Happy Halloween! (from our little duck)

Our little duck had such a fun Halloween! In several of the pictures you might see him sucking/chewing his fingers because he has about 5 teeth that are right about to make their first appearance. It's been kind of a rough last couple of days due to a painful mouth, but with all of the fun costumes and new people to meet Tytus was sufficiently distracted.

Our two first trick-or-treaters came and Mia got out. Oops!

On the lookout for trick-or-treaters.

Our neighborhood was having a National Night Out event in the field behind our house, so our plan was to go eat outside while they showed ET. Then we'd come back here to hand out candy and play in the driveway. They didn't end up setting up the event until about an hour later than we expected so we improvised by playing outside, eating here, and then handing out candy. We all had a lot of fun, got to talk to a bunch of our neighbors, and Tytus got lots of compliments and some friends to play with on his little blanket. All in all it was a fun night!

Playing with Mommy and ready to go climb on all the chairs outside.

Little duck on the move!

Happy to be with Daddy, but teeth are still hurting.... :(

Handing out candy to all the trick-or-treaters

Almost out of candy and ready to clean up

Happy Halloween!

On Hands and Knees (and on the move)

Tytus is officially crawling now! He's been scooting around for several weeks (mainly backward), and he's been perfecting his skills in pulling up without any help. Last Wednesday he took his first two crawls forward at home and then did it again at Ashley and Kelly's apartment before Overflow. Then when Uncle Byron and Aunt Michelle came to visit he traveled much further to reach one of his favorite toys. Now that he can crawl it's fun to put him in the room where I'm working, and he can check things out on his own. He's still figuring out that he can crawl into different rooms in the house and follow noises/voices on his own. I've taken him around the house by putting a toy out in front of him and having him follow it, and it's so interesting to see him stop and take notice of things from a whole new perspective. One thing that we don't ever take notice of are the air conditioner vents near the floor. They're really loud when the air is running, and Tytus will crawl right up to them to look at them and attempt to pull up on one of the rungs to get a better look. Eventually he'll find that it's nearly impossible and move on to something more interesting.....like Mia's food bowls. Yuck! Because they're pink and plastic and look like a toy he might play with, we're in the process of relocating them for a while.

Oh ya know.....Uncle Byron teaching Tytus some new tricks

Crawling has definitely strengthened some new muscles which has allowed Tytus to become much more adventurous in all kinds of ways. Almost every time I put him down for a nap or bedtime he's sitting up before I can even get the blanket over him. I'll normally leave the room and give him some time to explore his bed, but eventually he'll be stuck or frustrated and need some assistance laying back down to go to sleep.

While he should be sleeping.....

Some of his other favorite things to do are pulling up and cruising around his wooden activity cube (thanks Aunt Karen!), crawling to his bookshelf to pull out his favorite books, and pulling up on the little white step stool in his room.

He likes to get a taste of what he's pulling up on. Yum!

About to take off around the cube.

His favorite book! He loves lifting up the flaps and hearing "peekaboo!"

Reading a few books before nap time.

I'll normally give him some play time by himself in his room and set a timer to let him know I'll be back when it goes off. It's a little egg timer from Aunt Amanda's baby shower, so you can hear it ticking and it has a very distinct ring to let him know the time is up. He loves trying to get the timer! One day I peeked in on him playing and saw that he had knocked the timer off of the white step stool and it was just on the other side. He was standing up trying to decide how he would get to it. Rather than cruising around or crawling to get it, he decided that it would be best to reach over the step stool. He was grunting and flailing with all his might and yet his arm was just not long enough to reach it. It was so hard not to laugh or try to help him, but he eventually found a way to scoot forward after much reevaluating. The sweetness of success!

 We went out to the deck today and it took him a while to get used to crawling on the rough surface. He would lean forward, then sit back down, lean forward, then sit back down. He just wasn't sure if he was up for it. Then he realized that he could get over to the chairs and pull himself up to have a better look around. So he went for it! Oh, and it was worth it. He got a kick out of watching Mia run around the yard, cars go by, and all the while he could take himself where he wanted to go.

Cruising around the back deck.

The Changing Of Seasons Is So Refreshing!

7 months old!

Thanks Uncle Byron and Aunt Michelle for the cool converse! They fit perfectly now!

Since Tytus's favorite pastime is pulling up on any and everything, we decided to move his crib down the day before his seven month birthday. He had gotten so used to peeking over the side of his crib just by pushing up on his hands and knees, so when he realized he could no longer do that it was very startling! After his nap that day he woke up not knowing what had happened to his favorite little play gym. So, we took some time to get acquainted with his new bed. It didn't take long, though, for him to realize that moving the crib down definitely had its benefits!

Before the move...

After the move....

As Tytus has gotten older, our Sunday mornings have looked a little different. He's always been pretty entertained and quiet during church, but as of recently he wants to be on the move so bad that's it's hard to sit still. He's visited our nursery (KidsRock) a couple of times, but we've found that when he's in the service with us his greatest fascination is the Bible. We've prayed for our son to know Christ personally and find true satisfaction in Him at an early age, so I guess having an interest in the Bible is a good thing. The only problem is......I think he mainly loves the sound/texture of the pages crinkling and ripping. :) This did give me a great idea at home, though. I got out an old magazine to let him explore with. He absolutely ate it up!

Tytus also got to taste Freebirds for the first time this Sunday. We went to a picnic area near the San Marcos River after church with a few friends and got to watch some dogs playing in the water, hear the birds chirping, and enjoy the BEAUTIFUL weather! Not to mention we were eating our Freebirds all the while....mmmm mmmm good!

Hats off to a super fun weekend with our family!

Summer Fun!

Summer is almost coming to a close, so we wanted to catch you up with what we've been up to for the past two months. A lot has been happening around here! Even with it in the hundreds almost every day, we've been able to spend some time outside on our new deck! It's amazing what a little shade and some wind can do on a scorching day. Tytus loves to watch the cars zoom by. He'll be in deep thought watching Mia or playing with one of his toys when he hears a car (or ice cream truck) drive by. He'll carefully watch it over the fence until it's out of sight and then squeal with excitement.

Oh, the fascination with Mia.
He wants to be best friends with her and she could care less.

Such a nice day to be outstide!

He's SO big but still SO small. These
are the chairs we usually sit in to watch the cars.

 Since it's been so hot outside, we have also taken advantage of swimming in our small pool in the back yard, our neighborhood pool, and going to Deep Eddy in Austin with Mark, Oliver, and Lindsay.

About to get in at our neighborhood pool

Having so much fun kicking in the water!

The boys loved stomping in the water and splashing around in the shallow parts of the pool.

We've also spent a little time away from home. We took a trip to see Lilly when she was born. She's so precious!  We also got to hang out with Byron some while he was in town for work. We took him to one of our favorite pizza places in Austin and followed it up by having a Hey Cupcake! Yum!

Growing....from 5 to 6 months

5 months

He wanted to see what Leonard the Lion felt like.

From five to six months many things have changed. Tytus loves to pull up on our hands and his crib, rock back and forth on his knees, and he's so curious about everything. If he sees something interesting he'll probably figure out a way to get to it. Right now he mainly scoots backwards, but it's only a matter of time before he figures out how to push himself forward. His personality is growing as well. All of the monthly pictures had been pretty uneventful until 6 months. I set Leonard down next to Tytus, and he immediately grabbed him, put him in his mouth, threw him down, lunged for him, squealed and growled at him. It was so entertaining! But needless to say it was hard to get a picture with him and Leonard sitting still next to each other.

Tytus also has a very healthy appetite and has been such a good eater from the beginnig. He now enjoys the things we eat (for the most part) and loves eating and talking with us at dinner each night. I think all the healthy eating is just helping him get closer to conquering some new goals of his. I really think if he could walk, he'd skip the crawling all together. He loves to pull up on my fingers and then reach over to the coffee table to play with whatever has been put up there recently. In just the past few days he's actually started to move his feet a little as he slides down the table to follow a runaway toy. Along with pulling up on our hands, he's attempted to pull up on almost anything these days.....including the bathtub.

His bath is still one of his favorite parts of the day. It probably has to do with the fact that Daddy bathes him and plays with his toys. After his bath he gets his pj's on and then it's wind down time with Mommy and Daddy before we thank God for our day and say good night. It's such a cool thing for us to think about the fact that one day soon Tytus might say his own prayers before we tuck him in and say good night!

Prunes,Cooking,and Sitting Up

Tytus started solids about a month ago and has found it interesting (and tasty) to try lots of new foods including: apples, pears, cereal, carrots, sweet potato, banana, peas, and avacado. Bananas are by far his favorite, but peas and carrots are a close second. He sits up in his high chair (and usually plays with a toy or watches me) while I get the food ready, then we put on his bib and he knows what's coming! He was content to just be fed for about a week or two, but after watching me feed him and watching his mom and dad eat he's figured out that he might want to help out a little more. He's tried using his hands to hold his bib, reach for the food, and hold his spoon once we're done. Most recently we tried prunes during lunch. Prunes are deep purple and super messy! Of course that means that it was a perfect day for Tytus to get in on the action. I tried several times to keep his hands away from the bowl, but he was so fixated on it that he'd stopped being interested in eating at all. So, I let him go for it and explore what this new stuff was. He thought it was great!

One day last week we woke up and did our normal morning routine of eating, changing, making breakfast, and seeing dad out the door. The only difference was that Tytus got dressed in jeans and a button up shirt that he was going to outgrow soon. I figured we should at least wear it once before it got too small....little did I know that Ty would try to act like a little man since he was dressed for the part. 

That day he helped me in the yard....

rolled over for the first time.....

and started wanting to sit up on his own...

He loves looking at the tree on the wall after he gets a clean diaper.

If only I would have known what was going to happen when I put that grown up outfit on him! Along with trying out lots of new things, Tytus has become very observant and loves to watch everything I do around the house. One of his favorite things to do is watch me cook. I'll set him up on the counter to watch as I wash the dishes, cut up chicken, heat up his food, or make homemade bread and cookies. I've had the urge to try out some new recipes recently and found a new favorite today. It's actually a recipe that was sent out in newsletter update from the hospital where we had Ty. There were two recipes, so I tried out the lettuce wraps first......and love them! Here's the recipe if you're interested:

Chicken Lettuce Wraps

Ingredients:
• 1 lb skinless boneless chicken breast, cut into thin strips & dice
• 1 tsp. olive oil
• ½ cup peanut sauce
• 1 head Romaine lettuce,
• separate into leaves and clean
• 2 cups whole grain noodles
• 1 cup shredded carrots
• 1 cup julienne cucumbers
• ¼ cup chopped peanuts
• 1 cup sliced mushrooms

Method:
• Heat oil in large skillet. Add chicken, and sauté until golden brown.
• Add peanut sauce and cook for 1 minute.
• Take lettuce leaf and add noodles, chicken, carrots, cucumbers and peanuts. Roll (like a tortilla), eat & ENJOY! 
Serves 8

Calories: 215 Fat:8g Sodium 350mg Carbs: 15gr Fiber: 3gr Protein: 23gr