Ellsworth Family News: 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!