What's going on with Tyler!

For the first couple months after Tyler was born I kept a journal for him in which I would write feelings I had about being his mother, different milestones he was reaching, things unique about him that I loved, his height and weight at each doctor appointment, etc. But since I am horrible at keeping a journal I think the last entry I made was when he was 6 mo. old and since we've moved I haven't even been able to find it. So, in an effort to get at least some things documented for his toddler months I want to write down some of the things he's doing right now, or has been doing for the past few months, that I love or just things he does that make me laugh!

Favorites:
-Food:Ham, grapes (purple only), string cheese
-Book: The Foot Book by Dr. Seuss (we read this 15-20 times a day)
and Elmo's Pop up Shapes and Color's book
-Movie: Elmo's World
-Friend: His Aunt Alena
-Toy: Giant Lego blocks and cars
-Animal: Toss up between Elephant, Monkey and Lion
-Thing to do: Play outside-especially at the park with daddy
Go swimming
Sit on Mommy's lap-every day-while she puts on her make-up
Take pictures of himself on our cell phones
-Letter: "O"-He says it when he sees anything round that even closely resembles an O
-Song: Popcorn Popping while doing all the actions. We sing this every night, usually 3 or 4 times, before bed.

Making goofy faces whenever we tell him to say "cheese" for a picture.

Makes me "soup" by taking the blender out of the cupboard and mixing (making blender noises and all)the food, then scoops out the soup with a spoon for me to eat.

He says "Bye Bye" anytime he wants to leave-no matter where we are; church (right in the middle of sacrament meeting), restaurant (as soon as we sit him in the high chair), the house, a friend's house, etc. And he says it over and over while nodding his head yes with a very desperate look in his eye as if to say, "please, please don't make me stay here anymore!". And then he starts to whine if we tell him it's not time to go yet. It's only mildly embarrassing.

Knows several letters in the alphabet and LOVES to point out and say the letters he recognizes anywhere he sees them-tv, books, on buildings, jars, etc. Letters he knows 100% (forwards, backwards and even upside down): D,F,L,M,O,P,R,S, and T. Letters he gets right most of the time: C,G,I,Y,and Z. The only number he recognizes is 9 and he's not counting at all! He likes to listen to us count and will hold up toys one at a time while we count them, but he will only repeat the #9. Weird! And we're working on colors and shapes but he's totally not interested. I guess he's going to be more of a word person than a number person...just like his mamma!

If Bobby and I are laughing and he hears us he starts laughing really hard and blinks his eyes fast. I don't know what that's all about but it makes us laugh.

Randomly, and several times throughout the day, he will start singing opera like Mr. Noodle does on Elmo's World. I really wish we had a video camera so I could post this because it is so funny!

I love that he calls Elmo "Mo-Mo".

He loves it when Bobby spins him in a circle really fast and he gets all dizzy. As soon as he's not dizzy anymore he wants to do it again!

He loves to wear his sunglasses (the ones from his Uncle Nathan and Aunt Rebekah!!) and as soon as we put them he flashes us the "cool dude" sign-which he does by sticking out his thumb and forefinger (spread out like a peace sign. Apparently a simple thumbs up doesn't do his coolness justice). The other day when we were at the pool we told him he couldn't walk past where the fence ended. So he walked to the very edge of where the fence was and just stood there. He had his sunglasses on and a little girl walked up to him and they were just staring at each other (like little kids do...always trying to figure the other one out or something), when he started pointing past the fence. He would point and then look back at her over and over as if he was trying to tell her that they should walk over there together. After a couple seconds of getting no response from the girl he flashed her his "cool dude" sign, shruged his shoulders and walked away as if to say, "Whatever, you don't want to walk with me, I'm too cool for you anyways!" We were laughing so hard!

During his bath he dunks Bobby's head in the water, and holds it under, so that he will blow bubbles.

After his bath, I pull him out of the tub, Bobby wraps the towel around him and then we stand up and make faces in the mirror together. Tyler knows we do this and loves when we copy the faces he makes (rather than the other way around) so he always makes sure he's the first one to make a face.

He loves to clean-up his toys. I don't know if this is just a phase, but I'm hoping it will turn into a good habit!! Anytime I say, "Okay Tyler should we clean up your toys?" He excitedly nods his head yes and just starts picking them up AND puts them all in the right baskets; toys in the toy basket, books in the book basket, shoes in the shoe basket, etc.

He folds his arms and bows his head whenever he sees anyone with their arms folded, even if we're not in church. For example, we were walking through JCPenny today and there was a manikin with its arms folded in a window so he pointed at it and then folded his arms and bowed his head. It made me laugh so hard! He's such a sweet boy.

He is SO good about sharing. If another kid takes a toy out of his hand he just looks at him like, "that was rude" and then goes and picks another toy. He never cries or tries to take it back. And if I ask him to give a toy to someone else he immediately hands it over-no whining. When my visiting teacher was over last week she brought her little girl that is 15 mo. and anytime Tyler would start to pick up a toy that she had been playing with she would start to cry and run over and take it from Tyler. Tyler just looked at me like, "what the heck is her problem?!" and handed it to her without me even telling him too. I think he was more scared of her crying than he was actually trying to be nice, but I was still so proud of him! I'm just praying nursery doesn't corrupt him!!!

I love when it's his nap time that we cuddle together and watch Sesame Street on the couch under his green blankie 'till he falls asleep (usually takes less than 15 min.!). I know you're supposed to put your kids down before they're asleep so they can teach themselves to fall asleep, but I did that when he was younger for all his naps and we do that when he goes to bed at night now, so I know he knows how to put himself to sleep, and he has always been a really good sleeper so I'm not worried about it. I just love this time I get to spend with him all snuggled up, holding him in my arms. And since I don't know how much longer he'll want to snuggle with me I'm taking FULL advantage...so, judge if you want, but this is one of my favorite parts of the whole day!!

I love that he gives pats and kisses to the baby, and that he tells her hello and goodbye while lifting my shirt up and down over my belly. He totally doesn't get the whole baby thing though because he'll do this to Bobby too! We try to tell him only mommy has a baby but he doesn't care, he just likes the game!

This is everything I can think of right now, but I'll probably remember more later and add to the list! We just love you Tyler, thanks for coming to our family!