Catching Up

I just realized that was Tyson's first post since Tyler was born. How time flies...

Tyler learned to crawl a few weeks ago, and three days after he started crawling, he started trying to pull himself up to standing. Now he pulls himself up on that chair in his bedroom, on the couch, on the outside of the bathtub...He also loves climbing all over Vader, who graciously tolerates it.

Tyler's favorite syllables right now are "Da Da Da" and "Rah Rah Rah". We both heard him say "Dagobah" one day, so we know he's thinking about becoming a Jedi knight.

For Halloween, we were lucky enough to get to attend a couple of parties in addition to trick-or-treating.

We spent time at my friend Paula's house. She did an amazing job decorating!

We also went to the annual RavenHearse party. No one does Halloween like these guys! The bathroom was amazing, they'd taken the time to adhere at least a hundred rubber spiders all over the ceiling. The whole house is full of Halloween-appropriate decorations.Even their swimming pool was decked out for Halloween.

Even monsters need their sleep...

On Halloween night, we went trick-or-treating with the McNamaras. Here's Sarah, Leo, Tyler and me.

The next week, Tyler and I celebrated Dia De Los Muertos by going to the parade downtown with Lisa, Gene, and Sarah. I don't have any pictures, but we had a great time. Tyler stared at the paraders with the same expression he has when he takes a bath - not a smile, but definitely intrigued and glad to be there.  

One of my favorite things to do with Tyler lately is to bring him to his bedroom, sit him on the floor with his toys, and I sit a little ways away and start reading his books out loud. Within a couple of minutes, he abandons his toys, and comes crawling into my lap to snuggle up and read together. He'll ditch me again to go play, but I keep reading anyway, and he ends up in my lap again a few minutes later.

Tyler also loves music. Tyson has an extra guitar that Tyler's allowed to play with. We lay it flat on the floor and he alternates strumming it and drumming on it. Most of his toys have musical elements to them, too. And of course, when I need to cook or clean in the kitchen, the old pot-and-wooden-spoon combo does the trick.

Tyler has two teeth now, but no interest in solid food. Trying to feed him is like playing air hockey, and he's an excellent goalie, blocking our attempts to get food in his mouth with his fist, a spoon, bobbing and weaving, or simply by raising his tongue to the roof of his mouth and refusing to move it. Yes, we've tried a wide variety of foods, and a wide variety of methods...His daycare teacher was confident that she'd be more successful than us. She was wrong. Every few days, she tries again. I can always tell when she's tried, by the splotches of food on the walls and floor. (Too bad Vader's not allowed at daycare. He earns his keep at our house these days!) I think this picture accurately depicts Tyler's mood during dinner time...

We thought for a minute that Vader's food was more appealing, but it turns out, Tyler just enjoys taking it out of his bowl and feeding it to him.

I think we've turned a corner, though. Grandma Anne Marie got him to eat carrots and apples several times over this weekend, and Tyson and I were able to feed him apples today.

On Saturday, I realized Tyler had yet to ride in a swing, so his grandma and I took him to the park. He liked it some of the time. I couldn't tell whether he liked the slide. Doesn't he look like Spiderman?

This is the same park where Tyson and I held our rehearsal dinner. I'm sure we'll come here more often in the months ahead. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

-C

Tyler stands!...not on his own, but he stands!

Alright, so I have yet to attempt to add a video to a blog post, and I am unsure how to do it, and whether or not you'll be able to view it. I tested the video with the latest version of Windows Media Player an it works fine. It is AVI format, but I hope everyone can figure it out.

Anyhow, sincce this is my first video attempt it is a short 00:24 video, please comment and let me know if this was successful. If so I will add more!

Tyler Renton pulls himself up to stand, unaided. 7.5 months.

I hope this was a success. He is so cute! 

Last Day of Work

"Pretty please, with sugar on top, can't I keep coming to Camp Wellness?"

This has been a month of major changes for our family. In the middle of August, my employer gently warned me that I could no longer get away with having Tyler at work without a babysitter. Coincidentally, the very next week Tyson cut down his hours to working only Saturdays at his job, and became a full time student at the UofA. So it seemed we had found a solution. We've been carpooling to my office, then Tyson bikes to school. Whenever he isn't in class, Tyson bikes back to my work to study while keeping an eye on Tyler. At first, this seemed like a great plan, good for Tyler, good for me, good for the students at the Health & Wellness Center. Unfortunately, it's proved to not be good for Tyson - Tyler's at an age where he no longer sits quietly in his bouncy chair, peacefully gazing at his toys. He'd rather be on the floor, working on his crawling technique, and loudly expressing his frustration at the pace of his progress, or sitting in Tyson's lap, turning the pages of whichever textbook Tyson's trying to read, or editing the essay Tyson's trying to type...

And so, today was Tyler's last day at work, and tomorrow will be Tyler's first day of daycare. I'm excited for him to get more interaction and attention from people who are getting paid just to play with/care for him and other children his age. They'll teach him baby sign language, Spanish, and of course, socialization with other kids. But naturally, I'm sad that he won't be with me at work anymore, and I'm sad for the other folks I know that will miss him (including Tyson, who, although frustrated that he can't focus on his homework, has also gotten used to spending more time with Tyler every day.)

We took some pictures of Tyler during his last day of work. He spent the morning with Auntie Em while Tyson was in class and I was at a work event. Auntie Em knows how to soothe Tyler even when he's hungry and teething!

Later in the day, Tyler and I helped Dave and Joaquin teach "SPA" (the Camp Wellness euphemism for P.E. Class). The lesson of the day was Strength Training, so Tyler demonstrated modified pushups for the class. Just look at that form!

Although he's great at teaching upper body strength training exercises, he's not yet qualified to teach squats or lunges, so Tyler spent that part of the class in the arms of the Camp Nurse (thus getting her out of having to demonstrate these exercises.)

Finally, Tyler finished the day with "Campie Pamela" in the lobby. Pam has spent many a moment speaking  "duck" to Tyler, and soothing him to sleep. How many naps did Tyler take, sleeping flat on his back on the desk between her keyboard and monitor, with the sound of her typing away? Or propped in his bouncy chair next to her while she greeted students, took phone calls, wrote deficiency notices, and kept me on task? I know he'll miss her most of all.

On the bright side, bringing home Tyler's work toys allowed us to reconfigure some of them to create "new" toys for him. The exercise mat we bought when he was just a few days old was converted a few hours ago into a tunnel/obstacle course:

Just look at that balance and precision! Soon he'll be crawling all the way through! (And a new world of challenges awaits...)

On his own...

Last Wednesday, on the floor in my office, Tyler rolled from his back to his front for the first time! Thursday, he repeated this new trick for Tyson several times. And by Sunday, he could do it with ease, startling us with his speed. Congratulations, Tyler!

But rolling over was our official deadline for having Tyler sleep in his crib at night. That sounds alright - the crib is beautiful, and that mattress HAS to be more comfortable than the pack-n-play. But the crib is set up in the nursery, and Tyson has declared he is not going to take it apart to move it into our bedroom and re-assemble it. I briefly thought to myself "He can just keep sleeping in the pack-n-play. So what if the instructions said that once a kid can roll to his stomach, he shouldn't sleep overnight in it. They're just worried about liability." But, regardless of the unlikelihood of the pack-n-play posing a danger, the truth is, we don't want Tyler to sleep in our room forever, and the longer we wait, the harder it will be for him to adapt to sleeping in his own room. I'd read somewhere that "if he can see you from his bed, he'll come to rely on  your presence to soothe himself back to sleep." I'd thought to myself "He can't see me. It's too dark." But early Sunday morning in the dawn light, I noticed Tyler looking at me and blowing raspberries. A few minutes later, he had fallen back asleep. Hmmm.

And so we made the transition Sunday night. On our bed, Tyson carefully wrapped Tyler in his "14-22 lb" swaddle blanket (thank goodness they make swaddle blankets so big!!! This is the only thing that works to get him to sleep through the night!).Then we made the long journey through our tiny living room, turned right to head towards the guest bathroom, then left down the long, narrow hallway to Tyler's room. Suddenly, our house seemed to big, that hallway too long. Tyson tenderly laid Tyler down in his crib. "But he won't have any white noise! He's closer to the street. It's louder down here." Feeling like the Wicked Witch of the West for banishing my son from our room, I steadily responded, "He can have my air purifier from the living room." So Tyson plugged in the air purifier, and carefully angled it to blow clean air in the direction of the crib, so that it could supplement the ceiling fan in providing air circulation. We turned out the light, and made the long, arduous trek back to our side of the house.

We made our own preparations to retire for the night, and turned on the monitor. Glaringly bright lights leered at us, reminding us of our crime against our son. Tyson responded by taking the monitor into the kitchen, and a few minutes later, reappearing, having applied painter's tape over the lights. We tossed and turned, but eventually fell into a light sleep, always listening for any sound to come out of the monitor. At some point during the night, I felt Tyson climb back into bed, telling me "He's okay. He started to wake up, but he's falling back asleep." (The irony of being woken up to be reassured that someone else is asleep is not lost on me.) At 6:20 Monday morning, I once again walked the distance to Tyler's room, to discover him alive and well and still asleep. Cruelly, I woke him up to feed him so we could go to work.

Last night we repeated the ritual. I'm not sure that either of us slept much better. But Tyler did. Here it is, 6:27, and he's still asleep. And so I need to go wake him to feed him so we can go to work.

And the past two nights, Vader's slept, right by my side, on the floor.

Catching up...

We know we haven't been very timely in our posts, and the point of this blog was to keep everyone updated...I keep hearing that Tyler's feeding times will space out. So far, he's still eating every 2 hours during the day, although some afternoons/evenings, he wants to eat every hour. But it's worth it, since most nights he lets me sleep for a solid 6 hours.

People often ask me the following three questions: How is it going, bringing him to work? How's Vader adapting to the new arrival? And finally, how do we like the cloth diapers???

Bringing Tyler to work is still going great. We feel so blessed to have had this opportunity. It's a combination of the right job, and the right child. My co-workers have been very generous in their willingness to help out, including evacuating him during a fire drill, taking care of him while I've coordinated care during medical emergencies, and taking care of him while I confronted a "blackwater" situation (not the Haliburton type.) I will say, it takes absolutely every ounce of my energy to make it through the day, and by Saturday, all I want to do is sleep in, yet Tyler's still on the weekday schedule. Lately, Tyson's been working Saturdays, so it's been especially hard to get the cleaning done.

As for Vader, he never did like being the only dog in the household. For most of his life, he's had another dog living with him. When Dusty died in January, Vader was the saddest dog I've ever seen. Now, although he's as neurotic as ever, he does seem much happier, and is very eagerly awaiting the day Tyler will be old enough to be his playmate. (Heh heh heh, little does he know...) Vader checks on him first thing in the morning, when I first get home from work, and any time he cries.He loves to lick his arms and legs, and sniffs his ears and hair. So far, Tyler's mostly avoided eye contact with Vader, but just yesterday reached out to pet Vader and smile at him for the first time.

Vader was my lesson that "tabula rasa" is a fallacy. I now willingly accept that no matter what my intentions may be, reality doesn't always match up. And so, we arrive at sleeping arrangements.

Here is the beautiful crib we bought for Tyler, which Tyson put together in January:

And here is where Tyler really sleeps:

Yup, he's sleeping in a pack-n-play.

And here's Vader's cozy bed, donated by our wonderful friend Melanie:

And here's where Vader really sleeps:

That's right, he sleeps partially under the pack-n-play. And now that Tyler's too big to sleep in the bassinet portion of the pack-n-play, well, they're basically sleeping right next to each other, on the same level, with only a thin piece of mesh and vinyl between them.

The time is quickly coming for us to move Tyler into his own room for the night. We're warming him up to it by having him nap in his crib in the evenings. I guess we'll probably let Vader make his own decision about where to sleep. I wonder which room he'll choose?

And finally, cloth diapers. We love them. We use the BumGenius 3.0 One Size. They're adjustable, so right now Tyler's wearing them on the middle size. They look very similar to regular plastic diapers, except they're bulky and colorful. We used disposable diapers the week that we were in Virginia and were disappointed by how much they leaked compared to the cloth.We also have only had diaper rash once, so it's good in that department. We do have to wash them every other day, sometimes every day. Fortunately, our washing machine is very conveniently located, and line drying in the desert sun is quick, and bleaches out all the stains. As for stuffing the clean diapers, well, that's good mindless work to do while watching some television.

If someone were to ask my opinion, I'd highly recommend cloth diapering, for environmental, financial, and health reasons. But I'd say don't bother buying newborn size cloth diapers - we didn't use them for the first week because we didn't want the umbilical stump to stain the diapers, and then we couldn't use them for the second week, when we had to put vaseline on Tyler's circumcision site. By the time that healed, he was almost too big for them. Plus, plenty of people bought us newborn disposable diapers for our baby shower. So if I were to do it over again, I just would have used disposable diapers for the first couple of weeks, until he weighed 10lbs, then I'd have started using the One Size cloth diapers. 

And that's my two cents on diapering.

Nicole's Graduation!

At last, we come to the purpose of this vacation: to watch my beautiful niece Nicole graduate from high school. Nicole is my first niece, and I still remember the day she was born like it was yesterday. Here she is!

Nicole got ahold of Tyler right away, and definitely knew how to make him smile.

Tyler met his Uncle Eddie for the first time.I think Eddie was the most anxious person of all for Tyler to be born, based on the frequency of his text messages asking for updates...finally, they got to meet in person.

Tyler also met his Grandpa Glass for the first time.

We slept in Charlottesville Friday night, then returned the next day for the festivities. This isn't a flattering picture of any of us, but it's so rare to have three out of the four Glass kids in the same state, let alone the same photograph.

I've always wondered, what IS a Flying Fluco? Is it a bird or a fish? The question came up during the commencement speech, but the answer left alot to be desired.

Here's my wonderful niece, preparing to walk across the stage:

Nicole's friend and roommate, Brittany, also graduated.

After the ceremony, we went back to Eddie's house to celebrate.

Nicole's mom created this beautiful poster, documenting Nicole's life up until graduation. What a great idea! It was fun to look at the pictures, and brought back many memories for us. I hope to make something like this for Tyler on his graduation day.

Nicole's boyfriend stopped by for a while.

We also got to meet our newest niece, Jillian, for the first time. Jillian is Jennifer's daughter. Just look at those eyes!

My Aunt Gaye and Uncle Wayne also attended. Here's a great picture of Aunt Gaye and Jonell together:

Nicole took a quiet moment to reflect...

Tyler got kisses from his cousin Jillian while Jennifer looks on.

Sometimes he liked it...

And sometimes not.

I love this profile shot of Eddie and Tyler.

Eventually, our nephew Mitch succumbed to Tyler's charms.

And although he wouldn't touch Tyler, we were honored that our nephew Matthew made an appearance.

Tyson actually got a few moments to sit and relax on the veranda, watching the rain.

Of course, it didn't last long.

Tyler spent some time with Uncle Wayne.

My mom got a chance to catch up with Aunt Gaye.

Here's Tyson's favorite picture of the day.

Tyler, if you ever want to know what your Great-Grandma K looked like, this is a pretty accurate representation. Just add some blush and bright pink lipstick...

Eddie and Nancy take a quiet moment to look through their girls' yearbook and reflect on the day.

My mom's been trying to get a family portrait of Tyson, Tyler and me, but the opportunity never seems to strike. Finally, here's a great one!

Oh wait, that's not me. Maybe next time...

Congratulations, Nicole! We're so excited for you!!!

Trip to Monticello

A few years ago, I took Tyson on a tour of Mt. Vernon, George Washington's home. So for this trip, I decided a tour of Monticello, home of Thomas Jefferson, was in order.

For this trip, we brought both the ring sling and the ergo. After much struggling, we finally got  Tyson strapped up and Tyler packed into the ergo.

Yeah, that lasted abut 20 minutes...Although the temperature was only around 90 degrees, the humidity was brutal, especially for desert folk.

All that green is beautiful, but we concluded that we prefer the climate in Tucson.

Here's proof that I do still exist! Sadly, this is about as awake and well rested as I can be these days...

After the tour, Tyson took a moment to introduce Tyler to Thomas Jefferson.

All in all, we decided we liked Mt. Vernon much better. We'll have to take Tyler there someday when he's old enough to stay awake and actually see it.