Hugs, Camping, & Refusing To Feed Himself

19 Months

2 Fridays ago Ty and I spent the majority of the day getting ready to go camping for the weekend.  We were really taking a chance going so early in May, but we lucked out and it was gorgeous weather.  We were going with my whole immediate family and Jack (our honorary “cousin/nephew” – Leigh’s nephew).  One cute thing that happened was that I was sitting on the bathroom floor redoing my toenails.  I had the nail polish remover, the clippers, and new nail polish all spread out before me.  Of course all that Tyson wanted to do was be in the middle of all that!  I was very worried about him spilling any of the before mentioned items (since it has happened before) so I told him that he had to stay out of the bathroom.  So there he was hanging out in the doorway of the bathroom and the hallway.  He did good for a few minutes and then I could tell that it was killing him.  So what did he do?  He walked towards me with his arms wide open for a big hug and climbed into my lap.  It was just so cute!  What can I say?  He knew that I would totally cave for that!  So cute.  As soon as Heath got home, we loaded everything up and headed up to Lincoln, NH.  We stayed at a campground that is kind of legendary in our family.  We had gone there once before.  That time Adam had decided to sleep in a hammock and a bear came into our camp and sniffed Adam all over in the hammock, while Adam pretended to be asleep.  Then the bear had tried to climb into the back of our truck and we had bear claw marks all over it.  So with all the babies we were bringing, we just thought of this campground immediately!! (=  No, it is really a nice place, right on a lake – and we didn’t see any bears (but we heard one – Sean knows the certain sound they make).  The first night it was just the Frosts, Mom & Dad and us.  Devin & Leigh & clan couldn’t come until Sabbath since Leigh had to work on Friday night.  Tyson must have been starving because he ate 2 full hot dogs for supper (along with other things).  He has never done that before.  What a growing boy!  We kept Ty up way too late that night, but he was going strong and playing hard until 11 PM at night.  Then he crashed with us in the tent!  He slept between us in our double sleeping bag (along with the puppies… it was quite a crew).  He slept great, but I barely slept a wink.  We just hadn’t slept that way before and I was worried we would bury him in the sleeping bag.  But he was fine and Ty slept with me in the tent until 9 AM.

Having a private conversation with Poppy

Finley was excited to be camping

Sabbath morning, Heath made Creamed Prosage and I was so excited to eat it.  Until breakfast came and then I had horrible nausea again.  When is this going to end?  It lasted for a couple of hours and then I felt fine.  We hung out on a blanket down by the lake for awhile and then Devin & Leigh came.  It was great to see them!  We had lunch and then Heath and I took a drive to get Tyson to take a nap.  The nice weather was incredible, but it was too hot in the tent for Ty to nap.  We tried it, but we failed.  In the car, Ty went right to sleep and took a good 45 minute nap.  Not as long as normal, but I was desperate for anything.  We had a great meal on Saturday night with the campfire and got to bed a little earlier that night.  I slept great that night, since I realized Ty was fine in the sleeping bag with us.

Ty wanted to pitch to Jack

On Sunday Heath was making another killer breakfast, when the nausea was back again.  I couldn’t eat a bite.  It was terrible.  It lingered quite a while, which was just great since we were trying to pack up all our stuff and get out before 12 PM.  The highlight of my day on Sunday was when I was walking to the bathroom from our campsite and Tyson started crying because I was leaving.  Seriously, he never does this for me.  He cries non-stop whenever Heath leaves but not me.  I was pretty honored! (=  After we had checked out, we hung out at the lake for awhile again and walked over to a rope swing.  Heath and Sean actually went in and Snickers did too!  I still don’t know if she jumped in after Heath or if she fell in… but in she went!  Poor thing.  Late afternoon, we went to a pizza place and then got ice-cream afterwards.  It was Devin’s birthday so we had to celebrate!  He’s an old man at 31 now!  Crazy how time flies.  We all went our separate ways after that and we got home at about 5:30 PM.  It was a really nice time together. 

Resting in the backpack after the walk to the rope swing

On Monday we spent the day unpacking and Ty played hard with his toys.  He always goes nuts for his toys when he hasn’t seem them in a while!  We did run to the pharmacies but just picked up a couple of things.  No great deals were to be had.  On Monday night we babysat Finley while her parents went to see “The Hunger Games.”  We don’t know what got into Finley, but she pretty much screamed the entire time they were gone.  Absolutely nothing worked.  It was terrible.  She was back to the colicky Finley she used to be.  The only thing Shannon could come up with is that she gave Finley tofu for the first time that morning.  So maybe she has a soy intolerance.  Hopefully she’ll grow out of that.

The one second of solace with Fin that night! 

 

On Tuesday I think Ty was tired out from our weekend camping… so he took a 3 hour nap!  It was incredible.  I love it when he does that!  He’s doing a weird thing right now.  He is refusing to feed himself.  Not that he was doing it completely, but we would practice at it.  He would hold the utensil and I would help guide him.  Now as soon as I even try to have him hold the spoon or fork, he screams.  Back to that screaming again.  Most kids at this age insist on doing everything themselves, why doesn’t he want to do it? 

How could this little angelic face be capable of such screaming?

On Wednesday I worked and nothing was new to report.  But I did forget to tell a crazy story that happened to me last week.  I have been taking Unisom (a sleeping aide) that helps with nausea in pregnancy.  Well, Heath told me, “You have been beating me up in your sleep.”  I guess I have been screaming and hitting him during the night.  OK, that’s weird.  Then I remember that I was having a very vivid dream that Tyson was in bed with me.  I dreamt that he slid off the bed and was crawling across our floor.  Why I dreamt he was crawling when he doesn’t do that anymore, but I did.  I freaked out in my dream that he was going to fall down the stairs because the gate was open.  So in my dream I was crawling after him and yelling at him to “Stop.”  My screaming woke up Heath, who started yelling at me, and I ended up waking up from my dream.  I was in our hallway, by the gate, crawling on my hands and knees.  That is how I woke up.  I could have fallen down the stairs!  I used to sleepwalk occasionally when I was little, but this was a bit ridiculous.  I know they say that this can happen when you take sleeping pills, but I am too scared to stop taking it, because I think it really has been helping with the nausea.  So we’ll see if this crazy behavior continues!  

On Thursday it was a low-energy day.  I couldn’t seem to muster up enough energy to do much.  Shannon and Fin came over and we watched the American Idol finale – we were both very happy that Phillip won!  Then we went out to Concord for our Thursday night dinner.  We let Sean pick the venue, since it was his birthday on Saturday.  He chose this Chinese buffet and it was really good.  They had a ton of stuff and Tyson ate very well.  He fell in love with Egg Drop Soup.  I’m telling you, that kid is just like me in some ways.  Tyson and I could both live off soup.   Well that's about it.  Have a great week!

Tyson "driving" the truck - one of his favorite things to do

A Swim, A Hike, Screaming, OCD & Laundry Mishap

18 Months & 3 Weeks Part II

For some reason when I was behind 3 weeks while on vacation, I think I counted his age incorrectly.  I am writing the blog on his 19 month birthday – so last week he was definitely 18 Months & 3 Weeks, but I wrote that last week… so I was messed up.  Sorry for the confusion! 

2 Fridays ago was a busy day!  I had my 12 week OB appointment, so Ty and I (with Shannon and Finley) headed down to Manchester.  We went to Lots for Tots thrift store first, ran into the mall for a quick stop, and went to Taco Bell for lunch.  Ty is now able to eat the entire “Cheese Roll-up” (just like a cheese quesadilla) by himself.  Very impressive.  Then we headed over to my OB appointment.  Shannon was nice enough to stay in the waiting room with Tyson and Finley while I went in to see my doctor.  My blood pressure was 88/58, which is pretty low, but they said it was great.  I have gained 4.5 pounds, which I think is quite a bit in a month, but she was very happy with that too.  I was happy to hear that, though, since I have been so sick.  It took her forever but she was finally able to get the baby’s heartbeat (in the 150’s) and there is just nothing like that in the whole world!  I was able to get Heath on the phone, so he could hear it too!  My doctor said, “This one is a wicked squirmer.  It was moving all over the place, that’s why it took so long to find the heartbeat.  It wouldn’t sit still!”  She came out to see Ty, since she hadn’t seen him since he was just born and it was so cute!  He had been giving Shannon a run for her money out in the waiting room, but was good as gold when the doctor was there, thank goodness.  He even slapped her five!  Well, after all of that we headed to the grocery store on the way home.  I finally convinced Shannon (germaphobe) to let Finley ride like a big girl in the grocery cart, after Shannon cleaned it off with the wipes for about 5 minutes.  It was so cute!  Finley thought that she was queen bee.  Kicking her legs and smiling non-stop.  Adorable.  So we went our separate ways (for about an hour) once we got back to my house.  We had to wait for our husbands to get home and then we were going to my parent’s house for swimming and supper.  We swam first and even I went in!  Tyson did much better in the pool; he actually appeared to enjoy it this time!  Unfortunately I don’t have any pictures to show of this adventure, since I had left my camera at home.  Now my small pocket camera is having trouble with the memory card, it says it is “locked” and won’t do anything.  I guess I have to buy a new card.  Anyways, after swimming we went back to the Fairway and had supper.  It was scrumptious.  It was a Mother’s Day get together with Mom since I had to work on Sunday and Shannon was going to be in Maine.  We gave her her gifts and flowers.  She appeared to have a nice time.  Devin and Leigh couldn’t come because Leigh was working, unfortunately.  We missed them!  Well, we got home at about 10:30 PM, just a tad bit past Ty’s bedtime, but he did fall asleep in the car, at least.

Picture courtesy of Dad's iPhone

A little blurry and our heads are cut off... but it's a picture of my boy and I!! (=

On Sabbath I had to work and Ty and Heath stayed home.  Heath had plans to go to Conway to church in the AM, but Ty was tired out from the day/night before and didn’t wake up until after 9 AM and Heath didn’t have the heart to wake him up.  Heath, Ty, and the puppies went hiking with Shannon, Sean, Finley, and my mom (Dad was on-call).  Ty had a great time in the backpack and they said it was a nice hike with great views of Squam Lake.  After their hike, they stopped at the lake since, of course, Sean had to go swimming.  He loves to swim in sub-zero water.  He’s crazy.  It was a very hot day – in the 80’s, but it had been freezing lately, so the water was super cold.  Heath flirted with the idea of going swimming, but he said he changed his mind right away when his foot went completely numb as soon as it hit the water!  But that didn’t stop Tyson!  Ty had been on the water’s edge, when I guess he couldn’t take it anymore, and just starting walking into the lake!  Got all of his sneakers wet and got up to his knees before Heath grabbed him!  What a rascal.  I guess he got brave after his big swimming experience the night before! 

On Sunday, I worked again and Heath and Ty headed over to the Edwards for Mother’s Day.  He took his mother out to breakfast and then had her babysit Ty, while the boys went ATVing all afternoon.  Nice guy, huh?  Of course it’s probably about the only thing Sonia would want for Mother’s Day… is to spend time with Tyson!  On the way home from work, I stopped at the pharmacies (told the boys not to rush home) and only got a few deals.  Nothing too earth-shattering.   Pantene shampoo & conditioner for $1 and 8 boxes of Hot Tamales at Rite Aid for free.  When I got home, I had a beautiful bouquet of flowers waiting for me with a card from Tyson that read, “I love you Mommy.”  I couldn’t help but crying, since I can’t wait for the day that he actually says those words to me.

On Monday, we spent the day picking up after the weekend most of the day.  One thing I have to mention that I don’t think I’ve talked about is Tyson’s screaming.  He has been doing this for a couple of weeks, I just have forgotten to talk about it.  It has gotten pretty bad, though.  Tyson has a short fuse.  I wonder where he gets that from – between Heath and I – he did not have a chance.  But his impatience is just terrible.  One of his favorite things to do is to push his ATV all over the house and run it into things at full blast.  He will hit the couch and say, “Boom!”  He hits the kitchen cabinets and goes, “Boom!”  He just loves to do this.  Of course he tries to hit the dogs with it, too – but we are working on that one.  Anyways, what always happens is that he can’t seem to make the corner just right – he won’t have it angled right and he will get stuck.  He will try to go around the table, but get hung-up on a chair.  So at this point, he starts screaming.  And I mean he is screaming at the top of his lungs like he is being murdered.  The first few times he started doing this, I dropped everything and came running, thinking that I would find him bleeding from falling or something.  No, the child is completely fine, but is just frustrated.  The same thing happens when he is playing with the tupperware.  He has graduated from just emptying out the tupperware cabinet, to trying to fit the tops onto the bottoms.  Well, of course he will get some that just will not fit exactly right… and here comes the screaming.  I’m really not sure what to do with this.  I have told him that he is the boy who cried wolf.  I have told him that when he is really hurt, I am not going to come running because he screams like this all the time.  I do go and check on the situation, but when it is just a frustration scream, I tell him to “Work it out, Ty.  Figure it out.”  I have showed him how to back up his ATV and steer it differently… that has helped a little bit, but does not take care of the problem completely.  I mean, what do you do?  Do you punish a child for screaming out of frustration?  It is inappropriate behavior, but I do feel bad because, right now, it is his only means of communicating.  He can’t say, “Help, Mama.  I’m stuck.”  Every time he does this, I actually say those words just in case it sticks and he starts talking… but I’m not really sure what to do with this behavior.  Any ideas out there?  One of the reasons why I think he screams like this is that he is a perfectionist and has OCD, like me.  This became clear on Monday, when I was loading his hamper.  I was going through the clothes we had gotten at the thrift store on Friday… and I was throwing clothes into the hamper.  Ty was across the room, in the doorway, playing with some toys.  I had thrown a pair of pants into the hamper and I had not hit it very well.  Each one of the pant legs were sticking out of the hamper – I was going to fix it but was finishing the bag I was sorting first.  Well, Ty saw this in the doorway, dropped his toys, and came right over to the hamper and put the pants in correctly – so that nothing was sticking out of it!!!!  Really?  His OCD must be pretty bad, too!  Poor guy!  Well, when Heath got home on Monday night,  Ty and Heath took me out for Mother’s Day (a day late) to the OG.  We hit up a few stores too, so it was a fun night.  Thank you boys!

Having one of his screaming frustrated moments

On Tuesday, I just felt like chilling out, but Shannon guilt-tripped me into going to Salem, NH with Mom for a shopping trip.  We were all looking for dresses for Ricky’s wedding that is coming up in about a month.  What a wasted trip, I should have stuck with my gut.  All of us struck out.  It was just terrible.  Ty wouldn’t nap on the way down and only took a small one on the way back.  Oh, one thing that was sad was that Mom had decided to take Tyson on a Merry-Go-Round in the mall.  Unfortunately, Ty cried through the whole ride – he was scared to death.  Really?  I tried to get a picture of this, but that was when I found out that my memory card was locked, so that was a bummer.  Again, not a ton of pictures this week.  When we got home from Salem, I ran around like crazy doing laundry.  I was so careful when I went through Tyson’s hamper, because he loves to throw random things into his hamper and I didn’t want to wash anything.  I removed 2 books, a mini-tractor, and one of his faux-crocs.  Unfortunately, the other croc must have been stuck in a piece of clothing because I ended up washing it and drying it!  I didn’t realize there was a problem, until I brought it back upstairs to find its “mate.”  The dryer had shrunk it at least 2 sizes!!!  I had just bought them for our cruise and now I have to buy another pair!  What is frustrating is that I went through the whole hamper to avoid this very scenario! 

I guess rubber/plastic and dryers don't exactly mix

On Wednesday, Ty slept until nearly 9 AM in his crib, which meant that I didn’t get to say good-bye to him before work, so that stunk.  I didn’t get to see him the whole day, since he is in bed when I get home.  I think he was tired out from our busy day the day before.  What can you do?  I got exciting news when I was at work.  For nurse’s week, there was a raffle and I won a Kindle Fire!!!!  I never win anything at all, and this is amazing.  It costs $200!!!  The very sad thing is that I had just bought my Kindle the week before and, this is terrible to say, but I don’t actually need it.  The Kindle Fire is just like a tablet (like my Ipad) but smaller.  The Kindle Fire is not the device you want to read books on (because it is color and has a glare).  I am probably going to sell it because I just don’t see us using it.  It’s such a shame – I am embarrassed.  It just shows that we are blessed – we literally have everything we need.

On Thursday, Ty did a few cute things.  For one thing, he was daydreaming non-stop while he was eating his meals.  I seriously had to keep waving my hand in front of his face to get him to come back to reality!  I mean, he does this sometimes, but on Thursday it was out of control!  When it was just about time for his nap, we were in his bedroom, putting his clothes away… when I asked him, “Are you ready for your nap?  Are you ready to go to sleep?”  He went right over to his crib and tried to climb up onto the base of the crib!  It was so cute!  He has never done that before.  He actually wanted to go to sleep!  I couldn’t believe it.  Another thing that happened was so funny.  After he had taken his nap, I was getting him changed into his clothes on our bed.  He looked up at our light and pointed.  Now, he has said, “light” a bunch of times, but he just appears to have no interest whatsoever in talking right now.  He won’t even try to imitate us now!  It is so frustrating.  Well, I pointed to the light and said, “That’s a light.  Can you say “light?”  I got close to him and exaggerated my tongue/mouth movements to show him how to say it.  He got this wicked determined look on his face – like he was concentrating so hard!  My heart just skipped a beat and I got so excited.  I thought, “He’s actually going to try to say light again!  Yes!!!!”  But my hopes were dashed when his determined look only meant gas, and he farted.  I couldn’t believe it!  I couldn’t help it, I busted out laughing so hard, since I was anticipating the word so much… and all I got was a toot.  Tyson laughed and laughed himself.  He always laughs when he toots.  He just thinks it’s the funniest thing in the world.  Well, I talked to my pregnancy-buddy in the afternoon, Miss Kelly Conrad.  The poor thing is still throwing up 6-7 times a day, despite taking Zofran every day.  I tried to give her hope and said that I had been feeling great for the past 2 weeks, so hopefully she will be over the worst soon!  Well, I think I jinxed myself.  We were going to the Mexican restaurant with Adam that night and as soon as we pulled our car into the restaurant – the nausea hit.  Could it be a worse time?  I had been feeling so great, but I must have been bragging too much and I got brought down to earth.  Not fun.  The only blessing is that Tyson was very good again in the restaurant and didn’t act up.  But about 2 weeks ago when we had gone there, he had eaten almost all of Heath’s cheese enchilada… so I got him a side order of a cheese enchilada this time… and wouldn’t you know, he would not touch it!!!!  So frustrating.  He wouldn’t eat anything.  He had eaten a ton for lunch, so I didn’t stress out about it, but why does he do this?  He will devour something at one time, but a week or two later, try to give it to him again and he will straight out refuse it.  There is no rhyme or reason, I swear.

He is obsessed with my (regular) Kindle

He got it open!  Success!

Caught in the act!  Doesn't he look a bit subdued?

One of his new favorite things...walking around in my slippers

Well, that’s more than enough for this time.  Have a great week!    

Bed Climber,Adele-Dancer,Roseola & No More Brace!

18 Months & 3 Weeks

Last Friday we finally had a day with Shannon and Finley!  Since we had gotten back from vacation, Shannon had worked Tuesday and Thursday and I had worked Wednesday, so we hadn't been able to get together yet.  Finley and Tyson are really cute together now.  They just smile and get so excited to see each other!  We didn't do too much, we got caught up on American Idol and had lunch together.  In the afternoon, I realized horrors of horrors... Tyson had figured out how to climb up onto our bed.  Our bed is very high.  We have the dog crate right beside the bed (so the dogs can jump up on it and get on the bed).  So he must have seen the puppies using the crate to get on the bed, so he decided he would do it too.  Up he went right on the crate and then pulled himself onto the bed.  I tried to outsmart him and move the crate, but he just drags the crate wherever I move it and the proceeds to get on the bed again.  Maybe I should put the crate on top of the bed… yeah, that should work.  Bottom line is Tyson is determined to take another big fall and break his other clavicle.  On Friday night, we had cauliflower soup and homemade bread and Ty just loved the soup.  I don't know if he has ever had cauliflower before, but he couldn't get enough of it!

Showing off more of his climbing skills

On Sabbath, I had to work a random day.  One of the nurses had worked for me the previous Sunday (when we were on vacation), so I had to work her Saturday 10a-10p.  Heath had gotten a cold (probably on the plane) and had been suffering pretty hard for a few days.  He and Ty laid low at home, while I slaved away at work.  I got home very late that night - I missed my regular 7a-7p hours on the weekend.  I didn't get to put Ty to bed again.


On Sunday, I was off.  The three of us went to the diner for breakfast/lunch.  Well, Heath and Ty got breakfast and I got lunch.  We got talking with a guy at the restaurant that had broken his clavicle too and he proceeded to show us his grossly deformed clavicle.  Great, Ty probably will end up being deformed too.  My poor little guy.  Afterwards, we ran to Home Depot for a couple of things and went home.  Ty took his nap and Heath got working.  He was doing the spring clean-up of the yard and he worked on the bathroom as well!  After Ty woke up, Ty and I headed to the pharmacies and the grocery store.  We got a killer deal on Cheerios (3 of the large boxes for $0.75 each) and a few other things I can't remember.  Sunday night, after putting Ty down to sleep, we watched "We Bought a Zoo."  It was a really good, family, feel-good movie.  I would definitely recommend it.


On Monday, I could not stand my house another minute.  I had to do a full cleaning.  It had not been done (again) for about 6 weeks. I had told myself that I would never let it go that long again, but then I had been feeling so incredibly miserable with the pregnancy that I did not care at all.  There was not any way that I could have mustered up enough strength and energy to do it a few weeks back.  Unfortunately, I decided to clean the house on a very beautiful day.  I guess I should have looked at the weather forecast, since it was rainy the rest of the week.  Tyson was such a good boy and played hard with his toys, while I ran around like a chicken with my head cut off.  The good thing is that I was getting rewarded after I finished cleaning.  Heath and I were going to go to the movies again.  I didn't write about it last week, but I had read the first two books of the "Hunger Games" series while on the cruise (thanks Corey and Leigh for making me).  I had devoured those books.  I stayed up until 1:30 AM every night reading because I was completely obsessed with them.  I finished the 2nd book and ended up spending $20 in an airport bookstore to buy the last book because I wanted to read it during our layover!  I had finished the last book on Saturday night and it was all that I was thinking of.  So I was psyched that it was still playing at our little theatre!  Shannon said she would baby-sit, which was great.  We dropped off Ty at their house and headed off.  The movie was great.  The books are always better, but I felt the adaptation was quite good.  Heath really liked it.  Shannon and Sean are reading the books now together aloud, so I will be baby-sitting for them probably next week while they go to the movie!  We went to pick up Ty after the movie and we were shocked to see Shannon walking around with him, binky in, looking like he was ready to go to sleep.  Ty usually goes to bed at 8:30 or 9:00.  It was only 9:30 and he looked exhausted.  Normally, he will play non-stop until even 10 PM without slowing down.  So this should have been my first clue.

OK... I hardly took any pictures this week... so you get to see some more cruise pics.  In this one, he could barely keep his head up during dinner!

My definite second clue was that Tyson was up screaming from 3 AM until 6 AM that night.  I could not calm him down, I tried everything.  He was on fire - a definite fever, but I didn't want to aggravate him, so I didn't check his temp - just gave him Tylenol.  Finally he fell asleep after 6 AM (me being an idiot had gone to bed at 1 AM, so I had had only 2 hours of sleep so far).  We slept until about 10:30 AM.  He didn't have a fever at that point, so I thought it had to be his teeth.  But then he wouldn't eat breakfast.  I mean, you know he has to be feeling really crummy when he refuses to eat his Cheerios and waffles!!  He drank his milk and had yogurt, but that was it.  Same thing at lunch - except he only ate some bread and a couple bites of soup.  He threw his pineapple on the floor, which he absolutely adores.  Then he spiked another fever of 102.3 in the afternoon.  Poor buddy.  It was weird, he wouldn’t eat and he kept having fevers, but he would still play and play like normal.  Well, until early evening, when I was trying to make supper.  That was a nightmare.  Constant whining and sobbing, non-stop.  I was emotionally drained by the time bedtime came around.  I was scared to death that he would be doing the scream-fest again, when I had to work the next morning... but he didn't.  He did cry once but went right back to sleep.

On Wednesday, I felt terrible leaving him sick with my mother and was tempted to call-out, but he didn't have a fever when I left, so I headed on out. Ty initially ate breakfast well, but then wouldn't eat lunch for my mom.  Then he spiked a fever of 103.2 at about 2 PM.  But despite that, my mom said he did one of the cutest things ever in the afternoon.  My mom loves the singer, Adele.  She always plays Adele on my Ipod player when she baby-sits on Wednesday.  She had it blasting, when Tyson started dancing to it.  And not just moving his feet (like the running man), but started spinning in circles.  And he did it over and over!  She couldn't help but join in and they danced together.  She said it was quite a moment between the two of them!  How cute!  What was terrible is that we got devastating news from our church that day.  One of our members died early that morning.  She was a regular, healthy person (someone who had beaten Thyroid cancer) in her 40-50’s – who had gone to the ER for what they thought were kidney stones the night before.  But apparently she had a massive infection that spread into her blood and she ended up going into cardiac arrest.  It was such a shock.  So senseless.  How could something that seemed so minor turn into this?  It was a very sad day for our church, but her family…  I just can’t imagine.  She had a husband and 3 adoptive children.  Please keep them in your prayers. 


Ty slept well on Wednesday night and did not a fever in the AM, but he had been spiking them in the late afternoon and evening… so I said enough was enough I have to take  him to the doctors.   I wanted to be sure that he didn't have an ear infection.  I was bummed though, because Mia had a school program and we were going to go see her.  They were singing all Beatles songs, no less.  But I couldn't go to the program without knowing what was going on with Ty.  So we had to miss it!  My mom went and said it was fabulous.  Ty got his appointment and the doctor thought that he probably had the spring virus of Roseola that had been going around. The kid will have high fevers (between 102-104) for about 3 days and then will break out in a rash.  Usually the kid feels pretty good and you wouldn't even know they were sick.  Then when they get the rash, they are no longer contagious.  Well, wouldn't you know... Ty broke out in the rash on Thursday night and it was worse on Friday.  But it doesn't itch, so he could have cared less.  But where is he catching all these viruses from??????  The one good thing that happened at the appointment is that the doctor said he could stop wearing the figure 8 brace!  She did a bunch of tests and Ty was using his right arm so well, and he didn’t cry when we picked him up… so he passed!  But she did tell us that the clavicle would look terrible for about 3-4 months and then the lump should go away.  We’ll see.  Anyways, we went out to eat with my parents, Sonia, Adam, and the Frosts on Thursday night at the Thai restaurant.  Tyson acted absolutely horrible again.  What is going on with him?  I took him outside, to read him the riot act, when I looked up and there was the most beautiful rainbow I had seen in a long time.  Let's just say I forgot all about why I was mad at him and oohed and aahed over the rainbow with Ty.  I guess I need to stay more focused!  After supper, we ran to Staples and I got a Kindle with my birthday money.  Only 9 months late!  But I am so excited.  I have got the love of reading back after reading the "Hunger Games."  Well, I think that is about all of the news for our week!  Have a good one!  Here's some random pics from the cruise.

2nd Cruise, 1st Fracture, "Um" & Alien Confirmed

18 Months, 18 Month & 1 Week, 18 Months & 2 Weeks

It is always hard to get back in the swing of things after being gone on vacation… and getting the first blog out is always tough.  It will be better next week! 

So 3 weeks ago, we spent the majority of our time getting ready to go on our trip!  I really can’t recall anything else or anything major that happened with Tyson.

Onto our vacation… we had a really good time!  We went on a cruise with Heath’s parents and Heath’s cousin, Joel (who had never cruised before).  We did have a few hiccups along the way, but it makes it interesting!  We left for Boston on Friday afternoon and barely made our 9 PM flight.  We had trouble with both of our flights coming and going with our boarding passes not printing out and them not accepting us checking our car seat (at first).  But we made it!  Ty did fairly well overall on the flights.  We did have to do some walking around and some bribing of the munchies (which is his new nickname, by the way… “Munchie”, since he could munch on snacks all day long if he could), but we got through it.  One of the first hiccups was missing our shuttle bus to our hotel at nearly 1 AM.  We eventually got to our hotel to find out that we had smoking rooms.  Long story, but I had booked the rooms with our credit card points and it does not guarantee you non-smoking rooms, basically you get whatever is left… and they were “completely” full.  Well, we were able to finagle one non-smoking room so Tyson didn’t have to breathe in the smoke.  I definitely will never book a hotel with my credit card points again.  Then our hiccups continued when we got up in the AM, ready to get to the cruise ship.  I had called a couple of weeks back and had found the cheapest taxi around, got a quote, and called them for a pick-up.  They told me that they weren’t running in our area that day and couldn’t come.  So we booked another taxi and proceeded to wait for them for 1 hour and 40 minutes.  I am not exaggerating.  We called a couple of times, but they said that they had our reservation and were very busy and never could give us an ETA.  We finally broke down and paid the $11 per person for the shuttle from the hotel, since we were so desperate.  It would have been $15-20 total for two taxis, but what can you do?  It was just ridiculous.

Tyson can't believe that we actually made it on the ship!

First day on the ship with Grammy

Really quick… just the other ridiculous things that happened...first of all, our weather wasn’t great.  Our first stop was in the Bahamas – Princess’ private island.  It was pouring rain and there were 7 foot seas, so they would not release the tender boats to go to the island.  So they cancelled our stop.  That was a bummer.  The worst bummer of the trip was that on Wednesday (the day we arrived in Aruba), Tyson decided that he was Superman and tried to fly off the bed.  I am not joking.  I was sitting on the bed with him, when he flew right over my legs.  I tried to catch him, but I couldn’t, and he fell off the bed, landing on his right shoulder.  After some consoling, he seemed fine, so we went to breakfast.  That’s when we noticed that he wasn’t using his right arm at all.  We brought him into the medical center, where 2 different doctors examined him.  Tyson is so stoic with doctors.  He never cries for his shots.  So he was very quiet and let them do every range of motion test you can do on a person.  They both thought that nothing was broken and that he  just sprained something in his shoulder area.  We brought him back the next day for a recheck, since he was still not using his right arm.  Again, the same thing… nothing seemed broken, so they didn’t recommend an Xray.  It was not until we had gotten off the ship on Saturday, that all of a sudden, Tyson had a big lump over his right collar bone.  It was pretty obvious then that it was broken.  I still don’t totally understand why he had the lump 3 days later.  He didn’t fall and reinjure it, so either there was so much swelling that you couldn’t see or feel the lump or because he sleeps on his stomach… did direct pressure to it cause it to worsen?  Not sure.  But in any case, my poor little man broke a bone.  He was pretty quiet that first day (Ty and I stayed on the ship and rested and didn’t even set foot on Aruba, unfortunately), but otherwise it has not slowed him down in the slightest!  He plays just as hard as he ever does.  He knows where his “booboo” is and points right to it when asked. 

A little subdued on the bed (we regressed quite a bit on this trip with binky unfortunately)

Despite the fracture, Ty had a great time.  He just loved looking at everything and pointing at everything.  He has started to do “Ohhhh…. Ohhhh” when he really thinks something is cool.  He started imitating a few more words when asked, which was good.  We had bubbles in one of our elevators and he said, “bubbles” when we asked him.  We figured out on his trip that he is obsessed with birds.  Basically, anything in the air… because when we came home, he went “Ohhh… ohhh…” and pointed at a black fly!  He tried to imitate some of their sounds and would go “Caw…caw.”  After the cruise, we went to the Everglades for a day and took an airboat ride.  We saw a bunch of peacocks at the Everglades park and Ty just loved them.  He called him “cockcocks!” (=  So cute.  What else happened with him?  We did have a bit of trouble with him falling asleep for bedtime and naps with us in the room with him.  I figured out a plan and kicked Heath out for the falling asleep period.  I would put him down like regular and then pretended I was leaving the room – actually opened and closed the door… and then I went and sat by the bathroom (reading with my headlamp) until he fell asleep.  It worked like a charm!  It just took a bit to figure that out!  Oh, his newest word he uses ALL THE TIME!  We were trying to get him to say, “Yum” – when he ate something that he liked.  He kind of drops the “y” and says, “Um… Um.”  But he will say, “Um, um, um” when he sees something he wants.  It’s pretty cute. 

Loving the pink and purple ATV in the kids area

Playing a little mini-golf!

Getting his feet wet in the kiddie pool (can you believe it said that no diapers "of any form" would be allowed in the pools?  Not even swim diapers!!!  Crazy.)

Enjoying the airboat ride - we got to see 10 alligators!

What do they say about the best laid plans?  We had tried to plan it out perfectly to do “Movies Under the Stars” on that Thursday night on the ship.   It’s a really cool feature that Princess cruises have.  It is a ginormous movie screen on the top deck that plays movies.  So you sit back with the sea breeze blowing through your hair and watch a movie “under the stars.”  It is fun.  Of course Ty is not watching TV officially yet and there is no way it would hold his attention that long anyway… so we first thought we couldn’t do it with him.8  But then we figured that we would go to the late showing at 10:15 PM.  So around 8:30 PM, I headed back to the room and went to put Ty down.  Heath and the rest of the crew would save us seats and once Ty was good and asleep – we would be able to pick him up and just hold him while we watched the movie.  When Ty is asleep, he is out.  You can pick him up and move him and he stays right asleep.  Well, it just happened to be that he had a HORRIBLE time going to sleep that night.  I don’t know what it was.  I tried the trick I had been doing and nothing worked.  He only fell asleep about 15 minutes before we had to go to the movie.  He actually did stay asleep through picking him up and walking all the way to our seats.  Heath made an error in judgment, though.  He tried to make a little “bed” between his legs and lay him down there.  As soon as he laid him down between his legs, a gust of wind came up and woke him right up!!!!  All that planning down the tubes!!!!  So there was Tyson, wide awake, watching “War Horse” with us until 11:30 PM at night!  After an hour he actually did fall asleep again and stayed asleep this time!

We had been on Princess before and had loved it.  We weren’t as impressed this time with the food, but it was OK.  My Dad thinks that we are becoming “cruise snobs” – maybe that is actually the problem!  No, it was just difficult with a vegetarian baby.  They have a kids cruise menu, but it was terrible.  They did not have the usual staples of mac n’ cheese, grilled cheese, or pizza that a vegetarian kid lives on, when they go out to eat.  They only had hamburgers, hot dogs, and spaghetti and meatballs etc.  One night I got desperate and got fish sticks for Ty.  He wouldn’t touch them.  Poor Ty lived on pasta and fruit.  Oh, and bread!  He was so funny – we would get to our table in the dining room and most of the time there would be bread in baskets waiting for us there.  Ty would look for it right away and start going to town!  A couple of times we got to the table and there wasn’t any bread yet.  Ty would point at the empty table and whine.  Funny, but the whining is annoying.  A couple of funny stories about food… one night we asked our waiter (from India, I think) if they would make us a grilled cheese for Tyson.  He looked at me funny, but said that he could do that.  Soon he brought out the grilled cheese.  2 slices of melted cheese on a plate!!!!  And he told me that they couldn’t grill it on the grill, because it would have just stuck to the grill – so they put it in the microwave! (=  I wasn’t going to even make it an issue, but he could tell from the look on my face that it wasn’t what I was expecting.  After an explanation of how to make a grilled cheese, Tyson got it!  But I didn’t try that again.  The last night the menu was doubly bad and I really didn’t want Tyson eating fettucine alfredo again, so I asked our waiter if they could get Ty a piece of cheese pizza.  He said he had to ask the maitre d, but the maitre d said, “No.”  I couldn’t believe it.  So when the waiter told me that, I calmly said that we would go get one ourselves.  So off Heath went, got a piece of pizza, and brought it back into the dining room.  We couldn’t believe that one! 

He is just like Poppy and can't get enough of watermelon!

Happy with another one of his favorites... milk!

I’m sure I’m forgetting a hundred stories, but this blog can’t go on forever.  Last week consisted of us unpacking, doing laundry, and getting back into the swing of work.  Our first order of business was to take Ty to the doctors first thing on Monday to check out his collar bone.  Poor thing had a tough time having the Xray done.  I had forgotten that I wouldn’t be able to hold him because of the pregnancy – so two people had to hold him down as he screamed.  It was terrible, but he calmed right down afterward.  He has to wear this figure 8 brace to hold his shoulders back to keep the collar bone aligned.  He doesn’t fight it at all and has been using his right arm much more now!  He has to wear it for 3 weeks and then will have a recheck done.  The lump still looks pretty bad - I’m afraid it’s always going to be like that.  But we’ll see...

As soon as we had stepped foot into the house on Sunday night, he went right for his ATV!  I think he missed his toys!

His splint

Front view... Heath calls him his "little football player"

Does not slow him down in the slightest!

Putting clothes away

Still smiling though!

One exciting thing that happened last Wednesday is that I went to see my friend in the ultrasound department after my shift.  So I got to see the little bugger!  I was so bummed that I wouldn’t have an ultrasound until 18-20 weeks, so Heath said that I could go ahead without him.  I felt bad, but I was able to take videos of the ultrasound on my phone to show Heath when I got home.  The baby was moving like crazy and we could see that it has 2 arms and 2 legs and it waved at us!  It was so good to see!  The best part is to see the heart beating.  It just makes me feel like everything is going to be OK when I see that!  I had felt so good on our cruise with the nausea, (except during the rough flights on the way back) but then I had two rough days when I got home.  So I don’t think I am out of the woods yet.  But close! 

Our little alien

Just a foot!

I think that is about all.  If I remember something really important, I’ll add it in next week!  It’s good to be back.  I have heard many comments to get this blog back up and running, so I’m glad we were missed!  Have a good week!  A few more random shots...