T-Dawg

Tyler is 16 months old now! I figured it was time to give a little update on the life of my sweet little man. I'm pretty sure that if you would have asked me at any point in the last 16 months what my favorite stage was so far, I would have said whatever he was in. But this is really my favorite so far. I do miss the baby snuggles, but Tyler is just so fun right now. I was telling a friend of mine the other day that I've never really noticed him changing day by day because I'm always with him. But now that he's learning to talk, he just seems more grown up all the time.

So here's what he has been up to:

CLIMBING!!! That pretty much describes most of his days lately. Some of his favorites places to be are on top of the kitchen table, standing on the coffee table, and bouncing on his rocking chair without holding on.

He loves to play in his toy box. Not next to his toy box. In it.

He's starting to sing songs. For the last month or so his favorite has been "Tick Tock". It just melts me to hear him singing "Dee Dah Dee Dah Dee Dah" over and over again while he sways back and forth.

He loves to climb into things, but often can't get back out. Thankfully he learned the sign for help and uses it all the time when he gets himself into little predicaments.

Another favorite (of his, not mine) is climbing onto the big brown chair in the office and sliding back off head first as fast as he can. He has a tough little head. I can't even begin to count how many times he lands on it. And he thinks it's funny every time.

And here's my favorite. The talking. He is saying so much! I can't get even close to listing all the words he says. I feel like there are new ones by the hour sometimes, since he's imitating everything. But the common ones are Daddy, Mommy, uh-oh, hi guys, ball, night night, baby, aye yi yi, and go, go, go! He signs please, thank you and help. He actually blows a kiss for the thank you and he is very consistent about it. He does it when we ask him to and anytime he hears some one say the word. So anyone I say thank you to, usually gets a sweet little thank you kiss blown their way.

I've been trying to teach him to say Tyler, but my sister got through to him first and taught him to call himself T-Dawg. As much as it's not his name, it's pretty cute to hear him say it. :-)

Another fun one is "no, no, no" while shaking his finger. He learned that at the zoo this weekend when one of the horses was kicking another horse. Right now it's adorable, but he just says it because it's fun. He's not using it to actually say no to things yet.

I love that he's starting to use words to tell us things. The other day the bucket on his dump truck came off and he came up stairs saying "Mommy, Mommy." Then he just kept saying uh-oh while he led me back downstairs to show me his dump truck.

He also makes the sounds for cows, puppies, monkeys, ducks, and anything that roars. Excepts bears. If you ask what a bear says, he sneezes. It's funny every time! He has a book where the bear sneezes, so that's what he thinks they do. Is it wrong that we're letting him go on thinking that?!

And he's learning to point out his nose, eyes, ears, hair, teeth, chin, cheeks, fingers and toes. He prefers to point them out on other people though, so don't let him get to close to your eyes. He will poke them right out.

Tyler's favorite toys are his Little People, balls, blocks, cars and dinosaurs. And he LOVES his new bowling set (best garage sale find ever!). He very carefully sets up all his pins and throws the ball at them. Today I was putting something away in the kitchen and when I came back all his pins were knocked down and he was standing there with his arms in the air and a huge grin on his face, waiting for one of us to notice and cheer.

I think the very sweetest thing he does, is fold his hands to pray. That's another thing he does even if he just hears some one say the word. So anytime he does it, we say a quick prayer with him. It is so precious. It melts my heart every time.

Tyler, we love you so much. You are our funny and adventurous little ball of energy and you are so special to us!