Finally!

He finally, finally let us brush his teeth!



Getting ANYTHING into Tyer's mouth has been a challenge - since the day he was born. We spent the first two weeks of January focused on trying to get Tyler to eat baby food. He was an expert at blocking us, either by weaving his head back and forth, placing his tongue on the roof of his mouth and refusing to budge, or finally, leaning over his chair and looking at the floor, to make the most of gravity. But we finally succeeded in getting him to eat - he still cries for the first two bites, then decides to go ahead and make the best of it. We also have him drink some water after each meal, pouring it from a cup into his mouth. It's hard to tell whether he's actually drinking it or just playing with it. We've even started him on level 3 foods now, and although he still gags sometimes, he's finally starting to keep it down. We also got him to eat some spaghetti off my plate last night. YAY!

Other skills Tyler's been working on:
walking along the coffee table or from chair to chair
reading books - he LOVES books!
shaking his head from side to side (as though he's saying "No")
crying and saying "No" when scolded
"Da Da", "Va Da" (Vader), "Dog", "MomMom", "Hi", "Wa Da" (Bostonian for water), and lots of other words that Tyson and I haven't learned yet
Clapping his hands
Clapping our hands
Gesturing towards the ceiling fan to ask us to spin it
And just today, he repeated some of the words from one of his books! (Specifically, he chimed in as we read "Three singing pigs say La La La", saying La La La. Then we coaxed him into saying Moo and Meow)
Tyler's favorite books lately are So Say the Little Monkeys and We're Going On A Bear Hunt.
Thanks Jonell for all those wonderful books!
-C
PS Yeah, we finally gave in and gave him an amateur haircut. And by "we" I mean "Tyson". Tyler wouldn't sit still, so Tyson resorted to trimming his hair while he was nursing. Yikes. But I will say Tyler seems alot happier now that he doesn't have all that hair in his face anymore...

First Christmas

I used to dread spending Christmas in Tucson, but this year was a joy, thinking of traditions to establish as a family. Christmas Eve church service being one, so of course I had to find an outfit for Tyler to wear to church. Since I so dislike shopping, I waited until Christmas Eve to buy an outfit, but Anne Marie helped me rig this one. Tyson balked at the sweater vest, but I was able to reassure him that our cool nephew Cole wore sweater vests to church on Christmas Eve when he was a wee little elf...Besides, clearly that hairdo cancels out the sweater vest, right?

Tyler loved the music of the church service so much that he decided to join in, singing and shaking his new soccer ball which had a bell in it. He later threw the soccer ball a couple of rows ahead of us, but somehow avoided hitting anyone and managed to survive without it for the rest of the service. After the service, we sprinkled magic reindeer food in front of our house, then strolled through the neighborhood to show Tyler the Christmas lights.

Tyson and I had come to the timely realization earlier that week that when you commit to cloth diapers, you're also committing to owning a functional washing machine. (Thank goodness it didn't break during a load of dirty diapers!!!) Tyler spent his last waking minutes of Christmas Eve enjoying our new machine. That door is fabulous, and provides a solid 20 minutes of entertainment every evening, watching the colorful diapers swirling around.

Of course, sometimes you have to get in for a closer look...and it seems like smacking it impatiently when it pauses gets it going again!
 

 

 
I've been well-trained by Payton, Cole, and Shelby to rise early on Christmas morning. This particular morning, Tyler woke me before sunrise to eat, but curiously, instead of begging to open his stocking gifts, this peculiar little boy went back to sleep! So there I was, all alone with no one to open gifts with. Eventually I persuaded everyone to wake up, and asked Vader to demonstrate the finer art of unwrapping.

Tyler was thrilled with his first basketball.

He was also pretty excited about his first football.  

Best of all, of course, were the blocks. Just look at his face! Already envisioning the hours he'll spend building castles and tearing them down.  

 Okay, okay, I admit it, I'm more even more excited about the blocks than he is...

Although he's doing his best to hide it, Tyson was somewhat happy with his gift certificate to the brew shop.  

 Hope you all had just as merry of a Christmas! Can't wait for Christmas 2011!