4 Years & Counting

Wow Tyler is growing up so quickly. We had a great trip to Disneyland for his birthday weekend. It was difficult for him to grasp that while we were there for his birthday, his actual birthday wasn't going to be until Monday back at home. We discussed this the entire weekend. But still, when he woke up on Monday, after not getting home until almost midnight the night before, he told us we needed to get dressed to go to Disneyland since it was Monday. At Disneyland you can pick up a sticker for the birthday person to wear. So as we walked throughout the park, everyone stopped to say Happy Birthday to Tyler, and they'd get an earful about how it's not really his birthday but it will be in two days. He loved every minute of the attention he got.

Back home for his actual birthday, we had the Phillips, the Dorrs and the Powners over along with Papa Curt to celebrate with pizza and cake. Tyler informed me five minutes before the party (right after waking up from a late nap that I shouldn't have let him take) that he no longer likes pizza. Go figure. He snapped out of the bad mood afer a few guests began arriving, thankfully.

Now that he's 4, Tyler has some new tricks. For one, he likes to tell jokes. His jokes aren't all that funny, but considering they are made up, some are not bad. The best part about his jokes is that they show Tyler's grasp on language, context and content. Here's a little sampling of his jokes.
- Have you ever seen somebody sitting on the Easter Bunny's ears?
- Have you ever seen a dog sitting on a toilet?
- Have you ever seen a submarine above the ocean and a pirate ship below the ocean?
Don't worry, if you're not laughing, he'll be sure to let you know you are supposed to be.

Drawing

Tyler tends to obsess over things. When he gets into something, he gets really into it. His current obsession is drawing. He can't go anywhere without the Doodlepad anymore, what a great invention. He draws lots of pirate ships, rockets, people and animals. All his people and animals have eyes, nose, ears, smiles and round circles for feet. All his pirate ships have a pirate steering wheel, sails, ladders and a pirate with a patch and a hat. Today, he started drawing farmers in farmer hats. So far, I can't tell the difference between a farmer hat and a cowboy hat. In fact, we were in a restaurant over the weekend and a man in a cowboy hat walked by and Tyler blurted out way too loudly, "Hey Mom, did you know there's a farmer in this restaurant!?"

Playing Dog

Yesterday Tyler was telling me about how somebody pushed somebody else at daycare. I asked him where he was when that happened. He answered, "Oh, I was playing dog."

Profanity

Tyler is obsessing over bad words. I'm constantly answering his questions about them. In the beginning of the obsession, he could only think of really good words. "Is dog a bad word? Oh what about park, is park a bad word? Puzzle? Is puzzle a bad word?" But as each day progresses, he's getting warmer. During the Superbowl, Tyler heard a few words like freakin' and crap and each time, I told Tyler that was a bad word and children should never say that word. Yesterday he was playing with his animals and I overheard him tell one of them he would have to wash their mouth out with soap if they ever said such a bad word again. Obsessing I tell ya.
Then, last night in the bath tub, Tyler was going on and on about pirates and pirate ships. Suddenly, he said
"Mama? I think I would like a shi
I think I want a shi
Shi?
I think I would like a prirate shi P for my birthday.
Is that a bad word? Shit?"

Finally, he got one right. Sorta. I couldn't really wash his mouth out with soap for that one so he just got an lecture instead.