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Year In Review Holiday Card

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What a Great Summer!

I have had such a wonderful summer! Of course it was always nice traveling around the country, but for the first time, I was HOME for an entire season :) Mommy & Daddy wanted me to experience as much as I could, now that I'm talking and sharing opinions and interests, lol We've been blueberry picking, to parks, museums, a Mommy & me group, visiting family & friends and playing in my own backyard!!! I have loved having a house with a playroom & a backyard (although when we traveled, the hotels did have elevators, and that was cool...)

My speech has improved tremendously, Mom & Dad are so proud! I LOVE my speech therapist Michelle - she says I'm her favorite, but don't tell the other kids ;) I'm now sayings tons of spontaneous words & 3-4 word sentences! Mom & Dad still need to translate quite a bit for other people, but it's getting much better.

At the end of May I spent my first weekend away without them. I was visiting Nana in Rhode Island, while Mom & Dad went to Cape Cod to spend time with their friends. It was a great experience, both Mom & I did really well, lol I loved having all that time with Nana, we went to the zoo, did arts & crafts, played with toys...

In June we spent a weekend in Cooperstown with Grandma & Grandpa because Grandpa was the President of the NYS Podiatric Medical Association. We had a great time! I got to ham it up with lots of Grandma & Grandpa's friends & Mom sang the Star Spangled Banner to open the house!

Daddy's birthday was on the 12th, which was a lot fun (for him & me, lol)! We had a really nice family day together and then Mom & Dad went to Amy's wedding (congrats to them!) and Nana came over to babysit. We also spent a week in Boston this month, (a business/vacation trip) and we visited the Boston Aquarium (I LOVED the penguins, I kept demonstrating "happy feet" to them) and then we saw Mike & Rachel's new apartment before heading onto Rhode Island for some more family visits. Katie also had her bridal shower in Massachusetts then, which Mom attended, not me, but I saw pictures ;) Father's Day we spent in New Jersey visiting Poppa Joey and our aunt, uncle and cousins. We also planted flowers, for the first time, and I am sooo happy to say that they are still alive & well :)

In July I spent time at Grandma & Grandpa's house swimming in their pool. It was really cold the first time, but Aunt Jenny was brave enough to come in with me - we had soo much fun! Also this month we took a short trip to Pearl River, NY to meet up with Aunt Lisa. We just hung out at the hotel & swam in the pool, it was great! Then the next day we went to Long Island for Braeden's 3rd birthday!! I had so much fun visiting with all of his friends and playing with his cool toys! I can't wait to go back and visit him again. He will have a new sister in October, I can't wait to meet her! Mom & Dad also did a little pre-pre-school visiting this month, which was very exciting (and emotional for Mom) lol I can't wait until I'm old enough to go! According to New York State, I have to be at least 2.9 yrs old... geez. Mom & Dad also celebrated their 7 year wedding anniversary on the 27th of July & I spent my first night at Grandma & Grandpa's house. It was so much fun. Grandpa DVRd hours of "toddler approved" shows so I would have my choice that night during TV & Os :) I also met Carter this month, who is the adorable son of Evan & Kristen. Mom & Evan have been friends for a long time and hadn't actually seen each other in about 12 years!! I hope to get up to Albany again soon to play again.

August we got central air!!!! It wasn't present I could unwrap, but the first day it was up & running, instead of saying "Taco, hot house" (yup, I still call myself Taco...) I said "cool house, yay" Mom & Dad said it was the best investment ever, I'll have to take their word on that. Oma had her 93rd birthday on the 6th of August. It's amazing that there's 90 years between us, lol Jen Jen & Nana also had their birthday this month (theirs is the same day!) just means more cake for me ;)

Mom's friend from college, Erica had her engagement party in August too. It was so great to see everyone again (I was only a couple weeks old the first time we met) & to meet her wonderful fiance. This month was also really exciting because our friends Katie & Joe were married!!!! Not only did they invite me to their wedding (and I got to dance with the bride!) but I was the ring bearer :-) I made a really nice friend named Addie who was the beautiful flower girl. We both did a great job walking down the isle and had so much fun dancing together all night... until we both were too tired and then I was passed off to Nana while Mom & Dad had some "adult time" with their friends, lol

I also met Dylan recently, he is the son of Michelle, my speech therapist. Dylan and I had so much fun! He is only 1 month older and he loves to play with the same things I do - CARS! :) Also in August, I went to the Ulster County Fair and enjoyed the rides for the first time and LOVED them. It was one of the most exciting moments of my life, lol The adults loved watching my excitement as I experienced all of them for the first time!

Carly, Dyan & Larry (long time family friends) came for a visit in August too, it was exciting showing them all of my toys! We also had our Rhode Island family visiting last weekend and this weekend our Jersey family is coming up! Then next weekend we have some of our friends coming for a visit. Whoa, have we packed it in?! It's going to be so much fun! We also had a trip down to Jersey last week and had the chance to see Poppa Joey as well!

Mommy & Daddy have been enjoying every minute of the summer with me. Mom's schedule is much less hectic then it used to be and I get to spend so much time every day with each of them - it's wonderful! ♥

Below are some recent photos of my adventures!

Rhode Island family visiting:
Joyce


Nick & Greg


Nana


Visiting Poppa Joey in New Jersey


Katie's Wedding!


the Dormans visiting


Playdate with Dylan!


Erica's engagement party


Playdate with Carter


Arts & Crafts with Mommy :)


Braeden's Birthday Party!!



In Pearl River w/ Aunt Lisa


Visiting cousins in New Jersey... beep, beep


Daddy's Birthday!



@ the Otesaga in Cooperstown
w/ Grandma & Grandpa


Swimming in Catskill with Aunt Jenny :)


Happy Birthday Jen Jen!!


Happy 93rd Birthday Oma!!!!


Ulster County Fair w/ Grandma & Grandpa



As you can see, it was an awesome summer! ♥

Potty Trained!

So my parents cannot believe it, I'm a big boy now! :) The weekend of May 22nd, Mom & Dad did nothing but potty train me! The first day, I won't lie, there were a bunch of accidents, running to the potty every 5 minutes (literally) but we took the tips from our family & friends and put potties in every room & didn't use pull ups, we went straight to big boy underwear! The next day - ZERO ACCIDENTS! Throughout the next week they wouldn't let me leave the house, I just hung out in my underwear and played with my toys... I had an occasional accident or two, but by the end of the week I was trained. Mommy knew I was all set when she came down from her studio to see me standing there in my underwear on backwards lol I was SO proud that I was able to do it all by myself :) I'm still wearing big boy diapers for sleeping just in case but most days I wake up dry!

So it's been 2.5 weeks in underwear now and I decided yesterday (on my own) to start peeing standing up!!! Dad seemed pretty shocked when I came out of the bathroom to tell him I peed and when he came in to congratulate me he noticed I kinda missed the potty, whoops! Hey, ya gotta learn somehow ;) unfortunately the toddler urinals (yup they make them) are on back order, everywhere! Apparently it's prime potty training time!

I've been making friends with our neighbors - but I'm surrounded by girls... Dad keeps telling me someday I'll appreciate it lol We haven't met everyone in our neighborhood yet, so I'm hoping there's a little boy who loves to play cars out there somewhere!

My speech therapy is going really well - my pathologist is SO impressed. She said I've made tremendous progress in the past 6 weeks. Tons of new words & I'm doing really well with 2-3 word combinations... I just love when she comes over to play :)

So here are some recent pictures from the past month, hope everyone's having a wonderful start to their summer!

It's been a LONG time!

Wow, it's been over a year since my last post! Good thing I have TONS more words now, so I can be even more eloquent in my entries :) Mom has been using her facebook page to blog all my exciting milestones, but this site is much better for her to look back in 16 yrs when I'm graduating High School omg, insert tears here, lol

So let's see, what have I been up to...

After our trip in March '09 (the last post) we continued bouncing around the country until our last long business trip in January. We're now settled down in a beautiful home in Marlboro, NY. Mom is still very busy recording and teaching voice-overs, but all from the comfort of her studio now! We miss parts of the "traveling life", of course, but not living out of a suitcase, is a very nice thing :)

Since my last post I am now speaking in 2-3 word sentences! Not all words can be understood by anyone other than Mom & Dad, but it's b/c I really want us to have our own special language ;) I've been making tremendous progress since December - I went from only a couple words to being able to say (and sign) tons of words. They've actually lost track of how many words I can say now. Mom & Dad are sooo happy. I also sing all the time now too - the alphabet, rain rain go away, ba ba blacksheep, wheels on the bus, you name it! I used to love to just listen but now I'm Mr. Chatty, they tell me it's a good thing.

Mom weaned me at 2 yrs 4 months... she was very happy that she could nurse me for that long, but it was time that I became a big boy! Don't get me wrong, I fought her on that one lol but eventually I just laughed and said "baby" in reference to nursing.

I've started speech therapy through EI, which will be happening once a week. I've only had 1 session so far but the therapist seems really nice - she has a high voice and is small framed, reminds me of Jen Jen, so I think we'll get along well! M&D thinks that now that the services have begun I'll really excel in language. I did rank well above average on my cognitive scores though ;) so I guess it's a trade off lol I also attend a "Parent/Toddler" class on Monday mornings to interact with other kids (and for M&D to meet other parents) and I have swimming classes on Saturday! Unfortunately the pool is sooo cold that M&D are worried it's actually turning me OFF swimming, which is something I really love.

We just got back from a week long business trip to Buffalo and then up to Vermont. We'll be returning to Vermont again soon I'm sure but that will be our last time to Buffalo, for business anyway! I had a great time in the indoor pool in Buffalo and a WONDERFUL time with Ben on his boat in Vermont. It was my first time on a boat and I LOVED it. I can't wait to go back again soon!!

Well, that's basically the update for now. Mommy promises to write in here much more often. Here are a few recent pictures, everyone says they can't believe how big I'm getting! I'll be 2 1/2 next month, wow! How quickly time goes by! Stay tuned for new Tyler stories...

Georgia

First of all, Mom wants to apologize for taking 4 months to finally update my blog. I'd been asking her daily, but she kept prioritizing other things - silly Mommy - so here you go, starting with Georgia and going all the way back to Chanukah (where she had left off). You can see the post titles in the right column if you want to jump to your favorites. She PROMISES to be better about updating in the future :)

Here are some pictures from our Georgia trip in March.

Mommy had a steak!!!! Her first red meat in 5 years. It was at Ruby Tuesday's (believe it or not) and they had the nutrition information and it was low fat - she was SO excited, as you can see here :)

visiting with cousin Sarah

and cousin Scott

We went to the zoo! I had been here back in September, but had even more fun this trip. You can't really see this picture unless you click on it to enlarge it - but I didn't quite understand that I was supposed to stick my head through the hole, I just thought it was hysterical to see Mom & Dad on the other side :)

there is a picture of me on this exact statue that was taken 6 months earlier!

I love playgrounds :)

Look at me go!!!! :)

I officially walked!!

For our "southern drive" trip we started out in Virginia Beach and it was very monumental! On March 23rd I decided it was time to get over my fears and start officially walking! I took my first steps on January 18th (at my great-grandfather Poppa Joey's 95th birthday party, which was also the day he actually turned 95!) I also turned 13 months on that day! Daddy put me down and I just started taking a few steps... For the past 2 months I would take little steps here and there but I was definitely still crawling 90% of the time ;) Then 2 months later I decided it was finally time! Mommy attached a video at the end of this post so you can see my fancy footwork! Here are some other pictures from Virginia Beach as well.

Back in September of 2008, our Virginia Beach trip was where I had "real food" for the first time - banana! Then to take my first steps there 6 months later, in the same place, was very exciting :) 

about to enjoy some yummy pancakes!

the view from our hotel room :)

swimming!!

I'm always so sad when I get out of the pool...

but then I get happy when I realize I can go back in again!