Last night Tyler had a slumber party. Conor spent the night. Daddy gave the boys a bath together. This was Tyler's first bath with someone other than me. The boys played together great, as usual. We had such a good night with them it made me think I could handle a third kid. Just kidding.

Sometimes I wonder if I'm screwing Tyler up by talking to him in Spanish. He always gets very quiet when I begin speaking to him and stops being as participatory as he usually is when we talk in English. Then, lately I've noticed he is saying some English words funny. Every morning when I put lotion on my legs, Tyler asks for some on his legs. But suddenly he's saying yeg as if it's with the Spanish double-L sound (which sounds like a Y). And he says neck as though the N had the squiqqly horizontal line over it. Nnneck. Just some recent discoveries. Last night while paying a visit, Grandpa said "Bing" and the light bulb turned on over my head. Aha, maybe that's where Tyler got this funny thing he does. "Bing" to the computer. "Bing" to the birds. Of course, Grandpa's wasn't the throaty, excited "Bing" that Tyler's sounds like, but maybe the mystery has been solved.

Until recently, I assumed all kids were as excited as Tyler is to see their parents after a long day at daycare. But in the past two days I've realized this isn't so. Monday Gunnar's mom walked in just in front of me. Gunnar was happy to see her but stayed in Ms. Amber's lap reading a book. Meanwhile, Tyler drops everything, stepping on whatever is in his way as he dances over to me chanting Mama mama mama over and over, flapping his arms and stopping his feet. Sometimes his feet get going so fast I think they are going to slip out from under him. Then yesterday I was the recipient of big, tight hugs and many many kisses from Tyler as he celebrated my arrival when Dylan's mom walked in. Dylan ignored her so much she finally said something to him about how it would be nice if he would just pretend to notice her. No pretending here, Tyler is hugely expressive and for that, I am lucky. He won't always be so happy to see me.

I cut Tyler's hair a few days ago. With each haircut, he looks more like a big boy than he does a toddler. Everyone keeps commenting on how much he looks like Dad too. I guess short hair brings out the man in him. He's speaking in sentences more than ever too. This morning he asked if it was a school day, which really sounded like 'skoo day.' He is also counting a lot. And he likes to sing what he calls "aybee" which is the ABCs. He gets the biggest smile on his face as I sing it. ABCDEFG and Tyler says "effgee" like it's a word.

Tyler can get the biggest smiles out of Gavin. He's a very happy baby and smiles at anyone who talks to him, but when he hears Tyler's voice, he turns his head toward his brother and tries to engage in the conversation. Tyler likes to get right up close to Gavin and say "Hi Baby" to which Gavin responds with an enormous smile. Baby fell asleep on the floor the other day and Tyler put his head right next to him on the blanket. They are crazy about each other.

We had a great weekend. Friday night was a pre-Halloween party at Kindercare. Tyler wore his frog costume and Conor came along dressed up like a giraffe. When I first pulled into the parking lot, Tyler cried, concerned that I was dropping him off at school, at night. So I explained that I was staying with him and he seemed to understand. Inside, there were tons of kids running around in their costumes. Tyler arrived fashionably late and he was definitely the life of the party to his friends, Carina and Christopher and their parents. As soon as Carina saw Tyler, she ran to him, practically knocking him over (might have if she weren't half his size!). We parents snapped a lot of pictures of the kids and their teachers. It was a great time. Tyler was especially intrigued by some of the older kids in masks. There was one kid dressed up as a Power Ranger who Tyler wouldn't leave alone. Since he hasn't established that "sense of space" that keeps most Americans an arm's length away from other people, Tyler kept getting right in this kid's masked face and would not stop staring. Such innocence. It was funny to me but probably annoying to the Power Ranger kid and his parents, who kept trying to take a picture of him without Tyler in it. At home we told Daddy all about what we saw and Tyler said "Cakina Pooh" because Carina was dressed up like Whinnie the Pooh. Those two are true buds. His report on Friday said they played together outside taking turns pushing each other in the car. This is the same car that the two of them just sat in for ten minutes on Tyler's first day back to daycare after a 2-month hiatus. His teachers said it was just like they imagined they were driving somewhere, Carina in the passenger's seat and Tyler driving, as they re-bonded.

Saturday Tyler helped me give Chili a bath. He thought this was pretty fun. Then we went to Mark and Cathi's new house in the country where Tyler left his fingerprints all over their nice new windows. I need to remind myself what I thought about other people's kids before I had any of my own, it's so easy to forget.

Yesterday we took our first trip to Six Flag's Marine World. Tyler had some pretty great animal encounters. The elephants were getting hosed down just a couple feet in front of Tyler. He spent 20 minutes studying and celebrating his favorite animal, the "Elmet." Then we watched an elephant show. We sat on the end of the row, fully prepared to leave the show early because when we tried watching the animal show at the zoo with Grandma Dee, Tyler lost it after five minutes. Not this time, he's maturing! Between the fascinating elephant and the clapping audience, Tyler was captivated. In fact, he was so good, we took him to four other shows: the tiger, walrus, sea lion and dolphin shows! Tyler did great. He saw tons of animals, some he had never before seen. We walked through a big aquarium filled with sharks and colorful fish. We wore Tyler out well, as he fell asleep in the stroller!

Tyler came home from school with two Incident Reports yesterday. Both occurred within a half hour of each other and both reported him biting another child. I have been on the receiving end of the reports when Tyler was the bitee so I always imagine what the parents think when they pick up their kid and see he was bitten. Are they snoopy like me and do they try to figure out which kid bit their child? Or are they understanding because their child bites too? Why do kids bite anyway? From his past incidents, Tyler usually bites someone because they have something he wants, or they are in his way. I guess biting is a little better than pushing...maybe. But with yesterday's incident I was wondering whether he bit the same kid twice or two different kids. I was secretly hoping it was the same kid twice and his teachers wrote up both incidents on just one report for that parent. It is a little shocking to sign your child out and see one report, so I can only imagine how alarming it would be to see two. Both last night and this morning, Shawn and I talked to him about this, reminding him that we don't bite and to use his words to tell his friends what he wants. I assumed here that he bit because they had something he wanted. Come to find out this morning, it was two different kids and neither time did they have something he wanted, except their fingers. Ms. Jaclyn wouldn't tell me who it was but I have a pretty good guess it was Carina and Gunnar. She said she watched both happen. First, Tyler picked up the other kid's hand and put their finger in his mouth. Half an hour later, he bent over to put his mouth on another kid's arm and bit. Well maybe he should be a vampire for Halloween.

Tyler has begun to call his daddy by his first name. He only does this during certain rituals that always involve daddy. Like waking Shawn up in the morning. This morning we were all in bed and I told Tyler we needed to wake up daddy to have him help Tyler get dressed. So Tyler said "Shawn dressed. Shawn dressed Shawn," until Shawn opened his eyes. Tyler also calls him by his first name when I'm looking for Shawn, hollering his name through the house. This is so funny, but not funny. I explained to Tyler that his name is Shawn but Tyler can call him Daddy. Then I said, "My name is Lorelei. Can you say my name?" He replied, "Mama." That's right buddy.

Tyler is becoming a great negotiator. Especially when it comes to bedtime. After the pre-bedtime routine of taking a bath, getting a drink, saying night-night to everyone, we lay down on his bed. If I turn out the light right away, he cries "Dark" in a scared voice so lately I've been leaving it on. I'll read him a book and as soon as I'm done he asks "Again?" So I agree to read it just one more time as long as he keeps his head on his pillow, then it's time to go to sleep. We'll read the book again and he still asks "Again?" when it's done. He cries a little when I say no (often I give in at this point and read the book for a third, fourth, even fifth time) but usually listens when I say to put his head on his pillow. While sometimes he mistakes my lap for his pillow, lately he has been pulling me down onto his pillow. He's got a strong pull, too. After I tell him for the umpteenth time to lay still and keep his head on his pillow, he'll ask for a drink. Stalling tactics, I know, but how can I deny a thirsty boy? So bedtime has turned into an hour-long commitment. All that for him to sleep for about 4-5 hours in his own bed before he makes his way into our bed. How did we go so off course from just being able to lay him down to put himself to sleep? One thing is for sure, Gavin won't be getting this kind of treatment. I can hear all you parents laughing at me and my wishful thinking. Anyway, as tiring and frustrating as it can be, I love this ritual. I love the way Tyler blurts out random words as he's falling asleep, the way he prefers to cover his face with a blanket or his arm in order to fall asleep, the way he picks up my hand and puts it on his back so I'll rub it, and the way his breathing goes from light and fast to deep and patterned so I know it's time to tip toe away.

Last night we read the 10 Little Ladybugs, a book we've read hundreds of times. I'm starting to pause to let Tyler say the next word and he's getting really good at this. At the very end of the book, we count the ten ladybugs. On our second time reading it last night, I didn't say anything at the end and Tyler grabbed the book and began counting on his own. "On, two, fee, or, ive, ichs" WOW he just counted to six. That was one of the proudest moments of my life to date.

I never realized how much I walk backwards until Tyler began doing this too. When we go on walks at the park, we're starting to let Tyler out of the stroller. We've been evil parents up until now, keeping him strapped down because I don't want him getting too used to the taste of freedom. Whenever I watch friends let their kids out of the stroller to walk--or run--freely around the store I am thankful Tyler can make it through a shopping trip buckled in safe and sane (the sane part is mostly for me). For now, I only let Tyler out of the stroller when Shawn is with us to keep his eye on the baby, or if the baby is with Shawn somewhere else entirely. Sometimes Tyler walks fast, bee-lining it straight towards a bird on the ground. But usually he walks really slow, wandering around soaking up the sights. The other day he was going slow so I was in front of him. Every time I turned around to check on him, he turned around and walked backwards too. This cracks me up. Reminds me of the day I was trying to show Tyler how well behaved Chili is with his commands. With Tyler standing next to me, I commanded "Chili, sit," using the hand signal Chili learned in puppy training, and Chili and Tyler sat at the same time. Or there was a time I was trying to show Tyler how two pieces of a puzzle fit together so I squatted down to get to his level, and he squatted too.

Whenever I see a chart of milestones your child should be able to accomplish, I like to skip ahead to see how advanced Tyler is and to know what's to come in his development. Recently I read that he will be able to draw something that resembles a vertical line between 25-30 months. He's not yet 20 months and he drew one last night. I had totally forgotten that I read that until we were at Chili's (the restaurant, not the dog) waiting for our food. Tyler picked up a crayon and the very first thing he drew was a very long and fairly straight vertical line. Hah! Smart boy. After he ate some fries and chicken strips, he started teasing us with those crayons, pretending to dip them in ketchup and put them in his mouth. This was the first time I've seen him not put crayons in his mouth and found it very funny that he pretended to. He's even smarter than we think he is. He also sat through the entire dinner pleasantly. Such lucky parents we are.

I can always tell when Tyler is near the baby, even if he's out of my sight. I can tell because he starts saying obvious words like Baby or Binky. Or else he'll start naming body parts. This morning as I was getting ready for work I heard Tyler saying 'hand, pinky, hand,' just as I rounded the corner to make sure he wasn't hurting the boy, I heard 'nose, eye.' Thank goodness Tyler can talk, if he were doing these things quietly I never would have known he was about to poke the baby in the eye.

Right on track with 20 month olds, Tyler has discovered a new way to play peek a boo. In the past, it was always mommy or daddy doing the hiding, but now Tyler can put his hands over his eyes so we play this game a lot. We always say "Where's Tyler" when we play, so now that he's in control of the game, Tyler puts his hands over his eyes and sings "Nana" in his sweet high voice, then throws his arms wide open and absolutely cracks up when we act surprised. So, yes, he's still convinced that his name is pronounced Nana. But when I say it just like he does, he starts throwing a fit asking for a banana, or for me to put on his favorite video, The Wiggles, because they sing a song about mashed bananas. So he hears Tyler (selectively--as he ignores it when there is an order following his name, like Tyler don't sit on the baby) but he says Nana. I've been working with him on this a lot. A frequent question I hear kids ask each other at the park is "What is your name?" So I will sit down with Tyler and say "My name is Mommy. What is your name?" Tyler always replies with "Name." So, while he's right on track with peek-a-boo, I'll have to do some research to find out when kids learn to say their own name correctly.

Another thing he does but doesn't do correctly is jump. This is a crack up to see. He bends his knees real deep, swings his arms back and makes a big whooooo sound as he straightens his knees. But his feet don't leave the ground. Not even close. It is so funny to watch this. He's pretty sure he jumps. He'll do this when we're watching dancing shows on TV. The other day Grandma was buying Tyler a new pair of boots. While deciding if they were the right size, we had him walk on the carpet and walk on the tile with them. Then we told him to jump in them. They were like gravity boots, holding his feet firmly on the floor as he went through all the motions and sounds of a really big jump.

There is nothing cuter than Tyler in the morning--when he's in a good mood. His tousled hair goes against the cowlick because of a long night of tossing and turning (no night is long enough for mom and dad, but we can only take so much of the midnight wakings). His voice is scratchy and quiet and he's learning to say 'Good morning' which sounds like 'amornin.' He's warm and soft and completely huggable. That's most mornings. Yesterday was the exact opposite as he woke up crying, screaming, dragging toilet paper from the bathroom to our bed, pulling my clothes off the hangers in my closet, and last but not least, climbing into the baby's co-sleeper and kicking the sleeping baby in the face. I was a half-step too slow to stop him on that last one. Today was a great morning though, making yesterday's events seem further away. It's picture day at school and Tyler wore a new shirt. Daddy combed his hair and slicked it back then Mommy sprayed it with hairspray. He was in a great mood, so he'd better be smiling in these pictures! Gavin, on the other hand, spit up all over his white outfit which I thought would look so angelic for the pictures. What was I thinking?!

We all know how affectionate Tyler is. If you're family, you've gotten his kisses (luckily they are closed-mouth these days) and if you're a stranger you've gotten his sweet sing-song "hi" and "bye bye" waves. We've come to discover that what he really loves is watching mommy and daddy exchange their affection. Often when we kiss Tyler goodnight, the three of us will stand up giving hugs and kisses among each other. That explains why the entire family is sick with the same sore throat at the moment. But when Shawn and I kiss each other, Tyler just loves to watch and smile and then share more kisses. He is filled with love. And hunger, apparently. This morning in just the 20 minutes I was at daycare unpacking their things and spending time with Gavin, Tyler was on his third helping of french toast and pears.

I have to sneak in my time with Gavin whenever I can get it, as this little boy sleeps so much we feel like we never see him awake. After bringing him home from daycare last night, he was only awake for the 20 minutes it took to eat every few hours and then right back to sleep. I got a good 15 minutes out of him at school this morning before leaving for work. The report from his teachers usually says something like "The few times Gavin was awake today he was full of smiles. But he slept most of the time." On the other hand, Tyler was awake at 5 AM after waking up many times throughout the night. So, Tyler is a morning guy just like his mom and Gavin is a sleepy head just like his dad. Yet, it was daddy that was up with Tyler all night and morning. These boys and the things we do for them.

We went out on the boat yesterday to initiate Gavin on the waterways. Tyler still has a hard time staying awake on the boat. But there were all kinds of sensories to keep his eyes open, from the sounds of the choo-choo train, to the I Street bridge opening for the Spirit of Sacramento paddlewheel we followed. Of course, Grandpa's tickles helped keep him awake too. I did notice Tyler held onto the same pretzel all the way from downtown back to the launch ramp. He was in the zone with heavy eyes most of the ride. Yet, still he mustered up the enthusiasm at one point to ask for Elmo. How does one think of a furry red puppet when he's in the middle of the river on a beautiful sunny day?

Tyler has anoter word Shawn and I cannot figure out. He says with a deep, throaty voice Bing! and points up and the TV. We can't figure out what he's talking about, but recently found a new clue to this word. Grandma's birds are visiting us while she goes on vacation. Blackjack is the cockatiel and Tyler says his name really well. Powder is the blue bird's name and every time Tyler points to him, he yells Bing! with the same throaty voice. He knows how to say bird (well, he says Bee for bird) so it's not that. I will be researching this one further.

Tyler's fine motor skills are fully in development. It is fascinating to see the progress, especially having a new baby in the house to remind me of where he was just 18 months ago. While he's still mad about Elmo, Tyler's favorite show to watch these days is the Wiggles because these guys sing and dance, and there's a big giant dog. The Wiggles sing a song that Shawn and I heard for the first time several years ago from our nephew Jordan, who jumped up on our coffee table singing and dancing when the Wiggles started singing "Hot Potato." These guys have a good thing going for the little kids because this same song gets Tyler up and dancing too. On the video, The Wiggles do hand movements for each food: hot potato, cold spaghetti, and mashed bananas. So Tyler has been developing his motor skills to do these same hand movements. Hot potato requires each hand to make a fist, and then you tap your hands on top of each other. A week ago, Tyler couldn't quite get his hands to make the fist and was awkwardly trying to tap them on top of eachother. This week, he has mastered making a fist with at least one hand at a time, and can tap the hands on top of eachother slowly, so slowly that it's not at all to the rhythm of the song. But I bet he'll have it down very soon, considering how many times a day he practices this song!

Dropping him off at daycare this morning, Ms. Jaclyn asked me to help her understand a word he keeps saying to her. She said it sounds like he says "Sisi" but she knows he doesn't have a sister, and that we knew the baby was going to be a boy. Ahh, I know exactly what he's saying (proud mommy that I am). CHILI! Our dog She said that made perfect sense because he always says it when he looks at our family picture on the wall, the one with the three of us and Chili. He also says it when he's stuck in his rut of asking for Mommy and Daddy. Every afternoon, he asks for Mommy and they say I'm at work. So he asks for Daddy and they say he's at work. Next he asks for Sisi and they have been saying "you don't have a sister, you have a brother," so now Tyler probably thinks of Chili as his brother. Ms. Jaclyn and I also talked about how passionate Tyler is about busses. Whether it's a big yellow school bus, or the public transportation, Tyler is always quick to point out a bus that I don't even notice. There is a bus stop across the street from daycare and every morning when the kids are outside, the bus comes and parks at the stop for about 15 minutes. She said Tyler and Carina stand at the fence yelling bus bus bus over and over. Now I know why he occassionally wakes up screaming for the bus in the middle of the night.

I had a feeling sending Tyler back to daycare would be an adjustment for him. It appears he's resisting some of the change. In Californian fashion, he seems to be recalling all sleep efforts. He'll fall asleep after his bath. But after a few hours, he's wide awake and pretty much doesn't think he needs to go back to sleep. After ruling out any illness or injury, Shawn and I decided he was crazy in our sleepless stupor. Pondering the effects of such a label made me wake up a little bit more and remember this week's babycenter.com newsletter. I didn't have much time so I skimmed it, but I do remember two headlines: Getting Your Toddler to Sleep, and Your Toddler Has Found His Loud Voice. Sure enough, he's normal. But trying to convince Shawn of this as Tyler is head-butting him and loudly screaming in the middle of the night sure didn't feel normal.

What cracks me up, in my sleepless stupor, is every afternoon when I pick Tyler up from daycare, the first thing he asks me is Dada? After I tell him Dada's at home, the next thing he asks me is Baby? Umm, Tyler, the baby is sitting on the floor right next to you. Did you not notice? We have this conversation every day. They are in the same classroom, usually within a few feet of each other. His teachers say he doesn't really acknowledge that Gavin is his baby at school. But, we have the same conversation every afternoon. So I've come to realize he associates me with the baby. He sees me and thinks the baby is supposed to be with me. More like attached to me, really, since I feel like I'm always feeding him when Tyler is around trying to get some lap time. I guess I expect him to see me and then point to the baby announcing him. The same way he does when he sees his friends, or Chili, or Elmo.

Tyler had a great weekend. We went to the Elk Grove Harvest Festival on Saturday with Conor and his dad. We saw lots of pumpkins and scarecrows. We took great video of baby Gavin laying on top of a huge pumpkin. There was a neat petting zoo with baby cows, goats, chickens and sheep. Tyler climbed a haystack but didn't notice the turkey sitting on the top of it. He seemed most interested in a cow that was laying down trying to sleep. That's just like Tyler, he always is most interested in the baby when he is trying to sleep too. They had a giant slide Tyler and Daddy went down. Tyler chose to slide down it laying on his back so everyone could see his gigantic smile the whole way down. They also went inside a big blown up dragon which had obstacles to climb up and go around. Tyler did not like this at all and kept trying to turn around and get out the way he came in. But he made it through, and once he came out, he thought it was pretty cool. There was a guy playing guitar and singing kids songs so Tyler and Conor danced. They passed out musical instruments and Tyler shook a rattle. All the kids were supposed to follow this clown and march around, but Tyler stayed right in place shaking his rattle. Even when the parade of marching kids following the clown came right by Tyler, circling around him, he just stood there watching everyone and shaking his rattle. Not much of a follower yet, I guess.

Sunday we went to dinner to celebrate Great Grandma and Grandpa Roberts' 60 wedding anniversary. Tyler sat at the head of the table and discovered that he loves Macaroni Grill because they encourage you to color with the crayons right on the tablecloths. In true form, Tyler ate as much as the adults. He made lots of animal sounds for cousin Steven. At one point, he decided to put the food in his hair. Sadly, we couldn't wake him up after the drive home so this morning Tyler went off to daycare with breadcrumbs in his hair. This would probably bother me a lot more if he were a girl. But, he's all boy so shouldn't he be dirty?

Tyler is all boy. I've never heard of girls doing the things he does. Last night, he kept running from one end of the couch to the other, intentionally falling onto the arm of the couch. When he gets wound up these days, he likes to climb up on his rocking chair and jump off the edge. He could jump off and land on his feet if he wanted to, but chooses to take a big fall as he lands. He yells "two" as he does this, because Daddy always counts one, two, three before catching Tyler off the edge of the pool, the counter, or whatever he may be jumping off of. So "two" is Tyler's way of warning us he is about to take a leap. Not much of a warning and we'd really prefer he includes all three numbers so at least we have a chance to run over and catch him as he stands on the edge of the chair, coffee table or bathtub. Wait, what am I saying? We'd really prefer he wouldn't do this stunt-training jumping at all. But he's all boy. So I guess I am more accepting of it. Now, if Gramma saw him jumping off the rocking chair she gave him for Christmas and landing on his knees, hands, face or whatever hits the ground first, she'd have a fit.

There is a word in Tyler's sweet and innocent vocabulary that has been the source of embarrassment lately. For whatever reason, no matter how much we correct him, he doesn't say the second syllable in the word button. So, he'll point to his belly button while getting dressed and declare "Butt." Or as we get in an elevator, he'll notice the buttons and say "Butt," causing me to turn red as other people in the elevator look his way. Yesterday while picking him up from daycare, he pointed to my shirt button and said loud enough for his teacher to hear "Butt." She couldn't help but laugh as I repeated the word correctly, saying that oh-so-important second syllable very loudly.