We love Noah's Ark

Every Thursday the Skirball Museum in LA opens the doors to the public for free. This means that we can visit the Noah's Ark exhibit for free too! The tickets go quickly and being that I'm in charge of the Mommy group here in town, I try hard to get them each month. This month we were fortunate to go twice. Tyler loves this exhibit. He enjoys exploring the musical instruments, the animals and the kitchen on the ark. It is a great hands-on exhibit just made for children Tyler's size! Here are some pictures from our two trips this past month!

My boy loves the kitchen!

Making rain!

Yum, strawberries!

Keaton and Tyler - taking a break from their work!

Back to sweeping

Making lightning

Checking out how this zebra works

Keaton and Tyler in the kitchen again

Thanksgiving

This year we stayed home for Thanksgiving and had Collin's family over. It was the first time I had cooked Thanksgiving. There were only five adults and Tyler but you would not have known it based on the amount of food I prepared! Our leftovers lasted for a week! It was a quiet Thanksgiving compared to a Thanksgiving at the Dodds household (Erin's family) but a relaxing one none the less.

My first turkey!

Our Thanksgiving table

Daddy carving his first turkey

Grandma Judy and Tyler watching Daddy carve!

Hey, no phones on Thanksgiving Grandpa!

Big boy sitting at the table, not in a high chair!

Kissing Mommy!

On Friday morning, Collin and I went shopping. We headed to Sear's to get a washer and dryer but it was gone by the time we hit the line at 3:40 a.m. So we headed over to Target which opened at 4. What a ZOO! I've NEVER seen anything like it before. There were so many people there. We had a little success at Target and then headed to Best Buy. That was the coldest we were all morning long. We only had to wait in line about 15 minutes. We were not successful at Best Buy, but that's ok. We then headed to Kohl's. What were we thinking? We found some good stuff, but the line to check out did not move! We were home by 6:30. Grandma Judy and I then headed out to the mall for a couple of hours. We got some good deals before heading home.

Black Friday is one of my most favorite days of the year. Although I was only out for about 6 hours this year, I still had fun. Usually it is a long day - a 15+ hour day of shopping so this was definitely a change for me!

Once we got home, Grandpa Jerry, Collin and Tyler went out front to put lights on the house! It looks like Christmas exploded outside! We are definitely in the running for the most lights out front! I'll have to get a picture and post it later!

The rest of the weekend was spent watching lots of football! It was a good weekend with family! We are thankful to have family to spend this time with!

Grandpa Jerry, Mongo and Chloe

Great Grandpa Elton watching Football!

Sore Bottom

The day before Thanksgiving, Tyler woke up from his nap with a horrible diaper rash. He refused to sit or walk and didn't want to be held because it hurt. I called the pediatrician and they suggested an over-the-counter cream I should try. In the meantime, he was miserable. Baby Signing Time videos always bring a smile to his face and that's all he wanted. He couldn't sit and looked so miserably standing there watching, so I put him on the kitchen counter with a pillow so he could lay on his stomach and watch. He is soooo cute!

By the time Collin had gotten home from picking up his grandpa, Elton, from Camarillo, Tyler was feeling much better. We decided to make some bread for Tyler since he has to have his gluten free bread. Tyler loved helping and watching the bread machine make his special bread!

Greeting Great Grandpa Elton

Checking on the bread

I love this!

 

 

20 Month Update

Can you believe it? Tyler is already 20 months old. It almost seems like yesterday when he was so tiny, sitting in my arms. Now he is on the move and exploring everything. He has become such a big boy. Here are some of my favorite new Tyler things.

- He tries to say big words like lemonade, animals, medicine, unanimous (thanks Sesame Street). I'll try to get these on video soon because they are so cute.

- He covers his mouth when he or someone else burps and says "excuse me" in the cutest little voice.

- He LOVES cars and takes them to bed almost every night now. He even knows when he hears a horn that it is the car and runs see them or talk about them. He is aware of everything around him now. He also still loves his Cozy Coupe!

- He is REALLY into cooking. We now pull out the stool and let him "help" at the counter. He also mimics cooking with his own pot. Many times we have to put pieces of dinner into his pot and then he "cook, cook, cook" as he shakes the pot before he will take a bite. He is also learning to sit at the table (or sometimes lean on the table or stand on the chair) at meal times.

 When Grandma came for a visit she put him at the table for his breakfast and dessert. He was VERY good for her. He also likes to sit at the table (with Grandma's help) and eat from the "big boy chair."

Oh my goodness, he looks like such a BIG boy!

Yum, yum!

He will only do this for Grandma of course!

- He asks to watch Baby Signing Time almost every day. It keeps his attention and he can sign so many words. Every day he shows me new words. Here are the ones I can think of off the top of my head (and yes, he does use these often) horse, eat, more, cow, water, baby, car, dog (his favorite right now), please, thank you, apple, flower, bear, outside, fish, boat, cat, milk, again, stop, tree. I know there are many more but it is early and my brain is not functioning. 

- He knows how old he is "one" with one little finger up!

-He still loves reading books. A favorite right now is "Oh, David" by David Shannon. We read this a couple of times a day. He can tell me what each page says. It is so fun as he acts out the different situations.

- He tells me when he has a dirty diaper by pinching his nose. I think someone is almost ready for potty training! He also sits on his own potty any time someone uses the downstairs bathroom (since that is where his potty is) and then tells us that he went potty.

- His vocabulary is EXPLODING. He has so many words - some of my favorite words to hear him say because of the way he says them: oh geez, oh nuts, up (uppa), sorry, car, gobble gobble, juice, apple, excuse me, please, book, mom, dad, Mongo (Mo), lemonade, go, outside, dog, cook cook cook, sausage. Like I said, he has a TON of other words, but these are my favorites.

- He is really into Sesame Street. When he wakes up he asks for Elmo. We turn it on and cuddle in our big bed. He lays on the pillow or on his tummy and drinks his milk and watches Elmo. He is really getting into the different characters (Elmo, Big Bird, Ernie, Zoe, Cookie Monster) and loves to "act" out the different parts of the show (like dancing, counting, and singing). Other than Baby Signing Time and Sesame Street, he could care less about TV.

Every day there is something new. This is such an exciting time. It is fun to be able to ask him questions and have him respond. Last night on our nightly walk he walked half of the 30 minutes before he began to slow down. He has so much energy and is so funny. He loves to be silly with us, too! He enjoys cuddling, giving kisses and the BEST hugs, along with playing by himself. He is inventive in his play already which is exciting to watch. I really just love spending my time with him. I'm so fortunate that I get to spend this time with him too. Thanks to my wonderful husband for helping me do this!!!

Halloween

This year for Halloween we decided that Tyler would be a dog. It is the first animal sound he learned to say and he loves them more than anything. We figured that it was appropriate that he was a dog. We found an adorable costume at Gymboree (the clothing store) and he LOVED it. I did do a couple of trial runs with him in the costume and it worked perfectly. He was very happy in his costume, until Mongo bit the tail and took him down.

Since we had just gotten home from Hawaii late the evening before we had a pretty relaxing morning. Collin's parents came for a short visit and then after having lunch out and visiting Toys 'R Us. By this point, it was time for us to pick up our costume and head over to our friend's house, the Perrys. They had a delicious dinner of oozing rat (cheese-filled meatloaf), rotten mashed potatoes and carrots waiting for us.

We then headed out for some trick-or-treating. As I suspected, Tyler wouldn't wear the head part of his costume. I was able to keep the rest of it on him though! Yeah for that! We visited a couple of houses before he got the hang of it. Since he didn't really have a nap that day, I was impressed he was in such a good mood. We had to carry him from house to house, but once he saw a front door, he ran saying "fast, fast, fast" and then couldn't wait to knock and ask for "more, more, more" candy. He thought it was great fun!

Minnie, Puppy, Gnome

The Moms

Ashlea, Keaton, Tyler, Erin, Kim and Emma

Tyler, Erin, Kim and Emma

The Family

We wandered through our old neighborhood and then headed home to visit a few more of our new neighbors. It was a fun Halloween. I can only imagine what it will be like next year when he REALLY understands! We'll be going "fast, fast, fast" for sure!

Hugs!

Too much fun

The puppy and his Daddy

Buddies