9 months old

This past month flew by and I can't believe Tyler is already nine months old! As each day/month passes, he becomes more interactive with us and we've had SO much fun this past month! He doesn't really enjoy independent play time for too long, but he loves playing with us. Anything.. as long as we're doing it together. Travis will often chase him and hit his fists on the floor, acting like a gorilla, and Tyler crawls as fast as he can to me. Then he'll go chase Travis and we do this over and over again. It's so cute. :-) It would be play time all the time if Tyler had his way.

We've had a busy month filled with lots of playdates and visits with our friends and family and it's been interesting to see Tyler's personality come out more and more. He is possibly the most social little boy I know. Last week he practically jumped out of my arms to meet the nice lady standing in line behind us at FedEx. Yes, he went to a complete stranger with open arms! She was kind enough to entertain him for a few minutes and I was surprised to see him do that. He's certainly not shy. There isn't an ounce of laid back to him! He is Mr. Go-Go-Go ALL THE TIME! He has to constantly be on the move, whether that's playing with one toy and moving to the next or wanting to be carried around so he can see what's going on. He is very stubborn and determined to do what he wants and on HIS schedule and has shown some very entertaining tantrums when he doesn't get his way (the recurring tantrum- me closing the door to the cat room and not letting him go in there). And speaking of tantrums- he hates getting his diaper changed, getting dressed, cleaning his nose and getting his face and hands wiped after eating and is quite vocal about it. He gets ridiculously excited over seeing Cooper and the cats in the mornings and he lights up with the biggest smiles when his Daddy gets home from work. He's shown a very sweet heart. I admire the persistence that I already see in him at such a young age. It gives me high hopes that he'll have a successful future. As I type all of this, I realize that he probably shares a lot more of my personality than Travis' at this point. I know Travis will agree (especially with doing what I want, when I want- haha).

As I mentioned in the several posts before, teething has been hard on Tyler and it was very bitter-sweet for me when those teeth started popping through because it's just a silent reminder that my baby is growing up. To my surprise, I am loving his new smile- although they are still not in completely, I can't help but get right in his face when he is singing or talking just so I can get a glimpse. I'm ready for them now!

We are lucky to have three different types of walkers and I've placed them in different parts of the house so that they are accessible to Tyler everywhere. He enjoys using them and has gotten pretty fast. No steps on his own, but I'm okay with that. We need a couple more months to prepare (if there is such a thing).

He clearly says "Mama" all the time now, however, I don't think he's actually associating it with me. If anyone asks though- I'll always say he said Mama before Daddy. :-)

And aside from our on-going sleeping struggle (which we won't even discuss now), things couldn't be any better and we couldn't be any happier with our little boy!

New teething toy & misc.

I'd like to say, "Don't ask," but I know this needs an explanation. Sometimes I wash my hair over the bathtub while Tyler sits in there with me and plays with his bath toys. I thought he was playing with his toys, but found him doing this instead! Poor kid will teeth on anything! I promise... we do have TONS of (clean) teething toys!







Here are some random pictures that I took of Tyler in his room today while trying out my new camera. So far, I like it!









Our makeshift ballpit (until we buy a real one!)

Three teeth and counting...

Tyler's other top tooth has finally broke the surface. Now we have the two top front teeth (I've learned these are the upper left and right central incisions) and the one bottom tooth (the lower left central incision). He's been grinding these teeth together now and making a horrible sound, like he's chewing on rocks! Maybe we'll get a little break before some more pop up!

Busy, busy...

Teething has still proven to be rough for our little boy this past week. His top gums are so swollen and it looks like he's going to get a mouthful of teeth any time, but at this point, we still just have the two (which are definitely taking their time coming in completely). Along with the pain of teething, Tyler has had a mild fever, diarrhea, and has been very clingy/whiny. I actually took him to see our pediatrician and good friend, Dr. Anna, this past Thursday to make sure he wasn't sick. He kept pulling on his ears and I was worried that he may have an ear infection. Thankfully, she gave us a good bill of health... it's just these darn teeth! I am happy that I can still say he's never been sick (knock on wood!). I do think that he's getting past the irritating stage of teething, at least for this round. And on the up side, when he doesn't appear too bothered by his new chompers, it's fun letting him try them out!



We've been busy with more fun playdates. Thursday morning, we hung out at our friend Tanner's house for a group playdate. Tanner's daddy, Travis, and our Travis grew up together.







I guess I didn't get a good picture of Tyler and Tanner, so here's one from a couple of months ago. Tanner is about six months older than Tyler.



*We were supposed to have a group playdate at Amber and Zayd's house on Friday, but Tyler was being a little cranky and went down late for his nap. We hated missing out, but we'll see them again soon.*

We had a nice visit with Great Grand-pop on Saturday.





We had dinner with our friends, Shane and Krista and their kiddos, at their new house Saturday evening. Macy is their youngest and is one month younger than Tyler, but I think she had a growth spurt because she appeared bigger than Tyler this visit. Shane is another one of Travis' childhood friends since the third grade. It's fun to see their kids playing and growing up together just like they all did.









Picture from a couple of months ago.



We went to Bastrop on Sunday to see everyone.

Best Buds

Tyler tried his first graham cracker and it was a hit.. apparently for him AND Cooper! We knew that Cooper would eventually make his way to Tyler's high chair, but not this soon?!?! We've always been pretty strict with Cooper about no begging and not hanging around the table while we eat and somehow, I feel that all that training will soon be thrown out the window. This was so funny and there was no way I could get on to Cooper (I may have even encouraged this by laughing and taking pictures!). The best part was seeing Cooper do his "tricks" for Tyler (sitting and laying down), thinking that would get him a treat! Of course, Tyler got a kick out of sharing his food.









"Yea! He took my graham cracker!"

Week in review

We have teeth! (yes, as in plural) Tyler's bottom tooth broke the surface this past Monday and you can barely see a small tooth there. We discovered a top tooth yesterday that has already broke through and the one right beside it is just about to break through. We have some serious teething going on! You can tell that they're definitely bothering him and he's had a very rough weekend. Travis had to make a trip to Walgreen's at 5:30am yesterday to get Tyler some Tylenol because he just couldn't sleep. Once that finally kicked in, we didn't get out of bed until 10:00am, which was so nice! He really wants to be in a good mood. He'll laugh at something and then immediately stick out his bottom lip and start to whine. It's hard knowing he's uncomfortable despite our efforts to try and help him. We all hope this passes soon. I still can't believe that we'll have pearly whites to show off! That's exciting! I'm taking as many pictures as I can of this adorable gummy smile while it lasts though.









Amber and Zayd stopped by to visit with us on Friday. Little Zayd is already 4 1/2 months old and changing so much every time we see him. I can't wait until this summer when the boys can actually interact better. We are already making plans!









Check out a picture from Tyler & Zayd's first playdate that seems sooo long ago (okay- so obviously, it was a playdate for Amber and myself.)



We had another fun playdate with our friends, Dana and Claire, Thursday afternoon. Tyler loves going to their house to play with new toys and he plays so well with Miss Claire.







"Hi, Mom!"



Crawling through the tunnel~





Miss Claire~



Partners in crime already (wandering off to investigate the other room)~



They had a new friend, Marlee, join them towards the end of the playdate (we gave them all a spoon to sit still- ha)~



Check out some pictures from Tyler and Claire's previous playdates. It's neat to see how they've changed so much each time we get together.

(Tyler- 7 mos, Claire 9 1/2 mos)





(Tyler- 6 mos, Claire- 8 1/2 mos)



(Tyler- 5 mos, Claire- 7 1/2 mos)





(Tyler- 4 1/2 mos, Claire- 7 mos)





Some 'scooting around the house' progress pictures and videos~









He just started taking an interest in the walker that Mamma and Grammy gave him too~





Excited to walk to his daddy~



Tyler also practices walking with just about any object that moves~





Still our favorite way to pass time- chasing the cats all day!





Tackling Cassie~



Of course, we remember Cooper's excitement about becoming a BIG brother, but poor Cooper just didn't know what he was in for. I know he will grow to love Tyler just as much as Tyler already loves him. Cooper has proven to be a great babysitter! I put Cooper on 'baby duty' while I usually run and unload groceries from the car and it's worked really well so far! :-)