Dear Tyler, You're 13 months old!

Dear Baby Tyler T,

I also call you my baby, my baby B, my B.B. boy, my pika pooka pie, Tico, Tyler Tico, Tico Ty, etc. You're so cute!

I finally got the #1, sanded it a bit, repainted it, bought balloons, crammed your big belly back into the shirt I wanted, and took you to the park. Here you're sliding off of the box. I couldn't back up away from you fast enough. I like the dirt on your knees - you're a boy and were playing hard with your big brother Isaac, wobbly-walking up a hill there.

 It's good that we waited. B/c now you can walk and can stand up by the #1! Only one problem. I forgot your crown!! Should I retake these???

When you want something, or when you don't want something more often, you sorta scream. It's startling. It's not high pitched, it's actually raspy now that you have a cold.

You still appreciate your nose being wiped and/or sucked out with a bulb syringe. You're so cute. You're cuddly. You still love the big dirty once-white blanket. The tag corner is the dirtiest since you hold it in your mouth there sometimes.

I feel like I should write about Ivy here. She and you are both wobbly on your feet still. You both like shoes and play with putting on bigger shoes too. You run towards noises like the dust buster and blender. She is terrified at those noises and even cries when I help Isaac or somebody blow his nose. She jumps at other noises too. You wave your blanket around up and down and in and out and over when nursing. You sometimes grab at different parts then throw them over, possibly in search for the tag corner. Once you find that, you may still sift the blanket around. But mostly you lay there and fit perfectly in my lap. I like to play with your feet and sometimes cut your toe nails since they're so sad. Your left corners of your big toe nails bend outwards yet the sides start to curl back around. Back to Ivy June Bug. She rubs the hair on the top of her head with her straight fingers and thumb. You both have about the same taste buds but she has much more teeth. You have 4 on top and the 2 on bottom. She can chew more things. If you share a toddler Gerber meal, she'll eat the meat and you eat more of the veggies. She tackles you and grabs you by the collar or clothes as you squack or cry and tug-o-war away. You take cheep shots at hitting her occasionally  You both like to be held. You both take morning naps between 10 and 11 for over an hour. Then should both take afternoon naps around 3 or 4. Today you both only got the morning nap. She goes to bed earlier and wakes up earlier. So her naps are often about an hour before yours. Her thighs are bigger and she's whiter and her blonde hair is whiter. She's louder. She smiles more. She is so sweet (still) when changing her diaper. She doesn't care about the temperature of her wipes. You like the wipes warmer (we bought one for her) or to first put a wipe on my arm to take away that initial chill. I love you both.

You like dogs and seem to say "Gog." Sometimes the 2nd G is silent and you just cut off the "o" sound. You try to do the sign for dog too. I don't even know where you learned that sign so it was a fun surprise to see you do it the first time.


You refused nursing one day. That was odd, but you had a cold.

One day, I tried on my pirate costume and you got scared of me. You stared and were scared. Thank goodness Daddy was here. You didn't want me even when I changed. Sometimes you're a Daddy's boy.

For our family pictures by Rachel Allen Photography, you only let Dad hold you. You refused to be put down and didn't even want me to hold you. Your cold was the worst on that day and you had fallen asleep in the car on the way there and didn't get a full 2nd nap.

You can shake your head no if you do not want something, but you also can say "all done" with sign language. You usually just use one hand for that sign. You sign all done, milk, dog, more, eat, blanket, and shoes.

You can wave hi/bye.

You can FINALLY give open mouth kisses!  I LOVE that you woke up from your nap today and after the initial cry (from me unlatching you b/c for once I was ready to wake up before you were), you smiled and wanted to stay and play then gave me like 5 kisses in a row all on your own! If we ask for kisses, there's only like a 5% chance you'll consent. There is about a 30% chance that you'll lean in to receive a kiss though. We'll take it.

You can walk. You don't crawl any more.

You like to sort things. When visiting teaching with Great Grandma Rebeck, we were at Geri Cherneski's house. You put the coasters in a bowl, then took them out, then repeated 30 times. Then you handed things to her one by one, then collected them to put back on her coffee table one by one. You did it with Great Grandma too. You do that with the soft letters in the bath tub and other toys. It's annoying when you do it with the diaper bag contents, but you don't go into the pockets with the chap stick, pens, etc so it's ok. We keep the trash can up on the stove b/c you like to throw perfectly good hair brushes away and like to carry your wed diapers around like footballs. Gross!

You can drink from a cup. You're no pro, but you don't cough or spill it when I hold the cup for you. You can do it by yourself a little in the tub for practice. You like to pour too.

You throw your head back and expect us to catch you. It scares us. Sometimes you do it when you're laughing and sometimes you do it when throwing a tantrum.To cheer you up, Daddy does sad then happy faces. He exaturates his expressions. You've started to mimic him. It's a little scary.

Love, Mommy