My Boy

Tyler. Where do I even start in describing my sweet boy these days? He is my hilarious, creative, adventurous, action-packed, energy-filled little ball of joy. He is so sweet it makes my heart melt, and so sneaky and creative that I have to always be on my toes.

As a big three year old, Tyler loves to look at books, build towers, play with cars and play mobiles and he is constantly pretending to be different people or animals. He is usually on the move and very busy, but he still loves to snuggle sometimes, especially if he gets to watch a show. He loves to sing and knows so many songs. Most of his favorites are Christmas songs. This morning (six days after his birthday) he walked sadly out to the kitchen and said, "You forgot to sing 'Nature Thing' to me on my birthday." It took me a minute to figure out that he was talking about Joy to the World. Of course when I sang it to him, he told me it's not his birthday. :-) I don't know how I could have forgotten to sing him a Christmas song on his March 26 birthday! But I should have thought of it. Because we have been singing Christmas songs at our house every. single. day. since October at our house. :-) We are the family walking through the grocery store - in April, yes it even happened today - with Tyler belting out Christmas songs at the top of his lungs and Carsten doing his very best to imitate him, also at the top of his lungs. We are quite a sight.

Tyler loves his brother so much. They are lucky to have each other. He definitely has his moments, but he is such a good big brother. Even with all of his new birthday toys he is very willing to share with him. He calls him his best friend. And the other day I even saw him spontaneously give him a hug and tell him, "I love you so much in the whole wide world. You are so special to me." He is just so sweet with him.

He had his three year old check up last week and he was quite the little conversationalist. Right before the doctor came in he started loudly (I mean very loudly) telling/shouting a story. I don't remember what it was about, but it started like this, "Once upon and time in a land far, far away, there lived a little boy named..." The doctor came in mid-story and had heard it from the office next door. :-) During the appointment Tyler proceeded to tell her all about how he loves to feed his tigers and raccoons milk and that he's not actually Tyler, he's Daddy. He also told her he's a kangaroo.

Just like Daddy

It's been awhile since I've posted some of his many write-downable moments, so here are a few.

As we were driving home from church:
   Tyler: Are you having trouble driving Daddy?
   Carl: No, does it seem like I am?
   Tyler: Yeah. You're supposed to use two hands. Not one.
Busted! :-)

We are constantly reminding him that he needs to answer us when we talk to him. Specifically when we ask him to do something, or ask what he is doing. Lately when we tell him to do something (not every time of course, but often) he has been enthusiastically shouting, " Ok, I would LOVE to do that!"

There is no way to describe his half fake, half real laugh without you hearing it, but it is contagious and makes me laugh almost every time. And lately he does it while saying, "I'm so excited!!" About so many things. It's just cute. :-)

Tyler has become a professional bed time avoider recently. He is getting more and more creative. He's long since moved on from asking for water or saying he needs to go potty again. Here are a few of his excuses for coming out of his room:

"I'm just showing you where your room is."
"I'm just checking on you to make sure you're ok."
"You forgot to tell me what I will lose" and "You forgot to tell me what my rule is if I come out." We always tell him he will lose a stuffed animal for coming out of his room when he should be sleeping.

Last night I thought he was calling me so I went into his room. I think he had just been talking to his animals though. But when I got there he figured we should talk for awhile. I asked if he needed something. "Yes...I need... something...kind of like... I just have to tell you....something...like...I'm just kind of thinking...about something... I have to tell you...so I need you to be in here... so I can kind of tell you about something...so I have to think about it...it's kind of...something..." This went on for quite awhile. Clearly whatever he had to say was very important. :-)

And here's the best one. We were happily eating lunch a couple of weeks ago. I started cleaning up and Tyler decided he wanted more food. So while he should be eating, I looked up from the dishwasher to see he had climbed out of his chair and pulled his pants down.
   Me: Tyler what are you doing?!
   Tyler: I'm going potty like a dinosaur.
   Me: Tyler, pull your pants up. You need to go potty in the bathroom!
   Tyler: (stands up a little taller) No, I need to go potty like a dinosaur.
   Me: Do not go potty out here. Go to the bathroom.
   Tyler: (bends his knees) I'm going potty like a dinosaur.
   Me: STOP IT! STOP, NOW! TYLER STOP RIGHT NOW! STOP!!! (as I am running across    the room watching him "go potty like a dinosaur" all over the kitchen floor. Yep. That    happened. He lost all of his dinosaur toys and books for quite awhile for that one.

This picture was taken last night. Apparently some woodpeckers decided to take up residency in our furnace vent. While Carl was outside taking care of it, Tyler decided he needed to go out too. I told him that we didn't have safety goggles and work gloves to keep us safe like Daddy, so we should stay inside. He immediately took off running to his room and dug through his dress-up drawer saying, "I have those too!" and put these on. It was hard to argue with that logic. :-)

Tyler you make us laugh constantly. You are a complete joy and a blessing and we are thankful for you every single day. Happy third birthday baby boy!