Happy B-day Tucker...

Yes, that is a backwards #1. I made him a #1 pancake and didn't think about the fact that once I flipped it over, it wouldn't be a #1 anymore. Good thing he doesn't know the difference yet, right?:)

Happy Birthday Tucker! This year, you're getting(drum roll please)...

A BLACK EYE!

Yes, on Saturday night (Tuckers birthday) Tucker fell in the bathtub and got a black eye! Can you say mother of the year? Can you say guilt? You see, Tucker has a big bucket of those foam letters for his bath, and I was sitting on the outside of the tub and he was on the inside, standing and holding on to the edge (problem #1) and he was being such a big boy and bending down and getting the letters out of the water and handing them to me so I could put them in the bucket because bath time was coming to an end; And I was so excited that he was being such a big boy and helping me out and he could tell that I was excited and so he kept on leaning down (problem #2) and standing back up and leaning down...and finally just one time, his little hand slipped, and before I could catch him, his face smacked the side of the tub. So mommy learned her lesson! No more babies standing in the tub. These pictures really don't do it justice. Its pretty black. It immediately swelled. The first pictures is from that night, the second one is from two days later. And the worst part was that on Monday he had his doctors appointment for his year check up. I was scared the doc was going to call CPS on me! :) The doc just laughed at the story (she HEARTS Tucker) and told me it for sure won't be the last! He was a tough little boy. As with most things with Tucker, he was easily distracted, thankfully. He cried a lot when it first happened, but quickly got over it and was just fine shortly after!

Anyway, here are the Tuck stats:
31 inches long = 75% percentile
23.13 Lbs = 50-75% percentile
(the first time Tuck has dipped even close to below the 75%)
The doc was very impressed with his speech! He was kind of showing off for her and saying all of his words and flirting with her a bit, but she was very impressed with how many words he knows and how well he mimics and catches on and understands things and just how he chats so much. (to himself mostly) :)
Anyway, the day was great up until the whole black-eye thing. We went to Barnes & Noble and read some books, and Tucker got a few new books. (Birthday Monsters by Sandra Boynton-cutest book ever) We went over to my Brother & Sis-in laws house, their dog just had puppies, and Tucker HEARTS dogs. (gogs) So he was happy to play with the gogs. And we went to our friends house and Tuck got to play with his girlfriend, Carly. (shes made a few appearances on the pyper family blog). That was about it. We were going to have a little party, but my dad is not home from Alaska yet. (he's usually always home by Thanksgiving, but isn't going to make it this year until Dec. 4th) Anyway, he asked us to wait to have his little 'party' until he got home. I didn't think that Tucker would mind. :) Since he hasn't tasted the sweet goodness that is birthday cake and doesn't yet know what he is missing out on, he won't know a thing. We'll have a little family party with a few close friends and dig into a delicious Costco cake! :) I want to share just a few of the things that Tucker has gotten so far for his b-day:

Some cozy flanel jammies from his auntie Em. (one of my bestest friends) Thanks Emily! Emily shares the same b-day as Tucker!

An Auburn Sweatshirt from his Uncle Doug! (Bens best friend) Yeah, GO AUBURN! -Thanks Doug!
And last but certainly not least, A tickle me Elmo from his g-ma. (my mom) And we were so excited about this because we thought that he would love it! He loves to laugh!
But this is the reaction that came once Elmo started laughing. We all loved it and thought it was the cutest thing, but Tuck was the one who disliked it very much. In fact, he wouldn't even look at it without sitting in my lap for the first few days, and is still pretty weary of the whole laughing Elmo doll.
We also got to go to Cyrus O'learys for some b-day dinners. It was actually for his Uncle Nathans (my brother) birthday, but Nathan has never had a family member to share his b-day dinner with, so it was really for Nathan & Tuck. He had just had a taste of his very first Cyrus O'Learys pie in these pics. Yummy!
Aunt Kayla had to get in on the action too!
OK, I could go on and on about Tucker, but I'll end by sharing just a FEW of the things that he's been up to JUST in the past few weeks:
Broke Mommys favorite ceramic bowl to get to the gords inside.-oops (my fault for leaving it on the coffee table within reaching distance with cool gords to play with inside)
Literally nose-dived into the shower-fully clothed, while I was in there showering, to get to his bath toys. And got drenched! And loved every minute of it!
Figured out how to free one arm from his car-seat. (if you look closely, you can see) I'm not sure how I'm going to fix this one. But I looked back while driving to see this little man so proud of himself for getting his arm out. Luckily, he hasn't done it since.
And this one is just because I think that he is so cute in this coat. He absolutley hates it and Ben says he looks like a little turtle, because when he crawls in it, it kind of goes up to his chin and the hood falls down a little and his little head just barely pokes out of it.

Anyway, this is Tuck. We are so greatful to have him as part of our family and greatful that all THREE of us have survived this past year. We are greatful that he is happy and healthy and we couldn't have asked for a better little guy to teach us patience and kindness and especially LOVE!