Halfy Birthday -- Behind the Scenes

Yesterday, I shared pictures of Tyler's half birthday.  Today, I want to talk about what went into making the photos.

1) Jason came up with the idea of doing a half cake photoshoot to celebrate Tyler's 6 monthiversary (yes, I'm making up words left and right today).

2) I purchased a cake mix and frosting ingredients, as well as party plates, hats, balloons, and paper lanterns.

3) I made a cake.  First of all, though I thoroughly lubed the pans, the cake held on for dear life and broke apart when I tried to remove it from the pan.  Secondly, I made homemade frosting, using the correct ingredients but not in a particular ratio.  Mistake.  I ended up with gloopier-than-ideal icing, though I didn't realize that until I was already in the process of icing the cakes.

4) I assembled the cake.  I tried to level the cake rounds to make them nice and even.  I do not possess the skills to eyeball-level anything.  Then, I began icing the cake.  I've never made a layer cake before.  Long story short, the cake ended up looking like this, no lie.

I finally showed Jason the cake, after making him promise he wouldn't take a picture of it to capture the moment.  He came in the kitchen, broke down in laughter and said, "That's the ugliest cake I've ever seen."  It didn't even hurt my feelings because I had already decided that it was hideous.

5) We bought a cake from the grocery store.  Why didn't I do this in the first place?  Oh yeah, because cake mix is $1.50 and store-bought cake is $7.  And I'm a cheapskate.  I somehow managed to cut the cake in half without messing up the icing.  It's time to break out the camera.

6) Jason set up the shot while I played with Tyler in another room.  During Tyler's nap, I began to decorate, only to realize that Jason was doing such a close shot that my balloons, prop gift bags, etc. were unnecessary.  Oh well.

7) Picture time.  Tyler is fed, napped, changed, and in a good mood.  But the kid won't smile.  I think there was too much going on around him.  Jason and I made every crazy noise and face we could to get him to smile.  I swear, someone should have been videoing us.  We were making fools out of ourselves.

Did the results make up for all the effort?

You tell me. :)

Halfy Birthday

Happy Half Birthday (or "Halfy Birthday" as my mom has been calling it) to my favorite little fella!  The last six months have flown by!

What can Tyler do at 6 months?
~He's a tummy time expert.  He definitely prefers being on his tummy to his back.  He can "army crawl" around in circles to get to out-of-reach toys.  In the past couple of days, he's also started scooting backwards off of the rug and onto the hardwoods.  I think he prefers how slippery they are (reduced friction = less work... my little scientist).

~He "talks" (ok, grunts).  He's definitely saying something, but he's not quite to the stage of making syllabic sounds ("da da da" or "ba ba ba").  In particular, he likes "talking" to the robots on his fleece blanket I made him (seen here) that hangs on the glider in his room.  I guess they're his friends.  He also likes "talking" to the overflow drain in the bathtub.  Um... it's his friend, too?

~Speaking of the bathtub, my kid LOVES bathtime!  We're talking squealing, jumping out of my arms to get up the stairs faster, attacking his bath towel when I hand it to him kind of excitement.  The past few days, he's gotten in and immediately started splashing like crazy.  One night I even had to change my clothes after bath time because he had drenched me!  He likes sitting up in the tub with our support (so he can talk to the drain and reach for his duck or dinosaur toys on the edge of the tub).  He's pretty hilarious... unless we have company.  Kara stayed with us last week and after building up his excitement in her head, he was a much mellower version of his normal bathtime self.  She probably just thinks we over-exaggerated.

~A few weeks ago, he started eating solids (oatmeal cereal to be exact).  I've already used the all-caps LOVE to describe bathtime, but it applies to his cereal, too.  All the literature I read about starting solids focused on what to do if/when the kid refuses the food.  Not a problem with my little (or not-so-little) fella.  No need for the airplane to fly into the hangar or for the train to go into the tunnel.  He opens his mouth wide for every bite without any hesitation.  He may be teething a bit because he loves gnawing on the spoon after getting the cereal off of it.  I have to wrench it out of his hands to get the next spoonful.  He now gets 1/4 cup cereal (with milk) twice a day.

~He's gotten a lot better about his playtime.  At Christmas, our families got him toys for ages 6mo+.  At 4 months, we could play with the toys for him (push the buttons, etc), but he just observed.  Now, he pushes the buttons, spins the dials, pushes the beads, etc.  Tuesday, he was lying down on the floor with all four limbs up passing a ball from hand to hand and pushing against it with his feet.  He is occasionally able to roll his toy cars around on the floor, though he mostly just puts the wheels in his mouth.  He's just now starting to sit up (with us nearby) and play with his toys.  I for one will be very happy when he can sit up on his own.

Other things?  He loves to stand with assistance (more than sitting, which is what I think is delaying that milestone) so he can play with the top of his mobile.  He's getting more into reading books (his favorite right now is "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" that Grandma gave him for his halfy birthday), though again, he mostly just wants to put it in his mouth.  He's fascinated by Mama's toys (the remotes and my phone), but those are off-limits.  He's still not sleeping through the night.  I'm hoping as we up his solids, he'll be able to.  Oh, glorious sleep, you elude me right now, but I hope to get you again soon.

I'm sure there's other stuff I'm forgetting, but this post is nearing novel-length, so I'll stop for now.  I do have pictures of him playing and eating solids.  I just haven't had a chance to load them on the computer and edit them.  Stay tuned!

Cabin Fever

This winter has been particularly chilly, which means that other than trips to Target, we haven't been out and about much.  A little while ago, we took advantage of a warmish (warm for this winter, at least!) Saturday and decided to go to Baileywick Park.  We've never been there before, but we liked it.

We walked around a bit.

Tyler was content as long as he had something to chew on (yes, we're to that stage...).  He's a bit too small for the playground, but be did try him in the baby swings (with LOTS of parental support/supervision!).

casual...

When we were done at the park, Jason and I decided it was perfect Goodberry's weather.  Tyler may have had his first taste of frozen custard.  His expression was a mixture of "ugh, I don't like cold stuff!" and "hmm, this is like milk, but BETTER!"  I wish I had gotten a picture, but alas.  Maybe next time.

Snow

A few weeks ago, we woke up to a nice dusting of powdery snow.  We had watched it fall the night before.  I've never seen snowflakes so tiny!  Definitely not good for snowballs or snowmen, but since all we wanted to do was walk around in it, it worked just fine.

Wardrobe:
Jason -- long sleeved tshirt, wool shirt, winter coat, "adventure" pants (don't know what they're made of, that's just what we call them... nylon?  whatever they're called, they're waterproof), boots, hat, gloves
Tyler -- onesie, pants, socks, big thick socks on top, hat, mittens, "muppet suit"
Me -- cami, long sleeved tshirt, hoodie, winter coat, running tights, adventure pants, knee socks, crew socks, sneakers, hat, gloves

Notice I was the one wearing the most clothes?  Megan doesn't do cold.

We walked around a bit out in our yard and down the driveway.  Tyler wasn't too keen on being outside (it was still below freezing), so we didn't stay out long.  We took turns holding him (upon my request... I want Tyler to have pictures with his dad, too, and not just have him be behind the camera all the time!).

Jason was a trooper, since he was sick with a cold on this day

When we were about ready to go in, Jason decided to sit Tyler down in the snow.

Well, he doesn't quite sit up on his own yet, so about four seconds later, this happened:

Followed by this...

Rolly boy!

Shortly after this, we all went back inside, stripped out of our extra layers, and the adults had some hot beverages while Tyler played toys.  Even though Tyler wasn't thrilled, we had to document his first snow.  And from the looks of the forecast, I think baby's 2nd snow is right around the corner!

I'll leave you with my favorite pictures of the day.  I have to admit, I was pretty excited to capture the moment!

Bubbling Crude

The past few weeks have not been easy ones for my little fella.

1. He's been really congested.  We took him to the doctor the other day because daycare called and said he was more or less inconsolable (very out of the norm for him).  It's nothing big, but we bought a humidifier for his room (and for our room as well, since it's like the Sahara in our house!) to help things out.  I've never had a humidifier, but we thought it would make everyone a little less scratchy in the morning.

2. He's been a pooping machine!  We're talking 5-10 times a day for several days in a row.  Holy cow!  The other day, Jason was changing a poopy diaper, and Tyler had unloaded a new batch in the new diaper before Jason could even get it closed.  He called it "bubbling crude," which I'm guessing I don't need to explain any further.

The other night, I woke up around 2:00 to the sound of my little one unloading a diaperful over the baby monitor (the sound, not the actual poop!).  Seriously, the thing went on for at least 15 seconds!  I started freaking!  If it was loud enough to transmit over the monitor, I needed to spring into action in order to save his pjs, sheets, and blankets.  Mama to the rescue!

I sprung into action.  I guess my quick reaction woke Jason up.  He asked what was wrong.

My response?  "Bubbling crude!  Don't you hear it?"

He paused for a second to listen and then started laughing.  His response?  "That's the humidifier."

Oops!  I guess I had mistaken the spitting and sputtering of our new humidifier for the spitting and sputtering of Tyler's butt.  I sheepishly got back in bed, and we went back to sleep.  Well, we went back to sleep after Jason finished laughing at me...