Thanksgiving and Chaunkah-7 1/2 months-8 months

We've been pretty busy in the past few weeks, hence why I haven't posted any pictures.

Here's what we've been up to:

Thanksgiving:

• The West Coast Bishow's joined us this year
• We had our first combined Bishow-Moss family Thanksgiving
• We had a Saturday Thanksgiving brunch with the Kleiman family

I love my Grandpa! Tapping on his head makes a great sound!

• 
• Our Family
  The whole Moss family
  Daddy and I are both wearing Polo!
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Hanging with my Great Uncle
• GO HOOS!Loving my cousins!
  
  All of the Cousins (minus Ty who was napping)
  Copying pictures that we've been taking since we were really little
  
  The Bishow-Kleiman-Moss Klan
  
  
  Even though UVA lost to Tech, we are still in love!
  

Tyler is now eating lots of new foods:

• lentils
• Cheddar and Monterrey Jack Cheese
• Cream cheese
• chicken sauteed with paprika, garlic, onions, and celery (pureed)
• creamy cheesy cauliflower (to be eaten on Friday)
• Quinoa (often mixed with broccoli and cheese)
• hard boiled egg yolk
  
• spices: garlic, onion powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, basil, paprika
• oranges (which he'll share with me....he will suck all of the juice out of a slice...pretty funny!)
  

It's all very exciting and I'm having a blast in the kitchen making all of his food. It's pretty hysterical that I had leftover Chinese food for lunch and Tyler had a fresh home cooked gourmet meal.

Chanukah:

• Tyler enjoyed lighting the candles every night. He loved looking at the lights flickering in the windows.
  
• He also loved the Chanukah songs.
• Thanks to everyone for his Chanukah presents!
  
• Here are some of Tyler's new toys that he loves:
• 
  
• Ball Popper
  http://www.amazon.com/Playskool-Explore-Grow-Busy-Popper/dp/B002B555QQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1291753701&sr=8-1
  
  Nesting Blocks
  Ty loves to knock down a tower and eventually he will learn make towers himself. These are also nesting blocks so it will allow him to sort from biggest to smallest eventually.
  http://www.amazon.com/Melissa-Doug-10-Piece-Alphabet-Stacking/dp/B000GIL2DU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=toys-and-games&qid=1291753756&sr=1-1
  
  Music Cube
  Cause and effect, music, stop, go, more music, different music, etc.
  http://www.amazon.com/Munchkin-3106-Mozart-Magic-Cube/dp/B00004TFLB/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=toys-and-games&qid=1291753854&sr=1-1
  
  Bee Bop Band
  http://www.amazon.com/Parents-Magazine-Bee-Bop-Band/dp/B000OF8A7G/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=toys-and-games&qid=1291753914&sr=1-4
  
  Large Knobs Easy Puzzles
  Even though he won't get the concept of matching or puzzles for a while, this is great for his fine motor skills and it's always great to start them early.
  http://www.amazon.com/Melissa-Doug-Deluxe-Barnyard-Animals/dp/B000GKU3GU/ref=sr_1_6?s=toys-and-games&ie=UTF8&qid=1291775749&sr=1-6
  
  Shape Sorter
  
  Bead Maze
  http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/80014041
  
  Bubbles
• Farm Animal Hand Puppets

Here is Ty lighting the candles!

• 

Signs:

• Tyler understands a lot of the signs that I use with him, but he is independently signing "milk" and "more"
• He is also starting to wave
  

Still no teeth yet.....

• We have all of the "signs"....he drools like a faucet, chews on everything, and sometimes cries like he's in pain....but still no teeth
  

Tyler's First Sleepover (and our first 24 hours with no baby)

• Tyler got to spend all day with his Grandma Joanie and Grandpa Rickie and spent the night and morning with Grammy Suz and Pops. He had the best time and so did we!
• We went to lunch at Chopped (a yummy salad place in the city)
• We went to the Spy Museum and I even convinced J.D. to do the interactive Spy mission (which was the best part of the museum)
• We had a 2 hour coffee Starbucks
• We went to Rasika (our absolute favorite restaurant in the city) and ended up staying for 3 1/2 hours. We made friends with the head bartender/drink specialist Jason and he made us some of his favorite drinks.
• We went for a walk around the city.
  
• We slept in until 9 am and had a leisurely cup of coffee in the morning before picking up Tyler.
• ***** THANK YOU SO MUCH TO OUR PARENTS TO WATCHING TY!!!*******
  

Tyler Turns 8 months

• He's really getting so big!
  
• He still loves crawling all around and pulling himself up to stand on just about everything (even a wall!)
• He has really mastered getting down from a standing position which was far more difficult than learning how to stand up.
• He crawls up the stairs SO fast!
• He loves standing while holding onto something and jumping up and down!
• He loves playing with his new toys
• He loves putting EVERYTHING in his mouth!