Ty and His First Kite

A few weeks back we invested a few spare coins in getting Ty his very first kite.

Okay so it was really for Chris, he loves kites but Ty has been privileged enough to get a chance to enjoy the kite also. Here he is perfecting his kite flying skills with dadda's help.

Ty's First Sleepover

I am so happy to announce that last night Ty successfully survived his very first sleep over with his best friend Judah. Chris and I had some stuff to take care of last night and this morning and we were trying to figure out how to get things accomplished smoothly with a toddler running around. I passed by Lauren in the hall way and just suggested the idea. Praise Jesus she didn't run away screaming!!! Thanks Lauren.

And in the typical Ty like fashion when we arrived at their house he promptly made himself at home playing with Judah, Charlie and the chu chu trains. So much so to the point that when I was trying to leave he paid absolutely no attention to me.

Of course as always I did more worrying and fretting then he would even care to know about. He did great. They even slept in the same room and fell asleep about the same time they normally would. I did get a morning report saying that around 3 am he did wake up and call for mommy but by the time Lauren arrived to consul him he was already back to sleep. I guess waking up and finding his best friend in the room was comforting enough.

I just wish I had a camera on him the whole time just to see all the fun he was having.

On the other hand Chris and I were in pieces in the house without him. We both stood by his bed briefly and just stared for a moment at the emptiness. Yes we are sad.

My Son Makes Me Super Happy/Proud...

Allow me to tell you how awesome my son is and how proud he makes me. I have watched this kid of of mine grow and I am just amazed at how smart he is. He's in the stage of asking questions which is just adorable. He's not straight out asking you a question, it's whenever you ask him to do something, he would ask this, with a very high inflection. Or he'd repeat just the last bit of what you asked, with that high inflection. It is the cutest.

Anyways, last Friday, he had to go to the doctor to get some blood drawn. Nothing's wrong, it's just apart of his 2 year check up. Oh, the best part is that I got the wonderful pleasure of carring him. I think I was more nervous than he was. He has never had to have any blood drawn before, so immediately I was like, is he going to be ok? How's he going to react?

We got to the lab, and signed in and waited. Finally we were called, and because I am a very protective dad, I start dropping questions about everything possible to the front desk person. I am thankful she wasn't annoyed by me and my questions. Although, after the fourth or fifth question, she just said that the tech would be able to answer all of my questions. Fine. I can handle that. At this point, Ty is not at ease at all. He just doesn't like anything resembling a doctor's office. We sit down the room, and in walks the tech. Ty is watching every move he makes. Watching everything he's doing.

The tech walks me thru everything that was going to be done. And so we started. Ty wasn't so happy that he was being stuck with the needle. He cried, well, there were no tears, and once he saw the blood moving, his attention was focused on that. After that the tech gave him a sticker. But wait, not just any sticker, a Buzz Lightyear sticker! At that point, all was right with the world.

After that, to celebrate my son's bravery, we went to the mall to ride the cho-cho. Another big deal. He even got a chance to sit in the front and ring the bell and sound the horn. To top the cake, we then spent some time in the play ground area. He got a chance to run and play with some other kids and just burn some energy.

Every evening when I get home, I make it a point to just sit him in my lap and just hug him and kiss him and tell him how proud I am of him and who much mommy and dada loves him. I think he knows.

Sibling Quality Time

There is just something special to a parent when you look at your children and smile cause they are just doing something so sweet. We know for a fact that Ty just simply love his sister. At every moment when Fé cries, he is right there trying to find out what's the matter. He also wants to hold her every chance he can get, and he's been getting more holding time. We think he's getting it how to hold hold her. We know he's only 20 months so we take care to always shadow him.

Also, we really try to not block him out. What we mean by this is that whenever one of us is with Fé, the other is with Ty. We think it's working pretty well. We noticed also that Ty is developing his own sense of independence. Sometimes he would just go into his room and play with something in there. Or sometimes he would drag it out into the living room.

All in all, we can't wait till Fé is old enough to play with her big brother, because I feel so bad constantly having to tell Ty to be gentle. I know he is just excited about his sister and want to play with her. Oh, and this weekend, our Lil Princess is 1 month old! Oh how the time has flown by. She has her doctor's appointment next week. I am so curious to know how she has grown.

That's all for now. So later.

Twins?

Here we are a little over a week, and Ty and Fé are just the cutest things. Both Phil and I was looking at Fé's pictures that were taken a day after she was born and some of the ones we took and we noticed, oh my goodness, both Ty and Fé could pass for twins. They look so much alike at 1 week old, it's like wow! Below is a picture of Ty at 1 week and Fé at 1 week.

What do you think?
















They are definitely siblings.

Ty's New Role...

One of the questions we get asked a lot since Fé was born is how is Ty handling Fé's birth?

It's a very fair question. I am happy to report that Ty is taking the new role as big brother very well. For a while now, we have been slowly changing Ty's world to include Fé. It started with us talking more and more about Fé and where Fé was, in mommy's tummy. Then we added her car seat in the care with him. So he would get used to the idea that Fé will be sitting in the back seat with him. Then, we started rearranging his room, since they will be sharing the room for the first couple years. We changed his bed to his big boy bed. We started decorating his side of the room and Fé side of the room. And so on. All this to say, that when Fé was born, Ty was, and still is, very excited to see Fé.

I sit down with him every now and then, talking with him and just telling him that he is a big brother now and needs to watch and protect his little sister and help mommy and daddy. I think he's getting it. This morning when Phil was changing Fé and she started crying, he ran from the living room into the bed room, and with this look of concern, he proceeded to stroke her hair and hold her hand. It was touching. He also loves getting a chance to hold her.

I think Ty is doing just great in his new role. How long will this last? We'll see when they are both screaming for mommy or daddy because they are in each others rooms. The anticipation is killing me :)

Ty's iPod Touch

What in the world would a 19 months old do with an iPod Touch?

Well, apparently quite a bit. Don't believe me, ask my son. Both me and Phil have iPhone 4's and we both like to game. So it's only natural to download game apps, because some times we are away from our consoles, and we need a fix. Also, having a toddler, there are apps that both entertain and educate him. So we found that to be great. Oh, another thing, iTunes. Nick Jr. videos of his favorite shows and kiddie songs at times are just life savers. So in those crazy times, all you gotta do is whip out the phone, find the game or video, start it up and voila, his is calmed.

Since he's around Phil alot more of the times, he has access to her phone. And on her phone, he has an entire page of all his stuff. After a little while, we would notice him touching the screen and interacting with the phone. We didn't think much of that. It was funny when he came across someone with another phone which was not touch screen because he would try to touch the screen and nothing would happen.

Then it evolved to just starting whatever thing he wanted and putting it in his lap and he would go at it. Then it happened. One day, he got up, went and found Phil's phone, sit down with it, unlocked it, swiped to the page with his stuff, which side note, is one of 5 pages if I'm not mistaken. Then he would select a game or whatever he wanted to do. We laughed and was just amazed. At that time, we just thought it was just random. Until we actually just sat and watched him and that's when we realized that he was very calculated and know exactly which game he wanted. When he was done, he knows how to get back to the home screen and he would select a different item. It was solidified when friends and family started noticing this also and just being amazed by it.

Well, here we are. Before I got my iPhone 4, I had an iPod Touch. After I got my phone, I didn't use the Touch anymore. So me and Phil decided that, maybe we would charge up the Touch, load it with his items, and let him use it. Helpful because then Phil will have her phone back. We did it and well now our 19 months old has an iPod Touch, and knows how to use it.

Think about it, when you were 19 months, how technologically savvy were you? We are, not surprised, just amazed, proud, and just like wow, awesome. We got a pretty cool smart kid. But, hey, look who his parents are :)

Next stop, getting a case for it.

Later

Ty Loves Change

So, earlier we mentioned that one of the upcoming changes was changing Ty's bed from a crib to a day-bed. How did he do? Well, check out the video to see how he did.

Am I Ready for Change?

That's the question I am running into. So we are into the 3rd trimester and Fé is doing great every day reminding Phil that she's there. Also, she's getting her workout on, punching and kicking Phil. So this question on change and am I ready? Well, it's not like I have a choice in the matter. I think it's really starting to hit home. First, was when Phil asked me to start moving around some of Ty's furniture and take down some of his old stuff. Second, was the whole car seat thing. I mean, we will have 2 car seats in the car. But most of all was when we decided to look into changing Ty's crib to the next bed stage, a day bed. Ty has one of those growing beds which go from a crib to a day bed to a full size.

He has done very well at bed time, and so we figure its time to start the next stage. Of course our main concern is when he wakes up sometimes in the middle of the night, he will now have to freedom to just get out of bed and free roam. Well, that's where the gate comes into play. We'll use that to help with the teaching process.You know what we have come to understand, it's that for young kids, routine is essential. So, that's what we will need to establish, a new, or rather adjusted routine.

The next couple of days, the room will under go some transformation. We are not in our home yet, but maybe we'll do a little more decorating. Incorporate some blue and pink color. Some jungle lady bug themes. I don't know, we'll come up with something. We'll make sure we take pictures.

Here comes change, ready or not. *smile*

Ty's Birthday Party Montage

Took a little time, however here it is, a montage of Ty's 1st birthday party. Hope you enjoy it. He really had alot of fun and so did everyone. Thanks to everyone who made that dayso very special.

Ty's First Thanksgiving

This year our Thanksgiving was extra special thanks to Ty. It was our first time celebrating the holiday back in Orlando since our engagement in 2003. And our first Thanksgiving we spent together as a family ... Chris, Ty and myself. It was awesome. We have so much to be thankful for this year.

Love, forgiveness, honesty, and thankfulness …

Those are just a few of the qualities you learn being a follower of Christ. And this year we got the honor and privilege of sharing what we are thankful for with family and friends.
Every year brings new experiences, memories, challenges and rewards. This year Chris and I were blessed to conceive, develop and birth our first precious baby boy. We have been over joyed by the blessings this adventure has brought us so far. And love every moment we spend with him.

Just a few years back we would have not have thought that this time was possible. After an unfortunate miscarriage in 2005 and years of unsuccessful attempts we had almost given up trying to raise a family. But God showed his love and mercy on us this year and here I am writing this blog post with a precious (and quite adorable) baby sleeping on my chest.

That is what we were thankful for this year.

Ty Month 1

Can you believe it, Ty is all of 1 month already!! I know, it's hard to believe that it's been a whole month since he was born. I still remember Phil waking me up because of the contractions, me writing them down, us deciding when was the the time to call the birthing cottage and us going there. The next thing we knew, they sent us home to relax, 3 hours later or so we were back there and 30 minutes or so out came our son. Wow, amazing.

From when we got home to now, Ty has grown quite a bit. He's cooing more and more. He's lifting his head and pushing with his legs. He's turning his head and looking at you when you talk. He's giving us smiles, which I think is my favorite right now.

Ty has definitely added even more joy to our lives. Our nights tend to be a little longer, but it is so worth it. Babies ARE Gifts from God.

Here are some stats on Ty:

Born September 2, 2009 @ 9:02pm
Birth length: 19inches

Birth weight: 6lbs 10oz
Wk 1 weight: 6lbs 7oz

Wk 2 weight: 6lbs 7oz
Wk 3 weight: 7lbs 8oz

Wk 5 weight: 10lbs 8oz

Always keep us in your prayers and stay tuned.

Peace Out Folks

Chris C

Ty's Ultrasound Video

Wow, after much technical difficulties, I was finally able to upload this, Ty's Ultrasound Movie. I hope you enjoy it.

Now I can get to work on the Gender Contest Winner :)

Peace Out Folks
Chris C

Ty's ultrasound at 19wks 3dys