One More Birthday

We couldn't just skip his actual Birthday, so even though Tyler's party was over, we decided to have one more fun day with just the three of us. We picked Carl up from work early yesterday afternoon and headed to the Mall of America to take Tyler on his first rides. We really just planned on a couple, like the carousel and ferris wheel, but some random person gave us his full day pass. He hadn't realized he didn't need it to chaperone his son on rides. So Tyler had a blast going on quite a few different rides.

He loved being up so high!

Riding his bunny.

Train Ride!

 

This was by far his favorite. He could not stop smiling. It was so cute watching him go by laughing every time. He's been talking about the "hot balloons" all day.  :-)

 

It was a very fun way to celebrate our sweet little boy as a family. I really can't believe that he's two already. The time has completely flown by. He amazes me every day with the new words he's saying, the new things he's doing, and as usual, the less than safe stunts he tries to pull.

 

At two years old, Tyler is talking non-stop. His speech is becoming clearer every day. He's even talking in sentences! It's so fun to be able to have little conversations with him. He loves to do anything that we do. But one of his favorites is to work like Daddy. He got a little work bench from Uncle Matt and Aunt Janelle for Christmas, and for his Birthday he got some more tools to go with it from Aunt Emma. He loves them. He is constantly fixing things. I'm finding toy nails and hammers and screwdrivers all over the house. I had no idea how many things were broken until he started fixing them all. Apparently we have broken doors, broken pillows, broken books, broken beds, broken toys... You name it, and it probably needs to be fixed. The other day when he woke up he told me he needed to go to work. I asked him what he does at work and he quickly said, "Hammer screws."

 

One of the things I love most about Tyler is how loving and sweet he is. He is always looking out for me and it melts my heart. If he hears me say "Ow", sees me get hurt, or I so much as bump my hand on a pillow and he sees it, he comes running to kiss it better for me, saying, "Mommy better." Sometimes I don't even realize I bumped something, but he kisses it better so I guess I must have. One of the many reasons I know he's going to be a fantastic big brother. :-)  He also loves big cozy hugs. In fact, I can even bribe him with them. He is only sort of loving swimming lessons - he loves the water, but hates being on his back, and he is not a fan of the water temperature. So oddly enough, I actually had to try to convince him to jump in the water last time. The only way I could get him to practice it, was to tell him he could have a big, cozy, snuggly hug if he jumped to me. So he would jump in and then immediately ask for his cozy hug. It was pretty cute.

 

At Tyler's two year check-up on Monday we found out that he has moved all the way up to the 10th percentile for weight, and 30th for height. Growing boy! :-) He was happy to show the doctor how he can jump (all around the room, over and over again), and tell her about the foods he likes. When she left the room he told her, "Bye Sweetie." This boy cracks me up!

 

Tyler, I love you. More than you will ever know! You are funny, kind, sweet and spunky, all mixed into a crazy little ball of energy and adventure. You make us laugh all the time. There is nothing I love more than when you say, "I love you, Mommy" or give me a great big hug. We are so blessed to be your parents and to get to watch you grow up. We are so proud of the little boy that you are and we can't wait to see what you're going to do next.  :-)  Happy Birthday Tyler!

TWO Years OId!

Tyler, my sweet, tiny little baby, turned two yesterday! How did that happen?! This boy has been soooo excited about his Birthday for a long time. He was talking for weeks about having cake and balloons, and he's been singing Happy Birthday to himself and his puppies and Little People and pretty much anyone else.

We have some really good friends at church with kids who Tyler sees and plays with a lot so we invited them over for his Birthday Party on Saturday. We had one of Tyler's favorites - Tacos, and of course, cupcakes. It was a lot of fun! And most importantly, Tyler loved it.

Cupcake Train!



 

Tyler and his cute little friends.

 

And the best part... cake!

On Sunday my brothers and sisters came over for more tacos and cupcakes. Tyler is very loved by lots of people and was a little spoiled by his Birthday. But he handled all of the attention very well.

Tyler found his new bike hiding in his closet before they all came over. It was wrapped, but not disguised very well. So I quickly told him that it was a surprise and got him out of there. But he knew it was coming and was talking all about his surprise for awhile. Does this mean I have a child who is going to go present hunting every year? I'm going to have to get better at hiding things!

(Yes, he is wearing a sweater tied around his shoulders like a little prepster. My brother put it on him after he opened it and he wore it that way until it was time for cake.)

 

Blowing out his candle!

 



In the last week, Tyler has had random ladies at the mall sing Happy Birthday to him, he has had people call him to sing to him, he's had his parties, and we've sang it to him a lot, besides the hundreds of times he has sung it to himself. I'm pretty sure he thinks it was written for him. And if you sent him a Birthday card, or even a Birthday text, thank you. His whole face lit up everytime we told him that some one was telling him Happy Birthday.

It was a very fun couple of days of celebrating our sweet little boy. :-)

Hallie And Other Hallies

I don't love dogs. They are really not my favorite. When I was little I was completely terrified of them. I can control myself now and I don't jump into the arms of random strangers everytime I see one, but they are still not my favorite. So is it surprising that my child is in love with dogs? Tyler absolutely loves them. He loves to pet them and play with them and feed them and give them toys. He loves to talk about them and look at them. He has three stuffed animal puppies that he has loved for most of his life. He always sleeps with them and often brings at least one around the house and sometimes in the car with him. But this week he has turned a new corner into pet ownership. On Sunday he brought one in the car to church and he named her Hallie. We have some friends with a dog named Hallie, and Tyler loves that dog. The next day he named his other two puppies Other Hallie. I am so used to just calling them his puppies that he is continuously correcting me. "No, Mommy. Hallie."

For the last few days Tyler has been becoming an expert in taking care of his Hallies. I'm pretty sure he would take better care of a dog than I would. He's a pretty fantastic little dog owner.

He combs their hair, he gets Kleenex and blows their noses and he puts them in the sink to wash them. He is constantly going to the cabinets and stealing boxes of crackers or other snacks to feed them. And once we were all in the kitchen and he pulled a step up to the stove. Carl and I both raced across the kitchen telling him to get down and that he should never play by the stove. He very calmly said, "Hallie. Breakfast."

He flosses and brushes her teeth.

He has also been taking Hallie for lots of walks around the house. I had to make him a leash because he was walking all bent over trying to walk her everywhere.

 Tyler with all three of his Hallies.

Oh, Tyler

Sometimes we have no other words. All there is to say in response to the things he says and does is, "Oh, Tyler." He happens to think that's hilarious. And runs around the house repeating it. So we often see him laughing, shaking his head, and saying, "Oh, Tyler."

This is just one of his new daily adventures. Carl got a pull-up bar for his birthday. I'm not sure which one of them loves it more.

Now Tyler hangs off anything and everything he possibly can. He pulls out drawers just to hang off of them. He holds onto the table and dangles his feet. Literally anything that's short enough to reach and tall enough for him to swing from. For the record, we don't let him hang and swing from drawers. But he tries constantly.

It is hard for me to believe that in less than two short weeks, my baby will be TWO years old! He is very excited about his birthday. He has been talking about cake and balloons and singing Happy Birthday for awhile now. All in one day I signed Tyler up for his first swimming lessons, his last baby story time, scheduled his two year doctor appointment and started planning his second birthday party! How crazy is that?!

And speaking of swimming lessons, he absolutely loved it the first time. The second time, not so much. He started saying, "Done," about three minutes in. And he did what he was supposed to, but grudgingly and half-heartedly. He would just barely, or not quite do what they said, and then say, "Almost." A couple hours later he had a fever and it ended up being from a double ear infection. So I'm less offended now that he liked it when Daddy took him and hated it when I took him. And thankfully, he's finally feeling much better today!

Here is what else the little guy has been up to lately.

I feel like in the past few weeks he has grown up soooo much! Really, it seemed like it happened overnight. He just woke up one day and could play and interact so much more like a two year old. He's become much more conversational and his speech has suddenly become a lot clearer.  He is pretending and teasing and continually says things that make us laugh.

Favorite Words to Say:
almost, nope and holy cow! In fact, sometimes he does ridiculous things just so he has a reason to shout, "Holy cow!"

Great Quotes:
Tyler bumped his foot on something and immediately sat down, took his sock off and kissed his own foot.
Me: "Did you kiss it all better all by yourself? You didn't even need me to kiss it?"
Tyler: "Almost." Then he walked over and put his foot in my face to kiss it too.

Tyler was rubbing his eyes at lunch.
Me: "Are you getting tired?"
Tyler: "Nope. Eyes. Itchy. Poor me." (In his very saddest voice)

On our way to our friends, Jesse and Andrea's house last week we were telling him he would also see Ross and Megan and their baby, Amos. He spent the whole car ride telling us that Amos would be crying. We told him sometimes babies are happy. Everytime we asked if he thought maybe Amos would be happy, he said, "Nope!" He also told us multiple times that Jesse and Andrea need to obey.

Signs That Tyler Thinks He Is Invisible:
- He very much believes that if his eyes are shut, no one can see him. So when he wants to do something he knows he shouldn't, he closes or covers his eyes and sneaks very slowly to whatever it is that he wants to do. Most commonly it's when he finds a pacifier. He knows they are only for bed time. Keeping his eyes shut the whole time, he will slowly and sneakily reach down, pick it up, put it in his mouth and stand there sucking on it.

Signs That Tyler Needs a Sibling:
- He plays Ring-Around-The-Rosie by himself
- He throws balls at doors so that they will bounce back and "chase" him and then runs away giggling to hide behind one of us.
- He talks to his stuffed animals

Signs That He Doesn't Quite Agree That He Needs a Sibling:
- When I held our friend's newborn baby, Tyler sat there repeating, "No, no, no, baby. Go home. No baby," over and over again.
- Tyler is moving to a new room. When we showed him his new blankets he started saying, "No blankets, no bed," and shoving them back in the box as fast as he could.
-He tells us often that he is the baby and asks to be held like a baby.

Signs That Tyler Will Be a Great Big Brother:
- He is the sweetest, most loving little boy in the world.
- He's already practicing changing diapers. (During nap time. When he should be sleeping.)

Signs That Tyler is a Little Confused About the Baby:
- I asked Tyler if he wanted to feel the baby kick. He looked at me in great confusion, slowly stood up, and gently kicked my stomach. He does this every time I ask, so I have to be careful to ask if he wants to feel it move, not kick.
- When he did feel the baby move, he jumped up and ran across the room in shock and didn't want to come anywhere near me for a few minutes.

It's really hard to know how much he understands about all of this. It's pretty clear that he knows things are changing. And he can tell us all about what is going to happen. He can even tell us that Mommy will go to the hospital when the baby is born. But I know he has no clue how much his little life will change when the baby comes home!

Here are a few more pictures, just because.

Tyler loves sitting in front of fire places. He made himself right at home at the zoo last week!

This is my Tyler. Happy, silly and full of spunk. :-)