Teeth!!!

Tyler is finally getting teeth! His two front bottom ones have been coming in for about 4 days. He is also getting a lot chubbier. I don't know how much he weighs, but there's definately a lot more to hold onto when I carry him. He learned to play catch yesterday, and he can throw the ball back to me, sort of. It doesn't really come straight to me. But he was having so much fun! He was laughing so hard! It was fun. He found his shadow the other day. There was some suncoming in through the window and he just couldn't figure out what his shadow was. He kept trying to touch it. I waved at him with my shadow, and he waved back. It was so funny to watch him. It's crazy to see how much stuff you have to learn when you are a baby. Most of the stuff seems like I have always known it and didn't have to learn it. I took a picture of him and his shadow, but I will have to post it later. We are having computer problems.

Christmas Tree

Tyler was so amazed when he saw the Christmas Tree all lit up. At first he just sat there staring at it. Then he decided to go feel it. He hasn't really seemed to get enough courage to get too close to it. Most of the time he just sits and stares. It's so funny to see a 25 inch baby sitting next to a 6ft tree. I am excited for his first Christmas. I need to find a cute ornament for him for our tree. I also have been looking for a little toy that he can hold on to that's supposed to help babies learn to walk ( not a walker). He has been standing up a lot lately. I have seen him stand up and let go of the table once. I don't know if he was not paying attention or if he was trying to stand on his own. It's fun to see him crawl all over. It will be fun when he learns to walk. I know he will get into more things when he walks, but I still can't wait!! We got new windows put in our basement today. They look really nice! Let's hope for a warmer house and a lower gas bill!! By the way, in the picture of him touching the space heater, the heater is not on.

Tiny Ty

A couple of days ago I took Tyler to see his pediatrician. He has had a cold since November 1st and I was getting a little concerned. He has inconsulable tantrums, and despite what people may think, that really isn't like him. He usually stops crying the moment I pick him up. Anyway. the doctor thinks he just caught two colds in a row. He also has an ear infection, but other than that he is fine. They weighed him and measured his height. He hasn't grown in length since he was 7 months old (he is 25.5 inches tall). And he only weighs 12lbs exactly. The doctor told me to make an appointment to have 6 tests done on him to find out if he isn't growing because of some disease. He seems healthy to me, other than his stunted growth, so I think I will wait a while to see if he does better. The tests are very expensive.
He has learned how to crawl quite well. He stands up with support from furniture quite a bit, and he waved on his own for the first time today. He is so cute! It's funny to see such a little baby do all that he does. Since he learned to crawl, I have been able to get a lot more done. He plays with his toys and crawls all over while I clean the house. He's also not afraid of the vacuum anymore. It's nice not to have him cry the moment I set him down. It's amazing how much more you can get done without a baby attached to your hip!
Today as I was leaving my house for the grocery store I saw something walking across the street. It was around 5:30, so it was pretty dark. It kind of looked like a dog from a distance, but as I got closer I saw it was a deer! I drove slow so it wouldn't run out infront of me, and it just ran along the sidewalk. It had huge antlers. That's one thing I love about this area, we have deer in our yards all the time. When I had seen them driving in the canyon, I never saw any with antlers, but sometimes around here we even see families of deer. The other day we saw a doe, a buck and a cute little baby running into our backyard. Too bad I never have a camera!!!

Happy Tyler?

Just thought I'd show you how cute Tyler is, even when he is sad.

So it's a lot harder to keep up a blog than I thought. My life isn't really interesting anough for me to write every single day. Anyway, here's an update. I was on my way to the store a couple of weeks ago when my car suddenly stop working. Luckily I was in a parking lot. Our transmission needs to be replaced and it's going to be quite expensive, so any donations would be appreciated. Just kidding! Haha! It has been very hard not being able to leave the house while Jeff is at work (I am not going to walk).
For Halloween Tyler was Superman. I was Phoenix and Jeff was Wolverine from X-men. Jeff has a Wolverine video his friend put on youtube.com called "Leaked Wolverine Trailer". It's very funny. Jeff's sister Katie took Tyler trick-or-treating. He got about 5 pieces of candy. Katie said most people just looked at him and didn't put any candy in his bag. Poor Tyler. Anyway, he ended up with a cold the next day. We had him bundled up quite a bit. This is his first cold and he isn't taking it very well. He has been sleeping a lot, which is nice, but when he is awake he is ornery (is that how you spell that word?)
There have been a couple of times when I have gone to his crib when he wakes up and he has been sitting up, or on his knees. Today I took him to see my sister-in-law. I set him on the floor next to her 16 month old, Sadie. I looked away for a couple of seconds and when I looked back he was standing! He had pulled himself up by the couch! After a few seconds he fell down and started to cry. I am so excited though! Maybe he will learn how to walk before he learns how to crawl. Right now he just rolls everywhere and backs up. I know he will into everything when he walks, but I am looking forward to it.

Cool Picture

This is a cool picture that Jeff's sister, Katie, took of me an Ty in the sunset at Pineview where we went jet skiing.

Tyler's Progress

Tyler has learned a lot in the last little while. He can stand up from sitting if you hold his hands. He is getting very good at feeding himself finger foods (he'll eat any food you give him, he's very good at gumming things). He babbles a lot, and has started to try and talk to other babies, as he demonstrated on sunday with his cousin Sadie (they were babbling back and forth during dinner). He also seems like he wants to crawl but can't figure it out. He lunges forward, but doesn't move his feet out of the way so he loses his balance or goes back to sitting. He is also learning a little about video games. He really likes to watch us play them, and sometimes tries to join in. Maybe he will learn how to play video games before he gets any teeth. It's looking that way so far!

8 Months Old

I know it's been a while again, but I have been pretty busy. Last Saturday we went to a lake and rented a jet ski. It was so fun!! We went with Jeff's family. It was Tyler's first time on sand. We set him down and he didn't like it at first, but then he was totally interested. He grabbed a bunch in his hand and let it fall through his fingers. Then he grabbed another handful and put it in his mouth. Yummy! Everyone gto sunburnt, even though we had sunscreen on, and our muscles were very sore. I forgot to bring my camera, so we don't have any pictures.
Last week we painted our kitchen dark brownish green. It actually turned out pretty nice. It went well with the decorations I had in there when it was white. It took a while, but I am very happy with the results.
I was looking at a picture of me when I was a little over a year old and I look so much like Tyler does. It's so fun for me to see the resemblence, especially since everyone says he is the cutest baby ever! I took him in for a check-up on Tuesday. He weighs 11lbs 13oz, which is only 3 oz more than he was when he was 6 months old. The doctor wants me to start feeding him foods with higher calories to see if we can fatten him up. I wish I had that problem. Jeff and I have been on a diet for about 2 months now. We have been eating healthy, but I still look the same. But the holidays are coming. That's when dieting is the hardest. Here are some pics of Tyler and his cousin, Jack.

It's been a while

Well, I just updated this and then deleted the update, so I have to do it all over again. Sigh.. Anyway, I have been pretty busy the last little while. Jeff took last week of work so we had a stay-at-home vacation. We went to movies, a hotel (for one night), the Zoo (Tyler's first time), a children's aquarium, the planetarium, and other fun places. Tyler wasn't too interested in the zoo. He loved the weasel, which was running around it's cage. But other than that he seemed oblivious. At the aquarium he liked the tiger fish. It was a fun week. I took pictures, but they didn't save to the right place on my computer so I can't put any pictures on this entry. Sorry!
Tyler can sit up now very well. He can stay up even when he is throwing a tantrum. He also fed himself for the first time yesterday. I gave him a graham cracker and he loved it! He is getting a lot more independant, although he still always wants to be held. He is still only about 13lbs, so it isn't too hard to hold him all day long. But he has started to grab for things and try to lean over as far as he can to look behind me. He is really learning a lot. I love being a mom!

Ty's Pictures

Here are some pictures of Ty that were taken a month ago. I just got them back today. They are so cute! Tyler can sit up longer without support. He is starting to hold onto me with a stronger grip and he hugs me when I pick him up. Whenever I go down a set of stairs he grips me really tight and starts to scream. I don't know why. This sunday he was much better in church, as long as he had his binky. He usually doesn't make it through the passing of the sacrament. But it was nice to sit through one meeting with a happy, relatively quiet, baby. He has learned how to make high pitched sounds, and decided to practice during the talks. The other day Jeff and I went out to eat and he started to be really fussy. We forgot his binky and the server took so long!!! I was embarassed because he was screaming and wiggling and everyone was looking at us. It's amazing how un-shy you are when you are little.

Spiders!!!!

I am so sick of seeing spiders in our house. I kill atleast one everday. They are almost always Hobo spiders, which are poisonous. I used to be deathly afraid of them, but I kill them so often that I'm almost brave enough to step on them barefoot, which probably wouldn't be smart with the poisonous ones. We had our house sprayed twice this year, but it hasn't done a thing! There is always atleast one in our bathroom. We had a trap in our kitchen that had about 25 of them in it. I replaced it about a month ago and the new trap is already full. I just hope that Tyler never gets bit by one. I remember when I was little I would always pretend to kill bugs. I would deliberately miss them because I felt bad killing them. But when I kill these spiders I smash them until all their legs fall off and their bodies are mangled into a bloody pulp, just to make sure they are dead. I have killed 2 so far today.

Learning

It's amazing how many things you have to learn when you are a baby. Things that you do everyday took so much effort to learn in the first couple years of your life. But you sure do get praised a lot when you first learn them. Jeff and I have been try to coax Tyler to learn how to sit and crawl. He seemed very reluctant at first, but I am starting to see our efforts pay off. He is doing so well at holding himself up in a sitting posistion if he doesn't lean to one side. And whenever I put him down he almost always ends up on his stomach whether he is screaming or just being curious. He hardly ever makes enough effort while we are feeding him to grab the spoon and get food all over his hands, and he is very good at holding a cup and knowing where he should put it in order to spill the liquid all down his outfit. I am really enjoying watching his development. And he is getting so big! It seems like he grows so fast, even though he is still only about 13lbs. He laughs a lot, and smiles a lot if you can believe it. He still hates to be put down and has a bad case of stranger anxiety that isn't limited to strangers. He even cries when Jeff holds him. If I give him to someone he turns to me with his pouty little face and starts to cry with a look that says, "Mommy, why are you doing this to me?" I never in my life imagined that I could have so much love for such a high maintenance little boy. I am greatful for him.

Feeding Tyler

Jeff really helps me out a lot with Tyler. There are some days that I don't get around to feeding him solid foods. Who knew that taking care of a baby would be so time consuming! Tyler loves bananas. We usually give him those, but we have started trying apple sauce, too. He didn't like it at first, he seems to have warmed up to them. He hates carrots. Once he knows that what he's getting, he shuts his mouth tight. Carrots were the first solid food we gave him (not including baby cereal). It's really funny to watch his face when he tastes a new food. He gets a very disgusted look and slowly chews it with his mouth open a little. Jeff has discovered a way to get him to open his mouth when he doesn't want to. He blows in his face and that makes Ty smile wide. It's so cute! We got professional pictures of him today. He did really good. They are the first ones we've taken professionally of him because I was always afraid he would cry the whole time since I wasn't holding him. He only cried afterward because I took too long to decide what poses I liked the beat. I won't get them for about 2 weeks, but I will put them on this blog when I can. They are adorable!!!

Bear Lake

Tyler and I went for a walk today. We went to the Davis County Library to find him some Baby Einstein videos. This is actually the first time that he made through the whole walk without crying! It was nice to get some exercise. I'm going to try to do it more often. Over the weekend we went to Bear Lake for a reunion for my side of the family. It was pretty fun. We tried to put Ty in the water again, but he still doesn't like it. The water there was a lot warmer than the swimming pool I tried to put him in at the last reunion, but he didn't care. So we pawned him off to my parents and went swimming ourselves. It was fun. I saw a lot of relatives that I hadn't seen for about 10 years. The older ones didn't change much, but some of them were just babies the last time I saw them so I was surprised to see how much they had grown. The weather was nice there and the bugs weren't as bad as they were in Glenn's Ferry. We found a bunch of dead earwigs in our tent that we brought back from there. The only complaint I had about this weekend is that it was the weekend of the 24th and everyone was shooting off fireworks all night. Luckily Tyler slept through them all, even when they decided to light a couple of ground flowers right next to our tent. And he also saw a couple fireworks for the first time before he went to bed. He was facinated! Sorry, we didn't take any pictures at Bear Lake. But here's one of Ty from our walk today. He's so cute!

Glenn's Ferry, Idaho

We went to a family reunion over the weekend for Jeff's family. It was in Glenn's Ferry, Idaho in a state park called "Three Island Crossing". It was part of the Oregon Trail. The park was pretty. We were next to a river that had no access from our side, so all we could do was look at it. There were two giant slides for the kids to play on and a little pool that one of my nephews spent a whole day in. Tyler was pretty good on the trip. We brought a pack n play that had a bassinett for him to sleep in. He let me put him in it throughout the day and he just laid there and played with his toys. It was about 107 degrees there on the first day and 103 on the second. The nights were very cold and noisy. We were pretty close to railroad tracks and there were a lot of planes that flew by. Also the first night there were people talking and laughing really loud until about 3am, and the second night there was a live band at a party in a winery that was right next to the park that went from about 11pm to 2am, so we didn't get much sleep at all the whole weekend. We put Tyler in the swimming pool. It was his first time, and he hated it! It wasn't very cold because it had been in the sun for a while, but he got so upset and kept crying even when we had him out for a while. It was a pretty relaxing weekend. They didn't have anything planned but meals, so we got to eat free and do whatever we wanted. Most of Jeff's immediate family came, so we had babysitters and people to help entertain Tyler. Sadie, his 1 year old cousin, always gives him big hugs when she gets close to him. It's so cute! Anyway, we get to go to Bear Lake for another family reunion this weekend. Tyler is taking the traveling quite well, and hopefully he will be okay going again. It's fun to go on so many trips!

Is there an end to this madness?

In two days Tyler will be 6 months old. I am looking forward to the day when he sits up and entertains himself. Jeff and I went to the temple today and left him with Grandma Krammer. We were gone for about 3 hours. She said he slept for an hour and cried the rest of the time. Right when I got in the door and picked him up, he stopped crying. I used to think it would be so wonderful to have a child that wanted only me. I never knew how hard it would be. I think I spoil him too much. I hold him a lot, but I just can't stand to hear him scream! He screams if other people hold him. He screams if I put him down to try and clean the house. He screams if I am sitting down while holding him. And sometimes, when he is in an especially good mood, he screams when I am holding him standing up, rocking and bouncing and cuddling him. I get to the point where I just want to put him in a sound proof room and leave him for a couple of hours while I just sit and try to regain my sanity back. But of course in between these tantrums he has to smile and laugh and coo, making me feel bad for wanting to be away from him. I can't tell if he is getting better or worse. I guess he's getting a little better in that people can hold him for atleast 5 minutes before he has a tantrum. I do love him, though. He has good qualities. He smiles pretty easily at strangers and he has the cutest smile and laugh! He is extremely adorable, even when he is crying with his pouty little lower lip. He has changed a lot since he was born. The pictures included are one where he is crying with teething tablets stuck to his lips (a perfect capture of one of his infamous tantrums, teething tablets were not purposefuly placed), one of when he was in the hospital and the most recent one I have. If anyone that reads this blog has any advice on dealing with my sweet little ball of tears, please let me know!!!

July 4th

I hope everyone had a good 4th! Jeff and I took Tyler to a concert in Centerville. Ty was dressed in an outfit Grandma Krammer gave to him. It was very patriotic and adorable. I didn't take any pictures though. Sorry! We didn't stay very long because Ty was really tired and fussy. On the 4th we did fireworks with Jeff's family and Ty slept through them all. He is a really good sleeper. He falls asleep most of the time without crying and he sleeps for atleast 10 hours. It's so nice! The fireworks were fun, even though it was raining. There were a lot of illegal fireworks going off, too. They are always fun to watch. It's a good thing some people are willing to break the law so I can benefit from it. Haha! Today Jeff and I tried to fix a leak in our bathroom faucet that we have had for about a month. We ended up making it worse and had to call my dad to come help. It took about 4 hours to get it fixed, since everytime one leak was fixed another would start. We have lived in this house for 14 months and have always had plumbing problems. Our toilets upstairs and downstairs leak, the upstairs bathtub leaks through the ceiling to our basement bathroom, both tubs have a hard time draining, and the lower pipe to one of them sinks leaks. Makes me never want to buy a 60 year old house again! Atleast I will know what to ask about when we decide to move.

Camping

Tyler has been screaming all day long and I am going crazy! I think he is starting to cut a tooth, but I could be wrong. He usually cries a lot, but this is rediculous. Nothing is soothing him! I gave him baby tylenol and teething tablets. I wish he would just go to sleep! Anyway, we went camping this weekend. Tyler was really good the whole time. It was hard to set up camp because I didn't have anywhere to put him down and everyone else was busy setting up their camps. It was nice to get away, but it was actually kind of boring. There was nothing really planned. We got there, set up camp, sang songs, ate dinner, went to bed, then got up, ate breakfast and went home. Tyler fell asleep really fast while we were singing. He slept with me in my sleeping bag and I had the worst nights sleep. Everytime I moved, he would wake and everytime he moved, I would wake up. I think I'm going to get a portable crib for our next trip. Angie and Nick, my husband's sister and her husband, went with us. They live with us in our duplex. We planned to bring something for dinner to share. Our responsibility was the hot dogs and buns. While we were packing the food, Jeff was talking to me and we were in a hurry. When we got to camp, we had the buns, but no hot dogs. Instead Jeff brought a can of spaghetti sauce!! It was so funny! He was distracted and grabbed the wrong thing! I laughed so hard!! So we went to the nearest store and got some more. The camp ground wasn't very far from the Springfield, Ut. On a sad note, a girl in our ward died over the weekend. She had lukemia. She was 28 and had 2 kids. I feel sorry for her husband. It really makes you appreciate your health and the time you get to spend with those you love. By the way, Happy late Birthday Brittany!!!

Some pictures of our family

Indecisive

I have tried a couple of blog sites and this one seems to be the easiest to understand, so I think I will stick to this one. Jeff and I ended up giving Tyler a hair cut last saturday. Strangers don't tell me how cute he is anymore. He still is adorable, but I guess there's nothing that stands out about him now. He is 5 months and 2 weeks old today. He's still only 11lbs and 10oz. We just took him to the doctors and had his 4 month shots. He handled them pretty badly, until the doctor stuck a dum dum in his mouth. He sure loved that! On sunday Jeff was looking at him and nodding. Tyler started to nod back, and I thought maybe it was just a coincidence. But we tried it againa couple of times, and he nodded back every time! He's never copied anyone before! It's so fun to see him growing up and learning and acting more like a person than just a little ball of tears and screams. He's getting much better at not crying all the time. I can put him down and he can entertain himself for a few minutes. I think he will be much better when he can sit up on his own. He rolls over to his stomach all the time, especially when he is trying to go to sleep or has been crying for a long time. I think he's going to learn to crawl soon. That can be good and bad. Anyway, we are taking him camping for the first time this weekend. We have a ward campout, so hopefully he will behave and not keep people awake all night. I'll keep you posted!