Ty update: words, words, and more words!--almost 10 months

Well I can't believe Ty is almost 10 months old, but it's true, our baby is growing up.

Here are some recent developments (the speech and language developments are by far the most exciting for me!:

• Ty will approximate almost any word, especially for food. Most of the time he is able to say the first sound correctly (if it's one of the sounds he already has). (Mommy is so proud!)
  
• His receptive language (what he understands) blows me away. If I say any of the following words to him without looking in the direction of them, he clearly understands them (and these are the only ones I've tried so I'm sure there are more): daddy, mommy, light, fan, puff, window, grandpa, grandma, orange, cheese, milk, water.
  
• Ty is really exerting his independence these days. For the last week, he has been refusing to eat almost all foods with a spoon. He only wants to eat finger foods. We have been giving him EVERYTHING! (cooked peas, corn, carrots, green beans, bread, shredded cheese, puffs, melons, oranges (with the peel on which feels really good on his gums), bananas, pears, kiwi, rice, spaghetti, etc.), and pretty much anything else we are eating. Tonight we will try pieces of chicken and see how that goes. This is VERY messy. Our vacuum has a new home: in our dining room. We have also been trying to play a game of sneak the food in when we can (i.e. when Ty is taking a bite of finger food, we shovel in a bite of food with the spoon....sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't).
• Tyler now has 5 teeth! Two on the bottom and 3 on the top (front 2 and one of the left of the middle). Luckily for us, this one wasn't too painful.
  
• Finger's crossed that Ty's sleeping will stay how it's been for the last month (awesome! and sleeping through the night) Although some mornings, he'll wake up closer to 6:15-6:30 instead of 7 am, it's pretty hard to complain, especially since he usually plays quietly in his crib for half and hour before he's ready to get up which =more sleep for J.D. and I!
• Favorite toys: activity table, ball popper, bead maze, and pretty much anything else he can put in his mouth.
  
• Tyler loves his swim class (although the teacher is TERRIBLE and shows up halfway through the class every week). He likes splashing J.D. in the face, singing the kids songs, and passing the ball back and forth to other kids. He's getting ready to go to Aruba with Grandma, Grandpa and Aunt Allie!!
  

All around the mulberry bush, the monkey chase the weasel, the weasel thought it was all in fun....POP goes the weasel. (It's funny every time!)

• holding on the wall all by himself
  splashing Daddy!
  Dinner with godparents Fern and Khalil!
  Kissing Grandma....open mouth kisses with tongue are Tyler's specialty!
  I really think he looks like his Grandpa here! (thanks Uncle Bobby for pointing that out!)
  He loving looking out the window!
  
• Where's the light??
  I'm trying to run away from mommy as fast as I can.
  Lunch with his girlfriend Eve! What a pretty girl! ...They are sharing a mum mum cracker together.