2 years old!

TWO.YEARS.OLD!! Our Little Dude isn’t so little anymore and I just can't believe it. This year was different than last year. Tyler was very aware that today was HIS special day and kept saying “My happy” or “Happy Day.” So cute! I took the day off from work and Travis took off half a day so that we could spend it with our birthday boy. We went to Chuck-e-Cheese for the first time to play games and then we went to Trudy’s for lunch and dessert! After Tyler’s nap, we showed him his big birthday present- a playhouse in the backyard- that he absolutely loved! I don’t remember getting such cool things when I was little. Haha. We had to practically drag him in crying after it got dark because he still wanted to play in his house and ring his ‘be-bell.’ :-) I spent a lot of time reminiscing today and Travis and I would tell Tyler what we were doing at various times throughout the day on the day he was born (ex, at 3:30pm, just 2 hours before he was born, I was STILL searching through baby books for the perfect name- haha). It was such a great day and I’m so glad that we were able to celebrate... just us.

On to some updates... the biggest improvement with Tyler continues to be how well he is talking. He’s putting more and more words together now and is really making a lot of sense. He has this little pause in between words... “Daddy.......truck” ... “Coopie.......sit.” It’s cute. Almost like he’s really trying to think of what the next word is supposed to be. He’s also working on creating a whole new language by combining two words together for a shortened version- like “opit” for “open it.” :-) He’s starting to vocalize his independence now. He’s always telling me, “I do it”... “I get it”... “I coming” or “I help.” He surprises me every day by saying something new and I just think he’s doing a great job!

His favorite meal right now is baked chicken, mashed potatoes and corn. He's definitely a Texan- he loves ranch dressing on anything! And of course, he loves any type of dessert. Afterall, he is my child! His new favorite show is Max and Ruby and his favorite color is green. He loves picking his nose- seriously, I think there is a magnet on his finger and in his nose- haha. I also noticed a new mole on his leg this month. That makes three total- one on each of his legs and one close to his ear.

Child proofing didn’t seem to last long in our house. Tyler has mastered opening the cabinet locks and if he has a 30 second head start on me to the bathroom, he’ll grab whatever hair product of mine that he can get to and start spraying the walls, bathtub or himself with it. I don’t know why he finds our bathroom so fascinating, but that’s where he gravitates to do a lot of his mischief.

Most know that I literally caught my kitchen on fire when I was 14 while cooking french fries (dumb!) and I didn’t realize that I would have to worry about Tyler causing some big accident at this age, but he gave me a pretty good scare recently. While I was cooking breakfast, he snuck off to my bathroom (mischief center!) and took my hair straightener out of the cabinet and left it plugged in, laying on the carpet in our bedroom. He came in to the kitchen to tell me that he had a ‘boo-boo’ on his thumb, but I just dismissed it after not noticing anything. We ate our breakfast and were about to walk out to run errands when I decided to change his diaper before we left... in our bedroom... where I smelt something burning... and then saw the straightener...laying on the carpet! I realized then that he got his boo-boo from touching the hot iron after he plugged it in! He was okay and I’m surprised that the carpet didn’t burn a little, but I can’t believe that if I didn’t need to change his diaper, we would have left and possibly came back to a bad situation. It scared the bee-geezes out of me. Now I’m on a mission to find different child proof cabinet locks.

Oh, and he's also just tall enough to reach the ice/water dispenser on the refrigerator and well, I usually have a puddle of water to clean up every few days. I didn't think about purchasing a refrigerator that had a locking system on it eight years ago. uggg.

There’s no change in potty training, although I did buy some pull-ups the other day to help get the ball rolling. He already seems to prefer them over regular diapers. I just need to be more consistent with taking him to use the bathroom and then I think he’ll do really well with the transition.

It looks like we're ending the second year with Tyler still sleeping in our bed. I never thought he’d be in our bed this long, but as I’ve said before, I actually enjoy having him next to me all night. I know he can’t sleep with us forever so I do have a plan... we're just not implementing it quite yet. :-) I’m thinking within the next six months or so, we’ll turn the guest bedroom into his room and I’m hoping that he’ll have a better understanding of what’s going on by that time so that we can make it a fun thing. You know, let him help pick out furniture, a bed, bedding, paint, etc. I’m actually excited about it (not kicking him out of my bed, but working on his room together!). And for those inquiring minds regarding his current room situation- we’re planning to keep it as the nursery for baby #2 and hopefully, that baby will get a little more use out of it than Tyler did. And for those inquiring minds regarding baby #2- yes, we are talking about it! Maybe we'll be welcoming a new addition to our family sometime next year! ;-)

So, that’s that. I still can’t believe my baby is two years old!!!!