Summer Fun

Each Tuesday there are five moms that meet with their two year olds and we run a little preschool for our kiddos. It's lots of fun for the kids and the moms! I know Tyler is learning new things and gets excited for Tuesday afternoons. This past month we were studying The Beach and Ocean. Dusti, one of the moms, did a great lesson on seashells. She had the kids decorate buckets and then we went on a seashell hunt in the backyard. Tyler loved it!

Tyler and Miranda

More!

 

RUN!

I wonder if he'll realize next time we are at the beach that shells are on the sand, not in the grass!

 

Another afternoon, Tyler's friend Braden came over to play while Braden's mommy went to have an ultrasound. The boys wanted to play in the backyard in the water table. They locked me in the house so I grabbed my camera. They always have fun in that water table!

 

One night last week, Tyler really wanted to go swimming. It was too late to go find an open pool so we decided to play in the backyard. He convinced Daddy to join him in his pool. The evening ended in a complete water fight. Mommy was DRENCHED. Daddy was DRENCHED. Mongo hid inside and Tyler laughed his best belly laughs!

I'm sure I'll find more pictures on my other camera...when I remember to bring it in the house and upload the pictures I've taken!

28 Months and Counting

I cannot believe my baby boy is 28 months old. Two years, four months and four days old to be exact. Where did all of this time go? I figured I should document what's so special about him right now.

This morning he went to the doctor again because he has another ear infection in his right ear. He is a whopping 28+ lbs now. Dr. Yen was really surprised to hear how much he was talking. He really does speak in multiple sentences at once and I can understand him almost all of the time.

 Talking Machine
He is a talking FOOL! He repeats everything we say and is always listening to us even when it looks like he isn't. Here are some of the fun things he is saying right now.
- I love you ever, ever, ever.
- I miss you ever, ever, ever

These are two of my most favorite things to hear him say. He'll say it to Daddy when he calls him at work. He'll say it to me when I kiss him goodnight. He is just such a sweet boy.

Some of the other things he says are:
- Can't find anywhere - when talking about his toys, food, really anything he is searching for

Sing a Song...
He loves for us to sing to him at night. His most favorite songs are:
- Row, Row
- Take Out (Take Me Out to the Ball Game) with Brown Bear as his favorite team! (This just KILLS Collin)
- Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star
- Mary had a little lamb
- Skid-a-ma-rink

A TV Boy - Just like his parents
He also is OBSESSED with all things Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. He'd watch the cartoons over and over 24 hours a day if we let him. He will occasionally allow us to show him Little Einsteins, Special Agent Oso, and Jake and the Neverland Pirates. I have started introducing some of the classic Disney movies to switch it up a bit. So far he seems to enjoy Monsters, Inc., Bambi, and Finding Nemo.
He also likes Nick Jr. shows like Olivia, Franklin, and Miss Spider's Sunny Patch Friends.

Book-a-holic
Tyler also really loves books. His favorites this week are:
- If You Give a Cat a Cupcake by Laura Numeroff
- Catch that Ball - a Mickey sounds book
- Big Red Barn by Margaret Wise Brown
- Gossie by Olivier Dunrea
- Silly Sally by Audrey Wood
- Brown Bear, Brown Bear by Eric Carle

On his own, he likes to read his Mickey Mouse Find and Seek book. He is getting good and picking things out. 

There are many others that he loves to read but I think these are the obsessions right now. I think you now know where the whole Brown Bear reference comes into play when singing Take Out.

Open Wide
Tyler's favorite foods right now include:
- black beans (still a go-to food)
- rice (especially fried rice)
- smoovies (smoothies - I love the way he says it) a.k.a. special drink
- maraschino cherries - eats these instead of ice cream. What kind of kid is this?
- powdered donuts
- frozen peas
- raw green beans
- raspberries
- fresh picked strawberries - only eats them when he is at the farm, picking them
- honey nut cheerios with milk
- fruit snacks
- popcorn
-MILK - the boy drinks two gallons of milk a week. We are working on limiting this but it is proving to be a difficult battle

Play time
Tyler continues to be really good at playing alone. He still loves all balls - baseballs, footballs, basketballs, golf balls, tennis balls, racquet balls, etc. It really doesn't matter - if it's round and bounces he loves them! He is getting really good at throwing and catching balls. We play toss all day long. Whenever he tries to catch he says "almost" and whenever he throws he says either "nice" or "good one."

He still loves his kitchen. He likes to make me breakfast just about every day. The only thing is, breakfast is never food - it's always a ball or a coin. He has found his pretend piggy bank and loves to carry around all of his coins. He also likes to make change in his cash register.

Thomas the Train has also become a daily toy. He likes to put together the "puzzle," in other words, the train tracks!

This past week the Cozy Coupe (with his pretend keys), his roller coaster, his slide and his tricycle have all been favorites. These were toys that have sat unused for a few weeks that have suddenly become hot again. Just when I think maybe I should start clearing things out he rediscovers them.

He is getting really good at his building blocks to make towers. I know that Daddy is waiting for the day that he wants to build things with his blocks so that Daddy can relive his childhood love of Legos!

Daily Activities
I'm still very involved in the mommy group so we do lots of things with other mommies just about every day. We love to visit a variety of H.O.A. pools with friends, visit Scooter's Jungle, story time at the park, visit museums, and meet up for frozen yogurt treats (or maraschino cherries) at Menchie's. We have something just about every day of the week so we keep busy while Daddy keeps the bills paid. (We are SO lucky to have him!)


Summer Fun
Tyler definitely takes after me in his love of water. He is turning into quite the fish, loving to go under water, jump in and shows just about no fear. Just this week he has started floating in a tube without holding on to Mommy. I just love how much fun we have in the pool together. This past weekend we went to the beach and he actually (after a lot of coercing from Daddy) to go in the water and loved it too!


Other Loves
- bath time
- shower time
- playing in the backyard
- cuddling in bed (just like his mommy)
- his babies - Larry, Joey, Blue, Elmo, Little Elmo, Tiny Elmo, Teddy, Other Blue, Daddy's Snuffy, and Pluto
- sleeping with a pillow over his body instead of under his head
- lots of blankets - he carries them around, has to have them in the car, on walks (in 100 degree heat), and lots in his bed.
- walking Mongo
- sweeping the floor
- baseball with Grandpa Jerry
- his bike helmet
- sitting on the counter
- Gymboree
- peppers, onions and potatoes (Daddy and Tyler make these for Mommy just about every weekend) YUM! Lucky Mommy, huh?!?

It's been a great 28 months....here is to many more. But I think this is a pretty good update on who he is now. A very happy, loving boy who we (I know Collin feels the same way) adore and feel exceptionally fortunate to have in our lives!

Concert in the Park

This evening the city hosted their first Concert in the Park for the summer! It was a beautiful night and there was an Eagles tribute band playing tunes. We met six other families at the park. We got there at 5:45 and still had to park close to a mile away. The whole town was at the park! It was a really fun evening with seven two year olds running every which way and two infants (and I mean infants - one was 4 months old and the other was just 16 days old)! The Dads had lots of fun (right, hun?) chasing and playing ball with the kiddos. Us Moms took our turn too! The kids had so much fun. It was a great night of music, friends and fun. Tyler was EXHAUSTED by the time we got home at 8:45. We can't wait for next week! Maybe I'll even take pictures next time!

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!