Getting the itch

At Christmas, Tyler was given 2 push toys that are supposed to help him to learn how to walk. He wasn’t really interested in the walking portion of the toys, but loved to play with them while sitting still. Well, while we were at Grandpa’s house a few weekends ago, Tyler got the itch. The itch to try to walk. He discovered that Grandpa’s ottoman would slide on the hardwood floor if he pushed on it. So he would stand up and start pushing his way across the room. Once he hit the fridge (or anything else), he’d get mad until someone came and turned him around so he could push his way across the room again. He was happy as a clam as he walked. We got home and decided to see if he would be interested in pushing his walker toys. Boy, was he ever! However, I think we’ve created a monster. Our house doesn’t really have any long halls or anything, so we’re constantly having to come and help him turn to keep him moving. We just do laps around the 1st floor of the house with him – start in the living room, through the kitchen, through the dining room, through the foyer, and back into the living room again. It’s kind of funny, but kind of tiring. He has a great time with his “walking” though. The smile on his face says it all. He’s not a big fan of holding onto your hands to try and walk. He just kind of stands there is you try to help him. But it won’t be long before he takes off on his own!

He’s been standing unassisted a lot more too. He’ll be playing and all of a sudden he’ll just let go and stand there for a while. Once he realizes what he’s doing, he’s usually quick to sit down or grab hold of something. He also looks like he’s trying to stand from a crawling position. He hasn’t quite mastered that yet, or really gotten the courage to just go for it, but you can see the wheels turning in his head. All in good time, all in good time.

With this increased mobility and newfound tricks comes a big change. He’s being transitioned to the Beginning Walker room at daycare. His transition period has lasted a little longer than most because he’s “very attached to the Infant teachers” (exact words from the daycare director). Her exact words are a bit of an understatement though. The kid LOVES his teachers in the infant room. It’s nice to see that he loves them so much and that they have been an important part of his life, but it’s making the move difficult. The daycare works very hard to transition them with little disruption, so they will have one of the infant teachers go with him to the Beginning Walker room for an hour or so at a time. But after a while, he’s ready to get back to the room that he “knows”. We’re hoping that the more time that he spends in the next room will help him realize that it’s more fun in there. He’ll learn to like the teachers in there too. But for now, he’s having a bit of a hard time. He NEEDS to move to the next room though. He’s, by far, the biggest kid in the Infant room now, and he’s getting noticeably bored in there. There’s not a lot in there for a baby with his “skills” to do, so he ends up pulling up on the littler kids, and trying to play with them. We know that once he gets in the other room, and sees all of his old “friends” again, he’ll be fine. And a lot more stimulated. They read books over there and learn Baby Sign Language, sing songs and do more group play. So the hope is that he will be fully transitioned within the next week or two. Keep those fingers crossed.

We also have a new favorite in the house – The Backyardigans. Ever heard of them? Well, if you haven’t, the best way to describe them is as Crack for Small People (as my friend Maggie says). It’s a cartoon show on Nick Jr. There’s 5 little friends that play in their back yards (get it? Back-yardigans?) and use their imaginations to go on all sorts of little adventures. Well, Tyler doesn’t quite get what the Backyardigans are doing just yet, but he sure knows when they come on. It doesn’t matter what’s going on or what he’s doing. As soon as he hears the opening of “Hi, I’m Pablo”, he drops whatever it is that he’s holding, he stops crying or yelling, he’s immediately distracted and turns to the TV and just stares. As the theme music continues, he starts to squeal with joy and the biggest smile creeps across his face. It’s amazing. No other show has this kind of effect on him. (Well, maybe NASCAR races when he was really little.) And TiVo is a wonderful thing. We keep a few episodes on there so that we can start one up when he’s being inconsolable or we need to distract him for a second. Now, before you start to lecture, it’s not like he sits in front of the TV for hours on end watching this show. In fact, he rarely makes it past the theme song. But sometimes you have to have a secret weapon in your parenting arsenal. This is ours. And of all the kids’ shows out there, I have to say that Backyardigans is the least annoying. It’s a cute show with catchy little tunes. There are a lot worse shows he could like (i.e.: Barney).

Travis had his week-long business trip last week, and we all made it out alive. Tyler & I certainly missed him, and he certainly missed us. And the first day or two was a little hard to get used to for me. I’m not used to having the run the whole Tyler Show on my own. But Tyler & I got into a little routine, and I took the day off on Friday so that we could just play. You could definitely tell that he was missing his Daddy by the end of the week. Daddy is the person who wakes him up in the mornings, gives him his breakfast, gives the baths, among MANY other things. Mommy does an OK job at all of those things, but I think he prefers Daddy. So when Daddy came into his bedroom on Saturday morning, Tyler greeted him with a huge smile. Excitement all around. Travis has to travel again next week for 3 days, but at least we’ve got the big trip under our belts now and know a little more of what to expect. We’ll still miss him. And he’ll definitely miss us.

Oh and how could I forget??? Tyler FINALLY cut his first tooth! The little booger broke through on the 16th. It's the lower middle right tooth. And the left one is just about to break. I really miss that gummy smile but it is exciting to finally see some toofers in there! *knock on wood* He hasn't started biting with that one tooth, but the sucker is sharp! I made the mistake of putting my finger in his mouth to feel around.

One last thing in this long update: I found out that a dear friend of mine from college had her 1st baby on January 24th – a little girl named Sasha Adelaide, weighing in at 9 lbs. 2 oz.!!! Congratulations Carrie & Bob!!! Can’t wait to meet her!!!!