Dogs are cute too...

Chloe wants everyone to know that she is over her sickness..and still cute. Notice how she made herself a little pillow out of her bed. What a goof.

"g" sweater

Graham's Yaya (Grandma-my mom) worked really hard and made him a cute new sweater. It is a little big now so that he can hopefully wear it next winter. Considering his current height and weight stats, I don't think that will be an issue. Thanks Mom!

Art Class

Graham and his little buddy Lilli had art class today. In between projects Miss Jan lets the kids play while she sets up the next project. This is actually Graham's favorite part of class. He goes straight for the balls. Though today Lilli beat him to them, and he wasn't quite sure if he should get in with her. There is one picture of his actual art, it is on the table next to him on the left in the picture he is standing playing with the bead thing....Don't they look cute in their smocks?

What we do all day...

I am sure there are many of you out there that wonder what we do all day long. Well, after getting ready for a meal, eating it, cleaning up from it, changing diapers, rocking to sleep, getting up from naps, letting dogs out, feeding them, there really isn't that much totally "free" time in my day. I know that is hard to believe, I wouldn't have believed it myself a year ago when I was still teaching. However, when the "free" time during the day does pop up, here are some photos of what we do. The fun part? Graham is loving helping! He gets really excited to find socks in the dryer (he will only pull out socks- and actually searches for them in there, it's pretty cute) and most often leaves some of his toys in there as well. He also is a huge fan of my new Dyson vacuum. Isn't it lovely? I love it. It was a Christmas gift that I was so looking forward to! Graham likes it too, he chases me around as I vacuum, laughing hysterically. As for the dishwasher, he tries to crawl into it...so that is a chore we try to avoid!



Notice the little blue ball in the dryer, and the little orange ball in the dishwasher. There used to be a little red ball too....I haven't been able to find it in weeks. I wonder why!? :)

1 year portrait session

I finally got myself together to take Graham for his one year portraits. I got his pictures taken at 1 month, 3 months, 6 months, 9 months, and now 1 year. These weren't the greatest, but I managed to find one or two that I liked. Graham pretty much looked worried through the whole session, was a drooly mess, and I tried to do something with his hair, but he was having a bad hair day. Oh well. They always try to sell you on the "enhancements" at the beginning (the photos labeled with "E"), but I prefer the plain portrait shots (the ones labeled with "P"). Try the link below.
https://www.smilesbywire.com/home.asp?AC=LTPP0713119108JCP When you get there, enter Monica Tyler as the customer name and you should be able to view them.


After we got home and Graham had his lunch he wanted to model his cute outfit one more time..too bad you can't see his argyle socks that match his sweater.

Bath fun

Here is some cute video of Graham from bath time tonight. I even did some experimenting with the movie maker on my computer..so this is a few different videos put together. I was trying to get him to do a bunch of words, etc. Things to look for, Graham saying "baby" (he likes to whisper too..so listen carefully!), growling like a tiger, and my favorite-singing "Oh, oh, oh" . Of course his cute run/walk/waddle to the bathroom is the cutest!

Watching history....

Watching the new First Family

Taking a milk break

Parade time!

We spent much of this 5 degree day inside watching Inauguration coverage. It was such an exciting thing to witness. Graham liked all the clapping and cheering. He waved to all the people during the parade. He is pretty good with this due to the fact that we watch the Today Show most days and he claps and waves to the crowd outside the studio every morning. Anyway, we had a fun day watching all of the historical coverage, it was a good first history lesson! I enjoyed watching it all, but I do have to say I think the part of the day that made me smile the most was Aretha's hat. You go girl.

Work, work, work.

Hard at work on his laptop! If you look closely, you can see his little hair curling in the back. Some days it doesn't do this and looks pretty straggly, but other days it does curl and look pretty cute!

Brrrr!

We have been hit with some crazy winter weather! It snowed all day yesterday, and today it is -4 degrees! All my teacher friends are going to enjoy a snow day tomorrow! I did take Graham out once to go to the gym, I couldn't stay inside again all day. He wasn't enjoying his extreme bundling!
After our trip to the gym, I decided I wanted to have Graham make a snow angel. It was so cold, I promise he was in the snow for less than 10 seconds! He laughed when I was moving his arms and legs to make the angel, but when I stopped to take the pictures he wasn't too happy. I wouldn't have been either. We went inside and put on warm clothes and ate a nice lunch. Oh, and Graham drank a good 5 oz of his soy milk today, yay!

New Sippy..

I am on a quest to make milk drinking from a cup fun and exciting. With this monstrosity I succeeded! 10 oz. of Sponge Bob (he doesn't know who Sponge Bob is....but the colors are exciting I guess) and a straw enticed Graham to drink a little more milk. This time there was no breast milk mixed in, but it isn't whole milk, it's vanilla soy milk. He seems to like that a lot better. Hopefully we will get to sneak some whole milk in eventually, but for now vanilla soy it is! When I took Graham to the pediatrician the other day he informed me that babies at this age really only require about 4 oz. of milk a day if they are getting plenty of cheese and yogurt and a multivitamin. That made me feel a lot better about his hatred of milk. So if I can get him to drink the soy (it has the same nutrients as whole milk..but I am not wild about the sugar added for the vanilla flavoring..trade off I guess) that is great!

Snow!

For lunch entertainment today, Graham watched the snow fall. He was mesmerized. He normally babbles and talks a lot during lunch, today he just peacefully watched the snow fall. It was so sweet. Tomorrow I am planning on taking him out in it to play. Should be interesting!

Big Man on Campus:)

Doesn't he look like he should be casually strolling through the Quad on a college campus? For you Miami grads, I am picturing him going through where the seal is on his way to Upham Hall. Now I'm sad.

Baby stats...

Graham had his 1 year old well baby appointment today. Here are his stats..He is 19 lbs. 5 oz....which puts him in the 10th percentile for weight. He is 29.5 inches long ( guess we can say tall now that he is pretty much upright!) which places him in the 45th percentile for height. I'm convinced he is really about 30 inches though...we shall see. Since Graham's birth he has continued to drop off the weight chart. His pediatrician has never been worried, and neither have I...though Pat and I like to joke about his future as a horse jockey or gymnast. It does kind of surprise me that he didn't gain a little more this time, as he loves to eat!

For the love of books!

Tonight while I was in the laundry room I heard some whimpering out in the family room. This is what I saw when I came out. Of course instead of helping him out of his book bin, I grabbed the camera to take pictures! Notice his shirt....it was just put on him about 20 minutes before this was taken! Ahh, teething!

Monday is..art class day!

Graham and his buddy Lilli had their art class today. I forgot my camera, but wished I would have had it because the kids were a mess! They painted at an easel today, made play dough, and decorated a giant gingerbread man with icing. We both came home and our clothes went straight to the wash! So, here is Graham playing with his cars after class...sans clothes! Notice in the second picture his foot is in the drawer...this morning I caught him with the same drawer open, and with he feet in it was attempting to climb up closer to the tv. Yikes! Let's hope he forgets that trick.

Feeling good!

Graham is doing much better! He didn't wake up at all last night, and is as happy as can be. He still has a runny nose, the biggest challenge that presents is getting him to let me wipe it! Here is a cute picture of Graham kissing his baby. We all get a lot of hugs and kisses these days, I love it!

Croup!

Cross you fingers that we do not have a night like last night! Graham has had a runny nose since Thursday, and a slight cough, no big deal....or so I thought. He went to bed happy and normal last night at 7:30, like any other night. Now, keep in mind that Graham rarely wakes at night, and if he does, I hear a little whimper on the monitor, or a quick two minute cry, and that is that. I can honestly say that since I stopped feeding him during the night when he was about 3 weeks old (crazy, right?) neither Pat nor I have really ever ventured into his room at night. I have peaked in to check on him of course, put his blankie back over him, but we have never gone to him in the night because of him crying. I've found that when we hear him cry, if we ignore it, it will stop in less than 10 minutes. He is really good at self soothing, and always has been.
Anyway, around 11pm we heard him start to cry...after a few minutes it just got really bad, and sounded like a horrible panic cry, like he was in pain. We went up to him, and I scooped him out of the crib, and the poor little guy couldn't breathe. He was crying so hard, and couldn't catch his breath. Then he tried to cough and the scariest sound came out. It was like a bark or a seal I thought to myself. Then I realized, Oh my goodness, I have read about this cough in all my baby books! I then was trying to remember what they said to do and all I could remember was to take him outside in cold air, or go in the shower and run a hot shower and sit in there with the steam. Also, in my slight panicky head, I was confusing croup and whooping cough, and couldn't remember which the seal bark cough was associated with, or which remedy belonged to which cough! UGGH. So, instead of thinking to actually look it up, we sat and rocked and tried to calm baby boy down. We gave him water, refilled the humidifier, and after about an hour, it all stopped and he went back to sleep. It was so scary though! They say that when you hear that cough, you know, and well, you really do! Here is a link to some info....http://www.askdrsears.com/html/8/T084200.asp .
In the morning Graham woke happy but snotty. We still called the doctor and he confirmed that we indeed had a "croupy" baby and either of the two things I thought about doing were correct. He said it very well may occur again the next few nights, as it tends to happen at night most often. Hopefully Graham will have a restful night, poor little guy was so stressed last night, it was kind of scary!

Big Boy Shoes!

Now that Graham is walking it was time to graduate from his soft shoes to "big boy" harder soled shoes. I have been debating forever as to what to get, and finally decided to shell out the big bucks for Stride Rite shoes -after all it is his first pair! So far I am happy because they are easy to put on, and they stay on,these two factors alone make them worth the price in my opinion. Graham seemed to like them too because he was a ball of fire tonight, tearing around getting into everything, and making all sorts of silly faces. Not to mention his happy screams, and tons of babbling. I need to get some video of him saying all of his words, but he tends to stop talking when I get out the video camera. He is really repeating a ton now, and really wants to know what things are, he points and says "this ?" to things all the time. Some of his favorite words are baby, mama, dada, Chloe ( this sounds more like "coy"), this, teeth, yes, and cheese. He shakes his head no, but doesn't say the word. He also is getting pretty good at some signs, he will do the sign for milk, all done, dog, and more.
Talking to Chloe, but showing you his new hard soled shoes!

Big Boy Shoes!

Floundering on the ground!

Helping me unload the dishwasher..I said, "you are such a bog boy helping Mommy". Hence, the one handed "so big".
Then it was over to the fridge to play with the farm and "word whammer". He loves to press the ABC song button and clap along.
In the middle of meals lately Graham stops eating, and looks at me from under his eyes like this! It is too funny. He gets really still and stares at me....then this happens below.
...Laughing like crazy! It's a funny quirky thing he does that is probably better seen on video, but you get the idea!

Nap update

The holidays were so fun, but they definitely took their toll on Graham. He wasn't sure if he was coming or going by New Years! He actually did well in the moment, but the cumulative effect of travel, staying up later, missing naps, etc. made him a little cranky, and disrupted his sleep patterns a bit. I thought maybe he was telling me it was time to go to one nap (again) but I thought I should just try to stick to our normal schedule for at least a week before I go changing things on him yet again. After a few days of him not settling down to sleep for his second nap I thought it may be time to give up that morning nap. When I say not settling down, he really doesn't cry, he just chatters and babbles in his crib, some crying in there sometimes, but not enough for me to go rescue him. He will talk and play (with what, I don't know but he is entertained!), then after about 30-40 min, there is silence. This is abnormal for Graham. Normally I put him down, and to la la land he goes. So, I chose to stick with our 10 and 2 nap schedule, and sure enough after a few odd days, he is back into it.Sticking to a sleep schedule really does help him stay happy.
He is even nursing way less at 2 pm, so that feeding is about to go. Probably by the end of the week I think we will be done with it.
That brings me to another subject, weaning. If anyone has any advice on how to get baby boy to enjoy cow's milk, please let me know. I am simply offering it to him in a sippy several times a day. He really doesn't like it, but today he actually drank a good 2 oz. of it. So, maybe he will start liking it better. I think he will be weaned by the end of the month. Though, I really don't think it will be too hard for him. He has never been the type that nurses for comfort other than those two times. I think I will have a harder time with it than he will!

The girls

Most of you know that I am a dog lover. Err, was. No, really, I love my girls, they just seem to be in the way a lot more these days. Though it is getting better after they had a long vacation at their grandparents house. They always come back well rested and a little calmer. Anyway, they get alone fine, but rarely do they hang out and cuddle together. I just happened to catch them cuddled up the other morning. Pretty cute.

Picasso!

Today Graham and I tried an art class with our friends Lilli and Jenn. It was interesting to watch the kiddos decide what to do. Graham wasn't too thrilled with finger painting...he ended up tasting more of it than painting. I swear he will be that kid in kindergarten who eats the glue! He actually got really upset with the whole idea. He must take after me, messes aren't fun! My mother loves to tell the story of the first time they took me too the beach and I wouldn't get off the blanket and touch the sand:)...Anyway, check out the masterpieces...bidding starts at $1.00 (ok, $2.00 for the snowman since I obviously helped out:))
Can you see the blue paint in his mouth? Yum. Don't worry, it's non-toxic, but still yucky!
Picking just the right color for the snowman!
The finished works of art! I struggled to get that handprint!

It's offical, we have a walker!!!

We have a true walker! This just became official today, on his birthday! He has been taking steps now and then, but now he understands that this walking thing may be fun.! This is a short video so pay attention! I was the only one home and was trying to get him started and then get far enough away to tape.
He is big on milestones occurring on big days, he started really crawling at exactly eight months too.

Happy 1st Birthday Graham!

Exactly one year ago today, Graham was a newborn baby! Here are two pictures of his first few hours. Why is it when I look at him this is still what I see? Sweet baby.
This was Graham this morning(below). Pat and I woke him up by singing Happy Birthday while videotaping. We decided this will be a Tyler family tradition. One that he will love for a few years, but will dread as a teenager, I can't wait!
Graham decided to show off all of his riding toys Santa brought him, as well as some birthday presents. Have you ever seen MTV Cribs? I feel like this is when they show the rappers cool cars lined up out side their mansions....toddler style.

Oh, and he is of course doing "So big".

What a big one year old boy!!!!!!

Elliot Louise

Newborns are so sweet! How quickly you forget that babies were that little! December 30th Sarah J and I ventured to see Libby and her little four week old, Ellie. I was in complete heaven holding a little snuggly one again! Ellie was a perfect angel, and Libby is a natural as a new mom. I couldn't get enough of her and am going back to visit next week. Graham stayed home with daddy for the trip, no need to overwhelm Libby with the wonders of toddlerhood as she is just beginning this mommy thing! Sarah, Libby and I have been friends since third grade, over twenty years. Wow, we are old:)