Tyler: 21 Months

February 24-March 23, 2012 (20 to 21 months old)

What's new with Tyler?

• He blows kisses.  Mmmmm-ahhh!
• He claps and says "yeah Ty Ty!" for himself if we don't.
• Every time a groovy song comes on, he reaches up to Kerry and says/signs dance.  His daddy is such a great, fun dancer... mama knows because daddy was mama's dance partner long before they were married.
• The boy is obsessed with vehicles; cars, trucks, buses, motorcycles, construction, trains... anything with wheels!  When I mention Dyson, he's like Dyson who?
• All colors are yellow.  Hey Tyler, the grass is green, what color is the grass?  Yeah-yo!  What color is this blue car?  Yeah-yo!

Language:

New sounds:

• Owl (who who)
• Chicken (cluck cluck)

New words:

• Again
• Oh No!
• Hey
• Yeah!
• Yes
• Dance
• Slide
• Happy
• Amen (a-me)
• Phone
• Dandelion
• Snowflake
• Sun
• Crayon
• Puzzle
• Bus
• Eyes
• Nose
• Mouth
• Ears
• Booby (boo-boob)
• Bear
• Deer
• Hippo
• Hyena
• Chicken
• Bean
• Soup
• Pear
• Spoon
• ABCs
• Grammy (may-me)
• Homey (hay-me)
• Austin (awesome)

New signs:

• Want
• Dance
• Swing
• Slide
• Sun
• Farm
• Bus
• Police Officer
• Bear
• Butterfly
• Alligator
• Carrot
• Candy 

New letters:

• F
• G
• J
• L
• N
• R
• S
• U
• V
• X ... and that completes all upper case letters.

Sentences:

This is such a fun age!  There isn't a day that goes by where we're not blown away by how fast his language is developing.  He can repeat almost any word I ask him to and his words are really improving in clarity.

Every new word brings so much excitement and now he's starting to form 2 and 3 word sentences.  There's no way I can possibly keep up with all the combinations he came up with, but his firsts were "Up Dada", "Oh no, open bubbles", "Bus puzzle open!".

Then was the moment every parent has when they realize, I better watch every word that comes out of my mouth!  He was nursing and was ready to switch sides and said "other side boo-boob".  Funny in private, but would not be so funny in public.  I like how he asks for "maa" for milk as no one knows what he's asking for.  I think asking for booby would be just a tad less discreet.

Teeth:

Brushing his teeth has been extremely challenging for some time.  We are finally making some progress.

The first thing we did was switch from water to toddler toothpaste.  After some research I landed on Weleda Children's Tooth Gel as it had one of the safest ratings from EWG.org and has no sweeteners.  I tasted it and it has a light minty taste which I think takes a few tries before they acquire a taste for it.  After a few times he starting asking for "more paste", so it's Tyler approved.

The second thing we did was purchase a children's book on brushing teeth, "Brush Your Teeth Please".  It's a pop-up book with a different animal on each page.  Each page has a moving toothbrush that the little one can move and brush the animal's teeth.  We have him brush the animal's teeth while we brush his.  This has helped so much and I highly recommend this book.  Every time we tell Tyler it's time to brush his teeth, he gets excited and says "Lion!  Hippo!".

Behavior:

For the most part, little man is such a sweet boy, but when he's overtired and doesn't get his way his way, whoa!  He'll throw his sippy or car, slap his hand on the table and say no!  Pretty typical of this age I guess.  We've implemented a new rule that anything thrown gets taken away until the next day.  We put it on the fireplace mantle where he can still see it and when he asks for it, he gets the reminder of why he can't have it.  Now when he's about to throw something, I ask him, are you sure you want to throw that, I will take it away.  Many times he'll actually refrain from throwing it.  We also started working on apologizing.  He knows how to say and sign sorry, but we're working on teaching him to know when to use sorry.

Sleep:

Last month Tyler had moved from 2 to 1 nap.  Well now about half of the time, Tyler stands in his crib during his entire nap.  Oh please don't tell me naps will soon be history, how will I ever get anything done?

As far as sleeping through the night, it doesn't exist.  He started sleeping through the night at 16 months and that is the only month it happened.  He cries for milk once or twice a night every single night.  No, he doesn't need milk in the middle of the night, especially at this stage, but I have always given into it so he knows no different.  On many nights, I would let him cry it out on the 2nd middle of the night request as getting up twice a night just takes too much of a toll on mama.  Well now that has all changed.  He no longer cries, great right?  No!  He now calls out "Mama, mama, mama" in the most pitiful, sweetest voice ever.  He won.

Chick Magnet:

When Tyler was a baby, Kerry always joked that we should rent him out to single guys to get back some of the money we spent on conceiving him.  Every time they were out together, the women would flock around him ohhing and ahhing.  Kerry was like, man, I've never had so many women approach me in my life!  

Now as a toddler, it's crazy how many little girls have a "crush" on Tyler.  It must be the strawberry blonde curls and blue eyes.  For the most part, he wants nothing to do with it, he pretty much avoids or pushes away the attention.  

His nanny's daughter Matilda loves her Tydoe.  She is super sweet and adorable and takes every opportunity to sit next to him or on his lap, hold his hand, hug and kiss him.

Video:  Tyler hugging and kissing Matilda (I think he finally warmed up to her!)

My friend's daughter Savannah is crazy about Tyler.  Every time she see's him she gets so excited and yells his name, tries to hug him, tickle him and hold his hand.  He's literally scared of her.  I can't wait till the day he's a teen and chasing after her and I get to tell him how scared he was of her, haha!

A random little girl (about 3) came up to me at the park and said "is that your baby?  He's soooo cute!" She followed him every where repeating "he's so cute!".  She then went and picked yellow flowers and handed them to him.  It was so cute, until he turned around and threw them on the ground.  I felt so bad!  My mom always tells a story of when I was in kindergarten, how a boy gave me flowers and I proceeded to throw them on the ground because they were from a boy and boys were icky. I guess like mother, like son. 

Then there's young girls that cater to his every desire like he's a little prince.  Just the other day we were at the park and this girl, about 10, who we have never seen before, follows him all over the place, helping him up the stairs, down the slide and by the end of our time there, she was carrying him around.  As we were leaving, she ran to my car to tell him bye.

I met a good friend at the zoo, she had brought her daughter and her daughter's friend.  These 2 girls catered to Tyler's every whim.  They carried him, pushed him in his car, hand fed him, made sure he never went thirsty, sometimes fought over him.  At first he was a little overwhelmed but by the end, I think he was quite enjoying it, at least judging by the kiss he gave them as we departed.  The little girl tried to give him her cheek to kiss, but he insisted on kissing her on the lips.

Oh I'm not looking forward to the teen years!

Tyler-isms:

Tyler is a funny child and always has us laughing.  Now that he's talking up a storm, the funnies are just getting more and more funny.  Tyler-isms are just random things he says or does that makes us laugh.

One day Tyler and I were taking a walk through our neighborhood.  A lady and her dog were walking towards us.  Tyler took one look at her great dane, signed and exclaimed "horse!!!!". 

One day I dropped Tyler off at Kerry's office and then ran a few errands.  When I returned, both the front and back doors were locked.  I knocked on both doors until my knuckles hurt.  I must have called him a billion times.  No response.  He finally saw me out his window and let me in.  I was frustrated and was sorta going off on him.  Tyler looked at Kerry and kept saying "uh-oh!  uhhhh-ohhhh!".  It was as if he was saying, you are so in the dog house dada!  That was the end of it, all I could do was crack up.

This month in photos:

I think this could very well be the first time he's ever fallen asleep outside of his crib or car seat!  It took no nap for this to happen! 

Tyler: 20 Months

January 24-February 23, 2012 (19 to 20 months old)

What's new with Tyler?

• He's been jump training.  He squats down while saying "down" and then shoots up while yelling "up!".  

Video:  Down, Up!

• He did his first official jump with both feet off the ground, but has yet to do it again.
• He can get up on the kitchen chairs now.  May it take a long time before he realizes that he can push the chair to other areas and get up on something even higher!
• He can now catch a ball.
• His remaining 3 canines are coming in.  I *think* that completes all of his teeth until his 2 year molars.
• He thinks ring-around-the-rosie is pretty cool.
• He started puckering his lips when he wants a kiss, cutest thing ever!
• He's starting to display an interest in the potty.  He puts his seat on the toilet and asks to sit on it.  He'll sit on it for a few seconds and then want right back down.  Then he tries to flush, puts the lid down and asks to wash his hands.
• This kiddo loves, loves, loves puzzles.  He's quite impressive with jigsaws that are listed as age 3+.
• He waves his hand and says shoooo-weeee when he toots.  OMG it's funny!
• I try to get the boogers out while he's nursing as that's the only time he'll even remotely let me. He now takes my finger and shoves up it my own nose, LOL!

Language:

New words:

• Knock Knock (nah-nah... he loves knocking on doors)
• Night Night (nigh-nigh... he loves to lay on the floor, pretend to go to sleep and say this)
• Purple (poo-pole)
• Pool
• Bowl
• Drink (doot)
• Play (pay)
• Airplane (ah-pane)
• Downstairs
• Vacuum (va-coo)
• Book
• Sticker (stick-a-da, stick-a-der... he developed a love for stickers)
• Clock
• Barn
• Tree
• Ant
• Bee
• Moth
• Butterfly (bu-fy)
• Bird
• Dog
• Ape
• Dinosaur
• Yo Yo
• No
• Avocado (ah-cado)
• Strawberry (sta-bera)
• Ice Cream
• Butter
• Bath
• Boots
• Baby
• Please (peas)
• Mommy
• Grammy (may-me)

New signs:

• Outside
• Wind
• Cat
• Play
• Vacuum

New letters:

• B
• C
• D
• H
• I
• M
• K
• P
• Q (coo)
• T
• W
• Y (Y is yo yo, I can't convince him otherwise)
• Z (zzzzz)

The boy loves letters!  He's always wanting to play with his ABC puzzle, point to letters within words and say the letter, and pull up his letters on his floor mat.  

Video:  Floor mat ABCs

Behavior:

Oh boy, little man has learned how to gives dirty looks!  He furrows his brows and glares at me when he doesn't get his way.

He tests me.  He ignored me multiple times when I asked him to get off the table.  He repeatedly got back on it (while grinning) after I got him down myself.  Another time he refused to take his toy car out of his mouth after I asked him multiple times, he grinned and then I screwed up by laughing.

I've always loved how he asks for help before getting upset.  I taught him early on to ask for help instead of whine.  He now constantly asks for help with things he knows how to do himself.  I'm catching on to him.  It's all a ploy to keep me right by his side giving him my full attention.  It's very apparent in the mornings when the nanny goes to feed him breakfast.  He hands me his fork and asks for help, refuses help from the nanny and insists that I help him.  It's his way keeping me from leaving the room.

He's starting to play me in middle of night.  He wakes up and cries for me.  I go up, he asks for milk, I nurse him.  I try to put him back in bed, he signs eat but doesn't want food when I get it for him.  He runs and gets a book.  He asks for Daddy.  He asks for more milk.  He'll do anything to keep from going to bed.

I guess this softy better learn some tough love because the manipulation has started!   ;-)

Sleep:

For the last few months, Tyler has been wavering between 1 and 2 naps a day. He always goes down easily for his 1st nap, but the 2nd one has become hit or miss. It's been a hard transition as it seems 1 nap isn't enough and 2 naps is too much. So I've been playing it by ear, putting him down for his 2nd nap and if he falls asleep, great, if not, I bring him back down. The biggest issue is that he still wants to take his first nap at the same early time and for the same length of time. This creates a very long stretch before bedtime and results in an overtired cranky boy in the evening. It's crazy what being overtired does to him, he can become completely frantic within seconds and is very hard to soothe.

We are now down to 1 nap a day and are slowly adjusting his nap time later and later trying to get it to a mid-day nap. It's tough because if I wait too long to put him down he's overtired before his nap, and if I put him down too late, he's overtired before bed. I was expecting his two 1.5 hr naps to move to one 2-3 hr nap, but it hasn't happened that way. He's ready to go after 1.5 hrs.  His new nap time is now messing with lunch time, so we've been playing around with the timing of snacks and lunch.  I'll be glad when this transition is complete!

I consulted Supernanny as I needed help! She says that routine and consistency is key and that eating and sleep times are the cornerstones of the routine. So I created a hour by hour schedule, made sure I kept meal and sleep times at the same time everyday and tried really hard to remain consistent. I also gave the schedule to all of his nannies so we were all running the same ship.  Her advice resulted in a much smoother running ship.

Tyler's feet:

One of my commenters asked me if the white shoes he wears in some of his photos are orthopedic or are just old white shoes.  They are orthopedic straight last shoes.  Tyler was born with the tendons in his feet (that go from his heal to his big toe) too short. It's caused by his position in the womb and is called in-toeing.  It basically causes him to walk pigeon-toed.

We've had the pediatrician look at the issue and she said it's very common and will correct itself.  Just to be safe, we had him examined by a podiatrist as well.  He thoroughly examined his hips, legs, ankles, feet and toes.  He said everything is developing perfectly, he just has a tendon that is too tight.  He also said it should self correct.

The left has already corrected itself but the right is still having issues.  We tried the special shoes just to see if it would help him along as he's always tripping himself and falling.  I'm not worried about it as Kerry had the same in-toeing, wore the same corrective shoes and completely grew out of it.  We have plans of taking him back to the podiatrist to have his right checked out again just to see if there is anything else we should be doing.

A visit from Gpa and Gma

Tyler gets a visit from Gpa and Gma about every 3 months. This time was extra special because he's now old enough to remember them. He really bonded with them and they had such a great time together. Tyler goes through the videos on my phone frequently and every time he see's the video of him and Gpa, he starts signing and saying PawPaw.

To Gpa from Tyler:  "PawPaw, please forgive me for pooping in your face!"

Yes, he did!  Gpa was on his hands and knees chasing Tyler while he was in between diaper changes and out popped a turd.  I think all of us must have belly laughed for 20 mins straight.  Who would have ever thought a toddler crapping on the floor could be so funny!

Here's a few photos/videos from their visit:

Celebrating my 39th Birthday

Tyler suckered Gpa into vacuuming!

This one cracks me up... Tyler at the computer and Gma in the ball pit!!!

Video:  This is what my Dad does when I'm not around, lol!

Video:  Tyler jammin' to Gma's phone

This month in photos:

Dancing to Signing Time

Matilda went in for the kiss, he finally kissed her back and the nanny caught it on film!

Tyler now hugs his little friends 

Elvis impersonation

Homegirl and Homeboy (they put these hats on themselves)

Having fun with the fan

Tyler and Addison jammin' (I love it when my nannies send me pics!)

This month in video:

Video:  Matilda loves sitting on her Ty-doe!

Video:  No and Yes (I love how he puckers his lips to say no)

Video:  Tyler dancing to his favorite song (ABC's)

Video:  Dancing to Signing Time

Video:  The boy LOVES Signing Time, he gets so excited when it starts over!

Video:  Tyler and Matilda racing