Tyler: 29 Months

October 24-November 23, 2012 (28 to 29 months old)

Tyler's life this month in bullet points:

• He has pretend phone conversations all the time. He picks up a phone and paces back and forth having a conversation in what I think is Chinese, not sure. He can talk clear as day, but as soon as he gets on the phone, he has his own language. He always ends the call with "ok, ok, bye bye".
• He started acting out scenes from his books. He was playing at his train table and put James the train and a cow on the track. He then said "move said James" which is right out of one of his Thomas the Train books.
• When I don't answer to mama, he starts yelling for Jill.
• He started singing "God our Father".
• He started washing his hands on his own. He rolls up his sleeves, stands on the stool, turns on the water, pumps soap, lathers, rinses, turns off the water and dries his hands with a towel. I can't believe I can simply say "go wash your hands".
  
• He continues his backward antics. Now when he hands us something, he says "may I please have one?".
• He is the ultimate negotiator, especially at bedtime. "Mama sleep on couch 5 mins? 4 mins? 2 mins? Play cars for 1 min? Read 1 more book then go to bed?".

Frequent things he's saying this month:

• Oopsie Daisy
• Oh me gosh!
• May I please have one?
• Sure, sure can!
• 2 more minutes?

Cute toddler-ease this month:

• Not knocker (snot sucker)

Things that cracked us up this month:

• We were at a red light when he yelled "Pee!!!". I said "hold it, hold it, hold it, we're stuck at a red light". He said "Light, turn green!!!".
• I smelled something foul and said "Tyler, did you toot?".  He said "Yeah, I sure did.".
• We walked outside and he said "It's beautiful out!". That's not something you expect to come out of a 2 yr old.
• He walked to the bathroom, unrolled some toilet paper, blew his nose, threw it in the toilet and flushed. Then he got some more toilet paper and wiped Homey the cat's nose.
• We were on vacation with some family and one of the family members was over reacting about something that was no big deal and Tyler said "Oh me gosh!" in total valley girl style. It was hilarious!
• I asked him if he liked his food and he said "yummy yummy in my tummy".
• Homey the cat sat on Tyler while he was watching a short film about Tow Mater.  When it was over, Tyler said to him "Oh my gosh Homey, that was amazing Homey!".

Halloween:

For Halloween, Tyler asked to be a monkey.  This year was so much fun as he started to grasp the concept of trick or treating.

We handed out candy first. He was digging putting candy in everyone's bags and saying "good bye kids" as they left... until Thor showed up at our door, then it was all over with.

Video: Getting ready to hand out candy

We then took him trick or treating on our street. He was a total ham and was so much fun. He would knock on the door and say "come in!". He's notorious for saying things backwards. When they answered the door, he said "Happy Halloween" or "Trick or Treat". He would take 1 piece of candy and say "Thank you, Happy Halloween!"

One house we went to, the owners were sitting outside in front of their door. Tyler started walking up their stairs and said to them "move out of the way". I guess he was on a mission to knock on their door.

At another house, he got all excited when Kerry said "let's go to Nader's house" because he thought we were going to see Mator.

After we returned home, he was content to play with his candy and didn't even ask to eat any. That may sound absurd of me to take him trick or treating and then not even let him eat any candy, but I've learned my lesson with pasta, crackers and cookies. There's no such things as letting them have 1. Once they get a taste of it, it's all over with and that's all they want. He's never had candy before so he doesn't crave it. I wish no one would have introduced me to candy because then maybe I wouldn't have eaten all his candy and gained 7 lbs!

This month in photos:

Got yogurt?

I love how he puckers his lips when he's in deep thought!

Tyler at school on mobile zoo day

Snake around his neck, eek, so glad I wasn't there!!!

Enjoying his new trampoline

Exercising with mama (I gotta burn off that 7 lbs of candy!)

Brothers

"Give me your lunch money!"

Just kidding, we were pretend shopping and put money in his pocket so he could pay at checkout.

Tyler: 28 Months

September 24-October 23, 2012 (27 to 28 months old)

Tyler's life this month in bullet points:

• He started MDO, a mother's day out program at our church. He's always had an in-home nanny Mon-Fri, so this was very new to him, and me. He now has an in-home nanny Mon-Wed-Fri and goes to MDO on Tue-Thu. He's not super crazy about it yet and cries pretty hard when we drop him off. He says "hold you, hold you, hold you" when we try to get out the door (he has me and you backwards). It's hard on us but we know that it only lasts 5-10 mins. Picking him up is very rewarding. He yells with so much excitement, Hi Mommy!!! At this age, he much prefers hanging out with an adult. This new arrangement seems like a good mix of high quality time with adults with an introduction to group play.

• Now that he leaves me twice a week, we've started a tradition of waving goodbye and blowing kisses from the window. Every time he leaves with Daddy, he says over and over "wave bye to me in the window". We then wave and blow kisses until the car is out of sight.
• We started time-outs. He thinks they're fun and says "yes!" when I ask him if he wants to go into time-out. He sits on the couch with a smile and says in the cutest toddler voice "don't get down!". So far he's never gotten up.
• He always gives himself corrective statements. He'll stand on the couch and say "Tyler sit down". He'll climb on something and say "Tyler get down". He'll walk up to a public toilet and say "Tyler don't touch it!".
• He talks like a stuck record, repeats himself over and over and over whenever he's upset or doesn't want us adults to talk.
• He started mimicking our tone. One night Kerry had been waiting quite awhile on me to come upstairs to help get Tyler to bed and had been calling for me. Next thing I know Tyler is yelling for me "Jill, come up stairs! Jill, get up here!". I couldn't help but laugh.
• He started singing Wheels on the Bus, Jack and Jill went up the Hill and Ring Around the Rosies.
• He started having conversations between his cars. The King says "Hi Lightening McQueen, how are you? Lightening says "I'm fine". Ramone says "Hi Buddy". 
• He's starting to develop a little more independence. He'll stop us from helping him and say "do it by self".
• He's developed this strange quirk of wearing one sock on and one sock off. If I put both socks on him, he'll ask me to take one off. What's really strange is that Kerry had this same quirk when I first met him but hasn't done it in years. Could how we wear our socks be genetic??

Frequent things he's saying this month:

• Nice to meet you
• No thank you
• May I please have it?
• Excuse me
• What's that?
• What's your name? My name Ty Ty!
• How are you?
• What's up? What's up mom?
• Oh no, what happened mommy?

Cute toddler-ease this month:

• Hang-a-burg (hamburger)
• Pick-a-boo, I see you!
• I wuv you

Things that cracked us up this month:

Parents love to ask their little ones "can you say ____?" just to hear them say it in their cute little voices. I'm always asking Tyler to say stuff. One day my friend Mandy asked Tyler "can you say yummy?". He looked at her like she was an idiot and answered "yes!".

We walked outside and Kerry had all of his wagons, strollers, trikes and push cars sitting in the driveway. Tyler ran to them and yelled "Things that go! Things that go!".

This month in photos:

Wearing Mama's boots

I gave him a screw and an allen wrench and by golly, he actually put the screw in!

This month in video:

Video: Tyler does a forward roll

Video: Tyler playing drums

Video: Tyler put on my little white gloves and immediately exclaimed "I love you!". I was stunned because he has never said this on his own before. Then I noticed that when he first put them on, the 2 middle fingers of the glove drooped down and looked like the sign for I love you.

Tyler: 27 Months

August 24-September 23, 2012 (26 to 27 months old)

Tyler's life this month in bullet points:

• He started singing! He was taking a shower and then I heard it, this sweet little voice singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. I just stood out of sight and listened until he was done. I could listen to him sing all day. He also started singing Old MacDonald had a Farm and Wheels on the Bus.
• He started making up his own songs, all about vehicles of course. "Loader loader, full of dirt, loader, loader, dump it out".
• He answered "what's your name?" from a stranger for the 1st time. He said Ty Ty. Now he loves it when anyone asks him what his name is.
• He can answer my phone! Whenever it rings, he goes and gets it, swipes his finger across the screen to answer and says hello. I intentionally don't answer my phone just to watch him do it.
• We took him to his 1st movie and 3D nonetheless. He proudly wore his 3D glasses the entire time. He loved it and was very vocal... "more polar bears!!!!" throughout the entire polar bear movie.

• He watched his 1st rented movie with mom and dad. We rented Cars which he is nuts about. He also experienced his first bowl of popcorn. He thought it was the best thing ever that he got his own bowl. I think we're going to be hearing "watch Cars movie and eat popcorns?" over and over for a long time.
• His memory/recollection has definitely shined this month. He's able to tell us what he did or saw over the last few days. It's so much fun to ask him "what did you do today?" and hear him ramble about all the things he did. The first time I asked he said "I saw a dump truck full of dirt!". Out of all the things we did that day, he remembers seeing the dump truck out the car window.
• He now understands first and second. I hear quite often, "Tyler go first, then mama go second.".
• He loves opposites right now; empty/full, open/closed, on/off, front/back, little/big. He's always pointing them out. He'll hold up 2 Tow Maters and say "little Tow Mater and big Tow Mater!".
• He loves finding things that are the same. He takes a car and looks for the same car in his sticker book. When he finds it, he holds the car up to the sticker and says, for example, "that's Ramone and that's Ramone!". 

• Some cute things he's saying this month: noogles (noodles), eye-keem (ice cream) and pop-corns.
• He started talking louder and louder and repeats himself over and over whenever adults are talking. Our nanny's 2 yr old does the same thing. It makes it impossible to talk! These little creatures do not like not being the center of attention that is for sure!
• What 2 yr old loves black pepper? Mine! Every morning when I put scrambled eggs in front of him, the first thing he says is "salt and pepper?". I let him have a small amount of salt, but I mostly just pretend to put it on. With the pepper, he insists on putting it on himself, he likes the sound of the tin can. He piles it on and loves it.
• He had his first experience with a playmate much younger than him, 1 yr younger. We had a backup nanny that brought her little girl with her. It was neat to see how he would react to a child quite a bit younger. He was so sweet to her and was trying to teach her how to do stuff like put a puzzle together and how to tip her sippy cup back so she could drink from it. She was used to straw sippy cups so when she borrowed one of Tyler's that has to be tipped up, she didn't know how to use it. He tapped her on her shoulder and said "do it like this" and demonstrated tipping it up. I can't tell you how bad I wish I could give him a sibling after seeing that! Darn infertility!!! 

Things that cracked us up this month:

• We stopped for a potty break in the car. We sat him on his little potty and he started riding it like a rocking horse and said Yee-Haw!
• We have the "Where's the Poop?" book and he asked me to read it to him while he was on the potty. The last page has a picture of a toilet and when you lift the lid, there's a turd in it. I pointed to the poop in the toilet in the book and he said "don't touch it!".
• At lunch, I asked him to eat his food. He yelled no and stomped his foot. Kerry and I sat there silently and signed yes. He signed back no.
• I keep finding cars in my bra!!! The kid always has cars in his hands and I guess when I'm holding him or he gets milk, he stores them there for later. I don't even notice him doing it until later when I'm like, what's this? Oh there's a car in my bra! One day I found a car that he took from the church nursery! This kid is creative when it comes to parking garages; dishwasher baskets, puzzle racks and now my bra!

This month in photos:

Boys love their car stickers!

 He was getting upset because the sun was in his eyes so I handed him my sunglasses over the seat. This is how I found him when I went to get him out of the car.

I keep finding him with things on his head!

My little boy is not so little anymore. He has officially outgrown the pack-n-play.  =(

He leans forward every time he poses for the camera.

A long overdue playdate with Tildy, check out that look at her!

A couple of cuties!

Awww!!!

A playdate with Savannah, the boy loves to make the girls laugh!

This is the result of a very tired mama taking a little boy to the potty at 3am!

The parents actually got out of the house and went out on a date! Here we are having fun with the photo booth props!

This month in video:

Video:  Tyler singing Twinkle Twinkle

Video:  Tyler singing ABCs

Video:  More singing

Video:  Tyler and Matilda

Tyler: 26 Months

July 24-August 23, 2012 (25 to 26 months old)

Geesh, I used to think it was bad that I was always a month behind, now I'm 3 months behind! I'm going to try really hard to catch up!

Tyler's life this month in bullet points:

• He started jumping off things, like the couch. The kid loves to jump.
• He wants to touch everything this month, particularly things out of reach like the sky, stars and moon. He says "touch moon?" and reaches for it.
• He started putting his hands over his ears when something's even remotely loud.
• He loves dancing to the "harmica" (harmonica). He will only dance when daddy plays it. When I play it, he stops dancing, takes it from me and hands it back to daddy. I have no musical talent and even my 2 yr old recognizes it.
• He has no interest in the iphone anymore. I can leave it sitting on the table and he'll completely ignore it or even move it out of his way so he can play. I am baffled, who took my child?
• He hit me for the first time (lightly and out of frustration) and I introduced him to his first time-out. He just sat there and cried for milk. Unbelievably he never tried to get up.
• I got all excited and had a proud mommy moment because he said "shut the door" instead of "shut door". I had to call my mom because I was so excited he said "the". It sure doesn't take much to impress a mom.
• He started saying "Owwww!" whenever he hurts something.
• He's very excited about his ability to read and spell zoo. He spells it out loud "Z [pause] OH OH!".
• He's starting to read simple words like pig, cow, cat, dog and beep beep.
• He decided he was done with diapers this month, so we said ok, I guess we're potty training this month. He's fully day trained but we're not quite accident-free at night time yet. I'll try and cover the details in a separate post if anyone is interested.

Things that cracked us up this month:

• We we're out walking in front of our house, Tyler was in a t-shirt and diaper. A family stopped to talk us. After a bit, Ty realized he was the only one without pants. He lifted up his shirt, looked at me and said, "mama, pants?".
• I fixed his broken car and handed it to him, he said "mama fix car, good job, yeah mama!!!".
• I started picking up his toys and he sang "clean up, clean up, it's time to clean up".
• While asleep on my shoulder, he burped and said "eh-cuse me".
• Our nanny Jill said "come on Addison, come on Tyler" and Tyler said "come on Jill".
• He says "no sing!" when I start to sing.
• We were laying on Tyler's floor looking up at the stars projected from his nightlight. I stood up and Tyler said "Lay down Jill!". Wow that was strange hearing my 2 yr old call me by my name!
• I got my braces off and the first time Tyler saw my teeth, he wanted to touch them. I asked him what he thought and he said "white!".
• He's a total jokester! When I ask him "where do you go potty when you have to pee?", he answers with "on the carpet, in the fan, in Dada's hand" with a smirk on his face. I can't get him to answer seriously.
• Out of the blue he grabbed paper towels and started trying to wipe his butt. He then insisted on going around the room and wiped all of our butts. I guess this is good training for a son with older parents, this will come in handy when we're lounging around in our Depends.

This month in photos:

My little Old Navy Cowboy

He came walking around the corner with this sifter saying "I see you!"

I couldn't figure out where the dishwasher basket went... then I found it with a new identity of a parking garage.

Puzzle racks make for great parking garages as well!

Picking up chicks in pickup trucks

Hugs

I love how Tildy has her arm around him!