Pumping, Super Nanny, Sledding, VT, Sleeping Flat & On His Own, Conrad Visit & Pedaling

6 Weeks Old

2 Years, 2 Months & 2 Weeks Old

2 Fridays ago it was laundry day for us – we needed to get some clothes cleaned after 5 days being at the Edwards.  We also hit up the grocery store as is our usual Friday routine.  Some interesting things happened on Friday with Ty.  First of all, he started wiping my kisses off his face!  What?  How does he know already that it is uncool to be kissed by his mother?  Hopefully it really isn’t starting this early!  The second thing that happened was down-right crazy.  I was getting ready to pump, when I went into the kitchen for something and when I came back I was not prepared for what I saw.  Ty had unzipped his pajamas and had the pump strapped to his chest!  I just about died.  It was about the funniest thing I have seen.  Nothing much gets past Ty!  Well, nothing except for Super Nanny! (=  Since I have been home bound with the baby and nursing frequently… I have watched everything on my DVR.  Well, I came across a marathon of Super Nanny and I got hooked.  She is really, really good and I need some help with Tyson.  He is a very headstrong child and he is having temper tantrums galore.  I started using her time-out method right away with Ty and it has been working great!  He gets a 2 minute time-out (1 minute for each year old he is) and if he tries to get up from the time-out spot, then the timer starts again and I place him back to the spot without talking to him.  The no-talking-thing is definitely the best part – it drives him crazy!  He’ll start saying, “Mama…Mama…Mama” over and over trying to get me to respond to him!  It is amazing, though, how they start manipulating already.  He was in the time-out chair and he started to whine to me, “Mama…water.  Mama…water!”  Are you kidding me?  The first few times he would get up about 4 times during a time-out, but most of the time now – he does not get up at all!  In fact, as soon as I put him in time-out, he automatically says in a sing-song, sweet voice, “Sorry Mama.”  It is pretty cute.  I’m just thankful that I have something that is working with him.  When Heath got home on Friday night, we had Ty open one of the presents that we could not fit in the car when we went to the Edwards.  It was a sled!  Heath took Ty sledding around the house that night and Ty was in heaven!  I was plum-tuckered out Friday night and I fell asleep while nursing Wes at our midnight feeding and woke up at 4 AM, still sitting up in bed holding Wes.  That doesn’t make for restful sleep.

I can't remember a funnier picture I've seen in a long time

After opening his sled and getting ready to sled with Daddy

On Sabbath we headed over to my Uncle Kevin & Aunt Sherrie’s house in Vermont to visit with them and Jonathan & Marcela, who were visiting from Texas.  My parents came with us too.  I definitely wanted them to be able to meet Wes!  We had a wonderful meal and a great time hanging out.  It was so good to see Zasha & Luccia.  It stinks that we only see them about twice a year.  It’s definitely fun to swap stories with Jonathan & Marcela, since Zasha is 10 days older than Ty.  They had a blast playing together.  Heath & Jonathan took them outside on the snowmobile and sledding in the afternoon.  They had so much fun.  The kids got pulled in a sled behind a snowmobile (going super slow) but that party ended when they tipped over!  I thought that they were crying but it was actually Zasha singing!  How cute is that?  It started snowing pretty good, so we headed home in the early evening.  A cool thing happened on the way home.  We were in a drive-thru line, ordering an egg & cheese wrap for Ty at Dunkin’ Donuts… when we were told that the car in front of us did a “random act of kindness” and paid for our wrap and bought us an extra one too!  That is such a nice feeling when that happens.  It doesn’t happen very often!  We got home safely, despite the weather, thank goodness.

Franconia Notch driving to Vermont

It was so gorgeous - I can't believe we are so lucky to live here

She is so adorable

He isn't too bad either

Together they are way too cute

Right before they fell off

Let's stick with good 'ol man-power

Of course Ty wanted to wear Zasha's pink gear

On Sunday I finally got the laundry put away and Wes & I spent a lazy day watching football almost all day long.  Ty spent a lot of time with Heath down in the basement and they went to Home Depot together.  Ty is just in heaven, spending any time with his daddy.  Sunday night was a big deal.  I decided to try to put Westin down to sleep in the small pack ‘n’ play that we have.  He slept from 9PM- 12AM in it without any problems at all!  And then I fell asleep nursing him again until after 3 AM.  But I was psyched that he actually laid flat to sleep!  It is a miracle!

Working with Dad in the basement

It was bath night and I got out Westin's infant bath and this is what Ty did!

On Monday it was New Year’s Eve and Heath was home with us all day!  I puttered around while he did some projects.  In the late afternoon, Kelly, Steve & Caleb came to visit us!  They were coming back from Steve’s parents’ house for the weekend and decided to stop in.  It was great to see Wes & Caleb together.  They are both so cute.  And again, it is great to talk to a mother who has a child that is the same age as my child!  Wish we lived closer!  After the Conrads had left, we took down our Christmas tree.  I was wrapping up ornaments in tissue paper, when Ty grabbed some ornaments and said, “Help Mama.”  That melted my heart!  Heath was having a bonfire that day and we wanted to burn the Christmas tree.  I took Ty to the window in the den, so he could watch the tree burn on the bonfire.  Man, it was a sight!  The flames were shooting so high!  Ty was so wide-eyed and he leaned forward, toward the window and started blowing – trying to blow out the inferno that was in front of him!  It was so funny!   Westin proved that the night before was not a fluke and slept all night in his pack ‘n’ play without any problems!

The twins on their boppy's with their binkies

A close up

The moms with their boys

On Tuesday, it was New Years Day!  Heath was home again and we hit up the Pizza Hut buffet for lunch and had a great spread.  Ty ate a ton and kept “flirting” with this older woman sitting next to us!  He kept showing her his dance moves and she showed him how to “raise the roof”!  It was very cute.  That night we met the Edward at an Italian restaurant in Laconia that was excellent.  The kids were not too, too bad, but it wasn’t a quiet, relaxing meal either.  That night was also special because it was the first time that I dressed the boys alike!  They were so cute!

My "twins!"

Happy New Year!

On Wednesday I killed myself getting the two kids out of the house and we headed to Manchester for my 6 week follow-up OB appointment.  We met Shannon & Fin at Lots 4 Tots and then we ran into Babies ‘R’ Us so I could nurse Westin.  Then we went to my appointment, which went great.  Finally we had lunch at Panera and the kids actually did very well.  But after that it was almost time for Wes to eat again, so we boogied home!  Wes continued to sleep like a champ in the pack ‘n’ play and actually has been putting himself to sleep!!!!  I will lay him down still awake and within a few minutes, he has put himself to sleep!  I am so excited about this.  I rocked Ty to sleep until after a year and then he had to do crying-it-out to put himself to sleep.  It will be amazing if Wes develops this skill so early on! 

Sleeping the day away in his car seat

It's hard to see - but this is Wes completely awake & happy in his pack 'n' play, right before he fell asleep on his own!

On Thursday we had another day out!  My mom joined us this time, while I had an appointment with an orthopedic PA about my tennis elbow.  It just will not get better.  He freaked me out when he said, “This can be a problem.”  He told me that it can be chronic, but that he has never seen it last longer than 2 years!  I just about died when he said that!  He did a steroid injection into my elbow and it is feeling much better, but he said that I might need up to 5 injections over this next year for it to completely go away.  We’ll see how it goes.  After the appointment, we did a few errands and then went home.  The rest of the day we focused on packing to go to Conway for the weekend to have Christmas with my family.  Also, Westin had been doing so well in his pack ‘n’ play that I decided to press my luck and see how he would do in his big crib.  Well, he did fantastic and slept the whole night without any problems!  What a good baby!  OK… that’s it for now.  Have a great week!

Ty is very excited to be playing Play-Doh with Daddy

He looks really red-headed here

Loving his remote control car

Blurry shot taken by Ty on my iPhone

Oh yeah... big news!  Ty pedaled his trike this week! (=