Happy 1st Birthday!!!

As we celebrated your birthday a couple of days ago, I had the best time reminiscing of a year ago when you made your debut into our lives, and what a blessing it is to have you with us.

Ty, you are amazing. You are such a sweet and happy baby. Teething definitely gets you down and grumpy, but outside of that you are almost all smiles and contentedness. I don't know how I got so lucky!

Your siblings adore you. Grady, Allie and Ian ALL frequently talk about how cute you are and how much they love you. Sometimes their love and enthusiasm are less than comfortable for you as they try to carry you around, but you bear it well.

I've dropped the ball on posting your milestones (sorry about that), but you've been crawling for a few months now, you pull up on furniture and cruise, and on your birthday you had a couple of times where you let go and balanced for just a few seconds on your own before taking a seat.

So far you have 8 teeth. You got three on the bottom, then four on the top, then the bottom right tooth finally came in, making your smile more symmetrical.

You babble, mostly lots of mamamamamamamamamama. I'm hoping that leads to mama being your first word, but we'll see.

On your birthday you had your first dessert: carrot cake. Surprisingly, you didn't seem the least bit interested. I mean, everything goes in your mouth these days. Rocks, toys, dirt, everything. But not carrot cake??? Silly boy.

My goodness but I love you!!! You light up my world, Ty. Happy birthday, and thank you so much for being part of our family!

Happy 4 months, Ty!

Four months in our family! It's been a big month for you--rolling over both ways, and now you seem determined to crawl, pronto! I hope the crawling waits a bit, but you've started scooching your bum up in the air and trying to shove forward. Just stay in one place, little guy!!!  You smile and laugh a lot. I'm grateful for what a sweet, happy baby you are.

All's well from your checkup! Finally got an accurate measurement because we were able to see our usual doctor. You are 27 inches long (97th %) and 16.44 pounds (77th %). So you're eating and growing just great. You pretty much rock at being a baby!!!

Lately you like to make this bizarre expression. The helmet is courtesy of Allie.

I love you, Ty guy!!!

Rollin' rollin' rollin'. . .

As you might have guessed, this post is to commemorate you ROLLING!!!! After months of not really doing much by way of mobility, this seems like a huge and sudden step forward. A couple of weeks ago you rolled over from your back to your tummy, and have been doing that pretty regularly since then--especially when you're down for naps or bedtime. You roll right over on your tummy. . . and start crying because you HATE being on your tummy. Silly baby.

Today I saw you roll from your tummy to your back for the first time, so hopefully you'll be able to auto-correct when you accidentally end up on your tummy in your crib.

But you're an official roller now. And so it begins.

Happy three months, big boy!!

In some ways the last three months have flown by, and in others they've passed rather slowly. . . but at any rate, you are three months old already, and I can't believe it!

You've continued your pattern of perfection--you sleep through the night, which is a huge blessing for me, and you are almost always content if I just lay you on the floor on your play mat. You just couldn't be any easier for me to take care of! You stick to your schedule very well, and are very tolerant of your siblings' sometimes less than gentle displays of affection. I don't think you could ask for siblings who love you more than they do--Grady, Allie, and Ian all think the world of you, and just love showering you with hugs and kisses. You're a lucky boy, Ty!! And I'm a lucky mama to have such an amazing boy like you in my life!!!

2 months!

So Tyler, you have survived 2 months of being squished and kissed and getting no personal space from your adoring siblings. Hooray!

There was a mix-up with your check-up, so instead of our regular doctor you saw the same doctor from your 2 week check up.  The doctor is fine, but I'm concerned that his nurse is inept. She started to do the same bizarre "measuring" that she did last time, so I suggested that she at least lay the measuring tape under you so it would be straight. She attempted to comply, but still came out with a measurement of 22.34 inches (less than an inch longer than your birth length), or the 28th percentile. *sigh* So I measured you at home, and came up with 24.5 inches, which is the 90th percentile. So pretty much, you are somewhere between the 28th and 90th percentile. (I'm pretty sure my measurement is much more accurate!) :) You weighed in at just over 13 pounds, which is the 84th percentile. I almost regret that the weight is done on a digital scale. It would have been interesting to see what the nurse would have come up with if there was a manual aspect to it.

You are a sweet, sweet baby. Very mellow, which really is remarkable considering the intense adoration that surrounds you every waking moment. Last week you mostly started sleeping through the night from about 11 pm to 6 or 7 am. I was just getting used to it, when the last couple nights I don't feel like you have slept at all! I don't know what's happening, but hopefully you'll get back on track quickly.

You really doesn't do much of anything still. Tummy time seems futile currently as you've really quit trying, but we'll keep at it. I did notice a couple weeks ago, and confirmed at your checkup, that you have a bit of a belly button hernia. It's not nearly as bad as Allie's, and hers is nearly gone, so I'm not concerned at all. To me, you are perfect!

So, here are a few shots from the last month, my sweet baby:

Play mat fun time with Allie

Biggest to smallest

Thanks for the horns, Grady.

Love, love, love that smile!

This is a common state of being for you

You almost went swimming for the first time the other day. Got you all dressed and everything, but you fell asleep on the way to the pool, so you just stayed in your car seat the whole time.

Go Bucks!

Yep.

I wanted to get a picture of you today for an actual "2 month" shot. . . but you've been super cranky. Maybe from the shots, maybe from refusing to sleep last night. At any rate, no good opportunities for pictures yet. If I get a good one later today I'll add it. :)

Love you, Ty-ger!

Welcome to the world, Tyler Jacob!

Well hey there, Ty! Welcome to your blog. It is my hope and intent to keep track of stories and milestones from your life here, so that one day I can, with this blog, give you a reasonably comprehensive history of your life. I hope it is something that can help you understand who you are, and how loved and blessed you are. So let's jump right in.

You were born Wednesday, May 8th, 2013 at 4:03 pm. It was a rough delivery, but I'll spare you the details here. If you want to read more about it, check out the Team Good Looking blog. I had been so nervous about your delivery, and had feared that there would be complications; it was such a relief to finally have you here, safe in my arms.

And you were perfect.

I honestly couldn't have asked for a sweeter baby. I've felt that as each of my children were born--Grady was a really good baby, but I didn't realize you could have a better baby until Allie was born. SHE was a really good baby, but then I was blown away by how amazing Ian was! And now you've come and set the bar even higher. You are so calm, relaxed, and happy. You rarely cry, you eat well, you sleep well, and are quickly conforming to the feeding/sleeping schedule that I'm trying to get you on. I couldn't ask for anything more.

When you're awake you calmly look around, or sometimes you just gaze out the window. . . When you sleep, I sometimes get treated to some of the most beautiful smiles I think this world has ever seen. There's no doctrine to back me up, but I think you're seeing angels or having flashbacks to the premortal existance--I can't think of another explanation for the pure joy evident in your smiles.

At any rate, I'm so happy to have you here. I'm so glad you have joined our family. I can't wait to get to know you better, but I want you to know that I love you already, and I'll love you forever!!!