I love how Tyler refers to himself in third-person voice, and with a nickname.
Ty do it.
Baby touch Ty cheek.
Ty kiss Dada arm.
No baby! Ty toy.

The other day while Grandma & Kristin were visiting, he said the longest sentence I've ever heard. It was shocking hearing the syllables pour out of his mouth. He said "Ty put straw in basket, Mama." Now that was a mouthful. It may not make sense in writing, but the context of seeing the crazy straw stuck in the net of his basketball hoop made sense out of the whole sentence.

As he's beginning to repeat everything he hears, I'm beginning to wish I had a far broader vocabulary to expose him to. Also, hearing him repeat my words makes me realize how often I'm barking orders around:
No eat trash, Chili.
No cry, Baby.
Shawn, wake up.
This last one always cracks me up. To hear him call his dad by his name is one thing, but Tyler says his name the same way I do when I'm hollering at him from down the hall.

The field behind the park across the street is full of cows. I hope they live there forever because it is such fun to walk to the cows, watch Chili's hair stand on end when he gets near them, moo at them and watch them eat all day long. This weekend we visited the cows several times, and most of these trips Tyler walked the entire way. It was all part of my attempts to get him worn out so he'll sleep better. He did a heck of a lot of walking for a little man. On Sunday Grandma and Kristin visited so we walked some more. After they left, I put both boys in the bike seat for the first time. Gavin seemed to enjoy it, until Tyler realized he was pinching-distance and wouldn't leave his poor baby hands alone. Next time I'll find a way to keep Gavin's hands tucked under a blanket so Tyler leaves him alone. When they are in the stroller together, Tyler thinks it is fun to reach behind him and pull the baby's blanket off, or take his hat off, or tug at his arm or whatever extremity he can reach. This is beginning to be a problem, as I can only take so many instances of Tyler making the baby cry. Which leads me to the final thought of the weekend. We have designated a "Time Out" space in the house. It was dada's idea actually but now that it's there, mama uses it the most. Tyler's pretty good at staying sitting in the chair until we tell him he can get up (usually less than 30 seconds later). And he must have apologized to baby half a dozen times this weekend.

Tyler turns two in just one week! School is getting him ready, letting him play with the 2's room in the afternoon. They say he's fitting right in. Leaving Kindercare last night, a little boy I had never before seen gave Tyler a package of the crackers they leave by the door. He knew Tyler's name so I asked Tyler who that was and Tyler said Mase. A few seconds later the little boy's dad was hollering "hurry up Mase" so Tyler was right! His friendships are broadening. This is reassuring.

Gavin is sleeping through the night, in his crib! Every morning when Tyler wakes up in our bed asking with the baby is I do my best to rub in the fact that Gavin can sleep in his own bed all night long which is so much better than sleeping in mommy & daddy's bed. Tyler doesn't seem to get it.

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Today I was sitting at my desk minding my own business when I suddenly realized there was something wrong with my hair. I smelled it. Applesauce. Flashback to saying bye bye to sweet Tyler sitting in the highchair with his second helping of applesauce and pancakes, reaching his arms up to me. I'm normally really good at avoiding the messy hands but must have been tricked. So, I've been walking around all morning with clumps of applesauce in my hair.

Tyler & Gavin took a bath together last night. At the moment, there is nothing in the world that can make Tyler happier than taking a bath with the baby. He is so sweetly elated by me just mentioning that it is bath time. Tyler asked the baby to wash his back the entire time. Forget the bath toys, he's got the baby now!

I'm not comparing here. It's just that watching Gavin go through the milestones all infants go through is making me remember what it was like when Tyler went through them. In the very moment of witnessing your baby roll over for the first time, you think you will never ever forget this. It wasn't until I watched Gavin roll over for his first time that I was able to recall Tyler's first rolling over as vividly as if it just happened. So, Gavin rolled over exactly one week to-the-day after Tyler did (by number of days old). Gavin gave up the binky exactly one week to-the-day Tyler did--a massive amount of coincidence and luck. It's like both of the boys just woke up one day sick of sucking the rubber thing they sucked the heck out of for their first six months of life. Amazing.

I'm pretty sure Tyler is already on Carina's parents radar for when she gets older. He just catches a glimpse of them, or Carina, or her sister walking by his classroom and he's screaming her name. This is getting a little embarrassing for me. But the funniest thing is when we see her family outside of daycare, Tyler doesn't even acknowledge her, which makes me feel a little better. Still, his behavior would be deemed inappropriate if he were older and wiser. Yesterday's report from daycare said "Tyler spent lots of time playing outside. He got to talk to Carina through the fence. This made him happy." I bet. So I asked Ms. Jaclyn about this. She said Carina was calling out her friends names from the old classroom "Dylan, Tyler, Sami, Jaclyn" and the kids all ran over to the fence shouting her name back. After a few minutes, everyone went their separate ways, back to playing outside. Everyone except Tyler that is. Jaclyn said Tyler stood at the fence for over 20 minutes shouting Carina's name, waving frantically when she looked his way, and proudly telling his friends where she was (as if they didn't know). Poor Tyler. Life is just not the same without his little Carina. So, this morning her parents walked by the classroom and Tyler yelled Carina! So Mr. Carina stopped and popped his head in to say hi to Tyler. This was classic--the dad is already practicing protecting his popular daughter. Geez I hope he doesn't know about Tyler standing at the fence for 20 minutes yelling his daughter's name!

I'm not going to be a mom of two boys under two for much longer so I've challenged myself to use this phrase as much as possible until the 27th. I get so much out of it! Knowing groans and winks from grandmother-aged moms. Shocking and explosive "WOW"s from women without children. Challenges from men. "Tyler isn't two yet?" Kevin my manager said the other day at the same time Matty from BMG screeched her WOW resonse. She had just given us way too many details about her fertility treatments, saying she was worried she'd end up with multiples. I decided my two under two are close enough to multiples and the responses I got supported my stance. Heck, last night the Wal Mart greeter asked me if they were twins. She couldn't actually see Gavin hidden in the infant carrier tucked into the stroller and I'm hoping would not have asked that if she could, since he's clearly a drolling baby and Tyler has a head full of hair and a mouth full of words. But when I smiled and said no, trying to hurry so she wouldn't ask to see the baby, she hollered behind me "Well, two is two either way." She was a grandmother.

Not all the news that broke about Tower Records yesterday was bad. Check out what Mama's been busy doing!

And while I'm busy tootin' my own horn, there's more. Now you know what I'm doing at work while the kids at school are being watched by young girls barely out of their teens. And I used to think going to work was more restful than staying home with the kids. Not so much now that I'm on the press circuit.

By the way, If you're shopping for insurance give your business to Dada so he can make enough money to keep Mama home with the kids.

Baby Gavin couldn't be more different from Tyler in many ways. They both love their baths. When Tyler was a baby I knew he loved the bath because he always fell asleep in the tub. So calm and mellow, he'd always lie against the backrest and let me pour water over him. Gavin will never fall asleep in the tub, he is busy as a beaver. I can tell he loves the bath because of the way he kicks his feet both at the same time, flailing his arms around, so happy and alert. Baby is all about standing up. He'd prefer to stand, not sit. Obviously, he can't stand unassisted but when Tyler was this age, he had no desire to stand and actually his feet were always pointing the toes so he couldn't really stand. Baby pushes on his flat feet so strongly, you'd think you could let go and he'd take off walking.

Tyler has been saying some good sentences l lately. This morning he said "Kids on bus," and "Baby touch hair." The other day we were driving to school and I pointed out a dog at the park. Tyler yelled to the dog, shaking his finger "No Eat Trash Dog!" Guess he's heard me yell at Chili or something!

Tyler appears to be going through some jealousy issues. In the middle of the night, while I was sitting up quietly feeding the baby and everyone else was sleeping, Tyler sat up next to me, whining. I told him to put his head back on the pillow which usually is all it takes to put him back to sleep. But instead he told me to put the baby down. "Baby down," he ordered. Apparently he wanted me to hold him and knew that wouldn't happen unless I emptied my arms. Let's just say ordering mommy to do anything at 3 a.m. isn't going to go over very well. I secretly think to myself there's daytime mommy and then there's nighttime mommy. By day I'm patient, well spoken, always trying to be a good model for my kids. By night I'm short tempered, somewhat delirious, and don't really care about much of anything besides going back to sleep. My reaction must have been worse than I first thought because it even woke Shawn up. "You don't tell me what to do," I hollered at Tyler (even though he was laying right next to me). Well, there. Now I know how my parents felt the hundreds of times I told them what to do.

You're wondering how bad the nighttime mommy can really be, aren't you? I envision locking Tyler's bedroom door and letting him cry himself to exhaustion, turning off the baby's monitor and letting him cry through the night, putting a pillow over my head, cotton in my ears, and getting my first good night's sleep in almost two years. But I don't actually do it, so I guess I'm not that bad.