Tyler's Experience as an Only Child.

Since we've shipped Lily off to Grams' house for the week, Tyler is living the high life of an only child.  He can play with whatever toys he wants, whenever he wants.  He gets to take a bath by himself which means he can lay out, swim and play in the faucet as much as he wants (and he doesn't have to listen to me fight Lily for 20 minutes which always ends in someone(s) screaming and crying).  He gets his parents full attention.  

And because he has our full attention, we are actually noticing more things he can do!  This post is a compilation of things that we've just noticed plus things that Joel has known for a while but I didn't know so I didn't blog about it.
 

(DISCLAIMER:  The reason I didn't know isn't because I'm a bad Mom, I swear. It's because Joel puts Tyler to bed 90% of the time while I put Lily to bed.  So Joel has some 1:1 quality time with Tyler that I don't have.)  

• He can say a LOT of words.  I've completely lost track at this point but it's growing at a very rapid rate.  New words every single day.  This week he said "silly" and it was ridiculous cute.  
• He is learning his colors!  He can pick out purple and say it completely on his own.  If you ask him to show you, he'll point out red, yellow and blue (most of the time he gets it right....)
• He knows lots of animals:  cow, horse, chick-ken (ducks, geese, swan are also chickens right now), dog, cat, frog, pig, sheep
• He loves to jump on the bed, couch, crib, exercise ball, floor, whatever.  Loves it.
• He grabs things, holds them to his chest and shouts "MINE!"
• If he's done with something (milk, food, wrappers, toys, etc), he'll bring it to you, shove it in your face and shout "HERE!"
• He likes to do puzzles (the wooden shape kind - not the interlocking kind)
• He plays so good by himself.  

I think Tyler really misses his sister.  Right away on Monday, he noticed she wasn't around.  When I picked him up from daycare, he started in with "Sissy?  Sissy?"  Looking at me with big question marks in his eyes and his arms out, palms up.  He has asked about her no less than 87 times this week.  It is so. so. sweet.  I also find it so cute that he calls Lily "Sissy."  Joel will refer to Lily as "Sissy" every once in a while but mostly we say "Sister" or "Lily" when we're mentioning her to him.  But Tyler's latched on to calling her "Sissy."