Mr. Photogenic

When Tyler was only 3 weeks old, Sarah Quainton, a good friend of Jamie & Chria's, came down to take some pictures of Tyler for his portfolio. He was a little fussy, as he is wont to be whenever a camera comes out, but in general he was pretty good, and we got some great pics. In fact, the family portrait at the top of this blog was taken by Sarah.

Here are some of our favorite shots. As you can see, Sarah has a great eye! The rest of her Tyler photos can be found at http://www.flickr.com/gp/79969178@N00/1o6JP4. If you're interested in contacting her to take some pictures of your little one (or anything else for that matter), she can be reached at squainto@hotmail.com. Thanks, Sarah! We love the pictures.

Tyler's Big Day!

Tyler had a very big day today (Feb. 21st)! First, he had impressions made of his hands and feet, so someday when he's big and tall we could remember how little they were once upon a time. You can tell by the photos that he really loved the experience.... Actually, he was really, really good, but he didn't appreciate the cold clay on his hands and especially his feet when we were doing the impressions. Poor little guy... He also got to meet his Great Auntie Gail. She is newly back from her adventures sailing in Mexico, and she wanted to meet the little guy.

Then, we went to visit Tyler's Great-Grandma Pharris! We had a great visit with her, and she loved little Tyler. He was a perfect angel at her house, and he even gobbled down a bottle with no fuss. This definitely impressed Great-Grandma. She kept commenting on what a good eater he is, and how much hair he has. She declared him to be one good looking baby. We couldn't agree more!

Next it was off to the office at Lytle so Tyler could meet all the ladies. He didn't have too much to say there. He mostly just slept through the visit, but they were excited to see him nonetheless.

Finally, we headed off to the pediatric orthopedist to check out Tyler's hips (amazingly, it happened to be the same practice Catherine went to for shoulder surgery back when she was 13). Since he was born breech, they have to rule out any chance that he has hip displaysia, so we headed to the doctor to make sure all was well. He seems to be just fine, and I was surprised how good he was when the doctor manipulated his hip joints. Not a word of protest! What a good baby. Tyler has since had an ultrasound, and once again, it appears his hips are just great. Yeah, Tyler!

Tyler's First Friend

Tyler already has his very first friend! Campbell James McFadden was born just 2 days after Tyler, and we overlapped with him at the hospital. Kelly & Mike McFadden (Campbell's parents) are friends of ours, and we did all of our prenatal classes together with them at the hospital. We couldn't believe the boys were born at the same time! That's Campbell on the left and Tyler on the right, and the other picture is Matt racing the halls of Hoag Hospital with Tyler on the way to meet Campbell.

Here's a picture of Kelly and I doing the baby swap. The boys were almost exactly the same size (Tyler was 7 lbs. 2 oz. & 19" and Campbell was 7 lbs. 3 oz. and 20"), but since then, Tyler has decided to eat like a champion, and his weight has taken off (12 lbs. at 7 weeks!)


After everyone got home from the hospital and settled, Campbell & Tyler have had a few more play dates. Here's some evidence of them "playing" for the very first time. Basically, they both lay on their backs and had no idea the other baby was there until the both decided to roll to the middle at the same time. That created some rather hilarious moments as the two kids startled each other and began to swat at each other in a panic. Hopefully their coordination will improve soon! Since these pictures were taken, Tyler and Campbell have had many more play dates (walks, pedicures for the moms, and American Idol viewing), but who knows how long it will be before they start to recognize another baby in the room! It's good to have friends!

Grandma's Quilt

Tyler is a very lucky boy! His Grandma Anderson, who loves him very much, handmade this beautiful quilt for Tyler's shower. The quilt theme mirrors the nursery theme, and both are based on the book "Guess How Much I Love You". This picture shows some of the detail of the quilt (check out the hand embroidered bunnies hopping around the edges), as well as a copy of the book. And that would be Tyler lounging leisurely in the middle.


So, now that Tyler is finally here, we took this opportunity to torment Tyler with a prolonged photo session. He was a good sport, and gamely posed with the whole family. Here are some of our favorite shots from that morning!


Tyler and Dad check each other out.


A family shot, and Tyler is holding court. Check out those arms...he looks like he's giving a very important speech.


Grandma & Grandpa Anderson admire the little guy, and he's all eyes for Grandpa!

Bath Time

Splish, splash, I was taking a bath! OK, maybe not so much splish splashing was going on as very quiet and serious confused bewilderment...but I am sure that someday bath time will turn into a serious splash fest. For now though, little Tyler seems to really like bath time. He always screams a good bit at first, but as soon as he's warm, he loves it. That's not to say that he doesn't stare at me with a completely confused expression on his face, but he's generally content, which I think has to be a very good sign. That said, here's a picture of his first bath, in the hospital, which he really didn't appreciate:

But now that we're home, he really enjoys bath time, or at least he quietly tolerates it. That is, until I take him out of the water, at which point he screams bloody murder until I can dry him off and sufficiently warm him up. Although, I have to say, he has a very annoying tendency of going to the bathroom on the towels just as soon as I'm drying him off, which makes bath time very messy for mommy indeed...

By the way, don't worry, we are not really doing Tyler's first bath a month after he was born. It's just that this blogging program won't let me change the dates on my posts, so in an effort to have some sense of chronology to this thing, I have to catch up on my backlog. But, we're working on it, and I should have some current entries here pretty quickly. Sorry for the delay, but you gotta do what you gotta do with a newborn. Finding time is the biggest challenge!