I have such random notes on the boys over the last few weeks that I just know this update will be all jumbled.

Talking Stuff

*Ty’s Talk

Ty’s sentence are getting to be 5 and 6 words long pretty consistently. He is almost to the point of being fully conversational. He are some recent statements that serve to demonstrate his communication skills 🙂

D = Ty how did you get mud all over you?
Ty= Tanner did it.
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Ty = Mommy? Where Ty’s spoon go?

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Ty = Mommy I am going to need some lunch.

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Ty = I NEED DADDY!!!!!! (When he was sick with the flu)

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Ty = What’d I do??? (Said in a teenage tone. WHERE did he learn that??? Not from Tanner!)

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Ty = What’s that in your mouf? (As in “Are you eating something I want?)

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Ty = What is that show about?

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Ty = Are we almost there?

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Ty = Where are we going?

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Ty = I want to pick one!

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Tanner = Ty GET over here!
Ty = I am NOT going over there!

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Ty = Is Miss Barb here? Is Miss Leslie comin? Two more minutes?

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Ty = I got a fish diaper? (Do I have a “fresh” diaper?) 😀

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Ty = Scooze Me! (Also getting very good at saying Thank You finally)

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Scene: Jim eating chocolate ice cream and giving Ty a bite.

Ty = I am going to need some more!!!

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Ty= Can I have some Chicken Little Soup? (Chicken Noodle 😀 )

Tanner = Daddy can you play games with us?
Ty = How about Lord of the Rings?
Jim = No I don’t want to play Lord of the Rings.
Ty = Something else?

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That should give a little idea of how well he is communicating. He is sooo funny! He also is at that stage where he is continuously stating the obvious. “Are we at church?” (when we are on the lawn at church)…”Is Daddy home?” (when daddy walked in the door)…”Am I eating Cookie Crisp?” (as he is taking bites). I have gotten into the habit of repeating the question back to him to remind him that he already knows the answer to the obvious question he is asking. I think he just likes to talk. I also love the way he innocently say’s “Ooooohhhhhhhh” all the time as if you just told him something he didn’t know (when he clearly DID). Example: D= Ty get out of the fridge it is not dinner time. Ty= Ooooooooohhhhhh! (Nice try).

Sadly, Tanner at 5 say’s most things pretty accurately now but he still say’s “Two-Ged-Er” for together and I love that.

Cute Stuff

*Nuffin

A few weeks ago Ty was sitting on the couch pretending to read one of my books. He kept flipping through the pages saying “nuffin…nuffin….nuffin….nuffin”. I figured he was saying “nuffin” because he was looking for pictures but still I asked myself what book I had that Ty would think amounted to a big fat “nuffin”. I walked over and checked the cover. It was Lisa Welchel’s “Creative Correction”. LOL! I emailed Lisa about that and told her my two year old thought her book was all about “nuffin”. Her mother, who runs email interference said Lisa loved that story and assured me that Ty would someday appreciate it.

*Curious George

Recently I started calling Ty Curious George because he gets in to so much. He loves it. Now he ASKS ME to call him Curious George. I think I know who he will be for Halloween 🙂 .

*Smarty Pants

One day Jim and I were shopping and Tanner and Ty were being a bit onery trying to run around. I picked Ty up and gave him that mother glare. You know the one. Where mama is threatening any more misdeeds with her eyes. Much gets communicated that way. I always hope to intimidate at least a bit. Instead, I gave that look to Ty, and he grins and say’s “Nice to meet ya!” I tried so hard to not laugh but I couldn’t hold it in.

*Scared

When we were in San Diego we were walking through the mall and passed a Spencer’s store. In the window they had lots of gross icky halloween stuff. Ty stood there staring at it thinking they were “pirates” 🙂 . I said, “Ty come on! Mommy doesn’t want you to look at the stuff, I don’t like it.” Ty say’s with these big eyes “That scare Ty?” I didn’t say anything about it being scary but he obviously read my thoughts because he knew exactly why I didn’t want him looking at it. Pretty cute.

*My Care Givers

As usual, Tanner is looking out for me. One day we were driving and I put a mapquest map on the steering wheel and Tanner instantly say’s “Mommy! You gotta watch were your driving!” I get so distracted with stuff that it is not uncommon for me to give the drink that Tanner just asked for to Ty or to put Ty in Tanner’s car seat…I switch stuff up accidentally pretty frequently. Tanner just gently corrects me.

Ty is now starting it too. I came home the other day and had to quickly head for the bathroom. I didn’t bother to turn the light on. Ty walks in to the bathroom, turns on the light, then say’s “Is that better?” LOL!!!! He was so serious about it too. When exactly do kids STOP following you to bathroom?

*Toothpaste

Recently I bought Shrek toothpaste for the boys. When it came out green I said “Oh gross! Shrek likes bugs for toothpaste, I guess you’ll have to brush your teeth with bugs now.” Ever since Ty has been bringing me his toothbrush at night and asking for “buggies”. Hope he doesn’t do that in public.

*Tags

When Tanner was 3, I had to cut all his tags out of his shirts. I told myself I would remember that all shirts without tags were age 3. Now Ty is almost 3 and guess who can’t stand tags now 🙂 . Is it the age? 🙂

*On the Farm

This week Tanner has been asking me to play “Farm” with him. He was making me giggle last night with his cute quips. He kept telling me that our cow was “laying a lot of milk” ;). Actually, in Tanner’s world, chicken’s lay eggs, cow’s lay milk, and horses lay baby horses. I decided not to correct that. At one point our little horse, Smokey, got very ill and we needed medical care so he told me to call 089 for the “medic”. Then Tanner told me it would take 50 hours for the medic to get to us because he has a very slow car. Hee hee! The worst part in all this was that he insisted on calling my character “woman”. I kept telling him my girl’s name was “Martha” but he called her “woman” anyhow. At one point I told him that the chicken’s eggs needed to be collected and he said “Get the woman”. Is this a bad sign? LOL.

Smart Stuff

* Ty now knows by icon nearly every fast food restaurant in our area…from a mile away. Oops! (I do cook dinners most of the time but we eat out way more than we should too!) He even knows what he wants at each restaurant. Additionally, he knows many of their bi-lines and walks around saying “Subway – Eat fresh!”….”Quiznos – is GOOD”!….”Mmmmmmm I’m loving it (McDonald’s). I guess he memorizes this off commercials. For some reason he pays way more attention to commercials, opening credits of shows, and end credits than he ever does a “show” itself.

*One day during physical therapy Ty was playing with Mr. Potato Head. While he was putting the eyes in I said “Ty what helps you see?” (obviously I was trying to get him to say ‘eyes’). Without hesitation he say’s “Miss Ericka”. Ironically Miss Ericka is his Vision Teacher. Could he actually KNOW that? Weird.

*Conversation this week from the back of my car. We were driving home from OT and crossing the Happy Valley ramp.

Ty = We are in a tunnel.
Tanner = Ty this is not a tunnel.
Ty = It’s a brige. A BIG bridge with a circle!

Very weird because if you have ever driven over the HV ramp, that is a good way to describe the circular loop:)

School Stuff

While I am waiting until next September to start formal school, I do have informal goals for this year. I recently purchased the book “Teach Your Child to Read In 100 Easy Lessons”. (Thanks for that recommendation Sara A.) I read through the preface and really like their “Distar”approach. Apparently, their program is the number 1 rated program to teach reading based on some of the most nationally funded research. It is a phonics based program but they have their own distar alphabet that allows every word to be spelled correctly but also phonetically pronounced. For example, they teach the children that a hard line over the a makes the hard sound, they make an sh symbol where the s and h are touching for “sh” sounds. Since every sound has a symbol associated, it’s tough for me to explain this. The silent e is always written tiny so they know to ignore it. This way the small child can sound out all words – even most site words. By the end lessons, they wean kids off the symbols and by that time, they have the concepts down. I have heard a few people now say this book is AWESOME. By the end of the 100 lessons, your child should be reading on a 2nd grade level. Hoping that proves true. Will be nice to have Tanner reading BEFORE I actually start “school”. I’ll let you know how it goes. So far so good though. The book is recommended for advanced 3.5 year olds through 6 years of age.

I have been really impressed with Ty too because he can recognize more than half of his letters by site and knows many of their phonic sounds. I don’t know if he is picking this up from Tanner or Leap Frog stuff. He loves the fridge magnets.

Sweet Stuff

I love prayer time. Ty has been praying randomly for his therapists lately (all on his own) and he always thanks God for church. So sweet. Yesterday after BSF, Tanner was soooo happy. He just really bragged about how much fun he had (and this is a BIG deal for Tanner). Last night at prayer time he say’s “Thank you God that we love our teachers”. Wasn’t that precious?

Tanner has such a sensitive spirit towards the Lord. He was outside one day and saw a gorgeous Arizona sunset and ran in to get me. When I went outside to see it he say’s “Mommy! Come look what God did!”

That moved my heart more than the sunset did…by a long shot.