One Year (12 Months)

At twelve months...

Kyler still eats like crazy. He can eat almost as much as I do at mealtime. He likes most things but is not a fan of any veggies besides green beans, frozen peas, and sometimes lettuce. He hates eggs and won't eat any type of cold salad (pasta salads, etc.). His favorite things are mandarin oranges, pasta with white or red sauce, chicken, and green beans.

He regularly sleeps through the night, going to bed around 9:00 and waking up around 8:30. He usually naps twice a day for a total of around 3 hours but he is pretty flexible for the most part when it comes to a sleep schedule.

Ky is too afraid to stand on his own or take any steps without holding onto something. But he crawls like a madman and can push his push toy on the carpet.

He can say "stop" and "banana"-"nanana." He says "dada" and "mama" and "dog"-which sounds more like "dah." He tries to say lots of other things but we usually can't figure it out. And he babbles nonsense a lot also.

Kyler laughs when he hears other people laughing, even if those people are just on the car radio. He also makes a new sound - breathes in and sort of gasps in excitement. It is very common for him to do this at restaurants and the other patrons look over, wondering if he's choking.

He is a silly boy and likes to move his head around and see if you will copy him. He makes all kinds of facial expressions and he is very noisy when he wants to be. He likes to get attention and will smile at people walking by or at tables nearby at restaurants. We know he does not get that from his parents... must be his Papa Tig (who Ky is obsessed with).

Ky Ky thinks he is so big. He mimics what big people do whether it is talking with gestures, fixing something with tools, clapping (only he is always about a minute late), or tapping on a table. He is a thinker, always trying to figure things out. He often has a serious look and sometimes furls his eyebrows when he's really thinking or working hard.

Birthday Presents

Kyler has been enjoying pretty much all of his new birthday toys. And if the weather would ever warm up he would also be enjoying all the cute new outfits.

One thing he is particularly interested in is his new car from Grandma and Grandpa Brack. Of course he loves to open and shut the door. And when we gets inside he turns the steering wheel back and forth and tells us "aaah" which apparently means "go." (Aaah, Daaah, and Dat are Kyler's favorite sounds and mean all kinds of things. I think sometimes Daaah=Dogs and Dat=That but they are definitely used for other things too.) Anyway, back to the car, today he was pushing it around outside and picking up dirt and grass and putting it inside. It was my clue that he needed one of his wagons.

So we went inside and started putting together the all-terrain wagon. (He got two wagons - a city wagon from Grandma and Grandpa H. and a country wagon from Uncle Ryan, Aunt Jessica, and her parents. We decided to take back the city wagon and put that money toward our bike trailer.)

Kyler really thought he was working hard helping me assemble the wagon. He watched me closely as I got daddy's tools out and tightened all the bolts. Then he picked up some wrenches and furled his eyebrows until he got it just right.

He would also move the screws from the table, into the wagon, and back. I guess he was counting to make sure we had all the parts.

Birthday Party

Today was Kyler's first birthday party. As I mentioned before, the theme was the "Mr. Men and Little Miss" books by Roger Hargreaves. We sent out "Mr. Birthday" invitations. I created them in Photoshop and had my aunt print them.

"Mr. Birthday is turning one"

The cake consisted of a giant cupcake for the birthday boy's smash cake and cupcakes for the guests. The cupcakes had toppers with some of the Mr. Men and Little Miss Characters.

Giant cupcake was "Mr. Birthday." We also had Mr. Nosey, Mr. Bump, Little Miss Sunshine, Mr. Wrong, and Little Miss Fun.

For favors, I made my own Little Miss and Mr. Men characters - Mr. Thirsty and Little Miss Thirsty. Since most of our guests were adults, I thought koozies would be a useful gift. The kids each took home a paperback Little Miss or Mr. Men book.

Little Miss Thirsty and Mr. Thirsty

I also made shirts for the guests of honor - Kyler, his parents, and his grandparents. We each had a character and they were a hit.

Mr. Noisy, Little Miss Scatterbrain, Little Miss Lucky, Mr. Birthday, Mr. Cool, Little Miss Chatterbox, and Mr. Mischief.

I also hung pictures of Kyler over all the windows and doorways around the living room. To keep in line with the theme, each one was a Mr. Somebody. Here are a few examples.

Mr. Tired, Mr. Cool, Mr. Birthday, Mr. Mad, and Mr. Silly.

The party went well. We had a ton of friends and family show up. We started off the party by showing a video that Brett and I put together of pictures and videos from Kyler's first year. Then Kyler opened gifts (well, Brett and I opened most of the gifts and Kyler couldn't get enough of Papa). After that Brett grilled some delicious chicken kabobs and we had dinner (salad, baked potatoes, fruit, and rolls). Finally, it was time for cake and homemade ice cream (made by Grandma Tammy). It took Kyler a little while to get into it but by the end he really was Mr. Messy.

Mr. Messy

Here is a view from Kyler's angle as he was digging into his birthday cake. What a lot of family and friends he had come! Maybe he should be called Mr. Lucky or Mr. Spoiled. Thanks for all of you who came by - it wouldn't have been a party without you!

Then we laid out all of his gifts and took a picture. Kyler is driving his little car. There is a LOT and this doesn't include all the money, gift cards, and a few additional gifts that will be trickling in from a couple special people who couldn't make it. Thanks again everyone!

Irony

Have you used Google today?

If so, you may have noticed that Little Miss Sunshine, Mr. Bump, Little Miss Naughty, Mr. Funny, Little Miss Chatterbox, Mr. Slow, and others are part of Google's logo due to the 76th birthday of author Roger Hargreaves.

The irony is that I am using the Little Miss and Mr. Men theme for Kyler's birthday party... and I happen to be working on some of the party images today.

A Fun Weekend

Kyler sure had a fun weekend. We had a wedding to attend in Manhattan and spent most of the weekend in Seneca. It started off with Kyler staying with some friends in Manhattan while I was at the bachelorette party. While I was gone, Amanda taught Kyler his first coherent word (other than Dada and Mama). It was "stop." Sometimes he says it really clear but other times it just sounds like jabber. They were spinning a stool and would stop it and say "stop." He even told Grandma and Papa his new word over the weekend.

Then on the way to Seneca, we made a stop at Papa's store. Kyler got to play with goldfish and minnows, watch Papa juggle bobbers, and then he tried to eat a wiggly worm. After lunch it was on to Great Grandma and Grandpa's where Kyler got his first tractor ride. We went with Great Grandpa to plant some soybeans. Ky was way past due for a nap by that time so all of his reactions were pretty calm. But he wasn't a bit scared of that big, noisy tractor. We climbed in and he studied everything very carefully. His favorite part was the big tire going around and around. He gave Great Grandpa a couple of happy smiles and sat in the driver's seat while gramps was getting the planter ready. That got him pretty excited. By the end of the ride Ky's eyes were closed - farming is hard work! He wasn't as happy with riding on the car back to the house. Hopefully we were good luck and the soybeans have a good harvest this year.

The rest of the weekend consisted of a lot of eating, playing, and wagon rides. Daddy was even able to come Friday night straight from the airport and spend the weekend with us before heading back to the airport on Sunday afternoon. We had a mother's day barbecue at Great Aunt Sherry's house with a lot of the family. Kyler had fun playing out in the garage and needed washed up before we headed home.

When we got home, Kyler could not resist the doggie water bowl so I filled up a big bowl of water and we headed outside to play. He had so much fun splashing water all over himself. Then at bedtime, he chose a photo album to look at rather than a book. He spotted his daddy and stared for a while before pointing at him and looking up at me. I think he wanted to know where Dad was - traveling for the 2nd week straight. But we have some good family time planned when he gets back!  Then we flipped a couple of pages and spotted Papa. Kyler kept pointing and laughing. Then he gave goodnight kisses to Daddy's and Papa's pictures before heading to bed. He is such a fun, sweet boy!

(Almost) One Year Photos

This one is my favorite. My little Easter bunny!

Big guy in his Royals shirt.

The birthday boy!

A little more lively birthday boy.

Handsome little man.

Kyler with his proud daddy.

Angry Kyler!

Sad Kyler.

A much needed family picture.

Crazy Man!

Kyler sometimes has so much energy it is unbelievable. He will get little spurts of energy throughout the day and often shortly after he eats.

Sometimes we put him in the jumper to let him get rid of some of this excess energy. He is a mad man! We have an extra wide doorway to our bedroom (it has double doors) so that's where we put him. Recently, he gets so crazy in the jumper that we have to line the doorframe with pillows because he has gotten so close to hitting his head.



The past two bath times have also been crazy. Kyler has taken splashing to a whole new level. I haven't been using our bath seat for a while since he has been sitting up very steadily on his own. The bath seat made it really hard to get his bottom clean. So now I have him sit up while I wash his hair and top part of his body and then lie down to clean the rest of him. And when I lay him down he goes nuts. He splashes with his legs so hard that water is flying everywhere. He even splashes with his hands and arms and gets water all over his face. I've never seen a baby that loves water as much as Kyler. I can't wait to get him to the pool this summer.

Operation No Paci: Day 5

We're still going strong with no paci. We are pretty sure Brett and I are the only ones that think it is time to get rid of this thing. Everyone is saying it won't hurt him to have it another year. But I don't think there's ever going to be a good time to "pull the plug." So we might as well just do it now so we don't have to worry about having a paci with us all the time or him waking up in the middle of the night because they fell on the floor. Plus, if there is one thing I can't stand it is a kid trying to talk with a paci in his or her mouth!

We decided to go cold turkey in getting rid of it. That way we avoid any confusion and it makes it more clear for all of us. That's basically what we did for the bottle and it worked out great. Although I must say the bottle was much easier to lose than this is.

We've had some pretty rough nap times and bed times over the past few days. The little guy just doesn't know how to soothe himself to sleep without it. He's had to cry himself to sleep a couple times and then sometimes he is apparently tired enough that he can go right to sleep after being calmed down. I'm anxious to see how his nap and bed times go today since he's not so worn out from Easter traveling. I was really hoping he could be paci-free at daycare tomorrow but that will only work if he can go to sleep on his own after just maybe 10 minutes or fussing/crying.

Probably the most frustrating thing was the drive to and from Wichita. Normally we would just give him the paci to keep him from fussing but we couldn't and had to listen to him fuss and whine for a long time. Poor Aunt Jessica was with us all weekend. I'm sure she got her baby fix for a bit!

Oh, and Kyler just had a few things to say:

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Update: Kyler did great today. Minimal crying each time I put him down. I just hope it keeps getting better and that the daycare will cooperate.


Update 4/29/11: Kyler is officially paci free. He still takes a little longer to fall asleep at nap time but if he's tired he will just rock with me for 10 or 15 minutes and he's out. He's also able to put himself back to sleep on his own if he wakes up during the night.

Operation No Paci: Day 1

As I mentioned in my last post, we are attempting to take away the paci before Kyler's first birthday. Last night was our first night without the pacifier. It took me probably over an hour to get Kyler to sleep but then he slept through the night without even a peep. He did a lot of what I would call "fake sucking" as he was getting more and more tired and was definitely squirming around a lot. We rocked, then I tried putting him in bed and kept making him lay down, then we stood, then read a book and rocked, and tried all of these things multiple times. Finally he was really tired and I bounced him in my arms for a few minutes and he finally went to sleep, and stayed asleep when I laid him in his bed.

Today at daycare I told them we were going to take away the paci. They said that during the day he fusses and looks around for it when it isn't nap time. So they are going to give it to him only when he naps for now until I have him able to go down easily without it. (With several other babies to care for, they obviously can't spend an hour trying to get my one kid down.) They called me at work saying Kyler had a fever so I had to pick him up early. Even with the fever, they were able to limit the use of the paci to nap time only.

I was able to put him down for a nap this afternoon without it as well. This time it took a little less time, around 40 minutes. We tried reading books then rocking, laying in bed, standing and bouncing, and finally a bit more rocking did the trick. He was gumming his fingers a little but at least not sucking on them - I don't want to create a thumb sucker by taking it away which is why I have waited until now. I put him in bed when he wasn't yet sound asleep and he didn't even fuss.

Since Kyler's fever was this afternoon he won't be able to go back to daycare tomorrow so hopefully by Tuesday when he does go back he will be completely free of that darn paci. It will definitely test our patience as we are driving to and from Wichita for Easter and it might be a long car ride. Hopefully Grandma and Grandpa won't mind hearing a baby fuss while I try to get him to sleep without a paci over the weekend. Sorry Grandma and Grandpa - I guess I picked a bad weekend!

11 Months

At eleven months, Kyler...

can crawl really fast. Sometimes too fast.

pulls up to anything and everything with ease.

can reach a lot of things on tables - he's tall. He's also figured out to put his toys on the tables and then sometimes use them to beat on the table with.

can eat pretty much anything. We avoid things that are hard to chew such as steak and tortilla chips as well as some of the obvious choking hazards (whole grapes and hotdogs). And he has seven teeth that are pretty much completely in. There are 3-5 more on their way.

is becoming more of a picky eater, especially when it comes to veggies. He's a lot like his dad when it comes to eating.

has recently learned to drink from a straw. But usually it is just sippy cups that he drinks from. He always tilts his head back much further than necessary.

is wearing mostly 18 months clothes and even some 24 months. He is about to grow out of his size 3 shoes and we just started him in the size 4 disposable diapers (he's been in large cloth diapers for some time now).

loves to test me. He grins when I yell at him and tries it again. It takes a lot to get him to understand he's in trouble for real.

is being weaned from the paci (we have attempted this before). It took an hour to get him down to sleep tonight. We'll see if I have enough will power to keep it up. I would like it to be gone by his birthday.

is obsessed with stacking his food. He will make little piles of things. Although impolite, it is pretty cute.

has a ton of energy and gets bursts of energy. He can't sit still being held or in the car at those times.

is also obsessed with doors (especially cabinet doors) and drawers. He opens and shuts them but rarely gets into them. Once in a while he smashes a finger or hand.

has mastered going up and down the stairs but hasn't figured out how to start going down backward on his own. He tries head first but that only works when there is just one step down.

makes lots of different sounds but not words. He seems to imitate inflection and sounds sometimes but nothing recognizable (besides dada and mama). He also likes to have us imitate the sounds he makes (mostly with the different "ah" sounds).

is a huge flirt! He will find a stranger anywhere we are and smile or laugh at them. He gets a lot of attention that way.

loves his dogs and they actually try to get attention from him and play with him. His favorite thing is to chase after them, trying to head butt them or take a toy if they have one.

is not really into watching TV. It used to keep him entertained for close to 20 minutes at a time but now he rarely has interest for more than a few minutes. We love that he can play and entertain himself and does not like TV much.

makes his mommy and daddy's days a little brighter. He can always cheer us up. :)

An Afternoon with Kyler

This morning I was sleeping in and heard Kyler laughing at who knows what - his door was shut so it wasn't the dogs or his daddy. But then it was quiet again for about 45 minutes so he must have gone back to sleep. I am a lucky mama, sleeping in until 9 on a weekday.

He's usually happy when he wakes up as long as he got enough sleep. If he's fussy, he needs to go back down. Today he was even happy after I took the paci away. Look at this scrunched up nose.

Getting up to say hi to mama... he's always so excited when we come in to get him. What a great way to start a day! (Or in this case, an afternoon.)

This is his new thing... putting his hands up. He thinks it's funny when we copy him doing this and making noises.

"Wanna see my mouth full of teeth?" He loves just hanging out over his crib rail, watching the doggies.

"Aaaahhhh hahaha those doggies are funny!"

Time to get out of bed now.

Looking outside with the doggies. Kyler is now chasing after the dogs. He just loves them and they don't think he's too bad either. For now they can run faster than he crawls. If he catches up to them, he likes to head-butt them. It's pretty hilarious. Today while I was sweeping Maggie wanted someone to play tug-of-war with her stuffed duck. Since I was busy she tried to entice Kyler to take it from her. He was having a blast trying to get it out of her mouth.

Then it was time to start playing tractors. He knows how to push the "E-I-E-I-O" button. He also knows what it means to "go find your tractors."

And here is something new he learned last week... climbing on the bottoms of the tables.

He likes to pound his toys on the tables, the hardwood floors, the walls, anything that makes noise. In fact, as I am typing this up he was looking for something to play with in the office. I gave him the tops to a couple of blank DVD packs (they look kind of like clear bowls) and put some baby-friendly office supplies inside. What does Ky do? Dumps them out and bangs them together like symbols. I hadn't thought of that. :)

And now I am going to have to start dusting the bottoms as well as the tops of the tables because of this little finger-print monster. And I thought the dogs were bad!

We have been having so much fun now that all the taxes are filed and I'm not so busy with work. It is going to be such a fun summer! And my boss even thanked me for the extra effort and told me I could equalize my time. I will hold him to it - I'll take all the time I can get with my little man this summer!

Birthday Plans

We have decided on a date for Kyler's 1st birthday party. It will be at our house on Saturday, May 14th. Some of our close family will probably be present throughout the day, with the festivities officially starting around 3 or 4. We will do cake, gifts, and a fun video we put together. Then we will grill out and have dinner and drinks and enjoy our friends and family throughout the evening. The theme will be Mr. Men and Little Miss... and I will be doing most of the decorations myself.

For Kyler's birthday (which falls on a Thursday this year), Brett and I are going to take him to Omaha to the zoo. Brett has never been there and it has been a while since I have been there myself, I know they have some new exhibits since then. We will spend the night there Thursday night and hopefully have a hotel with a pool that Kyler can enjoy. This way if the weather is bad Thursday we could do the zoo on Friday. That weekend we have a wedding and graduation in Seneca to attend so we will spend some time with Papa and Grandma.

Where oh where has my little baby gone?

Kyler can't quite "toddle" on his own but in my mind, he is a toddler now and not a baby. He is through with cuddling and wanting held. Now he just wants down to be on the go exploring things. We spent a lot of time outside today and Kyler watched from his walker as I mowed the lawn. He played in the grass in our front yard (the back has too many "land mines") and loved it. He didn't even try to put everything in his mouth this time.

There were a couple of funny moments. First, he crawled to the sidewalk and started pulling weeds that were growing up through the cracks and threw them aside. He was being a good helper. Then a little later I laid him on his back in the grass and instead of getting right back up he just laid there really still looking at the sky and enjoying the cool grass on his back. It reminded me to enjoy the little things. I wish I had taken my camera outside - it was such a nice day and he was looking pretty cute in his Royals shirt and shorts.

Ky has also been practicing standing/walking more. He pulls up to everything - doors, furniture, walls, you name it. And he can even use his little push toy on his own. He pulls himself up and pushes it around the basement all on his own. I can't believe how big he's getting. Next time we'll take video and post it so you can all see him.

The other cute thing that he started doing this weekend is really clapping his hands where they even make noise sometimes. He's been clapping for months but it was sort of an awkward clap. Now every time I lay him down to change his diaper, he is clapping. He's so stinkin' cute when he claps and then gives me his toothy smile because he's proud of himself!

Sorry - long post about silly little things. But these silly little things are the ones I want to remember when Kyler is all grown up. And ever since I got pregnant, my memory is terrible. So this serves as my memory... how sad is that?

Some Pictures...

Here is Kyler just chillin' in his crib. He loves his bed and usually wakes up happy. Brett and I love lying in bed listening to him jabber away for sometimes around 30 minutes. Usually we can't resist going in to see our happy boy though.

He is always on the move now. He crawls super fast and pulls up to anything and everything. Such a big guy!

He was all ready to cheer on the Cats in the tournament this year but he was in his jammies before the game even started. I guess it would have been better luck to let him sleep in his purple. Do you see a couple of his bottom teeth? Now he as 4 on top and 3 on the bottom, with at least one more on its way.

We had such a nice day last week that Kyler and Mommy just had to find something to do outside. We tried to go see some cows at the farmstead but it doesn't open until April. So we went to the park instead. Ky-Man likes to swing and watch the other kids play.

He wanted to run around like the big kids but he had to resort to crawling. He went down the slide a couple times but mostly tried to get Mama to tell him "don't put it in your mouth" about 60 times. He thought it was a fun game. Too bad it snowed yesterday, we were enjoying wearing our shorts outside!

"Kyler, where are you going?"

"Here I come, Mama!"

It's tough work playing tractors...

Kyler got his very own ice cream cone for dessert tonight. After a while he would just spit out the cone because he really just wanted the ice cream. But both the cone and the cold ice cream felt good on that tooth coming in.

Poor Kyler got one of his first little boo boos at daycare today. He was playing with one of his friends by the door and fell down as a mom was coming in the door. The edge of the door hit him pretty hard but luckily didn't crack the skin. He had what looked like a pretty sore line down his forehead for a while but it was looking better as the evening went on. They made a pretty big deal of it, recording the incident and having us sign a sheet of paper. But we know there are many more of those to come - this kid is crazy!

10 Months

I am a day late on this one. I don't know where the time goes!

Kyler is crawling FAST at 10 months. Just last night we were all in the basement playing with some toy cars and watching basketball. Brett and I were in a conversation and both turned to check on Kyler, who was right beside me on the floor a second ago. He was on the second stair. Yikes! I rarely leave the room he is in unless he is in the high chair or his bed because he could be going up or down stairs in seconds.

He is still a good eater. We finally figured out the trick to get him to eat veggies. When he is good and hungry we feed him the veggies first, before even getting any other food out... even our own food. When we do this you would think green beans were his favorite food by the way he shoves them in his mouth. This is crazy but the last two nights he and I had fettucini alfredo and he ate the same portion as I did, if not more. I think that is his new favorite. Not a drop hits the floor!

New this weekend - he is terrified of the vacuum. He had gotten spooked of it before when I was vacuuming and we had it sitting in the living room waiting to be put away. I mentioned that Kyler was afraid so Brett turned it on. He started screaming. So then I thought I could "fix" this problem if I warned him that it would be noisy and I would be there to hold him and bring him close to it to show him that it isn't scary. Well that backfired. When we got home tonight he would start screaming and grab onto me just looking at it. So now the vacuum stays in the closet unless Kyler is not around. Now I have a good excuse when my house isn't vacuumed! :)

Kyler also has 6 teeth now. 4 on the top and 2 on the bottom. The 4th one up top just came in so he looks a little lopsided (a friend had a good analogy - like a jack-o-lantern) because the rest of his teeth are pretty big and noticeable. The bad thing is that he grinds them sometimes. It sounds like he is going to crack his new little teeth. But apparently it is pretty normal in toddlers. It makes me queasy!

Probably his best new skill is mastering turning pages in his board books. He can now independently look at books and sometimes it keeps him entertained for quite a while. It sure did in the car today. He really studies the pictures now and you can tell that he knows what a lot of the pictures are or can relate them to things he's seen that are alike. I love being able to witness him learning these new things that you take for granted.

Can you believe it is only 2 months until his birthday? I am pretty excited for that and the summer. He is a water lover so we will probably spend a lot of time at the pool. It was so warm out today that he was barefoot and just wearing a onesie and his little chubby legs and round toes are just too adorable!

100th Post - Pulling Up

This is the 100th post on this blog. I sure have a lot to say about my little man, don't I? And here I thought I was slacking. In reality, you are all probably getting tired of hearing me brag on Kyler (a.k.a. the best baby in the whole world).

Look what Kyler figured out how to do.

(Excuse the pacifier, we pretty much only allow it at bed time. Hopefully even that will come to an end soon - probably after April 15th.)

This was taken probably about a week ago. Now he throws the paci on the floor once he stands up. He thinks it's pretty funny (and so do I).

He even pulled up to the door to see what his dad was working on outside. I see lots of falling and crying in our near future. But he sure is getting big... and he knows it, too!