Dear Tyler, you're 12 months old!

Dear Tyler,
You're 1! It's still not even your due date for another week or so. You're so cute. You are happiest when you are learning something new or are thinking about getting into something you know you shouldn't. You will almost go outside or almost go up the stairs and look back over your shoulder at me and smile.

You love the vacuum and the dust buster. You go over to them, as close as you can, and stare.

You stopped growing for a while I think, but now you're back on track and are just barely at the 50th percentile in your stats. You help me when getting dressed by switching the things in your hand to the other hand so you can put your arm through your sleeves. If I leave your pants on your ankles when changing you, it bothers you.

You know how to say "go" and that's your official first verbal word. Your first sign language word was "ball." You can also say "mamamamamama" and I'm claiming it as my name since you say it when you crawl towards me and want me. You have taken some first steps but don't walk. You point for things. Today you signed "blanket." I think you did it last night but I didn't get it b/c your sign is putting your hand over your mouth as if to blog a kiss. We made up the "blanket" sign for Dylan since his green blanket was as much a need as water or food. We gently slide our hand down our cheek for the sign. Yesterday you also did the sign for book perfectly. I know it wasn't clapping b/c you still swivel your hands one on top of another when clapping. You do the "more" sign beautifully too. I'm saying beautifully b/c often kids will invent their own dialect like how Dylan pointed to the palm of his hand for more. You can do "eat" but since "more" is more effective, you prefer to do that when pointing to what you think looks tasty.

You like your white blanket but do not seem to be a snob about it. You'll take any diaper cloth and enjoy white napkins and Kleenex as well. You've almost emptied two boxes of Kleenexes so far. One, I hear, was when Granddad was in the room next to you at his house:) Right now you're using a play-dough fork to scoop up a piece of a clean Kleenex. You're using one hand to try to balance it back onto the fork when it blows off and are a little frustrated.

You have 5 teeth. Letter G cut recently and I think letter D will be next. You like to clean and use wash cloths or napkins etc to "wash" walls and floors. You have a runny nose and really appreciate it when we wipe it for you. You'll even hold still and wait for me to slowly use the suction bulb on you. Ivy, as comparison, throws her had back and punches and blocks and screams and cries and gets blotchy-upset when I try to wipe her nose.

You like most foods except for pasta pick ups (toddler bland ravioli). Green smoothies, Yo Baby squeezy yogurt, and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches seem to be staples. You still nurse, but I'm not worried about pumping at lunch any more. I guess I stopped when I started only having 5 minute lunch breaks anyway. You still have some frozen milk and have that at Corrie's. We use formula for babysitters and I'm not going to go to whole milk. When you're done with my milk, you'll stick to regular foods. When nursing, you still like to wave a hand and like to wave your blanket into my face or yours and all over.

You love to swim but do a tense high pitched scream when you know I'm about to dunk you or have you practice floating. So I'm not going to push the swim lessons - it should be fun time when it's family time. You play by yourself discovering things and like to rearrange the fridge magnets. (By rearrange I mean you swish them around on the kitchen floor and down the hall.) I took you to a play date with other St. Pete moms where you met other kids all around your age. That was fun since we usually do things with Dylan and Isaac's friends. (Who am I kidding, we do things with the Crew kids and the occasional friends at our pool.)

You sleep through the night so when your brothers have a sleep over at Grandma's, I don't feel as guilty letting you go play over there too. You wake up around 7am-ish. You used to nurse and go back to sleep but now you nurse and climb all over me until I finally get up with you. You go to bed with the boys usually after playing in their room a while. I put you in your crib on your back, cover you with your white blanket, and you lay there sometimes complaining gently and sometimes not. You toss and turn through the night often ending up on your tummy with your covers tucked under your tummy. But sometimes your blanket is pushed off to the side. You usually push until your head is backed up to the rungs of your crib.

You can copy some sounds like when Isaac was doing the "a" sound on the computer. There were a lot of "ah, a, a, ah" sounds coming from this corner of the kitchen. You copy the boys doing jumping jacks and copy Dylan's Tae Kwon Do motions. You sing songs like "Row row row your boat" and say the Row part while bouncing. You sometimes clap your hands if we sing "If you're happy and you know it." You are active and inquisitive, but that means that you often have bonks on your little head. You're so sweet and a little stubborn.

I love you little Tyler baby.
Love, Mom