Church Camping Trip, Giving Himself a Time-Out, Potty-Training, Booster Seat, "Help" & "Boobies"

23 Months & 2 Weeks

Last Friday was Heath's last day at Vutek.  I can't imagine being somewhere for 8 years and then leaving.  It was a sad day for him, but exciting too - since he will be turning the page with a new career in a new industry!  Ty & I went grocery shopping and we got him cards and eclairs to celebrate the occasion.  We got him 2 cards - one of congratulations of getting through the last few weeks at his old job and another card of encouragement of starting his new job!  I don't remember too much more of what happened except Tyson  tearing the house apart while I was cooking supper, but then making it up to me by helping me unload the dishwasher!  

Tyson carried his first bag of groceries in for me!

I finished Brady's quilt (only over a year late) and mailed it to Corey

Playing around 

Making a mess

He hands me the dishes one by one!

On Sabbath morning we got up and finished packing up and headed to the Kancamagus for the Conway church camping trip.  My mom had done a great job organizing it and we had a great time!  Unfortunately, Ty did not nap the entire way there - even though we left when he was due for his nap.  I knew that was his one chance and he wouldn't nap the rest of the day.  He hasn't had many days like that and he did quite well regardless.  We got to the campground for lunch and after lunch we went on a walk.  I said I would go as long as it was a "walk" and not a "hike" - we went pretty far and then I was having continual Braxton's Hicks so we (my mom, sister, Fin, Heath, Ty & I) headed back.  I thought Ty might sleep in the backpack, but no such luck.  He was just destined for no nap that day.  Ty had a blast around camp.  He just loves being outside SO much.  He loved going up this steep incline and down the other side (with Heath, of course).  He just had so much fun.  We had the usual campfire feast - potatoes, corn, and onions in the fire with chili that my mom had made and it was great.  Of course, Ty wouldn't eat anything and I was forced to make a peanut butter & jelly.  How he could refuse that great meal is beyond me.  We got to bed around 10 PM and Ty crashed within a couple of minutes - but he was going strong right up until then and he wasn't even cranky.  For some reason, I could not sleep the entire night.  I felt tired but I could not sleep.  I don't know if it was the pregnancy or the fact that Heath & I were sharing our double air mattress with Ty and both of the dogs.  Then at around midnight or so, it started raining.  And I mean raining.  It was down-pouring HARD for hours.  That didn't help my sleeping problem.  I finally fell asleep around 5:30 AM and slept until about 8:00.  Not enough.  Let me tell you.

Having fun picking up acorns

Ty & Fin hugging

Carrying around a pumpkin around camp

"I love camping!"

A group of us on the hike

Looking tired on the hike

On Sunday morning, God answered prayers and the rain had stopped and it turned out to be a beautiful day!  It was pretty cold that morning, but Jason & Stephanie Blakeney had set up their teepee and they got a fire going inside it and had mattresses to sit on... so that was pretty cozy!  We had a great breakfast and then packed up.  I thought for sure that Ty would nap on the way home and within 10 minutes... he was out!  Unfortunately, it only turned into a 30 minute nap, because he woke up as soon as we stopped at the Dunkin' Donuts drive-thru in Lincoln.  What was sad was that Heath was going to go in the store, but I said, "Just go through the drive-thru and then Ty won't wake up."  So much for that.  When we got home, we unpacked like mad and then headed to Walmart to pick up baby brother's nursery set that had finally arrived.  I am a total Amazon girl.  We have Amazon Prime and get free 2 day shipping and I am way too used to that.  Well, we had found this nursery set for cheap at Walmart and had ordered it, using their free site to store shipping.  I should have paid the $10 or so to have it delivered to my house.  They said that it was supposed to arrive in 7-10 days... but it actually took 16 days.  Not impressed at all.  Not that we need it immediately, but we are trying to actually be prepared when this little guy comes, since we were completely unprepared with Tyson.  After all his lack of naps and little sleep that weekend, we put Ty to bed early at 8 PM and he went immediately to sleep!  The poor guy needed it.  Despite my 2+ hours of sleep, I was able to stay awake to see my Pats lose in heartbreaking fashion for the second week in a row.  Seriously heartbreaking.

Heath coming out of the teepee

Ty helping us unpack the car

On Monday morning we had visitors bright and early at about 8:30 AM.  Shannon had an interview (at my hospital... keep your fingers crossed) and Noni & Fin came to our house while Shannon had her interview.  My poor mother.  She was a hurting unit.  The night before, Mom had put a honey bottle in the microwave to loosen it up a bit and hadn't been paying attention to how long it was in there.  She took it out and then squeezed it to get the honey out and the bottle exploded all over her left hand and half-way up her left arm.  She got burned pretty badly.  She had gone to my dad's ER and was put on pain medication and they dressed her up.  She hadn't had any blisters while she was in the ER, but she was completely covered in huge blisters by Monday morning.  It looked so painful - and it was really swollen.  Of course she would only take Ibuprofen, when she probably needed to be popping Percocets left and right!  I can't even imagine.  So we hung out in the morning.  Finley Mae got very curious about Tyson’s “goods” and reached out and grabbed his package while I was changing his diaper!  I just about died laughing!  Shannon got back late morning and then Mom, Shan & Fin headed to Conway for operation “Get Shannon’s Stuff Out of the House.”  I wished them luck and then Ty & I went to the pharmacies.  It wasn’t a very successful week, but I did score a free Thermawrap and 4 bags of Halls for $0.50 each.  Ty did great at the stores, but then he was a bit bad when we got home.  I brought Ty inside and then proceeded to lug in the loot from the car.  When I came back in through the door, Tyson was sitting on the kitchen stool, spraying himself in the face with the water bottle.  Why does he like to do that?  Well, he had already had a “time out” in Heath’s chair for climbing up on the stool already that day (since he climbed out of his Exersaucer earlier in the day that we have always done time outs in).  So what did he do when he saw that he was caught?  He jumped down from the stool and climbed up into Heath’s chair – knowing that he would be getting another time-out!!!!  What a smarty pants.  What is wrong is that he KNOWS it is wrong and chooses to do it anyway.  Hmmm….  Heath’s first day at Hypertherm went well, but what is interesting is that he got home at about 6 PM, which is better than he would do at Vutek (only 20 minutes away) and he has a 1 hour and 5 minute commute!  We’ll see how long that lasts! 

After jumping into the chair (notice the wet shirt)

Looking at his reflection in the oven

On Tuesday I was officially done potty-training.  I forgot to talk about our attempts that started on Sunday night and continued through Monday.  I had only decided to give this a go since Tyson is the most regular kid and poops about 5 minutes after eating breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  I thought that I would get him used to sitting on the potty and doing his business.  Well, of course, since I decided to try and do it, his bowel habits changed completely.  The potty probably scared it out of him!  Instead of going in about 5 minutes, we would sit on the potty, reading books until 20-30 minutes had passed!  Sometimes he would go in the 5 minutes after that, but occasionally he wasn’t going for another 30 minutes!  Then on Monday night and Tuesday night, he didn’t go after supper at all!  So I figured since he can’t tell me when he needs to go yet, we are done for now.  At least I have all the stuff ready to go when he actually IS ready!  On Tuesday, I was eating my breakfast, sitting at the table, browsing the web, when Tyson was getting busy in the hutch drawers behind me.  I let him at it since he is allowed in certain drawers… and he was in the right ones.  After I finished my cereal – I looked down at the mess that he had created.  He had taken 8 of the felt protectors that we put on the bottom of the chairs (so they don’t scratch the wood floor), took the backings off, and stuck them to the floor!  And they were REALLY stuck!  Thank goodness I was able to get them off, but it took some effort!  What a rascal.  Oh, and the penis obsession continues.  But now, with every diaper change, Ty insists on taking a wipe by himself and wiping his goods himself.  And he is very thorough too!  (=

Attempting the training

Ty's handiwork

He is now emptying the drawers now - look at him on his very tippy-toes!

He now likes to bring every toy into the kitchen while I am cooking - very helpful!

He still is drinking his soup!

And poking holes in the watermelon!

On Wednesday I worked and Ty & Noni hung out at home.  Mom still wasn’t feeling completely great with her burn, so they laid low at home… which is very unlike their days together normally!  Ty got into a bit of trouble with Heath on Wednesday night.  He is allowed to mess with the tupperware but the glassware is off limits.  Well, Heath was letting him go at it… and then realized he had glass pieces everywhere!   Thank goodness he didn’t break any of them!

Ty proud of his mess

On Thursday AM, Ty told me that he was hungry and ready for breakfast.  No, he didn’t say the words, but he grabbed his highchair and pulled it out of the corner, all while whining.  I told him, “Ty, you don’t sit in that anymore.  You are a big boy.  You sit in your booster seat now!”  I forgot to mention that when his training potty came, so did his booster seat that I had ordered (again, 2 day free shipping from Amazon) and he loves it!  Well, wouldn’t you know, he pushed the highchair back and pulled the chair out that had his seat in it… then he went back to the highchair and took the tray off it and put it in front of his booster seat!  He is so smart!  I have been using his highchair tray on our table to help with the spills and he knew that the tray needed to come too!  Something else that happened is that Ty has figured out how to say, “help.”  I have been trying to get him to say it for awhile, for me to help him out of jams, or when he gets his toys stuck etc…  Well, now he is saying it – he’ll go “help, help, help,” looking at me pleadingly and you just can’t resist that for anything in the world!  The problem is that sometimes I can’t figure out what he wants me to help him with!  So, I did a full cleaning of the house on Thursday and then the craziest thing happened.  Well, I got myself pretty hot while vacuuming and after I was done, I just took off all my clothes.  That was when Tyson pointed to me and said, plain as day, “boobies.”  I just about died.  I said, “Tyson, what did you say?”  And he repeated it by saying, “beeboos.”  That’s when I know he said it right the first time and I wasn’t hearing things!  Ty has a way of switching the beginning and endings of words when I ask him to repeat them!  Well, what am I supposed to do about this?  Do I really need to be modest around my not-even-2-year-old now?  Really?  I don’t know where he got that word from, but I can tell you it was not from me!  I’m sure it was from his father….  they really do soak up everything, even when you don’t realize it!  On Thursday night, Adam, Heath, Ty & I went to the OG and had a nice meal.  Ty sat in their booster seat there, but it really doesn’t work out as well in a chair as it does in a booth, since they don’t have any straps.  Hope you have a great week!

Ty's new eating set-up

Helping me vacuum