Tyler: 14 Months

July 24-August 23, 2011 (13 to 14 months old)

What's new with Tyler?

• This child, former shoe-hater, now loves shoes.  He hands us his shoes, sits in our lap and holds his foot up for you to put them on.  He tries to put our shoes on and he hands us our shoes when it's time to go.

• He's developed a love for organization.  He will sit there and unpack/repack his diaper bag over and over again.  He puts items on shelves and in baskets.  He especially enjoys putting his clean diapers in a basket. 

• He's continued his love for getting in and out of objects repeatedly.  This month it's the car seat I have sitting on the floor.

• He loves to dance.  He makes us laugh so hard at his white boy dance moves!  His signature move is a quick squat done completely off beat. 

• He's very observant and notices when I put makeup on, which isn't very often.  He will lean back and look at my eyes with a smile on his face.  It's as if he's saying, wow mama, you don't look so homely anymore.

• He started pushing and pulling me around the house to get what he wants.  He pulls my leg towards the back door when he wants outside.  He pushes me towards the closet door when he wants Dyson.  When I lay down on the floor, he pulls my hair up to make me sit up.  One night he wanted some milk, so he moved my leg and then pushed a boppy onto my lap.

• He loves, loves, loves going outside.  He will do anything to get you to open the back door.  Once outside, he enthusiastically hands us the bubble wand and it sure sounds like he says "bubbles!".

• He goes to the gate at the bottom of the stairs when we say; "want to go nighty night Tyler?".

• He shakes his hands off to dry them after we wash his hands.

• He sticks his tongue out and grabs it when we say; "where's your tongue?".

• He's impressively good at playing games on our iPhones.  He knows how to push/slide his thumb on the screen to make it do things.  Problem is, he loves pushing the home button which ends the game.  Every time he does this, he yells and throws the phone at me to get his game started again.  On "Old MacDonald Had a Farm", he moos at the cow screen and is terrified of the frog screen.  He will throw the phone down and run from it while yelling at me to advance to the next screen.  It's so so funny!

• He's made good progress on the 4 top front teeth.  You'd never know they were there as you can't see them when he smiles, but they're there!

• His 1st molar erupted on the bottom left.  This caught me off guard as he still only has 2 bottom front teeth.  I was expecting the next two bottom front before any molars.  Molars are so much worse than front teeth!  He was extra fussy, not eating much, developed a runny nose and a 100.4 temp.  All went away after the molar was fully through.

• He experienced his first bee sting.  I only knew the culprit of his blood curdling screams because I found the stinger (see below) in his finger.  His finger turned bright red and doubled in size.  30 mins later, all was back to normal.  

• This child is the most enthusiastic child I have ever met and everyone that knows him seems to agree.  He oohs and ahhs with so much excitement throughout the day.

• He's learned how to take his diaper off.  He's become our little streaker!  We now have to keep bottoms on him whenever he wears a cloth diaper with velcro enclosures.

• His favorite book is "Wheels on the Bus".  He insists that we read/sing it to him every night before bed multiple times.

• He has 2 books that have a picture of a plate of spaghetti and very strangely, every time he sees it, he puts face on it.  We don't know why because at this point, he had never had spaghetti before.

• He's starting to help himself.  When he's thirsty, he walks over to his bag, takes his sippy cup out, takes a drink and then puts it back.

• At breakfast, we open the carton of eggs and he picks out his egg.  He looks them up and down before selecting the perfect egg.

• He doesn't bite/chew his food, he just shovels it in, gums it a little, swallows and shoves in the next huge bite.  The proof is in the end product, which we've termed "veggie turds".  His carrots, raisons, etc come out looking the same as they went in.

• He loves watching his poop go down the toilet.  We wave and say "bye bye poop!".  Entertaining a toddler is way too easy!

New foods this month:

Thumbs up:

• Green grapes
• Cherries
• Clementine oranges
• String cheese
• Almond milk
• Nitrite-free deli turkey
• Larabars 

Neutral:

• Blueberries
• Veggie soup
• Mushrooms
• Eggplant
• Coconut milk 
• Wholewheat spaghetti (loved it the 1st time, then not so much)

Checking himself out in the mirror

Thumbs down:

• Strawberries
• Lemon
• Oat bran
• Organic grass-fed hamburger 

Language:

• He's starting to make animal sounds.  He says "mmmmmm" for a cow and he smacks his lips for a fish.

• He's been saying "oh mama" a lot lately.  Mama is still his only consistent, clear word.  He's said other words like bubbles or kitty cat, but it's usually a one hit wonder.

• He's finally starting to sign!!!  I've been signing with him since he was a few months old and I was starting to lose heart that he was ever going to pick it up.  He's trying to sign milk, more and all done.  He gets them mixed up and is working on the coordination, but this mama is very excited for this new level of communication.

Bed time routine:

His bed time routine is working like a charm.  After dinner and some high energy interactive play, we both take him upstairs, brush his teeth, change his diaper, put his pjs on and read him 3 books.  Then Kerry turns on his rain sound machine and lullaby cd and turns the lights out while I nurse him.  We use both the rain and lullaby so that when the lullaby cd is done, the rain keeps the sound going.  It's very nice for drowning out any noise from us as well.  After nursing, I put him in his crib and he goes right out.  This transition from high activity, to chilling out, to complete relaxation, and also the quality time with both parents seems to be the solution to peaceful bed times.


Childcare:

Tyler's grandmothers watch him Mon/Tue and then we pay a nanny Wed-Fri.  Tyler has a new nanny.  She's been with us for a couple of months and she is simply amazing!  She is great with Tyler, cooks and tidies up in her down time.  She even provides a backup nanny when she can't make it, who is also amazing.  Both nannies have a child close to Tyler's age (I adore them both), so he now gets social interaction with other children.  I work from home, so while being a stay-at-home-mom would be the ultimate, this provides the next best and I feel very blessed to have this arrangement.

Here's a little funny that happens between Matilda and Tyler.  She steals food off his plate when he's not looking, and then he steals food off her plate when she's not looking.

This month in photos:

Mmmmm watermelon!

This child LOVES playing golf ever since his golf photo shoot

Whoa Daddy-O, that one had a little bit too much oomph!

Bug eyes

Baby proofing restaurant style

Oh Dyson, let me count the ways I love thee!

Enjoying some good books

Helping Daddy clean up the leaves

This month in video:

Video:  Tyler white boy dancing (excuse the mess, we're rearranging the room)

Video:  A little more white boy dancing

Video:  Tyler reprimanding the water after falling down in the pool