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!

Farmer Ky

You might remember back before Christmas, I bought Kyler a Little People Nativity Set to play with. And he loved it. But I had to put it up after Christmas so that each year when we get it out it is a new and exciting thing and I can use it as a learning tool to teach him about what Christmas is all about. Anyway, fast forward a couple months and I found a great deal on a ton of Little People toys. I got 4 sets (barn, school bus, garage, and city) plus a bunch of extra cars and people plus some John Deere tractors and animals for $30 on Craigslist. It was a deal I couldn't pass up. And we got our money's worth that weekend!

Kyler absolutely loves playing with the farm stuff.

He is fascinated by tractors even though he probably hasn't ever seen a real one.

"Great Grandpa Remi, can I please have a ride in your tractor this summer? Pleeeeease?"

Sometimes he even tries to make tractor sounds. But he is really just spitting. Goofy boy!

He put the sheep in (kind of) and is taking it for a ride. I can't believe the stuff he picks up on.

Sometimes he gets so tired playing farm that he has to lie down for a minute.

Lately he has been doing something new. It took us a few days to figure out why he was dropping little toys down his back.

Especially these little wooden puzzle pieces.

There are usually a couple in his shirt every time I change his diaper.

"What, Mom? I don't know why you think this is so strange."

So here's the story: One night I was playing with some of his little cars and driving them up his arms, on his back, across his legs. It was so funny when I would drive them on his back because it was really tickling him. He would laugh and squirm. Well, apparently he is trying to recreate that with other toys. But he can't quite reach. Again, sometimes I can't believe the things this little brain picks up and tries to repeat.

Vital Statistics - 9 Month Check-up

The big guy weighs in at 20 pounds, 9 ounces. Surprisingly, that is the 50th percentile. We thought he was going to be way higher than that with that big ol' belly of his.

Just as shocking, Kyler is in the 75th percentile for height at 28.75 inches. With such a short mommy and daddy, he better enjoy that while it lasts. ;)

And lastly his head circumference was 17.75 which is the 45th percentile. Not too big of a noggin.

Today Kyler has been busy farming. More on that in our next post.

9 Months

Kyler and his Valentine's balloon from Mommy.

Kyler has changed more in this month than he has his whole life so far. It's crazy! I have no idea where that tiny helpless baby went. Here's what he does now:

• He can crawl!!! He just started in the last week and today got much better at it. Soon he'll be pretty fast and we're going to have to keep an eye on him every second.
• He can clap his hands. Lately it has been more of rubbing his hands together. We're not entirely sure why.
• He can wave "bye bye." (Tonight we were telling him that a sheep says "baa baa" and asking him to say it and he started waving bye-bye. Poor guy is a little confused.)
• He can go from his tummy to a sitting position and does it all the time.
• He's got two new teeth on top (for a grand total of 4 teeth so far). This means the tongue stays in his mouth a lot more. And he really likes to take bites of food and other objects that make it into his mouth.
• He no longer takes a bottle. He is on the sippy cup now.
• He eats big person food and drinks whole milk instead of baby food and formula. And he is getting huge from eating so much. His belly sticks out really really far!
• We have had to pack lots of little baby things away like the infant car seats, baby toys, and bottles.

This little man is getting smarter and learning new things everyday. It is amazing the things he will copy and the things he understands. (For example, he understands "no" and understands that the worst punishment he can get isn't all that bad. We've shouted and even lightly slapped his hands and he will just give a little grin. I think we're in for it.)

Ky was playing in his room and when I checked on him, he had found his books and taken them all off the shelf.

Tomorrow is his 9 month check-up so we'll see what this huge baby weighs.

All You Can Eat Chinese Buffet

This little piggy went to market...

This little piggy loves egg rolls...

This little piggy also loves the sugary donut things...

This little piggy can't make up his mind...

So this little piggy just alternates...

And makes his Mom and Dad smile! :)

Happy Valentine's Day

Last week was nuts with Kyler being sick and me being extremely busy with work so these didn't go into the mail in time for Valentine's Day but here's a preview...

I am proud to say that I did this by myself just by using a template and layering the photos in a free photo editing software I found.

Happy Valentines Day from Brett, Cindy, & Kyler (and Maggie & Baxter too)!

Sick of Being Sick

Kyler is sick once again. He has been battling his ongoing cold for months now. It gets better and then worse. But overall he's usually been pretty good and just had a little bit of a runny nose. Yesterday he started running a fever again though and his cold has gotten worse in the past week. So we had to keep him home from daycare today. Brett stayed home with him until 3:00 so I could go in for some meetings and to work on a return that is due next week. Hopefully this is the last time that happens for a while. I'm hoping when the weather warms up Ky's cold goes away... now if the weather would just warm up!

Update: It turns out Kyler had roseola. We figured it out after he started getting a rash on Thursday evening and it was gone by Saturday morning. This is something that almost all babies get once. It starts out as a fever and ends with a rash. The good thing is he is slightly less irritable now (although still not his happy, content self) and his appetite is back - we learned on Saturday that he is a big fan of Chinese food, especially egg rolls. Now if he could just kick this cold I think we would be in good shape.

Our Happy Boy

I have totally been slacking at taking pictures and posting on the blog. So here are some of the more recent pictures of our little big boy.

One day we caught him playing in the crate that his toys are in.

Then he noticed I had a camera and had to give me a little smile. :)

While I am working away in the kitchen (recently tearing down old wallpaper), Kyler will play and play for hours at a time.

He's our happy boy.

And he loves it when his daddy gets him. He will scream and laugh.

Look at those wheels turning while he looks at books with Dad. Books are his favorite. They are always the first toys to be pulled out of the crate.

Tonight we bought some new shoes so that Kyler can't pull his socks off. They make him look so much older!

He's not sure what to think of them. They wouldn't come off his feet like his socks do. He even tried to pull them off with his mouth. But eventually he got used to them.

Did you notice his chubby cheeks? He is such a big eater and is really starting to fill out. I wouldn't say he is a fat baby but he's definitely solid. We'll find out what he weighs here in a few weeks at his 9 month check-up but I'm sure he will be over 20 pounds based on the weigh-in the last time we took him to the doctor for his cold and fever.

8 Months

As you can probably tell from the lack of posting, things have been crazy around here. After we got back from our Christmas vacation Brett and I have been pretty busy with work. And Ky-Man was sick for a little bit. He ran a really high fever that got up close to 105 degrees. On top of all that we were trying to get by with one car and in the process of buying another. And Brett was traveling for a couple of days while Kyler was sick and I was really busy trying to catch up on work.

Anyway, back to 8 months. We can tell that Kyler is really picking up on things lately. He copies a lot of our actions when playing with him. He is discovering some new body parts in the bathtub. In fact, he even found his birthmark. It is about the size of a kidney bean on his forearm close to his elbow. The other day he had a short-sleeved shirt on and was trying to pick at his birthmark like it was a piece of food stuck to him. Today Kyler started clapping. He had shut all the little doors to his pop up toy and looked up at me smiling and proud of himself. Then he started repeatedly putting his hands together. It was very slow and obviously didn't make a sound but we were so proud of our funny little guy!

Kyler has been growing so fast. He is already close to 20 pounds and has been getting really long too. We can't believe how big he has gotten. He is eating almost all finger foods now and we started mixing whole milk with his formula. He still just has the two bottom teeth and we know he is working on several more. And he has yet to start crawling. He will occasionally get up on all fours and rock but only scoots backward or around in a circle on his tummy. He is gaining interest in pulling himself up to furniture. We are still thinking he might walk before he crawls. He makes "dada" and "mama" sounds (although he doesn't understand what they mean) and also says "baba" and blows raspberries. Books are still probably his favorite toys followed by the pop-up toys and the ones that make noise.

This weekend Brett and I are going to Colorado on a ski trip and it will be the first time Kyler is away from me at night. He will be staying with my parents for about 5 days. We sure will miss our Ky Ky but we know he is in good hands and will have lots of fun with Grandma and Grandpa!

Baby New Year

We want to wish all of our friends and family a happy new year! We have had so much fun in 2010 with our little Ky-Man and are excited to see him continue to grow and change in 2011. It is bittersweet watching all of these changes in him. We don't want him to grow up so fast but he is becoming more and more fun all the time. In the past week or so he has really found his voice. Most of the way home today we listened to him babbling and yelling in the back seat. Nobody can say that Kyler is lacking personality!

He has also been eating a lot more "real food" and we have gotten away from his babyfood more and more. When he feeds himself finger foods he is a lot happier and eats better than when we feed him bottles or babyfood so that's what we've been letting him do. It's messy but it works. His favorites are bananas and Grandma's chicken noodle soup with crackers. He also really likes grilled cheese and peanut butter toast.

It might be a bit of a challenge getting Kyler back on his normal schedule after his holiday break. He has been staying up very late and sleeping in later than normal. On New Year's Eve I put him to bed a little after 11:00 and he was back up before midnight to celebrate with us. We just stayed in and Grandma and Grandpa's house since it was so cold.

New Year's Day was Great Grandma Rita's Christmas and Kyler was definitely spoiled. He got a scooter toy to ride on, a little toy car, two more cell phones, and some really cute clothes. He spent a lot of time with the older cousins. You wouldn't believe how popular he was with the teen and college-aged boys.

We hope your holidays were as merry as ours and best wishes in 2011!