Tyler's First Birthday

Well, it's been a year. We woke up this morning to Tyler making a lot of noise. At 7:30. AM. Go figure. Guess he wanted to get an early start on the day. I don't think Aunt Erin liked it very much - but she had earplugs in. So I got Tyler out of the pack-n-play and put him in bed with John and me. He just wanted to play mountain climber. Typical. We were supposed to be leaving for Silver Dollar City at 9, so I went ahead and got up to get ready. We found out later that Tyler was everyone else's alarm clock, too... Mom and Dad (and Brayden) were in the adjoining room and could hear him, so they all got up. We went down to the hospitality room to see what they had for breakfast. It was packed with all the teens for young Christians weekend. Had some donuts and took a few back for Mom and Brayden. Finally we all got ready and got the diaper bag ready to go. We had PLANNED for the Young Clan to go with us at 9, but they weren't even up yet.
So we took off for The City. It was a little chilly out, and kind of looked like rain, but we were all being optimistic that the weather would get better. It didn't. I think the stupid weather fairy was out to get us (again). But we had a pretty good day anyway. Tyler tried to ride some of the smaller rides, but he didn't like them!! I was really surprised because he's usually such a thrill seeker. Brayden LOVED everything and couldn't stand to leave. He especially loved the spinning teacups. I wanted him to ride the mini-rollercoaster, but it started raining so they shut it down. =(
We just kind of stuck it out through the rain... We rode the train (Tyler and Brayden gave the "bandits" some money), rode the Shoot-out (Tyler actually really liked that), and sat and listened to the Pickers (Brayden fell asleep; Tyler sang along & clapped). I think it would have been a lot more fun had the weather been drier and warmer, but it was still a neat thing to spend the day with the "whole" family. As we were getting ready to leave, Pure Heart was getting ready to sing on the Main Square stage. There was NO ONE there listening, so I thought the boys might like to go dance to their music. We all headed over there and Tyler started to CRAWL UP ON STAGE. So the girls picked him up and started singing to him!!! It was just too cute. They got especially excited when we told them it was his birthday. It was the perfect end to the day.



I cannot believe that he's one year old already. He's 20 lbs and 30" long. So he's really tall and very skinny. He still has red hair, and we can't go ANYWHERE without people commenting on it. It's also really long and curly in the back, so sometimes he gets mistaken for a girl. His eyes are a very dark brownish green. He is attached to me for about 90% of the time. He can't stand to be away from me for too long. He's already trying to talk and we *think* we've heard him say Mama, Dada, PawPaw, love you (vvv-eeeew), and again (giiiiii). He loves to play with Brayden, but he's VERY violent. He likes to hit and thinks it's very funny. He obeys a LOT better than Brayden did, but generally he only listens to me - when John tells him no, he just laughs. He's a pretty good humored baby as long as there are people around. He's been a great addition to our family, and we can't imagine life without him.