In Cognito

From our trip to Hawaii, I learned to pack a costume whenever we travel. So we brought the Woody costume to Santa Barbara but it didn't matter. Tyler picked up Grandma Wan's elephant hat, a pair of glasses and declared himself a bus driver.

Tyler and Carina had a play date a couple days ago. She still sucks her thumb. I know this because Tyler came home and suddenly is sticking his thumb in his mouth. The difference is, he doesn't quite know why or what he's supposed to do with it in his mouth.

Tyler grabs a random palm leaf and decides to clean house

Tyler has always been quite verbose and surprises me constantly with his knowledge and usage of the English language. I picked him and Gavin up from daycare and it was clear Tyler was a little grumpy by the way he moped and clung to me and answered every one of my questions with a whiney 'no'. As we drove home, I tried asking Tyler what would cheer him up.
Do you want to help me cook dinner?
"No."
Do you want to read a book?
"No."
Do you want to color?
"No mom," he said matter-of-factly, "that's another example of something I don't want to do."

The other day while I was trying to sleep a little bit longer, Tyler came to me and asked if I was going to be happy today. This sounded like a set up so I said "Why? What did you do?" There was one last present from Christmas which we needed to give to Gracie and we already have this toy, which she loves to play with when she comes over. But, ours is missing one of the zoo animals (the seal has got to be somewhere in this house). So Tyler holds out both of his hands and presents me with the seal. He said to me "I hope you are going to be happy today because I am going to be very happy now that I have this seal." Still waking up, but reminding myself I'm still working on teaching him empathy, I point out to him Gracie would not be happy if she doesn't get a present now that he went and unwrapped it, opened the box and tore open the plastic bag containing the seal. My voice was getting louder as the sentence got longer. Tyler says to me "Crescendo!" What? "Crescendo means getting louder Mama. Don't you watch the Baby Einsteins?" Hmph. Apparently the TV is doing a better job than I am at getting him to learn. Now I see how it starts.

I'd like to think there is a direct correlation between my resignation from work to spend more time with the kids and Tyler's new fondness of telling me he loves me several times a day. It usually comes out of the blue. We'll be in the middle of playing a game, or making pancakes, or taking a bath or something. And he'll stop everything saying "Wait a minute. There's something I need to tell you Mommy. I love you." Oh yeah, that's what being my kids' mom is all about.

Daddy was giving the boys a bath and Tyler was telling him about a discussion we'd had earlier that day. "Mommy had a horse when she was a little girl. But I don't think she liked it."

Not wanting Tyler to think I didn't like animals, Shawn corrected "No? I think Mommy did like having a horse."

Tyler correct him, "No, I don't think the horse liked it very much."

Turn up your sound for the full effect of this Hula Dancing clip!