"THERE NEVER HAS BEEN, NOR WILL THERE EVER BE, ANYTHING QUITE SO SPECIAL AS THE LOVE BETWEEN A MOTHER AND A SON." - AUTHOR UNKNOWN


Monday, June 11, 2012

Blueberries, Creepy Hug Guy & Feeding Himself Again

19 Months & 2 Weeks

Last Friday Ty and I spent the majority of the day packing to get ready to go to Conway for the weekend.  We were going up to spend time with the fam, and especially Papa & Nanny, who were visiting.  It's just amazing the mess that a little boy makes!  It's astounding really.  If I didn't go behind him cleaning up as we go...we would not be able to walk in our house!  I was packing up food that I was bringing, so I was in the kitchen for awhile and wouldn't you know, Tyson started emptying the "dog drawers" (where we keep their jackets, leashes, treats etc), emptying the cookie sheets and such all over the floor!  I tried to document the destruction with a picture, but it was hard to get it all in.  He's a Tyson Tornado all right!  When Heath got home, we headed to Conway and made it for supper with the entire gang.  We had tacos and Tyson had blueberries for the first time.  Well, not exactly for the first time, but for the first time since he actually started eating fruit!  He almost ate the entire pint... he would have, but I had to cut him off.  He loved them so much.  Ty had a horrible time going to sleep in his crib at my parent's house.  We hadn't been there in awhile, but I'm not sure what the probem was.  I finally rocked him to sleep, since I didn't want him screaming right next to Nanny & Papa's room (who had already retired for the night).  Unfortunately the rest of the night wasn't much better.  He cried multiple times during the night and, finally, I just brought him to bed with us.

Ty's mess

Another angle

Making messes wasn't the only thing he did...he is trying to climb up the gate now

Sabbath was a busy day.  We made it to Sabbath School!  Even before the teachers!  Heath wanted to take Tyson in, so I went to the adult Sabbath School, which my Dad was teaching.  It was a good lesson and I really appreciate when I'm able to go.  Heath gave me a report that Tyson tried to steal everyone's "toys" at Sabbath School, which is not good at all.  I think the sharing thing will be an issue soon.  Since we don't go to any play groups or anything these things really haven't come up much, since Finley doesn't play with a whole lot of toys that Ty does at this point.  Ty continued his difficult ways during church.  He was squirmy and a bit loud at times.  We had to escape to the mother's room at one point.  I bribed him with food for awhile, but even that does not last forever.  Church is just so hard because it is right during his usual naptime and he gets down-right cranky.  He fell asleep in his new car seat on the way home to my parent's house and I was faced with what I had been dreading.  The transfer out of the new car seat when he had just fallen alseep.  Heath did the transfer and Ty stayed right asleep when Heath laid him down in the crib.  But he only slept 45 minutes.  What??  Was it because he was too overdue for the nap?  Very disappointing, let me tell you.  After haystacks with everyone, we headed back to the church for the memorial service.  It was for the woman I talked about a couple weeks back... very young who died suddenly from an apparent kidney infection that spread into her blood stream.  I had to stay in the mother's room the entire service with Ty.  He had fun playing with the 4 other little girls that were there.  Poor Ty needed a boy to join him... and Devin & Bode came in at the end!  Tyson was very cute with Brooke (who is a few months younger than him).  I brought out the Puffs at one point, and, of course, all the girls wanted them too - which was fine.  But Tyson played that to his advantage.  He put about 3 puffs in his hand and acted like he was going to feed Brooke so sweetly.  But at the last second, he pulled his hand back and fed them to himself!!!!  It was so funny!  What a rascal.  After the service, we headed back to my parent's house and just hung out with everyone.  Leigh was supposed to work, but ended up just being on-call because they didn't have anyone in labor... so that was a treat.  But Mia abandoned us for a sleepover.  Can't really blame her there.  Ty slept much better on Saturday night, so that was good.

Beautiful boy

Finley officially crawled for the 1st time on Sabbath!

Cousins

On Sunday we didn't do much.  Just hung around again with everyone.  Heath helped my Dad do some odd jobs around the house.  Tyson has definitely started hugging everyone a lot.  Devin is calling him the other "creepy hug guy."  Jack is our official hug guy right now, but Tyson is trying hard to follow in his footsteps!  Just out of nowhere, Tyson will go and hug Bode, Finley, and Mia!  Of course I could never get my camera in time, since the hugs don't last forever!  But it is so cute and it just warms my heart.  We had a pesto feast in the late afternoon and then we heaed home.  Ty went right to bed without any fanfare and Heath & I really enjoyed watching the movie, "Man on a Ledge."  Would recommend it for anyone that likes a good action/suspense/heist-type movie.

On Monday the feeding-himself strike was over.  Overnight he suddenly started with the insistence of feeding himself ONLY.  I can not do it or he screams.  But it is so funny because his OCD is pretty ridiculous.  He started on Monday morning with his yogurt.  Of course he doesn't get the bites perfectly, so as he is bringing the spoon to his mouth and he sees a drip of yogurt that is about to fall... he has to stop the feeding motion and remove the drip with his hands.  But then that is not good, because he doesn't like anything on his hands!  Crazy boy.  Oh, first thing on Monday morning I did not have a pleasant time.  I had turned 15 weeks pregnant, so I decided to try to forgo taking my anti-nausea medication the night before (the Unisom & Vitamin B6).  I figured that I was far enough along that the nausea should be over.  Well, I was wrong.  I felt horrible.  I had to take Zofran and lie down for about 30 minutes and then I was able to get up and function.  So I'm definitely not going to even attempt stopping the medication again for another few weeks.  Tyson did something that really impressed me on Monday morning.  We were unpacking from the weekend away, when Ty had picked up our tablet bag (where we put our Ipad and Galaxy tablet in) and had brought it to his room.  He had never even picked up that bag before.  Hours later, I was in our bedroom and I tested Ty.  I said, "Tyson, can you go into your bedroom and bring Mama the black bag that is in there?"  I really didn't expect him to do it, but here he came through the door carrying the tablet bag to me!  I wasn't even sure he knows what "black" is, but he knew exactly what I was talking about!  He is such a smarty pants!  He might not say anything, but he understands so much.  On Monday afternoon, we headed to the grocery stores and the pharmacies.  I made $0.30 on dental floss and got Crest oral care rinse (that I use every day) for $0.79 (that usually costs $5.99).  Those were the highlights.
Feeding himself now!

On Tuesday Ty took his AM nap and then we headed over to the Fairway for lunch with Mom, Finley (she was baby-sitting), Nanny & Papa.  Nanny & Papa were headed home the next day, so we wanted to spend some time with them.  Our time together was cut short when Papa started having some rectal bleeding.  He is on a blood thinner, so I took Papa & Nanny to the ER in Plymouth, while Mom watched the kids.  They admitted him overnight, so they weren't going to be flying home the next day, much to their disappointment.  Heath & Sean came over and we all (minus Papa) went to the Thai restaurant in Plymouth (Shannon met us there from work) and then we went back to see Papa in the hospital before we headed home.  Ty was terrible at the Thai restaurant - refusing to eat anything and making plenty of noise.  He's a handful.  Tuesday night was a very exciting victory for the Celtics, beating the Heat at home... so it was a nice way to end the day, at least.

On Wednesday, I worked and Heath met my mom in New Hampton and she brought Ty to the Fairway, so she could be there in case Papa was released.  He was released but not until around 6 PM and Heath got there to pick up Ty by that time.  It's hard not to have him at home for naps.  He absolutely refused to nap at all for my mom, despite her trying everything.  She walked with him in the stroller, but he wouldn't fall asleep.  She set up our pack 'n play at their house, but he wouldn't go down.  She laid down with him on the bed and even that wouldn't work!  Let's just say he was cranky for Heath in the evening.  What do you expect?  The crankiness continued at 3 AM, when he started wailing for the next hour.  It definitely wasn't night terrors because he was fully awake.  He appeared to revert back to his "separation anxiety" behavior and would lay himself down in the crib to go back to sleep, but as soon as I would leave the room... he would stand up crying again.  I was letting him cry-it-out for about 10 minutes, when Heath couldn't take it anymore and brought him to bed with us.  He went to sleep right away, the little bugger.

On Thursday I cleaned the house all day.  Tyson figured out how to turn on the vaccuum for the first time and he was thrilled.  He tried to push it himself, but it was too heavy, but he tried!  After lunch, we headed to the Harlow's house for a play date with Zach & Jill.  Tyson was scared to death of their dog (who is quite large...labradoodle, maybe) but he got a bit better by the end.  Ty was pretty quiet and Zach was very outgoing.  Again, he got more "talkative" by the end.  We walked from their house to one of Laconia's beaches (they have a path through the woods to get there).  They had fun, throwing things into the water, and playing with beach toys.  But he doesn't love to get the sand all over his hands and kept wiping them on me!  Sharing is a problem for Zach, too - so it's nice to see that it is not just Ty.  But it was really precious when Zach was having a time-out because of the sharing problems, Ty brought over the beach toys and gave them to Zach.  Like he knew that Zach wanted the toys!  After our date, we headed home and I finished vaccuuming the floors, while Heath mowed the lawn.  Then we went out to the Mexican restaurant, just the three of us at about 7:30 PM.  Ty wouldn't eat much again - I'm going to start bringing PB&J to these ethnic restaurants... because it is hit and miss with him.  Unfortunately, the nice day had to come to a bitter end when the Celtics choked and lost game 6.  Blew that chance.  Well, have a great week!
Watching Daddy mow the lawn

Feeding Daddy at the Mexican restaurant

Doing the "freak out" at the restaurant

Thursday, June 7, 2012

18 Month Stats, New Car Seat, Cabin in Maine, Tick, Riding On Finley, Stair Shenanigans & A Visit From Nanny & Papa


19 Months & 1 Week

Here I am behind again with the blog.  Story of my life.  So sorry, hopefully it will be better, but we are going to be slammed for the next few weeks with taking a class, my cousin's wedding in Maryland, and Campmeeting.  Hopefully I'll get it all done.

Fridays ago, Heath had the day off for Memorial Day weekend!  He ended up having a 4 day weekend, lucky duck!  What was even better was that Tyson had his "18 month" appointment that day.  Of course he is 19 months - he seems to always have his appointments a month later than he should, but what can you do?  So Heath got to go to his appointment and actually meet his pediatrician for the first time!  He has gone to a few appointments, but only the emergent ones when we haven't been able to see our own pediatrician.  Ty is doing great!  He was 22 pounds 6 oz (10th percentile), 32 inches long (55th percentile), and his head circumference was 20 inches (50th percentile).  He went down a little bit on his weight, (from the 15th percentile to the 10th percentile) but he has pretty much stayed in the 10th percentile his whole life.  Ty got 3 shots and Heath got to see that first-hand.  I was worried that Ty would cry during these shots, after I have bragged to Heath every time that Ty does not cry with his shots.  But he didn't cry again.  He just looks down and watches as the needle stabs him.  Maybe he'll be in the medical field after all.  I did bring up Ty's "no-talking-thing" to see if she was worried about it, but she's not.  She said to give it until 2 years old and then if he still isn't talking, then we will have him evaluated for speech therapy.  That is fine with us.  We filled out the autism form (which she was NOT at all worried about but is standard at 18 months) and he passed it with flying colors.  All in all, a great appointment.  We continued our Friday together with errands and we went to Sears to have the truck’s tires rotated.  We went shopping in the mall while we were waiting and I found a dress for Ricky’s wedding at JCPenney!  Seriously, I find all my dresses there.  I don’t know why I go anywhere else.  So that was exciting (for me).  Then we bounced to Taco Bell for a late lunch and Ty had a late nap on the way home (and a short one at that).  The Frosts came over for supper and saw us get Ty all situated in his new car seat.  Yes, folks, we had to do it.  Ty is out of his infant car seat and into the big convertible car seat.  He is like a real boy now!  We were forced to once we knew his length officially.  He is 32 inches and his infant seat only goes to 30 inches.  He was getting a bit cramped in the infant seat, but I am absolutely dreading moving him once he falls asleep in the new seat – since you can’t just detach it and carry it.  But he was getting wicked heavy, so…I’ll be saving my back!  On Friday night when I was putting Tyson to bed, I couldn’t help but crying.  He was going to be leaving me for 3 days and 2 nights to go “camping” with Heath and the Edwards.   I have never been away from Tyson for that long and knew that I would miss him like crazy.

New car seat

Finley watching Ty get into his new car seat

Ty loves to listen to the echo inside his blocks can

Practicing for finishing school

I had to work Memorial Day weekend, but I, at least, had Monday off.  Heath, Ty, and the Edwards had rented a cabin up in Maine, about 4 hours away, for Saturday and Sunday night.  I definitely told them to go without me.  Why should they have to stay behind just because I had to work?  I knew that I would miss Tyson so much (and Heath too) but I have to say that at the same time, I was kind of looking forward to time just to myself.  That just doesn’t happen.  Ever.  And I had a blast.  I worked on Saturday and watched the Celtics win game 7 against Philadelphia.  I have been enjoying watching basketball so much lately.  I really should watch it all the time. 

The cabin they rented

On Sunday, I worked again and treated myself to Indian take-out after work. I hit up the pharmacies too, but I don’t remember what I got.  I’m sure not too much – it has been slim pickings lately.  On Sunday night I “talked” to Tyson on the phone.  Thank goodness they had some cell service (it was spotty, but better than nothing).  It was quite a moment for me.  Tyson said, “hello” to me on the phone for the first time!  It was so special.  I talked to him for a bit and then I told him, “I love you.  Bye-bye.”  Then Sonia came on the phone and said that he was waving to me through the phone! (=  How cute is that?  I think pretty darn cute.  Of course, that made me cry, since I was missing him pretty bad.

Ty enjoying the cabin

On Monday I enjoyed a day off at home by myself.  I knew that the boys would be home late because they were going to look at property in Maine (for a camp).  There were having some good sales at the outlets, so I met Shannon and Finley there and then went to Kohl’s.  Of course I just ended up buying for Tyson, which is the name of the game now, but it was still fun to shop “alone.”  Shannon and Sean took pity on lonely me and invited me to their place for supper.  They made a scrumptious pasta salad and burgers and it was great.  We watched a movie and I beat the boys home.  They rolled in at midnight and my little boy was a sight for sore eyes.  He woke up when they got home and when Heath carried him in, he actually held his arms out for me, which he usually does not do.  I must have kissed him a thousand times before I put him in bed.  Did I mention how much I missed him?

Tuesday was quite the day.  First of all, I volunteered to watch Finley for the day because my mother was sick with what appeared to be Strep throat.  I got up to be ready when Finley came at 6:30 AM.  Ty was an angel and slept past 8 AM.  When Tyson woke up, I noticed immediately that he had a TICK ON HIS NECK!!!!  And not just any tick, but a deer tick.  A teeny, tiny tick.  I took it off him, freaked out a bit, and called his doctor.  From working in the ER, if anyone comes in with a tick on them, then we usually treat them with antibiotics, just in case.  Of course the pediatricians do not do that.  They told me that even if it really was a deer tick (it was), and even if it was infected with Lyme Disease, it would have to be imbedded for at least 24-36 hours to spread the disease.  Well, that was a relief.  Heath and Sonia are sure that it was not there – it probably had been on his clothes and crawled to his neck during the night.  It was so visible, there is no way they would have missed it.  But we still have to watch for flu-like symptoms and the bulls-eye rash.  Those symptoms can come about between 3 and 30 days.  So I guess we aren’t exactly out of the woods yet!  Anyways, the craziest thing happened while I was getting rid of the tick.  I went into the kitchen and when I came back to the family room, Finley was on her stomach and Tyson was sitting on her back like he was going to ride her like a horse!!!!  Thank goodness he wasn’t bouncing on her back, but just sitting on her.  She was not amused at all – can you blame her?  Where in the world did he come up with that?  He tried to do it 2 more times that day – and I couldn’t resist snapping a pic.  Bizarre.  He tried to make up with Finley, though.  Out of nowhere, he sat down right beside her and wrapped his arms around her and pulled her to him in a big hug!  It was very sweet.  What a good boy.  He showed me his smarts in the afternoon.  You know how I say that he loves to push around his ATV or his big car and then he gets stuck and scream?  Well, he did just that.  I brought him out of his car and pointed to the problem when he got stuck.  He had pulled out a cookie sheet from one of the cabinets and dropped it in the middle of the family room.  So the cookie sheet was stuck underneath the car wheels.  He saw the problem right away.  I didn’t even have to tell him anything.  He pulled the cookie sheet out and was able to go on his merry way!  Smarty pants!  Finley had a good day overall.  Not too shabby at all.

Can you tell she isn't enthused?

She scooted from the pillows all the way to the dinosaur toy

On Wednesday my mom was still under the weather, so Shannon returned the favor and baby-sat Tyson.  I didn’t hear any specific stories, but Shannon said that he was great.  So that’s good.

On Thursday Ty and I got up at a decent time and headed to the Tilton Diner for breakfast.  I was finally meeting up with my friend, Ann Marie, that I hadn’t seen in forever.  She used to work at CMC and I miss her!  She actually works in Plymouth now with my Dad.  We had a good visit catching up (and showing off Tyson).  After breakfast, Ty and I headed home for laundry folding and such.  I have been letting Tyson climb up the stairs (with me right there, of course), but he started giving me a bit of trouble on Thursday.  Instead of getting to business and just climbing the stairs, Ty is now stopping and turning around and sitting on the stairs and swinging his legs.  Then I’ll get him back to the climbing, and then he’ll stop and do it again.  Like he wants to play on the stairs!!  In the afternoon, he had been playing with his wooden blocks.  He has played with them a million times, but this time he was trying to balance two of the blocks on top of each other.  He kept trying, but they would just topple over.  And what do you think he did?  Yup, he screamed.  He also screamed when I insisted that he did not need a binky, since he was not going to sleep.  Well, that didn’t stop him at all.  He wanted a binky right then and there.  He has some old binkies on his changing table and he grabbed 4 of them and carried them right into the room where I was and sat down with them.  Then he proceeded to try each and every one of them, even the infant ones!  "In your face, Mom!"  On Thursday night, we went to the OG with Nanny & Papa with our usual gang (minus Adam).  They had just gotten in town for a visit for a week.  It was great to see them!  Of course they just love to watch the great-grandkids.  At the OG, Tyson enjoyed his minestrone soup and breadsticks, but refused to eat any pasta (which he normally loves).  Picky, picky.  We finished the night off with a haircut for Heath & Ty.  They should have cut Ty's much shorter, but I didn't speak up. Serves me right.  

Playing on the stairs

Having all his binkies in a row

Testing them out

That’s about it.  Have a great week!