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.

A wonderful Christmas!

We just returned from a weeklong whirlwind trip to Palatine, northern Wisconsin, back to Palatine (with a short trip downtown) and back to NY again. We had a great time with family and Ty had a ball playing with his grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. Some highlights and memories (to view more photos and videos, visit our new Picasa site: http://picasaweb.google.com/teri.schmidt/Christmas2007 )

1. Our new nephew, Andrew Ryan Shripka, Jr. (Drew) was born on 12/26/2007. We got to visit him on 12/29 and Tyler LOVED him. Surprisingly, he was very gentle and did not get too jealous when mommy and daddy were holding Drew. The next morning the first thing Ty said when he woke up was "I want to see baby Drew!" Granny gave him a picture of Drew to take home and Ty carried it all the way to the airplane.

2. The fun we had putting out Christmas cookies and milk for Santa and water for the reindeer and telling Tyler that Santa would come down the chimney backfired as he was too scared to go to bed alone and ended up sleeping with mommy and daddy.

3. Santa brought Tyler a wooden pop gun. Ty had fun sneaking around the house looking for deer with Daddy, but the best part was probably when he decided to turn it into a fishing pole, catch a fish, pretend to eat it, and shout out (after some education from Uncle Andy)"Mmm, soo-chi."

4. Tyler loved playing in the snow at the Chernesky cottage in northern Wisconsin and, as usual, took some coercing to leave the outdoors and come back inside. He liked to grab snow, throw it up in the air, and say "It's snowing!"

5. Tyler's communication skills are improving everyday and he continues to suprise us. Mommy's favorite new skill that he's learned: saying "thanks" at the appropriate times without prompting (it happens about 50% of the time).

The end of skipping pages

Well, the end of expedited story reading is coming to an end. A few nights ago, I was reading a "If You Give a Moose a Muffin" from a collection of Laura Numeroff's books that my mom gave to Tyler for Christmas. When we reached the end of the story (which was located in the middle of the book), I closed the book and said "The End." Tyler replied, "It's not the end. Turn the page, Mommy!"

Our little holy man

Not only was he the one to top our Christmas tree with the angel, but for the past month, Tyler has developed a liking for saying his prayers. In fact, he won't let us eat without saying our prayers. A few weeks ago, he made me a PB&J sandwich with his toy lunch box set and handed it to me. I asked him if I should eat it, he smiled at me and grabbed my arm and said "Not yet...say prayers." I asked him to say them for me and he said "Dear Gawd, Mommy, peanut butter and jeyyy, Ayyymen."