Tyler turns 2! (Wk 105 part 1) - visits the OC Fair and goes Swimming

Happy Birthday Tyler! This week was quite a full week, and to save myself some time tonight (and you guys from a super long post), I will be splitting this week's post into two parts. Tonight's blog will include all the fun activities from the week, and tomorrow (or Wednesday's) blog will be all about Tyler's crazy birthday party! If you want to know when that post will be coming, be sure to subscribe to this blog so that you'll then get email notifications. :)

Tyler turned 2 this week! Whoohoo! We have lots of fun stuff to tell you about. To start off, a silly picture of Tyler smiling with a mouth full of food. Or was it milk. I don't remember - but I thought it was quite silly. He had just finished eating and was very anxious to watch Thomas the Train - and dance (of course) to the songs. I don't know what caused it - but he still loves his music AND Thomas the train.

We decided to do a low key birthday for him this year on his actual birthday - didn't make sense to celebrate twice since he was having a big party on the weekend. On that morning, I said 'Happy Birthday!' to Tyler, and he replied with a big 'NO!!'. He didn't like me singing the Happy Birthday song to him either. Strange... here's a family picture on Tyler's birthday.
At school, they had popsicles! I was a little bummed that most of Tyler's friends had already transitioned to Pre-1 and Tyler didn't get to celebrate with them. He just started his transition (with a few other kids) this week. They sang Happy Birthday to him and he clapped afterwards. Oh yeah, and not sure if it's just for the birthday boy... but Tyler got a little tiny pony tail in his hair too. heehee.
When Tyler came home that day, he totally knew it was his birthday. He already will sing the Happy Birthday song from time to time, but now each verse was: "happy birthday to you... Tyler!" And when prompted, he could tell us how old he was. (Good training at school huh!) Here's a video of Tyler telling us how old he is.

His birthday present that day was a bubble lawn mower. It blows bubbles while you push it, and it makes sounds like a mower also! Tyler really enjoyed it.
Tyler's favorite dessert is frozen yogurt from Yogurt Land! That night, we had some frozen frozen yogurt (yes, double frozen. we'll freeze some for Tyler since its much less messy when he eats the yogurt harder) and we put a candle in it. How cute is he in this picture! Wish I could get him to smile and pose like that on command! Here's a video of us singing happy birthday to Tyler and him blowing out the candles. :)

This weekend was quite busy! My sister Kareen and her husband Andy came down for the birthday party and Saturday was quite hectic! Saturday was actually reserved for 'party preparation' but we totally distracted ourselves. Sigh. Even with Tyler's party the next day, I procrastinated!

Saturday morning event? Swimming! After the excitement Tyler had last week from swimming, we decided to take him again with K&A. We got all dressed and sunblocked and headed down the street to our community pool. Tyler was ready! Here he is with his pale sunblocked face waiting to get to the water.Unfortunately, when we got there, we realized the pool was closed today since there was a Swim meet going on! 8am-3pm. ACK! Plan change! Tyler was pretty adamant about swimming (he kept saying 'water? water?' and motioning at the gate) so we had to come up with plan B quick. Luckily our friend Mariam has a community pool also and 1 call later we were swimming! (Thanks Mariam!) This time around Tyler totally remembered how much he loved the water, and no popchips were required to get him in the water. We had a lot of fun!
After swimming, we headed home and got ready for event #2. The Orange County Fair! Seriously, I don't know what we were thinking. Swimming alone can be quite draining... but off we went. It was SO hot! Here's Tyler at the petting zoo.
Totally not afraid of animals. They had lots of different ones - camels, llamas, baby everything. I learned that not all camels spit, only the ones with 2 humps (vs the 1-humped one that was there).
After the petting zoo Tyler got to take a pony ride. I was actually pretty paranoid about him riding this pony - there's no one standing there next to him in case he falls! The attendants assured me that he would be fine - they don't even stop the ponies when they put the kids on - it's a walking start! Tyler was a pro though, knew exactly what to do. I was a little overwhelmed watching him all by himself - he's all grown up!
Here's a video of Tyler riding the pony. He's so friendly, he waves at everyone as the pony walks by!

One of the things we bought that day (aside from overpriced food!) was this super mister. It really is quite awesome. You put (ice-)cold water in it, pump it a few times, and press the trigger. Result? A refreshing cool mist of water! On this ridiculously hot day it was a lifesaver...until Tyler realized how it worked. Then everyone was a target and had to be on alert on not getting soaked.
Some fun moments - lots and lots of livestock. That's the point of the fair, isn't it? We even watched a milking demonstration. Tyler's getting good at taking pictures in those cut outs too.
Here's a photo of Tyler when we visited Centennial Farm last year, he was just walking I think! This one next is him actually through the cut out.
Fast forward past Sunday and the party (see next post!). We had a yummy dinner at our favorite Korean restaurant Shik do Rak!
And Yay also because our friends Jeff/Joan and their 2 boys were able to join us too! Wow, my diaper bag sure is huge!
And lastly, today we had lunch with our friends Shirley/Jesse who came by to drop off a present for Tyler. We had yummy noodles at A&J.
Good times! Thanks for Kareen and Andy to making the trip down here just for Tyler's birthday party!