I can’t believe I have a 3 year old!  Where did the time go.  Mr. T has brought so much fun and laughter (and drama) into our lives.  Most recent stats: weight 30 pounds, 11 oz (FINALLY broke the 30 pound mark).  Height: 37 inches? This is highly questionable.  Mr. T was scared of the level they used to measure his height, so he kept ducking and covering his head with his hands everytime they tried to bring it down to touch his head. 

He has grown a lot this past year.  He has gone from crying hysterically at the sight of someone/someplace new to merely clinging to our legs (big big improvement for us).  He’ll even warm up enough to want to play with people he’s never met before.

He has become Mr. American Idol, singing all day long and picking up songs from the radio better than I can.  His favorite artists right now are LMFAO, Maroon 5, the band that sings the “All the Other Kids With The Pumped Up Kicks” (which is SUCH a morbid song in actuality) and, ugh, Brittany Spears.  I brought back my boombox from my HS days for the kids to play with.  He’s a pro at finding radio stations with a dial now. 

He is BFF with Keira.  They are so cute together now….when they aren’t fighting.  When they fight, it’s brutal, especially with Keira quickly catching up in size and strength.  She also has 2 tools that he never used…hitting and biting.  Tyler will push her down, but has never hit or bit her.  Keira will always want to play with what he’s playing with and he has become a hoarder of his toys, often gathering as much as he can in his arms while trying to run away from Keira.  Today they were fighting over whether the handle on their Mega Blocks wagon should be placed up or down.  I tried to sternly tell them to cut it out while one was pulling the handle up while the other was pushing the handle down (all the while screaming like banshees)…but I broke down and started cracking up instead.  

But there are a lot of loving moments.  They love to snuggle on the bed together right before bedtime.  And he loves to give her hugs and dance with her.  He’s starting to treat her like a peer…often directing her on how to play, “no no, Keira, put that there,”   “Keira, Keira, sing the song too.”  Recently, he’s started “reading” books to her…especially the alphabet ones.

He is STILL into trains and cars.  Thomas and the gang are still his main obsession although he’s broadened his horizens and has gotten into Cars.  The FIL got him the Thomas trakmaster set for his bday with the motorized Thomas.  I don’t know what he’s doing with it, but we have gone through 2 battery changes in TWO DAYS.  L and I hate that thing…it’s so noisy.  We got him a balance bike for his birthday.  We haven’t had too many chances to try it out yet…but hopefully in the spring, we’ll have more opportunities.

He still loves jigsaw puzzles.  He can do the 24 pieces ones so quickly.  He really understands them now and looks for the pieces that will complete the picture.  He can do a brand new 24 piece puzzle by himself the very first time without even looking at the reference photo.  We’re trying to look for more 50 piece ones, but I would prefer wooden pieces since Keira bends and eats the cardboard ones, but I don’t think they exist in that size.

He is doing pretty well in preschool.  He stopped crying after the first week and now runs out with a smile when I go pick him up.  After 2 months of silence, he finally started to talk and play with the other kids.  He’s still hesitant to talk to the teachers, but he talks about them all the time at home. 

He has started to lie and make up stories.  He came home with a cut in his sweater. He told us the teacher did it even though he told her not to.  We pretty much figured he did it or the teacher did it accidentally when helping him with scissors.  Little did we know, he’s a pro at using scissors by himself(we never exposed them to him at home) and will often just sit at the table cutting stuff up.  I guess, his sweater included.  The teacher didn’t even know his sweater was cut.  We’ve asked him a million times what happened…he still insists the teacher did it.

We took him bowling for his 3rd birthday with the whole family.  He had fun for the first 30 minutes, and then he got bored.  We didn’t pay for a party package because we’re cheap.  But luckily, the group next to us had and they had the whole alley lit up with blacklights for that party.  So we got to enjoy the party atmosphere without having to pay for it!

 

 

My first attempt with fondant

  

 

Bday gifts from Auntie Chrissy

  

Trip to the zoo.  He is obsessed with going to the zoo.  He asks to go every single day.  Luckily, we have a membership and we’re pretty close so we go whenever the weather is nice.

 

 

 

 

  

Other random pics:

 

 

 

 

 

 

After an 8 week standoff, Mr. Tyler decides that his classmates are now cool and worthy of his friendship.  According to his teacher, this last week, he has started to play with the other kids, talk to them and try to get their attention.  His teacher, who has taught preschool for 30 years and has probably seen her share of strong willed kids, described Tyler as VERY strong willed.  At least she considers that a good thing.  In her words: “It takes a lot of inner strength to do what you want and not give in…it’s a good thing.  He knows what he wants and he just goes and does it when he’s good and ready to.”  Hmmmm…I guess I could think of it that way.  It’s a good thing….it’s a good thing…..it’s a good thing.

We had a teacher-parents open forum today and it was a relief to hear the other parents talk about the struggles they’re having with their 3 year old.  I always see the other kids in school so well behaved and I think omg, Tyler must be the worst kid in class.  But after this morning, I realized we all basically have the same power struggles with our kids.  One mom confessed that she sometimes sends her kid to school without underwear because he refuses to wear it!  My equally appalling confession was that I dress Tyler for school the night before and he sleeps in whatever he’s going to wear to school.  I was hoping to get some, “me too’s” on this one, but apparently no one else does it.  He takes a bath right before, so he’s clean! He has this thing in the mornings where he will refuse to take off his pajama top.  Just the tops…he’s fine with changing his pants.  It’s such a rush for me in the mornings to get both kids dressed and fed before we head out that I got sick of having to deal with his tantrums in the morning over his stupid pajama top.  So he goes to bed in whatever shirt/sweater he’s going to wear the next day.  I still put him in PJ bottoms.  The next morning, he pees in the potty, I put him in his school pants and we’re done.

I did have a chance to peek in at their school activity today after the forum.  They just happened to be outside in the playground when I was leaving.  I hid behind a car and just watched a little.  Mr. T was running around with the other kids (while wearing his bike helmet????)  Then it was time for them to go in.  The teacher rang a little bell and told everyone to line up by the door.  There were a lot of moans and groans and I held my breath waiting to see if Tyler (who loves being outside) would resist going in like he does with me.  Nope.  He just trotted to the door, found someone to hold hands with and walked in.  so cute!

We also realized he knows the name of everyone in class.  He kept referring to a kid named, “Isaiah” and there was no Isaiah on his class list.  We thought he was just using the name because his favorite cousin is named Isaiah.  After using process of elimination in matching up kids with moms, we figured out that the kid must be Gavin so we started trying to correct Tyler to use the boy’s correct name.  Fast forward to today’s forum during introductions…the kid’s name WAS Isaiah!!!  Gavin must have pulled out of the class after the class list came out and Isaiah probably came off the wait list.  oops!