Labor of Love

We had a wonderful Labor Day weekend and a busy one. While Carynn and Jamie headed west for some R and R; Ty Michael spent the weekend with us. We had such a good time. I was very tired (Michael too) when Carynn and Jamie picked up Ty on Monday, but it was a good tired. Here are some of the things we did. Note: some of Ty's favorite words are bolded.

1. Lots of PLAY- This is Ty's word for either playing with the toys in the toy cupboard downstairs or with the ones in the cupboard upstairs in the family room. This usually involves:
2. TRUCKS and BYE BYES. Ty definition of trucks includes the pick-up variety as well as the tractor/trailer variety. We have two small tractor/trailer type trucks. The trailer for each detaches. Ty likes switching these with each other (fortunately they still work when he does that) and often involves him handing the pieces to me and saying FIX IT. He still likes calling cars bye byes since that's what you do when you get in them. A few of the cars have doors that OPEN and SHUT and Ty and I practice doing this and saying that with those cars. He's also extended open and shut to other concepts correctly too. What a smart boy!
3. PLAY may also involve the little pink HELICOPTER (Yes he can say helicopter) and a space shuttle that he calls an AIRPLANE.
4. More PLAY includes playing with Melinda's old See and Say toys, the Little Tikes playhouse where he likes putting the family, especially the BABY in the car that goes with it. Sometimes the baby gets STUCK.
5. EAT. Ty usually wakes up hungry so breakfast is something we get to right away. He tries to say breakfast, but it doesn't quite sound like breakfast yet. Involving food he will say "please" but it often sounds like PEAS.
6. He understands "thank you" TINK YOU and will sometimes use it preemptively as in thanking you in advance for something he hopes you'll give him.
7. WALK is something Ty likes to do all the time. More often he walks with his PAPA but sometimes he walks with NANA too. On one of my latest walks with Ty we used the path that Michael made around the property and walked down to the picnic table to eat our lunch. We took the time to SMELL wild flowers that were along or near the path.
8. Ty's walks with Papa may include stops to eat an APPLE from one of the apple trees, and grabbing some BERRIES and GRAPES from the garden. He also has learned that PEARS are not apples. Since it was apple picking time at our house Ty ate a bunch of those (or began eating a bunch of them) this past weekend.
9. We also took in a SHOW or two. This is Ty's word for a movie. Some of the ones we watched with him included: Wall-E, Cars, Elmo, Lady and the Tramp, Quick Cutz kids.
10. He'll sometimes sit still through part of Dora the Explorer. He recognizes DORA and her sidekick BOOTS. When the character Swiper appears he'll echo Dora's, "Swiper no swiping." and Swiper's "OH MAN."
11. We'd also NAP. Ty's favorite naps are when we pretend to nap. We'll take BLANKY and ELMO (his bear) and lay down, putting our heads on our folded hands and snore loudly. This usually doesn't last very long. Ty doesn't like real naps as well as he likes pretend ones, but I'm glad he'll still take them.
12. Getting dressed can be an adventure! After a BATH where Ty gets WET in the WATER. We'll get him all dressed. He knows when he's supposed to stand UP to help and realizes that if he wants to do something outside he needs to wear his SOCKS and SHOES. It was cool enough outside that he sometimes had to wear his ACKET (jacket).
13. We also went to CHURCH while he was here. He enjoyed Melinda's old quiet book, eating a SNACK or two or three. He especially likes TOOKIES (cookies). Cookies are most any kind of cracker kind of snack. He did pretty well in Nursery considering he didn't know the kids, it was way past nap time and he doesn't have the concept of sharing down yet. But then none of the other KIDS did either.
14. I admit to caving in on a few things. I'd let him take a BOOK and a bye bye or truck or two and maybe his JUICE when I was putting him down for a nap/bed. I figure that's my perogative as a Nana. He'd still give me a HUG and a KISS even though I was putting him where he didn't want to go.
There are plenty of other words that Ty uses that I haven't noted,but you get the idea. He's a very vocal young man. He'll try most any word out and most of the time it'll sound something like the real word. It was a very busy weekend, but it was a-

Labor of Love,

NS