Poor Dexter

I never talk about him on here. But in my defense, it's not my fault he's such a lazy, boring dog. (see right) He needs to give me something to work with! lol
He and Tyler are still best of friends. They like to play fetch and tug o' war together! I think Dex gets annoyed sometimes though that Tyler's idea of throwing is dropping the ball so it rolls a few feet- not so much a good game of fetch! So he'll tolerate it for a few minutes, then bring the toy to me or Tory for some real playing! haha

They also like to keep watch over the neighborhood together. This happens a number of times a day. :)

He blows kisses!

Check out that toothy grin!! -->

So I feel silly, because it didn't occur to me until recently to teach the kiddo how to blow kisses. D'oh! (<--can you tell Tory's been watching The Simpson's?? lol) Anyway... I showed him today what blowing kisses is, and he did it! The first time, I showed him what to do with his hand, then clapped for him. Then he did it by himself a few times. Then he got bored and tired of Mommy's silly new game and went on to bigger and better things. lol Soooo... while I'm making lists (see previous post/entry/whatever these things are called for the small list of words) Here are Tyler's non verbal communications:

blowing kisses (woohooo!!)
clapping hands (He does this any time he thinks he's done something good and/or funny. He also claps for me at times)
"more" (ASL sign, he knows what it means and does it for more food, drink, or reading.)
waving (Hi and bye. He waves to Dex when we leave the house. ♥)
pointing (He points to anything he might find remotely interesting and wants me to look at)
gives five (there's nothing to say about that... lol)

Hmmm... I can't think of anymore. Bummer! I thought he was a genius, but here I can only come up with 6 hand motion type things that he does. :P

A new word!

The little man has added another word to his minuscule vocabulary: HOT! lol This morning I was telling Tory something about it being hot, and Tyler looked up at me and said "hot?" Kinda with a question at the end. I said "yes honey, hot!" Aww! We then practiced the new word at breakfast with his pancakes and bacon. :)

"Hot" joins his other words:
Mama (which he says, but I don't think he knows it means me!)
Dada (which he does know means Tory. Lucky Dada. If Tory's been out of town Tyler will walk around the house calling for him. So sweet!)
dyyyye or dyedye (bye, said while waving)
aaaah (hi, again, usually joined with a wave)
DA (Dex, always said when pointing to the dog).

P.S. Check out those gorgeous blue eyes!! ♥

"I think I can"

Tyler has a shape-sorter that has stumped him so far. He usually tries to put the circle in the square or some such thing, thus getting very upset with himself and giving up. (what can I say? I passed my "impatient gene" on to my son. Sorry Tyler!) Tonight he was playing with it, and got frustrated when he couldn't figure it out but he kept at it and finally did it! Like everything else, it was documented on camera. :)

How does this thing work?? I don't think I like the star...

I'll try this one. Maybe if I poke it with my finger? Nope, not really!

Hooray for me!! I did it! (He likes to clap for himself when he does something good. ♥)

I think my little man is gonna understand this toy soon. We'll keep working on it. ;)

PoPcOrN!

I realized this afternoon that Tyler has never ever experienced popcorn before! What a shame! We decided to remedy that today. :)
(And no, we weren't worried about him choking on it... the kid can handle anything.)

This was when he understood that I was allowing him to help himself. LOL We got some big silly grins when he figured that out!

"Ok, if you say so!" And he went for it.

Now that you mention it, this stuff is gooood!

After his first bite, he "more'd" and climbed into my lap. I pulled him up, and this is where we sat through a good portion of the movie "Troy".

(Yes, my 13 month old actually watched the movie. He waved "bye-bye" at one point after a guy was killed. No joke. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing. LOL)

Such a Cute Smile!

Tyler was in such a smiley mood last night!

Here he's showing his "chillin" skills... with some kitchen tongs. Crazy kid.

At bath time he continued his giggly mood. Here's he's showing off his 8 teeth (still "just" 8)

And showing off his cute baby bum... AND his toothy grin. =)
How did we ever get such a happy boy?? He's [almost] always smiling! ♥

Me and my baby

I have no good stories to tell or anything, but Tory took a few cute pictures of me and Tyler. It's crazy how much and how fast he's grown!

Watching everything going on outside... which, at the time, was nothing. So we were pointing at my car and the tree. lol

He will stop playing suddenly to come over and give me a hug. He got my leg this time. Hey, it works. :)

Reading on his couch- it's a tight fit, but we managed!

Bonjour!

Tyler's favorite Disney Sing Along DVD is The Circle of Life... it has a few Lion King songs, as well as songs from some other movies. He'll sit and watch it over and over again if I let him! It's weird, I don't know what it is about that particular one. The other 8 Sing Alongs we have don't catch his attention at all. Hmmmm...

Anyway, the song "Belle" from Beauty and the Beast is on it- you know, the one where Belle goes around town saying "Bonjour" to all the people? Well, as soon as that song starts (actually, when the song before it ends!) Tyler starts waving "hi" and giggling. Every single time! It's adorable! Who knew my son would learn a French word so early? lol

July 4th

I woke up and my first thought was something about it being Tyler's first 4th of July. That lasted about a second, when I remembered that he's over a year old and therefore will not have any more "first holidays". What a strange thought!

We spent the day out in Sterling, as we usually do on any type of holiday. We went to my family's house and got all the siblings together once more, since Zach was on leave and back home.

Me and my baby. ♥

We then went to see Tory's family and visited with some of their friends for a while. We didn't stay out late at all, and got home right at Tyler's bedtime. No fireworks for us this year!

Measles! (sorta...)

Tyler woke up on a couple days ago covered in red spots! I took him in to make sure it was nothing horrible, and it turns out that it was a reaction to his Measles vaccine. The doctor said that a small percentage of kids react to it, and it really shouldn't bother him, even though technically it's a mild case of the Measles. He doesn't have any other symptoms, just lots of polka dots! I've tried to get a picture that shows them, but no such luck. Here's the best I got:

Tyler at the doctor's office- he wasn't interested in taking pictures, but he sure
wanted the camera!

Maybe if you look close enough you'll see all the red spots... let me assure you, they are everywhere and they look so horribly itchy. :(