Wild Man

It's been a while since I've blogged, so I thought I'd tell everyone what Ty has been up to. He is growing so fast, it seems like he is doing something new every week. He is now in what I like to call the "wild man" stage. He is still very happy and rarely fusses, but is now very vocal and extremely mobile! Most of the time when I call Becca during the day to see how everything is going, I can usually hear how it's going as soon as she picks up the phone. He has been sleeping great at night lately, but I think it is because he is so. . . "active" during the day. When his personal Jungle Gym (daddy) gets home, then it's really game on! Although he cannot pronounce the words yet, I'm pretty sure that "daddy. . . UP" is what he is saying to me most of the time. And you would think that he would get tired after a while, but he rarely does. He is going through that stage now where everything is about mommy. He constantly wants to know where mommy is and watches her as she leaves the room and lets out a little fuss, before going back saying da da da da da da eeeeeeeee, which tranlates "daddy. . . UP."
He still enjoys church quite a bit. That's his main time to show off for everyone. He still squirms around until I'll eventually stand him up on my lap so he can see/distract everyone around us. He loves to stare at people until the make eye contact with him, then he gives them the big smile. There are alway plenty of willing participants ready to be distracted.
Becca wrote about her surgery, what fun that was. I never knew completely caring for a child is soooo much work. While I pride myself in being very involved as a father, inevitably Becca does most of the work. Until the surgery, when I had to completely care for him all by myself for 2 full days, I never realized how much work that is. Getting him for a few hours at night and on the weekends is one thing, but all the time. . . wow, that's WORK! Props to my wife for all the work she does! She's a better, more patient person than me. Obviously I married well!
I'll try and get up some more pictures soon. It's much more difficult now that Jason is taking classes at night. I know how much everyone likes to see them, plus we really enjoy showing him off!

Unexpected events

Well the week of October 9-12 has been an unexpected week. Tyler was sent to see a neurologist by his pediatrician due to not finding his soft spot very well. They wanted to make sure that there were no issues. We had the appointment scheduled for the 11th and have been very nervous about it, trying to keep our minds on positive things. On Monday evening (the 8th) I began to experience extreme pain in my lower right side. Finally at around 10:30 I called our personal nurse (my mother) explaining my problem. She really wanted us to go to the ER, giving her diagnosis that it sounded like my appendix. Being the subborn person that I am I decided it probably wasn't that big of a deal and really not wanting to get Tyler up to spend the night in the ER, I waited. By Tuesday morning the pain had gotten worse so Chad and I took Tyler and headed to the doctor's. They took one look at me and sent me to the ER, exactly where we didn't want to go with a 7 month old. They finally got me back into a room and after waiting for the better part of the day came in to let us know I had to have an appendectomy. Chad scrambled to get home and pack up Tyler and the dogs to take them over to Uncle Jared's and Aunt Jessica's and make it back quickly. I was instructed that I could not pick up Tyler until the following Monday so it was going to be a busy week for Chad. We arranged Melissa to come over Thursday morning to get Tyler ready to take us down to meet Chad for Tyler's appointment with the neurologist. After examining Tyler he told us he was not worried but ordered a CT scan for his head the following week. That afternoon Lynn and Larry were more than happy to come and kidnap Tyler for the afternoon until Chad could pick him up after work. On Friday Chad arranged 4 of my girlfriends to all take shifts from 8-4, coming over to care for Tyler until he could get home. Saturday morning Aunt Faye and cousin Liz came over to help and picked up Nana,my mother, who flew in Saturday evening. My mom and I took Tyler for his CT scan on Thursday and Tyler did fabulous! They said that if he didn't lie still they would have to start an IV but he was the best, he just watched the machine as it spun around his head but didn't move at all. The doctor saw us after the scan and said everything looked just fine. He just has a big head, just like his daddy :) Nana had the best time with Tyler that week and stayed until Papa could drive up after his classes on Wednesday. She was a big help but I know it was more of a treat for her to be here with Tyler. Papa made it up here by Thursday am and spent some quality time with little man until they had to leave on Saturday morning. We also got a surprise visit from Uncle Steven (Chad's brother) and Aunt Kara who drove in on Friday night. Talk about a busy couple of weeks. Tyler is not going to understand why it's just mommy here with him tomorrow. He is getting used to all this attention.

Granny time

Chad's mom decided she just couldn't make it until Thanksgiving to spend time with her Tyler so she made time to come and spend a whole week here with us. She got her on the last Sunday of September and stayed until Saturday October 6th. Grandad was a bit jealous but made it through with getting updates by the phone from Granny. Tyler is crawling everywhere now so he kept Granny very busy. Often I would catch Granny sleeping while Tyler took his naps. He is so busy now but so much fun. Granny helped pick out Tyler's Halloween costume, he is going to be a puppy. He thinks it is so funny when you bark like a dog for him. Of course that gets Bigler and Bailey barking so it turns into family fun. We all went to see daddy play basketball on Tuesday night and Tyler was just amazed with the game. He hardly took his eyes off of them playing. We were sad to see Granny go, but the day after she left Aunt Lisa came to stay the night on Sunday night. He has had so much company lately, he is getting spoiled.

Beach Fun

Our week vacation to the beach was so much fun. Our first day the weather was not the best but the rest of the time there we had fabulous weather. Our first night we took Tyler out for a evening walk on the beach, he loved it. The next day we decided to find out what he would think of the ocean water. We sat him down so he could just barely feel the waves on him, he was unsure at first but quickly changed his mind. He began to splash, so we stood him up and moved him knee deep. He could hardly contain himself, splashing and stomping. He was having the best time, so were mommy and daddy. We took his float so he could play in the pool also, he is really starting to get the hang of kicking his legs. I think our boy is going to enjoy swimming! He loves to be outside so we did a lot of sitting on the top deck or swinging on the porch swing while daddy grilled out. Every morning we would sit out of the deck and look at the rabbits that would come out or watch the dolphins in the ocean. It will be so amazing when he can see that and get excited about it. We can't believe how much he is growing. The last night there we took some adoreable pictures of him in the sand with the water behind him. We will get them on the website soon.