Did ya hear about the opressive heat wave that his Texas? Holy crap!! We were out in it all weekend at ACL Fest. That 108 day was hot as hell, but I thought oh, this is the 101 degree day. When I first heard 108, I thought people were talking heat index. Lord knows what the heat index must have been if the temp was 108. We were under that sun and it was crazy.

I distinctly remember telling Chris after the sun had set behind the trees that it was cooler but still hot. Yeah, because it was still 100 degrees at that point!!!

All I can say is that I am glad things have cooled off a bit.. Of course 88 is now a “cool” day in Texas….. Hopefully it will stay that way and the trend will continue downwards.

Have to say that the bright spot in all the heat was ACL Fest and the lovely Laura Cat. We were so lucky to spend lots of time with her at the festival. She is such an awesomeo person and fabulous friend! Made for another great ACL Fest - can’t wait til next year!!

Oh - and my faves were Arcade Fire and Thievery Corporation.

Ya would think this would have to do with sleep, but no, it has to do with the outdoors and the freedom to explore them. We had purchased a Burley bike trailer/jogger this past April imagining all the lovely bike rides and walks that we would do with Tyler. Well, he severely disliked the trailer. We thought he was too young and would try it again a month later. Still nothing. He never could get comfortable in it and would always slump to the side - he never looked comfortable.

We found out that REI (thank God we bought it there) has a 100% satisfaction guarantee. We took it back and purchased a single-child Chariot trailer.

The big news is that last night after the cold front came through, we went for a ONE HOUR bike ride down Shoal Creek. It was AWESOME! Tyler fell asleep after the first 15 minutes and happily snoozed the whole ride.

BUT, the kicker is that he woke up when we pulled into the driveway AND didn’t cry!!! He wasn’t upset to find himself still in the trailer! In fact, he sat in there for another five minutes smiling and playing with his daddy and I.

Now that fall is here - we are going to be spending every free moment outside either biking, hiking or camping. The fact that he likes his trailer opens up so many options for us! I can take him running down at Town Lake in the afternoon or on weekend morning when Chris is doing his rides…..

It totally rocks! Tyler was up until 10:30pm last night since he has an almost hour nap during the ride - but we didn’t care. It was so worth it!! Ya-hoo!

This is going to be a long entry. Sitting here by myself in our new office space. Our server isn�t hooked up and we don�t have internet access so there isn�t much to do at the moment. Thinking I might sneak out early and go home to pack some more in preparation for our floor project.

Tyler is growing, changing and learning so much every day � I really can�t keep up. I have to blog more often because otherwise I will forget what he does and when he did it.

Movement
It was barely a few weeks ago when he couldn�t �self-rescue�. In attempting to crawl, he would end up on his tummy and you would have to �rescue� him by getting him back to a sitting position so he could resume his play. Now, he needs to help. He can get to a sitting position from his tummy and crawl whenever he wants. In fact, he freaked me out the other night because he was sitting in his crib when he woke up one night. I am used to finding him on his tummy, so it was quite a surprise when he was sitting there looking at me.

It is funny when he crawls � he will crawl a ways and then sit and turn to see where I am or to see where he is. He will also sit too close to the wall so he ends up kind of propped up on it. It is too funny.

He does get into everything. He likes to go over to the entertainment center, open the cabinet doors, pull out the VHS tapes and shake them our of their sleeves. He will also do the same with the DVD�s although he hasn�t figured out how to open them yet. I suppose when he does the DVD�s will be off limits. He pulls books off the bookshelves and loves to pull laundry out of the laundry basket. The other day he and Chase had a grand �ole time. He had pulled down some branches I had collected and placed in a container for decoration in our bedroom. He shredded the leaves while Chase mulched the sticks. They made a mess, but nothing the vacuum couldn�t handle.

We are starting to use �no� with some things. It is amazing how he gets it too. He may make a little scream and try again, but after another no or two, he just head off to investigate something else.

Sleeping
Ya know �this part of our lives just goes to show how a baby is always changing and things are always in flux. He is back to just taking the boob and going back to sleep. I bring him upstairs after his first waking and he sleeps in the bed with us. Somehow, I am now able to sleep with him comfortably � I suppose I have just gotten used to it. Our nights are pretty uneventful really. What I love more than anything � is that I have a clear head every morning and feel somewhat rested. It is a lot better than a few months ago � so this arrangement is working great for me.

I might start rocking him and putting him back in his crib at some point � I keep saying that, but it never happens. I sleep so much better now � it will be hard to go back. And with our bedroom upstairs, I feel like he is safe when he is with me. Maybe if our bedroom was right next to his, it would be different. It has been suggested that we move our bedroom downstairs, but I can�t do that. Call it selfish, but I redid that whole room upstairs and it has become our bungalow � it is my favorite room in the house. This works, so we will stick with it for the time being.

Hands
He uses his hands so much. He claps and kind of waves and is so good at manipulating things. He feeds himself Cheerios now. In fact, I have trouble feeding him his dinner because he will first clear all the Cheerios off his feeding table. So, we do dinner first and then Cheerios! It so awesome to watch his little hands learn and explore. It is scary too � I am waiting for mashed fingers in a drawer or door. I am sure it will happen at some point. We are going to start doing more self-feeding with table food soon.

It is so fun to watch Tyler crawl around the house! He just toodles around and causes mayhem whereever he can! :-p His little bottom looks so cute!! He is getting faster too. All by himself he figured out how to climb up the little step out of the sunken living room…

Ah, but now the real parentng beings, or does it?
It seems to me this is the question. When do those needs and wants diverge and when do I have to be more of a parent? At what age, do you start doing all that? I don’t want to have a house that is full of “no’s” all the time. I want Tyler to learn to explore and fulfill that healthy curiosity, not have to remember a long list of what is off limits. My Mom says that won’t bode well when he goes to other people’s homes and has no concept of “no touch”. Do I care about that? Not really. Sure obedience is important, but I am not trying to impress other people by showing off just how polite my child is. And let’s not forget he is only 10.5 months-old. I need to check out Dr. Sears advice. We do need to start setting boundaries, I just don’t want life to become all about “no” for him.

Sleep Myths
I don’t know where this idea that babies are supposed to sleep through the night came from. I imagine there are 3 kinds of babies: those that do sleep through the night early on, those that are trained to do so, and my camp, those babies that wake up a few times a night. Where we are now is that he goes to sleep in his crib and when he wakes up, I bring him upstairs. I still am on the fence some days as to whether I should just get him back to sleep and in his crib or put him in our bed, but at 1 am, I typically decide I want to go back sleep ASAP and bring him upstairs.

Changing Patterns
It used to be that when Tyler woke up or went to sleep a boob or bottle was all it took. No longer. He refuses the boob to go to sleep some nights and sometimes in the middle of the night. When going to sleep, I think he is fighting sleep and knows that I am trying to get him to sleep. In the middle of the night, it could be a stuffy nose or he just wants to rocking and laying still doesn’t cut it. Lately, he falls asleep in the car, by bouncing him, or by walking around with him. It isn’t the most fun, but according to my parents, I was the same way. At least I know what i am in for.

Diarrhea….
I forgot to mention - he has had it for like a week and it is GROSS!! These poos stink to high heaven… We were basically riding it out as he seems to have a mild case, but tonight he was coughing a bit and seemed warm. The cough sounded strange and he has had diarrhea for a week now. These symptoms may be unrelated, but so far my sick hunches have been right on AND Tyler ALWAYS gets sick the day before we have something big going on. I got am appt for 8:40 am tomorrow so we will see if he has something going on.

OK, well have some stuff to do before I hit the hay and it is alreay late. I am weather obsessed so of course I have been watching the weather channel like it is CNN. Not much changes in 15 minutes with a hurricane, but I watch and watch. I MUST go to sleep. good night and take care.

Crawling
Well, Tyler is now crawling! He started in earnest this past weekend. It is so fun to watch him explore. Of course, he scans all his toys and immediately goes to the electrical socket because he has never seen that before! We are doing a little babyproofing which mainly entails placing items that we don’t want him to touch out of his reach.

Clapping
Tyler also started clapping this weekend. It is so cute!! He will sit there and play and then look at us and start clapping. This morning was waking up, still half asleep with eyes closed and started clapping. Too fun!

Waving - almost
He is getting close to waving - still figuring out what, where and when to do it. Now he is experimenting with both hands. Also very cute!

Talking
I think he is - of couse, I want him to. I don’t mind that all the other milestones have come later, I would love for the talking to come early. Parents with older kids have told me to be careful what I wish for! :-p We think he says cat and book and we are working on dog, ball, fish, toy and a few others.

ACLFest Rainout?
Well, we have been looking forward to this weekend for ACL Fest and it looks like it may be rained out - Saturday might anyway. We will just have to play it by ear. I don’t think we will know for sure until like Friday morning, so we will see. We have a dear friend and family in town, so if we can’t do ACL, we will probably visit with them. We can also continue packing up for our new floors….

New Floors!
Yes, we are getting all new flooring in the house. Wood floors on the first floor and new carpet in the downstairs bedrooms and upstairs. Very exciting, but because we are doing the whole house, we pretty much have to pack up all our crap and act like we are moving. The work is going to be done while we are in Cloudcroft so the house will be empty and we don’t have to worry about all the dust. The animals will all be gone as well.

Busy
Life has been busy lately. Lots of GOOD stuff going on. I am having fun and happy. Don’t know if I am going to be able to stay home as I had orginally planned in March. I dont’t think it is in the financial cards for us. I am actually okay with that. I might mix up my work schedule so that I am off at 1pm and that still leaves time for Tyler and I to have our adventures and a good bit of quality time each day. I think that in the meantime, we will save up so that I can stay home with #2. A little unfairness between the babies there, but what can you do?

Well, Tyler is napping and I have plenty to do, so I am going to sign off for now. Take care!

Tyler has a pretty “normal” day yesterday. He went down for his morning nap at around 9:50am. Tyler’s caretaker pretty much patted his back for 15 minutes and he finally went to sleep. He was fighting it and I imagine wasn’t pretty happy about it. Kind of makes me uncomfortable, but it wasn’t like she was just letting him cry alone. He took his normal nap in the afternoon. It took me almost an hour to get him to sleep, but the fighting wasn’t crying or a scream. He would sit up and talk and I would say goodnight to everything in the room and then we would go back to nursing and rocking.

Playing with makeup is Fun!!
Now that my pink eye is gone I can get back to trying on more makeup. It is my treat right now nad I am having so much fun! Everyday I try a new look. It is so nice to see my face pretty and made up and not looking so worn and haggard. Maybe it is just the girl in me - but playing with makeup is fun!! Makes me so happy - I love putting on my makeup in the morning!!

The down slant of the roller coaster
God, things are speeding up and I don’t know when the ride will end. I suppose somewhere after Tyler’s birthday, right before the holidays. We have so much going on, but thankfully it is all really great, good stuff. The kind of stuff that will recharge our batteries.

Counting the days til Cloudcroft
This will be the ultimate recharger for Chris and I. Mountains, cool temps, a cabin, hikes - these are the things our vacations are made of. It will be two years since we have had our mountain fix and we so need it. I just realized that this weekend we will be 1 month away from the trip!!! God, I can’t believe it…too exciting! I am seriously getting goosebumps!! Tyler’s first road trip as well…. Yeah!!

I think this is probably one of the hardest times I have had so far with Tyler. He is in some kind of phase and it is a tough one. He is quite fussy these days. If you do something he doesn’t want when he doesn’t want it, change of his diaper say, he will cry. Straight to crocodile tears and an all out wail. He is fighting sleep like mad - arching his back and refusing the boob. He needs to get his sleep to be happy. If he does get to bed late, he will sleep in, but that doesn’t bode well for us heading to work. Chris takes Tyler to daycare and he can’t wait for Tyler to wake up at 8am and we hate to wake him up.

Right now, we just let him play until he gets fussy and try to put him down again. Really to bad that the pools are closing - I think that really helped to wear him out. We really need to stick to our night routines and make sure the gets tired out. I also think his naps are changing as well - he doesn’t take that morning nap anymore.

Crib back downstairs
That was short-lived. Everytime I would go to move him to the crib, he would wake up. It just wasn’t working. He is still waking up quite a bit, so we have him in bed. The next thing is to move the guest bedroom bed upstairs next to ours, so we all have the room we need to sleep. We will see how that goes. For now, Tyler starts off in his crib and comes upstairs upon his first waking after we have gone to sleep. He does cry less. When he wakes up in his crib, he wakes up crying. In our bed, if I get to him soon enough with the boob, he just goes back to sleep. That is one good thing.

Daycare Worries
With my child being so fussy with us and me especially, I am concerned about what daycare will be like for him. I just hope he isn’t a fussing mess. The other 3 little babies are so laid back and that is just not Tyler right now. I don’t know if it is teething, a lack of mobility, just a phase or all of the above. Anyway, it will kill me to not be able to be there to comfort him. He will want his mommy and I won’t be there.

It is just frustrating because I don’t know what he needs. I am taking a deep breath and trying to be as creative as I can and roll with the punches. The situation is what it is and I can’t freak out about it. Sometimes the crying makes me feel like I am being a bad parent and doing something wrong. Thinking that he would be happy if I was doing it right…. I also get “Mommy Guilt” because some days I am just tired, impatient and resentful. I just want him to go to sleep. I know he is tired, but he just forced himself up to sitting and wails like I am doing the most awful thing in the world.

Been reading a lot of the Mothering site. Really helpful because lots of Moms there are in the same boat. I get a lot of pause and just realize that he is a tiny baby. He is not trying to be a pain it is just where he is at. Crying is his only communication right now. I just wish I knew what has him so upset these days. So hard to see my little one that way.