Tyler is working on becoming a stunt man. The other day, Hope was visiting and he could not sit down to play with her. Instead, he kept running up to us, jumping in the air, and crash landing right next to us. As soon as he landed, he'd get up and do it again, nonstop! Then last night, he started diving off the couch. My biggest and still most effective threat is to stop doing something before he gets hurt. So last night I kept telling him he was going to get hurt if he jumped off the couch again. Well, he fell accidentally while goofing around ignoring my pleas, and it definitely looked like it hurt. But he jumped right up and told me "I did not get hurt, Mama." Great.

We were outside enjoying a summer evening. Shawn was watering, Tyler was running around and all of a sudden he slipped on the wet concrete. His feet flew straight up in the air and he landed directly on the back of his head which made the most horrifying sound. Like a bowling ball sounds when someone lobs it too high and it smacks down on the wood floor. If only Tyler had been on wood floor, at least that's somewhat forgiving. He immediately started screaming and crying, which Shawn reminded me was a good thing because the alternative would have been really bad. It took a lot to calm him down, he was really shaken up and hurting. Now every time I think about it, I shudder at the thought of that horrible sound of impact. Like a bowling ball. I woke him up every couple of hours in the beginning of the night and then Shawn assured me Tyler would wake us up every couple of hours after that, which he did. By the next morning he did not appear to remember anything about the accident, except the lesson that we only run on the grass outside.

The other day I was talking to myself while driving and I said outloud "I have to make a U-Turn." Then Tyler asked me "You have to make a me-turn?"

Tyler's imagination appears to be in full bloom. Last night while waiting for his dinner to cook, I kept telling him to go sit at the table. He kept ignoring me so after several requests, I gave up on that order. Next thing I knew, Tyler said to me "Mama, I hear a sheep." So I had to ask "What did the sheep tell you?" to which Tyler replied "Sheep tell me to sit down!" And he sat down.

I was tripping out but probably not nearly as much as he was if he's really hearing sheep telling him to sit down. As he sat quietly at the table, I snuck a peak at him and could see he was really concentrating and so I couldn't resist...I made the most realistic sounding baahaah sheep noise I could. Tyler freaked out and started screaming and crying. Yeah, that was mean of me. I knew it would mess with him but still had to do it. So, while I may be getting wrinkles and gray hair, my immaturity is still shining through.

Tyler likes to play a game I taught him. He asks you to give him "High Five" then a "Down Low" but he pulls his hand away before you can slap him five, saying "Too slow!" He thinks this is hilarious and would prefer to play it all day long. Never one to tire of games, I'm pretty good at complying. We take turns; sometimes I'm too slow, sometimes I'm telling him he's too slow. It cracks him up just the same. For a little variety, I'll throw some emotion into our game. When he tells me I'm too slow, I reply "Awww shucks," snapping my fingers with disappointment. Which brings me to his (and probably every human's) ability to tie words with emotion. He doesn't know what shucks means, he just knows it is used to describe a feeling. The other day while waiting for him to fall asleep for his nap, I was trying to hold perfectly still as he began fighting off the sense of sleep. He arose from his bed saying "Shucks. Jesus. Fricking." Wow, those three are all different words that he's heard at different times but he classified them all together. See, he could have said dog, happy, baby, or any of the other hundreds of words he knows. But he clearly classifies these words together, even though he's not heard them all used together. Brilliant linguistics. I know my days are numbered for these being the worst words he's saying.

We had a fun-filled 4th of July weekend. Saturday there was a big firework show at Garcia Bend. It didn't start until almost 10:00 but Tyler stayed awake in anticipation of seeing "firetruck works." It was worth the wait, he found the whole experience stimulating, from all the people at the park, to the sounds of the loud popping fireworks and the sights of the neat lights. "Ohh look at that one mama." Unlike his first parade last week, Tyler was able to stay awake for his first firework show. Gavin, on the other hand, was already asleep when we got to the park so I hoped he would sleep through it, nicely bundled in his stroller. At one point during the 15 minute show, I looked over to see Gavin's eyes wide open, staring up at the fireworks over his stroller. He didn't flinch, just watched for a few minutes and then closed his eyes again.

Sunday we had a BBQ party for the 4th. Lots of friends came over: Mack & Owen came with their parents. Mack and Tyler were really glad to see each other. Conner came with his parents. Last time Tyler and Conner were together, Tyler couldn't get enough of Conner. Not one to hide his emotions, Tyler blurted out excitedly "I love you Conner." That makes my heart melt every time I think about it. Hope came over with her mommy, and Baby Grace brought her parents. Will and Sophia were there, too. At one point, Tyler put on Will's shoes. Poor Will spent the entire afternoon barefoot and Tyler, who hates to wear his own sandals, did not want to part with Will's. We had a blast, the kids all played very nicely. I was really impressed with how well Mack and Tyler shared and took turns playing with everything. They must be growing up! We ended the night with fireworks in the front yard, which Tyler wanted nothing to do with. He stayed inside with Owen and his mommy, who Tyler is fond enough of to wrap his arm around her leg and hang on like he does mine.

We learned a few things this weekend: We have some awesome friends with awesome kids, most of whom are boys. Everyone loves Gavin's smile and he dishes it out generously. Tyler can actually manage to watch other kids play with his toys without having a complete meltdown. We are getting worse (instead of better) at sticking to a timeline when it comes to serving food. Fireworks are a hit! If you forget, or don't have enough time to clean the windows before company arrives, just hand the kids a piece of chalk and have them scribble on the window. The chalk will deter from the smeared tongue and finger prints enough to look like the mess just happened that day.

Apparently I have been watching my foul mouth lately. I know this because Tyler has begun using strong language when he gets frustrated, but the language isn't all that bad. For example, recently while concentrating on coloring he broke a crayon. He threw the broken crayon down and exclaimed "Jesus!" As soon as the word came out of his mouth I knew he picked that one up from me. Ooops. He's been interested in trying to put his own shoes on lately. It is not an easy task to squeeze his extra wide feet into his snug sneakers. After several failed attempts this morning, he yelled "Dang!" Yes, dang. I can live with these words coming out of my little dude's mouth. But last night at dinner Shawn was describing the new BBQ rotisserie and said "It's so fricking heavy." Tyler promptly turned to me and said "It is fricking heavy, Mama." That one is not going to fly at daycare.