There is nothing I look more forward to than picking the kids up from school. I start in Gavin's room where he greets me by flapping his arms until I pick him up and he squeezes my neck tightly. Then we go get routine-oriented Tyler. Whatever he is working on when I arrive, he diligently puts away before running over, chanting "Mama, Mama" with his arms spread wide for a big hug. Then we go into his classroom where he shows me Larry the fish and we get Tyler's daily report. He says bye bye to all the teachers and kids, and any parents he sees. Getting him from that point to the door is the hardest part. He's like his dad in the way he can say goodbye but still not leave for what seems like ever after that. Me, I say goodbye and I leave. Not Tyler. He wants to show me every dinosaur and elephant, look at every picture on the wall, wave to every parent, teacher and student. Finally we make our way to the door where he gets a cracker. Sometimes it's oyster crackers, sometimes it's graham crackers. Lord help us if the only crackers left are soda crackers because that triggers a meltdown. And he says bye bye to anyone else who crosses our path until we get outside, where he says "Where Mama's car?" I point it out and he heads straight to it. My arms are full with baby, art projects, dirty clothes, etc. so I have to put on my mean mommy hat and scare Tyler into not doing anything but staying very close and touching my car. Aside from the occassional deviation, he does this pretty well. Then we get in the car and drive home. Tyler asks for his sunglasses. "Go home, Mama."

Have I mentioned how smart Tyler is lately? He is just a talking machine. He's also a singer, having recently added ten more songs to his memory bank. He counts to 15 all by himself really well and he's just about got the alphabet nailed: "A B C D E F G, H JLMNOP, Q R S T OOO V doubleooo X YandZ. Now I know mine ABC next time SING WITH ME!" Just about!

Are you sitting down? Good. Because we had Tyler's first visit to the emergency room yesterday. Don't panic, it wasn't horrible or else we would have called every last relative and friend of the family to inform you personally. He's fine now and you'd never know he was in immense pain just 24 hours ago, holding his wrist frantically screaming and crying.

We were leaving Costco. Dada lifted Tyler out of his stroller by the arms and Tyler suddenly started bawling. Poor poor boy. He was holding his wrist and I could see instantly that something was not right. Lucky us, Costco is right across the street from Kaiser (yet another reason to love Kaiser) so we ran right over to the emergency room. Turns out he had Nursemaid's Elbow, a common condition caused by swinging him by the lower arm. So, that's probably the last time Dada dangles Tyler-or Gavin for that matter-because he's feeling horribly guilty for causing him pain. Luckily, I had my camera so we snapped a bunch of pictures of Tyler's first, and hopefully only, trip to the ER. The day ended with Tyler going home in a splint which came off shortly thereafter. The technician who wrapped the splint said we didn't have to keep it on for the seven days the doctor recommended and under his breath said we didn't even have to keep it on one day if we didn't feel the need. It didn't take Tyler long to figure out his splinted forearm was a high-fiving weapon for whacking mommy in the back on giving baby a "Bonk on the head," so off it came. We told our little buddy we'd take him anywhere to eat dinner and asked what he wanted. This is a question he usually answers with "Pancakes," but for some coincidental miracle, he declared "Spaghetti and meatballs!" so we happily obliged.

We're counting our blessings. Things like that help to keep perspective. It could have been so much worse. I'm hoping Dada's new rule of not picking the boys up by their limbs carries over to not throwing the boys up in the air so high. It just takes one time...hint hint nag nag. He doesn't read this so I'm not trying to send subliminal messages to him but anyone else reading this can!

When I cook vegetables for Tyler, I always feel like I'm getting away with something sneaky. He loves carrots, broccoli, zucchini and green beans. And he eats large helpings of them. Daycare teachers are always shocked at his appetite for the healthy foods. But we can't tell him they're good for him or he'll never want them again, right?

Same goes with his vitamins. We put him on a chewable vitamin because as much as he eats veggies, he despises milk. So each night we give him half of a stinky, chewable vitamin which he loves. He reminds us every night after bath and before bed: "Get vitamin, Mama/Dada. Only get one a day!" It's very helpful to be reminded of these things! The bottle has a picture of Elmo on it, but the vitamins themselves do not. So maybe I should try putting a picture of Elmo on his medicine the next time he gets sick.

Tyler and Dada went to the Kings Playoff game together! This was Tyler's first Kings game in his own seat. Now that he's two, he needs his own ticket. He was decked out in every piece of Kings clothing he owns: hat, tank top, warmup pants and jacket! They passed out Kings megaphones at the entrance so he yelled D-Fence into it just like everyone else. He dished out the high-fives to our fellow season ticket holders at the appropriate celebratory times. He had an absolute blast!

Gregg told me he saw them through the binoculars and he kept missing good stuff in the game because he was so intrigued with watching Tyler. He couldnl't believe that Tyler actually seemed to get the whole concept of what was going on around him. You'd better believe it! This kid is now obsessed with basketball. If we can't find a game, any game, on TV, he's not a happy camper. So we're finding ourselves watching the ESPN classics, like the 1980 Boston Celtics in their short-shorts and kelly green uniforms play.

We have emerged from the worst ailment of this season. It started with what looked to me like possibly pinkeye. Last Monday when I picked Tyler up from school, his eye didn't quite look right to me. Nothing else seemed wrong but his eye lid was a little swollen. By bedtime that night, he was complaining about it: "Mine eye," he says as he's digging his fingers into it. Early Tuesday morning we were on the phone with Kaiser and had a the prescribed eyedrops in our hands a couple hours later without seeing the doctore. I love Kaiser. I know I say that a lot. But I really do.

Tyler has always been great at taking medicine. If it's administered orally, he opens wide and gulps it down. When we have to give him Albuterol for wheezing, he becomes very serious and holds very still, making sure he gets every last mist of spray from the inhaler. Based on this great track record, I figured eyedrops would be a piece of cake. Hah! I basically have to lay on top of him in order to pin his body from twisting and turning, and place my knees on his arms to prevent them from flailing and pushing me away in order to put two drops in each eye. A struggle, but worth it to get rid of pink eye. Plus, it's nice to know I'm still stronger than him because one day I know I won't be.

Instead of getting better, Tyler suddenly became sicker and had a high fever Wednesday night. Turns out this bad experience with the eye drops is now carried over to all medicine because we had an awful time getting him to swallow Tylenol or even yummy grape flavored Motrin to break the fever. At three in the morning, he threw up all over me because he got so upset and worked up over being force-fed medicine. That was a long night.

Friday Gavin stayed home sick with a runny nose and Tyler's other eye suddenly was getting infected with pinkeye. This stuff is horrible! Somehow though, it never spread to any of the rest of the family. We're all better now, thankfully.

Yesterday was Easter. Saturday we visited the Bunny at Arden Fair Mall. Tyler had me totally convinced it would be worth the 40 minute wait to stand in line and see the bunny. He was waving to the bunny, asking when it would be his turn to see the bunny. I made sure he understood what he was going to do when it was finally his turn. Say hi to the bunny, sit on his lap, take a picture and say 'cheese' to the camera. I was skeptical he'd actually do these things, but he was totally in agreement so I thought maybe his fear of strangers and costumed people (Santa) is coming to an end. And if worse comes to worse, I can just sit down next to the bunny, Tyler on my lap and Baby on the bunny's lap for the picture. Finally, after a dozen Girl Scout cookies for Tyler and a 15 minute break for the bunny, it was our turn. Bunny waved for Tyler to come towards him and Tyler ran to that bunny only to stop dead in his tracks just two feet away from the fuzzy bunny. Tyler crossed his arms vehemently, stomped his foot and turned his head away. This didn't even look like Tyler, I've never seen such a display of disapproval. As for my backup plan, Tyler wouldn't even consider sitting on my lap if I was going to have anything to do with that bunny. So we got a picture of Gavin and the bunny this year.

Sunday morning, Tyler went on his Easter egg hunt and found the eggs the bunny hid. He kept asking if we could go back and see the bunny. He must have sensed that my patience was worn thin on this subject because I kept trying to philosophize with him, asking why he would want to go and stand in that long line to see the bunny when he won't actually sit on the bunny's lap to take a picture. He finally gave up on asking after getting my lecture for the third time. You'd think I was the one who was full of chocolate and sugar from the Easter basket treats.

Earlier this week. Grandma Wan and Papa Neb visited with their dog Mango. Tyler wakes up every morning asking where Mango is. They brought him some gifts from Thailand. A hat with very decorative, sequined elephants on it. It is hard to talk him into leaving the hat at home when it's time to go out. He'd prefer to wear this hat everywhere. He also got this great shorts & shirt outfit with Nemo on them, which he wore to school today. We walked in to school with Tyler telling everyone he has "Nemo Fish on shirt."

Gavin's got his own blog! Now I just need to figure out how to combine them all. Stay tuned.

We took Chili on a walk yesterday. Tyler gave me play-by-play of Chili's action. "Chili go potty on grass." I tried to ignore Tyler, because this sort of sounded like tattle telling to me and I need to get caught up on my reading to know how to handle tattlers. Anyway, a few minutes later, Tyler yelled "No, Chili! No go poo poo on grass!" Nice. I wasn't sure whether I should explain to Tyler that Chili doesn't use a toilet or a diaper, and by the time I had played an entire dialog about poo, pee, dogs and people, Tyler was distracted by his desire to get out of his stroller so I opted for silence and let him out of the stroller. We walked along. Slowly. Tyler started walking in place. He's never in a hurry when I am. I got about ten feet in front of him and turned around to see Tyler standing on the grass. Just as a family walked by him, Tyler declared loudly "Ty go potty on grass!" As much as I want him to be potty trained, I was thanking my lucky stars for diapers at that moment.

Last weekend, Papa Steve taught Tyler his full name. Now Tyler loves to say his first, middle & last names with enthusiam. Only, he pronounces his 'd' as 'b' so he says "Tyler Bavis Curt."

Tyler is singing! This is so sweet. He knows a lot of songs too! Most of them I know but there are a few he's teaching me. His current favorites are: "Twinkle-Twinkle," "Head, Shoulders, Knees & Toes," and "Where is Thumbkins?" He knows them well too! The one that he keeps singing that I don't know something like "Snap goes the alligator snapping a monkey's head off" Any ideas?