A day in the life of..

Here is Tyler doing his dance moves at Berns with his Nana and Papa - I'm not sure, but I think George W was doing those same moves in the same place the last time he was there!

Tyler and Tiffany ohhhhh... 

Touching a sting ray! 

Mommas boy at his zoo field trip. 

Look at him go! He takes his egg hunting serious! 

I hate these sideways ones, but I had to show our pumpkin! How creative and cool are we? 

Tyler and his homies - what a nightmare it was for me trick or treating with 6 boys!  

Who is this?? That would be Samurai Jack! I have been meaning to show you this since Halloween - how funny does he look with dark hair? How sweet is he? 

Saturday was Tyler's birthday party. What seven year old doesn't love Star Wars right now? We gave him a choice of what he wanted to do for his party, and he decided he wanted to see the movie. How brave am I? Well let me tell you - we had 13 six or seven year old boys at the movie! Tyler had the time of his life. I was nervous about the whole party, but I went with it and it turned out perfect. The boys watched the movie - not even one of them got scared, I was worried about that, one of them even fell asleep! After the movie we had ice cream and all the boys got their light sabers and chased each other around. They were so excited! Of course every gift Tyler got was Star Wars - he was in heaven!! Grandma Elizabeth got him the Darth Vader voice changer, Deborah got him the Star Wars legos, so did nana and papa. Steve got him the Star Wars DS game for his new DS gameboy! He was just so happy! He got the Darth Vader light saber from Matthew B, the talking yoda from Matthew M, a Star Wars poster from Austin, a Star Wars book from Robbie, more legos from Gregory and practically every action figure from the movie from my mom. We got him the trilogy, so this was just a big Star Wars birthday! You guys know Tyler, and he is so bad at showing emotion, but he was really good this time, he loved everything.

To my baby boy - in case you read this some day -

Tyler, at seven years old you are something else. I swear that I look at you and can not believe how much love I feel for you. You will think this is cheesy - but you are my sunshine. You make every day better than before and give me countless reasons to be thankful. At this age you are smart, charming, witty, funny, courageous, handsome, sarcastic and so super loving. The other day you asked me if I liked being a mom, of course I told you that I love being a mom - to you. I mean that. You are my pride and joy. Everything about you makes me proud. I hope you are always as happy as you are now.

I dropped off donuts for your class this morning and your teachers were raving about you. They say you are the class clown - I really believe that. You have been trying to make people laugh since you were a little baby.

I love you Tyler - more than anyone in this entire universe. Happy birthday son.

Happy 7th birthday Tyler Anthony - I love you! 

His first crash and burn! 

Look at him go! 

Papa chasing after him - NO HANDS!!! 

Mommy chasing after him.. 

On his new Chopper 

Tyler with his biker gear. 

Tyler AKA Darth Vader 

Muscle man with his new tattoo! 

This would be the day of the shark... 

My Angel Baby 

Tyler and mommy in the Bahamas 

Yummy ice cream! 

Our towel elephant 

This picture is hilarious!! 

Tyler at the cruise terminal 

Me and my main man! 

Today was Tyler's baseball awards. Another trophy for the collection. It was pretty uneventful, but he was happy he got his trophy.

Guess who learned how to ride a bike?!?!? You guessed it. Tyler. What a happy, happy event in this child's life. Friday night we went over to my dads house to celebrate Tyler's birthday with my dad, Lilly, Deborah and Mike. My dad got Tyler some wife beater tank tops, Harley tattoos, glasses, gloves and a helmet. Each time he opened the gift my dad had him put the things on - by the end he looked like a total biker dude and he had no idea why. So we went downstairs and my dad had gotten him the Orange County Choppers bike. If you have seen this bike you know how funny it is. It really looks like a motorcycle. It is pretty cool. When Tyler saw it he thought it was pretty sweet. But it was kind of big and Tyler didn't know how to ride a bike. He agreed to sit on it and we pushed him around. We held on to the back of the seat and he peddled. It probably took about 30 minutes and he was off on his own! You should have seen him - he was SO happy! I wanted to keep on riding and riding!

You guys know I am sappy, but I have to fit this in here: When I lived with my dad in Puerto Rico, I was in the 4th grade. He told me that when I was to start school I would ride my bike to school - I don't remember - but I can imagine I looked at him like he was crazy. I told him I didn't know how to ride a bike. He went right out and got me one and taught me that day. I have so few childhood memories, and here is another one - my dad teaching me to ride my bike. How monumental is that he would be the one to teach Tyler too? I was really happy about the whole thing. I mean I have tried to work with Tyler on riding a bike, but he gets so frustrated and he wants no part of it. I think it was awesome that my dad taught him.

Anyway, Tyler was thrilled and he has been riding bikes this whole weekend! We called Scott right away and told him. After Tyler was done talking to him I was talking and Tyler was pulling on my shirt saying, "Is he proud? Is he proud?" Are you kidding me Tyler? We both could not be more proud of you!

I hate that I am putting this last, but in other news - Tyler loved what Deborah got him too! When he opened his gift he said - "This is what I have always been wanting!" That made Deborah happy.

I got an interesting phone call from Charla the other day, Charla is Gregory's mom, she called to ask me if Tyler was switching schools next year. Of course I replied, NO. She said that Tyler was telling his class mates that he wasn't going to that school next year. I never asked Tyler about the call because I forgot to, but the next day he brought it up to me. He said that he told Charla he was changing schools because I said he could!! I told him that I never said that and he replied, "Yes you did, you told me I could go to CCC." (CCC is the school Tyler would be attending in high school!) So I told him he could switch to CCC in the 9th grade! I asked him why he wanted to leave hiss school and he said he had been going there ever since kindergarten and that is too long!! (The kid is in 1st grade!)

Cruise time… where do we start. I am sorry it took so long to post this, but I had to make sure and do it when I knew I had enough time to write about all our adventures! Let me just say this, the cruise was AWESOME! Tyler LOVED it. I mean this child went on the Disney Cruise when he was 3 and he has not stopped talking about it since – you can only imagine how excited he was for this one. The first day on the boat we got on at about 3 and the weather was not super hot, so the pool water was way too cold for my Floridian child! Other kids were swimming, but he was not having it. That night I took Tyler to the Camp Carnival Family party. It was pretty funny because it was the “club” on the boat and they were playing music like that, but there was a whole bunch of kids there. We danced and they played a couple games and then they had the dancing contest… They had the kids against the parents and they chose the best mom, best dad and the best boy and girl. Guess who got the trophy for the best dancing mom???? You guessed it – ME! Tyler was so proud. It was that whole American Idol moment all over again. Tyler didn’t win for best boy, although I truly think he should have, some African American child won whom I have to say danced a whole lot like Michael Jackson. Tyler was dancing up a storm, he’s pretty good. He got this ribbon with a medal on it. It was a fun time.

The second day it took him like an hour but he finally ventured into the water. I have to say for most the trip he swam or ate ice cream. There was an ice cream machine right by the pool and he must have had like 40 ice creams!!! He moved from pool to pool. At first we were by the children’s pool, then he made it into the 4ft pool, and it wasn’t until the last day that he got in the big pool. It was perfect because all us girls just laid out and he swam around.

When we were in Key West, we rented an Electric car and a moped. Tyler loved the moped!! It was so funny to see him on the thing. I was cracking up. The ship got in Key West at 7:30am and left by 2:30pm, so we didn’t really have that much time there. We rode all around, we saw the Southern Most Point, we saw Hemmingway’s house, the Little White House, and we saw a really old cemetery with the graves above ground! We saw the Aids Memorial and all kinds of other things. Vicky had the map and she got us all over that town! After that we shopped all around near the cruise ship. Tyler got some little pirate men and then we went to the Key Lime Pie factory and I have the BEST picture of Tyler from there. You will really laugh when you see it, I will post it soon.

In the Bahamas we went to Blue Lagoon. It was like a Tropical Paradise!! It was so pretty, I just loved it. That was the day that we had probably the best weather of the whole trip, but still not great. The sun was coming in and out. As soon as we got there Tyler got right in the water and was swimming in the crystal blue water. He had his mask and snorkel on and even saw some fish. We decided to snorkel, but the only ones brave enough were me, Vicky and Tyler! (Truth be known, I might not have been brave enough if it wasn’t for Tyler.) The water was FREEZING! When you went to the side of the island to snorkel on you walked out a couple feet through these rocks and then the water got really deep, probably like 20 feet. It was strange because you would be over these rocks and think it was shallow and then when you would get in an open area it was so deep! This was Tyler’s first time snorkeling in the ocean, so all these factors were adding up. Poor little guy was trembling he was so cold. And I think the water depth really got to him. He had never been in water this deep before. So, he was holding on to me for dear life and I thought he was going to drown me. (We both had life jackets on, but you know I am dramatic!) Anyway, we are snorkeling along and he was doing really well. We saw all kinds of fish; clown fish, Dora from Finding Nemo, white fish with blue lips, and a really long ribbonfish. It was so nice, we even saw a gigantic sea urchin! So, here we are snorkeling along and what should we come across? How about a 8 foot shark!! Yes, true story. There was a nurse shark right below us (like 15-20 feet) hanging out. I think it could have been sleeping, because he was just there. I wanted to Tyler to see him, and he did. So here we are in the water with this giant shark and of course some other drunken snorklers, so one really smart guy swam down to the shark and pulled his tail!! The shark just gave a big swat of his tail and stayed exactly where he was, but that was a little scary because I thought that thing was going to come after us! After that Tyler was a little freaked out and wanted out of the water. Smart kid huh? When we took him back to shore that was when we found out the shark was 8 feet long. I guess it is always around there and has never bothered anyone. Vicky took a whole bunch of pictures of it, but I don’t think they turned out too good. Of course once Tyler got out of the water he was telling everyone he saw a shark.

Overall, the trip was a blast. I think Tyler really enjoyed himself. I have some really sweet pictures of Tyler, I will post them really soon.

I was driving home yesterday from work with Tyler in the car and he was in one of his talkative moods. I mean sometimes it is nearly impossible to carry a conversation with this child, but not this day! He was talking up a storm. I LOVED IT! I always try and get all kinds of information out of him during these talk times. So the first thing I asked him about was... Natalie! Ohhh... I asked him if Natalie was still his girlfriend and he said yes. I asked him what he really liked about her and he said, "Well, the thing is, she just has beautiful hair." I bust out laughing. I said what is so beautiful about her hair? He said it was nice because it was long and brown. He also added at the end, "She does have a nice face too." Great. The other day when we were driving home from Jacksonville I said, "Tyler you are too much!" To which he quickly replied, "I know, I am a real ladies man!" How funny is he?

So after the Natalie conversation I asked him who his favorite singer is and he said it was still Brittany Spears. And then he asked me if I knew that she was a lip syncer. I said that I had heard she was, and he asked me what lip syncing was. I told him and then he said he thought it was when you put your mouth on the microphone. What a hoot. He also told me that Ashley (one of his classmates) told him that Brittany Spears had been in jail before for shooting a baby in the head! Where do 1st graders get this info!!!!

So the last funny thing was when I asked him who his favorite boy singer one and he said it was the guy who sings candy shop - so I replied 50 cent? And Tyler goes, "No mom, not the CD! The guy who sings it!! You don't know anything about rap!" So of course I say I think the guys name is 50 cent and he has to call his dad to find out. Imagine the look on his face to find out I was right. SHOCKER.

Amen. Tylers tooth FINALLY came out!! We went on the cruise (I will update you on that in another post) and the whole entire time I was dying for that tooth to come out! Every one of our pictures is with him and the one crazy tooth!! I got him to smile with his mouth closed in a few shots, but mostly it was there! So of course we get home and he goes to school and comes home without his tooth! I could have died! So I ask him how his tooth came and out, "My teacher pulled it out!" What?!? So I asked him why did your teacher pull your tooth out? He said she wanted to. Yeah, well so did I! I find it very strange she pulled his tooth out and he even said it hurt! Is this weird to anyone else?

As for the other front tooth - HISTORY! He went to the dentist yesterday and and dentist took his other front tooth out. Poor guy. It was hurting him after. So, Tyler got $10 bucks from the tooth fairy this week. I hope he doesn't lose anymore teeth anytime soon!