Thoughts and Tyler moments (of course)

      Well, life's been good, life's been tough. Been working on listening and discipline with Tyler for the past few months. He is a sweetie but loves to push the limit. As a parent, it is hard to balance between guiding children and making them obey. I do not want to crush his silly, adventurous personality, but at the same time, he still needs to be obedient.
       I have been talking to a few of my friends about this lately and they are having similar dilemmas. We were talking about how awful you feel after you get mad at your child or have to punish him or her. You feel guilty and crummy. But at the same time, it has to happen sometimes. I was telling Jeff about this and he brought up a good point, he said, "Tyler has moved on and forgiven you so you need to do the same thing." Good point. Not only do we need to be eager to forgive others, but we also need to be eager to forgive ourselves . An older sister at church said, "Don't worry about being a 'mean' parent, if it's not abuse, you're doing the right thing." I thought that was a great way for me to measure my actions as a mom.

BUT.... as hard as Tyler has been lately, he has also been SO much fun! He is such a funny and silly, silly little boy. A few of his favorite sayings:

"Have mercy!" 

"Eat my dust!" 

"I'm gonna win!" 

"Hit the road jack!" 

"Mmm! Tastes delicious!" 

"That's so silly!"
"Sorry Charlie."
"Listen a me!"
Sings: "Skip to my loot." 

He loves to call me "Ace." I am surprised he even picked that up from my family. 

Tyler: Ace, Ace, let's do puzzles. 

Me: You don't call me Ace.

Tyler: Yes call you Ace! 

He has a friend who he LOVES named Lorelai. He has actually been borderline obsessed with her for a few months now and she is so sweet and just goes along with it (she is 8). He will always ask about her, or pack snacks for her when we go places even if she isn't going to be there, and my personal favorite, he did not want to say, "eat my dust" to her. Jeff taught Tyler to say "eat my dust" when we are driving somewhere to make it a competition. Tyler loves to say "eat my dust" to Jeff's family, especially Grandpa. One day we saw Lorelai on her way to meet up with us at the park. Tyler said, "I beat Lorelai to park. No say 'eat my dust' Lorelai, say 'hi'". Cute. 

I lied to him last week. He saw Dick's sporting good store and wanted to go in to the "basketball store." I told him it wasn't open. He said he would go there by himself after naps. I wished him luck. 

He calls Winnie the Pooh, "shampoo." 

Today we put out our Halloween decorations and listened to Halloween music as we did so. He liked singing the "Monster Mash" aka "We make a mess." 

We pulled up to Walmart and Tyler started saying, "My Walmart!" When we drove by a McDonald's he said, "Let's get chicken nuggets!" Embarrassing to both! 

When we were in Visalia Jeff's mom commented on how Tyler might be ready for puzzles. We have been home a few weeks now and he can do 25 pieced puzzles all by himself. Guess she was right! 

I told Tyler to say "good morning" to Jeff and Tyler said, "No, I say that to him yesterday." 

Jeff gave Tyler four of his old trophies. Tyler took all four to the ultra sound appointment for the baby. 

I accidentally spilled some water and he said, "Oh man, you make a mess!" Pot calling the kettle black my friend?  

Tyler tooted and I asked him what he did, he smirked and said, "What? I do nothing!" Lies. 

He has a great memory. I think he gets that from Jeff. One morning he exclaimed, "I have that momma!" I came out to see what he was talking about and saw a commercial for a protein drink I had shared with him a few months prior.

We did a lot of driving at the end of summer. One time he said, "There's a gas station, we gotta change my diaper at the gas station." By the end of the road trips he was telling as we drove past gas stations that we needed to pull over and change his diaper there. 

We went boating while in Visalia. I told Tyler we had to drive to the lake first. We drove from the garage to the side of the house and he said, "Woohoo! We're here!" 

So, I guess what I am saying is, I'll take him :) 

And yes, I know I need another hobby other than my kid!