Nice Day for a Swing

Today we went to the park with out good friends, Heather and Tyler, and Leanne and Carter. I was excited because the park near Heather's house has swings and baby swings. For some reason none of the playgrounds in our neighborhood have swings! Jake has swung once before on mine and Stephen's laps, but he's never gotten to try it solo...I had a feeling he would love it.

mom, what is this thing?

these things are pretty cool

this is fun!

big smile!

he did really well keeping his balance

weeeeee!

there were only two baby swings so carter and tyler shared a swing

waving to the camera :)

We had so much fun at the park and it was a beautiful day! I wish we had swings closer to our house. I think we will be investing in a swingset for the backyard once springtime arrives.

Touchdown!

Well, the Cowboys game didn't end the way we would have liked, but something special still happened during the game today. Jake started doing the 'touchdown' sign! We have been working on a few signs over the past month, 'eat' 'all done,' etc...but I should have known that his first sign to us would be about football! We were watching the game and the Vikings scored, I looked at Jake and said "oh man Jake, they got a touchdown." All of a sudden up his arms went into touchdown. We couldn't believe it! We hadn't ever worked on that sign intentionally, however, at all of Stephen's games in the fall, I always held up his arms when the team scored a touchdown and we always made the sign when we watch games at home as well. I guess all those times finally added up in his mind. Of course we had him do it over and over again because it's the cutest thing in the world! Here is one of the pictures I got...he is holding his keys and burp cloth (teething time again!) but you can still tell exactly what he is doing! And we got it on video as well. He was so proud of himself!

Coach Daddy is very proud too!

Splish Splash I Was Taking a Bath!

By now you all know Jake LOVES bathtime! When we got his bigger bathtub last month, he loved kicking and splashing in it, well he has upgraded now to big arm splashes! It is pretty much like going to Seaworld and sitting in the 'shamu seats' because you know you are going to be wet when the show is over :) Here is our little man in action last night! You can see he is very proud of his big splashes!

happy boy at bathtime!

but splashing is serious business, got to put our 'think face' on

BIG splash

so proud of himself

and here he is in action...he would splash forever if we let him!

Playdate!

We had our first playdate of the new year this week, which us mommies always look forward to! I can't say enough what a blessing it has been to have our little playgroup come together...some mommies I have known for years and some are new friends, but I love having a group of Christian mommies to get together with and talk about our babies and the adventures of being new parents. Our babies are getting so big! We finally got a group shot of them (minus Tyler who was home sick) this time...I also posted a picture from mine and Jake's first playdate, when he was just 2 months old...you can see how big everyone has gotten!

l-r: carter, ava, brinley, and jake

and here they were 4 months ago

Carter and Jake were buddies, they were the only boys in the house!

carter is such a cutie!


ava and jake playing at the jumparoo, ava is getting very close to walking!

brinley lovin' on carter

ava and carter, she's telling him "it goes like this"

kristen and ava

leanne and carter

the crawling babies, ava and carter, decided to head to a quieter room :)

Strike a Pose!

Okay, I might be a litte guilty of playing dress up with Jake this week :) Not changing his outfit over and over each day, but having fun outfits a few days this week. So without further ado, we now present winter fashion at the Tyler house, 2010.

We call this our "gameday" collection. Little Jake is always ready to support his favorite teams!

HOOK EM HORNS! (well, they tried really hard anyways!)

GOOOOOO COWBOYS!

Note this is a Tony Romo edition jersey, Jake has worn it on gameday for the past 3 weeks, and the Cowboys have won all 3 games...Stephen now insists this is the reason why they won and Jake has to wear the jersey for the remaining playoff games :)

In this photograph, Jake is modeling teeth :) I finally got a shot where you can see his teeth! He has had them for a month now, but check out those bottom two pearly whites...they go well with any outfit.

And now for our outdoor collection:

CAMO MAN! Daddy also decided to contribute to the fashion show this week and bought Jake his first pair of boots! (he picked them out all by himself!) They are warm for the winter weather and velcro in the back for easy on/off! And of course we had to wear a camo sweatshirt to match!

Check out my boots!

A Few New Things and A Few Cute Things

We have had a busy couple of days...it took Jake about a week to recover from our many Christmases. He was off his routine and just not himself the whole week after. Jake and I both have been getting used to Stephen being back at work this week. It was so nice having him home for 2 weeks, Jake was looking all over for him on Monday when he went back.



Jake continues to grow and change so much from day to day. He thankfully has returned to the good sleeper we knew and loved, he can even find paci and put it in his mouth himself now, the only bad pattern that seems to be developing is he has started waking up between 6:30-7 in the morning, whereas before Christmas he was a solid 7:30-8 guy. It's hard getting up that early when I am so not a morning person! We are moving on to stage 2 baby foods, which means slightly thicker puree and more combinations of foods. He is still a good eater and has yet to totally reject a food. Jake has learned a few new "tricks" lately and seems to be working on one big one. I've got pictures of them below along with some that are just cute and need to be posted.

My bff, Auntie Seana, was out of town for Christmas. She came over to give Jake his presents and Jake loved them! New clothes, toys, and books! Jake looks so big in this picture to me...not like a baby at all.

Here is one of our new tricks: riding in the cart like a big boy. He wasn't too sure about it the first day we tried, but I tried again yesterday and he was a pro...swinging his feet and all the whole time.

Another new trick: the sippy cup. He can drink out of our glass really well, but each time we give him a sippy cup it takes him a few tries to remember what to do. It's really cute watching him try to get water and then he gets a big gulp and is surprised!


This one is just cute...he LOVES playing with Daddy's face

...they even have the same shaped head!

This is one of the new faces he makes, a new kind of big cheesy smile. He also does it and wrinkles up his nose and breathes in and out really loud...I have no idea where he learned how to do it, but it's too cute.

more cheesy-ness

just being cute...and yes, there is a big carrott stain on his shirt...I should have known better than to put a white shirt on him and try to feed him :)

Here is the big trick Jake is working on...crawling! He is SO close to putting all the pieces together. Over the past week his "pushups" have gotten so big that even his hips come off the ground. Then he starts rocking back and forth. If he can just learn to scoot his booty back, he'll be on all fours, and then we are in trooooouble! He can also lay on his stomach and get up on his knees, with his butt straight up in the air, but his face is flat on the ground. So he has both parts down, he just needs to put them together...not sure how long that will be :)

Here we are using a parent's 2 best tools in getting a baby to crawl...a cell phone and tv remote!

Yesterday, Jake actually got the remote and turned on the closed captions and we couldn't get them turned off!

His hips are all the way off the floor in this one

and here is a video of him showing his push up and rocking a little bit....or not because blogger won't let me upload, sorry!

6 Months Old!

Jake turned 6 months old on Christmas Eve. I waited a week to blog about it just because we had so much going on last week! We absolutely cannot believe our little guy is 6 months old, time has flown by. I can easily say that this past month has been the month with the most changes in Jake. He can do so many new things, it's like he is a brand new baby! Here is a short run-down of his latest accomplishments:
-sitting up, he has gotten so good at it!
-eating fruits and veggies
-down to 4 meals a day (breakfast, lunch, dinner, and bedtime)
-he has 2 bottom teeth...and it seems the top ones aren't far behind
-giving hugs and kisses, or at least his version. the best are his kisses! he grabs both sides of your face and pulls you close...to slime you :)
-he is now down to 2 naps a day! and his morning nap is at least 90 minutes...I am not missing those short naps at all!
-sitting in a high chair at restaurants...we haven't been to the grocery store to try a cart yet
-his motor control with his hands amazes us every day, he is so strong and can reach so far!
-he loves, loves, loves his feet and can even get his toes in his mouth!
-"talking" with us and saying what sounds like words to us (we know they aren't yet!) but "mom" and "hi" are his favorites. he talks all the time now!
-playing with bath toys in the bathtub


Here is a video montage of Jake, from his birthday until he turned 6 months old!

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.cm

Jacob, Mommy and Daddy love you so much. You are the best part of every day! We love seeing those beautiful eyes light up because you see our faces. There is no better feeling in the world than when you reach for us because you want us to hold you. There is no better sound than your laughter. Your hugs and kisses are already things we can't live without. You are growing so quickly now, we know the "baby moments" are passing very quickly and treasure each one of them. Happy 6 months birthday!

7 Days of Christmas-Day 7....FINALLY!

I love Christmas, it is my favorite time of year! And this year has been the best one yet because it was Jake's first. But, I must say after 7 days of go, go, go...I am a little glad our Christmas is done. Jake is one worn out little man! The past 3 nights he has gotten tired earlier, and earlier...to add to all the business, we think his top teeth might be starting to come in now. Today our plan was to celebrate Christmas with Stephen's mom and stepdad and family. We put Jake down for his afternoon nap...and halfway into it, the garbage men came and woke him up! We decided to get on the road to Stephen's mom's house in hopes that Jake would go back to sleep in the car...which he didn't! We knew the afternoon wouldn't go very well at that point. He was fussy from the minute we got there...wouldn't really eat his dinner and wanted nothing to do with opening presents. Jake normally likes to be out and about, but I think he just wanted to be at home today. We were supposed to all go out to eat after opening presents, but we decided the best thing for Jake was to be at home. Despite all of that, we did have a nice time. Jake got his big-boy carseat!

Here is Grandma and Grandpa playing with Jake

more pictures mom?

by stocking time, he was already fussy...


me and my beautiful niece, Julianna

my nephew, Spencer...ready for presents!

my sister in law, lori and nephew, max

my mom trying to entertain Jake while we all opened presents...poor grammy!

7 Days of Christmas-Day 6 Christmas Day!

We woke up to the best possible present this morning...a white Christmas in Texas! Not only did it snow, but it actually stuck...I was so excited! It made Jake's first Christmas absolutely perfect.

Here is Jake waking up on Christmas morning, he always wakes up in such a happy mood, but you could tell he was extra excited this morning :-)

Before Jake had breakfast, we took him outside for a picture in the snow. The next time we have a white Christmas in Texas, he could be 18!

Our Christmas morning breakfast was chocolate chip pancakes, bacon, and scrambled eggs!

This is the face of a very excited boy!

Jake didn't get to have pancakes this year, he ate oatmeal with pears

Our first Christmas morning with Jake

Jake and Grammy

Jake is ready to open his stocking

...of course everything goes in his mouth!

He got lots of cool things in his stocking: books, ornaments, a sippy cup, and Veggie Tales!

opening stockings and presents

Jake got tired of sitting and opening presents so he jumped while Stephen and I opened his gifts

Jake's first present from Santa: Sing-Along Stage...he loves it!

Here is a video of him playing with it later

We went over to Stephen's Dad's house for dinner and presents with Stephen's sister and step-sisters. Dinner was delicious! However, I didn't get a whole lot of pictures. We have been going for so many days now, that Jake is just worn out! He got fussy before we even started opening gifts. The even better part was that within 15 minutes of us getting there, Jake had his first ever diaper blowout! He had NEVER done that before, but of course it would happen in his cute little Christmas outfit, that I hadn't even gotten pictures of yet! I only got a few pictures before "the incident." Thankfully, his shirt managed to be the only thing that needed washing...so Jake spent most of the night in his pants and sweater vest, I will be reminding him of this for years to come! :-) Since he wasn't really dressed AND was fussy most of the night, I didn't even try for pictures. Oh well!

Here are the only pictures I got before "the incident"

Jake and Grandpa playing with his new toy

Jake really wanted Grandpa's glasses

Jake's stocking from Grandpa and Granna

One more Christmas left for us! And then maybe we can get our little guy some rest, it's been a long week!