Little man turned THREE! Wow he's such a big boy. All week as we counted down the days to his birthday, he couldn't wait. "Tyler," we'd say, "your birthday is in three days!"

"Today?" Tyler would ask. Over and over. As if he was programmed to respond to everything birthday related asking if it was today. So, finally, today arrived and he was beside himself. He had a fantastic birthday. Gavin brought him a gigantic balloon to start the day off right. Then, Papa Curt, Gramma, Papa Steve, Paige, Gregg and Grace Dorr came over for lunch. Grace and Tyler hit it off great. She's learning to walk and Tyler loved having her hold his hand as he walked her around the house. Gavin hated seeing Mama hold Grace and really didn't even like seeing Mama hold her hand. I tried telling him by his age Tyler already had to share his Mama and Dada with Gavin but realized this was way over his head.

So, Tyler had quite the transportation birthday. He got a scooter, a bike, a remote control car, a Bat Mobile tent and so much more! Such a lucky little three year old. He loved his caked and in the middle of eating it, he jumped up and did a cake dance. You don't know what a cake dance is? Neither did we. Dada compared it to Flashdance. Tyler did his funny jiggle and jive footsteps back and forth really quickly, tilting his head from side to side while flailing his arms around. Of course, the video camera was not rolling since it was in the middle of eating cake, but this was the funniest thing ever. We're hoping for a repeat performance at his kid's birthday party next weekend.

When I picked Tyler & Gavin up from the gym's playcenter yesterday, Tyler gave me a hard time, laying on the carpeted floor of the walkway with his cheek on the ground, deadweight. Why doesn't he ever do this when his dad is with me? No wonder he has pinkeye! The only thing I could do to reason with him was calmly explain he needed to get up and walk to the car so that we could go home for lunch. After much persuasion he got up and walked to the car. Thank goodness because I had just worked out my arms for an hour and visions of carrying both the boys out to the car were not working for me.

As we headed home, I asked what they wanted to eat for lunch. Tyler said "Hoag." I asked him to repeat it. Hoag. Huh? "Mommy, you said we were having hoag for lunch." Ok Tyler, what's hoag? Lunch. Hmmm. Little Gavin fell asleep before he got any lunch so he missed this next part which was really baffling. At home and I offered Tyler a grilled cheese sandwich. The fit started, the tears were rolling, he broken-heartedly reminded me I said he could have hoag for lunch. That's when it occurred to me! I said we could go home for lunch. HoMMMMMe. Not hoag. Home for lunch. There's no such thing as hoag. Why was I trying to reason with a 2.98 year old who is very set in his ways? Exasperated and drained, I went out to the extra fridge and found a delightful corn dog t.v. dinner meal. He's had corn dog nuggets before but never a corn dog on a stick. I showed Tyler the lovely picture of the corn dog and crinkle cut fries, threw it in the microwave, put tons of ketchup (ketchup solves a lot of problems) on his plate, and served it to him. Other than a crazy mishap half way through lunch where he fell off his chair (he was wearing his favorite pants which make swooshes when he walks but they are super slippery) and hurt his elbow, he quietly devoured the corn dog. After taking his last bite, Tyler put the stick down and said "I want another hoag please."

It breaks my heart to write about this because it is such a sensitive topic to Tyler. I believe it is tied to his inability to sleep through the night without tossing and turning. He sees sheep. He sees them when he goes into a dark room. He sees them when we enter a new environment. He sees them in the corner of the kitchen when he's eating at the dinner table. He sees them in the bathroom when I ask him to go potty without me. He sees them when he's shooting baskets in the front room. One minute he'll be totally fine, chewing his food or running down the hall or shooting baskets or whatever...then the next minute he whimpers "There's a sheep," and you can just hear the fear in his quivering voice as his breathing becomes more shallow and he does this nervous habit of rubbing his index fingers against his middle fingers.

I've tried everything I can think of, from talking to the sheep and pretending they were my friends, to telling him Chili won't let any sheep come in our home, to telling him sheep don't live in Elk Grove or on East Taron Drive (Tyler's very fascinated about where we live). Usually I can get him sidetracked but never permanently. Poor Tyler is so afraid of these sheep he sees. The bizarre thing is whenever we visit Gramma, she takes him down to see the sheep on her pasture and whenever we go to Fairytale Town we stop and visit Little Bo Peep's sheep. Tyler doesn't make any connection between these real sheep and the sheep he sees. He's had nightmares about them because he's woken up screaming about them but he has nightmares about alot of things so I don't know why the sheep are the ones tormenting him. It makes me so sad. Especially when I recall what I did last summer. Read my July 13 blog. It makes Daddy sad too. He confided to me that he blames himself for trying to teach Tyler how to count sheep to go back to sleep when he wakes up too early in the morning. Daddy said in hindsight it probably wasn't a good idea to tell Tyler that when he closes his eyes he can see sheep. We're such parents, taking on all the blame for our children's troubles.

Saturday night we had a dinner party with the Bessettes and the Rusks. This was the first time we've had dinner with all the kids so I had pretty low expectations but still found myself more stressed out than usual. I had begun to set the table early to prepare for everyone's arrival but Tyler and Gavin thought the folded napkins and silverware were placed there for them to play with. So my practical side decided not to worry about not making a great first impression and to set the table just before we eat. With everyone there patiently awaiting dinner, the kids played nicely together as Shawn & I frantically prepped, cooked and swore under our breaths at how time always seems to get away from us. Just before dinner, I went out to the dining room, set all the wine glasses, all the water glasses, all the silverware out, and lit the candles. It looked very nice. All the parents and kids were in the living room except my little shadow Tyler but I didn't think too much of it, figuring he'd be well supervised by any of the adults who weren't frantically cooking and serving. The ten minutes prior to serving are always the most crazed. I ran into the dining room to quickly place the water pitcher and a bottle of wine out of the kid's reach and Michael was behind me with another bottle of wine and low and behold, we walked in to see Tyler crawling along the top of the dining table, navigating his way around the water and wine glasses and leaning close trying to blow out the candles! I lost it! So, now the Rusks and Bessettes know I am one of those screaming moms. Yep.

At the moment, Tyler's favorite thing to say is "I can't say 'stupid' because that's not nice." He goes on and on telling me about the word he can't say, all the while saying the word. This puts a parent in a difficult situation. How do I explain to him that he just said the word he can't say? Or wait a minute...is he just really super smart and has found a way to get away with saying a word he can't say? Now I see why I hear parents tell their kids to just be quiet.

More funny quotes from Tyler - Songs he's singing:
"I've been working on the rayno. All the live long day."
"Frosty the snowman was a soul. With a corn-a-pie and a butt on nose and...what does he have, Mama?
"Come and play. Everything's a-ok. Where we pee on is Sesame Street. Can you tell me how to get to Sesame Street?"
"Bah bah black sheep haven any nool."
and I can't forget to mention his new trick of substituting any word that doesn't immediately come to his mind with "poop" and "butt" for some light humor.

FUNNY QUOTES
This morning when we got out of the car to walk into school, Tyler remarked "Oh look, it's very nice and foggy out today."

Last night at dinner I was telling Shawn how Tyler and Gunnar have a love hate relationship and specifically, Tyler has been mean to Gunnar lately. Daddy asked Tyler about this.
Daddy: Tyler why were you mean to Gunnar?
Tyler: Because Gunnar did hit me.
Daddy: Where did he hit you?
Tyler: Umm he did hit me at school.
Daddy: Why did Gunnar hit you?
Tyler: Umm Gunnar hit me outside at school.
Daddy: When did Gunnar hit you?
Tyler: Umm 7 o'clock.