A very good day

Here are some ingredients for a wonderful weekday (okay, they didn't all happen in a single day, but they did all happen this week):

• Tyler, with no prompting from dad, running to the door and blowing me kisses as I drove away to catch the train to work (an image that made me smile all day)
• Our little helper taking all of the clean sippy cups out of the dishwasher and stacking them while we were out of the room for a few minutes
• My excited son telling me about how he got a candy cane at school for matching all of his colors correctly (and then saying that he threw it in the garbage because he didn't want it)
• Being greeted with a running hug as he screams "Mommmmy" when I pick him up from school
• Ty's teacher telling me that he is very kind to the other kids
• Ty saying "You did it!" when I backed into the driveway without going up on the "curb"
• Ty making sure to mention his current and past teachers by name in his prayers (after he prays for all of his extended family members, of course)
• The sweet sound of Tyler singing "You are my sunshine" with me before I tuck him in

Fun with a piece of paper & the "Happy Dance"

The biggest development in Tyler's life this week is his new ability to pretend. Yes, he was able to fish with a pop gun at Christmastime, but his skills have expanded to cooking in a pretend oven (which is basically air next to the wall), shopping at a pretend store (where he bought pretend cornbread), and turning a piece of paper into 4 different objects in a period of 10 minutes.

Let me explain...
It all started out pretty uneventfully with Ty using the paper as a canvas on which he traced (or tried to trace) his hand and mommy's hand. After doing each hand about 5 times on the same piece of paper, it was instantly transformed into snow as he threw it up into the air and watched it fall down several times. Apparently that made him thirsty, as the paper soon became a cup of milk. And for the grand finale...the folded paper became an ice skate on which he slid and spun across the basement floor.

I had forgotten how much fun you can have with a little imagination...

Oh, and for Ty's second biggest development...he's now mastered his "Happy Dance" (video below).

Daddy's a what?

Yesterday morning Tyler was talking to himself in his crib when I walked in the door. I heard him say something about an angel, so I asked him what he was talking about. He pointed at me and said "Mommy's an angel." (Awww....) Then he pointed at himself and said "Tyler's a butterfly." I replied, "Oh, mommy's an angel and Tyler's a butterfly...so what does that make daddy?" After thinking for a bit, he replied, "Daddy's a cow."

Unsolicited compliments

As we were eating dinner tonight (that Jeff made), I heard the words that Tyler has been saying at every dinner for the past 3 weeks---"Good dinner, Daddy." I have no idea where he got this from, but I couldn't be happier that the first time he delivered this compliment was when Granny and Grandpa were babysitting him and he said "Good dinner, Granny" as he was eating meatloaf and broccoli that Jeff's mom had made for him.