About time for an update!

About time for an update, huh? Please forgive my slack... unfortunately I don't have much of an excuse, as Jordon is now officially off work for the summer and I have plenty of help watching baby. We have been very busy though!

So last time I checked in, my little 9 month old monster was really starting to move, and now my 10.5 month old child is unstoppable. I remember the days when I could lay him on his play gym and he'd just quietly bat at toys while I got stuff done.... those are long gone! Tyler is normal, hand and knees crawling now. Bye, bye army crawl! He also is on the verge of walking. My mom got him a little walker and he just takes off on that thing! It's pretty funny to watch him crawl up to it, pull himself right up and take off. Occasionally, it's in a corner and he just pushes it against the wall over and over again until we come pull it out and situate it so he can walk somewhere.

Tyler is doing great with eating as well. He eats 3 meals a day with some snacks, and can pretty much eat whatever we are eating for dinner, just cut up into small pieces. Last night he ate leftover pork roast (in small pieces of course), sweet potatoes, and green beans. I still give him some puree for dinner though, just to make sure he's getting enough. Also, my baby is finally a sippy-cup boy! I am no longer an on-demand restaurant for him (so this is what freedom feels like?). Phew. It's really bittersweet weaning him though... I still cherish the 2x a day that I nurse him (when he wakes up and after dinner) because he snuggles right up and is so happy, but I am happy not to have to find a place to nurse him whenever we are out and about. Plus he was getting so distracted and rambunctious during his daytime feedings that both I and the pediatrician believed he was starting to self wean. Ideally, I want to keep at least one nursing session until he is 1 year old, so we shall see how it goes! But I am very proud of EXCLUSIVELY breastfeeding for 9 months... it was hard work!

And you may have noticed I didn't mention anything about those middle-of-the-night feedings. That is because my baby is FINALLY sleeping through the night! I seriously thought the day would never come. He sleeps 8:30(ish) to 6(ish) and I am so happy to finally get some uninterrupted sleep. Ideally, he'd sleep in a little later, but hey, I'll take what I can get. We didn't really do anything special to sleep train him this time. We went away for one night into Roanoke for our anniversary (2 years! Can you believe it?!) and Jordon's parents kept him, and obviously had to comfort Tyler without nursing during the night. I guess that's all it took because the next night he slept right through. When his 8th tooth finally popped through he did wake up during the night for a few nights, but we were dead set on NOT reintroducing those night time feedings, so Jordon and I took turns rocking him back to dream land.

Tyler is also babbling away these days! He was pretty slow to make consonant sounds (probably because he was putting all his energy into moving), but now he just talks all the time. His first, and favorite, sound to make is "dada." Of course. He doesn't really know what he is saying (although my dear husband would beg to disagree) but he will say it all day long. The other night Jordon was rocking him to sleep and I could hear "dadadadadada" softly coming from his room for about 10 minutes. He also says "wa" and "ba" and "ya" and "ha" but absolutely no "ma." grrr. I keep saying "Tyler, say MAMA!" and all I get is "dadadadada." You see the kind of appreciation I get?

I did, however, have an awesome first mother's day! My mom was in town so I was able to see her (and let her know how much I now appreciate her MORE since I know what it takes to be a mom!). Jordon worked at Wintergreen, but came home Sunday afternoon and presented me with a generous spa gift certificate (I'm going to get a massage, but I have to figure out what I'm going to spend the rest on!) and the cutest photo collage from the Ty man. Plus he made me pancakes for dinner. I was craving them ;-)

Tyler is just the best baby ever! We went to Grace and Chris's wedding up in Connecticut, and he was seriously an angel. He did pretty well on the drive up (he slept a lot of it and then I'd play with him in the back seat for awhile until we'd take a pit stop) and did awesome while we were there. We stopped in New Jersey to visit Niki and her family (and to break up the trip a bit), and while we were there we visited Carlos Bakery in Hoboken, so Tyler was able to taste a famous cupcake!

At the wedding, he slept during the ceremony and was good at the reception too. We dressed him up so cute in a shirt and tie, and everyone there just adored him. I think he was giving Grace and Chris a run for there money when it came to attention (just kidding!). We had a blast. And, we got a sitter for the second half to the reception (8:30pm-11) so we could enjoy ourselves some more and Tyler could go to bed on time, so the night was just perfect! Obviously, traveling that far with a ten month old is not ideal, but we made it work and had a great time.

We're excited for this summer since Jordon officially has time off work and we can spend time doing things as a family. I certainly enjoy the help taking care of Tyler during the day as he is a handful now that he is moving so much. Jordon has been taking him for rides on the lawn mower (which he loves!) and we've been taking him on short evening walks around our block. It's awesome to be able to spend quality time all together. We are so blessed!