To Tyler, at One Year Old

Ohmigoodness Tyler!  Your first year has gone by so quickly!  It has been an absolute joy to watch you grow and learn every day.  People tell me all the time how sweet you are and what an easy baby you are, which I already know, and I know how lucky I am!

You saved the last few weeks of your first year for several milestones!  When I laid you down for a diaper change before leaving for Florida you pointed to the bird figure Baba gives you to entertain yourself with and  you clearly said, "bird," very matter-of-factly, asking me for it.  Early the next week you went from crawling in the middle of the floor at the hotel, to suddenly standing, without anything nearby to pull up on.  The next day you took your first three consecutive steps, which Timmy verified to Daddy, and moments later you did it again, just so Daddy could see, I think.  Timmy exclaimed, "Tyler! I'm so proud of you!" We all were!  Timmy enjoyed helping you practice when we got back home. By your birthday party you were up to regularly going around 12 steps.

You are a lot like me, you have my eyes; you are an observer, a people watcher, you are kind of serious.

You seriously enjoy a good laugh too.  Daddy and Timmy love to make you laugh.  Daddy throws you up in the air and teases you about sucking your thumb and is constantly teaching you new things, like to blow kisses.  He adores you, and you reward him with lots of sweet smiles and giggles.  Timmy makes silly faces at you, uses silly voices, and plays peek-a-boo with you.  He is usually pretty good about sharing toys with you, and I know he can't wait until you can really play together.  He tells you how proud he is of you every time you do something new.

You are a momma's boy though.  You are at the stage where you want me over anyone else.  Period.  I secretly love this. It is nice to know, without a doubt, that I am your favorite person in the World, even though I know I won't be for long.  Daddy will slowly become more and more important to you, which I will also love to see, and then other people will take up more space in your World too.  But for now, I will happily keep sacrificing my ability to accomplish simple tasks in a timely manor and countless hours of sleep, because you reward me by making me your favorite!

You still like to put whatever you happen to find on the floor directly into your mouth.  If you see that we are watching you, you will hold out whatever treasure you've found and squawk at us.  If we say, "Thank you Tyler," you let us take it from you.  If we say "I see" or something else, you get a big smile because you get to keep it.  Frequently, you refuse to put actual food that we are offering you into your mouth though!  You have a fondness for teething on the tops of the end tables.

You are trouble.  You never miss an opportunity to get through an open gate, attempt to climb unguarded stairs, or squeeze into corners that aren't meant for babies.

You are a cuddler.  When you start to get tired you will come over and nuzzle the top of your head into our necks.  It is a wonderful feeling.  You still prefer to be put down in your bed to go to sleep though.  If we are holding you, you are too busy watching everything to fall asleep, most of the time.

You still don't sleep through the night for me.  The week before your birthday you suddenly cut back to one bottle a night, instead of the typical two.  It was a nice change, but short lived, as you got sick right after your birthday, and you had a horrible fever several nights in a row.  I am hopeful for when you are feeling like yourself again, that you are going to help me out.

When I come in to get you in the morning and you give me your first sweet smile of the day, and again at night when you are drowsing off in my arms before I place you in your bed, as well as all throughout the day, I am regularly overwhelmed by how much I love you.  The day you were born my heart doubled in size for the second time.  I am so thankful to have you in our lives!

Meeting Disney Characters

As I mentioned, Timmy has always been wary of any kind of mascot.  His first glimpse of one, while waiting to meet one of Tim and Tim Senior's heroes, a former baseball player, we suddenly saw this face and when following his gaze saw "Uncle Slam" the Potomac Nationals Minor League Mascot!

Timmy had not really warned up to them since, always shying away from Chuck E. Cheese, even though he loves it there.  He also would decline taking pictures with similar characters at Cox Farm and at the T Ball Kick off Parade he did not want to meet the giant dog that was walking around advertising for someone.  We had felt better about our chances after he enjoyed Disney on Ice, but he was making it clear to us from the moment we told him we were going to Disney World that he wasn't thrilled about it, "I already saw allthebodies at Disney on Ice, I don't need to go to Disney World!"  Luckily, he warmed up pretty fast once we got there!

After pretty much hiding from Mickey and Minnie, we didn't see any other characters the first day.

In the morning at Epcot we found Chip and Dale, who were really fun to meet.  While one was signing the autograph book, the other would steal Timmy's hat or dance around.  Timmy didn't really know what to think of them, but was convinced to give them hugs.

The next day at MGM we found Lighting McQueen and Mater just hanging out.  When Timmy reached over to touch lightning's hood, it definitely elicited one of the biggest smiles of the week!

Our next trip to MGM we were lucky enough to find Donald and Piglet hanging out in front of the big hat.  Timmy didn't even have to be encouraged, he waited happily while Donald signed his book, then snuggled right up next to him for a picture and turned and gave him a hug, all on his own!

Piglet got the same reaction!  After meeting Piglet went so well, I told Timmy, "Guess what Piglet asked me? He asked if we want to have breakfast with him and his friends tomorrow!"  Timmy got a big smile and agreed that would be fun.

Next we waited in line for a bit to meet Buzz and Woody, which was definitely worth it!  They had awesome photo ops of scenes from the movie, which were included in my first Disney post, that Timmy had a lot of fun with.  And meeting Buzz and Woody themselves was great!  They took turns signing and interacting with Timmy too, and he ran up to each of them for hugs.  Tyler seemed to be trying to warn Timmy about the giant cowboy he was standing next to though, right before crawling in the opposite direction!

"Magic" Mickey was our first autograph on the next day, and he got a much warmer reception this time around.

Then we got to meet Pooh in front of his house.

And later we stood in line to meet Frozone and Mr. Incredible.  Timmy actually repeatedly told us while waiting in their line that he did not want to meet them or take a picture with them, that he wanted someone else to get their autographs.  We told him that we weren't allowed to do that and he had to do it himself.  When it was his turn he ended up walking right up to them and did hug them both.  They ended up being some of his favorites.

Tyler interacted with Mr. Incredible for a few moments too, even honking his nose, I'm guessing even though he was a very strange looking human, Tyler could understand what he was supposed to be better then some others!

That same day Timmy was very excited to meet Jake

and Handy Manny.

Our last character meeting of the day was Mike and Sulley.  When we first went past their spot they were busy at the parade.  Later in the day Timmy was enjoying the Honey, I Shrunk the Kids playground and needed a potty break.  When he wanted to go back to play, I bribed him, saying he had to meet Mike and Sulley first!  He laughed and said no a few times before finally agreeing.  I'm so glad I pushed that one, we ended up being the first in line from them returning from their potty break, and Sulley sort of came up while Tyler's head was turned and he was seated on the floor.  I actually came over to pick Tyler up, but Sulley motioned for me to leave him, and he squatted down and slowly reached out to him.  Tyler was startled, but ended up patting his hand and looking at him a bit before crawling away.

Timmy ended up happily giving Sulley a hug after that, and Sulley gave him a bit of a push to hug Mike too!  They ended up being his other favorites to meet!

The next morning we had breakfast with Pooh, Eeyore, Piglet, and Tigger.  Pooh got another warm hello.

Eeyore came up from behind Tyler and motioned towards him and moved his hand in front of his eye like he was crying, asking me if it was okay to approach the baby.  I was impressed.  I told him to give it a try, but Tyler wasn't really interested in getting too close, he did wave to him though.  Timmy gave Eeyore a good nuzzle.

Piglet, after getting his hugs from Timmy, had better luck with Tyler.  Tyler checked him out and even let me move his hand up to tug Piglet's ear, Timmy decided to try that too.

We had to wait a while for Tigger, he was very popular and also led a bouncing line around the restaurant before making his way to our table.  Timmy was very excited to show him that he was wearing a Tigger shirt.

Our last character experience for this trip was a whirlwind of saying hello to Mickey, Pluto, Minnie, Donald, and Goofy, one after another!  Mickey finally earned a little of Tyler's trust this time around!

Timmy had obviously been looking forward to meeting Pluto, and Pluto was visibly excited to see Timmy's hat! He wagged his tail and patted his head and Timmy's head.  He offered to sign Timmy's hat, but Timmy only wanted him to autograph the book.  When it was picture time Pluto had Timmy pose with him, holding out their ears!  Pluto's autograph includes a paw print for his o, Timmy loves this.

Tyler even gave Pluto a pat!

Minnie got a much warmer welcome from both boys this time around.  Timmy gave her a kiss on the cheek and Tyler honked her nose.  While we were waiting our turn to meet Donald, Minnie came back up to Timmy and offered him a sticker, it happened to be of Pluto, every time Timmy shows off his autograph book he points out that sticker and says, "Minnie gave this to me."

Donald was fun, he tried to get Timmy to dance with him, shaking their tail feathers, but Timmy just giggled while Donald did it.  Donald did convince Tyler to check out his bill.

Goofy was really good, he had Timmy sit on his knee while he tried to get Tyler to be happy sitting on his lap as well.  Timmy was perfectly content to just sit there for a while!

While planning we obviously weren't sure how much a part of our trip getting autograph's would be.  I'm really glad that Timmy decided he liked the characters because it certainly gave us some great memories, and great pictures to help him keep the memories fresh too!  I put the pictures into his autograph book the first day back and he took it around to all the grandparents to show them and took it for show and tell at school as well.  He told me, "All the kids want to go to Disney World now, I hope they tell their mommies and they go soon."

Walt Disney World

(At what point does a post need a disclaimer in the beginning? I'm assuming one post that covers a busy, fun filled, photo-op crazy, week does! Not only is there a novel here, 70 pictures made my "short list" for this post, down from 452 favorite pictures!  You have been warned!)

We took a wonderful vacation to Walt Disney World last week and had an absolute blast.  We drove down in our car, along with my parents, so it was quite packed!  Leaving about 7 pm, Tim drove the whole way and with only two stops that were well timed for Tyler and refueling, we arrived in just 12 hours!  We were able to check right into our hotel, which Elena and Al hooked us up with through their timeshare, and everyone went to sleep for the morning.  When we got moving we had a little pool time and continued talking about our plan for the week, which suddenly evolved into getting season passes, and heading to the Magic Kingdom immediately!

Timmy has always been wary of mascots/Chuck E. Cheese/etc. and had made a deal with us the week before the trip that he was "excited for all the rides, but didn't want to meet the characters." We told him that was fine, but as we walked into the park he said, "I just want to meet Mickey Mouse." So that was the first thing we did!  While we were still waiting our turn, when he caught his first glimpse of them, he told me, "Well, they're real, but they aren't, reeeaaalll..." I'm not sure what exactly he was expecting but you can see his first visit with Mickey he was still a bit wary, practically hiding behind me!

At Disney, every time you come out of a show or off a ride, you are sent through a store.  Coming out of meeting Mickey, Timmy saw this Pluto hat and asked for it.  Tim and I were a little nervous, we had been in the park for 10 minutes and already bought the autograph book, it was shaping up to be an expensive week!  But Timmy put the hat on and wore it all day every day of the week, so it was a great purchase!  He actually did wonderfully, never asking for any of the snacks, candy, or ice cream we saw, and he didn't ask for any other souvenirs until probably day five, when we convinced him to add them to his birthday wish list, since it's coming up.  We did buy him plenty of fun things, but we definitely appreciated that he didn't ask for everything he saw!

Our next stop was riding the people mover while waiting for our fast pass ticket onto the Buzz Light Year ride.  Timmy was hooked from there.  There were very few things that he didn't ride.  Timmy was happy and patient and enthusiastic all week, it was wonderful.

Tyler was a trooper too, he spent the week mostly in the stroller or stuffed into a baby carrier (which I was immensely grateful that I brought, even though my back was not so happy half way through the week!)  He did fuss from time to time when he was put into the stroller but for the most part he just looked around happily or would doze off.  Both boys were able to nap in the stroller, so we never had to go back to the room for a rest.

Tyler took a couple steps at home right before we left for our trip, but he took his real first steps at the hotel and at the parks with several rounds of 3 steps.  Timmy saw the first steps as well and exclaimed, "Tyler! I'm so proud of you!"  I was also excited to see how interested Tyler was in everything going on around him at the parks, the rides and the shows held his attention and he would point interesting things out to us.  

Going with my parents was wonderful, just like the beach last year, it was great to share the trip with them, and to have the help with the boys.  Mom and Dad would take the boys and wander through stores or to benches while Tim and I raced off to do things like the Tower of Terror and any roller coasters.

Check out the bottom left picture, that's me hiding from the dinosaurs!

We also split up for lunch most days so we could have our economical picnics while they had fancy lunches!  But we enjoyed going through the parks, meeting the characters, and dinners together.  On the 24th we splurged with dinner at the Brown Derby in celebration of Mom and Dad's 41st Anniversary!

Tyler is there too, asleep in the stroller!

It was the perfect time of year to go Disney World, the crowds were low and the weather was beautiful.  We had great timing for everything along the way too, ride lines were short, we walked into most shows right before the started, and regularly came up on good parade watching spots right on time.  We rode everything at least once and saw all but one or two shows!  We went to all four parks at least once, plus spending one afternoon at Typhoon Lagoon.  Here are a few favorite pictures from each park:

Magic Kingdom

Epcot

MGM Hollywood Studios

Animal Kingdom

Typhoon Lagoon

Timmy even got excited about the camera this trip.  He asked to take some pictures, and he requested his picture being taken a few times too!

A bonus on this trip was meeting up for dinner with Alex and Shana one evening!  It had been three years since we had seen them so it was extra nice to catch up!  Shana took over Tyler duty at the restaurant too, which was very much appreciated!  I'm so thankful that they took their evening to drive down and see us!

Our last day was spent at Epcot, and my Uncle Larry, cousins Marcie and Emilie, and their friends Bobby and Val met us there.  Alex was actually there for a work event as well so he joined up with us that afternoon too.  We had done most of the rides our first day there, so we spent a leisurely afternoon mostly walking through the "countries" and chatting.  It was great!

That last day, Tim, the boys, and I ran back to the Magic Kingdom to get Tyler his first hair cut!  He was easy, as always! I can't believe how much older it made him look!

I still can not get over how wonderful both boys were all week.  Timmy resisted the early wake ups a few mornings, but a dip in the jacuzzi tub was enough to get him going.  I have always known I have been blessed with easy children, but witnessing other kids meltdowns around us, and really just having a blast with our own children, left Tim and I discussing multiple evenings how wonderful our kids really are!