Busy Days

It never ceases to amaze me how quickly change can come in the life of a baby. These days it's coming fast and furious to Tyler James.
He's perfected his army crawl/drag and can scoot himself across a room in no time. He's quick to get up on his hands and knees now, too, and rock back and forth for a few minutes before dropping to his belly or sitting himself up. He's started pulling himself up to his knees recently and will use anything nearby to haul himself up: toys, chairs, me, tables and even dogs! Since some of these things aren't stationary or can't bear his weight he's had several tumbles, which scare him more than anything else. Sometimes he'll even stick out one leg like he's going to stand up but never does. Another little move he's doing now is leaning over and straightening his legs so his body is in a triangle and his body weight is on his hands. From this he plops over into a sitting position. He's really working on strengthening those little leg muscles!We've discovered some new games that he enjoys immensely. Whenever we're holding both him and Pup or sitting with them both in a chair he'll toss Pup on the floor then immediately reach to get him. We'll then hold him upside down and lower him to the floor while he giggles like crazy to pick up Pup. I swear he could do this for hours! He also loves to knock down blocks that Jim and I stack up. Be it 2 or 15, if he sees you building a tower he's heading your direction determined to knock every last block to the ground.

He's getting better and better about playing by himself too. However, with this new found independence comes fits of frustration if you try and take away a toy or remove him from a situation when he's not ready or even change his diaper. He'll flail his arms and legs and scream in protest. We've discovered the best way to deal with these tantrums is to distract him with a toy. They don't typically last long but that doesn't make them any less frustrating.

The past two days after waking up from a nap Tyler has taken out his pacifier and hurled it to the floor where it has stayed until the next nap or bedtime. This is definitely a new behavior as he usually will put it in his mouth whether he really needs it or not. As a result of this, the past two days have been filled with his babbling. He's not saying mama yet but he's trying. His version sounds like "bwabwa" but it's a start! We met my friend Katie and her new baby boy Joey at the Mall of America yesterday. Tyler was talking away in his stroller and a man stopped me to comment on how cute Tyler is and what a great personality he has. I couldn't agree more!