12 Month Vital Stats

Kyler's doctor appointment was on Monday. He had three shots and did pretty well with them.

Weight: 22 pounds, 14 ounces (50th percentile)
Height: 30.25 inches (65-70th percentile)
Head: 18.5 inches (50-75th percentile)

Birthday Trip

We had a fun first birthday for Kyler and everything went very smoothly (which was sort of unexpected). We got up early in the morning and got the car packed. Kyler was still asleep when we were ready to go so we just stuck him in the car in his jammies.

Kyler was in a pretty interesting sleeping position the morning of his 1st birthday.

Kyler didn't enjoy sitting in the car seat for over two hours on the way to Omaha but we made it. We dropped off the dogs at a (very inexpensive) boarding facility and then we were off to enjoy our day. We had lunch at Dinker's - they are famous for their burgers and onion rings. Then it was time to hit the zoo. The first stop was the giraffes. Kyler was a little concerned with the huge think walked right over to him but then thought it was pretty exciting and gave a big smile. We watched for a while before walking around outside to see the other animals.

Kyler's reaction to the huge giraffe walking toward us.

"Hey rhinos, look over here!"

This big guy came and sat right next to Ky.

Kyler and baby gorilla riding on the mama gorilla.

Ky enjoyed watching the koi fish gather under the bridge where we could feed them. He also liked the aquarium where we watched a couple of penguins race through the water and he loved seeing the stingrays swim over top of us in the big shark tank. After that, it was getting close to dinner time so we went to the Old Market to have dinner at Spaghetti Works. Brett and I weren't impressed but Kyler did pretty good on his pasta (one of his favorite foods). We also stopped for ice cream at Ted and Wally's which was amazing. We got cake batter flavor since Kyler didn't get an actual birthday cake on his birthday.

These are what they actually use to make the ice cream.

When we got to the hotel, we went straight to the pool for a swim. Unfortunately the pool water was freezing so that limited our fun some. But Kyler was a trouper and powered through the cold to have a good time. He smiled and splashed a little and liked being pulled around in his tube, knocking the toys and balls off of it.

This was one of Kyler's favorite things at the zoo. He had a blast crawling through the tube and having his dad chase after him.

The next day we headed back to the zoo to finish up with the petting zoo and some of the indoor exhibits. On the way to the petting zoo, we stopped to see what the monkeys were up to. They were very loud and kept Ky's attention for quite a while. Kyler was excited to get up close to the goats at the petting zoo. We also got to ride the carousel and the train. When the train whistle blew very loudly, Kyler jumped about 3 inches but he didn't cry.

This lemur was hanging right above a walkway just inches from us.

The rest of the weekend we were in Seneca for a friend's wedding and cousin's graduation from high school. Kyler enjoyed all of his friends and family, especially Papa Tig. He would cry sometimes when Papa would leave the room or go outside and would get so excited and start laughing when he spotted his papa.

All in all, Ky had a great first birthday (as far as we can tell and besides all the time constricted to the car seat and stroller). The weather surprisingly cooperated at the zoo and we just had some sprinkles on Friday. He even came home with a bit of a tan after hanging outside most of today with his second cousins pulling him around in the wagon. I think he'll sleep well at home tomorrow!

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.