Swingin' Good Fun

One of Ty's Christmas presents was a swing from his Grammie and Poppy!  We've been meaning to get it set up and bought the materials to do so. Unfortunately, it's been rainy and yucky outside.  Today was pretty nice out so I decided to set it up. Ty loved swinging! With the first push, he giggled, threw his head back, and started babbling nonstop!  We stayed outside on the swing for a good bit and he loved every second. I'm glad he liked it and I look forward to more time on the swing!

First time swinging - 11 months old

11 months

At 11 months:


-wearing 12-18 month clothing
-size 4 diapers
-has 6 teeth
-loves table foods - wants to eat what mommy and daddy have; loves anything with a crunch to it
-loves to stand up - pulls up on anything he can get his hands onto and is getting to be so brave and let go
-getting lots of boo-boo's from being so brave - that mean ole' floor has bonked your noggin' quite a few times this month
-loves to jump on your mattress in your crib
-takes two naps - about 60-90 minute nap in the morning, and usually a good 90-120 minute nap in the afternoon
-wakes up 1-2x a night... unsure if it's teething or night terrors - wakes up around 7am (plus or minus 30 minutes)
-still obsessed with Baby Einstein movies... mommy and daddy's brains are turning into mush
-babbling... a lot! Making sounds that sound just like "hug", "up" ,"duck".
-LOVE bath time! You cries when it's time to get out. You also enjoys splashing in the dogs water bowl when we forget to put it away when you're crawling around. 
-just learned how to wave (on Skype when chatting with Daddy)!
-can clap your hands
-new favorite song is, "If You're Happy and You Know It"
-still love your pacifier; going to need to start wearning!

Mr. I-won't-sit-still-for-two-seconds!

I just want to play!

I said NO pictures, Mom!

This boy loves to play with his stinky socks! 

Socks still in hand.

Smirk!

And so it's here...the last month of your baby year. The last 11 months have gone by so fast and in 31 short days, we'll be celebrating your very first birthday. You're days away from being a toddler! It's hard to believe at this time last year you were still just a dream to me and I couldn't wait for you to make your big debut so I could study every inch of you. I promise you nothing short of an amazing last month of being a baby. We'll fill these next 31 days with cuddles and kisses, early mornings and late nights, bedtime stories, outside fun, and so much more. I can hardly wait to see what the next month has in store for you, my sweet baby boy. I love you to the moon and back, Little Man! Here's to the best 11 months ever!! 

Sneak Peek

Here's just a sneak peek of something I was working on this weekend.  Ty's 1st birthday is one month away - I can't believe it! How is my little guy already almost 1 year old?! Cah-razy!!! Anyway, I've been playing around on the computer working on a banner for his high chair and my dear friend is making his big birthday banner. As you can tell, it's a Dr. Seuss theme! I can't wait to execute all these cute ideas I have in mind. I just hope I have enough time to do it all!

We haven't even picked a date yet for his party since Joe's schedule keeps changing daily.  I hope he'll be around, if not, we'll have to celebrate a tad later.

Happy New Year!

Our NYE was pretty low-key this year since we were all 3 recovering from a icky stomach bug.  We were able to venture out to get some food {that we thought we were ready to stomach}, so for some reason, Macaroni Grill sounded yummy.  I guess after not eating anything for 24+ hours, just about anything sounds good.  We ordered some pasta dishes and Ty was downing bread like a champ, his first bit of solids all week since his Poltergeist spewing incidents.  After dinner, Joe and I were instantly regretting our choices and were already feeling a bit queasy. We ended up throwing away our leftovers since the smell of them made us queasy again.

Happy New Year! Not the happiest picture, but it'll have to do!

His froggy seat! He seemed to like him!

It's still put away in storage until he gets a little bigger. 

We came home, played with Ty a bit until he tuckered out, and watched a few movies. We didn't notice until about 12:04am that it was officially 2012 (in Oki). Hooray! We managed to stay awake! That doesn't happen very often around here.. Ty is an early riser, and he decided he wanted to kick-off 2012 no differently! At 5:45am he was wide awake babbling, "Mama, mama!" into the monitor. Little rascal, didn't he know Mama and Dada didn't go to bed until late? Like 1:30am late? Oy.

He finally figured out how to pull himself up in his pack-n-play!

Watching Baby Einstein. Tough life.  {Also teething}.

 Somehow we pushed through, got some Dunkin Donuts and were able to put away all of our Christmas decorations. Ty was extra fussy today and the teething monster has come back for a long visit. Ty has taken into throwing really big tantrums when it's time to change his diaper, clothes, clean out his nose boogies, and go down for a nap.  We're talking back arching, arms and legs flailing, red faced, ear ringing shrills of anger coming from one very upset 10 month old.  Anyway, he refused to take a morning nap.  We could only slightly entertain him while we finished putting away Christmas decorations by putting him in his pack-n-play with some Baby Einstein videos. Ohmiword, Joe and I are so dang.tired of those videos! But, bless his little heart, he loves them soooo much.  Ty finally figured out how to pull himself up to a stand in his pack-n-play. Seriously, that's the only thing that boy wants to do all day long. Stand up!  He's going to be walking soon, I think!

Goodbye 2011... welcome, 2012!

We're nearing the end of 2011. I can't believe how quickly this year went by, but then again, I think I say that every year.  This was a fabulous year. Obviously, Tyler was the best thing to happen to us!  I am excited to see what 2012 will hold for us.  A new assignment, which will bring all sorts of new things our way: new house, new car (we sold one before we came), new surrounding, new friends, etc. I can't wait!  Every 3-4 years I start to get the "itch" to move.  Must be because I've done that my entire life!

With a new year comes the typically resolutions.  I can never remember what I said my resolutions would be by the end of the year. I guess I'll try to keep it simple this year.

1. Put family first.  Ever since having Tyler, I've realized a whole new meaning to priority.  I consider myself a generous and giving person.  I tend to put other people/things first.  Well, not anymore!  My little family is the most important thing to me!  Before Ty was born, I used to spend a LOT of extra time at school prepping lesson plans, tidying/organizing my classroom, grading papers, etc.  Now I go to work super early (while he's still sleeping so I don't feel guilty about spending the extra time at work) so I can get most of what I need done before school and leave immediately when my work day is over at 2:40 (unless I have the occasional dreaded meeting).  I never want to become one of those people where their job is their life!  Life doesn't revolve around work, and I never want it to be {at least not my job}.  I'm thankful that Joe has a steady income and gives me the option to be a SAHM.  I can't wait to become one after this school year finishes! Maybe I'll go back to work when Ty goes to preschool.

2. Have more patience.  This is something I'll probably say every year, but it's true. I'm short tempered and I definitely need to work on this. I'm getting better at biting my tongue, taking deep breaths and counting to 3.  But sometimes, things just get to me!  I need to let the little things slide by and appreciate the greater things in life!

3. Be the best me.  I want to be a person that Tyler can look up to and love and respect as he grows up.  I want to make the best choices for our family, be the best person that I can be, and be the best mommy and wife I know how to be.  This kind of ties into #1.  I can't wait for Ty to get older and start doing all the fun family activities and traditions I see so many other families doing together.  I want to have the time to do those things, I want to have the desire to think of fun and creative things to do, and I want to always push myself to keep up with those things and not let the hustle and bustle of everyday life get in the way!  I don't want to keep putting off to tomorrow, what could be done today. I don't want to think it was something I should have done, when it was something I could have done.

Christmas Eve in Seoul, South Korea - December 2011

I am so, so, so excited for 2012!  I know it will hold a lot of great things and I can't wait to see what it has in store for us! Happy New Year!
{The three of us are just getting over an awful stomach flu and will be staying in, watching movies and hanging out in jammies. Wouldn't want to be anywhere else!}

Sick

As I mentioned, Ty caught some type of nasty stomach bug.  He's been throwing up for the past 3 days and isn't able to hold any food (or Pedialyte) down. He does drink juice and formula in small amounts.  I captured this sweet moment last night before he went to bed. He just wanted to cuddle and watch his show (Baby Einstein is the only thing he likes to watch). How precious is this? Melt.my.heart.  He is so adorable, but I wish he didn't feel so icky. Nothing worse than just having to have him wait it out and not being able to do much to help him. :( 

Quick recap

Oh my, I've done it again. I've neglected this blog.  Alright, get up for it. Here's a quick recap of the last few months:

-We celebrated Thanksgiving with a great group of friends.  Being overseas and away from your immediate family, our friends in the squadron have really become our family away from family.  It was a great time having everyone get together, and the food was yummy! Ty enjoyed his first taste of Thanksgiving food.

-Ty is mobile.  It happened very quickly. At his 9 month appt, he wasn't really even pushing up onto his knees. Then all of the sudden he was rocking, and not long after that he was taking off!  He is a fast crawler when he wants, but his newest obsession is standing up. He can pull up like a champ. He is becoming quite daring and letting go and trying to stand by himself. Mommy and Daddy need to be near him all the time so he doesn't have any accidents. He of course loves to pull up and stand by things that have sharp corners or hard ledges.

-Ty has 5 teeth. He has both top and bottom teeth, and is working on the top incisors. Those little suckers are sharp!

-For Christmas we went to Seoul. It was COLD. The city was enormous and we barely got to see any of it, but what we did, we enjoyed. We stayed at a fancy schmancy 5-star hotel (Seoul Millennium Hilton) and although it was nice to be in such a glitzy place, it was overrated.  I'm not sure I've ever eaten somewhere that was $75 a person! It was extremely cold, but I kind of enjoyed having the change of weather. When we got back, it felt like summer compared the frigid below freezing temps they had in Seoul!

-We rearranged our house.  With Ty being mobile, we decided to do some baby proofing. We also decided that we'd like to start using our dining room table again.  Since we aren't very formal these days, we decided to put the leaf in our table and make it a bit smaller and bring it back into the "living" room area.  That way we can sit at the table while we watch TV/Ty play, and Ty can sit in his high chair and eat with us too.  Win, win.  We also made the front dining room into more of a play room. We brought the futon downstairs and put some of Ty's bigger toys in there so he can play with those and we don't need to clutter the living room with them all. We still have a ton of things to do, but it's coming along. All of that just for us to be moving in 8 months! :)

-Speaking of moving, we're not getting our hopes up, but the commander said she would hopefully be able to get Joe the assignment he wants.  We should know our assignment anytime between January-March. We'll keep everyone posted. We can't wait to find out and start planning! We are anxious to get back to the states!!!

-We have lots of upcoming weddings in 2012 - just in time for us to be back in the states. We can't wait to be closer to our family and friends, and weddings are just so much fun! We are very excited! Hopefully Joe isn't in training for all of them!

-Ty has his first stomach bug. We got back from Seoul and that evening he got sick. Not like runny nose and sniffles sick. Like Poltergeist projectile vomiting (sorry if that's TMI) all over the place non-stop type of sick. The first time, we thought it was just something he ate that he didn't like. The next 3 times, all over Joe, we decided he needed to go to the doctors. A trip to the ER, they said it's a virus going around and to wait it out. They gave us some meds to help with the nausea (it actually just makes him start to throw up again since he doesn't like it) and said he should be better within a few days.  It's so hard to watch him be sick, but he's in good spirits. Happy and still wants to play, just tires easily and doesn't wait to eat/drink much. I hope he's better soon! I'm glad he's sick over my winter break so I can stay home with him!

-No big New Years plans. It's pretty tough to find a baby-sitter I'd assume, and we're not big party people anymore either. We'll probably go to dinner with some friends and have a low key night at the house with some games, movies, snacks and champagne! I go back to school on the 3rd - and until then, I'm savoring every day off! I'm really enjoying all the time off and not exactly looking forward to going back.  Mid-June can't come soon enough!

We were terrible at getting Christmas cards/gifts sent out on time. I'm pretty confident everyone has/will receive them late. Sorry! We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas, and has a Happy New Year!