aunt teresa time

Well, we dropped the ball and totally forgot that Tyler's daycare provider had off today. Alex could take care of him with the exception of 10:30 to 1 while he presented a web demo for work. I could come home from work anytime with the exception of 10 to noon due to a memorial service at work. We scrambled yesterday to line up someone to babysit during the mid-day time slot.

Aunt Teresa and Uncle Dev to the rescue! They came over and all three had a ball. Hide-n-seek, toys strewn about, an aunt's undivided attention: what's not to love!

huh?

Sitting in our family room I called out to Alex who was in an adjoining room. Tyler popped up and replied, "HUH?" He said it as though he was an adult which caught me off guard and caused me to start laughing. Alex and I started replicating the way he said HUH. Tyler picked up on the humor and then repeated it over and over, pausing to laugh in between.

prepping for baby

As we unearthed some baby gear, we found another use for it. In addition to the exersaucer, Tyler managed to sit in his old Bumbo seat.

driving

Tyler's top activity: pretending to drive Daddy's truck! While Alex loaded up the back of the truck with some of our boxes that we had been temporarily storing at my dad's house prior to our move, Tyler raced the truck around in his imagination. He would be perfectly content doing this for hours.

SIMON!

Tyler hung out with Simon on New Year's Eve day and couldn't seem to get enough of the fun. He begged to stay longer.

So we did a repeat playdate and again the boys had a ball. So much so that Tyler asks to play with Simon constantly. He even recognizes the road near Simon's house and asks if we can stop by to play with Simon.

21 weeks, 4 days

Belly picture!

belly shot - 21 weeks 4 days

duck and cover

I've not laughed so hard at something Tyler has done in quite awhile. Alex announced that it was bath time. Without a moment's hesitation, Tyler grabbed his Amazing Animals toy train which was sitting in front of an end table and tossed it aside like it was a throw pillow. And then in less than a second he dove under the end table like he was jumping into a foxhole and started whining, "No, no, no..." I could not help but laugh hysterically.

Alex offered to give him a treat once Tyler took a bath. Much slower, yet on his own, Tyler came out from under the table and followed Alex upstairs softly crying the entire trip. But nothing would stand in the way of getting his treat!

buttons

The buttons on Oma's jacket were so cool, Tyler just had to come across the restaurant table to see them up close. He tried to count them ... eight, nine, three ...

spanish speaker

A week ago while at UMMC visiting my dad we were using the beautiful glass elevators in the newer Weinberg wing of the hospital. Tyler was commanding the elevator doors to open, but he didn't realize that the elevator was not yet on our floor. After forcefully saying, "OPEN!" for the fourth or fifth time, Alex asked Tyler, "What if the elevator speaks Spanish." Without skipping a beat Tyler yells, "Abré!"

If you hadn't guessed, he's been watching the bilingual shows Dora the Explorer and Go, Diego, Go nearly every evening.

it's a girl!

We are finally ready to share our news. 64% of you were right. Tyler will have a baby sister around May 17.

post presents

After opening gifts, we headed to the playground and skate park. Tyler insisted that we let him go skateboarding. Not just yet!

happy birthday daddy and another Christmas

We celebrated Christmas with the Reifins, Ordways and Williamses. We even had a visit from Santa. Tyler wasn't interested in sitting on his lap but would manage to run up and snatch a Ho Ho gift when his name was called.

Tyler made out like a bandit. Big Aquadoodles, cars and trucks, oh my! We're not sure how we are going to cart everything home on the plane!

After dinner the younger folks headed to the street of lights. This is a street in Granny and Gramps's neighborhood where everyone lights up their houses in overboard fashion. We are talking mechanical santas in sleighs on the roof and lit arches over the sidewalk. It is pretty crazy and very exciting for Tyler!

We also sang Happy Birthday to Daddy.

choo choo village

Granny has all the right gadgets for a two year old. She set up a whole train village just at Tyler's height. Lights, moving train, mini trees. Tyler has been in Heaven!

Tyler's first flight

Tyler sat by the window and was most impressed with the view while we were on the ground and the airport vehicles were whizzing by. He got really nervous when the plane took off and did those little hiccup like drops. His body was cradled under my arm and his hand was clinging to my arm.

But Dad had planned wisely and brought some lollipops. After three of those, Tyler realized that flying was no big deal.

untraditional Christmas

We were originally scheduled to fly out this afternoon for FL to visit Alex's family. We had all but decided it wasn't a good idea given my dad's health. But after seeing him make a positive upswing, we decided at the last minute to still go to FL but for a shorter stay. We raced to change the return flight and pack. And we had a 30 minute gift opening session. Then it was off to the airport. Zoom, zoom.

Christmas Eve madness

After leading all of the carol singing, Grampy was whipped so we kicked ourselves out and headed to the Campbell house. We opened gifts and Tyler was most impressed with his rocket ship from Auntie Deb and family.

Uncle Brian and Auntie Teresa and Dev all made it around 11:30 pm. Yes, Tyler was still awake. I'm really not sure how but he was still racing around the house despite the late hour. We finally got him in bed at 12:30!

high fives for grampy

We spent Christmas Eve at the hospital with Grampy. Earlier that day he was moved out of the ICU so we were all able to cram into his new room in 13East. [We being all of the Joneses (Jo, Dylan and his girlfriend Christine), all of the Campbells (Megan, Alex and Tyler) and all of the Kriskos (Deb, Hugh, Perrin and Andrew); needless to say it was a full house!]

We sang Christmas carols and told stories. And I got to share the news of the new baby's gender with my family. About 50% of them were right. (Are you getting annoyed yet at how I'm stringing you along?)

Tyler was so great despite being up past his bedtime. He gave Grampy high fives and blew more kisses his way. He also managed to correctly say "Grampy" a few times.

clothes for panda

We showed Tyler a baby's outfit this evening, one of those tiny onesies. We asked him who was going to wear it and he smiled and said, "Panda!" Panda is his favorite stuffed animal!

shared the news with my daddy

With my Dad being in such a precarious condition, I just had to share the news about the new baby's gender with him right away. His response, "Outstanding!"