Tales of *tiny* Ty: Ty {almost} Unscripted

Let's be real. This site is more of my journal and life documentation than an actual, beneficial-to-the-general-public blog. For example, I could not for the life of me remember when I had to ditch my weddings rings when I was pregnant with Ty, so I just went back and read some old Wednesday Storks, the series where I documented his pregnancy. I'm guessing no one else has needed to reference those posts since the time they were written, but they have helped me remember what happened when.

I also shamelessly admit that I will frequently look at the pictures from the early days of Tales of *tiny* Ty. I'm always struck by just how cute he was (I know). It's like I forgot what he looked like. Probably because I did. I want to be able to look back a year from now and say, "oh, right. He used to do that," or "that's what he looked like! I remember now..."

It is in that spirit (and the fact that I needed a photography project :) ) that I am leaving myself this documentary of a small piece of one of his days. I know they won't look like this forever. On the contrary, they might not even look like this in a month! Not all of these require captions, but I have added them where further explanation is helpful :)

The dry winter air of Pretoria has been wreaking havoc on Ty's skin. Here I'm applying some coconut oil to his sad, sad scalp. It makes for an oily head but I don't think he's trying to win any fashion shows.

And this is his morning lotion treatment :) 

Often his first choice out of the toy basket, his "Scooby" truck. One day he'll see a cartoon with a dog named Scooby Doo and think they based a television series on his favorite truck toy :) 

This was a first...

Reading The Little Blue Truck

And that's a nap ;)

Tales of *tiny* Ty: The Birthday Boy

March 25th, 2014, we got Ty. This is the first time I've thought of that all day, if you can believe it. How did he have a birthday without me even thinking about his birth? Oh, I know. I spent the day with the one year old version of Ty, whom I think might be more demanding than the newborn version, and certainly does not leave one with much opportunity for reminiscing ;)

I hope we did everything you're supposed to do on a first birthday. Goodness, I really have no idea. I tried to get a show-stopping birthday picture...didn't happen. This was one of those days when he wasn't interested in smiling. I know, you didn't think he had those. It made for a really blah photo shoot, but at least we got some documentation. I guess not every picture is going to be frameable, right?

Dinner was Papa John's (is it Ty's birthday or mine?) followed by some totally Pinterest-worthy cupcakes designed and executed by Todd. This afternoon. Both designed and executed this afternoon. A few weeks ago I decided we'd do red and blue-iced cupcakes representing Elmo and Cookie Monster, two characters Ty can identify when shown a picture. Slap on some icing and call those puppies done. It doesn't get much easier.

Well. Todd felt differently. Obviously. I thought he was setting the bar a bit too high. This is only Ty's first birthday. After this, Todd will have to do a decorated cake every year. There's no turning back.

The present of the night was most definitely a tiny, foam football from Ty's Aunt. He carried it around, threw it, chewed it, and panicked when he wasn't doing one of the above. It was probably the least expensive toy he received, which serves as a good reminder: don't spend a lot on toys. Kids are probably happier with cheap stuff.

It has been a wonderful, challenging, enlightening, sanctifying, and kind of disgusting year. We love you, buddy! We're so glad God gave you to us :)

Wearing his birthday shirt, made by Grandma O!

The cupcakes!

It took him a little while to really get into the cake...

But he got there :) 

Present time!

THE football :)