Tyler's First Pair of Kicks!

We figure that Tyler is going to be walking any day now so we went out and bought him his first pair of Big Boy shoes! They cost a small fortune--we hardly spend that much on shoes for ourselves--but they are super cute!

Showing off his new shoes!

Posing for the camera

Big Blue Eyes

Gotta love those eyes!

Happy Ten-Month Birthday Tyler!

Happy ten-month birthday to you
Happy ten-month birthday to you
Happy ten-month birthday dear Tyler
Happy ten-month birthday to you!

Many more birthdays to you
Many more birthdays to you
Many more birthdays dear Tyler
Many more birthdays to you!

Jeez, double digits in months already! Tyler seems like he has really grown up over the last month because he’s become so much more independent in what he is able to do. He can now pull himself up from sitting to standing just like that. He can balance himself well enough to bend over and pick something up off the floor. He is taking off walking when someone holds his arms up. And he just loves to climb! It’s great because we can just lie on the floor half-asleep when he gets up at 5:00 in morning and he will entertain himself by just climbing over us again and again. I am almost positive Tyler is the process of teething, although we have yet to see a tooth. Around the start of August, he started getting really crabby, spiked little mini-fevers a couple of days and was having trouble sleeping (which is unusual for him). He still drools like a faucet and chews on everything but we haven’t seen any pearly whites yet. That hasn’t stopped us from getting adventurous with lots of new foods though. This month, Tyler has got to try things like waffles, diced fruit, yogurt, grilled cheese, noodles, and pizza among some other little things. We have confirmed—the boy loves to eat! It shows too….he is getting some very chubby cheeks! Check out this picture below—he looks like such a big boy!

To Grandmama's House He Went....

Mike and I decided we needed a mini-getaway so we spent the weekend with our good friends Jason and Shannon. They are getting married on October 17th (Tyler's birthday!) and Mike is in the wedding so it was a good opportunity for us all to bond beforehand. We both took a half-day at work and dropped Tyler off at him Grandma and Grandpa's on the way up to see them. It was rainy all day and night Friday so we stayed in Friday night and played Wii. It was much nicer on Saturday so Shannon and I headed to the pool. It was a pretty nice, big pool with a big waterslide. I realized that I'm not as young as I once felt because going down that waterslide was no where near as fun as I remembered it being when I was a kid! Saturday night we spent over 5 hours at Buffalo Wild Wings eating snakcs, playing trivia, eating more snacks and then watching the Ultimate Fighting matchs. It was a really fun time! Sunday morning we went out for a 9-hole course of frisbee golf. We were all a little rusty but we had a lot of fun soaking up the sunshine in the extreme heat! Then we headed back to get our little munchkin. Although it was really only a weekend and we didn't go anywhere more exciting than DeKalb, IL, we really needed and enjoyed our mini-vacation!

Tyler apparantly had a great time at him Grandma's and Grandpa's. We thought he was definitely teething earlier this week (we were just sure of it) because he ran a fever Monday and Wednesday and woke up in the middle of the night for the last two nights before our trip. So we were a little surprised (but pleased) to hear that he didn't really cry at all for them. Then I walked into the door and he cried everytime I walked away from him. Tyler is so getting to be so attached--he put on quite the show!

John and Sue sent us some pictures and I couldn't believe how big my baby looks! He is truely getting to be a big boy. And he is getting so much stronger everyday. He doesn't want to sit AT ALL. He's either crawling, pulling himself up, or his new favorite--using human bodies as a personal jungle gym. Here are some of the pictures they sent.....

Playing with his shopping cart/walker. He LOVES this thing--he will seriously play for hours.

Caught in the act of trying to climb over John--another something he will do for hours.

Sitting in Mike's old rocking chair (which is actually from Sue's childhood)

A White Sox Winner

We decided at the last minute to get White Sox/Yankees tickets on Saturday. We were already planning for Tyler to visit with Grandma and Grandpa Ellsworth in Morris so we could go to a cookout at Alyssa's later that evening. So we headed up to Chicago for a late day game. We left at 1:15 thinking that would be ample time to make to it the park but traffic kept us from seeing the whole first inning. Our seats were in the right field corner of the upper deck. Although we were high up, we had a pretty good view of everyone on the field. It was a fun game to see....the Sox scored 14 runs--none of which were home runs. They ended up beating the Yankees by a score of 14-4 so the offense was explosive, creating a bit of a longer game. Mike was excited because most of his favorite players had a big game. We left at the end of the 8th but stayed to watch the closer Bobby Jenks get introduced (he wasn't supposed to play because he had kidney stones). We left early so we could beat traffic but we still got stuck for a while. We didn't make it to Alyssa's cook-out until after 8. We enjoyed good food and sitting around a nice big fire (it was a very chilly day and night for the first of August). Unfortunately, we couldn't stay as long as we would have liked because we had to get Tyler home. We headed home and landed around midnight, definitely the latest I've been up in a long while!

In front of the score board on the upper deck (it was very overcast).

Mike enjoying the view

In the stands, cheering on the Sox

Our specatulor view