Cider & Donuts, 2nd B-day, "Twacktur" & High Fevers

2 YEARS OLD!!

Last Friday I don’t remember too much of what happened, except our weekly grocery trip in the afternoon.  I had set our bread maker before we left and I checked it when we got back.  There was some electrical glitch and it had perfectly risen, formed dough but the "oven" part of it never turned on!  So frustrating.  I have had a few times when the dough hasn't risen at all, because my yeast was too old or ... for no reason I could fathom... but this had never happened!  I tried to save the dough and bake it in the oven, so I was taking it out of the bread pan and it was very soft and it was sticking like crazy to my hands... so Tyson was at my feet, watching me.  And I said, "Oooh... Ty, look at my hands... it's so scary."  And right at that moment, a piece of the dough flew off of my hands and went directly into Tyson's right eye!!!!  The poor guy!  He rubbed his eyes and got the dough smeared everywhere - my hands were completely covered, so I had to rinse my hands quickly, so I wouldn't get more in his eyes!  We were both such a mess - thank goodness it didn't irritate his eye too much!  Well, Heath got home and decided to grill some vegetables and chicketts, instead of my non-existent bread & soup I had planned to make.  It was a better choice!

Sabbath was a busy day.  We got up and booked it over to Lebanon (poor Heath had to drive back there) to the West Lebanon church, that is now in Plainfield.  It is a gorgeous post & beam building and we made it there for church.  Ty did very well during church, so that was a plus.  We met the Frosts there and Kelly & Steve, who were visiting Steve's parents.  For lunch, we all went to Steve's parent's house.  We had a nice, relaxing afternoon.  Ty was completely obsessed with the two cats that were at the Conrads and kept saying, "cat, cat, cat" over and over!  I'm thinking Ty is going to be a cat man!  Both Finley & Ty really needed a nap, so Heath & Sean took them in their respective cars for a drive so they would nap.  That left Shannon, Kelly & I to sit and talk.  That was a nice break!  Saturday night at the Conrads was their annual Cider & Donuts Fall Festival.  They get a truck load of apples and they make homemade cider, and then make homemade apple cider donuts.  It is all delicious.  We had gone there once before for this, but it was 3 years ago - before we had Ty!  Tyson was absolutely obsessed with throwing the apples from the back of the truck, into the "holding tank" of water.  He just thought that it was the best.  He loves to throw things right now, so this job was perfect for him.  The problem was that the apple "throwers" would get ahead of the apple "pressers", so the throwers would have to stop for awhile.  That was never a good thing for Tyson.  He had a few melt-downs over this, so badly to the point that Heath had to take him away for a spanking.  It has to be pretty bad for Heath to do that, since he is such a softie.  For the down-time of not throwing apples, Ty was playing with some toys with a few other kids.  Ty & this one other kid became focused on this little stool and was taking turns sitting on it, but then one time... Ty had the stool all positioned and was backing up his little tush to sit on it, when the other kid stole it and Ty fell on his butt!  Poor guy.  He was surprised, but he didn't lose it! (=  We got him in his PJ's, hit up Taco Bell, and then got home after 10 PM.  Long, but fun day.

"I love apples!"

Throwing the apples into the tank

Ty looks sad, this might have been after the spanking!

Sitting down on the stool (he didn't fall this time)

Sunday was another busy day.  Busy weekend overall.  Ty woke up pretty early, so we were all up around 7:30 AM.  Sunday was Ty's "birthday" - well, it was going to be the day we were going to celebrate, his real birthday was Monday.  I did a full cleaning of the house while Heath made Ty's cake and then worked around the house.  Heath went to start icing the cake and being the perfectionist that he is... it took him about 1.5 hours to frost the cake (with Sean's help).  Unfortunately, everyone arrived and we had to wait for Heath to finish the cake, but what are you going to do?  The cake turned out amazing.  We had just our family over.  My parents, Devin & Leigh & fam, the Frosts, and Keith, Sonia, and Adam.  We had a good group!  We had grillers and hot dogs on the grill, chips and a cheesy-spinach dip that I had made in my crock pot (a recipe from a co-worker).  Then we opened presents!  Ty was much more lively at everyone else's parties lately and was kind-of stone-faced at his... probably all the attention and all that.  But he knew exactly what to do with the presents!  He went right to town opening the paper... he was so cute!  We finally got a reaction out of him when he opened our present to him.  It was a John Deere tractor with a trailer - he was in heaven!  After campmeeting with his tractor obsession, I knew that a tractor would be the present that we had to get him.  Bode also got on it and Ty climbed into the trailer – and then he tipped right over backwards!  After presents, we had his cake and he went right to town on that too, but only had about 4 bites and then went right to playing with the tractor again!  It was hard to get him to go to bed that night - he tried to drive his tractor up the stairs!  So Heath lugged it up to his room for the night and he went to bed saying, "twacktur, twacktur, twacktur."  So cute. I can not believe my little baby is 2 years old.

Heath's masterpiece for Ty

Our spread

Unwrapping the presents

The chair was a gift from my parents, the backpack was from Devin & Leigh, & he was opening a book from Devin & Leigh as well!  After he opened the book, he tried to put it in the backpack, with it still on him!

He really did get more excited than this!

The family of 3, soon to become 4!

Shannon & Sean gave Ty this fort-like thing - he brought all his new toys inside it!

He really loves it!

On Monday, he really became 2!  It is really surreal.  Monday I had a big job ahead of me, which was to pick up after the party and to find homes for Ty's new presents.  Well, that meant that I needed to do a thorough job of going through all his toys (family room & his bedroom) and I put a ton of his toys away in the basement that he just doesn't play with much anymore.  But, of course, I will be saving those toys for Jr. - even though it will be many months down the road before he will be using them!  After all of that organizing, Ty & I hit up the pharmacies and got two 24 packs of Poland Springs water for $2 each and two things of deodorant for $0.24 each.  Monday night Heath worked on the bathroom and got it all vacuumed out and ready for grouting (excited).  Tyson was, of course, obsessed with playing with his tractor and that creates some crazy, drama for us.  Ty does not know how to pedal the tractor yet, so... he pretty much just pushes it around - but you know how trailers jack-knife around... well, that happens pretty much non-stop, which results in Tyson screaming.  So that is fun.  I hope he figures out how to pedal pretty soon! (=

Hauling stuff around in his tractor

Then he tried to run over Heath!

On Tuesday my main goal was to go to the Town Hall and register the Passat, since our 20 days were up the day before!  Tyson threw a little monkey wrench into those plans when he decided to take a 3 ½ hour long nap!!!!  Because he takes his one nap late morning, I try to do all of our errands in the afternoon.  Well, he didn't wake up until 3:15 PM!  The town hall closed at 4 PM, so I wouldn't have enough time to feed him lunch and make it to the town hall before they closed.  So we went right to the town hall.  He could care less that he was like 2 hours overdue for eating, since he slept so long!  Poor kid did not get to eat until about 4 PM!  So we are officially in a bad way with eating.  Tyson will NOT stop playing to eat.  He will sit in his booster seat, take about 2-3 bites of something and then rip off his bib, throw it on the floor, and say, "all doo" (which means "all done").  He will NOT eat anything else, while sitting in the booster seat.  Sometimes he will kneel in my chair at the table and continue to pick at things on his plate, sometimes he won't.  But most of the time lately now, he will get up, run around and play with his toys and I will have to go up to him and give him a bite of something... and he will continue to eat as long as he is still playing!  It is very tiring and frustrating.  If he would just sit and eat - he would be done in 15-20 minutes.  But in this scenario, it takes about an hour, between him running around.  And how do I know when he is actually done?  I really hope that this is a passing phase, but this just keep reinforcing my idea that he has ADD.  Tuesday night, he was playing with Heath like crazy, was acting fine, when all of a sudden... at around 8 PM, he went completely quiet, was kind-of grunting/moaning, and felt on fire.  He had a fever of 102.7 out of nowhere.  He changed so suddenly that the nurse in me was way too paranoid - thinking of what kind of condition would result in such a drastatic change of behavior (like bacterial meningitis).  I mean, this kid will go non-stop playing until after 10 PM with no problems at all... and when I was checking his temperature on his changing table at 8 PM, he had fallen completely asleep.  Very scary.  So I gave him Tylenol and put him to bed and he slept all the way until.... 4:30 AM.

We did a little photo shoot outside

He had a blast running around

So Wednesday AM, between 4:30 AM and 6:30 AM, he was in bed with us ON FIRE and restless.  I mean, his temperature had to be over 104.0 with how hot he was, since he was WAY hotter than he was when I put him to bed with the fever of 102.7.  So out came the Ibuprofen and that did seem to help.  I hated to leave him sick with my mom - of course I trust her implicitly, but you just want to be with your kids when they are sick!  He was very subdued and just wanted to cuddle, hardly ate anything, and continued to have a high fever all day.  Tylenol seemed to do nothing for him.  He was 103.0 before his nap and Mom had given him Tylenol.  After his 3 hour nap, he was still 102.4.  But Ibuprofen would bring it right down to 100.0.  He spiked back up to 104.0 for Heath before I got home and Ty had a hard time going to sleep.  At 10:30 PM, when I got home... there was Tyson sitting with Heath in the recliner, watching TV.  My poor little buddy.  He got a little life to him when he saw me (and I think the Ibuprofen was helping him feel better)... and he got out of the chair and started to play with his toys.  I nixed that and put him right back to bed and he went to sleep this time.  But he was up at about 6 AM crying.

So on Thursday, he came to bed with me at 6 AM and he slept until 10:45 AM!!!!  I didn't even sleep in that late, well - I slept until 10 AM and then spent the next 45 minutes just watching him sleep! (= I figured these are our last precious moments together alone.  I get teary-eyed just typing those words.  So let's just say that our schedule was completed axed for the day.  His breakfast was at 11 AM, his "AM" nap was from 1:30 to 4:30 PM, yes, he slept another 3 hours!  He was much better natured, was playing a lot, and was fever-free all day long!  But I think that I solved the question of what this fever was from, since his ears weren't bothering him and he did not have any cough/runny nose etc.  He started pointing to his mouth a few times and I really laid  him down and looked into his mouth.  He has 4 humongous molars all coming in at the same time and his gums are all swollen.  I know that 104.0 should be too high for teeth, but 4 huge teeth all at once?  I just can't come up with any other explanation.  I gave him a popscicle and then Heath got home at 6 PM and we headed right to the mexican restaurant, just the 3 of us.  We weren't sure if we were going to go out with Ty having a fever, but he hadn't had the fever all day and he was acting so well - that we went.  He did great at the restaurant and ate at least a little bit, so that was a plus.  What was a negative was that we got stopped by the cops on the way home!  Thank goodness it was only to tell us that we had a headlight out, so our night got extended a bit when we stopped at Walmart to get the headlight.  Ty had a bath and got right to sleep without any problems.  Let's hope we have a healthier week next week!

Flat Tire, Fall Festival, Movie-Watching, Refusing to Eat, Timeout with Noni & Poppy & Birthday Trip

23 Months & 3 Weeks

Last Friday was quite a day.  We had our usual grocery shopping run and then we had a visit from Poppy for a bit.  After lunch, we headed to Shannon & Sean’s house for a visit of our own.  Heath met us there, on the way home from work.  We had a nice evening of tacos and hanging out.  Ty was in heaven with all of Finley’s toys!  Especially the ride-on My Little Pony thing that he had gone crazy for at her birthday party.  They took a tub together and then I got Ty all packaged up in his pajamas for the ride home.  I thought it would be the “short” 40 minute ride, but that was not meant to be.  If you read my blog last week, then you know that Heath still did not have his cell phone because of the bad visit to the Verizon store the week before.  This played a big part in what happened next.  Heath took my phone to make a call to his parents about their plans for the weekend while we drove home (in our separate cars).  I was following Heath when he missed one of the turns for the way home.  Heath gets distracted when he talks on the phone and drives at the same time, so I wasn’t sure if he realized that he had missed the turn.  I flashed him TWICE, but he kept driving.  I knew he had the GPS, so I figured that he was going to go a different way.  So we drove on, probably another 5 miles or so.  THEN, I got a flat tire.  I have never gotten one before, but this was unmistakable.  So then I started flashing Heath like a bazillion times and guess what?  He didn’t stop and kept driving, thinking that I was having a major meltdown about missing the turn.  Well, I had to pull over and stop because of the flat and he just thought that I was turning around.  So again, he kept going.  There I was at about 9 PM at night on a back road in the middle of nowhere, with a flat tire, with my son in the backseat, and no cell phone.  I was completely screwed.  I had pulled over in someone’s driveway, but it was a really, really long driveway – I could barely see the house at the top of this hill… and it was 30 degrees out.  When I realized that Heath was not turning around and coming back, then I wasn’t sure what to do.  First of all, I had my hazards on, so I figured that someone would stop and see if I needed help.  Well, that proved to be incorrect.  Then I had to decide if I should bundle Tyson up and walk to the person’s house, or if I should flag a car down.  I decided on the latter.  For one thing, what if I walked up to their house and they heard something, freaked out, and pointed a gun at us?  I figured that it would be safer to flag someone down.  So I tried.  14 cars passed the small, pregnant girl asking for help and couldn’t be bothered.  I was not feeling good about the human race in general at that point.  But finally, someone stopped and it was a mother with her daughter in the car.  I called Heath and told him that we had a flat and that he needed to come back (he had just gotten home at the time – about 30 minutes away).  The lady was so nice that she would not leave Ty & I alone.  She said that she didn’t feel right about it.  I took down her number and promised to call as soon as Heath arrived, and she seemed to agree to this… but as soon as I went back to my car to sit with Ty… she wouldn’t leave!  Ty was great.  I thought that maybe he would be scared, but he was very talkative and very good – not trying to get out of his car seat at all.  It was so late too!  Well, Heath arrived, changed the tire, and we were on our way… but we didn’t get home until after 11 PM.  What a night.  I know that if I hadn’t flashed Heath earlier about the missed turn, then he would have stopped when I flashed him when I really needed him… but still, what are the odds?  And what are the odds that I didn’t have my cell phone, since I always do?

Sitting on the end table - he's such a monkey!

Reunited with Finley's toy

On Sabbath I worked and Heath & Ty went to Conway to church and then went their separate ways in the afternoon!  Heath went ATVing with his father & brother and Ty hung out with Sonia and went to the park and playground for a few hours and then went to a fall festival that the church was putting on.  They went on a hayride and had a blast. 

On Sunday I worked again and the big highlight of Heath & Ty’s day was that Heath got his phone!!!!  Finally!!  After the big events of Friday night, we knew that nothing like that could happen again.  It just happened to be that Best Buy was having $100 off the Samsung Galaxy S3 that Heath was going to buy, for one day only – on that Sunday.  Another example of why you need a cell phone occurred at Best Buy.  Heath was trying to get the phone and add it to our plan, but I had set up our plan initially and only I was listed on the account.  So Heath was dead in the water.  Best Buy was nice enough for Heath to borrow their phone for a minute, but he didn’t know my work number off the top of his head… so he called his parents.  So I get a phone call from Sonia at work saying that I have to call Verizon and add Heath as an “authorized user.”  How crazy is all this?  So Heath left Best Buy for awhile, not knowing when I was going to be able to do this at work – and just went back at a random time, hoping it had happened.  Well, it did and now all is right in our world.  I can’t tell you how frustrating it has been to not even be able to check in and see how Ty was doing while I work, since we don’t have a home phone.  On Sunday night I went to the pharmacies and got $1 Pantene shampoo & conditioner, $1.99 Almay eyeliner (that usually costs $8), and 6 boxes of Kellogg’s cereal (Pops, Frosted Flakes, & Apple Jacks – what I eat every morning) for $1.49 each.   Not too shabby but not great either.

Heath's phone

On Monday Ty & I did our usual Monday-picking up the house day and I made quite a few phone calls about tires.  I was due for 4 new tires on my Outback anyway, but driving on my spare just made it more urgent.  The Subaru dealer surprisingly came in the cheapest for the tires we wanted and was able to get us in at 3:30 that day!  Poor Ty had to go back to the dealer – we had just been there on Thursday for a recall.  But he had a good time.  They were going to do the tires and an alignment, so we were going to be there almost 2 hours… so I figured I would bribe Ty a bit with a movie.  They have a nice TV and VCR there, so I put in The Little Mermaid.  I have never tried to have Tyson watch a full movie, so this would be an interesting test.  He sat on the bean bags with me for about 15 minutes… and then he had to get up and run around!  He would play with toys and then come back and look up at the movie… but he wouldn’t just sit there!  I was wondering if it is a boy-thing, or an ADD thing, or if all other nearly 2 year-olds can’t sit through a movie.  Guess I’ll find out soon!  Monday night, we had our night out since we had plans on Thursday night.  Adam came with us and we went to Mexican restaurant and then Heath got his hair cut afterwards.  We were the only customers in the salon and they let Ty mess around in one of their salon chairs, watching Heath… Ty was good and had fun… I just think that he was glad that he didn’t need to have the haircut!

Eating his lunch & watching the movie at the dealer

On Tuesday we worked some more on the baby and Ty’s room.  We finished cleaning out Ty’s closet and his little attic and found some more toys for Ty!  It feels great to get this stuff done.  Ty continued to give me trouble with his eating.  He refused to have any oatmeal for breakfast, which he usually loves.  All he wanted was yogurt and milk and then he wanted to get down and play!  This is becoming a big problem.  Then for lunch, we had some pizza… and he acted like he didn’t want to eat that either.  But I made it a game and showed him how to dip his pizza in his soup… and then he ate it all!  It’s exhausting, though.  I just wish he would eat without all the drama.  We did a few more shopping errands in the afternoon and Ty did well again.  Sometimes it is just hit or miss.

Some of the mess from the attic... Ty decided he wanted to try to fit in the Bumbo again!

We found this fireman hat in the attic!

Dipping his pizza in the soup

On Wednesday I worked and Ty & Noni had their day.  Ty took a 3 hour nap for Noni and then Poppy came over for a visit in the afternoon and Tyson was extremely hyper.  He was throwing his little balls all over the house, but then he started throwing them at Poppy.  He didn’t stop, when they told him to, so he ended up needing a timeout.  They said he was not thrilled with that… which thrilled me!  I’ve tried to do timeouts, but he just usually grins and laughs at me and thinks it is a big game.  It would be great if he was starting to understand that it is a punishment!

Thursday was another busy day.  We had our usual morning routine, his nap, and then had lunch.  I made macaroni & cheese and held my breath.  That can be hit or miss with him, but he actually ate a ton of it, so I was so happy!  After lunch we headed up to Conway.  Ty has been doing great in the car lately.  One thing I figured out that he likes to do is look at my tabloid magazines while we are driving!  At first he would rip them up, but now he just flips through them page by page, looking at the pictures and doesn’t even rip them!  It’s so funny.  We went to a few stores and Ty did great… UNTIL the 4^th stop.  They were quick stops, but it didn’t matter to Ty.  He had a pretty big meltdown in the Dollar Store, so that was a shame.  But we high-tailed it out of there as fast as we could and then we made it to Devin & Leigh’s house for the double birthday party for Mia & Bode!  Mia turned 11 on 10/15 and Bode turned 1 on that Thursday 10/18!  We had a really nice time together, but Ty was pretty bad with the presents again.  I had to take him away a couple of times because he just wanted to take all the presents from Bode.  One of the times was so funny.  Bode had gotten this scoot ‘n’ ride tractor and Ty thought it was awesome.  Bode was sitting on it the right way and then Ty went over to him, and tried to sit on the front of it – facing Bode.  Well, that made Bode become unsteady and Bode fell off.  Well, Tyson took full advantage of that… and got on Bode’s seat on the tractor in about 2 seconds flat!!!!  Crazy boy.  Another cute thing was when Ty spotted Devin’s cat, Brandy.  Ty started pointing saying, “dog, dog, dog.”  I had to laugh, since Brandy is about double the size of our dogs, but I had to tell Ty that Brandy was a “cat.”  And then Ty told everyone that came near him that there was a cat in the other room.  Of course, this was by pointing to the other room and saying, “cat, cat, cat.”  It was very cute!  It was another late night, but at least Ty fell asleep in the car in his PJ’s on the way home.  OK – that is plenty enough for now.  Have a great week!

Playing the leaves before we left for Conway

Having fun playing with Bode's toys

A LOT of fun!

Wearing a tambourine as a hat

They do this trick where Bode slides down the top of the couch - it gives me a heart attack but Bode loves it!

Finley flirting with someone! (=

Mia opening some makeup

Ty was thrilled with the makeup too!

The two boys right before the tractor-falling-and-stealing-incident!

Getting Bullied, Family Fair Weekend & Stubborness

23 Months & 3 Weeks

Last Friday started a very busy weekend.  Ty & I got up bright and early and got ready to go to the fair!  It was unfortunate since I was up sewing until 3 AM again the night before.  Shannon came and picked us up and we headed to Conway.  I don't know what happened, but I ended up getting horribly car sick in the car.  I was really hurting.  We got to my parent's house (to drop the dogs off) and I just had to lay down for awhile.  Ty hadn't taken his nap on the drive up, so that was unfortunate, but he was fine.  The nausea abated a bit, so we all headed to the fair.  We met Devin, Leigh, Mia, & Bode there and had a great time.  Ty did fantastic in the stroller the whole time.  I thought he would be itching to get out, but he didn't.  He ate most of a piece of pizza for lunch and at lunchtime we had a major scare with Finley choking on an apple.  She had taken a bunch of bites, but we found out later... had not been swallowing them.  So she was choking pretty bad and was really red in the face.  Shannon got her out of her stroller in 2 seconds flat and Mom flipped her on her belly and slapped her back... and she passed it.  She must have swallowed it because she didn't spit it out and then she was fine.  Very scary though.  No more apples for Finley Mae.  Then we walked around for a bit and stopped to sit (and eat some more) at these picnic tables by the racetrack.  Tyson was very interested in the horses racing by, which was really cute.  I let him out of his stroller prison for a bit and he ended up playing with these two little boys by this tree.  They were 4 and 2 and Ty started copying what they were doing.  They were peeling bark off of the tree.  They seemed to all be having a blast until the 2 year old little boy decided to start pushing and shoving Tyson for no reason at all.  I'm like, "Are you kidding me?"  Let me tell you, it made my blood boil a bit, but I didn't show it.  The little boy's grandmother intervened and I just got Ty out of there, but don't you even think about bullying my son!  We didn't stay at the fair all that long (probably about 4 hours) - it was nearly 80 degrees!  I don't know if it was the weather, or my lack of sleep, or my car sickness that still wasn't completely gone, but I was DONE.  Ty still hadn't taken a nap, but fell asleep in the stroller on the walk back to the car.  He was able to stay asleep during the transfer to his car seat, so that was good.  We ran a couple of errands on the way home (Noni stayed in the car with both babies) and then went to Mom & Dad's.  Aunt Lori & Uncle Charlie came that night and we had soup and muffins for supper.  Heath & Sean had driven together from Lebanon in our new Passat and got there at about 7 or so.  Bedtime for Finley & Ty was something else.  We were sleeping in our old rooms, which are directly across the hall from each other.  Ty would have gone right to sleep, but Finley was "crying it out" across the hall, so therefore Tyson started crying as well.  It was almost funny.  They seriously sounded like they were trying to out perform each other!  They finally gave up and went to sleep, but it was not the ideal arrangement.

On Sabbath we made it to Sabbath School a bit late, but we beat the teachers... so we did OK!  Heath took Ty in and I went to the adult lesson, which Dad was teaching.  Ty had another good week in church - there is hope yet!  After church, we headed back to Mom & Dad's.  By now our group had grown to include Kelly, Steve, Rad, and Jen.  We had lunch and then I put Ty down for a late nap at about 2:30 PM.  Then arrived Kevin, Sherrie, David & Yully and after that... Shawn, Camille & Aunt Melanie.  Uncle Bill was the last to arrive in the early evening to finish the group up.  Late afternoon, my parents, Shannon & Sean & us went to see our friends from church, Stephanie & Jason who had just had their baby girl (their 3rd) the night before.  Her name is Autumn Rose and she is just beautiful.  I ended up crying because Tyson was AFRAID OF THE BABY!!!!  He would barely even look at the baby and would keep hiding his face into my chest (or Heath's).  It just made me so sad and nervous about what is to come in a few weeks.  I just don't want Ty to be confused and scared, but I'm not sure there will be any way around that.  After the hospital visit, we went back to the house and had a great BBQ that Heath did on the grill for supper.  Then we started the festivities!  First we had Finley's 1year birthday party (a week late) and that was a riot.  She was very cute, but I have to say that Tyson stole the show.  When she was opening her presents, Ty did think that one of her presents was "HIS" present (it was a ride-on My Little Pony little cart-thing) and he completely grabbed it away from her (not cool, but...) and started riding it away from her.  She grabbed the back of it and he was pretty much dragging her on the floor.  Finley was the one who had her present hijacked, but it was Tyson who was screaming because he was going to lose it!  Everyone was laughing so hard we were crying.  Poor Finley.  After the birthday, we segwayed right into a baby shower for Kelly!  I'm sure she wasn't surprised, but we had fun.  We did a great baby food tasting game that Jen put on, and then Shannon & I tried to do this applesauce-feeding game, but it really didn't work out and ended up being a bust.  So we moved onto presents instead!  They got some really nice gifts and I was happy to give Kelly her wall-hanging for Caleb that I had been working on.  Soon after that, we all headed to bed.  Heath had put Ty down while we started the shower and thank goodness, the crying it out fiasco did not happen that night!  Well, until about 2 AM when Ty awoke with what I think was a bad dream... and he came to bed with us for the rest of the night.

Cousins with matching vests

First birthday

She was more excited looking at the cake than eating it!

Ty stealing Fin's toy (don't mind Finley's nakedness)

Applesauce-eating game

Caleb's quilt

On Sunday it was Fair Day again with everyone.  The problem was that there is such a big group now that goes, there is no way everyone can stay together.  What was interesting is that we all kind of stayed with our own families.  So we spent most of our time with Devin (Leigh was sleeping after working the night before), Shannon & Sean, and Keith & Sonia.  Then there was the Conrad, Case & Wall clan - and then the Braces were in their own group too.  We need to switch it up since we never get to see each other!!!!  Ty did good in the stroller, but not as good as he did on Friday.  He definitely wanted to get out more, probably since Daddy was around!  He loved, loved the tractors and sat on every single one that we came across!  The highlight of my fair-eating was the Falafel (not your usual fair food) and now Heath & I are obsessed with Falafels.  So good.  I felt like I could stay at the fair for hours and hours, probably because I had actually gotten some good sleep and it was in the 50's instead of the 80's.  Well, I left just before 5 PM (after a good 7 hours) to go home to watch the Pats play with everyone and Ty & Heath stayed to watch the truck pulls.  Ty had just fallen asleep in the stroller when I was leaving and Sonia was walking him around.  They told me that he was interested in the trucks, but when they really started pulling - it was too loud and he would cover his ears and hide his face.  Too cute.  They got back at about 8:30 PM and then we headed home!  What a busy weekend.  We were all pooped.

Just slightly obsessed with tractors

Feeding the goats

Then Ty forgot all about the goats and just wanted to throw the hay in the air!

Love this picture

On Monday we unpacked and then Ty & I went to the pharmacies.  I got some more free gum, Dove shampoo & conditioner for $0.50 each, and two Bisquick boxes for $0.75 each!  I made vege fettuccine alfredo and Ty devoured it.  Don’t remember too much else.

Ty grabbed the fettuccine off the counter and this is what he did with it!

On Tuesday I started my project of "getting the baby clothes ready."  I have about 5 trash bags full of Ty's clothes, that I had given to Leigh for Bode, that we got back.  So I washed them and started sorting them.  I'm trying to figure out where to put everything.  I am going to use the smaller closet in Tyson's room all for the baby and part of Ty's larger closet as well.  Then I will put his socks, pajamas, sweaters/vests, and hats in his dresser, which will be in our room.  I don't think it will be that bad to go between 2 rooms, since I will be in and out constantly with Tyson anyways... and our closet is chocked full of clothes - there is just no room for the baby clothes right now, until we move downstairs.  So I started the sorting process and I had so much junk in the small closet to sort through as well.  Tyson did find some new toys that had been hiding in the closet that I had forgotten about, so he was psyched!  Ty took a 3 hour nap in the late AM/afternoon, so he didn't finish his lunch until about 4 PM.  Having supper at our normal 7 PM time meant that he was not hungry at all.  I made lentil patties, mashed potatoes, and homemade bread.  Well, what do you know, Ty would not even TRY the patties or the mashed potatoes... all he wanted was the bread.  Heath & I both told him that if he would just try the patties or mashed potatoes, he could have all the bread he wanted - but our child is that stubborn and he would not open that mouth for anything in the world.  So we gave up and we took him out of his seat and told him that he wasn't going to eat anything for supper.  He proceeded to go between Heath & I trying to manipulate us both.  He was laying on the charm really thick, smiling, pointing and oohing and ahhing over the bread... but we wouldn't budge.  But neither did he.  It was the first night he went to sleep without any supper.  But again, since he had eaten lunch so late, I didn't feel bad about it (not much anyways).  What am I going to do with this kid?

On Wednesday I worked and Ty went on a shopping day with Noni, Shannon & Finley.  He got his nap in on the way home and loved these stickers Noni had gotten him.  He ended up putting them all over his jeans! 

On Thursday I couldn't get much done on my baby project between picking up the house, Ty's nap (since I can't get in Ty's room), and then we had to go to the Subaru dealer by 3 PM for a recall fix.  That took about an hour, which Ty did very well with.  They have a good toy selection and he was happy to go to town with new toys!  He also loved the bean bags and was hurling himself on them left and right.  After Subaru we headed to the bank and then to Walmart to get more baby hangers.  Then we headed down to Concord to meet Heath.  We were having a night out of shopping and out to eat by ourselves.  First we stopped at Burlington Coat Factory and looked at their strollers (since I had a 15% off coupon), but they didn't have what we wanted, so that was a bust.  What was a worst bust was our next stop.  We went to Verizon to finally get our phones (I’m upgrading and Heath hasn’t had a phone since he left Vutek - long story).  We went into the store and there wasn't a soul in sight.  We both wanted to browse the phones a bit, but the greeter guy said, "We better put your name down in case we get busy."  So Heath said, "OK."  I am not exaggerating when I say that 10 seconds later, a salesguy comes up to us and says, "Heath?  What can I do for you today?"  And we said, "We said we weren't ready yet, we were going to browse first."  So he said to just let him know when we were ready.  Fast forward to 15 minutes later, and again, I'm not exaggerating when I say about 7 people came through the doors.  Long story short, the greeter guy had us already "joined" with that one sales guy, who became busy with other people during our 15 minutes of browsing... so again... long story short, all those people ended going ahead of us.  After we had waited an hour, Heath lost his cool (I think he was hungry) with the greeter guy and we walked out.  Let me tell you, I was not happy.  We had wasted an hour of our life in that store and GOT NOWHERE!  And I killed myself chasing Ty around the Verizon store and that is no picnic, I can assure you.  Especially when he figured out how to open the front door and tried to run out into the parking lot multiple times.  The kid is crazy.  Fortunately, our night got better when we headed to the OG, had a great meal (except Heath's favorite go-to meal that he gets every time, Lasagna Rollata, got removed from the menu) and then rushed to Babies 'R Us within 15 minutes of closing.  We knew exactly what baby monitor we were picking up, so that was easy... and then it was back to the strollers.  We were between 2 options and we were able to pick out the Baby Trend Sit & Stand Deluxe stroller.  It is really nice and we can fit our car seat in it, so we were sold.  I had a 20% off coupon to help with the stroller purchase (the baby monitor was excluded unfortunately), so that was good.  It feels great to get the two things we really needed for when this baby comes.  We are going to be prepared if it kills me!  Have a great week!

The first pair of pants we put on just fell off  - the waist was too big and they were 18 month pants too!

Playing at the car dealership