Mother's Day

I've heard so often that infants and toddlers like to work on just one skill at a time, and usually that seems to be true. But over the past two weeks, Tyler's changed pretty quickly in a variety of areas.


Tyler's favorite vocabulary word right now is "Neigh", as in the sound a horse makes. It's high pitched and full of laughter, and doesn't always have an N attached. Then yesterday, as I read a few animal sound books in a row, he worked on "Cock-a-doodle-doo." How do you go from one syllable to five just like that? He's said "Quack" a couple of times, and on the way to work one day this week, suddenly blurted "Yeah!" So now we're working on "Moo" because we want him to say "Mom".

We've reported our difficulties in getting Tyler to eat table food on multiple occasions. Last week we were extremely frustrated with our lack of progress. Tyler would cry the entire time he was in the high chair. We tried a different, fancier high chair, to no avail. Suddenly, this week, the high chair was no longer the enemy, and meal time was actually pleasant. The meal that spurred this change? PF Cheng's meal at home - Mongollian Beef, with red bell peppers, green beans, and rice. This kid has taste.

Now Tyler's enjoying a wide variety of meals, be it the "Elmo" version of spaghettios that he detested just one week ago, slow-cooked roast with vegetables, bread, chicken "weiners", beef, cooked carrots, potatoes...He even tried putting a kibble of Vader's dog food in his mouth, but to my relief, made a face and spit it back out. That's one food I'd rather him not decide to enjoy.

Tyler also learned to drink effectively from a "sippy cup" by himself. Yay!

Tyler has also been rather reluctant to begin walking - when we try to "finger-walk" with him, his legs buckle and he collapses in a heap. When his "Lil Movers and Shakers" teacher tries to get him to walk, he sucks in his stomach and lifts his legs together in a perfect pike position. (Seriously. That takes major stomach muscles. Yet he won't walk???)

But Tuesday morning, while I was dropping him off at daycare, I heard the teacher yelling from the next room, and rushed in to learn he'd just walked from one table to the other in the hopes of getting someone's fruit loops. On Friday at lunch, as the teacher sat on the floor eating spicy cheetos from the bag, Tyler crawled from me to her to beg. He licked one of the cheetos before she could stop him, so she handed it to me. He stood up and walked from her to me to get the cheeto. So then, how could I not let him have it? He smiled triumphantly, cheeto showing from between his teeth. A couple minutes later, red drool emerged from his mouth. Soon after, tears sprang from his eyes and continued until the cook produced a cup of water for him. Guess he won't be eating spicy cheetos again for a while. But he walked! By himself!

So today, on Mother's day, how fitting that he truly walked for the first time, more than 2 steps, more like 4, from Grandma Allaire to me, to Tyson, and back to me? Unlike the other two instances in which he walked without realizing it, today we could almost see the lightbulb go off in his head that he could do this, and that he wanted to do it, and having done it, his decision that it was fun!


What a wonderful Mother's day. Tyler decided to start the day early by waking me at 5am. I discovered Grandpa Keith had left a card for me in our front door. Tyson bought me a beautiful bouquet of flowers, and made a delicious breakfast. We drove to Phoenix, where Tyler explored Grandma Allaire's house - somehow, this was the first time he'd ever been there. He explored the grass in the backyard. We gave Grandma Allaire cards, and she gave me another amazing bouquet of flowers. Tyler and Tyson each gave me a card, too. We ate ribs and corn and bread for lunch, then sat and relaxed together after. And as Tyler practiced his walking skills, he frequently came to step over my legs, into my lap and hug me, or to walk around behind me, put his hands on my shoulders, and press his face into my hair. Then off to crawl all over Tyson and laugh together.

I feel so blessed to have such a wonderful, supportive and loving family.
Happy Mother's Day!