“What time is it?”

I get that question a lot. We don’t have a clock in our living room. Unless the television is on, which it isn’t when Tyler is still awake, there is just a single place to check the time. Mounted on a wall, roughly four feet off the floor, sits an EnergyStar electronic thermostat. On the thermostat is a one inch by three inch display, that shows the day, time, and room temperature. The display is so crisp and clear that it’s viewable from a staggering fifteen inches away. I crane my neck to see the display from the floor, where Tyler and I were playing a high stakes game of cat and mouse with a couple of his toys.

“Uhh… eight seventeen.”

For some peculiar, OCD reason, I am unable to give general time to people. At eight seventeen, I’d never say it was a quarter after eight. If someone asks me the time, I tell them exactly the time displayed. Is it just me, or is this common?

Sarah told Tyler (and me) that it was time to start cleaning up, and joined us on the floor to help. Little People, Legos, cars, and farm animals made their way into their respective bins.

“Okay, let’s put the dinosaurs away next,” Sarah offered.

“I count them,” asked Tyler?

We gathered all of Tyler’s miniature dinosaurs and placed them on the upturned lid of the bin we were working with. Tyler picked one up and placed it into the bin.

“One.”

I can’t speak for Sarah, but I was very interested in seeing how this was going to proceed. Tyler can count to ten, and beyond, but tends to skip the number four, going from three to five instead. We’ve been working with Tyler to count slower and more deliberately, placing extra emphasis on four and seven, which he also omits on occasion. Instead of counting to two, then three, before ending my suspense, Tyler decided to work smarter, not harder. He grasped the lid, upon which all the remaining dinosaurs rested, lifted it, and unceremoniously dumped them into the bin.

“All of them.”

Sarah and I both laughed heartily and said, in unison, “One. All of them.”

I’ve written previously of Tyler’s affinity towards older, attractive, women. He has, once again, made his father proud.

Tyler’s Aunt Acey and Uncle Darren (Doo-Dohn, as pronounced by Tyler previous to last week. Sadly, he now says Darren) flew up for the weekend from South Carolina this past weekend. Acey turned 21 last week, so, in addition to visiting family and her “favorite nephew in the whole wide world,” libations were on order for this visit. Obviously, we were in need of a sitter for Tyler, as was Sarah’s sister for her daughter, Weckie (Tyler’s name for her). That sitter came in the form of Weckie’s very pretty Aunt KayKay. She has watched Tyler and Weckie previously, so we felt very comfortable having her do so again.

She arrived Saturday afternoon, shortly after we all (Sarah, her three sisters, their spouses, her parents, me, Tyler, and Weckie) returned from a delicious dinner at a pizza joint. In a very happy, bubbly, and excited voice, KayKay greeted Tyler. He promptly made like Toyota and ran away at a high speed. Once in the house, we warned her that Tyler woke up early that morning and had napped poorly. We predicted to her, correctly, that he would be up past his bedtime. It’s difficult to stick to a normal bedtime in a different house, with a different person. Especially while playing with his cousin Weckie. Basically, we told her that we expected Tyler to be a handful with a side of grumpy thrown in, you know, for good measure.

And lastly, we explained that Tyler has been going through a “shy phase” lately and that it’d take a while for him to warm up to her, if he did at all. It was around this time that Tyler peeked his head out from the room he was hiding in to look at KayKay. Her eyes flicked from mine to his and, flashing a smile at him, asked Tyler if he was being shy. In that moment, I watched my toddler son fall in love. Full on, head over heals, journey to the ends of the world for you, love. Ask me to jump and I’ll ask how high, ask me to poop and I’ll ask what color… Love. His eyes widened and his face broke into an ear-to-ear, heart melting smile. Then, just as quickly, he ducked back into the room and started giggling wildly.

“Or,” I said to KayKay, “you won’t have any issues with him at all.”

The next five minutes was spent with Tyler peeking out at KayKay, smiling like a mad scientist, then hiding once she noticed him (and laughing heartily while safely hidden from view). At one point, he walked up to me and asked, “Where KayKay go?”

I didn’t have to worry about him for the rest of the evening and night. As a matter of fact, Tyler seemed frustrated that I distracted his googly eyes when I tried to give him a hug before leaving.

We had a great time that night. It was strange for me, because I was one of the two designated drivers. It’s quite a different experience to view the bar scene through sober eyes. Upon closing the bar, Darren (the other DD) and I drove all the drunkees back to Sarah’s sister’s house in the two vehicles. Tyler, Weckie, and KayKay were sound asleep. We started a bonfire and continued the festivities, and I was able to imbibe as well at this point, as there was no more driving to do. I was very tired, though, so only had a total of two drinks the entire evening/night/morning. I wasn’t the first, and I wasn’t the last, but I went to bed at four in the morning, leaving the other two guys to ponder life and discuss all the world’s greatest questions. I’m sure they discovered the meaning of life, but they have no recollection of it after waking from their comas.

Sundays are my days to get up with Tyler. Under most circumstances, I have no problem with this. After only two hours and forty-five minutes of sleep, I do have a problem. But it was my cross to bear, not Tyler’s, so I got up and quietly played with him. After some time, he pointed to a pair of shoes and said, “Auntie KayKay shoes.”

“Yes, buddy. Those are KayKay’s shoes. She’s still upstairs sleeping.”

He continued to look at the shoes and whispered, lovingly, “yeahhhhhh.”

I found out later that morning that Tyler had actually woken up two hours earlier. KayKay pulled him out of the pack-and-play crib and brought him to bed with her.

What a stud.

And, a last minute addition to this post… Tuesday night had Sarah, myself, and Tyler sitting at the dinner table. We were eating leftovers for dinner and talking with each other. Seemingly out of nowhere, Tyler looked up at us and said, “Auntie KayKay… booful.” We told Tyler that, yes, KayKay is beautiful, while Sarah started dialing her phone to pass the message along.