More..

More walking. More good news. More beautiful weather. More "mommy thoughts".

More walking...Tyler is becoming a maniac behind anything with wheels. If I leave the stroller open, it becomes a walking aide. If I leave the walker up, it becomes a walking aide. If I leave anything about Tyler height with wheels up, he's pushing it around. It is so cute and so frightening to think that he could be walking all on his own in the next month or two. YIKES!

More good news. My amazing husband, Ryan Boyd, got the promotion at work! We are so excited (and a little anxious) about what this will mean. Ryan has been working hard (way too hard in my opinion) every day since September 13th...and he just got a position in 6 months that usually takes 3 years! As much as Ryo likes to worry, he is a great worker, a nice guy, and great with people skills. We have yet to get the official offer in writing, but we can wait for that part. Congratulations to Ryan for getting himself noticed at work. We are so proud of you!!

We also celebrated our 3rd anniversary on the 26th. Ryan was working so we thought we'd do something cute on our shoestring budget. Tyler and I went to surprise daddy by heart attacking his car. Little did we know he'd be outside when we got there. It was a good excuse to see him since he's been working over time every day this week. We got to visit everyone in his office and put smiles on a lot of faces! Everyone was telling us what a good job Ryan did by breaking an office record the day before. What a stud! Later that night Ryan and I got to go out to dinner at Lucille's, a BBQ place, just the two of us! It was fun to have a few hours with my hubby to remember how great things are. Tyler had a blast with his uncle Taylor and the cousins while we were out.

More beautiful weather. From what I hear, I should cherish this brief time of year in Las Vegas when you don't need to wear spf 100 and carry around a shade structure everywhere you go. It has been around 70 the past three days. We have been able to spend a lot of time at the park and playing outside at Aunt Heather's. It is funny how a little sunshine makes everything better. It even made me want to clean the house...scary stuff!

More mommy thoughts. I'm sure I can't include everything in this one post, but sometimes I just get to thinking and here are a few of my treasured thoughts...

Eventhough the first two weeks of Tyler's life were probably the hardest thing for me- a serious reality check- it has been so worth it! I know I've said it before, but he really has made our family more complete. As much as I hated hearing it at first, everything really does get better with time. There is a lot that I have learned and a ton more to learn, but the simple fact is, I'm doing it!

A funny thought...we just visited my friend who had her third. She was such a better patient than I was. She attributed it to the fact that it was her third time around. It is interesting to look back at how compliant I was with anything the Dr. said to do. They could tell you to eat only lemons for a month and my response would be, "okay." When I got to the hospital that also seemed to be the only word in my vocabulary. It all starts with, "put this on"...my response, "okay". Next is, "we need to....(fill in the blank)" however invasive it may be, what is my response, "okay". And lastly, who in their right mind says, "oaky" when told, we need to do major surgery on you in about an hour?! Then after it all, "take this" not that I had any clue what the drug was, what the side effects could be, or if I'd be fine on something less potent, what is the only thing I could say? Okay! I think it's all built in because Heavenly Father knew what he was doing!

I hope I remember some more later. My sister and I have been sharing funny things moms learn to do, like go to the bathroom with the door open, cook with a baby on your hip, feed two people at once, use your feet as hands, etc. I'll make a better list and post it sometime soon! To all the moms...and soon to be moms out there,we really are amazing, aren't we!?

Brave Little Boy

Tyler is getting more daring each day. Friday was one of those days that he was just falling all over the place. The week started off with him hitting his cheek on my nightstand while I was getting ready for a walk. It looked soo bad :( I felt like such a bad mom. But, as babies do, he got over it and back to smiling fairly quick. Friday started off with a slip and bonk on his block-o-fun toy leaving a nice line on his lip. Later while reading books, he tried to stand up on the bookshelf, his hand slipped and he bonked his forehead. After that he was pulling up on the classy metal folding chairs in the kitchen and pulled it over on him getting a wham-bam in the nose! Poor boy! We don't have any pictures that really show all the pain this poor little one has gone through, but you can imagine! The silver lining to all of his bruises came last night. Sunday dinner at Aunt Heather's and Uncle Taylors was going as usual...until Tyler pulls up behind the walker and starts walking!! No joke! Sure it was only about 3-5 feet of pure sure-footed genius, but it was still amazing. He makes me smile so much. What a wonderful little boy. This sweet little boy is already in bed and I thought I'd finish this post with the words to his lullaby he gets each night...

You came from a land where all is light

To a world half day and a world half night

To guard you by day you have my love

And to guard you by night, your friends above

Sleep, sleep 'till the darkness ends

Guarded by your angel friends

Sleep, sleep 'till the darkness ends

Guarded by your angel friends

There's one stand softly by your bed

And another sits close with a hand on your head

There's one at the window watching for the dawn

And one waits to wake you when the night is gone

So sleep, sleep 'till the darkness ends

Guarded by your angel friends

Sleep, sleep 'till the darkness ends

Guarded by your angel friends.

Sweet Dreams!

The way things are

We are so lucky to have family close. Tyler has learned so much from his cousins. Madelyn and Tyler are almost exactly 4 months apart. Maddy enjoys showing Tyler the way things are. We get together for dinner at least three, sometimes four nights a week. One of the cousins' favorite things to do is push Tyler around in the walker since he is the only one not walking yet. I'm not sure if this is Tyler's favorite thing, but he puts up with it okay.

This is how it starts. Maddy comes up all nice and plays with Tyler..

This is usually how it ends. Tyler gets to go for a ride!

Tyler is still stylin' thanks to our old neighbors in Mission Viejo. His sweet slip-on flame shoes were too small before he even got to wear them so we exchanged them this past week for these awesome checkered old school vans. He look so cute with "real" shoes on.

Fun with Granny Jenny!

We had the best time with Granny Jenny visiting us for the past few days. We got to take her with us to church, the "big park", to lunch with daddy, and on a few walks around the nieghborhood. Sunday night we got together with the rest of the family, Sarah, Ryan, Heather, Taylor and the kids. It was fun to see everyone together for family dinner. I wish we would have caught more of Tyler's smiles on film. He was all grins for his granny. Ryan and I even got to go out on a date for dinner Saturday night!

Tyler and Granny ready for church on Sunday.

Tyler and Granny at the "big park" (Sunset park by daddy's work)

A cute shot of our little guy being big and brave. He pulls up on almost anything and now he even lets go and drops down right onto his bum. He's getting a little too brave for my liking ;)

IT'S A MIRACLE!!!

Pardon the excitement...or not! Tyler slept through the entire night, that's right 7:45pm - 6:15am. This truly is a miracle considering the night before last we had a combined total of about two hours of sleep. Oh what a difference some sleep makes. So proud of my 8 month old boy :) What a way to show mommy he loves me...9 hours of un-interrupted sleep. Perfect!

A little TLC

Yes, today was another Doctor's visit. We had a follow-up with our new and improved friend. The news was a little better. The bronchitis seems to have cleared up but the ear infection is still going strong after a full week of meds. We have our fourth perscription for little guy. Let's hope this one works!! Tyler also is moderately anemic, therefore he gets to go on a liquid multi-vitamin with iron. The doc says he is, "batting 950" Not bad!

We tried to avoid three co-pays in one month so the kind nurse gave us Tyler's 9 month check-up early. The eight-month (TODAY :) ) numbers are...

19lb. 6oz. and 27in...

funny because he was 27.5 two months ago???

We'll get a better update when we go back in a few weeks for another follow up visit.

Even with our little boy being slightly under the weather we are greatful for many things today. Ryan's job has taken a lot of his time from us but it also has something called family time. PTO baby! Ryan was able to come home early yesterday to help out with Tyler. Then I ran a fever and Tyler didn't sleep all night so Ryan came in to say good-bye and saw that I looked less than my usual fabulous. One call in to work and his wonderful supervisor said take the day and do what you need to do. We have been so blessed to have daddy home to play with Tyler and let me nap a little more. We will miss him tomorrow on heart day- but we were glad to have him around to give us an extra dose of TLC.

We love you daddy! Happy heart day.

A little Update

Following up on my goals from last week. I DID organize one thing :) Our closet! It looks great. Not that it was terribly messy before, but there were a few things on the floor. During one of Tyler's naps I got to re-fold, re-hang, re-color code, and re-organize. It was great! Other than that, I just accomplished the usual house cleaning, food making, diaper changing, bath giving, grocery shopping, errand running, finance balancing, and medicine giving.

We were able to get some really cute pictures of Tyler this past week or so. I think we need some smiles on here after last week's sad pic so here we go.

The weather has finally warmed up (never thought we'd say that in Las Vegas!) so we made some crawling space outside. Tyler and daddy had some good quality time this weekend. My two boys are soo cute!

Satuday was finally a day off for Ryan so we all spent some time outside. Ryan was washing cars, which he does so well, and Tyler was studying the art ;) Tyler stayed in the garage for most of the morning but he made a running start and cleared our make-shift barrier. He rolled right down the driveway to the sidewalk and he didn't stop there. Tyler and daddy went for a little walk to the neighbors and giggled all the way!

Tyler gave us a great smile and we finally caught it on camera so just enjoy the goofy grin.

Finally we got an adorable picture of our sleepy head. This is his new favorite sleeping corner. Isn't he adorable?!

Good News

We are having success! Our cute little boy is giving in to the breathing treatments. I found a way to distract him with Cheerios in his high chair while doing the treatments. Thanks to my mom for the idea. It has been much easier to give Ty the medicine he needs when I don't need a straight jacket to do it! Also, I got an updated weight at the pediatrician's office yesterday...

7.5 months 19 lbs 11 oz.

Holy HUGE boy!!

In other GOOD NEWS for today, Ryan was told at work today, around noon, that he would have an interview TODAY around 3pm for a promotion! Granted, this was just an interview, I think that is pretty sweet! The panel said that he interviews very well and they still love the work he is doing in the office. No idea when we'll get follow up to this exciting news. I am just so proud of my wonderful husband for being such a hard worker. He hasn't even been in the office 5 months yet and he is at #1. That's my baby!!

News from earlier...

Cutest BUM ever. Tyler figured out how to stand up in the tub. Fun times. We also enjoy messing with his hair right after. It is getting so long- but I am way too scared to trim it. Just enjoy the craziness.

This is how Tyler and I spent the day on Monday. He wanted to be held ALL DAY. I broke down and just stuck him in the front carrier so we could hang together every minute. It's a funny thing because it is so sweet when they want to be with you, and so annoying at the same time :) Part of doing that mom thing I guess.

Lastly, Tyler is pulling himself up on everything! Toys, walls, doors, his crib. We missed the part when he was standing, but here he is on the recovery.

Sick Little Boy

Our little boy had a Dr. visit today. I was hoping the Doc would say, "Oh, it's nothing. Thanks for the $500 though." Instead he said to the medical student accompaning him, "Do you hear that?"...not so good. It was pleasant to have a nice Dr and a med student even so that I could overhear everything being explained. Tyler has some mild bronchitis and an ear infection :( He had one breathing treatment at the office and I got my very own nebulizer to torture Tyler with at home. I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that insurance picks up the tab on that one. We'll try to get a picture of the next torture session, a.k.a. breathing treatment. You can see Tyler's cute little dinosaur mask thing. He still doesn't care for it much. Oh well. Hope the next post brings news of a healthy, happy little boy.

Just thinking...

Thinking tends to happen on Sundays. This week has been full of thinking and worrying. Tyler is sick with the worst sounding cough. Ryan even took a sick day this week for the first time at this job. We also did some wonderful budgeting... I don't think any marriage would be complete without the "budgeting years". I hope that these end sooner rather than later. I have always been a big saver. All through High School I would shop with my friends, then go return whatever I bought usually within a week. I have been baby sitting and tutoring since I was about 10. During college I even worked in the dorms for two additional years to save money and get out of college debt free. B.B. (before baby) I even worked three jobs because I always felt like there was never quite enough in savings...you know, just in case.

Needless to say, with a history like that, cutting back to one income has been a challenge. I have had to let go of controlling the income and just do my best to limit the outgoing cash. Ryan is learning of the strange sense of responsibility that comes with being the breadwinner (I was making the money earlier so he could take crazy heavy loads at school and finish faster). He is so amazing at working hard and working well. He was hired before he left the parking lot from his first interview. They loved him then and we hope that they will continue to love, and promote, him. Then maybe, when we can put away what I want into savings, then I'll stress a little less...at least about that one aspect.

My next area to get a handle of is organizing my house. At work I was maticulous about planning way ahead, always being prepared, and staying on top of everything. Now that I "just stay at home" all day it is so frustrating that plans aren't made that far ahead, I'm not always prepared, and I am most definitely not on top of many things. I am trying though. I keep wishing that I could get one of those home shows to come make-over the organizational aspects of our house and then I could just keep it up. Until that day happens I'm trying to tackle one area at a time. Well, those are the goals for now... those and watching Tyler grow and loving the chance I have to be around him and "just staying home".

Here's to hopefully accomplishing another goal in the next seven days!

Photo Update

Grandma and Grammie Anita were visiting. Grandma Denos is handy with the sewing machine and made Tyler this great shopping cart cover. So talented! We love how it turned out- the colors are great.

Tyler got to give it a test drive when we went out to dinner at Claim Jumper to celebrate Grammie Anita and Aunt Heather's birthdays. It was so cute to see Tyler and Madelyn sitting at the table like the rest of us. They were the best behaved babies in the place...and the cutest by far!

Tyler got to have his first play date with Grammie Anita in about a month. They used to get to play a lot when he was a few months old and we lived in California. Grammie would come over so I could fold laundry, shower, or take a nap. Little Tyler used to always need to be held. Now he is quite the mover and play dates now consist of more watching and laughing than holding.

These are a few of my favorite things...baby feet. Why are they so cute? I do not know, but I love these two little feet more than just about anything. His little feet are pretty ticklish and I can almost always get a laugh out of him if I work it just right. These little feet are at least a size 2 already though...maybe Tyler got some height from his Crooks genes.

"What did I do?" You can't really tell from the picture, but Tyler is standing up between Dad's legs. He has learned, or should I say, is learning, to pull himself up. In the process of learning to get up, he is also learning that falling is not much fun. He is getting a little better,and a little more adventurous each day.

Fun Friday

Fun Friday originated when I was a daycare manager. It all began when I had a stinkin long week with 20-something kindergarten aged children and I could not stick to my lesson plans one more day. This particular group of kids could not follow instruction for the life of them...even if it was a messy, fun craft or outside games. Thus, Fun Friday was born. On Fridays we all took a break. The kids got to do whatever they wanted for about a half hour inside then about a half hour outside. The staff and I even brought in fun, healthy sancks on occasion. (The healthy part is a whole blog in itself...California public schools banned junk food in 06) These days turned out to be so much fun and helped us bond and create relationships and friendships even better than we could have hoped.

So, what's the point?! I have officially decided to re-instate Fun Friday in the Crooks household. That means I get to do whatever I want all day. I can wake up when I want to, eat when I want to, work out, go shopping, read, scrapbook, clean, organize. It will make life happy again. Tyler will, of course, play quietly with his favorite toys, sleep on command, feed himself, change his own diapers, and clean up after himself. It will be great. We will keep you posted on progress ;)

Stinky, a.k.a. Tyler, has been a funny boy this week. He is battling his second cold/stuffy nose/cough of his little life. It turns him into a fickle boy who wants to be held one second, play another, and cry uncontrollably the next. I had an opportunity to teach enrichment last night so Ryan picked up the little guy on his way home from work. I figured Ty would go right to sleep, but I heard it was quite a different situation when I came home. Poor Ryan, who is also sick, had a very unhappy boy on his hands. No fear- Ryan turned into super dad. He changed a diaper, soothed a sad baby, and even used the snot sucker. By the time I got home Tyler was soundly asleep- thanks to his great daddy!

I'll try to post pictures in a minute...the computer is not agreeing with me at the moment.