Being pregnant in January is the worst. You have so much to keep you busy in December that you have no time to think about being uncomfortable and huge, but then January comes and everything seems to come to a complete halt--especially time--when you are nine months pregnant. Tyler was due on February 7, but I had had it with being pregnant so when I had my visit with the doctor on January 23, 1995, I told him I wanted him to strip my membranes to see if I'd go into labor. I had Megan two weeks early, and everything was fine there, so I figured it would be okay. So he went ahead and did it and I started in full labor in the early afternoon, but the contractions weren't very close together. Because I had to wait for a while at the hospital for Megan to decide come, I decided to make sure the contractions were very close together and I was really ready to deliver before I went to the hospital with Tyler. I sent the rest of the family to a gymnastics meet (where they nearly lost Megan who was two at the time) and I stayed home to straighten the house and get my bags packed to go to the hospital. When they finally got home at around 10:00 p.m., I told Mike we needed to go pretty soon. We called his sister to come stay with the girls and she got to the house around 10:30 p.m. We finally arrived at the hospital at 11:00 p.m. and Tyler was born and 12:01 a.m. The doctor made it just in time and we had a healthy little boy. I remember sitting in the recliner in my hospital room later that day holding my new little boy and being a little overwhelmed. I still don't know if it was because I couldn't believe I now had three children or if it was because I had a different version of a child that I wasn't sure how to take care of, but I remember thinking, "How did I get to this point? and Will I be able to take care of all of them?" It was pretty humbling. It was a little different to get squirted nearly every time I changed Tyler's diaper, but other than that things were pretty much the same.
A few facts about Tyler:
- I think it's been a little difficult for him to be the only boy at times. He gets a little tired of his sisters' girly stuff being everywhere and always being outnumbered when voting on an activity but he has been on some pretty great baseball trips, golf outings and basketball games with his dad which has helped make up for it, somewhat.
- He is loved by children of all ages (especially his cousins) because he takes the time to have fun with them. Last year, a little girl in our ward invited him to her birthday party (she was 6), he went, without any proding from me, and she was thrilled. He is just so cute with them and so kind.
- He is very bull-headed and competitive. These qualities have been a benefit in some instances, but a detriment in others. When EVERYTHING has to be a competition, it gets pretty old! But it's also made him better at some things because he strives to be the best at everything.
- He inherited more of my OCD qualities than any of my girls. He likes things to stay the way they have always been. This includes my cooking, rules and especially traditions. If there is any deviation from the norm, he is not happy and we hear about it.
- Because of his size, I would not allow him to play football, but he has played basketball for what seems like forever and loves it. He doesn't play on the high school team but this allows him to play church ball and on a city league team, which he loves. He has also decided he loves to golf. He has been on the high school golf team for the past two years and has really improved. And in keeping with his competitive nature--he has been very pleased about the fact that he beats his dad pretty consistently on the golf course.
- He has an engineering mind and loves to build things. He's made everything from model cars to treehouses and even engineered himself a putting green out of cardboard.
- He is constantly teasing and/or bugging me or the girls (he thinks it's funny) and he is so sarcastic. I'm not a big fan of sarcasm, but I try to be patient.
- He knows right from wrong and chooses the right and invites those around him to do the same. He is mission bound and remembers this each day as he is faced with decisions. He has had, quite frequently, a picture of Jesus Christ as the background picture on his phone and a couple of months ago he learned how to make an origami white shirt in seminary with a regular piece of paper and then came home and made this larger version to put on his wall.
If you can't read the tag, it says, "Future Missionary". He made an identical tag, put it on a binder ring and attached it to a zipper on his backpack, but the plastic he put it in wasn't strong enough and it ripped off after a couple of days.
On one of the trips to see the "Astros" play baseball.
An example of his "OCD"ness and his love for balls and sports of all kind!
He loved being a ball boy for USU Basketball for many years. This was the game when he was awarded one of the "Ball boys of the game" award.
He's had at least two really good "shiners" and has gotten a couple of concusions as well. I guess that all comes with being a boy.
Ty and his cousin Nick (who are just two months apart in age) spending time rocking out on one of Grandma's electric pianos. ( I think both moms wish they still had this much interest in the piano.)
A very normal sight when the cousins are around.
They LOVE him!
Tyler, you're a great kid, we love you and hope you
have a fantastic birthday!
