Whatever you say will be thrown back at you

This is one of those posts that is probably of more interest to Dave and I than all the rest of you but you will probably see these every once in while as I try to document the "little" things. Tyler seems to remember everything and hear everything (except when you ask him not to do something...then he's totally deaf). There are so many times when we have laughed over something we have once said to him that he then turned around and used against us. Of course now I can't remember them but we had a new one yesterday. When showering and getting dressed after swim lessons, Tyler has all kinds of questions about other kids, why they are doing what they are doing, why they are wearing what they are wearing, etc. The best explanation for all these things is that everyone is different and there isn't just one right way to do things. Before I finish the story I need to insert just a little bit about Tyler and clothes. Tyler has always been picky about his clothes. He will only wear certain things and they have to be put on just so. He can love a shirt today and hate it tomorrow. We quickly learned it is easiest to let him pick out his own clothes, no matter how he ends up looking. I learned to only buy neutral colored pants. For the last week or so he has only wanted to wear long sleeve shirts (who cares if it's 80 degrees out) and preferably sweat pants. By midday (after swimming) we are usually able to talk him out of pants and into shorts but he holds fast on the shirt. Now back to the story, yesterday on our way home from swimming I said, "It's getting pretty warm out, maybe we should put on a tshirt when we get home". His response, "It's ok mom, everybody is different. It's ok to wear long sleeves". What could I say to that. I should mention he was down at the park yesterday around 4:00 running like crazy. It had to be close to 80 degrees out and yes, he was still wearing his long sleeve shirt.

Along with the picking out of his own clothes there are socks. Tyler ALWAYS has to be wearing socks. This must by why I can't seem to keep them on Hailey's feet. When he picks out his own socks he almost always comes back with two socks but one from two different sets of socks (see pic). And if two matching shoes aren't handy, he's more than happy to wear mismatched shoes....even if one's a tennis shoe and the other a croc.

My socks, my way

Sometimes I really wish I had the memory of a 3 year old. Their little brains are such sponges and Tyler at least, doesn't seem to forget a thing, ever. About a month and a half ago, we were on our way home from story time and some people were walking along the sidewalk. I don't remember how the conversation steered in this direction but I ended up telling Tyler that another word for "people" out on the road is pedestrian. I told him it was a pretty complicated word and ask him if he could say it. He did. On Monday we were driving on the freeway and passed a foot bridge. Tyler had great interest in this bridge. I was going to tell Tyler that you could also call it a pedestrian bridge but instead I asked, "Do you remember the really long name for people" (fully ready to tell him, reinforcing our previous conversation) when he instantly responded "pedestrian".

A random insert - one of my favorite words that Tyler says "yesternight"