I honestly thought this day would never come.  You know it’s bad when a mother is praying to the God in Heaven that her son would learn to walk.  But the day has finally come and Titus Israel Ramos, at a few days shy of 16 months, is officially a biped.

The real breakthrough came when we were at prayer meeting at Houghton church on Tuesday evening.  He kept walking from the side bench to Karen’s seat which was about 6 feet away.  It had been a while since I took the boys to prayer meeting since it was past their bedtime.  Well, after last week, I was kicking myself for not bringing Ty to prayer meeting 4 months earlier!

He is so chill, I can’t blame him.  Even now, he is quite the shy walker.  When you watch him walking, he can’t help but grin and more often than not, it causes him to fall over.  But I still think it is safe to consider this official.  Here are some pics of our baby who decided it was time for him to join the big boys club at last:

We’re so proud of you, Ty! 

We celebrated our baby’s first birthday at home with our family.  We went to a church Christmas party in the afternoon, which was nice, and then after getting home at around 6pm, our little family party began. 

Earlier in the day, the boys helped us wrap some presents for Ty.  The boys were very excited to watch Ty open presents for the first time in his life!  We ate cupcakes first and really had a good laugh watching Ty devour his first sugary treat.  Then, we took pictures and Ty opened his presents.  After a while, Ty was so tired so we put him down for bed.  Israel had started this family tradition where everyone sleeps in the same room together when it’s someone’s birthday.  Our room was too cold for them, so we let the two older boys sleep in the living room together.  Israel and I joined them when we were ready for bed.  We all stayed nice and toasty from our wood stove.  We weren’t able to do anything super-special, but we had a memorable time together.

Ty wondering why he was never allowed to taste anything so good before!

Opening presents.

No more newborns in this house!  Just 3 little boys.  🙂

Since Ty was born, the Christmas season has become even more meaningful.  I’m thankful that Jesus gave me a perpetual reminder, through Ty’s birth, of the sacrifice Heaven made for us.  Over 2,000 years ago, another Baby was born to us and this birth is even more significant to me than my own sons’.  It is my prayer that I not only remember Ty’s birthday, but that Christ is continually reborn in my heart. 

                                                TY AND BEANS

Ty is now eating more table food, but still with no salt or seasoning.  He loves cereal, fruit, rice, corn, and beans.  He now has 8 visible teeth.  He loves to give cheesy smiles which I believe evolved from Auntie Amy’s “viejita” face.  This started after we got back from Virginia.  Amy, if Ty has wrinkles around his nose by age 12, I will totally and completely hold you responsible! 

                                          TY AND BENTLEY

Bentley has become such a patient dog.  Ty has a fascination with hitting Bentley repeatedly on his face despite efforts to teach him be gentle.  Bentley still insists on sitting next to him.  What a lesson on patience, love, and forgiveness!  We think Bentley is the best dog in the whole world.  As you can see in this clip, Ty is definitely showing improvement.

                                           TY STANDS UP

He is yet to crawl.  He still scoots on his belly to get where he wants to go.  We always felt that Bentley played an instrumental role in teaching the two older boys how to crawl.  Ty seems to have picked up other behavior from Bentley.  His brothers have been great at making sure Ty stays in the safe areas.  When Ty begins creeping out of the living room, Manu will promptly grab Ty’s feet and drag him back to safety.  Micah resorts to yelling for me.  Either way, they are a great help during this time.  And in case this is the last time I can say this, Manu and Micah love to be with, take care of, and play with Ty.  We’re hoping and praying that their patience and tolerance will last forever.

Since Ty was born, he’s kind of been my neglected child.  Most of my time and energy seems to be focused on making sure Manu and Micah are getting along.  But he has been so laid back!  I’m not sure if I can attribute Ty’s chill personality to God answering my prayers or because he’s just so used to being left alone and has learned to be content.  It really boggles my mind.  I think the Lord knew that if Ty wasn’t an easy baby, I’d lose my mind.  So, I’m very thankful that the Lord gives each of us only what we are able to handle.  Definitely an act of grace.

He sleeps so much and so well.  He takes about 3 naps during the day and he goes to bed around 7pm.  Unless something is really bothering him, I just lay him down and he goes right to sleep.  Every morning at around 8am, he wakes up to his 2 big brothers climbing into the crib with him and bringing in all sorts of toys and stuffed animals.  They all sleep in the same bedroom…and they love it.  I know he’s probably starving, but he just plays with his brothers until I come in to get him at around 8:30-9am. 

Ty rarely cries.  When he does, after about 10 seconds, he’ll just pop his left thumb in his mouth and lay down wherever he is.  Sometimes I probably take advantage of this because at times when I’m supposed to feed him, I’ll end up leaving him in his highchair or on the ground with toys for sometimes up to an hour as I frantically finish up other chores or things to do.  He just waits patiently.  The good thing is that he has finally learned how to pick things up with his fingers so he can eat some cereal while he waits.

Ty eats anything.  He has never not finished a container of baby food and he has never rejected anything that was given him.  Once I decided to blend up some fruit for him to mix in with his rice cereal.  We had an old plum in the fridge that needed to be eaten, so I got that.  When I cut it in half, it was kind of brown and translucent inside, but it didn’t look rotten or anything.  So, I pitted it and blended it up and fed it to Ty.  (I know, I don’t know what I was thinking.)  He made a few faces and I assumed it was because it was sour.  But he kept eating and eating…not excitedly, – he’s never been super-excited about eating food – but faithfully, as opened up his mouth when the spoon came near.  I decided to taste some.  It was the nastiest, sour/bitter-tasting plum ever.  It was probably as good as rotten.  I actually apologized to Ty for feeding it to him.  But I just can’t believe that he is just so laid back!   

Ty is growing so nicely.  At his last doctor’s visit, both his length and height were in the similar percentile- in the 90’s, and his head was quite small.  I think it was like in the 45th percentile.  That has been unique for us since the other two boys had fairly large heads or at least heads in proportion to their bodies.  It makes Ty look like a mini person.  He is squirming around on his belly to get around now.  He can get up on all fours and take one lunge, but then he plops onto his belly and scoots to get to his actual destination. 

Sometimes he baby-talks, but usually Ty is quiet.  There have been times when we thought he was mimicking one of us, but it’s kind of hard to tell if it is just a coincidence.  He loves calling for me…especially when he’s hungry.  And he’ll copy me when I ask him to say, “more, mama”.  He is so sweet. 

He is very cuddly and loves to be held.  Manu and Micah always try to make him laugh mainly by tickling him.  Ty has a pretty good poker face, but when he smiles, it’s contagious.  With 6 crooked, gapped teeth, his smile closely resembles an old farmer who lost some teeth and never saw an orthodontist. 

At times, I wish he could stay like this forever!  But my curiosity is just too strong to know just what kind of boy Ty will become and how his personality will fit into our family. 

Here’s a short video we made of Ty at 9 months.