Dear Tyler, you're 3 months old!

Dear Tyler,
You're 3 months old now. 
I've taken some pictures of you and your brothers lately, but I may use them for Christmas card photos, so I'm not going to post them just yet.  Oh how I wish I had our card figured out already! 

You have firm bouncy cheeks I like to kiss and kiss and kiss some more.  Dylan and Isaac like to touch them. 
Sometimes I call you "Tyler T."  I don't know why, and I don't even like it.  It's funny how I called Dylan "my little Dylan head" and Isaac "I-Z pie or shmeye."  Pooka pie kah and Shmeye shmay came to mind too. 
You're getting into a groove and I like it.  You're (knock on wood) predictable!  You don't eat much it seems, so you don't poo much, so I thought.  You overfilled your diapers twice today to make up for it:)  (We both had 2 baths today.) 
You have officially gotten a little louder.  You're still not the ear piercing loud crier that Ivy is, but I know when you're mad.  (This is when you're in your car seat.)  You even have a sad face now - your little lip puts out before you cry.  I saw it for the first time like 2 weeks ago.  Daddy had already seen it and I hadn't believed him.  So sad!!  You get fussy when you're tired.  You calm down either by being put in the swing or by bouncing up and down in front of me.  You have to be vertical and I gently bounce you from under your arm pits around your ribs or holding your arms to your side if I bundled you.  It's sweet to see your sleepy eyes stare into mine until their lids cover them. 
You're a good sleeper and sleep 8 hours/night w/o interruption then go right back to sleep after I feed you a little. 
You grabbed a napkin off of our lap and put it to your mouth today!  I think it was an accident, but still, you've been staring at your fists for about a week now and have been trying to use your brain waves to make them magically get to your mouth.  You have a staring contest with them sometimes.  I need to get you another mobile for your crib b/c I know you'd love to stare at it and would probably fall asleep by yourself if you had something to keep you company. 

This play gym keeps you occupied and you can't even grab anything yet!

 You're staring down a toy instead of looking at me.  At least Ivy cares - j/k.

 Malia was "sick" so she stayed home w/ me.  She needed a break like Dylan did when he skipped to go to Busch Gardens.  Count 5 kids in this picture.  Then we went to pick up Dylan from school.  Then we all took Dylan to tae kwon do.  Crazy days!

This is my little naked boy from earlier today.  You used to fit inside of that hanging part and your toes didin't even touch the end!   

 I helped your hand grab this toy, and you kept it there. 

 More stare downs. 

 Nap time today.  I wanted to give you the bath then take your onesie picture, but you were so tired.  So I washed the cars while you took a nap.  Today was a hot day - the water from the hose wasn't cold at all.  Daddy and your brothers bought then wrapped white lights around our big tree out front. 

Today is Small Business Saturday, so I was supposed to go shop at small businesses.  I just stayed home instead.  Daddy took your brothers to a new restaurant, but you and I were content here.  I did get a couple of takers on my little add which was fun.  I offered 3 5x7s in your name b/c you're 3 months old today! 

 Look how sweet and new you were!  Time if flying by way too quickly.  There's so much to do.  I make sure to just stare at you and listen to your baby talk as much as possible.  I love your "aah, uh-goo, oooh," and "uh" sounds.  They're pretty quiet, and so sweet. 

So happy 1/4 year birthday!

Love, Mommy

Tyler's 1st Thanksgiving

Tyler and I slept in today.  We had a perfect start to our morning.  The boys played catch and practiced batting with various balls and oranges.

 Dylan and Isaac painted a turkey onesie for Tyler using their hands and Dylan's foot.

 They played around the pool and on the orange tree. 

 I went for a run in an old Turkey Trot shirt then came home to a smiley Tyler. 
Tangent: Tyler goes to bed around 9 or 9:30 each night.  I put him in his bed and he sleeps for 7 or 8 hours and Steven brings him to me.  I nurse him right back to sleep while we both sleep then he doesn't wake up 'til 7 something.  I feed him again a little then if we have to get up, he's up, but if we can sleep a little more, he sleeps.  He wakes up and when I finally wake up, we smile at each other.  I call in Dylan and Isaac so we can laugh with Tyler.  I sometimes try to feed him again, but he's not hungry so will spit that right back up.  I never learn.  Then he's awake for a bit 'til his morning nap.  He wakes up for lunch time then takes another afternoon nap or two.  I like him:)

 This was his afternoon nap.  I still bundle him up. 

 Brace youself.

The onesie is pretty sad, the wind blew it over on its face, for one thing. 
AND Tyler isn't happy that I wanted to put him down in his beanbag. 
He likes to be held if he's sleepy. 

 I brought him inside and he was distracted with his own hands. 
He's really trying to get control of them. 

 I like this one a little better.  He was ready to go pick up his great grandma.

 He cried in the car though.  He hates his car seat. 
Barbie and Andre hosted Thanksgiving this year!  (My mom is in Utah.)

 The kids played hide and seek and catch while the turkey was carved.

 Andre rented tables - we all fit perfectly!  And there was even a kids table:)

 A pretty good first Thanksgiving for my baby boy!  Even though he didn't directly eat any turkey. 

Until, it turned into the worst 1st Thanksgiving ever. Poor Tyler had to be in his car seat for what seemed to me like forever! And he cried, with tears, gurgling, spitting up, and even a little sweat on his mullet. I'm so sorry!  He had a bath and went to bed a little before 9pm.  I think that I should get to have a megaphone on the top of my mini-van that acts like a siren.  Tyler's cry will be amplified and the traffic will move out of the way to let me rush home to comfort my baby - it's stressful when that's the only time I can't comfort him!  It feels like an emergency.  There's a new rule that there's no talking when the baby is crying.  I can't handle that.  Gunny bag came when I got home too.  I know he shouldn't come when I'm stressed out, but he did.  So Dylan and Isaac cried too.  But they got baths and are sleeping too.  Maybe I'm still tired even though I got to sleep in.  But this is a good break from editing.  Only three more families' sessions to go through. 

Thanksgiving stuff

The kindergarten turkey. Note: Dylan's feather is the only one with a photo. These were family homework projects.

 Our thanksgiving tree. I gave each kid a color.  Noah participated too.  Isaac picked the branches and pine cones that morning with me at Lake Seminole Park. 

 Dylan is addicted to coloring.  I've been meaning to document that here.  His new thing is writing.  He spells things out himself, and sometimes asks how to spell things.  He makes lists of words he'd like to see written.  His best friend at school is Dawson.  He wrote his leaves all by himself.

 He just learned "ai, the two letter A in the middle of a word" and used it to spell playground.

 Isaac began looking around the living room when we were writing the things down that he's thankful for.  See the remote control.  I didn't give any hints to lead them to say what they're thankful for. 

 Tyler is following things more with his eyes.  It's a different look now - he wants to figure out how to grab!  The other day he kept punching himself.  I asked him "why are you hitting yourself, why are you hitting yourself?" while Dylan and Isaac were cracking up.  When he grabs my hand, he doesn't let go.  He wraps his whole wrist and arm around me.  I love it. 

Daddy and Dylan Day of Fun (posted by Steven)

As you may recall, soon after Tyler was born, I took Isaac and Noah to Busch Gardens.  Dylan couldn't go because he just started kindergarten.  Well, I had Veteran's Day off, so Dylan skipped school and just he and I went this time.  We were able to do a few things that we wouldn't be able to do with the younger kids, like feeding kangeroos (must be 5 yrs old), bumper cars (must be 42" tall), and Grover roller coaster (must be brave).  Here are some photos:

 This was my lunch- probably too much, but I ate it all.  Dylan's lunch didn't fit on the tray.

 Dylan was proud that he was in the green at 46", so he was tall enough for this ride.