Happy birthday, Tyler!

It is kind of unreal that Tyler is three!  He's the cutest little trouble maker there ever was.  It's his cuteness that keeps him out of a lot of trouble, really.  He is all about pushing limits and testing patience.  I guess this sounds like I'm complaining, which I'm not, I'm just writing it down so that hopefully someday I'll enjoy the reminder of what it was like when Tyler was a naughty little bugger.  Either that, or when he's a teenager and I'm on medication in order to survive those years, I can look back and laugh at how funny it used to be.  Haha.  I love this kid.

The most recent pics I have of just him are from my phone, so you really get to see this goofy kid in action.

I love to see how he is definitely an individual.  He gets along really well with his brother, but is still very different from him.  Tyler is such a home-body and really enjoys spending time inside rather than outside.  It usually only takes between 5-15 minutes before he is asking if we can go home yet... no matter where we are or where we are headed.  I think it's kind of cute.  He also is always disappearing when we're playing in the backyard.  He never disappears down the street or into a neighbors yard... he's always finding his way back into the house.  He'd much rather be hanging out inside regardless of the weather.  It's also really cool though, that as much as he would like to be at home and inside, he is still very social and loves being with other kids.

Some things that stick out to me about Tyler lately:

He loves whenever something can turn into a competition.  He's constantly yelling, "I won!" or "You can't beat me!"

Tyler's favorite food is still cereal, Frosted Flakes to be exact.  And he does NOT like to eat bread with stuff.  So sandwiches & hot dogs are always eaten "deconstructed."  He does like bread alone, like toast and such, but you better not put butter on it.  It's always jam toast NO butter.

He is the world's best backseat driver.  He's constantly pointing out what color the stop lights are and doesn't hesitate to inform us the second it changes.  The best is when we are a few cars back in a line stopped at a red light.  Once the light turns green he yells and yells at us to get going because it's now green!  Another funny thing he's still learning about is left hand turns.  Our light will be green so I start my turn and by the time I am through the intersection he's yelling at me that the light was really red and that I needed to stop (of course it's because he eventually notices the red light for the opposite direction of traffic that is indeed stopped).

He likes to ask questions about his surroundings; "Are we driving in the truck?" "Are we going on a big road?" "Are we going to the gym?  ... Not again!"

He has quite the skill of noticing the "Recycle" emblem that is on all kinds of things.  Every time he will ask, "What is this, Mom?"  Every time.

He's very good at pointing out when he is on his best behavior when the kids around him are not.

He is obsessed with the number 4 and the letters T and O.  He's really good at drawing T's (he got ahold of one of Daddy's Sharpie markers that was left in the yard and wrote his signature T all over our new cement and the garden cement) and is sure O goes at the end of his name.  Who knows how long it will take to convince him that is not the case.

I've noticed just lately that Tyler has an awareness of girlfriends.  I'm not sure if he's heard enough "older talk" and knows that boys love girls and it's a kind of special thing, or if he really just puts the two together and the girl that is his friend is his girlfriend.  It happened first when my young women from church had been over and one of them helped him with something.  He told me later that his girlfriend helped him with whatever it was and I was able to pin point the specific girl he was talking about.  Then the other day a girl at the gym was giving him a lot of attention and he referred to her as his girlfriend when we left.  Then just today he looked outside and saw a five year old girl (one of Marshall's friends) that was being babysat by our neighbor.  He jumped up and said, "Someone is here again!  My girlfriend!  My girlfriend is here!!!"  Like I said... who knows what he actually means by it, but it's kind of cute.

He likes to switch things up in order to make them funny.  He's always telling us rules are really the opposite (red light means go and green means stop) and things like that.  He also gets such a kick out of changing words to rhyme but sound ridiculous and nothing like the real thing.

His favorite shows to watch on Netflix are The Backyardigans, Dora, Diego, Wonder Pets, Super Why, and the Leapfrog Alphabet and Phonics videos.  Pretty much anything but Curious George (Marshall's TV show of choice).  

Disclaimer* these are all "educational" shows because the boys had "fighting movie" privileges taken away a while ago due to some aggressive behavior that we could not get a handle on.  It's been going on a few months now with only a few rare opportunities to watch the regular favorite Disney movies and such (how obnoxious that even Tangled, Toy Story, and Cars have so much fighting in them).  I have really enjoyed the change in material they are absorbing.  Also, the kids have had a lot more TV time since I got pregnant and SICK... can't wait for that to go away :)

Love you big time, Tyler Boy!  You're super cute and super fun to have in our family!