The Goof Ball

Meet Ty.

Ty has the most infectious laugh of anyone I know. I dare you to try not to crack a smile when he starts giggling about something. Sometimes I tease him that when he gets into one of his giggling moods, I could say anything and he would laugh his head off. So then I say something like fire cracker, and he goes into a hysterical laugh for the next 5 minutes. It's pretty funny.

He is not shy or intimidated by anyone. When we go to restaurants or to the library he wants to order for himself or ask the librarian where to find a book. Well unless he wants a Barbie flavored snow cone from Bob's brainfreeze, then he asks me to order it for him.

He makes friends easily and likes to be called Ty Ty Tastic at school. He also enjoys hot lunch from the school cafeteria, even when I beg him to let me make him a cold lunch. I've often wondered if I should be offended by that. I mean if my cold lunch isn't as good as the hot lunches I remember growing up, I must really suck at cooking. We've compromised by letting him choose two days a week to have hot lunch and I make him a lunch the rest of the week.

If Ty could play video games all day everyday he would be in heaven. It all started when I was put on bed rest in the beginning of my pregnancy with Grace and thought it would be a good idea to play Mario together. It may have been a mistake. He was four and thought it was the greatest thing ever, and from that point on was either playing Mario on the Wii, or playing Mario in real life. He told everyone his name was Mario for the next two years.

He also enjoys soccer and tae kwon do. He gets straight A's in school without having to work very hard. He does have to work a little harder on the citizenship stuff. He likes the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books and all things Pokemon. He recently turned 8 and chose to be baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. It was a pretty special day.

He has a soft spot for his mom (most the time) and is a little more defiant with his dad. Although tonight he threw me a curve ball and wouldn't do a thing I asked and got sent to bed. I went in to talk to him about it later and he was doing the poor me, nobody likes me and I'm going to run away bit that I think every kid does at some point in their life. I know I did it. I felt like it was one of those moments in motherhood when I could say something really profound and he would realize how silly those thoughts are and change his attitude. One of those moments he would look back on time and time again and say wow, my mom really knew what she was talking about. Instead I think I got another check on the mommy fail card.

I won't go into all the details but one of the highlights was me saying "If you think life is so much easier and you won't have any jobs to do out on the streets then why don't you go try it out." and he said, "Can you set up the tent and get me a sleeping bag?"

This is my boy. I kind of love him a lot.