Surprise!

As usual, I'm a little behind here. On December 10, my Dad turned 60! My mom was throwing a little surprise party for him and I was wishing out loud that I could be there. So my awesome husband told me to look for a cheap flight! Of course getting so close to Christmas, they were all ridiculously expensive. So I mailed out his birthday card and even wrote that I wished I could have been there to celebrate. Then the next day Carl found a non-stop flight for a great price! I called my sister, made some top-secret arrangements and booked the flight. I booked the flight Wednesday night and early Saturday morning Tyler and I were on a plane to surprise both of my parents. Amazing!

Tyler was again awesome on the plane. He's such a little charmer. He does this adorable thing where when people say hi to him he raises one arm up in the air in a lazy sort of wave, cocks his head way over to one side and smiles. It kept all the other passengers happy.

I managed to pack for both of us for 3 days in just a carry on so I didn't have to check anything, but going through security was even crazier than usual. Several people made comments about how they were watching me and they were very impressed. If you've flown with a baby you know. And doing it by yourself is even crazier. Getting out my liquids, taking my shoes off, unttaching the car seat, emptying the stroller basket, folding up the stroller and putting it all on the counter, all while holding a squirmy baby in one arm, then waiting for them to return from scanning my bottles and ice packs, and putting it all back together again. And of course worrying about making the people behind me annoyed for taking 8 1/2 years to get through! But we made it!

My sister told my parents she picked up a shift, but she really drove two hours to Kansas City to pick us up. I had planned to have a Skype date with my parents that night to throw them off a little. But when we knew when we would get to their house I texted my mom to change it to around three - or whenever Tyler got up from his nap. When we got close to their house we called her and told her we were ready. Then we called Carl and he called them Skype and kept us on the line. When both my parents were there he pretended to come and see what was taking me so long and said we'd be right down. And then we walked into my Dad's office. It was so fun! And they were very surprised. Well, my mom said she had an idea, but I'm going to say she was surprised too. :-) I love this babies flying for free thing! I don't know what I'm going to do when he turns two!

It was a really fun trip, so fun to be able to surprise my dad and spend a few unexcpected days with them. He is an amazing dad and I am so thankful for him!

Happy Birthday Dad!



Tyler learned some new tricks at Grandma and Grandpa's house!



Of course he would love dogs.

Eating snacks with his new friend at Grandpa's party!

Well That Didn't Go As Planned...

So first of all I have to start by saying I am a master hand and footprint painter. It's a hidden talent. Really. After five years of teaching young kids, I have painted literally hundreds of baby and toddler hand and footprints. (We're talking every year for Mother's Day, Father's Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas, classroom decorations and other projects.) I perfected it. I could get a perfect print almost every single time with little to no mess. I didn't even usually use paint smocks.

Clearly I never had Tyler in my class. Apparently I am not an expert when it comes to my own child!

I wanted to make cards for the ladies who take care of Tyler in the nursery every Tuesday. So without even thinking about it I got out the paints, some paper, paint brushes and a paper plate and got to work. Thankfully I was wise enough to strip Tyler down to his diaper. I'm fairly confident that I've never met a more wiggle baby. Yikes!

I couldn't wait for Carl to get home to show him our brand new red and blue kitchen floor. A big thanks to the inventor of washable paints!

Anyone who taught with me knows that a little art mess never scared me. I say, the messier it is, the more fun they're having! So mess or no mess, this is definitely a project we will do again. Tyler had a lot of fun. He loved it! He was laughing the whole time he was eating paint and smearing it all over me and the floor.  :-)

Too Cute to Not Use!

I realized that I forgot to put these up with the Thanksgiving pictures yesterday and they are just too cute to leave out!

My Mr. Mover

I'm about a week late on this, but Tyler is eight months old! I have lots of words to describe Tyler, but usually the first that come to mind are sweet, adorable, crazy, hilarious and ALL OVER THE PLACE. The boy is into everything. He definitely keeps me busy. There are some days that I feel like all I did successfully was keep him alive. And this is why:

Clearly he likes cords. If anyone has any tips on how to make cords invisible, please fill me in. The whole living room is full of his toys, but this is how he would prefer to spend his time. That and opening Daddy's drawer in the bathroom and pulling out his deodorant, a hand mirror and toothbrush tips. It's a full drawer, but he always pulls out the same three things. He tosses the mirror and deodorant into the hallway, pushes the drawer in and out for awhile and then sits or lays down and chews on the toothbrush tip.

At eight months Tyler is crawling like a champ. I know I'm probably a little biased, but I think it is pretty much the cutest thing in the world. He loves to talk and be heard. If there are a lot of people around or other babies making noise, he does everything he can to make sure he is the loudest one. And he usually wins at that game with no problem. :-)

He is eating all kinds of new foods and loving them. He loves sitting in his high chair and eating meals with us. So fun! He spends a lot of his time just walking around the living room moving from couch to table to chair. He's starting to think he doesn't need to hold on, and he tries to get to things that are too far away by reaching out his hand and then just diving at them. Most of the time he makes it without falling - it's kind of ridiculous.

Tyler loves to sing. When I play my trumpet, he comes over and sings at the top of his lungs. The trumpet is the only things he's not always louder than, so I think he's taken it on as a challenge. He tries to help me play it too. By grabbing onto the the end and pulling himself up on it. Not so easy to play with a baby hanging off of it!

Tyler may keep me on my toes every waking minute, but I love that about him! I love that he is learning and exploring. I love his curiosity and energy. He's an adventurer and I wouldn't have it any other way. Because of that sweet little guy, I spend a pretty big portion of my day just laughing. How great is that?

Thanks

This Thanksgiving one of the many, many things we are thankful for is the time we got to spend with our families. My parents and sister came from Kansas and the rest of my family all met in Eau Claire last week. Thanksgiving #1 was spent with my family at Jacob and Laura's. Tyler got his first taste of turkey and mashed potatoes. Both of which he despised. He wanted nothing to do with either of them and just stuck with his delicious sweet potatoes and Baby Mum-Mums. He mastered the art of pool and enjoyed finding new things to climb on and explore at the hotel. He even got to go swimming!

The next day we had Thanksgiving #2 in Colfax with Carl's family. We were exctied to see Matt and Janelle again while we were there! Tyler loved playing the piano with his Great Grandpa and we got to take a four generation picture.

On Thanksgiving Day we drove to New Ulm for Thanksgiving #3 with the Bernardy family. Tyler got to meet his Great Grandma Bernardy for the first time and we got to take another four generation picture.

Finally on Friday we drove to Grand Meadow for Thanksgiving #4 with the Jacobson family. I didn't get any pictures at this one. But we had a lot of fun and Tyler got to taste (and loved!) pumpkin for the first time.

Whew! That was a lot of driving and a lot of new people for Tyler! But he did great and we had fun spending time with the people we love.

Tyler's Big Day

Last Sunday we went to Eau Claire and had Tyler baptized at the church I grew up in. It's also the church that Carl and I went to together while we were in college, and his Great Grandpa was actually a pastor there at one point.

Carl's Grandpa baptized Tyler, which was pretty special to begin with. But many years ago, Carl's grandpa was baptized there by his own dad. I didn't know that until we were there, but I think it's pretty cool.



We reserved the Fireside room at the church and baptized him there with just our families after church that morning. By the time we all ate lunch and got to the baptizing part, Tyler was WAY past nap time, but he managed to hold it together. He was super squirmy while we were standing up there and got a little feisty after his head got dunked, but he did a great job. After his head got dunked and Grandpa Dave was tryng to put his hand on Tyler's head, Tyler grabbed his hand and pushed it off of his head! 

Did That Just Happen?

I know that November started, because on November 1 I had a horrible, excruciating dentist appointment. (That might be a little dramatic, but I really don't like the dentist and I had a three hour appointment that day.) But the rest of the month has flown by in a complete blur, with so much happening that I can hardly remember it all. I think the month can be summed up with one word. TRAVEL! I feel like we have been all over the place. It started with my friend Sarah's wedding in Appleton, WI. I had the privilege of being the Maid of Honor in her wedding. It was so much fun to be a part of her day. The wedding was beautiful, Sarah was beautiful, she married a great guy, and we all had a great time. Congratulations Matt and Sarah!



Roommate Picture!

I have lots more to add from my crazy month of November, so there will be several more posts to follow!

Trick or Treat?

I'm not a big Halloween fan, but I do love all the cute little costumes, carving pumpkins, and the excuse to buy a whole bag of tiny boxes of nerds.

This year, for Tyler's first Halloween, I found him a costume (still in the package) for 25 cents at a garage sale back in May. Score! Since he's a little on the tall side, it was a little small for him, but I was determined to make it work. He wasn't going to wear it that long anyway.

Every year at Carl's work they open the building up to families of the employees to come and trick or treat. So even though Tyler isn't exactly ready for candy, it was a great excuse to go visit Carl at work. He enjoyed chewing on a Milky Way, still in the wrapper while we walked around.

On Saturday we went to the Minnetonka Orchards to begin our search for the perfect pumpkins. We went on a hay ride, looked at farm animals, ate delicious apple donuts, drank hot cider and went through a corn maze. Super fun! Tyler slept through the corn maze, but after that he woke up and really liked it!

Then finally, on Monday, we carved our pumpkins. The only difference this year was that a third member was added to our little pumpkin family (and ours!).

Our sweet little bee

Playing with pumpkin guts!

The finished products

Calm down everyone, I was ducked down
behind him. He wasn't going to fall!



I Laugh In the Face of Danger!

If Tyler could talk, I'm pretty sure that would be his motto. I think my most commonly used phrases these days are, "Be careful Tyler," and "That's not safe!"  To which he always responds by laughing and continuing on.

These are Tyler's top 3 favorite activities:

1. Climbing on whatever he happens to be leaning on.

2. Pulling himself up to whatever he is next to. His favorite place to stand up is in his crib. He likes leaning against the rail and bouncing. Usually without holding on. His other favorite is the coffee table where he moves along the edge, banging on it and throwing things on the floor.

3. Riding on Carl's shoulders. Without holding on.

4. Hanging upside down.

5. If none of those options are available, he will look for the least safe thing in the room and gravitate towards it.

Notice a trend? He also enjoys climbing over the front of his new rocking toy, and dipping his face in the bathtub water. He's not even fully crawling or walking yet (although he can get anywhere he wants quickly with his mad army crawl skills) and I already can't leave him alone for a second. Yesterday I was in the bathroom putting make-up on for a few minutes and could hear him playing the whole time. But when I came out he had moved all the way across the room and was standing up at the entertainment center, holding onto his walker with one hand and reaching for TV buttons with the other. I have a feeling that I will never be bored chasing this child around.   :-)

Welcome to a day in the life of Tyler!