Deja vu

Tyler is not walking yet, but that is not to say that he doesn't try to get from point A to point B while standing up - he just looks for objects (tables, walls, chairs) to help him along the way. Every morning after Doug gets Tyler dressed for school, Tyler stays in the bathroom with me while I blow dry my hair and finish getting ready while Doug goes upstairs to get Andrew ready for school. Tyler's new thing is standing on his tippy toes to try and get anything he can get his little fingers on from the drawer in the bathroom counter. He can even open the drawer by himself.

Picture this ... a short and chubby little boy standing on his tippy toes and reaching his hands up as high as he can so his shirt exposes his diaper as he struggles to both maintain balance and fish for treasure in the drawer. What is particulary sweet about this for me is that Andrew used to do the very same thing! The first time that I saw Tyler do it, I had deja vu and it was as if Andrew was a baby all over again (and since they look so much alike, it is not hard to imagine). In fact, it was not but a month ago that Andrew was getting something out of the drawer and I mentioned to Doug, "Do you remember when he couldn't even see in that drawer?"

Tyler has become quite the explorer and he is not afraid of falling down, climbing over things, etc. He is a very brave little baby, which to be honest, scares the heck out of me! I guess he is watching all of the things his big brother can do and he tries to do them too. He would crawl up the stairs if we let him. He also has quite a personality and he is not afraid to show you how he feels and he is quite expressive. He smiles and laughs and cries with his whole face and the sound of his excitement can light up a room.

We are in the process of transitioning him to whole milk and like most other things, he is taking it in stride. If anything, his mommy is having a harder time than Tyler adjusting to the fact that he is not a "baby" anymore!

Andrew continues to amaze me as being the most incredibly wonderful big brother. They roll on the ground together playing and he makes Tyler laugh and smile like no one else. Andrew really enjoys trying to parent Tyler -- telling him what he can and cannot do, and attempting to help us keep Tyler in line. For example, keeping Tyler away from the TV. Andrew will pick Tyler up and move him away from the TV because he has seen us do the same thing 100 times. Andrew is also great about sharing with Tyler most of the time. In the car on the way home from school the other evening, Andrew handed Tyler a couple of goldfish from his own snack without being prompted by me to share. I don't even normally ask him to share his snack with Tyler, so it was really just Andrew being nice and completely on his own volition to share his snack!

That is not to say that Andrew never gets frustrated with his baby brother, because he certainly does, but I could not be happier about the amount of love they seem to have for each other already. Andrew has learned that if he wants they toy that Tyler is playing with that he has to give Tyler something else that makes him happy so that he can take what he wants without making Tyler cry. On more than one occassion Andrew has taken a toy from Tyler and made him cry and I have heard him tell Tyler in a sweet and quiet voice to "shhh" becasue Andrews knows that mom or dad will come investigate if Tyler cries.

Andrew is doing a great job with his alphabet, colors, numbers, songs, etc. At this point Andrew probably knows more nursery songs than we do! When Doug picked Andrew up from school yesteray Andrew sang a perfect rendition of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star in front of the entire class and they all "Yeah"ed for him when he finished. Doug said that he was quite the proud daddy until Andrew embarassed him by saying, "Oh Sh!t" as he was leaving school. I don't know where he learned that one ...

I know I say this all of the time, but my boys are growing up too fast! The Moore family has 2 birthdays within the next week!