Tyler says...

Over the past several months, I have been recording all the funny things Tyler has been saying. His vocabulary and his comprehension absolutely floors me every day and I want to remember all the sweet things he's saying.

I scraped my arm in the kitchen one day in the kitchen and when Tyler saw I was in pain he said, " Want me to kiss it, Mommy??" I let him and it was the sweetest thing and really did make me feel better.

Tyler has started answering us with "Of course!!!" When I asked him to hand me my phone, he said "Of course, Mommy!"

Everything is "right now" and "for a minute"... "I wanna go play right now, for a minute".

"No, not yet." is usually his answer when I ask him if he wants to change his diaper or do things he doesn't want to do.

He sometimes mixes up his words and it is so cute...like "No, my not!"

Throwing in a few pictures of Tyler from our latest photo shoot with Ms. Cassie.

One night during his bath, he was playing with his squirt Thomas toy and the top to Caroline's teapot set. He was adamant about taking Thomas and top out of the bath with him to play with while we got him dressed. Russ overheard him say, " How's it going, Thomas? How's it going, Top?" Ha"

It is amazing what Tyler is learning and retaining at school. He asks to say Grace a lot at the dinner table, which they always say before eating at school.  He can recite the "God is Great" all by himself.

Tyler is VERY into singing songs at bedtime now. Ot started as a stall tactic, but it now one of my favorite parts of our nighttime routine. After books are read, he climbs in bed and I usually lay down with him while he dictates which songs we sing. He is a creature of habit and we always start with Jesus Loves Me, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, ABCs in that order. I taught him You Are My Sunshine a few months ago and it is now 4th in the lineup. Just a couple weeks ago, he requested to sing Jingle Bells (they must sing it at school?) and we now sing it every night, too. He also loves to sing Take Me Out to the Ballgame and The Tiger Fight Song (Go Tigers Go). I just love teaching him new songs and he learns them SO fast now!

We've also added prayers to our bedtime routine. He always starts out with "Dear Jesus. Thank you for me friends..." and then he looks to me for help. We thank Him for most everyone in our family, for our home, food, clothes, etc. He then asks for God to help him to "be a good boy, be nice to Caroline and be a good listener". We always close with "Thank you for this day and watch over me through the night. Amen." It is pretty sweet.

Tyler often comments that "it's dark outside". When we ask him what that means he says, "Means go night-night."

Rides in the car are full of talking. Tyler often plays peekaboo with the sun as it "hides" behind trees and clouds. We play "I Spy" and point our trees, street signs, etc. on our ride. He loves to tell me when there is a green, yellow or red light and what they mean. He sometimes gets very impatient when he sees that the light is green, but we aren't able to go yet because of the cars in front of us.

We have a video monitor with cameras in both kid's rooms. We can operate the camera with the viewer and ever since Tyler saw the camera moving, he is now scared of it. He will point to it before he goes down saying things like, "I scared of that." "It's looking at me." "It goes round and round and this way and that way."

A while ago, Granna and I started knocking on Tyler's door in the morning before we went in to get him up saying, "Anybody home!?" He used to scream, "YES!!" Now he says, "I'm HOME!" Sometimes if he's awake and ready to get up, he will start yelling, "I'm home, I'm home. Mommy, I'm home!", so we will go get him. Ha!

When Granna has the kids and I'm not home, I often text her for updates. Every time Tyler hears her phone beep with a new text or ring, he says, "That's Mommy again." He does the same thing when my phone rings...he always says it's Granna. 

Caroline is learning to talk and can say "da-da", "bye-bye" and "ma-ma". He LOVES it when she talks and he knows what she's saying...he usually says, "Caroline said 'ma-ma'", very excitedly. Once when I was away, Caroline was saying ma-ma over and over and Tyler said, "Mommy's gone Caroline..."

Another time when I was out of town and Granna had the kids, Tyler was eating lunch and he said "somebody's home". Granna asked "Who's home?" and Tyler said "Uncle Brian...he's at the door right there". Granna thought she just didn't hear Brian knock so she went to the door and no one was there...Tyler was just playing/teasing!! Granna said it was so convincing and acted like it was real. What a super imagination he is getting!