My First Week Back

I started a new job this past week so Daddy Day Care is open for business again. It was a pretty long week, trying to get up to speed, meeting new people, new office, etc. I think I did pretty well. My head wasn't spinning and on information overload by Wednesday. There are some people I know and acquaintances there so that makes the new job a little bit easier.

It wasn't that easy on Tyler. When I come home, he comes running to the door smiling, he won't let me in because he's hugging me. I've been getting home late so I have to eat dinner, give him a bath then it's off to bed with in the hour. So not much quality play time. Back to being a weekend mommie. I'm hoping the job will get better and I'll be able to leave at a decent time.

Tyler has been going outside more when it's not raining. We also got him a tri-cycle. He doesn't mind sitting on it, still learning how to peddle but he definitely wants to go go go. You ask him if he wants more and he nods yes and claps his hands. So we know he likes riding on it, he just needs to learn how to peddle himself.

Looking forward to the summer!

Milestones by Elmo the Doorman

We've made progress with Tyler ever since he's been home, some minor some major milestones. We don't document all of them on the blog but definitely acknowledge them and try to build on them. Tyler had a few milestone moments this past week.

A lot of children have sensory issues, they don't like certain textures (jello, playdough, gel, sand, etc.). We've gotten Tyler over the playdough hurdle and have been trying to introduce gel like stuff to him. Bubble bath, finger paint, shaving cream but to no success. Recently his therapist has been working with him on painting. We started with water and a brush, then moved to using his hand and water. We've been trying to build up to paint. I was adventurous today and tried diluted finger paint, Tyler dipped his hand in and put it on the paper. Didn't even phase him! We may have a Jackson Pollock on our hands!

Some of you may know we've also been trying to potty train Tyler. He sat on the potty a bit longer than usual tonight, he usually sits and gets up within seconds. When he finally got up, we had pee in the potty!! yeah!

We've been getting better at taking Tyler outside to different places, trying to get him out to explore the world. Target, the supermarket, Babies R Us, we even went to a baby shower in New Jersey this past weekend!! (Congrats to the parents to be). Going to these places requires a car ride, Tyler loves opening and closing the car door. He runs up to the car and waits to see which door is going to open first. When we're just taking a walk to the mailbox or to look at the buses, he will stop by dark colored cars and look at me like "well open the door, aren't we getting in?" I have to say "no that's not our car" and then we move on. If a random car door is open, he makes a bee line for the car.

He also needs to isolate his fingers, I think he's getting there. He can turn on his mobile while standing in his crib and press play on his DVD player!

He doesn't just like car doors.... house front doors, closet and kitchen cabinet doors are great too. Here's Elmo in action!

The Backyard

Jason's been working on the backyard since last year. Our grass came back this spring with some patchy spots but looking decent. There was a nice breeze with no bugs so we brought Tyler into the yard instead of looking at the cars and buses. He had to play with us.

We brought out bubbles, a ball and sat in our new Adirondack chairs. I think we all had a nice time in the backyard.

Is it really the bus?

Tyler really likes going outside and looking at all of the cars and buses on our busy corner. Sometimes he doesn't know where to look there's so many things going on between the traffic, gas station and people passing by. He gets very excited, smiles, claps his hands, sometimes waves and paces back and forth.

Watch out when a bus is coming, he will push you out of the way and all his attention is on that bus. Jason and I thought he would be so excited to actually get on the bus one day. Well that day finally came, twice in one week! There were "not in service" buses at the bus stop and we took Tyler to see the bus up close. We told them we're not waiting for the bus, Tyler just likes to look at them.

The nice bus drivers let Tyler get on the bus, even sit in the driver's seat and hold onto the steering wheel, I even honked the horn. Tyler wasn't as excited as we thought he would be. He liked the doors opening and closing but I think it's more about the loud noise the bus makes. None the less, the bus makes Tyler very happy.

Three Years Old!

Tyler turned 3 this week! We had really nice weather this week so we could take out his new birthday present... we got him a car! We made it a convertible so that he can enjoy the sun. Just need him to teach him how to move the car with his own feet like The Flintstones.

Also with the nice weather, we take longer walks either around the block or just standing on the corner waving at the cars and buses. Tyler is able to walk by himself, you really have to watch him because he can walk pretty quickly towards the street or stumble on our uneven city streets.

Happy Birthday Tyler!

Big Boy Now

Tyler will be turning 3 years old this week, he's getting to be such a big boy. When you're a big boy you have birthday parties and take baths in the big tub, no more baby bathtub.

This past Saturday we had a few friends over. Tyler has become much more social with adults and children now. Here are the boys reading a book and we're opening presents.

We've also started to give Tyler a bath in the big bath tub. He really likes the water coming out of the faucet and looks for the water when you turn it off.

Happy Mother's Day

We had a nice Mother's Day yesterday. Got up early (earlier than we wanted...) took Tyler to the supermarket and stopped by a bakery on the way home, always an adventure taking him to public places.

That evening we took Tyler to dinner with us at a restaurant in Park Slope. Not McDonalds, not eating in the car, we sat IN the restaurant with him. It was a French Bistro and he sat with us in the booth and played with his toys. He was a really good boy, occupied himself as we were there for over 2 hours! Unfortunately the service was extremely slow and we spoke to the staff a number of times (getting ugly towards the end) as Tyler's O2 tank was running extremely low. Towards the end he was getting restless and we had to take turn holding him, the place was too small and crowded for Tyler to walk around.

Once we got our food, 2 hours later, we just devoured it (it was pretty good), got the bill and had to leave since we didn't bring an extra tank. We didn't think it would take us 3 hours to eat dinner with 5 people!

All in all, I had a very nice Mother's Day, couldn't have asked for better company and we're very proud of Tyler. He was a very good boy in the big boy restaurant.