Toddler Language

Tyler is continuing to add a few words/sounds here and there to his repertoire, but I am now wondering at what point on need to correct him on a few items:

1. A bus does not have a siren. Tyler has a great siren sound for fire trucks and ambulances, but he has also taken to making that sound anytime he sees a bus. Hmmm...not sure why he thinks they have sirens, but I think I'll let it go for now.

2. Just because Daddy drives a pick-up truck does not mean that every truck is "Dada." I had the worst time this morning figuring out what my hysterical child was crying for when I put him in the car. We were waiting for J.C. to finish getting ready and Tyler was sitting in the car crying and saying "Dada" so naturally I told him Daddy was coming in a minute. When the crying persisted I took one more look at the backseat to make sure I wasn't missing something and sure enough, there was a Matchbox truck that had fallen on the floor. As soon as I picked it up the crying magically stopped. Similarly at nap time today, J.C. put him down for his nap and a little while later we heard Tyler babbling "Dada" in the crib. How cute, right? He misses his Daddy... Well the babbling turned to crying turned to screaming and when I went up there to check on him he was standing in his crib, crying hysterically (again), pointing to yet another toy truck that J.C. had left in plain view. Apparently he hadn't been saying "Dada" because he missed his Daddy, but because there was a truck (a.k.a. Dada) that he couldn't reach.

Hey, at least he is trying to label things, right? Let's see, he also says door, hisses at snakes he sees in books (and occasionally at a window well that a snake was temporarily stuck in a month ago), attempts to moo (but it sounds like mama), can say the word "hay" although it sounds more like AY!. You just never know what will pop out next!

We have also graduated from having to rest our head on every cat that we see in a book (he has to put his cheek up to the page every time we come across a picture of a cat) but now we also do that for any bunny rabbits we might come across while reading. Adorable, but sometimes cumbersome if the book is large.

We'll see what adventures this week brings!

Howling at the moon

As many of you know, Tyler has been going to speech therapy for several weeks now in the attempt to get him to a) start saying some words b) at least try to make some sounds that might sound like words! Well, I don't know how successful he is at adding to his vocabulary so far, but he has learned how to howl at the moon, sing "yeah, yeah, yeah" when sung "she loves me...", and say "Bubba." I will add that Bubba and yeah, yeah, yeah were taught to him by his grandparents while J.C. and I were out on a date on Friday night. Still, I guess howling and yeahs and bubbas are better than nothing! He is also quite talented at shaking his head no to any question asked of him. Still, how can you resist this face?

We have been lucky to have great weather so far this fall, so Tyler is still getting to enjoy lots of outside time. He enjoys driving his little truck or his Cozy Coupe, swinging, and playing in our sandbox the most.

As far as the rest of us, I am already 22 weeks pregnant, which doesn't seem possible. I am feeling pretty good, although I have learned the lesson to not make fun of your pregnant friends who had to pee all the time during their first pregnancy because it could happen to you during your second pregnancy! We had our ultrasound a few weeks ago and everything looked great. We decided to be surprised by the sex of this baby so everyone can start placing their bets! I have been begging J.C. to take a cute picture of my with my little pregnant belly, but that has not happened yet, so here is a not-so-cute picture that I managed to take myself just so that I had proof that I am really 5 1/2 months pregnant. This picture will be replaced by a cuter one at some point if I can ever get J.C. to pick up a camera.

As far as J.C. goes, he is doing well, but getting a bit of a big head from all the poster size pictures of him plastered around town introducing him as a new surgeon in the area. Someone help me if they ever put him on a billboard! Ha!

Midwesterners once again!

Well, we made it official today and have Illinois driver's licenses and license plates. I guess we aren't Southerners anymore! The move was an adventure as moves always are. I knew it was a bad idea to leave my wonderful husband in charge of things on the South Carolina end. He ended up with way too much to do in too little time so now we have been playing a fun game of Cherie trying to guess and/or discover which items did not make it to Illinois. Apparently J.C. overestimated how much he could fit in his pick-up truck so I am having fun replacing little things like laundry hampers and bigger things like a ladder and a weed wacker. I wonder what I will discover I am missing tomorrow!

J.C. had a blast driving 15 hours with our two cats. He was serenaded through the Smoky Mountains by cat hissing and growling. Then he got to spend a half an hour the next morning trying to get them to come out from under the hotel bed. I feel very lucky that Madison and Phoebe made it to Moline...I think Madison was almost left in a hotel room in Tennessee!

So after all of that fun, here we are and so far we love our new house! Tyler is having an absolute blast playing in our driveway and the backyard. It is such a big change from the tiny driveway we had at our townhouse in Greenville. The house is slowly getting unpacked, but J.C. and I did get the chance to get away for a few days and had a fabulous time in Denver. My favorite day was the one where J.C. went golfing (oops, it is bad that my favorite day on vacation with my husband was the day that I didn't spend with him? Merely a coincidence..as you will see why it was my favorite in a minute). I got to wake up late, get a pedicure followed by the best massage I have ever had, and then sat by the pool reading (and swimming) for a few hours in the afternoon. Ahhhhh...it was just what I needed after some stressful moving days!

We also spent some great time together, including a Cubs game, some hiking in Winter Park and dinner and a movie which were a nice treat. The only bad thing is that I completely forgot to take pictures, so that is why I have nothing to post! Big thanks to Grandma Carol and Grandma Linda for staying with Tyler. He gave them a run for their money by deciding to cut some molars while we were gone, but they claim that they still managed to have fun!

Check out our Smugmug page in the next week or so because we have some funny videos to post once we find all of our various cords.

Terrible Blogger

So I am apparently the worlds worst blogger. I can't believe I haven't posted anything in two months! The move is officially 2 weeks away so I may or may not remember to post much in the next several weeks, but we are definitely excited to get settled into the new house and the new job!

Tyler is keeping us on our toes these days. He is finally big enough to climb onto the furniture and likes to act like he is going to jump off, which would likely end in a nasty face plant. He has also discovered the joy of holding onto and pulling the cats' tails. Yes, this is a problem, especially when the cats are trying to run away from him and he reaches out for the closest part of them...yes, their tails!

Speaking of the cats, evidently they are still mad at us for leaving them at home for over a week (an accident!) while we were house hunting because one or both of them has decided to occasionally "miss" the litter box when going potty. It doesn't appear to happen often enough for me to think they have a bladder infection. I am pretty sure that they are just mad at us for their lot in life (which includes a toddler trying to constantly torture them).

I am going to get you caught up on the past two months via pictures:

In May we went to Hilton Head Island and Tyler loved playing in the sand at the beach!

Tyler is now big enough to beat up on his Daddy!

June brought the World Cup to our house and we love it!

Tyler loves swimming this summer and loves his new pool floatie. He especially enjoys "jumping" off the steps of our pool or off the side of the pool. We are looking forward to trying some swim lessons after we get settled in Moline.

Oops, I forgot to rotate this picture, but here is the cutie pie on 4th of July!

perceptive

Here is a great story from today. While I went on a child free shopping trip, J.C. took Tyler to the gym and went swimming with him. While they were there, two other younger children were swimming and Tyler was enthralled with watching them jump and splash around. I guess one of the games they were playing was to gather several of the kick boards that are up on the pool deck, toss them in the pool, and then try to jump into the pool onto them (as if they were targets). J.C. said that after watching them play for awhile Tyler was acting like he wanted to get out of the pool There are some stairs on one end of the pool, so J.C. took him up the steps. Once out of the pool, Tyler walked over to a kick board, picked it up and placed it in the pool next to the steps. Then he stepped down onto the first step and was just about to jump in towards the kick board when J.C. had to stop him since there were stairs right there that he could hit. I couldn't believe it. What a smart kid!

Since I have been so bad about posting pictures, here are some from our recent adventures in the truck and to the children's museum, in Greenville. There are more pictures up on Smugmug!

antibiotics, hives and all sorts of fun stuff

We have had a bit of a rough week in the Clark household. After returning from our house hunting trip (where we didn't find anything!), Tyler and I both ended up at the doctor on Monday. Tyler was diagnosed with a sinus infection and I was diagnosed with probable pneumonia in my right lung. Four days later, I am feeling better finally, but Tyler woke up with a fever this morning and was pretty miserable all day. Turns out his sinus infection is now an ear infection so we are on a new antibiotic for the next 10 days. Let's hope it helps our little guy feel better. I am not used to a child who cries all day long!

Tyler has also developed some type of allergy to Madison. He breaks out in hives most of the times that he touches her. In true Madison fashion, my wonderful kitty will not cooperate with me. For the past 15 months she has avoided Tyler at all cost. Now that he breaks out in hives, she walks up to him, rubs against him and allows him to tackle her. He loves it! Unfortunately he doesn't quite understand the cause and effect of tackling Madison=itchy hives. We are getting pretty close to needing to find a new home for my cat which, of course, is making me very sad.

Let's see, tooth count is at 16! He has all his cuspids and 1 year molars now. He is also starting to sport some bleach blond hair.

No words yet, still the strong, silent type.

That's our update! I'm looking forward to a relaxing weekend because we are BUSY over the next month!

Grunts & Signs

Tyler makes us laugh on a daily basis, mostly because of his many antics. His newest one is turing into "Mad Dog Clark" and grunting/yelling at J.C. Yes, J.C. came up with the nickname. Add it to Cash Money, T.C., and Tbone and our child has to have the most nicknames of all 14 month olds. Anyway, we have put together that when he grunts/yells at the top of his lungs at J.C. he seems to want to go play outside. Yesterday J.C. was sitting on the floor in our living room while I went up to take a quick nap and Tyler kept running around the couch and yelling, becoming so animated that he was up on his tippy toes and holding his arms out while turning bright red. Finally, he walked over to J.C., grabbed his finger, and led him towards the front door. Not very subtle!

He also likes to grunt when he is eating and wants more of something (Tyler that is, not J.C.). After many headaches induced by mealtime, we decided to teach Tyler some baby signs to assist in the communication process until he starts talking and telling us what he wants. The first word on my list to try was "more" which is signed by tapping the fingers on both hands together. After much repetition we are proud to say that our adorable little boy is signing "more." Whoo hoo! Dinner time was 50% more peaceful tonight so we'll hope that continues. Up next is "outside" although I am afraid that he will constantly sign it because he loves being outside so much!

I guess that concludes our update for this weekend. We had a blast at the Greenville Children's Museum this weekend, but my camera was out of batteries so we didn't get many photos.

Oh, and how could I forget. Tyler's tooth count is at 13 with #14, 15 & 16 pushing through the gum line as we speak. Yep, pretty soon all he'll have left are the two year molars (which at his rate will start coming in a couple of months!).

Travelling Man

Tyler and I just returned from a fun-filled weekend in Dunedin, FL. J.C. was at a conference, so Tyler and I decided that we had to go see where our friends the Hanffs live and hang out with his birthday buddy, Sophia. We had a ton of fun at the beach, the zoo, and playing around their house.

Oh, and in case it was ever in question, I am definitely raising a boy. He spent much of the trip either pushing high chairs around their living room or pushing a rocking horse around the play room. Everything is push and pull and lift. There is no time to stop and sit down for quiet play or books anymore, he is go - go - go!

Enjoy the pictures of our adventure!

Tyler's Easter Suit

JC decided that Tyler needed a full-fledged suit for Easter this year and here it is. The pants were a little big (ok 3 inches too big!) so I was frantically tacking them up 20 minutes before we had to leave for church and the shirt was a little small. We had to wait for him to fall asleep in the car on the way to brunch in order to get the tie on him. Then we put him down for a nap when we got home and worried that he was getting too hot in his 100% polyester stud muffin suit so we turned the fan in his room up to high!

And it begins...

Wow, my very first blog post. There is a lot of pressure to make this exciting so that people will find our blog amusing and visit it again! Actually, I decided I needed to start a blog today when Tyler yet again did something that made me laugh and shake my head at the same time and I decided that I really need to write this stuff down! So here is our latest gem of a story:

Tyler is a food thrower. If you have a child that throws food please call my husband so that he realizes that this is a normal behavior and that not every other child in the world sits and eats like an angel. I thought I was going to see J.C.'s head pop off this weekend when he was trying to feed Tyler lunch one day. While it would have been funny to see, I really need my husband to keep his head.

So anyway, today I was getting Tyler a snack and was determined that he would have some fresh fruit for a snack today because we didn't have the healthiest snacks over the weekend. He has enjoyed throwing strawberries this week, but I thought I'd try again. He was getting impatient with me while I was cutting them up, so I handed him a strawberry slice in the kitchen. He held it up, looked at it, and proceeded to drop it on the kitchen floor. Then he looked at it, stepped on it, picked it up and ate it. So I stood there thinking to myself "should I be disturbed that he just ate food that was 1. On the floor 2. Stepped on with his sweaty feet?" but I will admit I was secretly happy that he ate it. You know what? He didn't throw any more during snack time this morning. He left some in his bowl, but did not throw them on the floor in disgust, so maybe I just need to let him throw all of his food on the floor, step on it and then eat it!