Valentine's Day Weekend

Super Bowl Sunday morning... Tyler's first walk in his new Radio Flyer wagon. Burrrr!!! It was cold, but he wouldn't let go of his reindeer Pez dispenser (favorite toy du jour).



Super Bowl neutral, wearing orange (but not-so-secretly rooting for the Saints. Yeah New Orleans!!)



Enjoying the new birthday toys. Tyler LOVES to play with his puzzle pieces, though by banging them together rather than putting them in their correct place :) LOTS of noise around the house (mom's getting more frequent headaches!).




Yet ANOTHER Richmond snow. This is a picture (I'm at a red light and not in a hurry to move) early Wednesday morning. Even though we "only" got about 4 inches of snow this time, it was by FAR the worst road conditions. We took it very, very slow to daycare and work- and passed more accidents than we could count. I was nervous!!! We learned the hard way that less snow does not necessarily mean better roads...

Friday before Valentine's... learning to open the snack container to get yummy yougart puffs.

Is it really all gone?!?!? Tyler's enjoying daddy's raisin bran (and working on his much improved standing balance).

Yummy!

ROAR!!!! We came home from a Sunday morning walk (dad was at work) to find a new birthday gift in our front door- an adorable hand monogrammed lion shirt from Miss Lucy (next door neighbor). Here, Tyler is getting into his role!

Banging his "cymbols", aka wooden puzzle pieces.

Close-up of new shirt

Another new skill this weekend- Tyler can now stand up on his own (without furniture or mommy help) to begin walking! It won't be long before he's running :) We know we're a bit behind our good friends Winston and McLean, but Tyler's made a LOT of progress in this last week! He can now walk about five or six feet at a time!

walking, usually with toy in hand (Stormy the Bear is another favorite... Uncle Brett :P)

Not sure what this is about, but it's cute :)

Practicing mowing the lawn with the talking mower from Mack and Kara (across the street neighbors). They thoughtfully thought Tyler would like to help us in the spring, since we're known to spend a lot of time in the yard. The talking mower cracks mom and dad up far more than it amuses Tyler:

"Power up... it's LUNCH time; Mmm... this grass is goooood; Let's give this lawn a good shave; Power down... this lawn is perfect"

Tyler's One Year Stats

Tyler had a successful one year well-baby check today. Dr. Winters was thrilled with how well he is doing in all aspects... but was hopefull he'd be saying a few purposeful words by now. Since Tyler will be getting tubes soon and we know he has fluid and pressure in his ears, we are all certain that his speach will develop rapidly after the tubes are in. Unfortunately, his surgery has been pushed back to March 3rd.

Weight- 22 lbs, 1 oz (50%)
Height- 30 1/2 inches (75%)
Head circumference- 19 1/4 inches (90%)

Funny... I never thought about Tyler having a big head, but apparently he does!!
I will try to get pictures up after the weekend!

Happy 1st Birthday

We had a wonderful family birthday party on Saturday for Tyler's First... even though we were sadly missing many friends and family due to the weather. It keeps snowing, and snowing, and snowing here!!! Tyler had an absolute blast and was a little ham, enjoying being the center of attention and the object of no fewer than five cameras and camcorders. Our little star for the day :)

"I'm the Birthday Boy!"

grammy Linda

Nana Jackie, Uncle John Mark (who did all the wonderful cooking- Thank You!!), and Grammy Linda

Grandpa Mark, Grammy Linda, Grandpa Jeff

Uncles Drew and John Mark, enjoying a fierce Wii competition!

Uncles Drew and Brett, daddy

Tyler's monkey balloon... Party On!!!

Tyler's birthday loot- you would have thought it was Christmas again.

(the perks of having a large family and being the first grandson!)

Lunch table- tenderloin sandwiches, spinach salad, fruit salad, and cupcakes

cupcakes for our little monkey man

yummy!

Monster bite!!! Shoving it all in :)

Washing all that sugar down with cold milk

showing off his new walking skills

admiring the gifts

one of the new favorites- keeping it simple :)

what an upgrade- Tyler Express 3.0

(hopefully) soon-to-be favorite!

Tyler Express 3.0

The snow just keeps falling!!! Richmond got another 4-6 inches on Friday and Saturday, just in time for Tyler to try out his new birthday present. He's upgrading well- from cardboard and duct tape to stainless steel pot to actual wooden sled!!! We're cruising in style now :)

Enjoying the ride

Holding on to one of my other new favorites, my ball

playing with daddy

zoom!

another family snow photo op

The end of a wonderful first birthday- we love you, Tyler!

Snow Storm 2010

The snow really came down hard this time- I think we got more snow than in December (between 12-14 inches in Richmond City). By looking at our back yard this morning you would have thought even more. This picture was from Saturday midday- check out Tyler's new swing from Christmas. We had just hung it when the snow came. Not even tested out yet :(

Dad... what are you doing to me?!?!

We failed to buy a sled when we had the chance (aka, when they were in stores and prior to the announcement that there was another storm on the way), so we've used our biggest soup pot!

Fun with dad


Enjoying the ride :)

And.... they're off!!

Tyler Express 2.0

Tyler's First Steps!!!!

Sorry- I learned a lesson the unfortunate way... you cannot rotate video the way you can rotate pictures. This moment will forever be captured sideways! Joyce and Janelle saw Tyler take his first step at daycare on Friday, but we got to see his first series of steps at home Saturday afternoon! Enjoy (sideways...)!

Big Changes...

This has been a traumatic weekend for Tyler- lots of big changes were initiated this weekend in preparation for Tyler's move to the "pre-toddler" room at daycare in one short week. He will be leaving his beloved Joyce after he turns one next Saturday and will be joining Unique and Ebone's room for the next four months (just a short transition period before moving upstairs to the toddler room). Tyler is very excited to be rejoining his best bud Maddie, who's already made the move, and his current best bud Rachael is moving with him!! Yeah for familiar faces and good friends :)

So, in this next phase in Tyler's life formula and pureed foods no longer exist- yikes! So since next weekend is Tyler's first birthday and we'll have lots of family visiting, we went cold-turkey on Tyler's favorites this weekend. No more warm bottles or pureed sweet potatoes. Nope! He's on to cold whole milk and table food... and NOT happy about it! But I'm convinced once he's in with the other big kids and sees how all the other little girls and boys do it he'll be just fine. But in the mean time...

Tyler's first morning up (Saturday) in which he was not greeted with a warm bottle of formula. I came to his crib holding a sippy cup of cold whole milk and he was not having it. Not one bit!




... And the dramatic head and hand toss downwards. SO sad. And furious. But mom and dad held to their decision.



Ohhh... life is so hard now. What ever will he do (besides lose a little weight before moving on)?




He is mildly more content here... but notice very little milk has been drunk. We have a stubborn little boy on our hands! But a smart one. He's concentrating very hard on getting the spoon motion down, but with little success. All in good time...

Getting ready to paint a picture for Miss Joyce to give her on our last day this coming Friday.

Mom thought making a mess would cheer him up and distract him from his lack of a bottle, but it didn't work very well. We're going to give it a little time... this too shall pass :)

baby Madison

Warmest congratulations to Barbie and Jason on the birth of Olivia Madison on January 13th, 7 pounds 2 ounces and 19 inches. We look forword to watching her grow and become a beautiful little girl!!

Off to School

Our morning routine... get dressed and bundled, then watch mommy carry stuff to the car before it's time to walk out the door. Tyler loves to look out the front door :)

Christmas Day 2009

Our third and final Christmas was actually on Christmas Day, spent with the Williams family in Greenville (previous weekends were in Richmond with the Peats and Grammy Linda). Tyler is a present pro... and can't wait for his birthday already. Spoiled???? Nah...



Yeah!! A swing to hang in the backyard. We will enjoy this so much as the weather warms. Thanks nana and grandpa!!

Possibly one of Tyler's favorite toys of the season (from Santa)... the Tonka truck that beeps and hums and has a turn signal and rear view mirror and sucks up toys that you run over. So awesome!! Hopefully this one will grow with us for a year or more :)

His very favorite toy(s) from Santa... a stocking full of nothing but BOWS!!!!!! Nana will be finding these under furniture for months to come :P

Elf on the Shelf... a staple for next holiday season. Mommy can't wait!!

Stormy the Bear, built lovingly by Uncle Brett at Build-a-Bear. Tyler plays with him often and will love him more as he gets a little older. Maybe next year we can go to a real Hurricanes game with Tyler?!

Getting some cuddle time with daddy as dad opens his present (no scotch for the little man). All this Christmas bedlam has Tyler overstimulated and worn out!!

Playing with Ox, "the ugly doll", from Nana.

It was a wonderful Christmas... thanks to ALL of our families for making it so special!

Chaneling the Donald...

December 23rd, annual Greenville Christmas Party. Tyler's pulling a young Donald Trump?!!?