Tyler at 32 Months

Tyler is torn right now between being a big boy and being the baby of the family!  In some ways he's so big; he's usually very independent, speaks in complete sentences (though he's not always understood) and he keeps up with Timmy most of the time.  On the other hand, he wants me to carry him around, still sucks his thumb, and refuses to go anywhere near a toilet most of the time!

Every time that Tyler gets hurt or almost gets hurt (ie, falls off the climbing structure, jumps from the 6th stair to the landing, gets knocked over by Timmy) he gets a huge grin and says, "That was AWETHOME!"  Come to think of it, Tyler says almost everything is 'awethome' including burping, tv shows, video games, and sucking his thumb.  If everything is awethome then everyone is "Silwy."  He says this very cutely, and it is a big improvement over the first word he started calling everyone, "Stupid."  I don't know where that one came from, but I'm glad he's now understanding that he can't use it!  His other big phrase, and this one has been around even longer, is, "See, I told youuu!"  Now partnered with "Silwy" on the end.  It does not matter if he actually told you something or not, if he sees something that he likes, he told you, even if you first told him something!  That situation can be turned into ten minutes of, "No, I told you!"

My favorite, favorite things he says pretty regularly, upon first seeing me when I get home, or sometimes even if I've just been out of sight for awhile, is, "Mom! You my best!"  The first time he said it he seemed to know there should really be another word on the end of his sentence, because he looked a little confused.  I don't mind him leaving it open ended though!

Here are some videos of me prompting him to say all this stuff, so you can hear his pronunciation yourself.

Tyler plays with Timmy almost constantly, sometimes much to Timmy's dismay, but usually they can figure out something to do together.  When Timmy is having homework time, Tyler will either ask to do homework too (color) or will get in some good independent play time.  His independent play and play with Timmy is becoming more sophisticated.  Tyler really loves playing with the duplos and the blocks, building towers and knocking them back down.

I just had Tyler's parent teacher conference last week and was told that his cognitive play has taken a big step forward lately, and that he's even working on puzzles with his friends Jasir and Sebastian and they are talking to each other about the pieces.  Ms Sue says Tyler particularly loves when she brings out something new, and that he always wants to help with baking and art especially, and every chance to go outside.

For all these growing up strides, Tyler is still my baby.  He is perfectly capable of walking up and down the stairs by himself, unless I'm in the house.  The other night he actually walked up the steps, then realized I was standing at the top of them, and started walking back down demanding that I come pick him up at the bottom!  I grabbed him and ran up the next flight of steps before he could get away!  I am constantly hearing, "Mommm! Pick me up..." in a pathetic voice.  He also tries to tell me, "I can't" and, "I no know how" either is followed with, "I need you help me."  This is regular response to requests as simple as helping Timmy clean up, to stop crying, or to tell everyone goodnight!  He's luck he's so cute!

Whenever we see Tyler sucking his thumb we tell him to stop.  He mostly does it when he's tired, and he will immediately pull it out and either give a sheepish grin or be frustrated (with himself for forgetting, I think...) and grunt and kind of hit his fist into his leg.  If it happens a whole bunch of times in a row, or if he really just wants to suck that thumb, that is when he'll say, "My thumb awethome..."

We have had a few instances where we thought Tyler was getting ready to potty train, extending all the way back to last summer.  One morning a few weeks ago when I saw that his diaper was still completely dry, I convinced him to sit on his little potty.  He sat for a few minutes and two little drops came out, he sat up straight and yelled,  "I did it!" and then declared himself done and demanded his diaper, which was of course full just a few minutes later.  We did do that whole excited thing, told every family member we saw for days, gave him a pee prize toy and everything, but he hasn't gone near the potty again since!

Tyler is still pretty serious.  He does like to tease and laugh, but even when he's pretending he speaks very seriously.  For a while now, whenever it's just him and I going somewhere, as I get him out of the car he tells me, "Mom, I'm Batman.  You're Robin.  Let's go get the bad guys."  There's no follow up to this announcement, he's just stating a fact, though sometimes he's Superman or Spiderman and I'm Wonder Woman.  Recently, especially at bedtime now he'll say, "Mom.  I tell you something. (one of his favorite tactics for not getting into bed or otherwise doing what we've asked him to do)  I'm not Batman.  You're not Robin.  I no know how to be Superhero."  The first time he let me in on this realization I told him, "That's okay, I like being Mommy, do you like being Tyler?"  His reply was, "No.  I want be Superhero."  He's too cute.