Tyler at 17 Months

Tyler is almost a year and a half old now.  It's kind of funny, with Timmy I clung to his "month" with everything I had, I would not round up at all when people asked his age, if it was close to the next month, I'd say, "He'll be __ months on the 17th."  With Tyler, I've been thinking of him as "a year and a half old" for several months already!  He just seems like such a big boy.  I know it's because he has Timmy to watch, learn from, and copy.  Tyler started running in circles around the ottoman as soon as he could walk, because he saw Timmy do it.  Tyler also will sit and play with little toy figures, super heroes, scooby doo, what have you, because Timmy does it, all though Timmy just took an interest in these little figures in the last 6 months or so, as he's learned to really use his imagination.  Tyler is just tossing them around or trying to make them stand up, but he is content to play with them, not just try to eat them.  Tyler also "raced" a car around the ottoman repeatedly yesterday.  One thing he does that baby Timmy never did is give the car sound effects, Tyler makes the engine noises.

I couldn't help but make all of these comparisons this weekend, as Tyler was wearing one of my absolute favorite outfits of Timmy's while we watched Timmy's Blast Ball game Saturday morning.  I never know what to expect out of Tyler at the practices and games, sometimes he really wants to be playing too, but sometimes he is happy just to watch.  Before the game, Tyler wandered over and put a ball on the tee and hit it (okay, his bat bumped the tee and the ball fell off, but he knew what he was supposed to do.)  He stayed close to me for the rest of the game, clapping for Timmy after every one of his hits, happily playing with the real baseball he'd found,

(This picture came pretty close to capturing his mischievous expression, which I see A LOT!)

and mimicking "ready" position.

I can't believe what a big boy he is already!  He added a few new words this month, and he's grasped the use of "no" even better.  We've all been battling a stomach bug this week, and yesterday he was particularly cranky, so I was considering putting him down for an extra nap.  After changing Tyler's diaper I approached his crib like bed time, he started bouncing in my arms, shaking his head no, pointing towards his door and said, "No. Go! Go!" as he waved towards the stairs!  He is good about seeing what he wants and gesturing for it, but I'm looking forward to him figuring out words for when he wants to eat or drink especially.  When he gets fussy though you can play the guessing game with him, he shakes his head no while you ask him if he wants various things, and rewards you with a huge grin when you finally get to what he's after!  He also emulates the sound patterns we make all the time.  As I put him in the car seat or in clothes, I'll say "one arm" and he'll copy, "uh ahhm" and Grandad got him to copy sounds for Susan, Beau Beau (their dog) and Grandad yesterday.  Tyler also loves to sing.  He'll make up his own songs and babble away on his own, or if Timmy sings a song, Tyler will hum the same tune a moment later.  Words can't be too far away!