6 Weeks

So, I'm 6 weeks along today and am all stopped up again. Not sinuses, but way down at the other end. I remember this happening when I was pregnant with Tyler, but I don't remember how long it lasted. I think that my system eventually got back to "normal" during my pregnancy. The prenatal vitamins I'm taking now even have a stool softener! I don't remember that from last time...but who would have thought that a stool softener incorporated into my vitamins would be something that I would ever think was a wonderful idea? Other than the semi-bloated feeling and sore (but larger!) breasts, I haven't been feeling much different. Well, I take that back, I have been exhausted lately. Mike and I were playing Rock Band the other night, and we stopped so Mike could download more songs, and I zonked out while he was doing that. Needless to say, we had to put our world tour on hold for the evening.

Sometimes, with all the stuff going on and with it being so early in the pregnancy, I forget that I'm pregnant! It's not like I forget and eat sushi or anything, but it's more like I'll be thinking about our summer plans and then realize, "Oh yeah, I might need to get a maternity suit by then."

I'm so excited to tell Tyler more about the baby. He knows there's a baby inside my belly and that he'll be a big brother. Tyler kisses the little baby good night every night and every time we ask him if he'll help us take care of his new little brother or sister, he answers with an enthusiastic, "Yes!"

Here's a picture of me with my sisters-in-law, right before our big "girls night out" last weekend:

We had a really good time, and didn't have to worry about the kids! The dads got together and kept the 10 kids we have between us for the evening. We had a nice dinner where we laughed and drank wine (well, I had a sip), then we talked and talked and talked. It was a rare event, but I think we're hoping to make it a tradition.

Genius?

Last night, Mike opened up his laptop in the living room. Tyler LOVES computers and always wants to look at pictures of trains or himself on any computer we have. So he wants to see what his Daddy is doing on the laptop. Our Internet Explorer homepage is the Google homepage. Immediately, Tyler starts spelling the word "Google", but that was to be expected, since he spells everything (he used to just say whatever letters he saw, in any order, but we've been teaching him how to "read" letters of a word in the correct order). Anyway, last night he said,"G-O-O-G-I-E...google." Mike and I both stopped what we were doing. I don't know that I've ever even SAID the word "google" to Tyler, and it's weird because he thought the lower-case L in the word "google" was an i, but he still said "google." So, we asked Tyler to spell it again, and he repeated the same thing. We got all excited that we had a genius in our midst! So, Mike pulls up Microsoft Word and types out several other words (cat, dog, duck, boat). Tyler spells each one correctly, but can't tell us what they say. Well, actually, he told us they all said "google." A fleeting genius, at least.

What did that say?

Mike and I took Tyler to the mall over the weekend. As we're walking, I hear Tyler say,"Wow!" And I repeat it back to him absentmindedly, thinking he saw a toy car or something that made him exclaim. However, Mike stops and looks at me and asks,"Did he just read that?" I look around and realize we're walking by Baby Gap and there are three large window stickers on their store window that say,"WOW!" ,"POW!" and "BAM!" (comicbook-style). I crouch down and look at Tyler (who is now looking around at the people walking by) and I ask him, "Where's 'wow'?" He turned around, looked for a second, and ran over to the Baby Gap window and pointed to the window sticker that said,"WOW!"

I look at Mike and we both high-five Tyler :)

Big Brother

To our sweet Tyler,

You are almost 2 years and 3 months old, and we recently told you that you are going to be a big brother! Mommy and Daddy asked you if you wanted a little brother or sister, and you gave us an enthusiastic, "Yes!!" You told us that you wanted to help take care of the baby and that you were excited. Tonight, Daddy asked you where the baby is growing and you pointed to Mommy's tummy (because you know that's where you came from). Then you bent over and kissed the baby and hugged Mommy. Daddy and Mommy know that you are going to be a wonderful big brother, you are so sweet and loving and affectionate! But we know you'll also help teach your little sibling about trains and jumping and to love books. We can't wait to see you with your new little brother or sister!

You are a joy to Mommy and Daddy, we are so blessed to have you and are so happy to give you a sibling!

Love and BIG hugs,
Mommy and Daddy

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's a helicopter!

The other night, while we were having dinner, we heard an airplane go by, and I said,"Tyler, do you hear the airplane?"

Tyler: Kekocter! (Helicopter)

Me: No, it's an airplane!

Tyler: No, Mommy, kekocter!

Me: Tyler, say "hel-i-cop-ter"

Tyler: Kekocter

Me: Say "heli"

Tyler: Heli

Me: Cop

Tyler: Cop

Me: Ter

Tyler: Tew

Me: Heli-cop-ter!

Tyler: (silence)

Me: Heli-cop-ter!

Tyler: Aiwplane, Mommy!

Picture Post

Okay, it's time to play catch up, but I'm tired, so this post will be pictures and captions!

Here are pictures from Dave's deployment party in NC:

Tyler and Reese, I think they were watching Little Einsteins :)

Tyler, not quite getting the proper use of a soccer ball...

And here's a cute one of the little boys following Lauren around, all carrying orange cones. What were they up to?

The following weekend, I took Tyler up to visit his other cousins (my sister's kids).

Tyler and Hannah loved cruisin' in Hannah's Dale Jr. racecar:

Tyler's Tita Chark & Uncle David gave him his birthday present while we were there. Hannah helped Tyler try it out:

Finally, we had to get a shot of Tyler and the girls:

A few weeks later, Chark and her kids came to visit us!

He knows what he wants!

To get Tyler to clean up a bunch of puzzle pieces the other night, I was sweetly talking to him and trying to entice him to help me clean. So, in a soft whisper, I said in Tyler's ear, "Tyler, can you please help Mommy pick up the puzzle pieces?" He looked up at me, smiling, and then very sweetly whispered, "No."

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Tyler was in the bathtub and I was sitting on the bathroom floor next to the tub. He had several cups stacked up along the tub and I was pretending to push them over the side and into the water. I would slowly start pushing a stack of cups and he would hold out his hand to stop them and smile and say, "Noooooo!" Then I would move on to another stack of cups and do the same thing. After a few more times, Tyler finally held up his and to me and said, sternly, "Mommy, stop it."

I guess Mommy's playtime was over :)

Ace of Cakes

Can I just say how much I rock at making cakes? I had so much fun making Tyler's birthday cakes this year! Since our house is so small, we had to have 2 birthday parties for Tyler, so we could invite everyone we wanted to invite. Granted, looking back, two birthday parties for a 2-year-old seems excessive, we all had a good time and got to spend time with some friends and family we hadn't seen in a while. Next year will be very low key!

Anyway, since we had two parties, I had to make two cakes. The first party theme was trains, so I made a train cake:






I had so much fun! I would love to try and figure out how to make different things with cake :) I used 2 boxes of cake mix and baked a large 9x13 sheet cake with one and 4 small loaf cakes with the other (chocolate and yellow, respectively). I let the cakes cool and then froze them overnight. They were really easy to cut/carve when they were frozen. The smokestack is made up of 4 or 5 Oreo cookies that I stuck together with buttercream icing and then iced all over.
For my next trick...er, party, we had a racecar theme for Tyler. So, I made a Lightning McQueen cake! I just bought a Lightning McQueen cake pan, so that was easy. Decorating it was hard. Well, I should say that mixing all the 18 different colors of icing was difficult! It took me longer to mix the icing and attempt to get the right colors. Anyway, in the end I think it came out well:

Is it too late to switch my career from engineering to pastries??

Conversations with a two-year-old

Driving to daycare in the morning, I intended to ask Tyler if he wanted to see his friends at Miss Bonnie's house:

Me: Tyler, do you want to see...

Tyler: Tanta!!

Me: Santa?

Tyler: Okay!
--------------------------------------------------

Although Tyler knows all the letters, we're trying to teach him that words are made up of letters, and therefore each word begins with a certain letter. So we'll say, "Daddy's name begins with D, Daddy'sletter is D," and so forth. So, Tyler and I were talking (again, in the car on the way to daycare), when I asked him: "What's Daddy's letter?"

Tyler: D!

Me: What's Mommy's letter?

Tyler: M!

Me: What's Dylan's letter? (Dylan is his friend at daycare)

Tyler: (silence)

Me: Tyler, Dylan's name begins with D, just like Daddy.

Tyler: No, Daddy D! Daddy D!

Me: Can you share Daddy's "D" with Dylan?

Tyler: NO! Daddy D!

Me: All right.

--------------------------------------------------

We passed the windmill bank on the way to work this morning and Tyler pointed to it, saying "A owse!" (A house!)

Me: That looks like a house, doesn't it? It's actually a windmill, just like Toby's windmill in your train show.

Tyler: Toby owse!

Me: (laughing) Yes, Toby's house.

Tyler: Weh Toby go?

Me: Toby's at our house, too.

Tyler: At Ty owse?

Me: Yes.

Tyler: At Daddy owse? At Mommy owse?

Me: Yes. We all live in the same house.

Tyler: Okay.

--------------------------------------------------

When Tyler sees Nemo (the fish from the Disney movie "Finding Nemo") he exclaims,"Meemo!"
We thought it was cute, so we let him say it that way without correcting him for a day or so.
Finally, we told him, "Tyler, it's Nemo. Neh-neh-Nemo."
Tyler: Ne-ne-na-Meemo!!

--------------------------------------------------

Mike has been trying to teach Tyler (of course) how to say, "boobies."

Mike: Tyler, say "boo"

Tyler: Boo!

Mike: Say "bees"

Tyler: Bees!

Mike: Boobies!

Tyler: Doobies!!

Tyler is 2!

Dear Tyler,

Happy second birthday to our favorite little guy! You are an amazing little boy, not a baby anymore, but a full-blown little boy! You run, jump, hop, tackle, hug, kiss, pat, grab and climb all over the place nowadays. You're a bundle of energy, always rearranging whatever furniture you can (right now just chairs, stools, and small tables), sometimes to climb on top of to reach something, but mostly to play with. Your imagination is coming through: you arrange chairs one in front of another and then board your "train"; you feed your Pat Pat Rocket that Daddy gave you for your birthday some milk because you think he's thirsty; you catch invisible bubbles in the air and eat them, or offer them to us so we can eat them...it's so engrossing watching you play!

You talk so much now, too! You can communicate with us and tell us how you feel and what you want so easily...it's hard to remember the time you couldn't talk, not that it was so long ago. I love hearing your voice each time you say a new word. Your vocabulary seems to grow every day (today you just learned "apple tree"). Daddy and I are so proud that you already know and recognize all the letters of the alphabet (in upper and lower case!), and many of the numbers from 1 - 10. You also know your colors and basic shapes! We brag about you all the time...What will there be left to teach you in pre-school?


You remember things that you did during the day and often tell me about them during our drive home after I pick you up from day care. You know the names of all the children you play with and you obviously have ones that you consider your friends, because we hear you say their names more often. You are obsessed with cars and trains, and even more currently, the Pat Pat Rocket toy from The Little Einsteins show. As we drive in the car, you make "vaROOOM" sounds every time we pass another car going in the opposite direction, making your "varoom" louder as the car approaches and softer after we pass (you're 2 and you understand the Doppler effect?). Every red car is a Ferrari to you, though :) You love playing with your train sets and looking at pictures of trains. When we can, we take you to see model trains or real trains, and you thoroughly enjoy that!

You are quick to apologize if you think you hurt someone, always by patting their head and saying, "Tahwee (sorry)." If someone looks sad, you will put your hand on them and ask if they're okay ("Okay, Mommy?"). And you have recently began hugging and kissing on your own. I especially love when you hug me around my legs and squeeze as tight as you can!

You're starting to show some leadership qualities, always asking (rather, telling) Mommy or Daddy to follow you, read you a book, copy you, or play with you. We gladly oblige whenever we can, but on the occasions we aren't able to play, you can easily amuse yourself for a short time.

You are in a big-boy bed now, which you can easily climb in and out of, and you do. Sometimes you will get up 5 or 6 times after we have put you to bed, but I think it's only because you want to be carried back and tucked in again by Mommy or Daddy. We also gladly oblige, because it's another chance to hug and kiss you before you go to sleep. You usually send us off with, "Night night, of you (love you)." Then, some time around 3 or 4 in the morning, you wake up and climb into Mommy & Daddy's bed, where you proceed to toss and turn until you get comfortable. The other morning, I woke up to find you and Daddy like this:

Tyler, you are growing up to be a sweet, stubborn, and funny little boy. I can't believe it's only been 2 years, but then again, I can't believe you're already 2 years old. Daddy and I love you so very much and are excited to see how much you will grow and learn in the next year!

All my love,

Mommy

Merry Christmas!

We have countless blessings to be thankful for and hope that everyone was able to take time out from the hustle and bustle of the season to be able to appreciate what this holiday is really about. Merry Christmas!!

Our Christmas was a busy one, chock full of family and friends, though! Mike, Tyler and I celebrated a private Christmas at home on the 22nd, enjoying a fire, cinnamon rolls, and hot chocolate while we opened presents. Our big gift to Tyler was a train table that Mike built and a wooden train set. He loved it instantly and I was so proud of Mike for building it!

Maymont Park

Before Thanksgiving, we took Tyler to see the beautiful fall colors at a local park. He had a wonderful time, and posed nicely for all our family photos!

Happy Thanksgiving...

Yikes, the last holiday I wrote about was Halloween, and time just flies after that. Before we know it, it's going to be 2008! One of my New Year's resolutions is to simplify, simplify, simplify.

Ahhh, New Year's resolutions. We make them every year, but how many of us keep them in mind throughout the year? Mike and I have made a joint resolution to go to church more often. Well, to just go to church, period. That would be a good start! I would like to finally take my P.E. license exam, and get a handle on our credit cards. But enough about that mess...on to fun times and photos!

The morning after my last post, my sister (Chark) gave birth to two beautiful girls. She named them Sabrina and Olivia. They are gorgeous and my sister looked amazing when I visited her in the hospital that evening.

My sister already has an 18-month old daughter, Hannah, who is wonderful and so smart, but still a handful. Now the twins are almost 8 weeks old, and Chark is just gliding along (or so it seems, to me. I, on the other hand, would probably be crying my eyes out and calling my mom every day for help!).

Exactly 2 weeks later, my cousin, Mary Jeanne, had her baby boy. It was a surprise, she and her husband didn't find out the sex of the baby before his birth. They named him Niccolo, and he has grown very fast! We saw him when he was about a month old and he looked like he was 3 months old! My cousin already has a daughter who turned 2 in August.

Shortly after my two newest nieces were born, Mike, Tyler and I drove up to Maryland to visit his sister and her family. We had a great time, but I was almost instantly overcome by my allergies (they have a dog). I totally forgot to take any allergy medicine, but figured I would be fine, since we were only staying there one night. Well, I suffered through the weekend, and the following week came down with a cold. My breathing worsened over that week until I couldn't take a deep breath. I finally woke up with a start on Sunday morning, around 3am, which I suppose was because I couldn't breathe. I ended up in the emergency room, where they diagnosed me with an upper respiratory viral infection and where I received 3 nebulizer treatments, a Prednizone prescription, and an Albuterol prescription. I saw my doctor the next day and he gave me another inhaler prescription. Two weeks later, I was still coughing and wheezing a bit, so we decided that I should be quarantined until I was definitely healed up. Thus, we spent Thanksgiving with just each other (Mike, Tyler, and myself). Although I missed my family and wanted to see my sister and the twins again, it was nice to focus on my own family during a holiday. I made a turkey breast, rice with mushrooms and peas, mashed potatoes with gravy, and green beans with bacon! It was pretty yummy if I do say so myself ;)

21 Months

Dear Tyler,
Last week, you turned 21 months old. I'm saying it in months because it makes you sound younger. To think that you'll be 2 years old in just 3 months is truly amazing, because you have learned so much in the short time your Daddy and I have been blessed to have you in our lives so far.

On Wednesday, we celebrated Halloween and took you around the neighborhood to Trick or Treat. You were dressed as a dragon, the cutest and most polite dragon in the neighborhood! You said "please" and "thank you" to all our neighbors, and they were delighted to give you a piece of candy. Many of them tried to help you out and put the candy straight into your bucket, but you'd rather take it in your hand and put it in the bucket yourself. We spoiled you for the night, letting you have 2 lollipops and a piece of chocolate. You don't normally eat any candy at all, so this was a treat to you (and maybe a sugar shock!). The sugar made you dance and run around the living room for a while :)

Last weekend, your Lolo and Lola visited. You had so much fun with them that you didn't want them to leave. You actually wanted them to take you along, but Mommy and Daddy would miss you too much, so you stayed with us. They helped encourage you to try out your "big boy" bed (we converted your crib to a toddler bed). You can now climb in and out of it all by yourself, and you love having books and toy cars in the bed with you. You always hug your stuffed dinosaur as you fall asleep every night.
You amaze me every day, my sweet boy. You are learning new words so fast, and pronouncing them so well! You can say "L's" very well, and love to point out all the traffic lights to Mommy as we drive to day care every morning ("A light! A light!"). Tyler, you also have started to recognize letters and numbers. You can spot an "o" in the words in older children's books and you recognize "9" easily, too.
Mommy loves reading books to you at night, we often read 3 or 4 books. I mostly let you decide which ones to read, and when you have to make that decision, you kneel in front of your bookshelf and put your hand to your chin and say "Hmmm". I think you got it from watching "Curious George" :)
Tyler, you have been calling your daddy "Daddy" for a while now, but only recently have you graduated from calling your mommy "Mama" to calling me "Mommy". Now, when we're home together, I can't hear "Mommy" enough! (Not that you don't try to say it often enough!)
You can easily play on your own, but you love having either Mommy or Daddy play with you...always asking us to follow you or play a certain game with you.
You are much taller now than you were a year ago, it seems you've grown a foot, but we just don't think that can be. But you can easily reach the countertop, hold more than one toy in each hand, and you can get by eating a meal without a booster seat (if need be).
You are a sweet, but stubborn little guy...it always takes coaxing from us to get you to switch activities or take a break from one to change your diaper. But you usually find a way to have fun doing your new activity and then you don't want to go back to doing what you were doing before! :)
Your daddy is very proud that you are so interested in cars, trucks, planes, and trains. Everything that goes "Vrroooom!" interests you, and your favorite movie has been "Cars" for a long time. Mommy and Daddy will splurge and spoil you with Cars toys, blankets, and books!
We love you so much, Tyler! You are our little man and you make everything we do worthwhile!
Love with all our hearts,
Mommy and Daddy

Hilton Head Island Wedding

Last weekend, Mike and I packed up our car and took Tyler down to my girlfriend's wedding. From Richmond, it should have been about 7 and a half hours. It took us 10 hours. Here's what happened on our way down:

10:00 am - We have the car packed and are pulling out of our driveway (after diligent planning, and packing the night before, we are able to leave at exactly the time we wanted to leave!)

10:30 am - Mike (who is driving) hears Tyler make a weird noise. I turn around just in time to watch Tyler projectile vomit his milk and Cheerios all over the travel tray, his book, and the center console of the car.

10:32 am - Mike pulls the car into a Sheetz parking lot (we were headed there to grab breakfast, anyway) and we proceed to do some damage control. It's about 55 degrees outside so, as I'm cleaning Tyler up and taking his wet vomity clothes off, all he keeps saying is,"It code! It code!"

11:15 am - We've cleaned up, gotten breakfast, and are back on the road.

12:00 pm - Mike suggests I pick up his Nintendo DS and play Zelda, just to try it out.

12:30 pm - I am now addicted to Zelda on the DS and continue to play on and off for the remainder of the drive.

1:00 pm - Tyler falls asleep (time for his afternoon nap, anyway)

2:30 pm - We start seeing billboard signs for South of the Border. I mention to Mike that it looks like an interesting place to stop and stretch our legs, and let Tyler run around a little.

3:00 pm - We arrive at SOB, and it doesn't take long for us to get freaked out. But we keep thinking that each store/building holds something new or interesting. They don't. We buy Tyler a set of maracas and us some fireworks.

4:00 pm - Back in the car to look for somewhere to eat lunch. We drive about 10 miles down the highway and stop at a gas station with a Subway.

4:40 pm - Now it's my turn to drive, and we're in South Carolina. I drove the rest of the way and stopped once for coffee. Tyler watches Cars on the portable DVD player.

8:30 pm - We arrive at our hotel!!

It was such a long drive for a short visit, but it was still better than flying, because we could take everything we wanted to with us. With flying time and layovers, we probably would have taken the same amount of time to get there, too (and spent more money).

Anyway, the wedding was beautiful. My girlfriend was gorgeous and much more relaxed than I would have been. I found that I was exhausted the whole weekend, though, and didn't have any energy to stay up much past 10:00 pm during the whole trip. I was glad that I got to see my friends, that Mike and I were able to bring Tyler along.

Here is Sara, in her gorgeous wedding dress:

My friends and I, in front of the wedding hall:

Here we all are, in Sara's dressing room:

And again, after the ceremony: Mike with Tyler (Mike had some pretzels in his pocket):

Tyler:

Civility and Empathy

It's finally happened, folks! Drumroll please...our son has learned to say "please" and "thank you"!!! Most often with coaxing, i.e.,"What do you say?" or "What's the magic word?" for when we want Tyler to say "please", and we still have to say "Say 'thank you'." But, sometimes he'll say "please" all on his own, instead of reaching his hand out and whining/grunting. It's so wonderful to hear (he actually says "peez") and we totally cave anytime he asks us for something and says please. I don't care, it's music to my ears :)

We've also taught Tyler to say "sorry" when he hurts someone. It's gotten to the point where all either one of us has to do is say, "Ow!" or "That hurt!" and, if he thinks he was the cause of our pain, Tyler will pat whoever he hurt on the head and say,"Tah-wee". On a rare occasion, he has kissed the boo-boo himself! Just this weekend, he started asking if I was okay. He kept asking, "Okay?" until I answered him that I was okay. What a sweet kid I've got!

I'm Sorry

Tyler and I have lots of fun little rituals we do during the day. He's so adorable and I know these are moments I need to remember, because they'll be gone before I know it!

After dinner (or other meals on the weekends) Tyler likes to listen to a couple of songs from Dog Train and stand on my lap and dance! We listen to "Wave Bye Bye" and "Rock to Sleep" and he presses his forehead to mine. He's usually giggling or laughing and bopping around while I hold him (so he doesn't fall!) and hug him. It's 5 straight minutes of Mommy & Tyler snuggling time!

Bathtime is one of Tyler's favorite activities :) He plays with his Hot Wheels cars and usually wants me to make a tunnel with my hands on the bathtub side so he can push his cars through. Tyler also calls "Daddeee!" every 30 seconds if Mike isn't in the bathroom with us. Even when he knows that Mike isn't home, Tyler still calls out "Daddee!", just in case. After Tyler's bath, he gets really excited when he's all clean and wrapped up in a towel. We usually look in the bathroom mirror, while I'm holding a towel-clad Tyler, and make faces and wave. It's an easy transition to get him dried off and dressed for bed.

Last night, after we got Tyler in his pjs and I was carrying him, he smacked me in the face with both hands! He was trying to play with me, but got carried away with his own excitement. I firmly told him,"You do NOT hit Mommy." I put him down immediately and walked away. Tyler got upset, but came after me, half crying, "Maamaa!!" So, I knelt down and said to him, "I do not like it when you hit me. Can you say you're sorry?"

Although he couldn't say it, Tyler nodded and reached up and patted my head. Then he kissed me on the cheek. I gave him a ginormous hug and many kisses :) He's getting it! He's learning how his actions can affect other people, in good and bad ways.

Tyler is such a good boy, I can see that he just wants to help. He "helped" me put the groceries away on Sunday, he knows the things he should't play with and (usually) gives them to Mike or me if he finds something (like a screwdriver, a pen, etc.) He's such an awesome little guy!!

Too cute for his own good

Mike, Tyler and I were in Target this afternoon, when Mike said something to me and I responded,"I know," in a sort of reluctant tone. Tyler immediately repeated what I said,"I know." Mike and I both laughed, so Tyler said it again,"I know." Then, Mike said to Tyler,"Tyler, you're so cute!" To which Tyler responded,"I know."

To the dump, to the dump, to the dump, dump, dump!

We've been recycling for a few months and it's been kind of a pain. Mostly because nobody offers curbside pick-up for recyclables in our area, even for a fee! So, we always amass bags and bags of papers and glass/plastic/aluminum containers until we feel like we have enough to make a trek out to the landfill worthwhile. Today was that day. Our regular containers were overflowing and we had papers and junk mail piled up in the corner of our living room. Mike bagged everything up and loaded it all into the car (along with several bags of items for donation to Goodwill). We also loaded Tyler into the car and off we went to Goodwill. Once we got there, we had to do a little rearranging to get the donation items out and then put all the recyclables back in. Then, we were off to the dump. We got to a busy intersection near our destination, and when Mike accelerated and turned onto the next road, we heard glass shifting in the back of the Jeep. I looked back and saw the liftgate fly open and a few bags of recyclables fly out onto the road! Mike pulled over and went out into the intersection to collect the three bags that had flown out. As he picked up one of the trash bags of containers, it tore open in the middle of the intersection...scattering broken glass in the road! I pulled the Jeep around to get back to Mike and put on the hazards. He had gotten most of the glass pieces picked up by then, and we re-loaded the Jeep with the fragile bags. We successfully made it to the dump and finished our recycling trip. And I heard not ONE peep of complaint from Mike! Nothing like, "THIS is why I don't like recycling!" or "Why are we going through all this trouble?" Nothing! Actually, he said, "You know, that stuff couldn't have fallen out of our car at a better spot," meaning the location was ideal for us to be able to go back and pick everything up. He even mentioned that the bag of glass didn't break until he was out of the main intersection and close to the median, so there wasn't broken glass scattered in the main roadway, just near the median. He is such a trooper! AND, we're still recycling! :)

How did this happen?

Where did all the time go? When did my little helpless baby become a rambunctious, stubborn, loveable little boy? When when when? I'm looking at pictures of him from the past couple of months, and he totally looks like a little boy and not a baby. Of course he's not a baby, I KNOW that, but does he really have to grow up so fast? I hope that writing about the times that he's little will help me remember them (not to mention the thousands of pictures I am sure to have by the time he has grown out of toddlerhood and entered kidhood). I want to remember this time because everything is a first for all of us.



Just a few days ago was Tyler's 19-month birthday. I don't even know if I can write down all the things he does now...that he didn't do or say last month! For starters, he likes to climb up on the couch in the living room, stand up on it, and walk off of it! Granted, Tyler's not more than a foot and a half off the ground, but he can't even be 3 feet tall, so that's quite a step! That would be like me stepping off something over 2 1/2 feet tall, and I would definitely have to jump off that. ANYWAY, so yeah, he's climbing things and thinks he's indestructible. He's saying more words, too ("bubbles", "circle", "hello" when he hears a phone ring, "yellow", "mine" - not my favorite word that he's learned, more animal noises, people's names), he can recognize people in pictures, and he likes singing the alphabet with us!


So, the thing that I am most excited and verklempt about is that Tyler said (albeit with some prompting) "Love you" for the first time last week!! It sounded like "of yo", but he said it. We say it to him all the time, but I don't know if he has connected that it means we unconditionally, with all our hearts, would-jump-off-a-cliff-to-save-his-life-LOVE him, but maybe? I'm sure that's what he meant when he said "of yo".