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.