I think the biggest accomplishment for Tyler has to be that he is completely potty trained now. It's kind of funny how it happened. He had been doing great for so long and was definitely headed down the right track before Kinley was born. After Kinley was here, we took some major steps back mostly because I was occupied with her and too lazy to deal with an occasional accident from him. I found it easier to put him in a Pull-Up, despite him actually wanting to wear his big boy undies. I'm sure that has to be a big no-no in the books somewhere. We had a small get-together at the beginning of May with a few of his little friends (that are a little older) and he'll kill me one day for telling this, but for some reason, all the kids ended up playing in his bounce house with their bottoms off. I think one went potty outside and everyone followed. Anyway, he realized that he was the only one NOT wearing big boy undies and decided he was going to wear them from that moment on, no matter how lazy I was or how hard I tried to put him in a Pull-up and he's used the potty ever since. It was a piece of cake once he made the decision and my life suddenly got a little easier. I guess peer pressure isn't always a bad thing. ;-)
He's already signed up to start a pre-k program next Fall. It's through a Church, but it is an actual accredited program and I love that it's just two days a week. I already feel anxious about letting him go, but I know this will be a good transition for both of us before he starts Kinder the following year. And he's super excited about it! All of his friends are in some type of program right now and Tyler talks about wanting to go to school all the time, but I really want to enjoy as much time with him before he does start school full-time. I mean, this is why I chose to stay home and be with my kids.
He has such a wonderful imagination that grows each day. He's always pretending to be something fun like a doctor, hair dresser, a cat, and even a hash brown maker/taster. He created a restaurant the other day called Toronto Grill and sets up little picnics and tea parties. He likes to pretend that he's Max and I'm Ruby from his cartoon show, Max and Ruby. He still has imaginary friends that change often. The last one I remember was a pet mouse that he punished and sent to time out for supposedly pushing him into a cabinet. haha. He picks a stuffed animal to get attached to and then moves onto another one a couple of weeks later. Right now, he's attached to his stuffed kitty that he named Cappers and a dog that he named Smudge. He talks in a deep voice and calls it his "man voice" and does a pretty funny baby Kinley voice. And speaking of, Tyler and Kinley aren't best buds yet, but he is starting to interact with her a little more. He doesn't like sharing his toys with her at all, but he does like dancing and making silly faces at her to get her to laugh. I snuck up behind him a couple of months ago while he was holding Kinley's hand and laying next to her on a blanket and he said to her, "We'll be friends forever." Ugg... melt my heart and I SO hope that's true!! See... I know he loves her deep down. He enjoys reading books and recently read a book where he learned a lot about our Solar System ('100 Facts About Our Solar System'), so he's pretty into planets and stars right now. He enjoys going to the library for storytime and is excited that he has his own library card. A couple of his new favorite shows are Sponge Bob, Transformers and Dino Dan and some of his favorite foods are: shrimp, fish, chicken nuggets, pasta and fruit.
Some of the not-so-great updates... he hasn't been napping for about a month. I was hoping that he would nap until he started Kindergarten. haha. It became a struggle to get him down because he would say that he wasn't tired and it was a struggle to wake him up from his naps because he wanted to continue sleeping. Add Kinley in the mix and it just wasn't working out. It has been HARD and makes for a really long day for all of us. I'm not sure if it's coincidence with no naps or his age or what, but we've been having a very hard time with him lately, throwing temper tantrums, whining and crying about everything, yelling, telling us no, doing exactly what we tell him not to do. I'm not sure where it's coming from, but it's gradually getting worse and I know we need to get a handle on it soon. He just really seems to be struggling with his emotions and gets very frustrated easily. I'm going to try and get us back in a napping routine somehow to see if that helps with his attitude and crankiness. We're entering the world of telling fibs. All small things, of course, but I could ask him if he knocked over a box and just as serious as he could be, he'll tell me that his 'bunny' did it. Uh, yeah... right. I've been trying to stress that he needs to tell me the truth and he may not get in trouble for telling me the truth, which totally worked in his favor recently. After letting him play in his room alone, I came to check on him and he was pretty determined to not let me go in the bathroom. Obviously, I knew he did something and gave him a chance to tell me before I went in to look. He immediately confessed that he wrote all over the bathroom counter and sink and drew 'tattoos' on his back and then reminded me that I said he wouldn't get in trouble for telling the truth. It was hard, but I stuck to that and just made him help clean the mess. Silly kid.
That's pretty much it in a nutshell. The crazy ups and downs of our day to day with a 3 1/2 year old toddler. Love him like noone's business, though. :-)
Getting a new mark on the growth chart we made~
short clip of my little dude~