Ty & Wes Time: 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!