A day in the life of..

Let's see, what is new with us? Well Tyler had his First Reconciliation class last Thursday. That is the last class he will have before he actually does it on January 7th! This will be a very big day for him - and for me!! They "recommend" that all the parents participate as well. Oh boy. I am really quite nervous about this. I have not been to confession EVER! Well, at least since the first time. I mean I pray and confess my sins in church but to actually speak them out loud? Goodness gracious this should be something!! Tyler got to take a tour through the confession booth and all that. he doesn't seem slightly phased by this. I guess that is a good thing. He has his prayer memorized and seems ready to go. The woman who teaches the class said we should be making a big deal out of this and treating it like a celebration. She gave us all this big envelope for our children and asked that we have our friends and family write Tyler a letter of get him a card to celebrate this day. I will give them to him on January 7th after his First Reconciliation. Here is an example of what they said the letter should say:

Dear Tyler,
This is a very special day for you. Today you received the sacrament of Reconciliation for the first time. Through this sacrament you will know that Jesus loves us and forgives us, even when we make wrong choices and sin. You will also receive a special gift, called "grace", from God which will help you follow the Law of Love that Jesus gave us.
You have worked hard to learn this sacrament so that you are prepared for this day. I am very proud of you. You are a great example of how Jesus wants us to live our lives.

Really - they gave me that as an example. Feel free to write to him whatever you see fit - but please send me a letter for him. I want him to have a whole bunch from all the people he loves so he knows this day is special for him. You can email them to me or mail them. They really did ask that you not give gifts, just letters. This is also supposed to be a surprise for him - so don't tell him!

What else - Friday morning was his classes little Christmas program and I have to say that it was awesome! It was actually better than the Christmas Program! The whole class told the story of Jesus's birth. Tyler was a Shepherd. He looked so cute. He had 3 lines and they way they did it was they had all the kids lined up for their parts in the begininning and as they said their part they would then move over to the Nativity scene. Tyler had 2 lines to say while he was in the line and then when he moved over to the Nativity scene he had one more. His line started with Joseph swept out the barn... The funny thing was that Tyler had the other duty of holding the microphone until someone over in the nativity scene had a line. Everyone who knows Tyler knows what a day dreamer he is, so every time he was supposed to pass the microphone he woluld be staring off into space and forget. His teacher was right below the stage and would call out his name to remind him. It was the funniest thing because she would call his name and he would come out of the fog and burst out his line! Psst Tyler... "Joseph Swept out the barn!" No, pass the mic! He did this like 4 times! It was a hoot!

What else - Friday night we went to see King Kong with the Limardi's and wouldn't you know that Tyler fell asleep about 4 minutes into it and woke up at the very end. He is so funny. I'm kind of glad he missed it - what a sad movie.

Saturday Max came to town and Tyler spent the day and night with him and Scott. Sunday he came home early and my dad and Lilly came over and we went out to lunch and they finished up his derby car - it looks really cool! We also picked a ton of oranges and tangerines off the tree and made juice!! How home maker-ish is that?! It was really good too! We had a great day. That night we helped Pete pick out a Christmas tree and that's always fun. Tyler tried to pick this one tree: Mom look at this tree I like that one - the leaves are different colors. Me: Tyler, that's because the tree is dead. Tyler: Well than I guess I like dead trees! : ) Really - how funny?

OK, so for the last of his antics... Yesterday morning he woke up and asked me who was picking him up from school and I said I was. He groaned and made this disappointed sound. I said Tyler you know your dad can't pick you up on Monday's anymore. He then said he knew but still seemed bummed so I said, and you know Deborah can't pick you up on Monday's because she works. He still seemed bent out of shape and said well can't somebody pick me up? So I said no, I will pick you up. So, my phone rings at 3:20 and it was Charla from school and she said she had these 2 conniving boys next to her. She said that Gregory and Tyler came up to her and said, "We have a plan!" Of course it involved Tyler going home with them instead of going to after care. Sneaky sneaky. So, when I went o pick up Tyler of course Charla invited us to stay for dinner so Tyler was in heaven! When I got there he asked me:
Tyler - Are you mad at me for going home with Mrs. Limardi?
Me - No, buddy.
Tyler - yeah OK - I just didn't really want to go to after care!

He is something that kid!

Well - I am out of here. I have 2 weeks of vacation to spend with my baby boy - so have a Merry Christmas and very Happy New Year!
I will fill you all in on Santa's arrival when I get back.

Is this picture a hoot?? Here is some background:

Tyler: Mom, can I go and play on the playground?
Mom: No Tyler, we have to get going.
Mom: But first let me get a quick picture of you and your friends.

This was the picture I got. Funny stuff.

Here are the two boys at Tyler's Christmas Program.

Merry Christmas to everyone who reads this. Please know that even though we may not talk every day or even very often that I love you all. Thanks for caring about what Tyler does and loving him. He is such a special boy and he is the tie that binds many of us together. I hope your Holidays are wonderful. Tyler is excited and happy about the Holidays coming up. Just having him around counting down until Christmas and singing Christmas songs is enough to make anyone happy. I am the fortunate one who gets to have him in my life daily. For the rest of you I know you only get to be with him sometimes but I hope that this site makes you feel like you are part of his life daily.

** I know Twix looks a little crazy in this picture but please direct all your comments to Deborah - after all she is his mother - my kid looks cute! : )

Here is the beautiful tree Tyler picked out for us. And also a picture of him decorating it. We had on the Christmas music and had a fun time doing it. Only one small incident: I had to keep reminding Tyler to be very careful not to drop any ornaments because if he did they would break on the tile. He was doing so good being so careful. I handed him an ornament and told him this is my favorite ornament - it was one that my dad made with Tyler to give to me for Christmas. It had a picture of him on it and it was glittery and just pretty. So, I tell him this is my favorite and wouldn't you just know he trips and the ball goes flying and shattered into a million pieces! I almost started crying! Tyler felt so bad already so I tried to hold it in.

At school they had a project where they planted seeds and grew a plant. Tyler's plant didn't exactly grow. I felt so bad for him. He was like the only one to come home with a cup of dirt instead of the plant. He said his teacher told him he watered it too much. I felt bad for the little guy so I told him we would grow his own plant. And we did! I was nervous because really I didn't think I could grow a plant, but together we did it. Before he left for Jacksonville it was already sprouting, but by the time he came back he was so surprised to see how big it had gotten. Here he is with the plant:

Tyler scored 3 goals at Saturday's game! They were against a really good team and they were losing pretty good in the beginning but they came back and won! Tyler was so happy!

This picture is not from that game but here is a picture of him in action!

Tuesday night was Tyler's Christmas Program. I love these things. He was so excited for it, they have been practicing for so long. Of course he had his cheering squad of me, Deborah and Scotty P. They sang 2 songs and Tyler was in the front row right near the middle. He was singing so loud! It was easy to hear his voice from the rest. He did so good! He looked so cute!! After we went out on the blacktop and ate cookies. It was a fun time for him. After that we were going to go out to dinner with Pete and his family and I asked Tyler is he was too tired and he told me, "No, I am as awake as I can be - I am like a ray of sunshine!" Before dinner even came he was out like a light bulb! Is he so cute? The next morning when he woke up I told him I couldn't believe he fell asleep without eating dinner and of course he said he wasn't even sleeping! He always tries to say that he doesn't sleep when he knows he does!

The other night was Tyler's Christmas Program. Deborah agreed to pick Tyler up from school and do his homework with him so that when I got home he would be good to go. So, his homework for Tuesday nights is his spelling notebook. He has to write his words three times each and also write sentences for each one. Tyler tries to make sentences that include as many of the words as possible so he has less sentences to write. He was asking Deborah to help him with this and the words she decided to use were holly and snowman. She called me at work to ask me what holly was. Umm a plant. Oh - good thing I called you because his sentence was going to be, "There was a holly jolly snowman." Good grief!

We got our Christmas Tree last night. I told Tyler in the beginning of the week that we would be getting our tree on Thursday and he has been bringing it up ever since. On Wednesday he says to me, "Yeah tomorrow is our special day!" Of course I didn't remember what he was talking about so I asked why and he said, "because we are getting our tree!!" I love when he gets excited for things because then I get excited too! So, after I got home from work yesterday we bundled up and went out to the Christmas tree lot. It was cold outside! As soon as we walked in Tyler pointed to one tree and said I like this one. Of course I am thinking that he is just picking the first tree he sees so I encouraged him to go in and look around. We walked all through the trees and came back to the original tree from the back side and he said I like this one too! It was the same tree! I guess that was the tree that we are supposed to have. It is perfect! He is so good at picking trees now! I love the tree. We had to have it delivered because Deborah was out on the town and I didn't know if I would be able to do it myself so I figured I might as well have them do it. I normally just put it on top of my car, but I was nervous for all the hassle so whatever. They didn't get there with the tree until Tyler was already asleep so when he woke up this morning he was so happy to see the tree. Tonight we decorate.
Wish us luck.