Hunt Family Adventures : Toddler Ty: May Mayhem

Here's a cute video of Ty's final weeks of being 1 year old.

As the weather's warmed up, we've been taking more and more trips to the park. Silverlake is always a good choice since there's a nice playground and a sandy beach.

In's these pics Ty is playing with little kitchen toys I picked up for him at dollar tree. He didn't show much of an interest in playing with toys in the sand until late September of last year. By then Dollar Tree wasn't selling regular sand toys anymore, so we improvised with kitchen toys. During one of our visits, a kind dad offered us a piece of bread to feed to the ducks. Now Ty likes tossing anything he can find into the lake - bread, sticks, sand, toys, whatever.

I love watching him getting so independent.

One day I came home to find Oscar and Tyler looking like two big couch potatoes and couldn't stop laughing. All that's missing is from this image is both of them holding a big bowl of ice cream.

But contrary to the picture above, daddy and Ty usually are very active together - like taking walks and chasing the racquetball.

One morning Oscar was home with Ty and noticed he wasn't making any noise anymore. He walked into the spare bedroom to see that Ty had put himself to sleep in the spare bedroom at 10:30am, well before his typical nap time. The cushion was already there, but he'd brought the blanket, Elmo, and book in himself. That got us thinking Ty might be ready for a toddler bed.

To celebrate Oscar's 32nd birthday while I was at work, Oscar and Ty wore matching outfits to Wendy's. Oscar taught Ty how to eat his hamburger with both hands. Daddy's actual birthday was on Mother's Day this year, and Ty helped him make his birthday cake and blow out the candles. It was the best lemon jello cake we've ever made, and somehow Ty knew it would be good even before we did. While he was sitting on daddy's shoulders, Oscar had to ask him "Tyler, please stop drooling in my ear."

We ended up purchasing a used toddler bed from a friend, but he hasn't started sleeping in it yet. He's fallen asleep in it twice, but mostly he just lays in it for fun. We put him down in his bed, but he usually just crawls out of it. We're hoping he can adjust by the time baby girl arrives. It's become more urgent now, too, since he's recently figured out how to climb out of his crib. We usually put Ty down for nap early on Sunday since his nap time is right when our church service is, but on that particular week he was NOT having it. He hasn't climbed out since then, but now that I know he can, I'd much rather he be closer to the ground. The lowest point of the crib is about a foot off the ground, so he has a bit of a fall if he climbs over it.

Ty's recently started helping mamma wash and put away the dishes. It always results in water all over the counter tops and floors, which ultimately makes a lot more work for me, but I like nurturing his desire to help and do chores.

We had a combo birthday party for Oscar and Tyler's birthday on May 16th. Oscar's 32nd birthday was the 10th and Ty's 2nd birthday was on the 21st, so it was about halfway between. I picked up Elmo and Cookie Monster cakes for $6 each at Albertsons. I cannot recommend them enough! You can't beat adorable, cheap, tasty, and well received by the little man. He wanted them so badly we had to hide them until it was time to serve them up.

He loved all his new gifts and didn't mind mommy using the rest of the Christmas wrapping paper. I found him a make-a-sound Elmo book and Elmo guitar at Goodwill. Mom sent me money and asked me to get gifts for Ty with it, so I picked him up some Sesame street bath toys, Elmo fork and spoon, a sesame street potty training seat, and more interactive leapreader books.

Here he is opening his new Elmo guitar. I couldn't believe I'd found it for only $2. He also loves his new Meowsic piano from auntie Malia and cousin Hana. Sometimes it will randomly meow if he hasn't played with it for the last 10 minutes and it didn't get turned on. One time I heard a meow and went to turn it off only to realize that meow had come from one of my actual cats.

Ty had lots of fun playing with the frosting and using his new bath toys in the tub afterwards. Unfortunately I have no idea what's happened to the Elmo and Cookie Monster bath toys since them. He played with them for a few days, but even after a thorough cleaning of the house, I still can't find them.

Ty's started saying family prayers with us, which is always super cute.

He also loves helping daddy with the yard work and shopping at Home Depot with him.

On morning Ty woke up an hour early after we'd put him to bed an hour late. This was the adorable result - falling asleep on daddy's shoulders.

Being cute at Mukilteo Lighthouse Park. He was more interested in running through the bike racks than in the beach or the playground.

Cute pic of Ty reading in bed. He often puts Elmo and Cookie Monster in bed and says "night, night" to them, sometimes even turning the light off and on while he says it.

It's so fun to wear daddy's shoes!

I took him to the Imagine Children's Museum last week with a couple friends and their kids. Ty loved it, but it was hard to get pics of him since I was constantly trying to keep up with him and prevent him from getting knocked down by big kids that were there on field trips. It was a great way for him to work out all his energy though. After our visit he got a 4 hour nap! When summer's over and the cool weather makes it more difficult to go to the park, we'll look into getting annual passes.

Oscar's been working on increasing the curb appeal of our home, something Ty loves helping him with. One day Oscar let him play with the hose on the lowest setting. My little graffiti artist!