Bubbly Milk

Ty's favorite thing to do with his milk

And sometimes he only wants to drink out of a bowl when he becomes a puppy.
Gotta encourage the imagination :)

Lucky me, Tyler helped clean up the living room today by putting everything he could find on the floor in this basket.  I am dreading having to sort through it all later. but I guess it's nice that I don't have to bend down a million times all over the house to pick things up, just reach in the basket.  I have to say the house does "look" pretty clean now...Thanks Ty! :) 

Tyler- 2 and a half

It's funny how when you have a new baby you feel the need to update their "progress" in life every few months and record every little detail.  Maybe it's because they change so much every day and basically go from a blob to a personality filled walking machine that first year. But I find myself feeling that way about every stage my kids have gone through so far.  I just want to bottle it up and remember everything....mostly I just want to stop time so I can really enjoy it, but I haven't figured out how to do that yet.  I am starting to learn to savor little moments with my kids more lately.  Dishes can wait, laundry can wait, everything can wait really. My days are so much better when I put them first and not rush the little things like stories and bedtime. So here's what I want to remember about little Ty at 2 and a half....

Tyler is just a character. He does so many little things that make me smile.  Such a big personality comes out of such a small little guy and I just love it.  He sure does give us a run for our money though (the boy can throw a mean temper tantrum) and lives every day like the world revolves around him (but I guess is how it should be when you are 2...and yes, the world does revolve around him most of the time!) We'll see how he adjusts to becoming a middle child soon :)

He's my cuddly boy (opposite of Brayden) and always wants to snuggle in close or have me rub his back or hair.  And lately he's been full of constant "I love you's" all day long.  He'll just randomly come up and tell me and it melts my heart. If you're sitting down he will find a way right next to you or in your lap! I also love how he's got the arm rotate thing down when I rub his arm. I'll start just doing the top side and he will continually rotate it so I get all sides...it's pretty funny.

I'd have to say his favorite foods right now are pancakes, "sticks" (french toast sticks), string cheese (but you have to peel down the tops to make it look like branches), clementines, and applesauce. He eats other things too but he is the world's pickiest eater and it's a battle to get him to eat more of a variety of foods (anyone have any suggestions??) Is that normal for this age?

100% his "draw"toy, as he calls it, is his favorite right now. He takes it everywhere and even sleeps with it every night.  If he doesn't have it with him and realizes he can't find it, you would think the world was ending by his immediate freak out. We have to scramble through the whole house to try to find the darn thing.  It's funny though because he doesn't really play with the letters and stuff on top....all he does is draw on the little screen.  Lately he's all about making smiley faces and he bugs all of us to draw pictures for him on it too.  In fact Brayden often comes in our room at night when they are going to sleep complaining that Tyler keeps making him draw things for him and he can't go to sleep.

He loves nursery at church, but getting through sacrament meeting with him is a nightmare.  As soon as we walk in the door he only wants to go to nursery (can you blame him?) and freaks out when we sit in our row.  Yes, it's a fun hour!

He is really attached to his crocs. They are the only shoes he will wear.  I just got a whole bunch of Brayden's old shoes out of the storage bins and he wouldn't even let me try them on him.  "No, only these are my shoes!" He will have a hard time if we move somewhere cold!

We can get him to do almost everything by threatening the time out corner (corner by the front door).  He spends quite a bit of time there and really will stand and face the corner the whole time, which I secretly think is pretty funny. He is always quick to say sorry once he's done and does it in the sweetest little voice that you really would think he wasn't capable of doing anything wrong!

He sure misses Brayden like crazy while he is at school.  We talk about Brayden all day long and he'll come to me during the day with his little "packpack" on and tell me he needs to go to school too. So I try to get out a little workbook or something for him to color and we pretend he's at school.  Picking up Brayden is his favorite part of the day and they are inseperable all evening.

He is truly all boy and will just come up and tackle Brayden for no reason at all.  It makes me smile... Brayden not so much! He really is a tough little guy and can hold his own against his 5 year old brother!

Some of my favorite things he says right now that I can think of: "Thank you much," "Oh maaaan," "Follow me, we march...," "Yes my does" or "Yes my am," "Pwess pway" for movies, "How you know that," "'scuse me, pardon me," "I toot," "Naaah" instead of no, "duck, duck...MOOSE," "Here my come, weady or not" "That makes me mad" (followed by extreme pouting), "I weally hungwy," "You my best friend," " (I could go on and on but I'll stop there!)

He's started really using his imagination when he plays and it's hilarious to spy on him in the playroom.  I  secretly video tape him all the time when he's got the toys out and are making them talk to each other. So funny.  At the same time, it's been an adjustment for him to learn how to play all by himself now that BB is not home all day.  He asks me every day to come play with him or at least sit in the same room while he does...it's a good thing he's going to have another brother soon :)

He loves to go on walks in his little red car, color pictures, pretend he's a scary dinosaur, shark, snake, lion (doesn't matter what, it just has to be scary), carries around his thomas sheet as a blankie, climbs up high on everything, everywhere (he might be my child we take to the emergency room), shows off and tries to be silly when he knows we are watching, walks around and "tries" to make his belly big like mine by sticking it out (it's hilarious), and just wants us to do everything his way (2 year olds are bossy!).   He's a crack up!

Gosh, we just love this boy.  He's a perfect fit in our family and I'm so grateful I get to hang out and be his buddy every day.

Booster Seat Envy

 We bought Brayden a new booster car seat last week since he was growing out of his old one.  Ty and I picked it up at Target while he was at school and put it together.  The whole time Tyler kept thanking me over and over for "his" new car seat (he was so excited about it.) I kept telling him it was for Brayden, but he didn't care. It was his as far as he was concerned because Brayden wasn't around!  He watched cartoons in it and carried it around the house with him all afternoon...It was cracking me up.  He wasn't too happy when we finally took it to the car and Brayden got to sit in it and not him (slight drama), but he's gotten over it now I think (a week later.)

I love how he started out sitting like this for his movie....

And ended up lounging after awhile :)

The Story of Tyler's Hair

We noticed a little over a week ago that he had a big bald spot on the front left side, near his hairline.  Since I've always kept his hair long, it sort of covered it a bit and made it not as noticeable but you could tell it was there. Naturally I was worried because I didn't know why it had happened and to us it seemed to have happened suddenly. Almost like one day it wasn't there and the next day it was.

So we took him to our pediatrician and she told us she thought it could be 2 things. The first was trichotillimania, which is where people twirl or pull their hair so much that it creates bald spots.  This was definitely something I thought it could be because Tyler has done this since he was a baby.  He used to twirl my hair when he was nursing and has always twirled his for comfort when he's watching tv or before he falls asleep.  The problem though, is usually you see a lot of broken hairs in the bald area and with Tyler, the area was completely smooth at the time.

So the other option was that it was a condition called alopecia areata, which is an autoimmune disorder where the bodies white blood cells mistakenly attack the hair follicles and make the hair fall out.  It does not mean permanent hair loss and no one really knows why it happens, but in extreme cases, some people can lose all of their hair from this.  She personally thought it could be this and sent us to a pediatric dermatologist who specializes in it and could help us treat it.

After meeting with him, he thought it was alopecia areata as well.  We could have done a biopsy to be sure, but since Ty is only 2 we decided against it for now.  They would have had to numb the area with a shot and then pull out a hair cell to examine and then stitch it back up with a few stitches.  Sounds like a traumatic experience for a 2 year old, who is already nervous around doctors.

The treatments for alopecia are to have steroid injections into the spots to help the hair come out of the dormant stage it's in or to use steroid creams, and even those don't always work.  After talking with him we decided to just wait a few months to see what happens naturally.  Sometimes the hair just grows back all on it's own, which is what I am hoping for. I can see the hair follicles in the spot now, but they are not growing and if they do grow back it will happen very slowly.

I've never even heard of this condition before, but the derm said it was fairly common and he see's at least a patient a week about it. Everyone's case is different though so it's hard to compare if it will just happen this once or if it will be a lifelong battle. The right front side of Ty's hair is starting to thin a bit now too and I'm just hoping a patch isn't forming there, but we'll just have to see.

So for now, Tyler kind of looks like a little old man with a receding hairline!  I know it's just hair and it maybe seems silly to worry about it, but I do.  I really don't think you can help it when you're a mom.  I am just hoping that it doesn't progress and that more bald spots appear.  Only time will tell, but for now we are just staying hopeful and having faith that it will grow back.  I am trying to be positive and I am grateful he's not losing his hair from something much worse like cancer.  He's a healthy little boy otherwise, so we are counting our blessings. It's just hard to watch happen and to be patient.

One good thing is that Tyler loves wearing hats lately, which is surprising to us because that is SO against his personality.  He is usually a pretty stubborn kid and wants nothing to do with anything we want him to do!  So that helps a bit when we are out and about and luckily his hair is longer so we can cover it up for now.  We'll go back in a few months to see if it's gotten worse, better or stayed the same.

Luckily a 2 year old boy doesn't care about his hair at all... it's just been really hard on his mommy :(

How's the View Down There??

Nothing makes me Happier.....

then Tyler's smile these days.

He scrunches up his eyes and gives us that cheesy grin.

He's a big goof and we love it!

I also love it when I find Brayden asleep in random places. It makes my day :)

Helping out

 Now that we are renting an actual house, we have to take care of the yard. Our yard is really pretty small, but the kids LOVE to go out and help Guy when he works in it. Tyler pushed these leaves up and down our street over and over until it was time to go in. It was a very serious job to him!

 His favorite thing to do- Dump things out and put them back in again. Except the putting them back only happens if we're lucky! Usually he's just a little tornado of destruction!

 Tyler helping Guy wash his car one night :)

Tyler's 2nd Birthday Interview

With answer help from Mommy and Brayden :)

• Favorite color- Brayden showed him all the colors and he decided on "Blue" 
• Favorite food/treat- frozen waffles, gogurts and pizza. Loves chips and cookies for a treat
• Favorite toy- Legos, Mickey toys, Little people
• Favorite movie/TV show- Anything Mickey mouse and Little Einsteins
• Best Friend- Brayden, of course!
• Favorite thing to do with Dad- Riding in the bike trailer 
• Favorite thing to with Mom- Reading books and cuddling with his blankie
• Favorite thing to do with Brayden- Everything! He is Brayden's little shadow. Loves making forts with him, dress ups, blowing bubbles
• Favorite animal- Dogs and horsies
• Favorite book- Peek a boo Elmo and the Rainforest Animal book
• Favorite sport- Whatever Brayden is playing :) 
• Favorite song- Wheels on the Bus and 
• Favorite place to go- Mickey's house, the park and swimming

Tyler's 2nd Birthday!

 Tyler turned 2 on February 16 and we had a Mickey Mouse party for him.  His birthday was just a few days after we moved into our new place so it was kind of a crazy time, but he had so much fun.  We let him open a present in the morning before Guy left for work.

 A little people race track!!  This is honestly the best toy for little boys. They play with it all the time!!!

 I made Mickey pancakes for breakfast

 We spent the day at sunset beach for a birthday outing.
Tyler + giant sandbox = happy

After Guy got home, we went out for pizza and Tyler opened the rest of his presents. 

This is the mickey cake I made him for his big day :)

He was very excited about when he saw his mickey cake and so we blew out the candles at least 5 times! 

Things about Tyler right now that we love:

-His smile lights up the room, especially when you tell him to do his cheesy smile. I need to get that one on camera. It's hilarious!
-He loves to carry around a blankie everywhere and cuddle
-I love to hear him playing with his toys and using his imagination making them talk to each other
-The sweet bond he has with Brayden. Yes, they fight but they are also best buds. He follows Brayden everywhere and asks for him right when he wakes up.  He thinks everything Brayden does is hilarious and will say "Brayden funny" over and over, which makes Brayden feel great :)
-The way he runs to the front door when daddy comes home. He can't get there fast enough!
-The amount of frozen waffles he consumes in a week. He loves them
-He has the most stubborn personality that gives us a run for our money. If he doesn't want to sit in a shopping cart, nothing we do will change his mind. And that goes with just about everything.
-He can honestly scream louder then Guy, Brayden, and I put together. That boy has an incredible set of lungs that we get to witness at least 5 times a day. Can you say terrible two's are definitely here!
-He says cute prayers, when he wants to, where he blesses everyone he can think of.
-He is terrified of all characters at disney world, even mickey, but loves them from a distance
-He has mastered the pout face when he is mad
-He loves to color and the majority of the time it's on paper. I have banned him from markers
-I love when he says "I wuv you" and "no problem"
-He points out every bird he sees on our walks and gets so excited when they come to our bird feeder
-He screams and runs every time I vacuum the floor
-He's not afraid of going in the ocean anymore which is a happy thing...he used to be terrified
-He makes us laugh every day with his personality. He is the biggest goofball and loves to be silly
-Gets embarrassed to dance to music if a lot of people are watching
-Loves to twirl and play with his hair when he's tired, which is another reason we haven't cut it short yet.
-Makes me happy every day to be his mommy. I'm so grateful!!!!

Ty & the laundry basket ride :)

I just love this boy!

Can I just say that I love the age of almost 2. I think it is my favorite!

I'm pretty sure everything a 2 year old does is considered adorable.

I love watching them discover the world and watching their little personalities shine through.

And I love having 3 hours every morning with just me and my Ty Ty

while Brayden is in school.

And that for 3 hours every afternoon I get to spend time with my Brayden

while Tyler takes his nap.

It's a great system we have going on right now in life.

Here's my favorite moments lately of Tyler during our mornings.

Gosh, I LOVE this boy!!!

He loves to color! On paper, his legs, walls...he's not picky!
This is Tyler for ya...He does this almost every day! Collects all the matching figures to sets, brings them in my room, and just sits there and sorts them.
And then he always picks a few to carry around with him all day
Talkin' to somebody important!

Who knew Brayden's pajama pants could make such a stylish hat??
He seriously thought he was sooo funny that he had thought to put it on his head. He was cracking himself up, which of course was hilarious to watch him being silly. What a goof ball! And yes, we picked up Brayden from school like this b/c this hat stayed on all morning long!

Peek-a-boo! :)Books can make a great hat too! :)

When he's mad, he's MAD! Don't mess with him and his waffles!!!

Kelly Comes to Play

My sister Kelly came to visit from Ohio and we had so much fun...of course! Kelly and I always have fun together and we managed to despite practically everything going wrong on the trip. Seriously why is this always happening everytime we have fun things planned lately? This trip included Kelly getting sick and me thinking it was from us, to her feeling better and us wondering if she had gotten food poisoning, to freezing ( like SNOW freezing) weather here over the weekend, to crazy delayed flights that made her have to leave earlier and end up flying way out of her way to get home in time. It was just crazy. Anyways, here are all the pictures I took while she was here. I love when Kelly comes because we act like 5 year olds and I totally forget that I am supposed to be a responsible adult/mom now!! Its great! We picked her up on St. Patricks day from the airport so Brayden and I made her a giant rainbow cupcake as a surprise

But the real surprise was in the middle! I wasn't sure it was going to turn out but we thought it turned out pretty cool.

We had some fun at the park and enjoyed the nice weather before the weekend of cold came along. Apparently everyone was doing this because the place was beyond crowded! Took a trip to Rainforest Cafe, a restaurant that is all decked out like a rainforest inside.

In my opinion, the food was so expensive and not the greatest. Maybe its just what we ordered but we all thought it was a ripoff. We had been saving a gift card we had been given for a "special" time and thought since Kelly was here we should go. Seriously I am glad we didn't have to pay for that food from our own pocket! Plus the place was SO packed since it was spring break so it was just crazy!

Brayden with his elephant balloon

And all Tyler got was a straw but he loved it!

Guy and I pretending to not have kids...even though the bottle up front gives that away

So the next morning Kelly woke up really sick and its a mystery to us if it was our yucky sickness that we picked up at the gross airport or if it was food poisoning from yucky rainforest cafe? Either way, she was really sick and felt awful. We had been planning on going to San Antonio for the weekend but canceled it and were just planning on hanging out. But the next day she woke up feeling much better (which is why we thought food poisoning maybe??) So we spontaneously decided to just go to San Antonio right then and there. And so we did and I was glad because apparently Dallas ended up getting snow! WHAT? Um, I'm glad we missed that. Seriously I just want it to get warm and stay warm here now (and I know I will regret that statement when its summer and we are roasting!) It was pretty chilly down in San Antonio too but we still went to Sea World and had some fun!

IHOP...Brayden tried bacon for the first time and loved it!

Gotta love Sea World!! I seriously do love it and even though it was kinda cold we had a lot of fun! Plus, an adult ticket is the same price as a pass for the rest of the season so we have passes now and will be going back for sure all summer while we are still living here! I am excited to have a reason to get away and it will be fun to go back when the water park opens up!!

Kelly with the boys...I was so happy she was feeling better
BB loved the shamu roller coaster for kids. I rode it once with him and Kelly did too!

We got to meet Shamu and we decided this was probably the one day where the person inside was actually glad to be wearing that costume. I always feel bad for them in the summer when its so hot but I seriously could have used a shamu costume to wear that day. It looked toasty!

Ty bundled in the stroller...again I was jealous of him too!

We loved seeing the sea lions

And feeding them fish

I have to say the shamu show is pretty lame now. The trainers do not swim in the water with them after that trainer was killed in orlando a little bit ago. Which I'm glad they are being safer but the whales just didn't really do much on their own. They just swam around in circles pretty much and occasionally splashed some water. Also, all the girl trainers have to wear their hair in buns now so the whales can't pull them into the water by their hair. I think the trainer in orlando had her hair in a braid and the whale pulled her in by it and wouldn't let her get back out of the water. So awful huh! I guess the best part was that they had a baby whale born in january so it was swimming by its mom during the show which was really cute! But other then that, not as exciting as before!

They had a really cute sesame street sing a long show which Brayden loved.

He went up in the mosh pit of kids and danced which was pretty funny

And my fav part of sea world is always the dolphins! There was a trainer training them in their tank so we got to see them do a few tricks

And feed them fish of course!

Ty was such a trooper all day and it warmed up in the afternoon which was nice. By the end of the day we were all so exhausted but it was fun and I'm glad we were able to drive down and miss the crazy Dallas weather!!

But the car ride back was awful. We were stuck in traffic most of the way and Ty decided it would be fun to cry most of the drive. Well except for the 5 minutes we gave him a granola bar which resulted in this awesome mess of chocolate. I didn't even see it happening because it was so dark or I would have put a stop to it sooner! Lesson learned...do not give babies chocolate chip granola bars because they will make it a full body experience! And the other thing I learned on this trip is that we need a bigger car! It is time to upgrade to more room because being scrunched in the back with 2 car seats was horrible! I'll just add that to my wish list :)

BB watchin his movies on the way home. He looks so comfortable, don't you think?? :)

So Kelly, I miss you and you need to come back and visit again so we can make up for this time around!! Next time no sickness and warm weather...I promise! It was seriously still so much fun to just see you though and hang out for a little while! Hopefully we'll see you the end of April...fingers crossed! LOVE YA and thanks for coming to see us!!!!! We all miss you! :(