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!