"Don't Chew on the Door!"

Isn't it funny the things you say as a parent?

More Signs

Tyler has learned several new signs since my last update.

He now sticks his tongue out for "frog." (I'm not sure he knows what a frog is, but he sure is cute sticking his little tongue out. Sometimes he gets carried away and walks around for several minutes — tongue in, out, in, out...)
He wiggles his fingers for "caterpillar." (He's supposed to wiggle one, but I guess that is hard when you're 14 months old!)
He points up and kind of moves his hand in a circle for "fan."
He points out and shakes his whole arm adamantly for "down." (He uses this when he wants to get down from the high chair, get out of the bath, and once when he climbed on a shelf and got stuck!)
He pats his head for "hat."
Of course, when I tried to teach him to pant for "hot," he patted his head for "hat." :)

He is also trying to say "diaper." If he learns to say "diaper" before he says "Mama," I might put him up for auction.

Losing the Baby-Proofing Battle

My parents recently told me that they can no longer use their baby gates because Tyler climbs right up them!

My grandmother attempted to baby-proof her kitchen cabinets in anticipation of our visit on Sunday. She took some thick drapery "thread" and tied all the cabinet doors together. But Tyler is taller than she realized. When he couldn't open the ones right in front of him, he reached up and opened the ones just above his head!

This morning, Tyler figured out the child-proof cabinet doors in my bathroom. At first, I thought it was a fluke, so I pushed the door closed and I watched him pull it open a little, stick his finger and and push down on the baby-proof catch. He thought this was really neat and proceeded to practice opening the door about 20 times before he started pulling things out of the cabinets.

Have any of you used the magnetic cabinet door locks? I'm thinking about buying some.

A couple of hours later, I caught him chewing on the twine that Brian used to "Tyler-proof" the pantry. (Meaning Tyler took the loop of twine off the pantry doors and used it as a teether.) Luckily, he was too busy slobbering on the twine to investigate the pantry. He made quite a mess last week!

Shock & Awe

PB232792.JPG
Originally uploaded by Tyler Lackey

Tyler was in awe of the slides at the playground. He loved them! Our easy-going little guy even pitched a fit when we left because he wanted to keep sliding.

One problem: sliding on a cold day results in some serious static electricity. It didn't seem to bother Tyler but Brian and I got tired of being shocked!

For more pictures of Tyler at the playground, visit our flickr page:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tyler_lackey/

Blueberries and Kisses

Tyler was so cute today that we got out the video camera twice!

First, he can almost say "blueberry" -- but he was doing better before we got out the camera. I decided to share the video anyway because he's so cute covered in blueberries!

Also, Tyler learned to imitate the sound of a kiss by smacking his tongue against the top of his mouth. I imagine we're in for some pretty sloppy, wet kisses before too long!

Miscellaneous Updates

Play Kitchen Poll: The results were 50/50 as to whether you think we should buy Tyler a play kitchen for Christmas. To those of you that voted "no," I hope you feel guilty when you see how much fun Tyler has with a play kitchen! (That is, IF I can talk Brian into buying one...)

Language Update: This morning, Tyler was watching a Baby Einstein video that has a section showing different fruits. I told him what each fruit was when it popped up on the screen.

ME: Apple

TYLER: aaa-TAH!

ME: Banana

TYLER: nanana

ME: Peach

Tyler did the sign for "pig"!

Mischief Update: Brian gets frustrated that we have toys all over the floor. (I don't blame him. It is frustrating to trip and stub your toes all the time.) Anyway, in an attempt to manage all the toys, I put a laundry basket in the dining room (which we use as a play room). It has been in there for a couple of weeks and worked rather well. Yesterday, Tyler decided he'd rather play with the makeshift toy box rather than with the toys. He's always liked playing with the empty laundry baskets so I didn't think much of his carrying it around. Until I caught him standing on the upside-down laundry basket helping himself to everything on my kitchen counter.

Language Update

Tyler learned a new sign yesterday. He pushes on his nose for "pig."

He kept touching his nose yesterday, so I taught him "Tyler's nose" and "Mama's nose." Then I started pushing my nose up and saying, "Oink, oink, oink. Piiiigggg." When he started pushing on his nose, I ran to find his toy pig.

(Note: Tyler flattens his nose instead of pushing it up like a pig nose. And sometimes he gets confused and sticks his finger up his nose!)

He started throwing the toy pig under a table and then frantically pushing on his nose so I would go get the pig. This morning, when I picked up the toy, I asked, "What is this?" He promptly flattened his little nose to tell me "pig."

I started thinking of all the things he can "say" now:

He waves his arm back and forth for "all done."
He claps his hands for "more" or "give me."
He also holds his hand out for "give me."
He waves for "bye-bye" and "night, night."
He waves sideways for "milk."
He slaps his leg for "puppy."
He wiggles his fingers for "spider" -- he doesn't even know what a spider is, he just knows that Mama signs the Itsy-bitsy spider song!
When I ask "Are you hungry?", he scratches his tummy and runs to the pantry.

He actually says "nana" for banana.
He says "aaaa-TAH" for apple.
He says "dada" for Daddy (and for Mama, too!)
He tries to say "yogurt." I can't begin to spell his pronunciation. But he also runs to the fridge and holds out his hand when I ask if he wants some yogurt!
I think he may be trying to say "graham cracker," but that one is really indecipherable.

We're working on teaching him signs for bath, water, and drink. And I keep trying to teach him animal songs. But when I "moooo" or "eeeh eeh eeh, ooh ooh ooh" at him, he only smiles!

What a Welcome!

So, Brian and I left Tyler with my parents for the weekend. We needed some time to ourselves and we decided to celebrate our 5-year anniversary a couple of weeks early.

Until this weekend, the longest I'd been away from Ty was about 20 hours. That was the only night I'd spent away from him until this weekend. And I cried that time. I only agreed to it because we were having trouble unpacking in our new home with Tyler's "help."

Needless to say, I was very hesitant about this idea of a whole weekend away. (We had a great time and Tyler had a great time, but that is all beside the point.)

We dropped Ty off around 4 Friday afternoon and we got back to my parents' house around 11 Sunday morning. I couldn't wait to kiss him and hug him. I missed his smile, his giggle, the feel of his smooth cheeks and the way he smells.

When we walked in the front door at my parents' house, we accidentally woke Tyler up. He was asleep in my mom's lap. Well, he immediately squirmed down and ran for us. I dropped my keys and knelt down to scoop him up.

He pushed my arms out of the way and ran to his daddy.

Yes, really.

The cup is still half full...

While I was in Tyler's bathroom (flushing the contents of his dirty diaper, if you really want to know), he took the opportunity to run to Mama & Daddy's bedroom. He loves our room, mostly because there are all kinds of things he shouldn't touch: our shoes, the cable plug in the wall, all kinds of DSL cords and wires, trash cans, etc.

And sometimes, there is the glass of water that I have on the bedside table.

By the time I followed him to the bedroom, that cup of water (plastic -- thanks to Brian) was in the floor. But Tyler hadn't spilled a drop!!!! All he did was drop a small bottle of lotion into it. Can you believe that?!

"I Wanna Be Nekkid!"

Tyler is rather active these days. (That is a huge understatement, but I don't have the energy to explain how active he is.)

After his bath last night, I decided to grease him up with lotion while he was standing on the floor and thus minimize the time I have to pin him on the changing table.

It worked pretty well because he was preoccupied with opening and closing the dresser drawers.

Once I finished with the lotion, I said, "Okay, now we have to put this diaper on your bottom!"

It amazes me what he understands... and how he "responds."

Normally, I say this when he's on the changing table and he lifts his little legs like he's trying to help me postion the diaper under him. (I still have to be fast, but at least I think he's trying to help for a second!)

Last night, though, he took off running and tried to hide in the corner. When I walked toward him, laughing, he ran his still-naked little butt to the other corner. I chased him back and forth across the room a few times, both of us giggling. He's so much fun!

Not a Fan of Halloween Candy

This afternoon, I was talking to Jennifer on the phone and I followed Tyler into the front room and tossed a ball to him a few times. He soon grew bored of that and ran out of the room. He didn't come right back like he usually does, so after a second, I went to check on him.

I found him sitting cross-legged on top of the kitchen table. He was reaching into the bowl of Halloween candy and throwing Smarties and Reese's on the floor one at the time.

Yes, I'm vowing to do better about pushing the chairs under the table so he can't climb up there. Yes, I know he could get hurt. Yes, I know I probably shouldn't share this story with all the grandparents. But worry aside, it was kinda funny.

P.S. I'm sort of rethinking my desire to have a Christmas tree this year. Can you imagine how those stories are going to read?

Tyler is going to be an only child.

Tyler invented a new game this morning:



He also got his finger stuck in the deadbolt thing on the front door. You know, the thing that pushes down into the floor. He pushed his finger down in that thing about 10 times and whined for me to come help him get it out each time. (I think he just wanted attention, poor baby.)

He ALSO climbed on top of the kitchen table. One minute, he had pulled up on to the chair on his belly. The next, he's sitting on the table next to my laptop!

Traveling Trick-or-Treaters

The plan was to take our little monkey around to meet our neighbors, even though he's too little for the Halloween candy. We haven't met many people in the neighborhood since we moved here in late July, and Halloween seems like the perfect time to go knocking on doors.

We got Tyler all dressed up in his monkey suit, complete with a banana on his head. I've been trying to teach him to make monkey noises for two weeks, but when I "ooh, ooh, ooh, eeh, eeh eeh" at him, he just smiles. His second word, however, is "nana" for "banana," one of his favorite foods!

We walked down to the dead end on our street and not a single porch light was on. We did find welcoming lights at the house across the street and the house next door to us, so we met two couples. All of the other houses were dark.

As a young mother, I needed someone to admire my little monkey on his first Halloween! So we packed up and visited our friends Chad and Ashely, who live about 5 miles away.

Tyler had a great time throwing tupperware around their kitchen, banging their cabinet doors (Chad was not impressed with this trick!) and generally looking for something to get into!

We stayed so long that we ended up feeding Tyler at their house and he fell asleep on the way home. He snored as I carried him into the house; he slept on the changing table while I changed his diaper. And he didn't wake up when I moved him to the crib!