An extrovert...coming from me and Jeff?

A few posts back, I wrote about Ty's outgoing personality, which for anyone who knows Jeff and me might come as a bit of a surprise. Well, he continues to exhibit social courage that I didn't even come close to at his age. This morning was no exception. When the time came at church for the children's homily/sermon when all of the kids go up to the altar for a special talk, we asked Ty if he wanted to go up and he said "I want to go by myself." He proceeded to walk to the front with the other kids, sit down, listen, and then come back to our pew all by himself. Amazing (to me at least)!

Fall has arrived!

The trees that we love so much in the spring and summer have begun to occupy a good chunk of our weekends as they always do this time of year. Maybe we'll beat last Fall's record of raking 45 40-gallon leaf bags this year. At least Ty's old enough to "help" this year.

Our little guitar hero

Our little sweetheart

Last night, in the middle of playing with Ty, he ran over to me and gave me a hug. Then, leaning back with his arms still around my neck he smiled and said, "I'm so glad you're playing with me, Mommy."

This morning, as I was leaving for the train, after telling me he loved me, he said, "Drive safely!"

Positive reinforcement from a 3-year old

Ty has a new pastime. He likes to "teach" us how to do something and then say "Okay, great. Now try...." For example, last night he taught me how to sing "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" the correct way (apparently you have to pronounce "...what you..." more like "whatch you"). After I did it correctly, he responded "Great. Good Night!"

Tonight, while watching Dora, I said "Map!" when directed and it came out of Dora's backpack and Ty said, "You did it," held up his hand and said "Give me five!'

The nesting effect...on our blog

Well, we have just over 7 weeks until we become a family of 4 (or 5 if you want to include Seger), and I'm starting to feel the need to get everything in order. The first step? Addressing the blogging dilemma that I mentioned earlier (see previous post). So, what was once Tyler's Times has now become The Schmidt Saga. BTW, saga="A book that covers several generations of a family, usually starting in historical times and ending in the present." Yes, it's a little ambitious to use that word, but maybe it will give me a little motivaton to blog more frequently (and expand my scope a little). Plus, the alliteration works...

Spreading a little bit of cheer in an early morning TSA line

It's been a while since I've written...but not because Ty hasn't been growing, changing, and cracking us up with his new comments. The observation that I've probably had the most in the past month is Ty's ability to make friends with all kinds of people (especially since I was known for hiding behind my mom's leg and refusing to talk to anyone at his age) He's befriended older women in the doctor's office, cashiers at Target and Trader Joe's, and today--a TSA representative.

Rarely do you see many happy faces in the TSA line at an airport...especially before 7am. Today, Ty tried to do his part to change that. When the friendly TSA worker looked at him and said, "Hey!," Ty immediately responded "Hay is for horses!"--sending a ripple of laughter through the line.

For some pics of our short trip to visit Granny and Grandpa in Clearwater this weekend, click here.