Some April Pictures & Our Weekend

Kyler was pretty understanding for the most part when I was working a lot before the tax deadline. He had his moments when he wanted to sit and help mommy though. Now that the deadline is over, he likes to go into my office, climb up on the chair, and do some work "wook" of his own. He pretends to type on the computer and will flip through my notebook and write in it with the pen.

This kid has always had interesting taste when it comes to food. Most kids seem to enjoy more bland diets, but not Kyler. He takes after his dad. He loves Mexican and can handle more spicy stuff than I can. When we have chicken, he always asks for barbecue sauce "ba ba tu sauz." And we have gone through more ketchup lately than ever before. Last night, Brett let him have a taste of his IPA (a really really bitter beer) and Ky asked for more "moe." We were hoping for a bitter beer face, not a two year old beer lover.

In the mornings, I have started giving Kyler cold cereal with milk on (I had been just giving him dry cereal). You would think he hadn't eaten for a week judging by how much he suddenly eats for breakfast. He asks for more and more, eating probably twice as much as me. Then when he's done he will pick up his bowl and drink the milk out. Can you believe how big he's getting? We only use the high chair about 1/3 of the time, and he doesn't even need a booster seat for our table.

We decided to give Ky his birthday present early. Since he's so young and will be getting plenty of goodies for his birthday, we thought we might as well give him a head start on his bike. He was so excited when I pulled out the box!

The bike we got is not the typical first bicycle with training wheels. It is called a Strider and it has no pedals or training wheels. It is really small and super light. The idea is for kids to learn to balance first, then pedal after. This way we never have to go through the traumatic experience of taking away training wheels. Right now he just walks with it, the next stage he will sit down and walk it, and then he will start to coast with his feet up. Eventually he will put his feet on the footrest bars and coast and balance for a long distance going pretty fast. Then it will be time to introduce a bike with pedals.

We took care of Frazier (my parents' dog) on Saturday while they were out of town. He and Kyler have quite the little relationship. The dog knows just how rough he can be with Ky and lets Kyler do pretty much anything he wants to him (as you can see by this picture).

We ordered a fire pit last week and it got it's first use this weekend. I happened to have some marshmallows in the pantry so we decided to roast a few. Kyler thought they were pretty good. He would laugh when we put them in his mouth - I don't think he's ever had anything so ooey gooey and sticky before. He has a mouth full in this picture.

And this is what Kyler has spent the past two-plus days doing. My aunt (mother of three boys) found a huge box of old Matchbox cars and brought about 100 to Kyler on Saturday morning. He spent the entire weekend playing with them. He uses a piece of trim as a ramp and slides them all out of the box, then turns the ramp so they slide back inside. He cried and cried when I shut the box last night and told him the cars needed a rest. When he woke up this morning, he opened the box right back up. As I've been writing this, he's been filling up a basket and bringing them to my room, lining them all up on my bed.

"Look, Mama!"

This is my new favorite thing to hear. Kyler has been saying it a LOT. This morning it was when he scooped up a big spoonful of Cheerios (he's still getting the hang of using a spoon). It is always said with lots of excitement too and sounds more like "Wook, Mama!" So freaking cute! Yesterday I heard a lot of that while we were outside. He would find something interesting and point it out to me. Or do something he thought was cool and show me. Once in a while he will ask me "hear it, mom?" when he hears a motorcycle on the highway or a choo choo coming into town.

"Kiss It" and other Kyler-isms

Now that Kyler is talking a lot more, he's been saying some funny things. One thing he's started on is "kiss it" when he gets ouchies ("ashes"). Then he will say "all better" after you kiss it. And immediately after that he will proceed to point to another area with a supposed "ashie" and tell you "that kind" because he wants that body part kissed.

Some of the most frequently heard phrases around here are as follows:
"yeah" = he says this ALL THE TIME, he is also starting to say mmm hmm
"nah one" = another one
"dat kine" = that kind
"up eee-ah" = up here
"ah dit down" = I want to get down
"at side" = outside
"down tair" = downstairs
"nack" = snack
"uh uh uh down down down" = up up up, down down down (used a lot of times when he is playing)
"ah papa cuck" = I want [to go in] Papa's truck
"doe-ba" = door bell (he's obsessed right now)
"oh no" = (self explanatory but super cute the way he says it, a lot of times when he hurts himself and is about to cry or while crying)
"mo-ky-cle" = motorcycle
"sy-cuck" = fire truck
"skooba" = school bus
"too too" = choo choo (train)

He also uses a lot of gibberish at times, and it's usually very loud. He talks about Noah (one name he can say perfectly) quite often at home. That is one of the kids in his group at daycare. He thought it was funny and laughed going up when he saw that we got our stairs carpeted. When he throws fits, he usually jumps a couple of times which almost always cracks me up. When he gets really, really excited he will wave his hands up and down really fast - it's sort of weird looking at his age but also pretty funny.

This weekend was the Seneca bike show. We walked around at it for quite a while and made two trips there. Then on our way to Kansas City that afternoon for a party, he started chanting in the car: "mo-ky-cle, mo-ky-cle, mo-ky-cle." He also sometimes just starts laughing or giggling when he sees a motorcycle or other exciting vehicle. The kid loves his motorcycles - which is also his birthday party theme.

He is very bossy to the dogs. He is constantly telling Baxter to stay inside or go to bed (his crate). Sometimes he even yells "bad bad bad" to him. He also yells at Frazier (my parents' dog) a lot. He is the first to notice when Frazier sneaks out of the yard and will walk around the driveway yelling at "zay-zer."

Today he was eating some popcorn in the garage. A piece hit the floor and he attempted to eat it. I told him not to and we would throw it out on the driveway for the birds. So we did. A little later we were sitting on the driveway and he found that piece of popcorn. He reached down and pretended to stick it in his mouth. I played along and exaggerated how gross it was that he was eating it. He pretended to chew it and had a little smirk the whole time I was disgusted. Then he spits on the driveway right next to where the popcorn was. So I thanked him for spitting it out. He thought he was so clever to trick his mama like that. ;) Then I had to explain that he can only spit outside not in the house. So he walks over to the garage and acts like he's going to spit, watching for my reaction. Then he steps outside and spits so that I would tell him good job and thank him. I think this little man is really figuring out how to manipulate people (and you can tell so by the way he gets spoiled by the rest of his family).

23 Months

My little Kyler is 23 months old today. One more month and he'll be TWO! He isn't big for his age but for some reason he just looks older than he is. A lot of people think that he's three, which makes me kind of sad. When he plays with bigger kids, he doesn't even seem that young to me - and he's MY baby.

The biggest giveaway on his age is probably his speech. He talks all the time, and repeats everything we say but it is just pretty unclear a lot of the time. His hair is super curly and people comment on it constantly.

We fiddled around with potty training earlier in the month. He did okay but wasn't quite getting it. So I've gone back to cloth diapering so that he can tell when he wets and maybe figure out how to turn that little hose on and off. Once he understands how to make that work, I think he'll do a lot better.

Kyler can ride a tricycle now and is a pro at climbing around at playgrounds. He goes up obstacles that make us really nervous but almost always does just fine. Even when this kid falls, he is able to brush off getting hurt really quickly. He's a tough guy, that's for sure.

Kyler has also started sitting on a regular chair at the table when we eat (rather than a high chair, and we don't have a booster chair). Once in a while he will ask for the high chair and we put him in there if it is something really messy. He is also finally getting used to drinking out of an open faced cup. He missed his sippy cups for a while but has since stopped complaining. He rarely uses his silverware but hopefully that will come soon.

Today's funny moment: I asked Ky if he wanted to watch cartoons after  he woke up a little fussy this morning. "Yeah." So I turn on one cartoon, "I want cartoons." I flip it to another cartoon, a more irritable "I want watch cartoons." I kept saying that these are cartoons. Eventually I asked, "do you want to watch cars?" He answered with another "yeah." As soon as I found the Speed channel, he was totally content.

Easter 2012

On Saturday afternoon, the high school had an "egg hunt" that we took Kyler to. One of the first pieces of candy he picked up he stuck right in another little girl's (Brynlee's) basket. What a sweet boy. :)

A lot of the time he just sat there and watched all the commotion. He ended up with quite a bit of candy in the end though.

The Easter bunny was pretty nice to Kyler. He left a basket with some new shoes, some big boy cups, and candy. He also left a froggy potty chair with a little bunny on top. The last basket had training pants, stickers, a boat, and a motorcycle with more candy.

Kyler went straight for the little motorcycle.

He played with it right away and at one point even tried to sit on it and ride it.

We got him to try out his new potty for a few seconds too. He likes to sit on it (plus, he gets a jellybean if he sits on it).

The Easter bunny also filled Ky's eggs with candy and hid them around the house. He had fun finding them and tried to eat all the candy out of each egg before continuing to the next one. Later that night, he went around and hid a couple of eggs himself.

Tricycle

Kyler can pedal a tricycle. He looks like one of the big boys at daycare when I go to pick him up. A week ago last Friday, he was starting to pedal just a little back and forth, but wasn't going anywhere. By last Friday, he was pedaling all over the playground, frontwards and backwards, and was steering and everything. My baby is turning into a giant. Or just a big kid. Someone the other day asked if he was 3. He's still 1!