Tyler's Two Year Stats.

I put this post together over the last several weeks, as I thought I things I wanted to remember about Tyler's two year milestones.  I had intended to publish it after his 2 year check up which was supposed to be this past Friday.  But, the doc called and postponed it until later this month, so, I'll go ahead a publish this now and add his stats later.

Hard to believe I'm even talking about a two year check up for Tyler!!  Sigh.

Just when you think you can't take any more of the fighting, bickering, fussiness that comes with the territory of two little kiddos, Tyler yells out of no where, "LUH YOU MOMMY!!"  And you pretty much melt in to a giant puddle of Mommy mushiness and for a few seconds your heart feels like it's going to explode.  And then one kid pinches the other one or takes a toy and all those gushy feelings vanish - but it really was very lovely while it lasted.

So what is Tyler up to these days besides being the freakin cutest little boy you've ever seen in your whole entire life?

He was doing fantastic in his big boy bed - going to nap and bed with near 0 trouble or incidents.  However, over the last couple weeks, he's been getting up in the middle of the night and coming in to our room.  Usually this happens at least once per night, but often it's twice.  Sometimes it's pretty easy to coax him back to bed and other times, not so much.  

He's very interested in the potty and went pee pee on the potty back on August 23 (forgot to blog about it then so I'll tell the story now).  We had been at a party that afternoon in Greenwood and then hit up the mall before coming back to Columbus so that made it a late night of getting home.  Tyler had passed out in the car so he was all groggy and sleepy when I went to change his diaper and put his pajamas on.  I noticed his diaper was dry and asked him where his peepees were at?  He immediately perked up and ran in to the bathroom, got his stool and stood up at the potty (which he does ALL THE TIME but never goes).  Next thing I know, he's peeing a little bit (on the floor cause he can't quite get it to reach the potty).  He stops himself and looks up at me all surprised.  And he tries again.  And pees on the floor a little more.  And looks at me again, like "What do I do?"  So I asked him if he wanted to sit on his potty seat and finish going pee pee (we have had 0 luck getting him to sit on it lately....he likes to stand there like his Daddy and his cousins) and he said yes.  So I put on the seat and sat his little butt down and he finished going potty!  I was celebrating like a crazy person and he was super proud and grinning.  We've had only one repeat performance since then (on his birthday).  

Tyler's really big in to doing "cards" before bed instead of reading a story.  It cracks me up how much both kids latched on to flashcards at this age.  He knows a lot of his animals and the corresponding sounds.  He's getting better at his colors and pretty reliably knows:  green, brown, blue, red, yellow, purple.  Sometimes he gets orange.  

About 5-6 weeks ago, we started catching him counting a little bit.  Lily might be counting something to herself and say "1, 2, 3, 4...." and Tyler will jump in with "5, 6, seben."  We've been trying to work with his counting starting from 1 but he's just not to in to it.  I guess it has to be his idea in his own way.

Every once in a while we'll hear him saying/singing "A B C ...." or "X Y Z...." That started almost immediately after he moved up in to the 2s class about a month ago.  Super cute.

He's starting to use more and more full sentences.  Between Joel, Lily and I we can understand what he's saying probably about 80-90% of the time.  Usually at least one of us catches his drift.  It really cracks me up because sometimes I just do no understand what he wants and Lily's like, "Mommy he wants his school bus" (or something similar) - like, DUH MOMMY.  Sometimes none of us can can figure it out.  We'll ask him to repeat it and he does, exactly, so HE knows what he's saying and he gets frustrated when we can't figure it out.  Whenever possible, we ask him to "show me" what he's talking about.  Sometimes this works, sometimes not.

Tyler's a little collector (Meme and Papaw, we're pretty sure he gets this from you....).  One of his favorite things to do is fill up the shopping cart (or stroller, or bag, or purse, or car, or whatever) with all sorts of items and drag them all around the house.  He is particularly fond of his plastic cookies.  He seems to want to know where they are at all times.  Guess he probably gets that part from me.....

He loves to tickle and be tickled.  He will come up to you and say "Tickle, tickle, tickle!" and wiggle his little fingers on your skin.  He even loves to tickle the animals on his flashcards.  Ridiculous cute.

Tyler gives THE BEST KISSES in the whole wide world.  And he gives them freely and often and I very nearly burst in to tears every time he does it without prompting. 

Tyler's eating habits at home have started to falter.  First, he doesn't eat near the variety that he used to.  He seems to have latched on to wanting to eat whatever Lily is eating instead of whatever Mommy and Daddy are eating.  Uhhgg.  Second, we can almost NEVER get him to sit through a whole meal in one shot.  He'll sit at the table for 10 minutes max and then he wants to get down and play.  Sometimes he comes back and snags another bite here and there and sometimes he's done.  We try to make him stay in his chair but it usually ends up in a screaming fit and he throws his plate and/or his food and it's a mess.  So, if he gets up from the table and he hasn't eaten a sufficient amount of food, he doesn't get a treat.  And we get another screaming fit.

He loves music and loves to dance.  Watching his little butt wiggle and his head bob up and down is one of my favorite past times.  

Here's a few random photos of his silliness.  He insisted on putting his jammies on himself....but wound up with both legs in the same pants leg.  This was comical...