A reading from the book of Tyler...

I believe tonight was Tyler's first real attempt at stalling his nighttime routine. He gave Dennis a hard time at bedtime and was crying a bunch after Dennis left the room, so I thought I'd try to calm him down by rocking with him for just a moment. Well, a minute or two turned into ten (since I was enjoying his sweet little hugs so much!), but I eventually decided it was time to put him back in bed. Unfortunately, when I made a move, Tyler disagreed and started clinging to me and telling me he wanted to sit on the potty. Seriously, what do you do? We're trying our darndest to get him to tell us when nature is calling, so I hated to tell him no.

We went in and sat down (for about the 20th time today ... most attempts successful I'm happy to report) ... and that's when he started to talk ... A LOT! He wanted to count - everything in the room! He wanted me to read a book (I did not!), the note from Grammy and Grandan I posted by the potty for him (I did), and even the tags on the clothes hanging over the shower rod (let it be known that Tyler finds it cool that his parents also wear Old Navy clothes ... "same!" he said) I was just about to call his bluff, when I noticed he could be actually going potty. So, I let him keep talking. He started naming my facial features (and counting them), and when he got to teeth, it went something like this (written as close as possible to how Tyler speaks):

ME: And what are these?
TY: Teef
ME: How many do I have?
TY: (long pause ... looks confused)
ME: Let's just say lots!
TY: Teef ... lots!
ME: Right.
TY: (pause) Teef - no bite!
ME: That's right. We do not bite people with our teeth.
TY: No Marc eever (that's either, and he was referring to his godfather, Marc Smith)
ME: (chuckling) You have a point there ... we should never bite Marc - or anyone for that matter.
TY: No Lorie evver (Marc's wife ... Tyler's godmother)
ME: (laughing, as I see where this is going, we're going to name everyone we know. I'm expecting to hear Emily Smith next) Uh, yep.
TY: (short pause ... then with very wide eyes) No Jesus evver.
ME: (trying to keep my composure) For sure!
TY: Mary evver.
ME: (deciding that he might start naming cartoon characters and we could in the bathroom ALL night, I stop him short) Yep, we should never bit anyone at all - especially Jesus and Mary.

This little boy cracks me up! The good news is that he actually wasn't bluffing. I'll give him an M&M for his good potty work tomorrow ... and based on tonight's conversation I guess we should take him to church as well. Although we'll have to brush up on our praying tomorrow morning. Tyler has now switched to "The End" at the end of the prayer, instead of Amen! :)