Say Cheese

Yesterday we took Tyler to Picture People for some Father's Day pictures. They were supposed to be a surprise for Daddy but since he got home a little early from work, it was no longer a surprise. I had been talking to Tyler about my expectations for the pictures...he needed to listen to Brooke, the AWESOME photographer, smile and cooperate for Mommy.

Pictures started out great. He posed, smiled and cooperated really well for the first outfit. The second outfit took a little more wrangling. By the third outfit, we were lucky to get him in the shot of the camera! Ha! In the end, we got some amazing pictures. He is just sooo cute. They again asked us to sign a release for the pictures in case they want to display them. How fun would that be to walk by the store in the mall and see my little boy in the window. So the sucker I am, I signed.

Well, this morning after breakfast, Tyler asked for pictures. Have I created a monster? So I took out my good camera and flashed away. We had fun. See...

 

 The pictures from yesterday are MUCH better...but fun candid photos nonetheless.

Bedtime Chats

Last night I got home from my P.E.O. meeting and checked on Tyler. He was fast asleep. As I wound down for the night I heard him about twenty minutes after I checked on him. He was awake and asking to "sleep Mommy's bed" so I brought him in. That's the kind of sucker I am. He climbed into bed and immediately woke Collin up with a "hi Daddy" in a nice and loud voice. Poor Collin had no idea I was even home let alone to wake up to Tyler laying next to him. We all settled into bed and then Tyler became Mr. Wiggle Worm so after ten minutes I took him back to bed. I gave him some snuggles, a few songs and a back rub before I hit the sack myself.

Well, about fifteen minutes later I heard him again. This time he was telling a story in his bed. I listened for a few minutes on the baby monitor and this is the gist of what I got.

"Minnie I drive you."
"Donald no quack quack. Ducky go quack quack."
"Mickey find quack quack duck."
sigh
giggle
"Oh Goofy. Silly."
"Quack, quack. Find duck. Find duck."
giggle
sigh
deep breath

And on and on...with Donald, Goofy, Mickey and Minnie. It was some adventure he was telling. I had to wake Collin up again to listen because it was so darn cute. He's not obsessed with Mickey or anything, eh? So on he went, telling his Mickey story for almost two hours. I did try a couple more times to rock him to sleep but he just wanted to play. I let him figure it out and by 1am he was finally asleep. Crazy kid!

From the mouth of babes...

As is expected to happen around age two, Tyler's vocabulary is growing each and every day. This week Tyler has shared some of the cutest things with me! I thought I should write (blog) them down so I don't forget. Daddy is gone in NYC this week so he is missing this...big bummer!

1. Today I was gone in Tucson for the day for work and Tyler spent the day with Grandpa Jerry. They had a lot of fun going to Chuck E. Cheese and the park. When I was putting Tyler to bed tonight he said, "miss me mommy, ever and ever" translated into "I missed you mommy very much." It melted my little heart.

2. In the car on Wednesday the song Brand New Girlfriend came on. Tyler listened and then started laughing when they said "kissie kissie smoochie smoochie." He then said "Daddy goes kissie kissie. Daddy funny, so funny." He definitely knows that his Daddy LOVES to give him kisses. I have to be careful now that I know he is always listening and really understanding so much more than I realize!

3. He loves to tell me that everything is missing...."i find anywhere, anywhere" all while shaking his head no. He can't find his babies, he can't find his milk, he can't seem to find anything. Yet, it is almost always right in front of his face. I don't know if his cute little voice is the cutest or what it is, but I just love that he can't find it "anywhere."

4. Yesterday we stopped at Panera for a little lunch to bring home. Tyler LOVES the Panera smoothies and since he was such a good boy at Gymboree and while running errands he told me that's what he wanted to for lunch. We ordered the wild berry "smooey" and then jumped into the car. He wanted to drink it so I draped him in a towel and stood at the door watching to see if this was a disaster waiting to happen. He took a sip, turned to me and said "just drive Mommy, drive." He's not demanding or anything! I went ahead and drove home...we only spilled a little on the towel. He loves his "smooeys."

If only I could actually capture these precious moments on video. For now, this will have to do.

Random Spring Cuteness

We've had some other fun times this spring and here are some pictures from those random days. Have I mentioned that I think Tyler is a cutie pie?

Peyton's Birthday Party -- what a character...eating with out his hands

The results of eating a cupcake without his hands! Good thing we were at the pool!
 

San Diego

Over Memorial Day weekend we headed down to San Diego for two days with our friends, the Perrys, to celebrate Keaton's second birthday. We met them at the San Diego Safari Park (formerly the San Diego Wild Animal Park). Collin was the only one of the six of us who had been there and even then that was YEARS ago.

Waiting to buy tickets to go in

About to go in...just waiting for the Perry family

Posing...enough pictures Mommy!

It was a cool morning which would probably mean a great time to see animals out and active. We started by walking through the bird sanctuary and seeing some amazing birds. We then wandered through the rest of the park, working our way to the highlight of the park and the day - the Safari Tram Ride. By the time we wandered our way over there, the line for the tram was 4 hours, yes, 4 HOURS long. Harry did some investigating and determined that we could buy a ticket to the front of the line. We decided that was worth it and within minutes were on a tram ride. What an amazing experience. My wish to go on Safari to Africa grew greatly this day. We had great seats and luckily for me Tyler wanted to sit with Daddy so I could photograph the whole ride. They have done an amazing job trying to recreate the African landscape and animals live in harmony with one another. It's amazing! Have I mentioned that already?!?

Lounging zebras

Leopards

We were so close...not as close as those in the jeep, but really close!

Baby feeding. Do you see it?

Such beautiful animals

There were so many of them. Tyler just kept saying "graffe, graffe!"

A little family

Loved that the Rhinos were just lounging right next to the giraffes

 Tyler loved the tram ride too. He pointed to all of the animals and kept saying, "another, another" while pointing out another giraffe, hippo, antelope, etc. We then headed to see the tigers and the elephants. Somewhere between the two Tyler passed out. Keaton had already fallen asleep on the tram and missed all of the animals but woke up for the elephants. The one tiger hid for a long time but we finally saw him from far away. The elephants were so cool. There were so many of them and I believe there were eight babies in all. It was fun to watch them play. We were some of the only people on the platform so we could linger and watch for quite a while.

Didn't quite make it to the elephants

Harry and Keaton checking out the elephants

Mommy and baby - there were 7 babies altogether

Baby taking off to go exploring without mom

Aren't they just so cool?

So peaceful

Shortly after the elephants, we hit the road. I LOVED the Safari Park and can't wait to go back again. When Tyler is older we will definitely go back for the Roar and Snore camp where you get to sleep inside the park and listen to the animals all night long. It sounds so fun! We headed into the downtown San Diego and got settled into the Hilton at the edge of the Gaslamp District and the Convention Center. It was a perfect location and I'm so glad we decided to stay there.

We met the Perrys for dinner at Hodad's - a Diner's, Drive-ins, and Dives place. The food was really good. We enjoyed the burger and argued over whether it was really better than The Squeeze burger as Guy Fieri has claimed these are his two favorite burgers. We then headed for dessert at Ghiradelli's. YUMMY! We called it a night after a very long day.

Keaton at Hodad's

Relaxing after a long, long day...with some MMC of course 

Don't bother me...it's Mickey time!

I love my Mickey!

Monday morning we met again with the Perrys. Collin and Harry took off for the USS Midway Museum while Ashlea, the boys and I wandered around the Gaslamp and the mall. It turned out to be a beautiful day and I was a little disappointed we didn't decide to do something outdoors in such gorgeous weather but had fun anyway.

It was a great couple of days in San Diego. Tyler had lots of fun at the Safari Park, playing in the hotel bed and hanging out with Keaton. I know Tyler and Keaton will continue to remain the first friends each had!