Butterflies at Pacific Science Center

So Jeff and I wanted to visit the Pacific Science Center on our anniversary "weekend" so Kyler was our plus 1.  I hadn't been there in a loooong time, and things have changed quite a bit!  Most of the stuff is still a little too old for Kyler, so we're just gonna have to come back...


I don't have any pictures of the dinosaur exhibit, which was kinda neat.  Frankly, since Kyler LOVES Dinosaur Train Jeff and I thought he'd be more into the exhibit, but wasn't his thing.  

You may not be able to tell, but he is very
concerned looking at this butterfly

Speaking of things not being to Kyler's liking, the Butterfly Room was awesome (for everyone but Ky!).

Note the winged beauty on my shoulder.

Man, he really did not like butterflies!

Kyler is trying to tell Dadda he is NOT happy!

Concentrating on pouring just the right amount in...

Once we were out of the butterfly room, we brought Kyler to a place he could be a little less worried in!  The water is like a magnet for this kid!  Cannot get him to leave willingly!

Rockin' the water apron

Gratuitous shot of Kyler and the Space Needle. 

All in all, a good time was had by all.

UPdate for baby book purposes

Wearing Daddy's hat

15 months and some change...

So, since this blog is supposed to also help with retaining memories for Kyler's (absent) baby book, figured I better write this down.  

Kyler now knows where HIS belly button is (he can point out ours if they are exposed), his foot, his nose, and his ear (kind of).  It is hard to say if he understands mouth yet.

He doesn't really say a lot of words that are recognizable to the adult human ear, but he is very good at saying, "no."  It is more of a, "nah, nah, nah" with his hands waving sideways horizontally.  He does this when looking at the trash cans, the end tables near the couch, the toilet, our nightstands, the stairs when the gate is open, his diaper genie, and whatever else i've missed.  You would think that we are always using that word with him!  Kyler recognizes and distinguishes the difference between Ma Ma and Da Da, and Grandpa.  If we ask him to go get Grandpa, he does.  He doesn't use our names to call for us, but in time...

What really makes us proud (its the little things people!) is when we ask him if he has gone "poop poop," he will grin at us and when we say, "ok, let's go fix it," he begins walking/waddling to his room to get his diaper "fixed."  If we just ask him if he needs his diaper fixed, he will grab his "tinker area" and then sometimes start heading to his room.  Hoping this comes in handy later when potty training begins.  Right now it is just a fun party trick!  (sorry, kyler!)

Teething...

So Kyler just got in his lower left molar, and his upper right molar (at the same time).  They are about 1/2 in now, and he is just breaking the surface on his lower left side of another tooth.  Poor little dude, but maybe this means he is that much closer to an expanding food repoirte!?

Kyler and the Beach (take 2)



So happy running along the beach



So when we were in Mexico, Kyler was NOT one for the beach. In fact, he CRIED so hard about being put down in the tidal waves we laughed (I know, bad parents)! However, it is amazing what baths and a little bit of age can do to a young boy, because NOW we can’t keep him OUT of water! Last Friday, March 25th my girlfriend Liz and I went walking. Once we were done walking I took her and Kyler down to a beach my sister and I played at a lot growing up. Picnic Point Beach is in the Edmonds/Lynnwood/Mukilteo area, and was 2 miles from where my parents lived when we were in high school. Liz lives pretty close to there, and she (and Kyler) had never been there. What a treat! We got there just before the sun went down and so we were able to walk around a little bit before the park ranger kicked people out.

He was fascinated by the tide.

The problem with most Washington Beaches on the Puget Sound is that they are ROCKY, not sandy. This was somewhat of a problem for Kyler, as his feet are about as big as some of the barnacled rocks. NO problem for Liz and I though, because that meant that we got to hold Mr. Independent’s hands as we strolled the stretch. As Kyler is a boy, he found picking up the rocks very entertaining. I knew of an area that usually has a bit of sand and we made our way over to it. Kyler LOVED being free of our hands!! He went RIGHT for the water. The tide came in to kiss his shoes, and he stood there and took it! Me, being the responsible mom I am, took pictures! (thanks, Auntie Liz for keeping him safe).

He'd rather be in the WATER than in my arms!

When it was time to go, Kyler was not so happy about leaving. I guess I’d rather have him fuss about leaving than about having to go to the beach! Thanks Liz, for a fun evening. I can’t wait to take K-Man to the beach this summer with Daddy and watch the 2 of them get dirty being boys!

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uP UP and Away!

So Kyler still is not crawling in the conventional form of the word, but he gets around just fine.  His new trick is getting up on his knees and banging on the windows, the couch, the bookshelves, the baby gate... 

He also has started to pull himself to standing in his crib, on the couch, on his toy motorcycle...  Needless to say Mom and Dad are not too excited about putting Kyler in his crib at night to find him jumping up and down when they check in on him.

This pic was taken at 9 pm  in his darkened room. 
Naughty boy!

((Sigh)), I guess it was bound to happen, and so long as he's happy, so are we!

Food for thought

Lovin' the peas!

So I'm kinda at a loss as to what to feed the Chi Chi Monster next.  We started him with rice cereal (of course), and from there moved on to veggies.  He loves his baby peas (frozen bag from K-town), and tolerates green beans.  Brocolli seems to be hit or miss, but it needs to be mixed with rice or oatmeal to get him to eat it.  Carrots are also a fav, as are sweet potatoes, but ironically he did not dig on regular spuds (granted, they were a bit dry).  Just tried butternut squash and so far so good. 

Fruits--not so much!

Fruits haven't been received quite as well.  His first fruit was pears, and he was not a fan.  Our thinking is that they are too sweet for him (funny, right?!), and so the only way we have been able to get him to eat the pureed variety is to mix them with his rice or oats.  Blueberries and mangoes have been very easy to get him to eat, but don't even try apricots, cuz that will just be a waste of EVERYONE'S time!  Apples and kiwi are on the maybe list.  Haven't pureed grapes or cherries, but have let him try to bite them and suck the juice, and he seems to get a kick out of that.  Silly boy!  So back to where I started, what do I try next?  I don't want him to simply eat pureed food forever.  Jeff fessed up to giving him bites of bread, so I've started breaking off crust niblets for him, but Kyler cannot live on bread alone.  When can I give him some more substantial bites?  I'm toying with the idea of baking up some chicken and then pureeing that, but am a bit nervous.  Can I freeze that like I do the veggies and fruits?  Basically my hope is that Kyler will have tried enough different things, and therefore will have a wide range of likes--unlike his momma!  Would love to know if anyone has any tips!

I never wonder WHY there is always so much Kyler laundry!

First camping trip and army crawling

So I'm finding that it may take some time to get in the swing of things and remember to record Kyler's kool new tricks. It will get better, I'm sure!
HE'S ARMY CRAWLING! This isn't necessarily NEW news, but if I don't put it in the blog, it won't be there. When we got home from Mt Rainier on August 8th (more on that later), Kyler decided that his old mode of self transportation was soooo last month, and he decided to show off his new skills. Since then, he has started to incorporate his toes. and most recently his knees have decided they need in on the gig. It is pretty cute watching your son crinkle his nose (not sure where THAT came from--blaming Jeff I think), as he scoots over to slap at your toes. Still new at this blogger thing, so I will say that I will TRY to post a video of this Kyler kuteness!



Camping. Well, we survived, and I am glad to say that it is something that Jeff and I think we could handle again with K-Man. Jeff's cousin, David, had invited us to go camping with him, his new bride, her cousin, and high school friends of David's. The plan was to camp at White River campground in Mt Rainier and to do day hikes. We had a great time, and were grateful for the invite. Hoping to do more camping/travelling with the newest Severson couple! That being said, I'm not sure about everybody else, but for us whenever and wherever we go camping the rain clouds follow. This weekend of camping was no exception. Our saving grace was that the campground was full of ginormous trees that offered a buffer from the rain. The trees and David's 12x12 canopy made the rain managable. The main point of all of this is that Kyler did GREAT! He was (and is) such a happy camper (hee hee), and he enjoyed hanging out in the Taj Mahal, which is our tent.
We packed sooooo many blankets to use as makeshift bedding, that he probably had more comfortable accomodations than we did on our air mattress. Our biggest concern, however, was that he would wake other campers up at his 3 am "I missed you Mommy and Daddy" wake up call. Thankfully Jeff and I were prepared with bottle and diaper to shut the kid up!--just kidding. Another thing to be thankful for is he doesn't seem to mind cold formula now. When we were using frozen chi chi juice (pumped breastmilk), he would take that cold with ice crystals still in it, but don't you DARE give the boy cold formula. As I had to stop nursing for medical reasons (dumb arthritis, grrrrrrr), he seems content to be fed cold "milk" (formula) now. Wow, I guess I'm rambling, so I'll cut this "episode" for now. Main point was that we are looking forward to taking Kyler camping with us again really soon. Maybe next locale will have some grass for him to hone up on his crawling skills. My guess is that he will be in full crawl by his 9 month birthaversary. That being said, babyproofing is in full effect at the Severson household!

More of the campground...
White River family photos...