I have missed several months worth of updates, and Tyler has so many pieces of his personality emerging that I am going to back track and try not to forget any of it! Get ready for a novel, and four months worth of random pictures of Ty-Guy!
Bed time routine ever since the boys moved into their bunk bed has involved me laying down with Tyler while Timmy says our 'prayers and God blesses' and I stay a few minutes after we say amen, before saying goodnight and leaving the room. Shortly after we moved, Tyler wanted me to stay until he fell asleep, but I had done that with Timmy, and knew better the second time around! When I would say goodnight and start to get up, Tyler started putting his hand on my cheek and pushing my head back down to the pillow, with surprising force, and saying, "You nap here." It cracked me up, so I would agree to one more minute, then give him a requested kiss, hug, and squeeze, before he would let me out of his bed, at which point he would ask for another kiss, hug, and squeeze while I leaned in (between the bunk bed and the safety rail) and then direct me to give Timmy a kiss, hug, and squeeze as well. Since our vacation, Tyler still pushes my head to the pillow for an extra minute, and when I get up I give him a kiss and squeeze and then Timmy his; most nights Tyler forgets to call me back for the extra hugs and squeezes though. Some time this summer Tyler started trying to say our prayers with us, and he gets at least the last word of each line. He also wants to say the God blesses, so when I prompt, "God Bless Daddy...." Tyler will say, "Daddy, Mommy, Daddy, Mommy, Daddy" with a big, silly smile. Timmy has started racing through all of the names, so Tyler can't keep up and sometimes he gets mad and will yell the whole time Timmy is talking, "No Timmy! Mommy do it!" I don't love having to keep the peace during prayers... but I'm glad Tyler is trying to learn them. I just quietly say them over again, with Tyler copying me, after Timmy is done.
In August, when we were visiting my parents, Tyler suddenly learned how to say, "Timmy." (Though it came out more like "Mimmy" the first few times) We were all very excited, Timmy has been waiting for that for so long, especially since Tyler has been saying so many other names. The novelty of it wore of pretty quickly for Timmy though, as Tyler ran around doing almost nothing but asking Timmy to do things for him!
Tyler has entered the age where he wants to be independent. I remember this with Timmy and it is tough to handle sometimes, especially trying to get out the door in the morning. Tyler has added a new dimension to this stage, thanks to having an older brother. When there is something he wants to be doing for himself but knows he can't yet, like getting unbuckled, he demands that Timmy do it for him. So far Timmy doesn't seem to mind, however, I know how Timmy feels, since there are many times that Daddy or Grammy offer to do something for Tyler, but he demands I do it for him. Hopefully Tyler will be able to do some of these things for himself before Timmy is tired of it!
Tyler wants to be a big boy so badly. He has done entire T ball practices, keeping up with the team! Luckily, during games his bff Stella is there to keep him entertained, as well as a few new friends about their age.
Tyler is already very athletic. His favorite seems to be baseball, he will grab a bat and ask Tim to pitch to him pretty regularly. He's showing some basketball and soccer skills already too!
Tyler is loving preschool. When I drop the boys off they happily wash their hands and run around waiting for the door to open. When it does they run straight into their rooms and get started. By the time I get to Tyler's room he's already hugging his teachers and starting an activity. He does not mind when I tell him good bye at all. For the first three weeks worth of classes I picked him up afterwards too. He gets a big smile and comes running up to me when I get there. When I ask him what he did at school he usually says, "Playground! It was awesome!" Based on the amount of art coming home, he is clearly enjoying painting at the easel too! He is clearly exhausted after school, and the last time I picked him up and then put him into our carpool car, he lost it. Both Jenn (Nate's Mom) and Tim Sr told me that he was inconsolably crying for Mommy. That broke my heart, but no one told me until the end of the day, and he had already survived. I will be letting Jenn handle the entire pick up process from now on!
We got a new car last weekend, and Tyler is in love with the Jeep. As soon as he saw it he asked, "Rescuebot...?" and keeps calling it awesome.
Tyler loves to play hide and seek, it's a game that Uncle Chris and Neil played with the boys a lot this summer and it's still a favorite. Sometimes he still hides by covering his eyes with his hands, or his head with a pillow, or getting under the blankets on the bed. Sometimes he'll direct me to hide with him under the blankets (my favorite version of the game, it's basically snuggling!) and if I ask him who we're hiding from he usually says Daddy, whether or not Daddy knows we are playing, or is even home! Sometimes he will say that we are hiding from monsters (a little too much Scooby Doo, which he asks for by saying "Ooby Oo, air are ou"). Last week we were on the couch and he started saying, "Monsters coming, Mommy, in your room," so we hid under the pillow. A minute later he would tell me they were gone, then look around wide-eyed, and then tell me that the monsters ate his snack, before starting all over. This weekend when he wanted to hide in the bed, I told him to go tell Daddy to find us, he did, and then ran back and and hid in the closet. Tim walked in and Tyler opened the door to tell him, "One Two Three Dad!" and when Tim started counting Tyler yelled, "Eyes!". So he definitely understands the rules, if not the hiding. When Tim went to make dinner I told Tyler I would count, and he went running from the room. He has found a perfect hiding spot, in the corner behind the bean bag chair, but it took him a while to figure out how to get out of there on his own!
A few random things worth noting:
Tyler is still a ham. And he knows it.
Tyler is a bug magnet. His little body gets covered in bites within minutes of being outside! He calls them boo-boos and tells me, "Bad, bad bugs did it!"
When Tyler is tired, he finds a place to lay down. Period.
Tyler is a strange eater these days. He will go an entire day where he will not accept eating anything besides fruit snacks and danimal yogurt drinks. He does love meat, he will eat hot dogs (though he eats the bun with ketchup by itself, and then likes the hot dog cut up separately!), pork chops, chicken, ham, and fish. He will not take a bite of a single fruit or vegetable right now and he even turns up his nose at mac and cheese some days, but pbj's are usually a safe bet. The kid LOVES pizza and spaghetti.
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| Tyler pleading with Stella for a bite of her pizza, after finishing two slices of his own! |
Tyler just started liking taking showers. This makes bedtimes much faster so it's very helpful some nights!
When Tyler is excited he gets a big, silly grin, and hangs his tongue out and pants. I'm pretty sure he gets this from Riggins.
Tyler is a dog lover. Since going to Susan for daycare he has been a big fan of Beau, who he calls, "My BeauBeau" Riggins had to win him over, but he has now. Dempsey gets lots of love from Tyler too, and he has even told me that Dempsey is his "best friend".
We think Tyler is about ready to potty train. We've asked him about it off and on for a while and had been planning to start when we got home from vacation in August. With Timmy's potty training we bribed him with Cars cars and Chuggington trains. Tim asked me what we could bribe Tyler with and I told him nothing. Tim laughed and asked, "Does Tyler not negotiate with terrorists?" My answer is, "Tyler is the terrorist! He makes the demands!" There is no "do ____ and get ____" with Tyler, if you offer, "Clean up those toys and you can have fruit snacks" there is no budging on anything until after he has fruit snacks! Tim up'd the ante this weekend though by going to the store and buying some TMNT action figures. Tyler has been admiring them in their box, but won't even go near the toilet, I physically can not put him on the toilet at this point! Timmy is very invested in Tyler's success at this, so hopefully that will help!
Here's a few more pictures of our handsome boy!
