I See You!

Since Tyler meets all the requirements, he now gets to ride in his new car seat! We've been really excited about being able to see him as we go for a drive. Not only can we see what he is doing, but we can also have fun with him. Playing Peek-A-Boo and clapping our hands, as well as imitating noises with each other are just some of the fun that we can have now.
When we put him in it for the first time, I just couldn't believe how much older he looked in it. I think we totally wore out his old car seat and we are going to miss it some. Oh well, now we can see his beautiful little face all the time and I wouldn't trade that for the world!

You can see how little he looked in it the first time we put him in it to take him home from the hospital by the picture on the top right.

12 month Check Up

Yesterday Tyler had his 12 month doctor's appointment. The doctor said everything was fine, however it was an extremely rough day for Tyler. It started when they had to check his temperature the rather uncomfortable way. Then the doctor ordered some blood work to be done. With most 1 year olds, they have to be checked for lead exposure and anemia. He did get to sit on my lap for that test, however he had found the needle to be pretty painful. They put a cool yellow bee bandage around his arm to stop the bleeding. Then to top his day off, we were sent down to get his immunizations, where he received 3 in total. To say the least, he was pretty happy to get out of the clinic and while we waited for Daddy to finish work, he took a long nap.
Tyler weighed in at 20 lbs 13 oz making him eligible to sit in his new car seat!

Happy Birthday to a Wonderful Sister & Aunt

Happy Birthday Janell!!! Today is Steve's sister's birthday. Janell is a caring, thoughtful person and Tyler is very lucky to have such a wonderful aunt. Janell, we hope you have a fun filled day and may all your birthday wishes come true!

Hope to see you guys soon!!!

Love you
Steve, Heather & Tyler

I Finally Got My Own Toothbrush!

Tyler was introduced to brushing his teeth for the very first time this morning. Since he now has 6 teeth, we figured it was about time he got his very own toothbrush and start learning proper dental hygiene.

I passed him the toothbrush and let him play with it for a few minutes, then I grabbed my own toothbrush and showed him how Mommy brushes her teeth. It was only a matter of seconds, before he had the correct end of the brush in his mouth and he started imitating me. I then put some baby toothpaste on the brush and started lightly brushing his teeth. He liked the apple banana flavour of the paste. I was expecting this to be a difficult process, but he really seemed to enjoy the whole experience. Of course, at this stage, he likes anything that goes into his mouth!

More Birthday Cake Photos

The Birthday Fun Continues

After getting a nice warm bath to clean off all the icing from his birthday cake fun, it was now time for him to open cards and presents. Grammy and Grampy sent him a big box and as soon as we opened it and saw that it was a rocking horse, we stuck the pony's head out. Tyler came right over to the box and was very interested. We took the pony out of the box and his excitement grew even more. He gave the pony a big hug and buried his head into him. Steve helped him on the pony and he had a great time! Meanwhile the cats were terrified of Tyler's new pal. Both Sophie and Luigi started growling and hissing at "Clippity the Pony" and their tails were all puffed out. Steve had fun chasing them around the house with Clippity.
Well, it's almost time for the birthday boy to conclude his birthday fun for the day and go Night Night time. Thank you so much everyone for the birthday wishes!!! We still can't believe that he is now a year old! This little baby has made us so happy. I never would have imagine how much he changed our world!!!! He is truly the best thing that has ever happened to us and we thank God each day for this wonderful blessing!!!! Happy Birthday Tyler from Mommy and Daddy!!!!!You are our EVERYTHING and so much more!!!!!! *Note: One year ago on this day at 7:27pm our little angel was born, I just updated the blog and noticed that this final post for his special day was done at 7:27pm.

My First Birthday Cake

After singing Happy Birthday to our birthday boy it was finally time for him to enjoy his cake that Mommy slaved over all afternoon. At first, he took only a little swipe at the icing. We had to coax him to really get messy, but once he did he went right in for it. He was clapping his hands with them covered in icing. He even had fun putting icing on Mommy's face. In the end, icing was everywhere, on his nose, eyelashes and in his hair.

Almost Time for Cake!!!!

Finally! The cake is decorated!!! Daddy gets off work in another 30 minutes and it takes him another hour or so to get home, which gives Mommy some time to clean up the kitchen mess. Then it is time for Tyler to destroy the cake!!!!

Can I have a taste Mommy?

The cake is now baked, the icing made, and all that is left to do is the decorating! Stay tuned to see how Tyler's first birthday cake comes out...

Birthday Cake Preparation

Someone's getting a birthday cake made for him! Sometimes when I'm in the kitchen making something, I will put Tyler in his high chair so that he can watch what I am doing. I explain to him each step that I do and he actually really seems to enjoy it. Well, today being the special day that it is, he gets to watch Mommy make his very first birthday cake.
Ever since I started cake decorating back in my 4H days (I think I was in grade 9 when I started decorating) , I've always dreamed about someday being able to make birthday cakes for my own kids and especially those times when I would make cakes for my friends kids. Well, today is finally the day! It brings tears to my eyes.

Birthday Phone Call & Under the Sea Fun

Tyler is dressed in his birthday outfit given to him by Memere and Pepere last year when he was first born. I remember looking at it when we first got it in the mail and I just couldn't believe that someday this little tiny baby will be big enough to wear it. Well the day has finally come!
Grammy phoned earlier to wish her grandson a happy birthday by singing to him over the phone! At the moment, he is now totally captivated by his new DVD we gave him for his birthday. This is his first time watching "Underwater Adventures" and it seems to be a huge hit with Tyler! His eyes haven't left the screen since I pushed the play button.
Since some of you really wanted to be with Tyler on his birthday today, but unfortunately could not, we have decided to try our best to bring Tyler to you today, so this is for all of you! We hope you enjoy today's postings as it is a very special day for Tyler. We will try our best to update as frequently as it is possible.

Good Morning Birthday Boy!!!!!!

This morning Tyler took full advantage of his very very special day by sleeping in! Today the birthday boy gets to wear his Birthday Prince hat! Tyler already received several birthday wishes all the way from Italy! We will have continuing coverage of his special day as it progresses, so stay tuned...

Show Me

Tyler's development is growing at a fast pace. Whenever he wants something, instead of crying he now points with his little finger to what he wants. Among the things he tells us by pointing, are hungry and thirsty. He will point to the cabinet when he is hungry and when he is thirsty he points to the fridge. It sure makes things a lot easier for us . Now our challenge is to teach him the actual words.

One more day until Tyler's big day!!!

Bananas for Bananas

Among the other new foods that Tyler is eating now, are whole bananas. No more mashed bananas for this little monkey. He now prefers to eat them whole. Mommy and Tyler always share a banana with each other, usually for a snack or even for breakfast. Mommy will hold the banana for him while he takes little tiny bites off with his front teeth.

Mommy's & Daddy's Valentine's Day

Not only did Steve come home early from work today :), but he also brought home pretty pink roses and a heart shaped box of chocolates. It was so sweet of him!!! I gave him a bottle of olive oil bath salts made in Italy and some chocolate truffles.

Steve and I are so blessed to have found each other. We are also very blessed to be together today. There are a lot of couples that can't be together on this very special day, especially military families. To those of you that this applies to, we are keeping you in our prayers.

Happy Valentine's Day Everyone!

This morning we woke up to some very icy roads. Steve was just about to head out to work when he received notice that things on base were being delayed 2 hours, which meant he was able to sleep in later than usual. It was the start of our valentine treats for Tyler. Normally Tyler wouldn't get to see Daddy until he arrives home at dinner because Tyler is still asleep by the time daddy leaves for work. So it was really nice for him to see Daddy off to work this morning. Then we opened up his very first valentines. Thank you Grammy and Grampy! I bought him a little love bug and he really liked its' soft fur. You can see in the photo that he was rubbing it on the side of his face...aww!!!

Mommy and Me

My heart just completely melts when I hear Tyler call out for me. He says my name so much more often and in fact it is completely on a daily basis now. Whenever I am in another room and he is unsure of my whereabouts, he starts to look and hollers out to me. It sounds like "mum mum mum." And when I'm feeding him, he looks at me and with a big smile he will say it again. He sure loves his mom a lot and I couldn't be happier!

"Giraffe", the giraffe without a name

The giraffe that Tyler is holding used to belong to Daddy when he was just a baby. Now that Daddy is much older, he gave it to Tyler to play with. Tyler loves "Giraffe" so much that he is almost always pulled out of the toy chest first.

Steve never gave his giraffe a name while growing up because it was up on a shelf and he never played with it, however giraffe must made some sort of impact on him because he used to tell everyone that when he grows up that he wanted to be a giraffe. How cute!!!

For now, giraffe will go nameless. Tyler has a plastic giraffe toy that we named Gerry. We usually name most of Tyler's stuffed animals that he plays with often, so if anyone can think of a cute name, let us know. We typically give the toys names that start with the same letter as the animal; for example, Larry Lobster.

Update

After a few days of having internet connection problems, we are now back online! I thought I would update you all on our past couple of days. As promised, I took my favourite little guy on a lunch date on Thursday. We went to McDonald's and Tyler had his favourite: fries! He had a great time taking them out of the package himself and eating them one by one. A few little girls kept coming over to him to say hello and their mom came by our table to see Tyler as well. We got into a nice little conversation and found out that one of her girls has a birthday on Feb. 20th, the day before Tyler's! After lunch, we ventured out to find a scrapbook store so I could do a few more pages in Tyler's scrapbook.

Then yesterday my other favourite guy came home from his trip to San Diego! I surprised him with a special heart shaped cake I made especially for him. I bake a chocolate fudge cake and decorated it with fudge icing and put cherries on top. I used the ruffled heart shaped pan that Sandy gave me last year. It came out looking pretty good and it tastes even better!

We picked Steve up last night and it is so good to have him back home again! The few days that he had been gone seemed more like a week!

Steve in San Diego

I get to escape the bitter cold and snow of Maryland to attend Arctic training in San Diego. I know what you are thinking... "How do you do Arctic training in Southern California!?" Well, it was just a briefing on survival and conditions on the ice. I am going to be at ICEX 2007 as a reporter and photographer for work. Anyway, I got a chance to take out a brand new Nikon D2X and try it out. I had quite a difficult time trying to get this thing to get a decent photo. Not the camera's fault by any means. I just need more experience!

Snow Day?

This morning we woke up to some light snow on the ground. Of course, to the people around here, any amount of snow is a cause for alarm. As a result, everything is at a stand still today. Schools are closed, as are stores. I have the car today and I was planning on taking Tyler out for lunch. I guess we'll see how things progress before heading out. Meanwhile, I got Tyler dressed in his snow suit and took him out to experience some snow for the first time. He had fun running his mitt through the snow. Today was the first time we tried the snow suit on him that we bought for him when I was visiting my parents in Canada this summer and it fit him just perfect! I remember buying it thinking it was going to be miles to big for him. It's amazing how fast he grows!

Dancing Baby

All we need to do is say the word, and Tyler is transformed into the "Dancing Baby". Ever since our trip down to Florida at Christmastime, Tyler has been seen dancing. We think he may have witnessed his cousin Abbi dance and so he caught on to the groove. Whenever there is music on the radio or on television you will often see him bop up and down with his legs. Other times we will sing or hum and watch him dance away!

One Step Closer!

Yesterday Tyler surprised us yet again! After not really expressing much interest in his walker, only from time to time and he would only take a few steps, yesterday afternoon he went right to it and all of a sudden just started to take off walking all around the living room and hallway. We couldn't believe how fast he was walking! Tyler was really cruising at warp speeds!

I was very surprised to see this because he never really wanted to walk even if I held hands, instead he would just put both legs up in the air and wanted to sit. I really thought he was going to be a late walker, though I always said that it really doesn't matter when he starts walking because he has his whole life to walk.

Understanding

It all started when we were staying at Joey and Kristin's and they gave him this fish bowl with balls in it, Tyler and I started this game called "Pass the ball" where I would ask him to please pass the ball to Mommy and he would get one of the balls in the bowl and pass it to me and then I would pass it back to him. Then I would ask him to put the ball back in the bowl and he would. I thought it was so cool that he understood what I was saying to him. I ask him to pass me things all the time now and he totally understands. He has understood the word 'bottle' for a while now and when I ask him if he 'wants bottle' he will make this hyper kind of noise (the only way I know how to describe it) and this means "yes". He does the same with these little puffy stars that we give him as a treat, so he knows "star". Tyler also knows "Come here to Mommy" and when I say "Want up?" he puts his two little arms up in the air. When I ask if he has something in his mouth that he shouldn't, he sticks out his tongue and usually there is a piece of carpet or some little thing that I have to pull out. The latest thing that he understands is he will go and turn on and off the light switch when we ask him to. We are really excited that he understands a lot of what we are saying to him and it's just a matter of time before he starts to say more words. The only thing that we are currently working on is the word "no". When he gets into something that he shouldn't, he will stop what he is doing and smile and even sometimes laugh at us. He is definitely at the curious phase, he likes to explore every little thing.

Light Flurries

This morning we woke up to some flurries. Tyler was in amazement at the white stuff falling from the sky. Of course, this wasn't the first time he saw snow, we got lots of snow when he was a baby in NY, but he didn't see much of it because he slept most of the time. He had fun this morning looking through the blinds in Mommy and Daddy's room. It is 30 degrees today. Today is a good day just to stay inside and keep warm.

My brother called last night to say that they were currently getting some snow in Arkansas!

Huggies

Huggies! No, I'm not talking about diapers; lately, Tyler has been coming to us and when we pick him up, he wraps his two little arms around us so tight and nozzles his little head into our chest. His "huggies" lasts for a good minute usually. He is such a sweet little baby!!! How blessed we are to receive so much love!!!