Happy Halloween!!!!

We took Tyler to pick out our pumpkins last weekend. It was a nice fall day, so we dressed him up in his Halloween costume (and yes, that IS an octopus costume that he is wearing) and took a few pics. Here are just a few of our favorites.

We will be dressing him up again tonight, provided that he is on his best behavior! We will take him to a few of the neighbors’ houses, and then he will “help” us to hand out candy until his bedtime. He seems to really like his costume, and my guess is that he is able to play with the tentacles, so he isn’t even aware that he’s dressed up!

Also, Tyler’s really been working on pulling up and scooting in the last few days. We finally realized that if we would just stop hounding him, he’d probably WANT to do it more. And we were right about that! He’s a man on a mission now! His daycare teachers even told Travis this morning that while he isn’t really crawling, he’s moving around the place somehow! They’ll put him on the floor and before they know it, he’s scooted his way all over the place! The same thing happens at home now too. Just yesterday, I had him on the kitchen floor, playing with a wooden spoon and a bowl. I turned around to clean some bottles and when I turned back to him, he had made his way over to the kitchen cabinets! He’s getting quick!!!!

Babies, pumpkins, & more

What a weekend we had here! A house of visitors, coupled with an exciting day at a pumpkin patch on Saturday, made for a very exciting weekend for us all. Our friends from South Carolina, Maggie and Stephen, came to stay with us for the weekend and brought their little girl, Madison. Mad is only 8 days older than Tyler, so we were really looking forward to watching them interact. Mad is crawling all around and pulling up on everything, and Tyler isn’t doing any of this, so we thought that it would be interesting to see what he would pick up from her during her stay. Tyler definitely took notes, and we encouraged him to try all the new things he saw Madison doing. He got up on all fours and would rock back and forth, but then get frustrated and flop down on his belly and flail like a fish out of water. But we’re still practicing with him. He practiced pulling up on his own yesterday and is very close. Tyler tried to teach Madison some tricks too – namely talking. He really is quite the blabbermouth. Everything is “dadadadada, blahblahblah” with an occasional “mamama” thrown in there when he’s desperate for something (usually milk). Mad’s more of a shrieker. Hopefully, they rubbed off on each other this weekend.

Anyway, we had a great time watching the babies play with each other, but there were more babies to add to this equation. On Saturday, 2 more babies arrived at the house – Evan and David. Evan is the little boy here in Richmond that is 6 days older than Tyler, and David lives in Hampton and is just a few weeks older. Once all the babies and parents were gathered together, we hopped in our cars and headed to Belvedere Plantation, right outside of Fredericksburg. They were having a Fall Harvest and it was a beautiful day to visit there with the little ones. And speaking of little ones, we aren’t done yet. Once we got there, we were greeted by RP and his mom. RP will be one year old this Friday and lives in Culpeper. And soon thereafter, the last two joined our ranks – Claire and Lily from Arlington. Claire is a month older than Tyler, and Lily just a few weeks older than that. Have you been counting? That’s 7 babies, all under the age of 1. Yep, seven. And seven mommies (and one daddy who came along – our photographer!).

So we strapped everyone into strollers and began our journey through the Plantation. Oh wait, what was that? How did all of these mommies and babies from all over the state of Virginia meet up? I must have failed to mention. Um, yeah, I met these women on the internet. All of them. Including the one that stayed at our house. Yep, I said the internet. Long, long, long story short, when I was pregnant, I went to WebMD and found a message board full of other pregnant women and began to go there for support and answers to questions. Fast forward several months, and we are now on a new message board, but are all still together. There are about 65 of us, all over the US, and several people have met in real life. I actually met Lori and Evan this way here in Richmond. So it may be weird to some people, and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t think it was weird in the beginning, but it worked out for us. It’s absolutely amazing to have so many women going through the same things that you are. And it’s great to have little ones for Tyler to meet and play with.

Back to our journey. It was such a pretty day, warm with a light breeze every now and then. We took the little ones to watch the pig races, walked them by the displays of all the animals (Tyler particularly enjoyed watching the geese), and finally plopped down near a picnic table and threw down a few blankets on the ground and watched the babies go at it. Go at what, you might ask? Go at each other. Madness ensued. It was great. The crawlers were all over the place, and Tyler sat back and just took it all in. We all said beforehand that we would stay until the mass meltdown occurred, and we all kind of agreed that 2:00 would be that time. Well, like clockwork, the meltdowns started around 1:30, and we were on our way to the cars by 2:00. Both Madison and Tyler traveled very well, sleeping both on the way there and on the way home. It was cute to see them in the backseat together, and when they were awake, they would stare each other down. “What are you doing in the backseat? Wow, this is pretty cool!”

Madison and Tyler spent all day Sunday playing and catching up on their sleep from the action-packed day before. I think Tyler was a little sad to see Mad go home. I know that I was sad to see them go! It was a busy weekend, but it was so much fun! We all want to try and get together again in the near future for yet another play date, but with the holidays and colder weather on the horizon, it may be a while before we can get it on the calendar. At any rate, we had a great time! Now, if Tyler would start to pick up on some of those “tricks” that Madison taught him……

The Tyler Tour hits Lynchburg

Yep, I called it the Tyler Tour. My dad has lovingly dubbed our trips home to Lynchburg as this since Tyler was 5 weeks old. We come with so much "stuff" that it's practically like going on tour! Travis joked once that we should get yellow shirts and have "EVENT STAFF" printed on them. In any event, the Tour stopped in Lynchburg this past weekend for a visit with Grandpa, Uncle Eddie, and the rest of the gang. We left home Friday evening after we got Tyler ready for bed, and got to Lynchburg around 9:30. We had a relaxing evening, chatting with Dad and his friend Berkley, and watching Tyler play well past his bedtime. He quite enjoyed showing off and playing with everyone.

Saturday brought a visit to Uncle Eddie's house and lots of visitors at Grandpa's. Oh yeah, and oozing, runny eyes and a gunky nose. Why wouldn't he get a cold? He just got over something else. *sigh* But he was still his happy go-lucky self for the most part, so we didn't worry too much. I kind of figured that it was a side effect of the flu shot that he had gotten on Thursday. But I digress. At Uncle Eddie's, we got to see a very big dog, named Riley. Tyler wasn't too sure about a dog of this size, but the dog really seemed to like him! Tyler was more interested in "reading" Eddie's paper.

Back at Grandpa's, we were visited by Sarah English, a dear old childhood friend, and her husband Steve. This was their first time meeting Tyler and the boy didn't disappoint. He proudly showed off all his tricks, including his newest attempts at crawling. It's more of a backward shuffle, but it looks like he'll be on the move soon! Guess we'll need to start babyproofing! As kind of a side note, it's been pretty difficult for me not to get a little discouraged that Tyler hasn't been a babe on the move yet. I talk to many other mommies with babies around Tyler's age, and most of them are scooting around all over the place. But I try to remind myself that all babies are different. Different milestones, different babes. All in good time. I know in a few short weeks, I'm going to look back on this post and laugh and wish that he was still immobile!!!! But we also had the Radicks and Hamrics over for dinner, as well as Berkley and her daughter, Grace. They brought Tyler an adorable toy, his very own pirate ship! It's a new favorite around the house now. We all had a great night and it was a beautiful evening for a cookout.

Sunday was lunch with Nana and Grandaddy and once again, Tyler worked hard to put a smile on everyone's face, even though you could tell that he was very tired and starting to feel the effects of the newest cold that had set in. He finally caved and took a nice nap on Nana's chest. The ride home wasn't bad at all, as he slept the majority of the way. He most certainly needed it. At home, we noticed that his eyes were really "gooey" (sorry, no better word for it), but he wasn't running a fever, so we didn't do anything about it. We ended up taking him BACK to the pediatrician on Monday though, as it seemed that the "goo" was starting to bother him, and we wanted to rule out pink eye. No pink eye, just a cold or possible bacterial infection. They are running some tests on the "goo" to find out. In the meantime, we have him on Augmentin. If it turns out to be viral, we will take him off the antibiotic. But the doc reassured me that there's nothing wrong with him getting these illnesses so often and that we are doing everything right. He just seems to be a little more susceptible. Oh fun. But he seems to be doing better (again, knock on wood). But we have a couple of busy weeks ahead. Visitors this weekend, visitors next weekend, and Halloween coming up! Can't wait to show you guys the costume!!!!!

Back to his cute self

So now that Tyler is pretty much back to his old self, we're able to get out more and are up for visitors once again. We're also able to work on "new" skills, such as sitting up unassisted (done!), self-feeding (working on it), and sippy cups (kind of get it). Sitting up is no feat for Tyler anymore. We used to keep the Boppy behind him at all times - just in case. Well, no need anymore! We do try to keep a pillow behind wherever his head may land if he flings himself backwards, but those occasions are rare that it's actually needed. It is so nice to be able to sit him down somewhere and know that he can entertain himself for a few without us needing to run in every 2 seconds to pick him up because he fell. He loves to just sit and play with his toys. And he loves it even more when you get in the floor to play WITH him. Grandpa Ed visited this week, and spent a lot of time in the floor with him, and he ate it up!

For self-feeding, we have given Tyler a few things - mainly zwieback toast and some Gerber puffs. He's gotten a pretty good handle on the toast, and will actually consume a good amount of it, instead of it ending up on the floor as a gooey, soggy mess. The puffs are taking a little more getting used to. He doesn't quite have the "pincher" action going on yet, so he pretty much manhandles the puffs and tries to put fistfuls in his mouth, only to have the puffs either stick to his palms or fly onto his lap or the floor. We were at TGI Fridays this past weekend (right before we raided the Carter's outlet in Williamsburg) and packed a sippy cup and some puffs too. He sat in the high chair and sipped a bit on his cup (well, sort of) and played with his puffs. He did get a few in his mouth, but right now it's just all practice. On the subject of food, I thought I would also just add that he has started getting a 3rd meal each day. We are now sending a tub of veggies to daycare with him. As it stands now, he gets oatmeal with fruit in the morning with Trav, a veggie at daycare, and rice cereal with another veggie with me at night. I have been sending him to daycare with the veggies that he won't seem to eat from me - green beans, carrots, garden veggies. Apparently, he'll eat ANYTHING for the ladies at daycare. They comment on how he just "laps up his food"! Funny how he already knows how to play me.....

Tyler also has been perfecting his kissing and hugging skills - lucky for me, I'm the primary recipient of these hugs and kisses. When I pick him up in the afternoon, he get very excited and wraps his little arms around my neck and opens his mouth very wide to give "kisses". The are the wettest, sloppiest, most WONDERFUL kisses in the entire world. If I'm lucky, I'll get hugs and kisses at home too, but they're more frequent at daycare. It is the highlight of my day. It's OK if he doesn't say "mama" yet. I'll take the lovin' from my little boy anytime.


Finally, Tyler got a new toy this week. His Grandma and Granddad Snead bought him a John Deere ride on toy. He's still a little small for it, but not for long! Travis put him on it and pushed him around the house. Tyler held on tight and was pretty interested in what was going on. He seemed to really like it! As you can see in the picture, my husband being the hunter that he is, put Tyler's poor, defenseless Beanie Baby piggie on the back of the ATV as his "kill". It will be fun to watch him grow into this toy though and see what else he can carry around on the back of that thing! Thanks, Grandma & Granddad!

One last note: I take Tyler back to the pediatrician on Thursday (the 4th) to make sure that he really IS back to his old self. It's possible that we will have to go back to the hospital for a follow-up chest x-ray - we're not sure yet. So keep your fingers crossed that all is well!!!!

Are you ready for some football?

Well, to answer the first question on everyone's mind - How is Tyler feeling? Well, he's acting as though he still feels great. But he still has a bit of a cough and some congestion. So on Friday, we took him BACK to the pediatrician (for those who are counting, this was Visit #4 since Labor Day). She wanted to get some chest x-rays taken, so she sent us to one of the hospitals in town......at 3:00.....on a Friday......all the way across town......not fun. But we went, Tyler was well-behaved, we got the x-ray, and waited for the call from the pediatrician. She said that the results showed the beginning stages of pneumonia in the right side. So we started some antibiotics, and we are continuing with the albuterol inhaler as needed. Since going on the antibiotics, we have noticed a difference, so hopefully, we have really kicked this for good. He has a follow-up appointment next Thursday, after the meds are done, and I am sure we'll get another x-ray to ensure a clean bill of health. What a month.....what a month.


Football season is here, and Travis couldn't be happier. And now he has a little buddy to watch the games with him. His parents bought Tyler this Tony Romo jersey. It looks so authentic, and I have to admit, though I am not a Cowboys fan, it is a pretty darned cute onesie! But wait until Uncle Eddie sees this - I'm sure a Washington Redskins jersey will be on the way!


Tyler tried his first zwieback toast this week. He really seemed to like it, once he figured out what to do with it. He made quite the soggy little mess, but it was so much fun to watch him experience this new food. We also got to watch him do his new "trick" with his toast. While he's sitting up, he'll turn his body around as much as he can, and he'll "hide" whatever he's holding in his hand behind him. Then he'll turn towards the front again, only to immediately whip back to the side to see if he can find the dropped item. It's loads of fun for him!


He's chatting up a storm now, and is saying "dada" OFTEN. It makes our hearts melt, but Travis' even more so. We're working with him on "mama", but for now we just get "mmmmmmaaaaaaa". He's trying! And I'm trying to wait patiently......

Can you see the similarity?

On the left is my mom, circa March 1956. On the right, is Tyler in September 2007. Just food for thought......

On the mend

Seeing as Tyler isn't quite 100% yet, we thought it was best to hang close to home this past weekend. The weather has finally cooled off, so it's bearable to be outside again. So we took our little man on a walk to the playground at the front of our neighborhood for some swinging! It was the first time that he had been in a "big" swing - and he LOVED it! He laughed and smiled the whole time. Travis took him back the next day when his parents were visiting and got the same reaction. Makes us wonder why we hadn't taken him there before???? Oh, yeah, because it was 185 degrees outside with 10,000% humidity. I think we'll be spending some of these nicer, cooler autumn days there.

We also worked on packing up some of the things that we no longer need - the last of my maternity clothes, baby clothes that Tyler has outgrown, baby gear that we no longer need (Bjorns, mobiles, etc.). It's going to take a lot of storage containers to get all of this stuff in the attic. A lot. I can't believe how quickly he's growing out of things, and how quickly we're moving to the next stages in "baby gear world". The swing and exersaucer's days are pretty numbered too, we think. Soon we'll enter the world of babyproofing. In the meantime though, Tyler thought that he would "help" me with the maternity clothes packing. What a cute little helper.....

Tyler also practiced his sitting up skills at the house. He's getting to be quite a little pro at it! He will play for extended periods of time with his many, MANY toys and Mom and Dad can actually get a minute (or 2 or more!) to themselves! He plays independently! And he does it well! We have a hard time letting him play alone for too long. Our time on the weekends is so precious with him that we want to just get in the floor and do everything with him. Anyway, he'll play on the floor and will start to reach for something - a toy, one of the cats, anything - and he'll land right on his face. He'll play on his tummy for a few, as he tries to figure out how to get from Point A to B. He's getting there......

Another day, another sickness

Well, another 2 doctor's visits later and we have a diagnosis. Tyler has bronchio-litis. It is brought on by RSV, which can be a very serious respiratory illness for babies, especially preemies and infants under 6 months of age. After Tyler's Labor Day pediatrician visit, we saw a little improvement in his cold. So since he had been fever-free, he went back to daycare last Wednesday. By 10:00 that morning, I had received a call saying that Tyler had thrown up a lot of mucus, and did I want to come get him? Well, I did get him, and made yet another appointment with the doctor. We saw a different doc in the practice this time, and she again said that his lungs and ears were clear, so we were good there. But since he wasn't improving, she ran some blood work and discovered that we were indeed dealing with a viral infection. She informed me that unfortunately, we would need to let it ride out, but that if he wasn't better in a few days to let them know.

He did well this past weekend, but his sleeping and coughing progressively got worse at night. Then as I pick him up at daycare yesterday, I'm told that another baby has just been diagnosed with croup. Great. Just great. So I call the doc......AGAIN. She listens to him breathe and cough over the phone, and says that it is NOT croup. She mentioned bronchiolitis and asked that I make a sick appointment for the next morning. So I did.

Fast forward to the appointment, and they give Tyler a nebulizer treatment. For those that haven't had to give their infant one of these, it is no fun. Since he didn't want to sit there with the mask on and play, I had to hold him in my arma very tightly and almost force the mask to his face. He screamed, flailed, kicked, writhed, and wiggled for the whole 10 minutes. After it was over, doc came back in and listened to his chest again. She could tell a small difference, but said that we would need to continue these treatments at home. Since using the nebulizer went over like a fart in church, the doc offered another option. We are going to use a regular albuterol inhaler (like an asthmatic patient would use) and attach it to a small mask. We will hold the mask to his face, and give 2 puffs of medicine, and allow him to breathe for 20 breaths. Then it's over. And it is the equivalent of 10 minutes on the machine. So I took that route. I'll give him his first treatment this afternoon, then another tonight. From that point on, it is as needed only. And it should clear him up.....soon.

All through this though, our little man has been quite the trooper. He never indicates that he is feeling bad. He plays, he laughs, he smiles, he has fun. And he's gotten his appetite back and is enjoying his solid food again (especially peas, believe it or not!!). I know that the cough is just more bothersome to him than anything else. But we have been so proud of him and how well he has handled everything - the late nights, the MANY doctor's visits, and now the treatments. We have ourselves an amazing son,and I am so proud to be his Mommy.

6 months - Now what???

Yep, Tyler turned 6 months on August 28. I honestly can not believe that 6 months have passed since our little boy came into our lives. It's amazing to see how much he has changed, and how much he has changed our lives. But there's no need to go getting all sappy on everyone here....not yet. I'll save that for his first birthday.

We had a busy day on his 6 month birthday. It started out with a VERY nice luncheon at my work. See, there were 3 of us on my floor at work that were all due to have babies within 3 weeks of each other. So there was a big baby shower planned for all 3 of us in February. However, since I was unexpectantly taken out on bedrest at the beginning of February, I missed the festivities. So they decided to celebrate with me upon my return. And it just happened to work out that the best time to have the "shower" was on Tyler's 6 month birthday. So I felt that he HAD to be there for it. So I picked him up from daycare, and Travis even came for it. How often do you get to have a baby shower with the baby REALLY there??? It was so much fun and was very nice. Everyone brought great food and we got some really nice things for Tyler. Though it's a very well-known fact that I don't want to be back at work, and I'd rather be at home with my little boy full-time, I do work with a great bunch of people. A very generous group of people.

After the party, which Tyler did VERY well at by the way, we had his 6 month pedia-trician's appoint-ment. He weighed in at a whopping 17 lbs. 9 oz. and was 26.5 inches long. This keeps him in the 50th percentile for weight and height, so he's growing right on target and his doctor is very happy. She was happy to hear about how well solid-feeding was going, and gave us expectations for the future - crawling, teething (which we thought was in full-swing, but doc couldn't confirm), "talking". He also got his shots, which is never fun. It's especially not fun for Travis, who is the designated "baby holder" for those shots. Mommy continues to hide in the corner. (Yep, I'm a chicken. What of it????)

We had Tyler's 6 month portraits taken this weekend. Let me just advertise for a second here and say if you have any portrait needs, go to Portrait Innovations. They are WONDERFUL. And VERY reasonably priced. They took every bit of 60 shots of Tyler, and were so great with him. You can go to http://www.portraitinnovations.com/ for locations near you.

OK, enough with the free advertising, I was just really impressed. Tyler seemed like he was starting to get yet another cold this weekend, and we debated whether or not to even keep our appointment. But on Sunday, he looked like he was feeling better and we decided to go ahead. I'm glad we did. We got some great shots of our little man. But we realized once we got home, that his good mood was an act. He had a fever of over 102, so we called the after-hours service for our pediatrician. He also had a bad cough, and some congestion. We were told what to do, and if he didn't get better by this morning to call back. Well, he had another low-grade fever this morning and we decided we needed to see the doc. So we got in, and it was confirmed that he had yet another cold. He & I are staying home tomorrow, and I hope that he's better by Wednesday.

Here's where I am going to go off on a daycare tangent, so feel free to bypass this as you see fit. Tyler's been in daycare for 3 and a half months. He's had 3 colds. That's approximately 1 cold a month. Seriously, there are some plusses to daycare - socialization, lesser stranger anxiety. But there are some serious downfalls - germs. Now, many people have said that the germs will make him stronger, and these colds are good for him, etc. Honestly, these colds are HELL on us. All of us. At what point do the colds get less severe, because he's had, oh I don't know, a million of them???? And why do parents feel the need to send their kid to daycare when they are outside of the sick policy. Kids aren't allowed in until they have been fever-free (without meds) for 24 hours. Many people must lie about this, but we aren't those people. We strictly adhere to that rule in this house. He's not going to daycare because at 10:00 this morning, he had a fever. We've been pumping him full of Motrin and Tylenol all day. He should stay home tomorrow, just in case. I understand people have to work, hell, I'm one of them. But please don't put MY kid in jeopardy because you don't have another plan for him/her when he's sick. *Steps off soapbox**

We'll get through this cold. We always do. I just hate seeing my Little Man sick........

Visiting the 'Burg

We headed to Lynchburg last weekend to see Dad & Eddie, and the rest of the family and friends. We left on Friday night this time, after we fed Tyler and got him dressed for bed. We hoped that he would just go to sleep in the car, and he did. He slept the entire way there, and was very close to being transferred to the crib at Dad’s house when he awoke and decided that he was no longer ready for bed. As far as he was concerned, it was PARTY TIME. So we allowed him to stay up a little later that evening, as he showed off his newest tricks and toys to Dad and his neighbors, Ken & Edie.

Saturday we went to Waylon’s 3rd birthday party out at Bridges & Jay’s house. They had rented the “Stretch Bus”, which is a hollowed out school bus loaded up with all sorts of exercise equipment for young kids. The kids at the party had a great time playing in there, and Tyler even got to join in the fun. Travis took him inside and bounced him on the trampoline and let him go down the slide. I think that Tyler had a great time, especially watching all of the other kids play around him.
There was also a 4-month-old Chihuahua puppy there. We introduced him to Tyler and they both were taken with each other. Well, Tyler was taken with the puppy. The puppy seemed to want Tyler’s brightly colored links toy. But Tyler reached out to pet the puppy and was very gentle with him. This is something that we are working on with him at home with the cats – well, with Gracie. (Beemer still wants nothing to do with him.) Gracie is very tolerant of Tyler, and has even started to rub her face on him when he gets near. He has gotten a few “handfuls” of Gracie, but she never gets angry. She patiently waits for me or Travis to release the fur from his hands and she goes back to rubbing against him. We are very careful not to let their interaction go unsupervised, but for now, we are very proud of both of them. We’re hoping that by teaching Tyler early to play nicely with the kitties, he’ll be a little less harsh when he becomes mobile.

Sunday we had Uncle Eddie and Nana & Grandaddy (Tyler’s great-grandparents) over for lunch. Grandaddy hadn’t seen Tyler since he was 5 weeks old, and it was nice to see him interact with Tyler. He brought a big smile to my grandfather’s face that I haven’t seen in some time. And of course, Nana was just in love with Tyler. She couldn’t believe how big he’d gotten! Neither can I sometimes……

We headed home after lunch and we thought for sure that our traveling wonder would nap on the way home. Boy, were we wrong. The last hour of our trip was seriously the most painful hour ever spent in a car. Tyler screamed and cried and was just inconsolable. I ended up jumping in the backseat with him, making silly faces and pulling all sorts of toys out of the diaper bag. Some of these worked briefly, but there was no permanent solution until we got home, got him fed, and put in his crib for a nice nap. I hope that this was a one-time fluke in the car. He’s usually a pretty good traveler. Man, I better go find some wood, and knock….QUICK.

Sitting and swimming

It's amazing to watch your baby learn new things. It's even more amazing to see how QUICKLY they learn (or master) new things. Just last week, we were marvelling that Tyler was able to sit up for just a few short seconds, before taking a digger into the floor. That was the coolest thing. It didn't matter how long the attempt lasted. Well, all of a sudden, our little man started to sit straighter, longer, and sturdier. I swear it happened overnight. He is becoming more and more confident in his abilities and is now reaching for toys while sitting with moderate success. He does NOT want to be held like a baby anymore, and doesn't even really like leaning up against your body, or anything else for that matter. He wants to sit up. Like a big boy. He really is becoming a big boy. Where is that little tiny baby that we brought home from the hospital????

We've introduced sweet potatoes to his diet now. I tested them, as I mentioned before. Honestly, it didn't taste that much different from the squash. It must be because we are not used to such bland foods. In any event, Tyler devoured his sweet potatoes. The boy loved his sweet potatoes. He now sees the spoon coming towards his mouth and he promptly opens his mouth, just like a little bird. Tomorrow, we embark on the crazy world of carrots. Then we go to fruit. THAT should be interesting. But again, almost overnight, he has become a pro at eating his big boy food.

One last big boy moment this week - we went to the pool for the first time. Our community has a pool right down the street. At the time that we closed on the house and moved in, we didn't choose to pay the one-time membership fee for the pool. We knew we weren't going to use it. But with Tyler here, and with the fear that the one-time fee would increase, we went ahead and paid it and now we're members for as long as we live in this community. They have a swim team here too, which is exciting to me, as one day I hope that Tyler will be a swimmer like his Mommy. And after today's adventure, it looks like we WILL have a swimmer on our hands. He wasn't real thrilled with the baby pool at first, which is where we started out. After several minutes in there though, he started to kick and splash a bit. We decided to make the jump to the big pool. WOW! Our baby was leaning forward, kicking his legs, and just having a GREAT time. We'd swim him around, and he'd just keep on kicking and smiling. He loved it. Makes us wish that we had attempted this a little sooner, as the pool will close for the summer after Labor Day. But that leaves us 2 more weekends to get him some pool time. We're definitely going to take advantage of that.

Next weekend we head back to Lynchburg to visit Grandpa Ed, Uncle Eddie, and everyone else. We haven't been there since Memorial Day, so it'll be nice to see everyone and show everyone how Little One has grown. Bridges & Jay's youngest boy is having his 3rd birthday party that same weekend, so we'll head to that on Saturday. Tyler should enjoy it. He loves watching younger kids play and being around them. Another busy weekend, but we're looking forward to it!!

Meal time!

Well, as you saw in the Bonus Post this past week, we started solids. Like I mentioned, we just felt it was time, even though we had wanted to hold out until Tyler was 6 months old (mainly to help with possible food allergies). But our little boy seemed ready NOW, not 3 weeks from now, and we gave it a go! At his 4 month pediatrician appointment, we were told that we could start solids at 5 months and were given the guidelines on how to do it. Start with rice cereal, move to veggies (preferably oranges and yellows), then fruits (just because some babies will favor the sweetness and start to reject veggies), wait 3-4 days between foods to look for symptoms of allergies. So we started with very runny rice cereal on Tuesday. He slurped it right up! We slowly made it a bit thicker, and the response was hit-or-miss. Sometimes he really seemed to enjoy himself, and others he didn't seem to like it at all. Ah, the joys of trying something new!

But since we had been on just plain rice cereal for a few days and saw no adverse reactions (other than some very smelly gas and some "interesting" looking poop), we decided to embark on the next portion of our journey. We introduced our little man to squash tonight. I started him out with some plain squash, and as he kept eating, I mixed it up with some rice cereal too. He LOVED it!! (And I have to admit, it tasted a lot better than I thought it would, and I don't eat squash. I have made it a habit to taste EVERYTHING that Tyler tastes - Tylenol, rice cereal, gas drops, even breastmilk.) We decided to feed him in just his diaper tonight. Now that we're adding color to the food, it's just as easy to throw his little butt in the tub. Good thing....he had squash EVERYWHERE. Travis had his work cut out for him on bath duty tonight.

So provided that we have no strange reactions to the squash, we'll head to carrots or sweet potatoes later this week. We don't anticipate any issues, as neither Travis nor I have any food allergies. We'll finish up these orange veggies and then we'll start to add bananas or apples to the cereal or oatmeal. Before you know it, our little man will be ordering a steak dinner!!!