The baby turned 1 and I haven't even had time to document it.

The baby turned 1 in January and it is clear that he is totally mobile now.  I haven't had time to sit down and type up anything about him.
The party was small, but successful.  The main event was the smash cake, of course.
Since this baby enjoys food so much, I knew our friends and family were gonna get a good show.  And the Meat didn't let us down, he practically polished off the whole cake.  It was awesome, amazing and almost sickening at the same time.

The past year has flown by and we've pretty much settled into a good daily routine.
Tyce has mastered walking and now working on running and climbing.  He can climb up the two-stair watermelon stool in the kitchen and the couch in the playroom.
He wakes up every morning anytime between 4:30 and 6:30 (obviously I prefer the latter).  Usually the first thing out of his mouth is, "Whrrraderr", which is baby for Ryder.  It's for sure the clearest and most used word in his vocabulary.  He also says, "Cat." and attempts to say "ooottsie" (Bootsie), which is the cat's real name.  "Hat" is the other clear word, but you can definitely distinguish between the two.  Most everything else is baby jabber, but he is pretty successful in getting his point across.
I would say his favorite thing to do is anything that his big brother is doing.  They have actually started playing together.  It's so amazingly cute and it melts my heart every single time.  His second favorite thing to do is eat and he is usually toting a cookie and/or his milk around with him.
As more words are spoken I'm hoping I have time to get on here and write it all down, but for now I can't waste anymore of this precious nap time on the computer.
Except to add a bunch of pics......

Oh yeah,
And....
I got a new camera for Christmas!!!!!
Best gift ever!
But that's a whole 'nother blog for another nap time.

Major Milestone

I believe I've said before that if given the opportunity The Meat would win a speed crawling contest.  The boy is fast and only getting faster.

But..... 

we may cross over to an upright position before he reaches top crawl speeds of 88 miles per hour. 

This week he's been standing...

On his own...

For almost whole minutes at a time.

He's 9 and a half months, so think it's safe to say he will be walking before his first birthday. 

 

  SO BIG.

 

We say, "How big is Tyce? (pause) Soooo Biggg!"  

He raises his arms above his head to show us just how big he is.  

We used to do the same thing with Ryder when he was a little tike.

It is one of the absolute cutest things of all time.  

What's even cuter is when his big brother says it out of the blue while he's using the playroom couch for leverage. Right on cue, he just raises 'em up.

  Just like that he's standing!  

On his own!

 The look of surprise on Ryder's face is priceless....it says it all.

from the dropbox

Half of October is already gone..
I can't believe how fast things are moving.
While I know I'll have a post after Halloween, I didn't want the whole month to pass without one word or picture documented.
Time is not on my side so this one will be short and sweet.   I've already had to get up 4 times to get Tyce.  He's getting faster and more curious every day.  He's so fun, but now I have to reserve his nap time to get regular house things finished.
Kindergarten has been great so far.  Ryder's learning to read and problem solve very quickly.  His teacher is great and I've already been to two SAC (student advisory council) meetings.
Alrighty,  I just put the baby down for nap #2, so let me move on the the pictures from the dropbox so I can get a quick summary in with each one.

Here's the Meat helping me with the laundry.  He loves the laundry room.  Whether his trying to eat the dog food or get into the washer, the laundry room has all sorts of fun things for a baby on the crawl.

Emily had her 6th birthday party at Monkey Bizness and both kids had a great time.  What kid doesn't love crawling all over a huge jungle gym?

Ryder had his first season of T ball (fall ball).  He looked so cute in his little baseball pants and cleats. All the kids seemed to get better and it was very comical for the parents too.  Now that we've got all the basics down next season should be more "game filled."

Ryder's best friend from VPK, Charlie invited us to his 6th birthday.  We were so thrilled to get this invite!  These guys are like two peas in a pod and since they don't go to the same school anymore they don't get to see each other.  It was awesome to see them play and interact like two long lost buds.  We have plans to do more fun stuff with Charlie and his family. 

 

Tyce likes to "share" things with the dog.  It's so totally gross, but definitely worth documenting for future laughter.

 We took Devin and MomMom for their 1st ever SeaWorld visit and had a wonderful time.  I don't think I will ever get over the amazement and awe I feel seeing all the magnificent animals.  And I love when that joy can be passed to an 'unexpecting' observer.

Let 'em cry it out...

I've been trying to find time to get on here and give an update..but Tyce is on the move.
At 7 months he has completely mastered the crawl.  He could probably win the gold in a baby crawl race.  He's also pulling up on EVERYTHING.  The coffee table, the couch, the bar stools, the cabinet pulls, the kid chairs, the shelves....everything.
It's quite cute.  Once he pulls up he looks for the nod of approval then proceeds to bang out a mock drum solo on whatever surface is available.  I suspect that he will be an early walker.

Tyce loves his big brother.  He goes bananas just at the sight of him.  If you happen to be holding him, he gets all slap happy and beats you up during the crack up.   Ryder is assuming the roll and becoming more and more helpful.  He's able to keep an eye on him for a few minutes at a time, so I've actually been able to pee alone.  It's great.

The big, big news to share is that Tyce is sleeping through the night.  Yes, you heard right...sleeping all the way through the night!
About a month ago, he began regressing in the sleep department.  He went from waking every 3-4 hours to waking every 1-2 hours.  It was completely exhausting.  I thought I was going to loose my mind.  I mean, I hadn't really slept a solid night through in a year.  When he was in my belly I had to wake up to pee or just change positions.  At 6 months old, I thought I would at least be able to see the light at the end of the tunnel.  Instead he was waking up more.  Insanity.
I knew the waking was just out of habit and comfort.  There were a few exceptions, but mostly once I went in there and picked him up, he was back asleep with in 5 minutes.  He didn't even always take a bottle.  I was at a loss, I had tried the "cry it out" method with Ryder and couldn't do it.  I couldn't even last 15 minutes.  The screaming killed me and I felt like a horrible mom.  But...Ryder also was progressing to longer and longer stints of sleep on his own, so it wasn't a necessity.
This time something HAD to be done...immediately.
So, one night I just said, to heck with this, I'm gonna let him cry.
And cry he did.
Did I say cry?  I meant scream.  Screams like I've never heard.  Luckily, I have a video monitor so I was able to see that no one was actually in there ripping his arms off like the sounds alluded.  One hour...one hour is how long the first episode lasted.  Utter torture.  About 3 hours later, it started up again.  It literally took every thing in my power not to go in his room and pick him up.  45 minutes was the second episode.  About 2 hours later it started up again....another 40 minutes. By this point you can imagine, I was sitting on the floor clutching my knees and rocking back and forth like a loon.  Finally, it was 7 am and he woke up and I rushed in to get him.  I thought he would start screaming in my face, ya know, because he was mad that I left him in there all night.  Nope. All smiles.  Hmmmm?
Nap times were usually the same routine as night.  I would rock him with a bottle, then when he fell asleep I would put him in the crib.  Sometimes he would wake back up and I would pick him back up and rock him some more.  Since the episode at night, I thought lets just see what happens if I don't pick him up.  So I laid him down.  The crying started and I shut the door and sat on the couch.  8 minutes later he was asleep.  I couldn't believe it.   I did a mini jig.  This could work.
Night #2 was mostly like the first night.  More screaming, more of me feeling like the world's worst mom.  But in the morning, all smiles.
Night #3 only had 2 long crying episodes...
Night #4 he woke up 3 different times and only cried for about 10-15 minutes each time.
That's it, the end.  Now he sleeps all night long.  It's been about 3 weeks and we are still going strong.  A few nights in between, he woke up and whined for a few minutes but that was it.
We are still working on nap time, but making progress.
He takes three hour long naps a day and mostly at the same time give or take a half an hour.  In the beginning of this "training"  he would fall asleep in my arms and as soon as I laid him down, boom, awake. So, like the night, I put him in the crib and shut the door.  He would cry anywhere from 10-30 minutes.  Now, as soon as I see the signs of fatigue,  usually the eye rub, I give him a bottle and lay him down.  Sometimes he goes right down and sometimes he just kind of hangs out for 20 minutes or so then eventually just goes to sleep,  Occasionally he will cry for a while, but I just leave him to it.

It's totally crazy that this worked but it did.  And I can't believe that I made it through, but I did.  I think it was more out of desperation than anything.  I just needed the sleep. 
So, while I write this blog for a variety of different reasons, I really hope this helps at least one mom get some much need sleep.  Know that it totally pays off and your baby will not be mad at you or hold a grudge.  In fact, they may even be happier because of the great night sleep they had.
:)