Tyler is Quickly Becoming a Toddler!

It's been an interesting week. Tyler has been very fussy because of his raised chemo dose and he's also cutting 2-4 teeth. I see 2 for sure but the top gums feel swollen too, I just can't see anything. I forgot his chemo before bed the other night, but thankfully he woke up later and I gave it to him then. We were up for the sunrise, I don't see many of those. It was so pretty! The clouds looked very textured.

Tyler has been enjoying his treats. He seems to have a preference for chocolate. No big surprise in this family! He's eating an oreo here. He got way messier than this. When he's done he always rubs his head, and gets food all over his hair. At least he doesn't have much of it, but he sure has more than he used to!

Tyler found a good spot to sit while watching Word World tonight. Dawson's car carrier case is just the right size for a baby chair.

This used to be Dawson's birthday card from his Grandma. It was a Cars themed one that played the song "Life is a Highway". Well he always needs to find out how things work, so when I wasn't looking he ripped the part with the words off so he could see the mechanics of it. He was quite pleased with himself. Then the card got ripped in half just from being opened and closed many times. We both thought "well now that card is done!". Apparently not, because when you push the little metal clip right under the round battery, it plays! That is, until he further started ripping it apart, got the clip off and I threw the whole thing away when he wasn't looking to avoid Tyler swallowing small metal objects!! It's still up in the air whether he'll be a mechanic or an engineer!

Boys in a bin. I was pushing Tyler up and down the hallway, then Dawson climbed in so I just sat Tyler on his lap. He actually tolerated it! He never used to want Tyler on his lap or anything but he seems to really be getting the hang of and even enjoying having a brother around now. :)

This week Dawson walked up behind Tyler (who was standing) and picked him up a bit. He did get him a tiny bit off the floor but not much. Dawson is only 12 pounds more than Tyler so I wasn't expecting much. I was talking to Dawson nicely while walking over there so he wouldn't just drop him when he saw me coming. He put Tyler down anyway and ended up hitting his head on the train table. Poor baby, he started crying and I picked him up and sat on the floor with him a while. Dawson said "sorry" and he looked like he felt bad about it, so I had him come give Tyler a hug. He wrapped his arms around Tyler and said "awww" on each side of his head. It's what he does when he cuddles people. I guess he picked that up from me, I used to say "awww" when he'd come cuddle me and it stuck! He even kissed the top of Tyler's head. It was so cute. Tyler didn't fully appreciate it though, he just wanted Dawson away from him. He settled down quickly though.

I've been putting the boys to bed at the same time lately. It used to be Dawson first, then Tyler once Dawson was asleep. This used to work great since Tyler was on a crazy schedule from the hospital and had his days and nights a bit mixed up. I finally got him down to Dawson's bedtime though and it's been doing pretty good. I change them both, then stand Tyler up in the middle of the room and have Dawson come over for a hug. They hug, which is the cutest thing ever, then I put Tyler in his crib and turn on his crib turtle while Dawson crawls into his bed. Sometimes he's not as willing and I have to put him there, but he's been getting a little better with that. After about a week, Dawson discovered that he could crawl into Tyler's crib and play with him and his crib turtle! So I put up the crib tent. I bought it 2 years ago to keep Dawson in his crib and now I put it back up to keep him out! Funny to think about. Tyler is awesome about bedtime, he's never (to my knowledge) tried to get out. He lays there a bit, then stands up and turns his turtle to the song he wants and lays back down to fall asleep.

In some ways Tyler seems so mature for his age! Changing the turtle song just to fall asleep. He helps me get his carseat buckled by tucking his arms in so I can get them in the straps. After mealtimes he always stays to get his hands washed. Today in Target he was fussing so I let him out of the stroller. He wandered around a bit but always came right back. He's getting so good at walking more steadily and is getting faster too! He walked along the stroller so we could check out the new food section too, which was all the way across the store. He did scream, squirm and throw a huge tantrum when I put him back in the stroller though. He's really starting to throw more on the floor tantrums lately. He'll flop down on his tummy and cry, then get up because I've walked right past him and he has to follow me! He's quite dramatic about it too, he often looks right at me and does a dramatic flop. Sometimes it's hard not to burst out laughing because it just looks funny. Thankfully Dawson's on the floor tantrum phase didn't last very long since I just ignored him, so I'm hoping Dawson will ignore him too so we can move past that phase.

Fun at Home

We've been having lots of fun lately. Dawson likes playing with his train and cars. He's getting more into looking at books, coloring and loves to learn. He knows most of his letters, shapes and some numbers. He's been loving his new Word World movie, it teaches letters and letter sounds. The other day he came up to me and said "cookie! c-c-cookie!" He does that with other words occasionally too, it's so cute! His favorite things to do outside are swinging, kicking a ball around the tennis court and going for walks. Usually if I give him the choice between the 3, he'll choose to go for a walk.

He's been walking during our walks lately. We take some quiet residential streets and we usually only see about 5 cars on our 2-3 mile walk. He often walks ahead or behind me, usually going back and forth, racing the stroller. Tyler finds that very amusing. When a car does come, I say "there's a car, hold my hand!" and he quickly comes to me with his arm out for me to grab onto it and pulls away the second the car has passed by. He has some trouble staying on course sometimes. If he sees a dog, toys or a swingset, he wants to run over there. A nice man did let him pet his dog once, assuring us she was very friendly, but now he wants to pet all the dogs! Thankfully he's a bit scared of them too, he only likes petting them from the side, he's scared to have the dog's face by his and will back off. He's never been bit, just licked a lot and he doesn't like them up in his face. Of course that's not hard since he's right at eye level with many of them!

Tyler is still into cars and anything with wheels. He also likes the stacking rings and he'll stack blocks and look at books if you sit down with him too. He really holds his attention to toys for a long time. His teacher is very impressed with that. He can walk around outside now and doesn't fall quite as much. He's walking faster in the house too, but not quite keeping up with Dawson yet. He still goes in for labs every other week and will be seeing an Oncologist for a check up once a month. They also talked of seeing the pediatrician once a month also, but I have to double check that one. I'm not sure if that's only months where we can't see the Oncologist, or if they want him to be seen by both each month.  His chemo just got bumped up to almost full dose. They want him on more chemo to avoid a relapse. His counts have been looking good, so hopefully he'll tolerate the higher dose well.

The boys in the tennis court playing

 Kicking the ball is a fairly new thing, but he's getting good at it

Playing is so tiring, darn chemo!

 A ball came my way by itself! :)

Yummy chocolate animal cracker

Sand and water toy. Doesn't work the greatest on our pea rock playground but works good in the tub.

Tyler checking out the rocks I put in the bucket. Stooping down to get things and standing up again is something we've been working on. He's really getting better at it.

Rock dust on my hand!

The face and the shirt say it all!

Dawson's new toy, a My First Leap Pad. Found it at the thrift store for $2. He got the hang of it quickly. Just found a few more books for it on Craigslist too, so we should be set for a while. Sitting and looking at books is something we've been working on. He doesn't like looking, just flipping pages. He recently started looking more, but this Leap Pad being interactive holds his attention for longer and makes him really look at things. I really didn't think he'd have the patience for it, but he did much better than I thought. :)

His first BK crown, he liked it

Fridge toys! I got the top 3 from Craigslist and we already had the bottom 2. We had a fridge farm, but it broke, so the new one replaced that. Thankfully we had all the pieces but no barn and the lady had a good barn but only a few pieces. The one Dawson is touching says alphabet letters and sounds and also does numbers and counts. The 3 letter one makes words, he's not quite ready for that yet, but it'll be fun once he is. I'll probably put that one away for a while. The one below it just does letters, it was a gift for Tyler. The radio does counting and alphabet songs. They both love these toys and Dawson has learned so many letter sounds and things from them. I was excited to get the one that counts, he loves to count and doesn't know many numbers yet. Tyler thinks the animal noises are very funny and likes the letters too. Going to be putting most away for them to take out 1 at a time though, it's a lot of little pieces to lose!

I found some roller skates at Once Upon a Child today. They go over his shoe. I wasn't sure how Dawson would do, but he liked the idea and took off right away without hesitating! He was correcting himself and didn't fall, even in the kitchen until he rolled over a toy and tripped. He played in them for about 20 minutes, mostly wanted them off because I had sat down with Tyler and didn't have full attention on him anymore. 

He was very comfortable in them! He started playing and wanted his sippy after a while. I thought it was funny, I was really expecting him to want to run faster and just want them off, but I was wrong!

Becker Relay for Life

The Becker Relay for Life was a nice day, so it was outdoors at the high school track. Tyler did his Survivor lap, he even got to walk for part of it, though he was tired at the time. He did end up walking a lot as the evening went on. We ate there and let the boys walk quite a bit. Bedtime was not an issue this night, we had some tired little boys when we got home! We stayed for 5 hours, from 6 to 11pm.

He looks so cute and little walking there! He always puts his arms up for balance.

So determined!

Dawson slowing down for some water.

Tyler kept wanting to touch the bags. He was pretty good about it once he was told no, but he kept going over to look at them.

Dawson spotted a girl his age and had to run over and walk with her a bit.

Tyler liked watching the track pass by above his seat in the back.

Tyler was being goofy and growling at me

Dan and Tyler taking a break from the track.

Rib bone! Tyler sure liked that, he wouldn't let go of it for a good half hour! Then it was only because he wanted another one!

Tyler's luminary, decorated by me. It took a while to find amongst them all! They had them along the inside and outside of the track that goes around the football field!

They lit all the candles at 10pm. It was quite a sight, couldn't even get a pic of it all at once, but here's a corner of the track.

They had these bags in the bleachers.

Tyler's luminary all lit up

Dan's work had a team and won 3rd place for the most money earned. They raised just over $5,500, all goes to the American Cancer Society.

Happy 3rd Birthday Dawson!

We had his party in the Community Room at our apartment. Guests were my Grandma, Mom, sister, 2 brothers and Dan's sister. He's currently 34 pounds, 4 ounces, but his official 3 year appointment isn't until the 26th.

Dawson and Tyler, doing what boys do best, getting into things

Anxious to eat cake!

Waiting to blow out candles

Tyler waiting for some cake

Dawson eating cake

Happy to have cake

Tyler all cleaned up and wandering around

Guests, from left, my brothers, sister and Dan's sister. Tyler being a goof on the floor.

Present time! Tyler happily joins in.

Time to play!

So many cars!

He knew this trailer needed to be behind something, but why didn't it roll like it should??

Much better! Mom fixed it. :)

They got a surprise when they came back to the apartment. A train table! We got this off Craigslist that morning but it was too big and heavy to carry all the way to the community room. It's a big attraction around here now. They've always preferred driving their cars on a table or whatever surface they could find.

HopeKids shirt. The boys got the same size, smallest they had, so Tyler has some growing to do before he can wear his and even Dawson has plenty of room to grow. This is the organization that offers free events. They sent all of us free shirts. :)