Paw Paw and Nana's Tyler Time

This last weekend was a blessing for Tyler and us. Grandma and Grandpa came to town and spent some time with Tyler while Dave and I got to spend some time together and time without Tyler. As much as we adore our little guy, it was great to have some free time. We went to the beach and surfed, while Tyler had a blast visiting different places with Paw Paw and Nana. Tyler enjoyed being rocked to sleep by Paw Paw who sang him songs by Peter, Paul and Mary. Grandma and I got to do some shopping. We took some fun drives in the convertible that they rented. I could definitely get used to driving a convertible in Cali. We even took Tyler for a ride and the whole time he thought he was on a bike and said bika bika. He also said beep beep because he could see all the cars really easily.

He had fun in the Paseo fountain again. Grandpa got some great shots of him. He was smiling from ear to ear all weekend. Boy was he tired today from all the fun. He enjoyed drawing with Grandpa. Grandpa drew all of his favorite things. We got Tyler and easle so he could be an artist like a lot of the people in the Olson and Knight families. He loves painting and drawing now.

California living

Last week started out a little rough and has gotten better, kind of. A week ago Thursday I noticed Tyler's Cuspid teeth coming in. He was fussy, had a runny nose, has swelling, and a mild fever. All signs point to teething:) A few days later it was confirmed. A few days after that I noticed at least two other teeth about to break through the surface. Total of three teeth that have come in and two more that are breaking through the surface. That is a total of 5 in two weeks. He has been a real troopers.

Mom and Dad are hanging in there too after an emotional beating from their neighbor about their parenting. We were approached by our neighbor who was concerned...well that is questionable...about Tyler's well being. She approached us by saying that she was worried about him and his crying and that 15 minutes or more of crying is child abuse and as a social worker she may report us to DCFS, but did not want to. She said if she didn't and someone else did then she could lose her liscense. Needless to say we were pretty insulted, frustrated, confused, etc. We feel that we meet Tyler's needs very well and are sometimes over protective, rather than under. We are not abusive or anywhere close to. It happened because the night before was when his teeth were breaking through and he cried on and off for half the night. We rocked him, gave him teethers, bottles, Ibprofen and took him for walks, but he was just plain upset. We have shared this story numerous times with friends and people laugh when we tell them and say that she is ridiculous. It was even the start of a great sermon illustration that Dave used the next day at church. If you want to listen to it you can go to our church website, the link is connected here...www.onevoicechurch.com. Well, that drama is subsiding and we are starting to feel at home again, besides the fact we are avoiding our neighbor temporarily, until we figure out how to reconcile this awkward situation.

Some fun things happened this week too...I do not mean to be such a downer. Tyler started playing with a little T-ball set that we got him. He likes to put the ball on and hit it. He also got to ride his first horse this week. One of his friends, Chase, that we met at swimming invited us to his house to play. His dad is a professional polo player and they own horses. He was not a big fan of riding the horse. I got my first riding lesson, which was really fun, but scary. The horse got a little spooked and took a few jumps to the side, but the guy that was teaching said I handled it perfectly. I even got up to a trot by myself in a circle ring. He said I was a natural. After the lesson, Tyler got to play with all sorts of fun toys at their house. They had bikes to ride, paints to paint with and a couple of doggies. He loved it and it made me miss having a yard.

This weekend we spent some time with Daddy, when he wasn't sick. We went swimming a few times, on a bike ride, out to eat at Bucca de Beppo, went to the Kidspace museum and we played with lots of balls. Mommy and Daddy went roller skating for the first time in years for Kristy's 30th birthday. We topped off the weekend with a nice relaxing evening at home:)

Kristy's roller skating birthday party

Painting at Kidspace with Clay

18 Months

I never know what to write on these blogs. I feel like such a boring writer. Let me know if you have any suggestions or things you would like to read about:)

Since we live in the city we have to be intentional about finding nature. This week we have had some fun experience in nature. We have gone to Eaton Canyon a few times and there is actually enough water for a river. That will be gone in a few weeks/months, so we are taking advantage. Tyler has loved playing in the water. He throws things in a waves "bye bye" to them. He likes to walk around on the rocks and sticks.

We had our last swimming lesson yesterday. We are going to take a little break from the lessons for a while and practice on our own. Tyler loves the water, but it seemed like every day we had a lesson it was cold. He enjoyed it though.

We found a cool new place to go this week. Someone we met in swim class took us to the Kidspace museum near the Rose Bowl aquatic center. It was more than awesome! We are going to live there this summer:) Just kidding. We will be spending a lot of time there though. The have so many things for kids Tylers age to do. When summer hits we will be inside a lot becaus eof the extreme heat and this is the perfect place to go. They have indoor play areas and exploration activites for learning. They have water areas, rivers, waterplay, bikes, painting, slides, basketball hoops, blocks. You name it! I even met some new moms their...one was from Michigan and has relatives that live in Spring Arbor. It is such a small world. anyways, here is the link to the museum if you want to see for yourself. If anyone wants to come visit I will take you there. Kidspace click here

Ty's friend Chase who took him to the museum.

Bike area at the museum

Painting a leaf....water washes it way after a few minutes.

Tyler loves driving cars now.

Our little adventurer.

Ty and his friend Clay playing in the river.

We went to Mrs. D's birthday party. It was a nice little danty tea party.

Tyler's new words: help me, basketball, banana, stars, bee, up (still working on "r" ans "s" sounds though)
Tyler's new tricks: drinking out of a cup, jumping into the pool, blowing bubbles, climbing stairs by himself

17 Months and counting!

We were expecting April to be a lot less busy than the holiday season, but it seemed to be the opposite with travel and classes, and business stuff. There has been a lot going on around here. We decided to do another session of swimming lessons. It turns out the weather has been kind of chilly, so we have missed a few. Tyler just loves swimming though. He is blowing bubbles in the water now and kicking his feet. Every once in a while he will paddle his hands a little. Mommy is involved in MOPS at a local church and has been taking a Positive Parenting Class. She has continued to get together with the mom's group that she started and loved those girls. A few of them will be moving and that will be hard for her.
Daddy's business has been picking up a lot. He has three houses in escrow as of today:) He has been working really hard and we appreciate it. It's tough to have less time with him, but he does his best to spend time with us. Just this week he book five appointments with random sellers. That is a lot for one week.
Last week he was gone for a few days at conference with other people from our church and church conference called Catalyst. He continues to work hard making relationship with people at his office, at frisbee and at the church. I don't know how he can maintain so many relationships so well, but he does. It is his gift:)
Tyler loves to explore and try to say new words. Earlier today we read about 15 books in a row. He loves to read. He has enjoyed blowing bubbles and dancing to music lately. He has been climbing on and off the couches. He likes to brush (suck the water off his tooth brush) his teeth all by himself while standing on his stool and putting the brush in the running water. He likes drinking out of a cup and using a fork and spoon sometimes. He loves babies, so I bought him a baby doll.

Tyler's Real Estate Headshots:)
Here is one of Daddy's listings.

Thanks Grandpa Knight for sending the b-ball tie for Tyler, I mean Dave:) Ty loves to put it on and walk around like his grandpa.

About a week ago we went to the outdoor mall (Paseo) near our apartment and discovered a neat fountain. We were not dressed to play in the water, but we did it anyways. Ty got soaked and loved it. He was like a street performer. None of the other parents would let their kids get wet, so Ty was the only one and everyone was watching him. It was funny!

We got this little tent for when we go to the beach this summer, but Tyler has enjoyed it as his little fort in the meantime.

Daddy got to take Ty to swimming lessons this last week. They both enjoyed it. Mommy enjoyed watching.

A Great Vacation

I climbed into the mini-wagon and Uncle Brad took me for a spin around the house.

I got to meet our nephew Carter Anthony. What a cutie!

Grandma and Grandpa Knight with their two grand sons.

Playing b-ball in Grandpa Knights office.

Easter egg hunt

Cousins:)

Grandma and Grandpa Olson with the Grand kids.

After hours in the car:)

First Days of Spring

Ty just got out of the bath and is playing with his favorite toy...a ball. That happens to be his favorite word also.

Tyler still loves Mr.Bear. He tackles him!

We started swim classes at the Rose Bowl Aquatic Center this week. Ty loved the water. He was trying to put his own face in the water most of the time. He loved the "Humpty Dumpties" the best. It is were you sit them on the wall of the pool, count to three and they push off and spin you spin them around in the pool and sit them back on the wall. He loved the spinning in the water part. I actually let him push off and go under water a little and he loved it.

It is just an introductory class, so they sing songs and do little exercises. The instructor Brianna, gives us tips here and there. She was telling me to try teaching him to blow bubbles in the water...he is starting to understand, but doesn't quite get how to do it yet. Although...he does know how to blow...he was playing a harmonics the other day at a friends house. Thursday's class was in the therapy pool which is like a big hot tub:) That is because it was 65 degrees outside and the pool is outdoors. These pictures are from Thursday's class.

Tyler's friend Clayton is taking the class also. It is fun for him to see a familiar face. It's nice for me also to spend time with Kristy. She is the one that told us about the class. We will miss class the first week of April because we will be in the midwest visiting family. We (tyler and Mommy) are both looking forward to seeing Grandma and Grandpa Olson and Knight. We also will get to see Baby Carter and Aunt Christy, as well as Gigi Knight and Jackson. Gigi Jackson's are coming home early from Florida to see us:) We were surprised to hear that yesterday and are super excited to see them and everyone else!






Words Tyler is using now: ball, tickle, pizza pizza, caw for car, bika for bike, bee for bree, caw taw for carter, aney for Laney, papa, nana, nee nee, ke for keys, no, yeah, bea, deah, daddy, mommy, ott for hot, bubbles

16 Months

We all dressed up for our friend Elizabeth's 30th Birthday party. We got a babysitter and spent the evening at Korean BBQ and Korean Karaoke. It was so much fun. Dave has one year until he turns 30. Pretty crazy!

A lot has happened in a month. Tyler had his first x-ray on his left leg, because he was limping. He is not limping anymore, and we do not have any results from the x-ray, so it must be healed. Or so we thought until I got a phone call about an hour ago from Dr. Mattai saying that he has a fracture. I did not get many details on which bone, but he is going to see an orthopedic doctor this week to make sure there is no permanent damage and that it is healing correctly. Worst part is that we have no idea how it happened. We think it may have happened at the gym that I work out at. He goes to the kids club there and one day when we left there I noticed he was limping. I will give you an update soon.

Tyler has been talking up a storm. He talks about daddy a lot and mommy a little. He cries when he hears daddy shake his keys or when daddy actually walks out the door, even for a second. He loves riding on Daddy's shoulders and going for walks. He learned to climb on the furniture and loves to sit and read books on the couch. He has a new table that he likes to sit and eat his snack at. Tyler likes to stand on the chair and watch mommy and daddy cook.

We started juicing about a month ago. Tyler loves all kinds of veggie and fruit juice...even beet, carrot, celery and spinach juice. Because he has low iron(not real low) it was suggested that we make him juice, so we have and he loves the process of making it, as well as drinking it. He has also had to take a vitamin supplement.

Next week he will start swim lessons with mommy at the Rose Bowl Aquatic Center. It will be twice a week for one month. It is warming up, so it should be nice for trips to the pool in March.

Tyler is climbing stairs now.

This city boy is amazed at a little stick. I can not wait to take him to the country in a few weeks so he can explore and get dirty. He loves running barfoot on the concrete. I bet he will love the grass at Grandma and Grandpa's.

He is taking me on a tour of apartment courtyard. He likes to point up at the helicopters and look at all the flowers and plants.

Tyler has his baby crocs on from Aunt Lindsay. Thanks for my outfit Aunt Lindsay.

Here he is doing the sign language for sleepy. The book he is reading is Baby Signs for Bedtime. It is one of his favorites. I love these books. They teach him different signs and he understands the pictures. It is like he can already read.