9 Months Old!

This has been a fun month for Tyler...do I say that every month? Well...he just seems to become more fun with each passing month. He can now pull himself up on anything that will hold his weight and is starting to cruise from piece to piece too. He's even gotten brave a few times, letting go altogether, to test himself. At first it was an immediate drop to the floor, but he's gradually adding a second here and there to the free stand. He can go hands free for about 4 seconds now. As for crawling...well, it took him a little while to discover this method of movement, but now that he has, there is no stopping him. He is literally everywhere. We have to barricade him into the family room, to keep him from roaming the house.

We're on the go...

It's not exactly crawling, but Tyler has instead chosen scooting as his preferred method of mobility...and appropriately enough since "Scooter" is one of the many nicknames daddy gave him many months ago. In fact, he was demonstrating his ability to scoot at just weeks old, when he would try to scoot himself up daddy's belly, closer to his face.

I got it!

nap time...

He has also mastered going from lying on his back or belly to a sitting position. This was a feat we were not completely expecting. Imagine our surprise when we woke to find him sitting in his crib playing!!


And finally, he is desperately trying to stand and even take steps. He will try to pull himself up on whatever he can find. We have to keep a hand close by for the moment he gets tired and just drops to the floor, but he really does a good job.

He also likes to stand with the assistance of his walk-behind push cart. He understands the concept of pushing it and the fact that he is supposed to take steps behind it. However, he sometimes pushes just a bit too far and has to be caught by mom or dad.

look at me!

After months of only slight interest in moving around, he seems to be giving in to his exploratory nature all at once. Watch out world...here I come!!

He has also taken a strong liking to Cheerios...and he is a master at shoveling them in, as fast as they appear in his sight. In fact, we have to limit how many are within his reach, because he is a stuffer and will shove as many in as he can. But boy does he love them. I joking asked Les one night if too many Cheerios were harmful to a baby, because he loves them so much.


Lastly, we are very much enjoying his jabbering. Daddy especially, as we have frequently been hearing "dadadada" coming out of his little mouth. Since I can't capture that in a shot for you, I've posted his 7 month pictures instead.


This has definitely been a very exciting month for us, and we are looking forward to everything that Tyler is about to discover and show us he can do. Until next month...

Our Best Christmas Ever!!

Without a doubt, this was our best Christmas ever. It truly seemed like the never ending Christmas, with trips to WV and TX to celebrate with both of our families.

Of course Tyler was too young to really understand what was going on...but he did enjoy pulling the bows and paper off of all the packages...and in true Tyler fashion they went straight to his mouth!

Tyler's other big milestone over the past month was the arrival of his bottom two middle teeth. He's started to look like such a little "big" boy and he is so much fun. Hope you enjoy the pictures.

I'm 1/2 a year old!!

So what's new this month? I guess the most exciting news is that Tyler is now eating solids. He has so far enjoyed rice cereal with apples, carrots, and sweet potatoes, and has loved them all. Atually, he seems to love the concept of eating. We had hoped to wait until he was 6 months old to introduce him to solids, but by 5 1/2 months he was practically begging to eat with us. So, after speaking to our pediatrician, he felt that 2 weeks earlier than 6 months wouldn't be harmful to Tyler. So, we bit the bullet and tried it out. And it went much better than we could have expected. No major fits or food fights, only Tyler reaching for the spoon to try and feed himself!!

He is also becoming more active and mobile. He is sitting all the time and reminds us frequently that he is a "big boy" now, when we try to lay him down. In restaurants he has outgrown his baby carrier and graduated to a high chair, so that he can feel more involved and see all the people. Boy does it make dinner much more enjoyable now that he feels like he is a part of the action. And he has finally decided that those rolls he took at 4 months were actually fun and is back to using that method to "get around". I'm afraid before we know it, he will be up on four and crawling or scooting around.

Santa brought Tyler his exercauser for Christmas, but felt that waiting until Christmas Day would be too long for him, because he could be getting some good use out of it now...so he made a special trip to deliver it early. How nice that Mr. Santa Clause is. And boy does Tyler love it. He has always loved to try and stand and this allows him to do just that. As I said earlier, he feels like such a big boy.

I guess that's all our news for now...it's hard to believe that next month I'll be reporting on our first Christmas with Tyler.

Growing so fast...Tyler's 5 Months Old!

Hello all...is it really, November 5 already? Was our little Tyler (who isn't quite so little anymore) really born 5 months ago? Hard to believe it is true.

The past month has been a bit of a blur to us, as we spent most of the month, planning for our move, packing and driving 1300 miles cross country. I have to thank my father and sister for flying out to Texas to drive back with me. It was an especially big deal for Grandad, as this was his first time on a plane. I must admit I was kind of concerned about the fact that Tyler would be stuck in a car, in his car seat for a total of 20+ hours over several days, but he was a champ. It ended up taking us 26 hours in 4 days, but he did great. We had the occasional outburst, but who wouldn't be at least a little bit fussy being confined for so many hours. I know my sister, dad and I were all ready to be out of the car by the time we reached Charleston, WV...and still had another 4 hours to go.

Tyler's continues to amaze us with his new tricks. He is now sitting up, by himself for brief periods of time, as well as attempting to hold his own bottle. He does much better when the bottle is nearly empty and lighter. He also proceeds to let us know if we take it away while he is still hungry by grabbing the bottle and shoving it back into his mouth.

Because we are in transition, we didn't actually get to do any trick-or treating (probably best for mommy and daddy's tummies), but since Les and I spent hours searching countless halloween stores for this particular costume, we felt obligated to at least get him into it on Halloween. He wasn't too happy about the hat on his head, but he was a trooper.

Roly Poly at 4 Months

Hello all!! Well, Tyler proved to us that he is mobile on Oct. 3, just 2 days shy of his 4 month birthday, by rolling from his tummy to his back 3 times. But...I guess it wasn't all that fun to him, because he has yet to do it since then. I think he is now determined to figure out how to go from his back to his belly, as he spends alot of time practicing that feat. He is great at getting over onto his side, but just can't get that last kick in, to go onto the tummy. His shoulder proves to be a bit of a "roadblock". He has also fully discovered his hands and feet, and loves to chew on both.

We also think that he is in full teething mode. Just today he showed us how uncomfortable he is, by crying for about 40 minutes. This coming from a kid who doesn't cry unless he is seriously hungry or uncomfortable. When peering into his little mouth, we can definitely see two little "white mountains" in there. Here's hoping that they break through soon, so our little man doesn't have to endure that pain much longer.

He had his 4 month well visit today, including his 4-month vaccinations. He certainly did not enjoy those initial pricks of the needle, but after he realized the pain didn't last long, he calmed down. It must have worn him out though, because he has been down for his nap since 11:30...it's now 2:45. I should think he will be waking up any minute starving. We shall see!! He weighed 15 pounds 10 ounces and was 26.25 inches tall. He had a major growth spurt in height over the past 2 months...sprouting up more than 3 inches.




He has changed so much from when he was first born. Most people still say he looks just like Les, but I have heard from a few folks that they think he's beginning to look a little like me. What do you think??


Tyler will be a lil' lion for halloween, so be sure to check back next month for those pictures!!

4 Month Pictures

3 Month's Already

Well...the 9 months of pregnancy did seem to go pretty fast, but this little guy is just growing like crazy. It's hard to believe he is really 3 months old already. Of course it's hard to recognize the changes when you look at him every day...but when I look back through the pictures over the past 3 months the changes are amazing.

Tyler is so alert and so much fun to play with. He loves the friends on his play mat and his bouncy and likes to try and catch them. He talks to them sometimes too. He also really enjoys playing with Mr. Lion. Boy are we in trouble if he should ever come up missing!!

We have been blessed with such a good baby. He is sleeping 12 hours consistently at night and takes two 1-2 hour naps daily. Sleeping is definitely one of his favorite things.
As for the rest of the family. Mommy is having so much fun being home with Tyler. Kerri never expected to want to stay home, but now can't imagine going back to work. Daddy is still travelling alot.
He really misses the little man while he is gone, which is why we are attempting to move back to the DC area, so Les can take a job where he won't have to travel at all. Although we will certainly miss Texas, we are looking forward to the time when Daddy won't have to leave every week.
We travelled back to West Virginia this month for a visit with Kerri's family. While there we attended two WVU football games (one with Tyler in tow) and had Tyler baptised at the church Kerri grew up attending.

3 Month Pictures

Family Pictures

Here are some of the family pictures we had taken.