of the movie Happy Feet with Tyler before his bedtime. He was cuddled up between the two of us in our bed. He was so sleepy he kept lying down, but as the music and dancing from the movie kicked in, he just had to get up and move. Up on his knees he moved back and forth to the beat and flapped his arms like the penguins. It was the cutest thing ever!

dah

He's said mah for mommy and now he's said dah for daddy! He's having so much fun with his funny daddy.

big waves

Tyler has really found the enjoyment in waving goodbye to friends and family. Earlier this week, he waved to Meg as she left, to Daddy as we were about to hop in the car and today to Oma. Sometimes they are big waves with some elbow/arm action, somtimes little finger curl waves and sometimes he even waves his hand toward himself.

first metro ride and time to DC

My sister is working in DC until May and her family came down to visit. Alex, Tyler and I hopped on the Metro and spent the day with them touring the National Museum of the American Indian. He liked the Metro, hated all the elevators and loved his cousins Perrin and Andrew (aka Harry Potter)!

bath fun

Bottle of bath wash? Now you see it, now you don't! Who me? I didn't do a thing!

bottle bye bye

Tyler has used a straw and various sippy cups for quite some time but this week we eliminated the backup bottle entirely. It seems he's had less milk than usual, but we're confident he'll get with the new program soon.

fruit and chocolate lover

Oma joined us for a fun dinner out at Applebee's. I think Tyler impressed her with his appetite. He ate chicken nuggets, applesauce, apple, pineapple and strawberries. He tried (and promptly spit out) some steak. And then he still had room for his favorite chocolate Teddy Grahams for dessert and some bites of mom, dad and Oma's chocolate mousse.

sweet n' sour

Tyler had his first Happy Meal experience from McDonald's. He was happy to gobble up the nuggets and fries, but it was the sauce that he particulary enjoyed. He dipped both in the sweet n' sour and then when he ran out of fries, he dipped his finger in the sauce.

good eater

During Tyler's last checkup we asked the doctor's advice on making sure Tyler gets a balanced diet and doesn't fill up on snack foods. She had some great pointers which we already implemented and seen results. Tyler's most favorite healthy snack is raisins. He can pop those nonstop!

mardi gras

Tyler loves to party. And he loves to play with the Mardi Gras beads from our 2005 New Orleans trip. He carries them around and loves the clinking noises they make as he swings them around.

more

We taught Tyler another sign a few nights ago. A long time ago we taught him the sign for milk and since then he's started to use it for other things he'd want by pointing and then signing milk. Almost as though the milk sign now means "gimme." So I tried teaching him the sign for "more" and he learned it within a few minutes. Guess we're overdue to expand his vocabulary!

one-armed plane

Tyler absolutely LOVES to dance!! His best new move -- rotating in a circle while holding his left hand up. So cute!

basket case

I bought some baskets for the living room to store the growing number of Tyler's toys. But he found a new use for them!

15 months

On the 15-month anniversary of Tyler's birth he celebrated with...shots! Boo hoo! But Tyler dealt with it very well and even managed a smile for Nurse Jane despite her having given him three shots a minute earlier. He also liked playing on the scale (no baby scale anymore, aww) and kneeling on a small stool and pulling out the stirrups (ha!).

He weighed in at 24.3 pounds (50 percentile) and measured 30 inches (25 percentile). Our doctor said we could expect a growth spurt, which we've already seen starting.

Howes' house

The Campbells and the Howeses had a play date! The mommies were even able to squeeze in some card-making time. But mostly we chatted about and laughed at our funny boys. When we first arrived the boys seemed like deer caught in headlights. They just stared at each other standing a few feet away standing as still as statues. But soon they came out of their shells and played nonstop and Tyler was ready for bed early!

cough cover

Debbie and I have been working on getting Tyler to direct his coughs into his arm rather than projecting them out in the air. This morning I asked him to cover his mouth and, VOILA, he did it! Now he's really good at doing it when we ask but we've got to nudge him because he forgets on his own.

bark

Tyler and I walked Daisy together tonight. He loved pointing to the planes overhead and touching the bark of the trees along our path.

nose blower

It's the little things. Many months ago Alex taught Tyler to blow his nose when Alex holds a tissue up to Tyler's nose. We didn't realize that nose blowing is such an impressive feat for a 14-month-old until Debbie told us that she knows 3-year-olds who can't do it. Go figure!

go giants!

The Redmons joined us for an evening of SuperBowl watching and Giant rooting. Audrey Kate and Tyler had a great time taking a ride in Tyler's wagon and playing with the ball popper. Oops, we're missing a red ball...oh Tyler, you know where it is? Way to go little guy!

twelfth tooth

This bottom left first molar must have popped in shortly before or during my week in Puerto Rico because it's clearly through the gum. But I've noticed that he is drooling like a dripping faucet so maybe his second molars are on their way soon.

happy birthday Oma!

Tyler's Grandma Reifin and Jones share a Jan. 31 birthday. Today Grandma Jones ("Oma") came to celebrate along with Uncle Dylan. Tyler enjoyed reading books with Oma and climbing over Uncle Dylan on the floor.

gateway

A big scare today: Tyler figured out how to open the baby gate!! He's into everything nonstop so we'll have to continue to watch him nonstop.

smarty pants

Do we have a little genius on our hands? Well Debbie sure thinks so. She takes care of him during the work day and told me today that he's far ahead of the normal curve of development. He follows complex directions and plays games like passing a ball back and forth with another person (something that some other 2-year-olds haven't mastered). Since Tyler is our first child we have no frame of reference for comparison, but of course we've always thought he was amazing!

round n' round

What a fun new thing Tyler picked up while I was away!!? -- He's SO into music and dancing and now when he hears a good tune, he twirls himself in circles while standing. Sometimes he's so dizzy he falls to his knees and then sways back and forth to the beat.

pointer

Tyler is using his pointer finger to direct us in the direction of his choice. He's so enamoured with it that he sometimes replaces a wave with pointing.

mama is back

My first time away from my baby!! And nearly a week at that (I've not been away from Alex that long either). Thankfully the conference (in San Juan, Puerto Rico) kept my mind occupied. That and the beautiful beach! Joy and I also loved touring the El Morro fortress. Very cool!

too cute

Isn't he just the cutest?

uncle ben's

Tyler went into the kitchen pantry and pulled a box of Uncle Ben's rice from the eye-level shelf. Instead of asking him to put it back right away, I asked him to shake it. He did and got a giggle at the noise (and maybe that mommy didn't say "no" for once). Shake-ah-shake-ah-shake-ah was the song we sang to go with our fun activity.

eleventh tooth

Another one popped in some time ago! This time it was his upper right molar.

snow man

What was not supposed to accumulate to much snow yesterday, ended up being over four inches! Tyler loved watching the flakes fall. And even more than that, he loved crunching it under his feet this morning!

back it up

Tyler is so funny! He giggles so much and has found his new trick to be a riot. He has learned to slide himself backward while crawling or lying down. He has used this to slide under the legs of our antique table (his head only has about a half inch clearance). And today he kept sliding his legs under the couch up until his tush stopped him.

christmas eve rain date

Due to illness we took a rain check on our Christmas Eve celebration. Now with everyone in good health we enjoyed dinner at my Dad's house. Tyler really enjoyed playing with Jeanne's musical figures and snow globe. He also got a big kick out of playing with Uncle Dylan as usual. And the rest of the family got a big kick out of watching Tyler practically run circles around everyone.

14 months

Our little guy is growing and growing. He is wearing size 4 shoes and size 4 diapers (he's been wearing the latter since July albeit very large on him back then). He seems to be growing taller but not much wider. Just today he got on his tip toes so that he could reach something from the table. It amazes me how fast he can go and how comfortable he is walking after such a short time.

antics

Tyler spent the day at Meg's. He was nice enough to let Audrey Kate play with some of her own toys (what a gentleman). He also taught her that bare feet are tempting, tasty treats (not such a gentleman, poor AKR). But she was able to crawl behind Tyler as he ran from room to room. Older men are so fascinating.

Daniel hadn't seen Tyler walk, so Meg set the bottle down in the middle of the room and told him to go get it. He walked to it with his arms in the air (like he does) and then instead of picking the bottle up, he bent down swinging his arms behind him and up high, like a swimmer ready for a dive, and then proceeded to try to drink from the bottle while it was still sitting on the floor. Kids are funny!

back and forth

Tyler loves playing games (his all time favorite is still peek-a-boo/jump-out-and-scream). Now we can toss a ball back and forth. When he throws it, the ball usually ends up under the couch but it's in my direction. Sometimes we switch out the ball with a toy truck and roll it back and forth.

walk, walk, walk

Tyler has been walking up a storm. He took a break while in Florida, reverting back to crawling half of the time. But as soon as we were home again he basically stopped crawling altogether. And he's so fast! He was even keeping up with us at the mall. Does running come next? I'm not sure I'm ready for that!!

ninth and tenth teeth

While in Florida Tyler popped two more teeth into place. I was watching his lower right first molar tooth and unbeknownst to me his upper left first molar popped in and seemed to have been in for a while before I discovered it! And the lower right one quickly followed. The others are on their way too.