Happy Birthday, Tyler!

365 days ago, our world changed forever.

A few months back, a friend of mine asked me how I liked motherhood.  My response caught her (and me!) a bit off-guard.  "Eh, it's alright."

Motherhood is hard.  You're responsible for keeping another human being alive.  You have to make all their important decisions for at least a period of their life.  How to get them to go to sleep without making them overly dependent on a specific routine.  When to switch them to solid foods while making sure they get the same nutrition that milk gave them.  What games to play and experiences to share to make sure they're growing intellectually as well as physically.  It's overwhelming sometimes!

Seconds after my shocking motherhood response, I quickly added, "But I love Tyler so much!!!!"

It's true.  Motherhood is beyond difficult, but this little guy makes every second worth it.

Well, almost every second.  Tyler, I'm going to get the snack you requested.  That snack is in the next room.  Wailing because I've left the room doesn't help me get that snack any quicker!


He is such a cool little guy.  His smile and laugh is downright infectious.

 

Monday night, Jason and Tyler were playing while I made dinner.  Jason had on a dinosaur hand puppet.  He would "eat" one of Tyler's toys and then "blaaagh!"  spit it back out.  Tyler was in stitches!  Vomit humor.  Hilarious.  Tyler kept handing him more and more and more toys (teethers, soft blocks, balls) so that the dinosaur could keep spitting them back out.

Sunday, Jason and Tyler were playing "clap clap clap your hands, claaaaaaaap your hands" and "clap clap clap your feet, claaaaaaaap your feet."  Again, he was dying laughing!  Son, never lose the ability to take joy in the simple things.

tearing paper... awesome!

The scientist/psychologist (still claiming my minor as part of my identity)/marveler at the Creator God/teacher in me loves watching him grow and develop.  I wrote this blog post about two weeks ago.  Since then, he now says bubbles (requesting his Bubbles Bubbles book) perfectly (no indistinguishable "bah" here).  He now waves both hands and says "All done!" when he's done eating (and sometimes when he's ready to get out of the bathtub).  Last night, he came home saying "bless you!" after you say it to him.  I just can't keep up with all that he knows and all he is learning about the world!

"I will praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Your works are wonderful" 

 --Psalm 139:14

Tyler brings us so much joy.  Jason and I give each other knowing looks at least several times a day, either a "Did you see what he just did?" look or a "This guy is so cool!" look.

Ok, I could go on and on and on and on, but I'd never have enough words, so I'll sum it up:

Happy birthday, little man.  We love you so much!

12 Months

Tomorrow's the big day!!!!!!!  A while back, Jill asked me what it meant to celebrate Tyler's first birthday.

My response?  "That we survived one year."

That's even what our Sunday School classmates said when mentioned that Tyler was about to turn one.  "That's awesome, you survived a whole year!"  We survived setting our alarm for every few hours to make sure Tyler was fed and didn't waste away from starvation during the middle of the night.  We survived breastfeeding -- the discomfort, the scheduling around it, the adrenaline-rush when I heard him crying in the night, the peace as we sit together in silence and darkness during a 1am feeding.  We survived falls, bumps, and every bug daycare threw at us.  Just when we were getting the hang of thing, we survived milestone after milestone, making adjustments on the fly.

I thought this blog post from Scary Mommy summed it up pretty well.

It's hard to believe my big guy ever looked like this.  Oh, the "don't scratch yourself in the face" mittens.  And look how big that onesie looks!

Ready for a quick trip through time?

Under 1 Month:

1 Month:

2 Months:

3 Months:

4 Months:

5 Months:

6 Months:

7 Months:

8 Months:

9 Months:

10 Months:

11 Months:

The Many Meanings of "Bah" and "Dah"

When I used to go visit Addison, she would say something that sounded like it was in another language.  The crazy thing was, Kara would answer her.  I asked Kara if she understood her.  She said, "Yes, but you have to be around her a lot to understand what she's trying to say."  Now that I'm a parent, I know what she means.

Tyler amazes me with his knowledge of words.  We can now ask him to do simple commands like "Crawl to your [high] chair" or "bring me that" or "come sit in my lap," and he understands us and does the command (if he's in the mood).  We even play "Where's [insert toy here]?" and he'll look around, see the object, smile, and crawl over and get it for us.

He knows so many words.  He's getting better about communicating some of this knowledge, too.  Words he currently says (or at least attempts to say):

Toys:  Bear, Gordy (his toy giraffe), duck, dinosaur, book, dog, ball, puzzle, Elmo

TV: Peppa (as in Peppa Pig), Dora, map & backpack (both from Dora)

Others: Daddy, Mama, puffs, outside, tree, hey/hi, bye, that! (as in, "I want that!")




Now, when I say Tyler says these words, he makes the same sound for the object each time.  That does not mean that the syllables "di-no-saur" are coming out of his mouth.  In fact, nearly every word he says is some "b" or "d" word.

Bear is "bah."  Book is "buh."  Bye is "bye" (I consider this his first official word).  Ball is "bah."  Backpack is "bah buh."  Map?  Well, map is "bah."  Nothing close, but that is very clearly what he says to request the Map Song from Dora.

Duck is "duh."  Dinosaur is "die" or "die-rrrrrr," which comes from George on Peppa Pig always saying "Dinosaur, grr!"  Dog is "dawh."  Dora is "Dorh."  Daddy is sometimes "Da da," but usually it's "Dah."  I especially love when he says "Hey dah" to get Jason's attention.  Precious.

"That!" is "Dat!"  He may not have the "th" sound downpat yet, but no one would need this one explained to them if they heard him.


As you can tell, lots of very similar-sounding "b" and "d" words that Jason and I have to decipher.  The outside world?  You may need a translator.

Pullen Park

I've wanted to go to Pullen Park for a while now, but Tyler's not really old enough to do most of the stuff there.  Guess who is -- Addison!  When she, Kara, and Mom came to Raleigh a little while ago, I decided it would be a great place to visit.

We had a blast!  We picked up food at Wendy's and had lunch at one of the picnic areas.

Then, our next stop was the train:

keeping herself occupied while we waiting in the loooooong line for the train

big smiles

Tyler's "whoa, what's going on?" look of amazement as we started moving

"Mama, this train is awesome!"

Then, Addison played in the playground a bit while Grandma and Tyler took a break in the shade.  He was sooooo sleepy, but refused to miss out on any of the fun.

Then, Kara and Addison came back with LocoPops.

sampling the chocolate brownie one

... and then the cherry lime one!

Then, it was time for the carousel!  Mom decided she would sit this one out.  Addison picked out a brown horse to ride on.  I put Tyler on a giraffe, but he kept squirming/trying to get off while we were waiting for the ride to begin.  I looked around and saw that a lot of parents were riding behind their kids and thought this might work better.  It did.  Yes, I rode a giraffe on a carousel.  What of it?

How gorgeous are they?  The answer?  Very.

We had a big ol' time there, and spent 7 whole dollars (plus an arm and a leg for the well-worth-it popsicles).  Dear Pullen Park, thank you for only charging $1 to ride your rides.  I will definitely visit again.