Tyler loves dandelions. Anytime we’re playing outside, if he sees one, he high-tails it over to the Taraxacum, picks it and sniffs it. If we’re taking a walk and he’s in his stroller, Tyler will lean out, start pointing and say “Dat dat dat.” Truth be told, this applies to just about any flower, but the only “flower” we grow in our yard is a dandelion.

”Tyler, can daddy smell the flower?”

He will then walk over to me, put the “flower” against my nose and smile wildly when I exaggeratingly inhale through my nose. Of course, Tyler’s fine motor controls aren’t perfect, so he sometimes ends up cramming the deceptively cute weed into my – or Sarah’s – mouth.

Recently, we were all upstairs – in Tyler’s room – for storytime. One of the books we were reading was from the library and involved counting objects. The first page had something like one red apple, and the second page would have two orange fish. Those aren’t exactly what was on the pages, but you get the point. On page four, there was a picture of four flowers; a blue one, a yellow one, a red one, and a purple one.

”Four,” I said. “There are four flowers. One two th—.”

Before I could finish counting the flowers, pointing at each as I went, Tyler placed his nose against the yellow flower on the page and tried to smell it. Adorable.

At an even more recent family gathering with Sarah’s fam, Sarah’s aunt brought a pre-birthday gift for Tyler because she wasn’t sure she’d be able to make it to his forthcoming party. On the top of the newspaper wrapped (family tradition) gift was a giant red bow. In Tyler’s eyes, it was a giant red flower. I actually snapped off a picture of him sniffing it (DSLR cameras rock the house when you’ve got a baby running around).