Ty & Wes Time: Disaster Lunch, First Church, Blocked Tear Duct, 5-6 Hour Stretches, Children's Museum & Hair Pulling

Wes: 4 Weeks Old

Ty: 2 Years & 2 Months Old

Here I am two weeks behind because of Christmas and juggling the two boys! I can barely get anything done at all! I feel like I have accomplished the world when I get a blog post done!

2 weeks ago on Friday, I had had enough of being cooped up with the boys. My mother, Shan, Fin & I headed to the thrift stores! We did well and more importantly, my boys did well! I really needed my mother to help watch Ty, though – since he loves to run off. My mother had been cleared from her shingles to be around the grandkids, so she wanted to treat us all to lunch. We headed to Chili’s. I can’t even begin to explain how terrible it was, but it was. This was mostly because of Tyson. He was absolutely horrible. I had to nurse Westin, so there I was… completely helpless to help with Ty – while he kept carrying on. My mother was doing great with him, but Finley is completely and utterly obsessed with my mother… so Finley basically had to be sitting in my mother’s lap the whole time (or else she screams very loudly) while Mom was trying to deal with Ty. It was a disaster. We all were laughing at how absurd it was and we all agreed that we would never go out to lunch again (at least for awhile). While we were at Chili’s, we saw on the TV’s about the Newtown shooting. We really didn’t know anything yet, just that it was at an elementary school but that changed the dynamic of our celebratory lunch. I still can not begin to fathom this tragedy. I kept picturing my world without Tyson, if that were to happen to Tyson, and how all these families have to endure Christmas and live the rest of their lives without their children. It is just the most heartbreaking thing I can think of. I think I kept thinking of Tyson because he is older and Wes is just too young to imagine in school right now. Well, after the disaster of a lunch, we all headed to Market Basket and my mother was wonderful to me again…when she took Ty in her cart and I just had Wes (who was an angel the entire day). I raced home to nurse Westin again and started watching the news coverage of the shooting and watched it pretty regularly for the next 5 days or so. I don’t remember being so affected by something…since 9/11 probably. I think becoming a parent definitely hit it home for me.

I love my boys!

On Sabbath we made it to church for the first time! We went to Laconia church and Wes was an angel again! We were initially going to take Westin to the pediatrician and not go to church, but thank goodness we didn’t need to. I forgot to say that on Friday, out of the blue, in the afternoon, he developed this thick yellow-green discharge from his left eye. I would wipe it away and it would just keep coming back. There was a ton of it. His eye wasn’t red at all – it just had this terrible drainage. I called the pediatrician on Friday afternoon, and they said it could be a blocked tear duct. Ty never had anything like that, so I had no idea what it was. I did warm compresses and massaged it and by Sabbath morning, it was almost completely gone! Thank goodness! After church, we went to Shannon & Sean’s for lunch. A great time was had by all again. We left late afternoon since they were headed to a holiday party at Sean’s work and we decided to go Christmas shopping in Concord. Unfortunately, Ty would not nap again in the car, so that was too bad. He ended up not taking a nap at all that day. He did fine, we went to quite a few stores and Taco Bell and all was well. But then in our last store (Best Buy) both boys decided that enough was enough and both had very loud meltdowns. It was after 10 PM, so you really couldn’t blame them. We left as fast as we could.

Disgusting

At church in his car seat - his left eye was completely better

On Sunday Heath was back working outside and the boys and I stayed inside and watched football most of the day. Ty got a treat and went to Home Depot with Heath. That was a treat for me too! Just to be able to focus on Westin alone was great! I think it is great to have special one-on-one time, if you can! Sunday night the Pats played and had been losing 31-3 and came back to tie it 31-31… just to lose in the end. I was pretty depressed. I wish they hadn’t come back at all! What a disappointment. What was very exciting (to make up for it)… Westin slept from 1 AM to 6:30 AM that night… and that has continued every night since then! I put him down after his 9 PM feeding and he goes right to sleep. Then I take a shower, finish cleaning up, and get to have about an hour to myself… then I “wake him up” and nurse him one last time at about 12:30 AM. Then he goes right back to sleep and sleeps until 6:30 or even 7 AM! I am very lucky. I hope this continues. He still is in the swing. For now.

Alone time with Wes

On Monday, I don’t remember what exactly happened… except we had bad weather and it was snowing and freezing rain all day, so we didn’t go to the pharmacies on that day. We stayed home and played instead.

Ty thinks that "playing" means putting a car & a remote control in the microwave and turning it on!!!!

On Tuesday, we (the boys, Noni & I) drove to Boston to meet the Grodacks, Aunt Melanie, and Shawn & Camille at the Children’s Museum. We had a great time. Tyson was in heaven. He ran non-stop all over that place. He just had a blast. It was so much fun to see him having fun! I’ve got to take him to more children’s museums! Westin was very good and they had a nice nursing room that I had to use twice. My mom was a lifesaver, of course, with Tyson. He was a real pill during lunch, though. He wouldn’t eat anything (too excited probably) and wouldn’t sit still. I should have just strapped him into his stroller and made him stay put. I tried our new double stroller for the first time and I really liked it! I think we made a good choice with it.

Doing a puzzle with Noni & Calleigh

Playing in the water area

Westin slept the whole time in the stroller

Ty & Camden

Ty & Calleigh - Calleigh was helping Ty climb this contraption

On Wednesday I did a full cleaning of the house for the first time with 2 kids! Oh my! Well, technically I didn’t finish it… there is no way that I can do it all in one day. So I started it on Wednesday and finished it on Thursday. It went fine. That night, just the 4 of us (Heath, me & the boys) went to the Mexican restaurant and then went driving to see some Christmas lights. Ty loved the lights and it was a nice festive thing to do!

This house in Laconia is officially on the national "Tacky Lights Tour"

On Thursday, I finished cleaning and then we went to the pharmacies in the afternoon. I got some free shampoo and made $1 on Tums. I got some other deals, but those were the highlights. Ty was very good again in the pharmacies, since I promised him a treat he could have in the car if he was good in the store. It is working! In the evening, Ty was very cute with Westin. Ty pointed at the Ipod player and wanted me to put music on. Then he started dancing up a storm and then he would say, “Baby, baby” and showed him how to dance – like he wanted Wes to dance with him! It was very cute. After baths that night, I was changing Westin when he started to scream in pain – really losing his mind. He was screaming so bad that Heath flew into our bedroom to find out what was going on. It took me a couple of seconds, but then I figured it out. He had his hands in a tight fist and had pulled his own hair and was yanking it very hard! The poor bugger had no idea why he was in such pain - and that he was doing it to himself! I’m sure you don’t hear of this happening all that often… since newborns do not usually have as much hair as my little guy! OK! Another week down… but I’m still behind another week. I’ll try to get it done sometime! Have a great week and a Happy New Year!