Mr. T turns 2!

Dear Baby T,

How are you TWO already!?  You are such a fun loving, silly, sweet little boy.  You're in the 83rd percentile for weight and height which means you'll most likely be taller than me by the time you go off to Kindergarten.

Your vocabulary grows every day.  You've actually been speaking in little sentences for months now.  Like when you want a snack, you'll go to the cupboard, pull on it and say "open snack!"

When you misbehave, we say "Bad Tyler" and attempt to put you in time out.  Well, you now love this phrase and often say "Bad Momma" or "Bad Evan," "Bad Lucy," or "Bad Daddy" if we do something you don't like.  For example, today I said no to something you wanted to do and you said "Bad Momma" to me.  If we say "Bad Tyler" and you think that you're not doing anything wrong, you always respond with "No Bad Tyler," with this cute little high pitched "No" when you say it.  It's a saying that I will always remember in my head forever!  It's super cute.  We all like to imitate you when you say it.

Potty training can't come soon enough.  You seriously have the WORST poopy diapers ever.  Maybe it's because you eat A LOT.  The other night you had two slices of pizza for dinner and 6 pieces of sausage with breakfast.  You're quite an eater!  But back to the diapers.....when you poop, you like to tell us by pointing to your diaper and saying "Bad Tyler, poopy."

Evan is your best friend and worst enemy depending on the day.  You two are brothers for sure and I love watching you together.  You do everything you can to keep up with him and you're a strong little guy.  You'll run with him outside and I love hearing your giggles as you roll down the hill, barefoot, not caring how cold it may be outside (like tonight when it was dark, cold and you kiddos just wanted to run around in the grass and roll down the hill).  In the picture (right), I asked Evan to hold your hand and run with you for a picture....instead, he pulled you so hard you fell (my poor baby!).  But you're so strong that you got right back up and chased after Evan.  :)

You play very well independently lately.  You'll play with Legos, blocks, playdoh, paints, your firetruck, by yourself for long periods of time (which is like 10-30 minutes for your age....but still, it's great and so cute to watch you).  You'll hold a car or a Mickey Mouse figurine and make little noises and voices for them.  It's so amazing watching your little mind work.

Next year you'll be able to answer these questions, but for this year, I'll do my best at answering what I think you would say:

Tyler - 2 Years Old 

1. What is your favorite color? 

- Anything that can be colored on paper, or a wall...you love coloring!

2. What is your favorite toy?

- Balls, fire truck, legos

3. What is your favorite fruit?

- blue berries (you'll eat an entire container in one sitting!)

4. What is your favorite tv show?

- hands down, it's Curious George.  You'll bring me the remote and point to the TV and say "George! George!"

5. What is your favorite movie?

- Anything with Curious George.  You also like any movie that I play in the mnivan.

6. What is your favorite thing to wear?

- You're not picky about your clothes yet (thankfully) so you really wear anything.  You DO NOT like to wear socks and shoes.  You take them off all the time, no matter where we are.  It's very common for me to be driving and have a sock and/or shoe fly at my head.

7. What is your favorite animal?

- Monkeys.  You love George and your "monkey" that you sleep with every night.

8. What is your favorite song?

- Baby Beluga or Wheels on the Bus (you move your little hands in a rolling motion when you hear the song)

9. What is your favorite book?

- Curious George and Baby Beluga

10. Who is your best friend?

- Evan, Kellan & Gwen (or as you say "Tellan & Wen)

11. What is your favorite snack?

- Anything you can pull out of the snack cupboard.  Which you do by finding anything you can to stand on to get to.  You will turn anything into a bench just to reach the cupboard or counter top to get food.

12. What is your favorite drink?

- Milk (yes, you still like warm milk....) or juice

13. What is your favorite food?

- Anything that's on my plate.  We eat the same thing for dinner but lately you only eat dinner if it comes directly off my plate.

14. What is your favorite game?

- Running (playing tag with the big kids), basketball, baseball

15. What is your favorite thing to play outside?

- You love doing anything outside.  You're an adventurous, outdoorsy little boy!

16. What do you sleep with at night?

- Monkey

Happy Birthday Sweet Baby T, I LOVE YOU!

You have the sweetest little face!

 

"CHEEEEEEE"

I LOVE YOU SOOO MUCH!

Our trip to the Mile High City

Our summer ended with an AWESOME trip to Colorado.  Fun fact: Evan is the only true Coloradan in our family!  Although Evan has been on a lot of airplanes, this is the first flight that he actually knew what was happening and enjoyed everything about it.

I flew with the kiddos and all of our gear a few days before Erik.  The thing with flying solo with kids is that there is NO downtime.  You're always ON, constantly doing something, feeding someone, finding snacks, turning on movies, adjusting headphones, distracting, entertaining, explaining how every part of the plane works, showing how the seat belt works 50x, and reminding why we cannot touch the neighbor in the seat next to us (yes, Tyler thought that was funny for awhile....).

Anyway, the boys really were good the whole flight.  I was exhausted but that was expected.

 The gear to fly 2 toddlers (and 1 mommy): 2 car seats, a cot, 1 small kid suitcase, 1 large suitcase, 1 backpack and 1 stroller.  Phew!

It's really hard getting through security when your son refuses to take his mask off....

We're on a plane!  So Tyler was under 2 on the way there and sat on my lap...he's like a little heat ball and I was sweating the whole way there!  But hey, it saved a couple hundred bucks so well worth it.

 Tyler kept saying "airplane" and "what's that" over and over

It was all fun and games until we actually took off.....then the plane got really loud, the air pressure changed, and Tyler was not a fan.  He clung to me like a spider monkey for a solid hour. He had this freaked out look on his face and kept biting on his fingers.

That's not a smile...that's a look of pure fear and BIG eyes!  "MOM, WHAT ARE WE INSIDE OF!?"

As the flight progressed, Tyler cheered up especially after he saw big brother having fun.

Good thing they have tiny buts and we turned 2 seats into 3 (ha, I'll show you Southwest!)

We arrived!  NIAAAA!!!!

We made it to Colorado and the boys were immediately spoiled with gifts!  This sums up Tyler's ball obsession!

New Legos!

 The sweetest sleeping face EVER!  He was pooped considering he went to bed at 11 p.m. Mountain/1 a.m. Eastern Time after traveling!

On our first day, we visited with my good friend Amy and her son Sam.  Amy & I have been friends for almost 8 years and it's fun watching our little men grow together!

Evan with his silly face......

Evan & Sam - July 2012

Evan, Sam & Tyler August 2015

On day two, we visited with my friend Marcie, Sheila and Sarah.  So fun seeing all of our kiddos together!

Miss Marcie bought some boy toys for our visit!  :)

Tyler & Ellie, sweethearts!

Visiting with my friend Katie who I've known almost 20 years now!  She lives in Colorado with her family now so I see her between CO & MI (where she's from).  Her family built a beautiful home and pool and we enjoyed some swim time!

When you're in Colorado, fitness happens OUTDOORS!  Love what they did with this place in Castle Rock, building this 500 step incline with a trail to to the bottom.  We went here twice during our visit.  The first time, I carried Tyler to the top (holy smokes, quite a workout!).  The second time, Evan did this TWICE with us!

Tyler headed up and Evan about 20 steps up from him

We made it!!

Colorado does parks right!  This is from the top of the steps.  You can see several play structures and also the zip line tower which went over all of Castle Rock.

Helping his brother down the trail :)

Playtime after our workout

My friend Sarah.  She's also from MI but lives in CO now.

Nia & Guh have a great park in their neighborhood which we visited almost every day (sometimes at 6:00 a.m. when Tyler was WIDE AWAKE and wanted to play while everyone slept....).

Nia, I love how you care for my kiddos, THANK YOU for being part of our family!

Such a fun playground with cool things to climb on / in 

Erik made it to Colorado on Wednesday of our trip.  We went to dinner the next night to celebrate Tyler's birthday and to thank Nia & Guh for taking our crazy family in for 8 days!

HAHA, love this pic

During the 8 years we lived in Colorado, we never visited Garden of the Gods (Colorado Springs, 6,200-6,500 ft. in elevation).  WOW, what an AMAZING place!!

I bought a selfie stick for our trip.....people may make fun of those, but they are really awesome and fun for pics!

Some info on Garden of the Gods rock formations: The outstanding geologic features of the park are the ancient sedimentary beds of deep-red, pink and white sandstones, conglomerates and limestone that were deposited horizontally, but have now been tilted vertically and faulted into "fins" by the immense mountain building forces caused by the uplift of the Rocky Mountains & Pikes Peak.  

Lots of rock climbers out on this beautiful day

The boys loved running around the rocks, climbing and getting dirty!

Kissing Camels rock 

Had to get a kissing pic in front of Kissing Camels!

Selfie with my little men

Group selfie

And of course one with silly faces!

Ah, the mountains....I miss these views we used to get daily!

A mountain loving family :)

"Mom look!  I'm mountain climbing!"

Nia & Tyler exploring (or more like Nia keeping Tyler from falling off a cliff!)

Very cool that we were allowed to climb on everything and really explore

My boys love exploring!

Love his adventurous spirit

Our dear friends Dave & Tammy.  We've known them 10 years now!  Dave and Erik worked together and Dave is one of Erik's mentor's from Lockheed.  They have been close friends for a long time and it was great catching up with them.  This occasion called for the selfie stick!

Erik & I enjoyed a night out attending Sheila & Paul's wedding at the Colorado Golf Club.  Such a beautiful venue and wedding.  Lots of fun celebrating my dear friend with great food, drinks and catching up with friends at the wedding.

Wedding selfie with my Red Robin buddies, past & present!

Dana & Amy, my office support team!

Loved the golf course views and the wedding party colors

Sarah & I both enjoying a night away from the kiddos!  Sarah started as my intern at Red Robin and I've enjoyed working with her and now having her as a friend as her career has moved on.

The selfie stick was a hit at the wedding

More of my RR buddies

Selfies with the bride!

Sheila and Nicole (Matron of Honor), both great friends.  Fun seeing them when I can!

Love the men photo-bombing our selfie!

Steven, great friend & co-worker who supports me a lot from Denver

Of course the selfie stick made it to the dance floor!

Our trip to Colorado was obviously filled with a lot of visits with friends, adventure and FUN!  The best thing about the trip though was celebrating his 2nd birthday.  Two years has just flown by and I've loved every happy, tiring minute of it.  :)

"Balloons!"

Cake from my absolute FAVORITE place EVER - Nothing Bundt Cakes.  A chocolate chip bundt cake with cream cheese frosting.  SOOO good!

Celebrated Tyler's birthday with our long-time friends from Michigan, in Colorado.  Doug & Liz (MSU friends....they also were at the lake house this summer with us) live in Ft. Collins and drove down to the Denver area for the day to visit with us.

Happy 2nd birthday sweet Baby T!  I'll post more about your birthday and other fun stuff in another post.  :)

Presents!

Tyler LOVES Curious George and now has his own stuffed George.  Love his excitement in this picture.  Pure joy, pure perfect.  :)

Such a good boy, reading his card

Thanks Nia!

Our group keeps growing with more kiddos!  Love it!  :)

Story time on our last night in CO  :(

Our flight home ended with something very special for Evan - a visit to the airplane cockpit WITH the pilot!  Not only did Evan get to sit in the Captain's seat, he also got to press buttons and play with all the cool things up there.  He was in heaven!

Love his face here - pure excitement!

Our trip to Colorado was full of memories we'll always remember.  We're so blessed to have such great friends in Colorado and despite the miles between all of us, I'm so happy we can still stay so close.  It was special to take the boys to where Erik and I started our life together - and where Evan was born!  I know we'll be back to visit again!  Evan still talks about rock climbing and airplanes (Tyler too!  He says "airport!" every time he sees a plane.  :)