The Movie Monster

Every morning when Tyler wakes up, the very first thing he asks me is when he can watch a movie. He loves them. He lives for the chance to watch them and movies are the main topic of conversation throughout the day. The last few weeks he has taken this obsession to the next level. He has insisted on carrying around about 20 DVD cases wherever he goes. If he is playing in his room, there is a huge pile of DVDs on his bed. If he is watching a movie, they are piled up on the couch next to him. I have been finding this stack of DVDs everywhere!

So tonight, after asking him to put them all away for the umpteenth time, I decided to do something about it. I told him that in California, there was a Movie Monster that liked to come into little kids' houses at night to gobble up any DVDs that had been left out. I told him the Movie Monster can smell DVDs that are not in their proper place and that's how he knows where to go. Needless to say, the DVDs all got put away tonight.

I felt pretty triumphant until about 10 minutes ago. Tyler has been up in bed for about 30 minutes messing around. Usually he falls asleep pretty quickly. He came downstairs to find me. The poor kid needed a lot of reassurance that the Movie Monster wasn't going to come into our house tonight and that all would be safe. I'm not sure if it was an excuse to get out of bed or if he was really scared. I'm feeling a bit guilty, but in the long run, if it keeps the DVDs in their proper spot, maybe it was worth the bad parenting moment!

Fathers and Sons Campout

I never thought it would happen, but in May, James took Tyler on our ward's Fathers and Sons Campout. They even slept in a tent -- overnight! Neither James nor I, are big camping fans, so you can imagine how surprised I was when James decided he wanted to go. It helped that many of his and Tyler's friends were going to be there and also that some other friends lent us camping gear.

Tyler loved going camping with his dad, and was extremely well behaved, according to the reports I received. They had dinner on the way up, but roasted marshmallows and made smores with the Elison's. Around 9 pm, Tyler told James he was tired and walked to the tent and went to sleep, all on his own. They had breakfast in the morning, packed up and headed home.

The next afternoon, I found Tyler like this on the staircase. He was too tired to make it up the stairs to his bed (or the bathroom) before he fell asleep. Overall, I'd say that his first campout was a complete success!

Family Pictures

My amazing, talented friend, Kara Hagberg, took some pictures of our family last week. By the end, the boys (especially Ryan) were wiggly, goofy, and not super cooperative, but Kara still managed to get some great shots. Thanks, Kara! By the way, Kara is moving to SLC for the summer and then will be moving to Boise in the fall. She really is fabulous!

Ty's Kung Fu Panda Birthday Party

We had such a fun birthday party for Tyler this year. He wanted a Kung Fu Panda birthday party, and boy did he get one! We had 8 3-5 year olds at our house, and it was very busy, but very fun. He invited Isaac Teeples, Sam Gustafson, Garrett Kimball, Zach Gailey (who's sweet mom, Kristi, drove him all the way up here from Cincinnati!), Nathan Elison, Ben Haws, and Cohen Burnett.

First up was a Kung Fu Panda coloring contest (really, just something to keep them busy while we were waiting for everyone to arrive.)

James set up an obstacle course down in the basement, using things like 2 x 4s and food storage cans to make a balance beam, plastic deck chairs that they had to climb under, our kid-size picnic table they had to climb over, and various other items found throughout the house. Thanks, James! The kids loved it.

The best game we played was a contest to see who could keep their balloon up in the air without letting it hit the ground. They had to use some foam swords that I had picked up as a party favor (I'm sure all the parents loved me for sending swords home) to hit the balloon. They had a blast with this game and were even pretty good about not fighting each other too much. We played some other games, Master Shifu Says (Simon Says), Duck Duck Kung Fu Panda (Duck Duck Goose), and practiced some sweet kung fu moves while listening to the Kung Fu Panda soundtrack.

Next up was pizza and a Kung Fu Panda birthday cake. If I ever get around to it, I'll figure out how to upload the video from our video camera of the boys singing happy birthday.

Then it was present time - can you say CHAOS!!! By the end of it, I really wasn't sure which present came from which kid. But Tyler loved them all!


By the end, the kids were so tired, that I popped in a movie (what else - Kung Fu Panda) for the boys to watch while waiting for their parents to come get them. I thought it was so cute that as the boys raided their goody bags, they all put on the Kung Fu Panda masks that were in them, without prompting, in order to watch the movie.


Tyler and his friends had so much fun, and I'm so glad we got to have all those cute boys, who we love so much, over to help celebrate. Tyler has been so lucky to have so many great friends here in Ohio, and I know he is going to be very sad when he realizes that we are not going to be living by them.

Happy Birthday, Tyler!

Tyler had such an eventful, but mostly very fun, birthday this year, including his first friend birthday party! We had a great day celebrating our sweet boy's birthday!

Tyler started out the morning with a fun surprise - balloons all over his room! He loved it! I started to blow up the balloons the night before, and realized that it's really hard to blow up balloons when you have bronchitis. James must have taken over after I fell asleep because I was surprised in the morning too. Way to save the day, James!

We had french toast stratta for breakfast (Ty's favorite) and then we went to see Monsters Vs. Aliens with a few of Tyler's friends - Nathan Elison, Sam Gustafson, and Isaac Teeples. I wish I had a picture of all these cute boys together at the movie! Tyler loves his friends here so much and we are going to miss them (and their moms!!!) desperately when we move in a few short weeks!

After the movie, Ty went over to Sammy's house to play for a while, which normally is one of his favorite things to do. However, a little while later, I got a phone call saying that Tyler had smacked his face into a piece of furniture and that I should probably come get him. Sam's mom, Laurie, is a nurse, and when she sounded so concerned, I quickly became a little concerned too. I hurried over there, and sure enough, you could actually see an indent in his cheek where he hit and he was quickly swelling up. Tyler was trying so hard to brave for Laurie, and was cuddling with her as they waited for me to show up, but as soon as I walked in, he lost it again.

Both Laurie and I thought that he may have fractured his cheek bone, but luckily we know just the guy. I took him to the hospital so James could check it out and even James looked surprised at how nasty it was. Tyler was trying so hard to be brave in the car, but just about lost it when we pulled into the hospital saying, "I want my Doctor Daddy to fix me." Luckily, all was fine, but he did have a really good black eye for a couple of weeks.

We had a little family birthday party for him, as well as the birthday party with his friends that was the next day. Tyler was spoiled rotten with all the birthday presents everyone gave him. This year, we gave him some Transformers, a doctor's kit, Kung Fu Panda jibbitz to put on his crocs, and Chutes and Ladders. His grandparents also sent him presents, as did a few of his uncles and aunts, and cousins. This boy is sure loved! Happy Birthday, Tyler!

My Favorite Big Boy

Here are some of the many many reasons we love our Tyler sooo much!

1. Tyler loves shows - movies, TV, You Tube videos, whatever he can get his hands on! He could spend all day long watching shows if I let him! I often use this love to my advantage - i.e. we have recently been having a hard time with him spending the night in his own bed. When he comes to my bed to climb in, generally, all I have to say is, "If you want to watch (fill in the blank) tomorrow, you have to sleep in your own bed." and he'll hurry back to his own bed. That doesn't mean that he'll really stay there all night, but it is very motivating to him.

2. Tyler is our gadget man - he can figure out how to work any electronic device if his watches someone do it once. This works out particularly well for him when he finds James' Ipod and can get into You Tube and find his favorite movie clips.

3. He is so polite! I know you must think that I'm a little biased, but he really is. He's so good at saying please and thank you. He automatically says, "scuse me" if he burps (even if it's a fake one.) He also loves to talk to strangers (I know - a little scary - we're working on it) but at least he is polite and introduces himself! "Hi, my name's Tyler. Nice to meet ya!"

4. Tyler loves to read and is working so hard to learn how to read on his own. He taught himself to pick out each of the letters in the alphabet and all the numbers when he was about 2. He has been able to pick out many words out of books for a long time as well- elephant, lion, Po (as in Kung Fu Panda), zoo, mom, etc.. When we read together, he is constantly stopping me and asking me where it says something I just read out loud.

5. Tyler loves his friends! We could not ask for better friends out here, and although they often fight and argue like any little boys, Tyler is always concerned about his friends' feelings and will often tell me that it makes him sad when someone else was sad during a play date.

6. One of our favorite games lately is "That is going to cost you!" Tyler asks me for something, like a fruit snack, an extra show or book, etc. and I tell him how many kisses it's going to cost him. He starts kissing my cheek, and I start counting. He always (on purpose) goes way over whatever number I've given him and we have to start over and over and over. This always ends up with lots of giggles and smiles.

7. Tyler says the same prayer every single night... "Dear Heavenly Father, Thank you for our blessings. Thank you that Nana took me to see Madagascar 2, and that Mommy took me to see Kung Fu Panda, and that Daddy took me to see Bolt, and that Mommy took me to see Monsters Vs. Aliens and that Mommy took me to the library." Sometimes things like please bless the prophet, thank you for Jesus, etc. get thrown in too, but we have seriously wondered if we should ever take him to see another movie in the theater! We worry that the list might get way too long during his prayers!

8. Tyler is such a good big brother to Ryan and is so good about watching out for him. If I leave both boys at a friend's house or at the gym, Tyler always makes sure that Ryan isn't too sad. He makes certain to tell the person in charge that when Ryan is sad you have to watch a Baby Einstein show. He is also so good at letting Ryan play with him when his friends are around, and really protects him from whatever 4-year-old antics are going on.

9. As soon as he hears the garage door open and James' car pull in, he says, "I have to hide!" and tries to find a new clever spot to hide from his dad. James usually finds him pretty quickly. :)

10. Tyler could eat yogurt, bananas, french toast and chocolate milk for every single meal, and be very happy.

11. He has empathy for others. For instance, a few months ago, a new boy started attending Tyler's preschool. Tyler's teacher told me that this little boy was crying and missing his mom, and that Tyler went up, gave this boy a hug, and told him it was ok to miss his mom, but that when he was done, Tyler wanted to play with him.

I'm sure that from the above list, you all think that I am a bit delusional and that I must think Tyler is the best behaved, well mannered child on this earth. Don't you worry - he often has meltdowns, tantrums, needs time-out, does things he knows he shouldn't and drives me crazy. But the good outweighs the bad every day and I am grateful I get to be Tyler's mom. I wouldn't trade that job for anything - no matter how crazy the day is! The kiss goodnight that I get every night makes me forget all the crazy, silly things that he's done throughout the day and helps me look forward to the next day. (That same kiss also signifies the end of "mom time" and the beginning of "me time," so maybe that's another reason why it is something I so look forward to every night!)

My Favorite Boys