Happy Easter 2011!

We were talking about the Easter Bunny coming all week so when Tyler woke up on Easter Sunday and found eggs in his room, he was estatic. He did a much better job this year of actually searching for the eggs and found all 22 of them (with a little help at times)! He did stop after finding just about every egg to open it and see if it was filled with jelly beans or a couple pennies. And of course, he had a breakfast of jelly beans by the time the hunt was over!

"Does this one have jelly beans?"

Putting his change in his piggy bank

Checking out the Easter basket

Excited the Easter Bunny brought Thomas Trains, along with a puzzle, a book and a bike!

Mommy teaching Tyler how to ride

Then we went to Morris to have Easter Lunch at Grandma and Grandpa Ellsworth's. Tyler's Great Grandma Burnett and Great Uncle Terry and Great Aunt Michelle were also there. We at a delicious lunch then went outside so Tyler could get some practice riding his bike. His legs are still a bit too short to reach the peddles but he liked riding it Fred Flintstone style nonetheless!

Riding his bike

Great Uncle Terry

Great Aunt Michelle

Coloring Easter Eggs 2011

But first a trip down memory lane.....
Coloring Easter eggs for Tyler's first Easter (2009)

Mommy and Tyler in our "art shirts", ready to color Easter eggs (2010)

And now this year....

What a big boy he has become!

We decided to let Tyler help us with the real eggs this year. He apparently colored eggs at Trina's (the babysitter) and didn't dye her whole table blue so we thought "What the heck!". It was really cool because we talked about coloring eggs all week and once it was finally time to do it he was so excited! He might have been a little too excited because right off the bat, he dunked his egg (and his hand) right into the blue dye. Luckily, we didn't dye anything else in the kitchen. He was so much more involved this year. Such a difference a year makes....

Coloring his egg with a white crayon

Tyler and Daddy hard at work

Checking out his blue fingers

Lots of multi-colored eggs!

Gamma Phi Circus

Last weekend, we took Tyler to see the Gamma Phi Circus at Illinois State. Mike and I both went when we were in college and thought it would be something Tyler would like. Before we headed over to Redbird Arena, we took Tyler to Avanti's on campus. He gobbled down a whole entire kid's plate of tortellini, fruit and their famous bread.
The circus was really cool, especially when you consider that most of the performers are Illinois State students. It wasn't a circus with animals--mostly tumbling and acrobats. It was a little on the long side but Tyler sat through it pretty well, especially after we got him a bucket of popcorn. In fact, when we asked him what was his favorite part of the circus, he said "Eating popcorn!". Here are lots of pictures from the circus.....
Getting ready to go in

Anxious for the show to start

Watching with Mommy

Cool glass wall and trampolines

Ropes

Rings

Trapeze

Mike called these things the "Hampster Wheels"

Tight rope walker (he was blind-folded)

Tight rope unicycle rider

This guy was amazing. He did all kinds of things on that star shaped box but we liked when he brought out "Scooby" and balanced him on his feet

10-person bike

Unicyclers

The finale!

Two and a Half!

We can't believe Tyler's two and a half! Our little baby has seriously turned into a little boy! It amazes me how much he has picked up in the last 6 months. Let's see....to start the kid never shuts up! He is so observant and has to comment about everything. Then he will repeat himself over and over again until you acknowledge his comment. It's really cute (but makes talking on the phone a little tricky at times). He still LOVES books and more recently has discovered how much fun it is to sing and dance. So cute! I know every parent probably thinks this but I am convinced that Tyler is a gifted little boy. He mastered counting from 1-15 months ago so one day out of nowhere he just started counting in Spanish! The babysitter asked if I taught him that and I asked her the same thing. I seriously have no clue where he picked that up--it's not like we watch Dora the Explorer or anything like that. He also knows all his colors and shapes (including octagon and pentagon) and can say the alphabet. I am working with him on recognizing letters and letter-sound associations. Trina, his babysitter, has started having the kids do the "My Baby Can Read" program. As a "kind of" educator, more like a language and literacy expert, I was a little skeptical that he was only memorizing the words on the different colored cards and by the different fonts with very little carry-over. So Trina wrote all the words down on note cards and low and behold, the kid goes through his note cards everyday in the car and knows all the words. We even pick out those words in his books. In fact, I'm not trying to brag but all the older kids are still working on Level 1 and Tyler has already moved on to Level 2 and he's the youngest! Brilliant, I tell you! We have found out that the twos are called "terrible" for a reason. I could live without all the "no's" and tantrums but things are definitely getting much more fun as Tyler gets older! Playing and being silly

Trying on Mommy's running shoes

Excited to go see the Illinois State Gamma Phi Circus (more on that later)