I'm a terrible blogger

Four months, no blog. I've been a terrible blogger! In my defense, we have been a busy family and I've been one busy momma. My mother has been bugging me to update, so mom, this one's for you!!

So since my late-August update, I've been busy at my new job. I taught 10 credits of Health and Human Performance courses at Ferrum, 9 lecture credits and 1 lab credit. That's enough to keep me busy, but adding a toddler on top of that and any opportunity for me to do anything else flew out the window. I really enjoyed teaching, but it was tiring! I worked from 8am-12pm Monday-Friday, then played mom in the afternoon, wife at dinner time, then had to catch up on my school work and house work once Tyler went to bed. I won't lie though, having a significant increase in our household income was VERY nice. We managed to pay off one of Jordon's school loans in about 3 months by putting the majority of my paychecks towards the loan (thank you Dave Ramsey!).

Tyler did well with me working. Even though I worked a little last spring, this fall was definitely a big change for him. Plus he was spoiled by having both Jordon and I home all summer, so it was a bit of a shock when he had to start leaving us every weekday. On Monday, Wednesday and Thursday he stays with Jordon's grandma and granddad and on Tuesdays he stays with our neighbor who has twin 3 year old boys. It's nice for him to socialize with some kids! And Jordon keeps him on Friday mornings. This new semester I'm teaching the same times, so we've kept the same schedule. Luckily I'm teaching a couple cardio classes in place of one lecture course this semester so hopefully I'll be a little less busy. Of course, Jordon's tennis season will pick up here in a few weeks, so things won't exactly be easy!

Tyler has been growing like crazy since I've last written. He of course walks everywhere. I love holding his little hand and walking with him in the store or around campus. He's not much of a talker yet... too busy moving I suppose. He has said "dada" and "mum" (he thinks he's British apparently), "dog" and "duck" and actually today he said "stick" haha. But more often than not, he won't saying anything, just point to whatever he is concerned with and say "dis" (This). It's hilarious. He'll do it with the most random things... my coffee cup, a picture on the fridge, a shoe. Crazy baby.

He's been a terrible eater. I'm not sure who is to blame for giving him his first taste of sweets, but he's obsessed with candy. Definitely my child. It's weird though, because of all the random cravings I had while pregnant, I never wanted sweets. Other than candy (because I refuse to let my kid have a diet of candy alone), his diet is comprised of peanut butter (on a spoon, in a sandwich, on crackers, apples dipped in it.... the kid LOVES peanut butter), any fruit (especially applesauce in a pouch haha), goldfish, cereal and milk, and waffles. I've tried and tried for vegetables but he's just so darn picky! He'll also eat pizza and spaghetti most nights, but really he is already a picky boy. Sigh. I do only give him milk and water to drink, so at least he's drinking healthy!

Jordon and I have definitely been getting that "when's the second baby?" question and ton recently and for the record our answer is..... Whenever God chooses to bless us with one! We'd love another child (in fact, I'd love a bunch more children) but apparently my body is just not ready for one right now. Since Tyler has been born my thyroid has been going crazy. In fact, I see my endocrinologist for blood work every 3 months, and with one exception, I have been put on a new dose on Synthroid EVERY time. I also had a wonderfully (note the sarcasm) painful 5 cm cyst on my ovary which has finally gone away. I could tell a nice longggg story of how that diagnosis and recovery went, but I have a stack of dishes waiting to be washed, so I'm trying to make this blog concise. And lastly, somehow I weigh 3-5 lbs less now than I did prior to my pregnancy with Tyler, so I'm sure that's not helping the situation.

So I've been trying to get my body in tip-top baby shape while impatiently waiting for baby #2. Jordon and I started going back to the chiropractor (we've been so busy, we haven't gone in a year) and it's made a huge difference. If you've never seen a chiropractor, I highly suggest it! And I've started acupuncture. My chiropractor said she went and it made a big difference in her stress level, so I figured it'd be worth a try. Definitely an experience! It does not hurt and it feels like you're floating on a cloud kind of. The doctor even thought we could get my thyroid under control with the acupuncture and diet (rather than medication) which would be great since I'm way to young to have a crazy thyroid like I do! So hopefully it helps.

For now, Jordon, Tyler and I are having fun being a family and getting adjusted to having a crazy toddler! We've already dealt with a marker on the wall/floor/fridge experience, pulling trash out of the trash can incident, breaking of fragile items, throwing food on the floor, etc. And I'm sure there is plenty more to come.

Houston, we've got a toddler!

Tyler is all toddles now, barely crawling at all! His first steps were right before his 1st birthday, but for the last couple weeks he's really been taking off and using walking as his primary mode of transportation. I guess that officially makes him a toddler. Today we went to the grocery store and I put him in one of the carts with the little car attached/in front of the basket. Well when I was trying to decide on something, Tyler managed to escape the car, walk over the shelves of hotdog buns, and grab a couple packages. He then toddled over to the cart and put them in the front seat of the car part, then went back for another two packages! I was laughing so hard I thought I'd cry. He's a goofball!

He also has been sprouting all sorts of teeth! Our tooth count is at 11, and will probably get to 12 in the next week or so (there is one just pushing to get through!). While his bottom molars weren't too painful to come in, these top ones have turned my little angel into an obnoxious, whiny toddler. Boo. I know it's bad to call your kid obnoxious, but if you heard "uh, uh, uh" and had to bend over and pick up then put back down then pick up and then put back down a baby all day long, you'd think he was obnoxious too. But I still love him nonetheless! I hope this last molar comes in and we get a break for awhile.

Thankfully, even though he's been fussy during the day, he's been a great sleeper! (Welllll with a few exceptions!). Last night, he was asleep by 9pm and slept all the way to 7:15 or 7:30ish. I can't remember. Either way, it was great. I LOVE SLEEPING THROUGH THE NIGHT! Almost makes me not want to have anymore kids.... almost ;-) Jordon and I have officially starting getting the not so subtle hints that it's time for #2. Not that I'd argue at all, but it is definitely a little daunting thinking about going through sleepless nights, constant carrying, and the wonderful breastfed-baby-poop stage again. We will see when God decides we're ready for the next little blessing in our life, but for now we're just trying to enjoy this new stage in Tyler's life!

And as for Mommy and Daddy, we're getting ready for the school year which starts on Monday. Yes, I said WE because I got a job! The head of the health and human performance program here asked me to teach 10 credits of classes, and I definitely agreed! This momma is ready to work and use her degree! I get an office and a laptop and everything... big time adjunct faculty here! Of course, getting all my prep work done is near impossible while watching baby, but hopefully once the year starts up and we start having Jordon's grandma watch the baby, I'll have more time to get work done.

Lots of growing all around for this family!

One Year!

Wow, does time fly! My little baby turned one year old yesterday, and I cannot believe it. One year ago today I was FINALLY holding my little one in my arms, after a long 39 week and 1 day wait. Phew.

To celebrate Tyler's first birthday, we had a Very Hungry Caterpillar themed party with family and friends. It was a blast. Thanks to Pinterest, my Cricut, and my personal creativity, we had a Very Hungry Caterpillar cake, cake pops, decorations and more. I had so much fun making everything and definitely went all out. I have a lot to live up to for the next birthday! But it was definitely fun.

Instead of gifts, we had people bring baby-related donations for us to donate to the local food pantry. We collected 471 diapers, 420 wipes, 97 containers of baby food, 7 cans of formula, 9 bottles of infant juice, 16 boxes of pedisure toddler drink, 3 bottles, 2 boxes of baby cereal and a fresh food mesh feeder. I was just amazed at everyone's generosity, and was so excited that we could make such a large donation to such a needy cause. I have a huge spot in my heart for feeding and clothing those who don't have much, so I am hoping that this was just one step in teaching Tyler to have the same convictions (sure, he won't remember it much, but you have to start these kind of traditions young!).

Tyler seemed to have a great time at his party. He loved seeing all his family and honorary aunts, and all his baby cousins! He was apprehensive when it came to his cake though. He spent a good couple minutes just feeling the icing haha. I finally put a bit of icing on my finger and gave him a taste, then gave him some cake which he shoved in his mouth. Lots of frosting everywhere! And he played in the sandbox awhile, and with the pinwheels we put out in the yard as favors for the kids.

On his actual birthday (the day after his party), Tyler had a special breakfast (Daddy shared his biscuits and gravy with him), and then played and played with his cousins outside in the sandbox (his new favorite). He went swimming in the evening then slept a nice longggggg time (9pm to almost 8am straight!). Who says parents don't benefit from their children's birthdays? As for our gift for Tyler, his Daddy is building him a toy box! It didn't get completed quite in time for his birthday (we've been traveling like CRAZY and Jordon's been working a lot at Wintergreen), but it should be done soon. Then Jordon's talented aunt will be painting it a Noah's Ark theme! I think Mommy may be more excited than him about this gift!

We took Tyler in for his one year doctor's appointment today and everything looked great! He weighed an even 20 lbs and was an even 30 inches long (although Jordon claims Ty man is at least 30.5 inches), putting him at or just below average for everything. And his head circumference was right at 50%, which is amazing considering everything we worried about while I was pregnant with him. Praise God that he is a healthy boy! Tyler had a blood test for lead and a CBC to check his iron levels, all of which were normal (although the doctor commented his WBC were just slightly elevated and he may be getting a cold soon.... yikes!). Finally, Tyler got 3 shots, much to his discontent. We definitely had a grumpy boy on our hands!

This week we are back to Wintergreen and then next week we'll be camping at Philpot Lake for our family reunion. I'll be excited to finally get back into my house and settled once all of this is over! We have some new neighbors just two houses down from us... the new wrestling coach at the college and his wife and twin boys. I am SO excited to have another mom my age around. I baked some homemade apple streusel muffins with the apples from our apple tree for them, so I think we'll be good friends :-) AND I got a new job! I'll be an adjunct faculty member at the college, teaching Exercise Prescription, Kinesiology, and Athletic Training courses. I even get an office! I'm pretty excited to get out of the house a little more and finally put my degree to good use.

That's all for now! Thanks for sticking around and keeping updated with us this year!

Baby's 1st Fourth of July!

What an awesome week we've had! First of all, Tyler took his first steps on the 3rd! So proud of my little one. He still needs some practice, but he's going to be running around in no time. He's been busy eating like a big boy too, including whole milk! The pediatrician said we could cheat a bit and start it midway through the 11th month, so we decided to give it a go and he loved it.

Little boy is now also officially weaned. It is definitely bittersweet. I had planned to keep at least one feeding in the schedule until his first birthday, but a couple of weeks ago he came down with hand foot mouth disease (sounds a lot worse than it is, I promise). He got little blisters in his mouth (and a couple on his feet and hands, hence the name) and didn't want to nurse AT ALL. They healed after 4 days or so, but when I tried to nurse him after than, he still didn't want to nurse. Although I REALLY wanted to keep breastfeeding him, I knew it probably wasn't the best idea to try and try to get him to nurse, especially when I was planning on weaning him in less than a month anyway. So my once exclusively breastfed, bottle and paci-refusing baby, weaned with NO problems at all.

It is nice not having to worry about nursing/pumping at all now though. Especially because we've been so busy traveling and doing fun stuff for summer! On the fourth of July, we went to Smith Mountain Lake because Jordon's aunt, uncle, and cousins were vacationing there and graciously opened up their house, food, boat, and two jetskis to us :-) Thanks Kosers! Anyway, it was a BLAST. Seriously, I can't remember the last time I had so much fun. We took Ty man on the boat and he loved it! Even though we put him in a life jacket, he didn't complain once. Jordon and I got to tube behind the boat, which was awesome and hilarious at the same time, and Jordon got to wakeboard (I was a wimp and didn't try haha). Then later, Jordon's aunt watched baby so we could go out and ride the jetski. Awesome. The lake was beautiful and we just had a blast. Tyler loved meeting all his family and they loved having him. I definitely heard the phrase "cutest baby ever" at least 10 times that day. He is pretty cute, huh? We even came back the next afternoon to hang out some more (we only live about 40 minutes from the lake) and to see Jord's Pap and Grandma who came to visit the Kosers too. It is awesome to see family!

We're visiting with Jordon's parents, Luke and the kids this weekend, and are off to Wintergreen tomorrow for Jordon to work and for me and baby to play. And then it's off to Columbia to visit my side of the family. Phew... busy month! Next thing I know, it's going to be Tyler's FIRST birthday. My oh my, where does the time go?!

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!

On The Move And Keeping Me Busy

Please forgive my long absence on the blogging front... as you will read, Tyler has been keeping me MORE than busy, so I've barely found the time to clean my house, let alone type up an update!

So since I've last blogged, Tyler has gone from having three teeth to having SEVEN. Yes, my 9 month old has seven teeth (he's actually had seven for a few weeks now... I'm just bad at updating the world about it). Needless to say, it was a rough four weeks during which those teeth were making there way in. He has four on the top and three on the bottom. He's still missing his bottom tooth to the left of the center two. I'm not really sure what that one is waiting for!

He's also become much more active. Although he still primarily army crawls, he's finally caught onto the proper form of hand and knee crawling, which he'll do if he's on the right kind of surface and not wearing pants or socks haha. Talk about picky. And for the past few weeks he's been pulling himself up to standing, which scares me to death! At first I was so excited, but now I just stand behind him ALL the time, and of course the times I'm not right by his side, he falls and bangs his head. Which is why I am exhausted and have no time for anything! I do have to give him some credit though... he's becoming a lot better at keeping his balance and most of the time will stick his butt out and catch himself in a sitting position if he starts to loose his balance while standing. Although now he's been testing himself by letting go to whatever he's holding so he stands free for a couple seconds (and my heart stops until he grabs back on or I grab him). Long story short, the kid loves to stand. No more sitting and playing with toys nicely.... nooo he needs to make a bee line to the closest object he can pull himself up on and stand.

While all this was going on, Jordon was in the height of tennis season, which made my life even busier! Jordon would be gone until 6pm on practice nights, and as late at 11pm on nights he had matches. Plus every weekend in March was taken up by matches. Rough life for this tennis family! Tyler was precious though, because anytime Jordon would come home the little guy would try to crawl as fast as he could to Jordon and would cry because he couldn't get there quick enough and wanted Jordon to pick him up. We are SO happy the season is over and was have more family time!

 

Ty man is eating great as well! Lots of new adventures in food... a cupcake on his daddy's birthday, an oreo from his great-grandma (definitely not an everyday treat but you can't say no to great-grandma!), ritz crackers, little bits of hamburger, bits of a chocolate bunny from his 1st Easter basket (okay, I ate the majority of it), strawberries, etc. And he's doing pretty well taking a cup! I'm trying to get him to replace a couple of his feedings with cups of pumped milk (slowlyyyy working our way to weaning). He usually just takes sips of the cup, but he'll finish 4 oz. over a couple hours which is much more than he ever did before, so I won't complain.

As much as I hate that he is growing up so quickly, it is pretty exciting being able to do new things with him... take him to the park and put him in a swing, play in the sandbox, put him on my shoulders, etc. I'm so excited for all the fun our little family will be having this summer!

Right on Schedule

Tyler has been growing, and in doing that, has definitely matured and settled into a SCHEDULE. ah! Every parent's dream. I have been trying to get him on some sort of schedule since he was born but never succeeded. Now he has developed, in his own timing, a schedule that has been working wonders for the whole family.

Baby boy wakes up around 6:30 or 7am every morning, and is down for a nap by 8:30 or 9. Most of his naps are at least an hour long, and sometimes will be 90 minutes long. Definitely gives me the chance to get some work done around the house! Then he naps again around 12:30 or 1 and then again around 4. He get solids at breakfast, lunch and again at dinner and nurses after each nap. He gets his bath around 7:30, nurses and is usually asleep by 8 or 8:30 at the latest. Then it's time for Mommy and Daddy to relax! It's so nice to have a (semi) predictable day. Yes, sometimes the schedule does get a bit thrown off, like when he had a cold last week, but he always seems to get back on track. And he even did pretty good keeping with it the last time we traveled.

He's been eating very well (except last week when he had his cold, but sickness throws everything off). Some new things he's tried are apricots (I mixed them in with sweet potatoes and he loved it) and peaches. I made a fruit medley of apricots, peaches, apples, and bananas which he loved, and it is great to mix in with his cereal in the morning. I've also made other combinations like sweet potatoes with apricots, sweet potatoes with banana, and carrot with pear. I made him some applesauce with cinnamon as well, which was a hit! Last week I introduced yogurt which is a new favorite and daily staple for the little guy. Plus he's been munching plenty off our plates, so he's had a bit of banana bread, he chewed on a roll at Logan's Steakhouse (it was too cute!), black beans, and some other foods that I can't remember off the top of my head. We gave him some baby pureed chicken (we bought the organic jarred kind to try before I went out making and freezing a bunch), but he hated it! I'm not sure if it was the taste or the texture. It smelled like cat food to me, so I'm not surprised he wasn't a fan. I'm thinking about buying some ground turkey and giving him finger-food sized chunks to try (he's getting pretty good at picking up food and feeding himself)... if he doesn't like then I know Jordon can use the ground turkey some other way so it won't go to waste.

And if all of that didn't convince you that Tyler is officially a big boy, listen to this: he has THREE teeth now! Well, his top tooth just popped through this morning and the other one appears to be on the brink of getting through, so I think we will really be able to see those top pearly whites clearly next week. I was so surprised because although I thought he may be teething again (he had been drooling a ton and slightly more fussy than usual), he was nothing like last time. Plus, he had "teething" symptoms for 2 months before either of his first two teeth popped through, so I figured I had a little awhile before his top ones came through. But yesterday I was playing with him and I noticed a rough white spot on his gum, and then this morning I felt the tooth. I'm so glad teething was easier this time around.

Lastly, he has started to really become smarter (I'm not sure if that's the right word here, but go with me...). If he is making a bee-line towards trouble (ex: the floor lamp, the wheels of his stroller, shoes, etc) I can say "Tylerrrrr...." and he'll turn around and look at me. Of course, he usually decided to ignore my warning and go on his merry way towards the contraband item, but at least he is recognizing his name! And he makes this funny face sometimes while in his highchair, where he makes his mouth the shape of an O and looks surprised (See photo above) and Jordon and I laugh so hard. He's learned that we think it's funny because he'll do it again and again as long as we laugh and usually laughs along with us!

I used to have a very optimistic view of him growing up, telling Jordon that with each month and year, there will be something new to be excited about and embrace, but now I'm starting to fall into the typical feeling of "I want my baby to stay a baby forever!" I cannot imagine him growing to be a *gasp* teenager or even getting married one day. yikes. I'm hoping I'll be able to embrace all of the new changes as they come. But for now I'm just trying to enjoy each milestone he's reaching and taking advantage of all the cuddle time he'll give me!