Our little monkey Tyler, fun with the family! (Week 94 5/4/09)

Hi everyone! This week was a much less exciting week than our last one, but still fun nonetheless. One day I'd love to be able to actually sleep in though... now THAT would be lovely.

So I had bought this monkey backpack/leash for Tyler in preparation for our Houston trip. I had envisioned him running around crazily at the airport, and wanted to be able to keep Tyler from running too far from me. We tried it out before the trip - and Tyler wouldn't even get close to it, much less put it on. NOT interested. I left it at home and planned on returning it once we were back. Fast forward about a week - Tyler sees the monkey and starts making monkey noises! Not only is he eager to put it on, he'll dance around like a monkey when he's got it on! Sometimes he'll even motion to us to put it on backwards so that the monkey is in the front hugging him! Haha. Here's Tyler with his new buddy. Lately he's been wanting a banana while he's got his monkey buddy on his back. It's so funny watching him dance around, make sounds like a monkey and eat his banana. He doesn't like any of the fiber strings though - he'll pull it off (EVERY time he comes across one), give it to us and say 'Yucky!!' or 'Uh-oh!!'. Here's a photo of Tyler and his banana and his monkey. You can see how disturbed he is by banana fiber in the first photo. He does the same thing when he sees hair in the bathroom/tub!

OK one more monkey picture. :) Sometimes when he's been walking around with his banana for too long, I'll threaten to take it away from him if he doesn't eat it quick. What does he do? Stuff the whole thing in his mouth! Argh! Come to think of it, that's how he was eating his green beans for a while - stuffing them all in his mouth so that he can get to his noodles. Then he'll proceed to spit out a mashed amount since his mouth was so full. Drives me nuts! I've finally learned and only give him 2-3 green beans at a time and wait until he can show me an empty mouth before he gets more.

On Saturday my in-laws came over to visit. Tyler showed off his new piano (thanks Grace!). He loves that thing - he'll bang out a couple chords, then go 'Oooh!' and wave his arms in the air, and then repeat. I have to keep reminding him to be gentle! Here's Tyler and his grandfather playing on the piano. Tyler gets such a kick from it! The second photo is Tyler excited listening to his grandpa play some notes. It's actually a pretty cool piano - the keys work and everything, although I think there are some lower notes that are a bit off tune.

Tyler is SUCH a rock star! After rocking out with his cousin Ryan in Houston with my sister's Wii guitars, he's got renewed interest in his toy guitar. He even holds the guitar kind of correctly! Tyler will shake the guitar, and go 'Doo-dooh!!' and shake it some more. You'd think he really was rocking out.

On Sunday my parents came over with my grandmother. I'm always a little worried about how Tyler will interact with my parents because he doesn't see them as often as my in-laws, but it's nice since they are coming by more often now. Tyler had a kick with my dad playing with this tent that my dad would lift up and down with Tyler sitting inside. He thought it was so hilarious!

My grandmother enjoyed interacting with Tyler also! He even repeated us when we told him to say Hi 'Tai-poh' which is great grandmother in Chinese.

Here's Tyler with my dad. You'd never guess that Tyler used to be kind of scared of my dad when he was little - my dad talks/laughs pretty loud. :) Now he loves playing with my dad!

Our playhouse sure gets a lot of use when we have guests over. Tyler likes to direct people to go inside with him. This time my mom was the unlucky victim!

I brought this Winnie the Pooh singing book back from Houston (thanks again Grace!) that Tyler loves. We've read it every night since we've been home. It has a bunch of buttons that play different songs and each page has the lyrics for a song. The funny thing is that Tyler loves to DANCE to the music. And he has a different dance for each song - depending on the button! I kid you not! Here he is with my mom reading the book. He loves the banjo song since it's so quick (him cracking up in the first photo) and there's a second one that he does this weird slow step dance to. That second photo he's actually doing a slow dance!

Sometimes I wonder where Tyler learns his dance moves - at school? He showed us a new one that day since he was rolling his arms around each other! It was so funny to watch!

I'm telling you, Tyler loves that book. When my mom and I were preparing dinner, Tyler brought the book over to my dad and grandmother to read on the couch. Seems innocent enough in the first photo, but then his crazy side is starting to show through on the second photo...
Uh oh! The music bug has bit Tyler! He got right up and started dancing on the couch! I really think he's got some music gene in him, hopefully from his mommy! :)
Here's a video of Tyler dancing to that book. He's so graceful huh! heehee.

Anyone that has met Tyler knows he really does party like a rock star. He will play until he is hot and sweaty, and then play some more. He'll laugh until he's rolling around the floor! Will and I often wonder where he gets all this energy. One thing we always notice - his hair gets quite damp from his sweat from all his running around. Yuck! Plus he has a really sensitive scalp - when there is breeze that blows his hair, he'll grab his scalp and say 'Ouch!'. Hm. This next photo is his hair with natural oils/sweat - no hairspray or hair gel. It totally stays up just like that!
Noteable moments this week:

• Tyler peed on his potty after telling us - second time ever! It was really exciting also that Will's parents were here to witness it too! He's not ready to actually poop in the potty, so we're not pressuring him about it. Still very exciting nonetheless!
• He's got a pretty good memory! We've got this game that you turn knobs/press buttons/etc to get an animal to pop out. We would open them and then close them one by one, and then I'd ask Tyler where the Elephant or the Lion was - and he totally knew! :)

And finally, a picture with the girls this week. Poor Trina had a camping burn accident!

This video I got off the camera we leave at Tyler's school. There are SO many things wrong with this picture! haha. First, he's wearing a long flowery pink dress!?! We think he looks like a floral wizard. :) Second, how do they get the kids to stay so still on the floor! Very amazing. :)

Have a good week everyone!