Milk From Mama, Stranger Danger, Counting Well, Creepy Bunny & "Bye Dave"

Wes:  17 Weeks Old

Ty:  2 Years & 5 Months Old

Last Friday we got some good news.  Initially you might think that it was bad news, but then it turned out great.  I had ordered a vanity for our bathroom 10 days earlier and I had checked the tracking number for it that morning (since it was supposed to arrive between 5-10 days) and it didn’t make sense.  It said that it had been “out for delivery” 4 days earlier and then there were two entries for that morning that stated “has not arrived.”  I called Home Depot and she contacted the courrier, because she couldn’t understand it either.  She came back and told me that our vanity was lost in transit.  Are you kidding me?  I couldn’t believe it!  How do you lose a bathroom vanity in the mail?  She said that she could reorder one for us and then I grew a backbone.  I asked her what kind of compensation they could offer us for this delay.  She took off the $55 that we were paying for shipping and then took 15% off the original price!  I was psyched.  That meant we were getting it for $100 cheaper!!!  Yes, it would take longer to get here, but, let’s be honest…it will take awhile to get it installed, knowing my dear husband.  Really a win-win.  After that good news, we headed to the grocery store and Ty had a cute moment.  I was curious about something because I didn’t think we had touched on this yet.  I was grabbing a gallon of milk and I asked Ty, “Where does milk come from?”  Ty didn’t miss a beat and said, “Mama booby!”  Another cute thing happened during supper.  Ty had “helped” me make supper and “helped” mostly involved eating Fri-Chik off the cutting board while I was dicing it.  Come suppertime, and he was probably full from eating during the cooking process…but he didn’t want to eat the chicken anymore.  I told him, “Ty, it is the same chicken you ate off the cutting board.”  Well, he proceeded to have a bird, talking in gibberish, pointing, and I could make out, “cut..cut.”  He got up from the table, grabbed the cutting board off the counter and brought it to the table.  He put the chicken from his plate onto the cutting board and then ate off it!!!!  I laughed really hard at that one.  I wasn’t laughing at 10:30 PM when Westin was wide awake and not wanting to go to sleep.  I still had to finish cleaning the kitchen and take a shower – and had to get up at 4:45 AM for work.  Not a great scenario but he finally gave in and went to sleep!

"All this food in the grocery store is making me hungry!  This finger is delicious!"

On Sabbath I worked and both boys slept until 9 AM, when Heath had to wake them up to go to church.  It’s no wonder Wes slept until then, since he was up so late!  Heath wasn’t expecting it when there was a knock on the door and it was Sonia coming to help bring the boys to church!  Ty opened the door and said, “Ranny!” (aka Grammy)  That was a surprise!  In the afternoon, they all went over to our friends from Conway church, the Bachelder’s house.  They actually live two towns over from us and they have a farm with a ton of animals.  They have baby goats right now and Heath thought that Ty would love to see them.  Well, Ty thought they were nice to look at…from a distance!  Ty wanted Heath to hold him constantly.  Both boys showed their scared sides, when one of the girls took Westin down to their house to warm up and he had a major attack of “stranger-danger.”  Heath said that Wes looked scared to death!  I guess he really isn’t around many people that he doesn’t know.  Poor guy.  Sonia went home after that and I got home at around 8 PM.  So nice to see my boys!  I had gotten a movie but Heath was so tired out that he fell asleep during the previews!  Kids are tiring, what can you say?

Some of the tiring things Ty does...

Ecstatic to put money in his piggy bank!

On Sunday I headed back to work and Heath had a day at home with the boys.  He broke up the day by going out for a few errands – to Tractor Supply and DQ!  DQ is open for the season now!  Heath said that Ty had a bad-listening day, which is too bad.  He seems to be getting better for me, but now Ty is probably testing Heath!  I called to check in while I was pumping and Ty sprayed Westin with our water spray bottle while I was on the phone with Heath!  Heath said that is was sad because Westin just sat there and took it.  It is sad, but what else was he supposed to do?  I guess cry, but he saved that for later.  Heath said that Wes cried most of the afternoon.  I wonder what that is about?  I called after work to check in, while I was running to the pharmacies, and Heath sounded a bit flustered.  Wes was crying in the background and Heath had been trying to cook on our grill outside and Ty had locked him outside!  That would have freaked me right out, but Heath stayed calm and he actually talked Ty through opening the lock.  What a rascal!  I couldn’t help but laugh – I just love that he understands what I go through day after day.  It is good for him to have both of them alone.  It really is.  I have to take a minute and vent about one of the pharmacy deals.  For some reason, the pharmacies only stock 3T-4T Nighttime Pull-Ups, instead of 2T-3T.  They have regular Pull-Ups in 2T-3T, but Ty pees so much at night that I don’t trust a regular one.  Unfortunately, I could have gotten this killer deal on Pull-Ups, but since they don’t carry the right size, I was out of luck.  The cash registrar got an earful (not rudely) when he asked, “Did you find everything you were looking for?”  I told him that I had not and he told me that they must have found out that the 2T-3T’s do not sell for some reason.  Well, that is a big shame for me.

Poor Westin taking some more abuse from Ty

More crazy things...Ty is putting a ball up Westin's pant leg

And he got it out!!!!  Look at Wes smiling at Ty - they really do love each other!

On Monday we spent the majority of the day picking up after “Weekend With Daddy.”  It takes most of the day, between naps, breast-feeding, feeding Ty, changing diapers, and running to the potty with Ty.  I also blew a lot of my day because I had downloaded this app on my phone called “Swagbucks.”  One of my friends from work had told me about it.  If you constantly stream videos on your phone (or tablet or laptop) from this site, you rack up these Swagbucks and if you get 450…you get a $5 gift card for Amazon.  I use Amazon non-stop, so I figure that I will just let my phone go to town and I’ll get them in no time.  The problem is that you can also do these tasks…like defining words (don’t ask me what they do with it) and you earn more Swagbucks.  So I defined 5 words (like auto-financing, for example) and I got 8 bucks.  So the real problem is that I have an obsessive personality and I got a bit too involved with this.  At the end of the day, I almost deleted it off of my phone, but I didn’t.  I wasted way too much time doing this.  I earned about 95 bucks on Monday.  I have just done it here and there…and 1 week later, I have 200 bucks. 

Photo shoot

Singing the "Potty Song"

"Ty's singing is giving me a headache!"

On Tuesday we got another almost-blizzard – about 16 inches.  Are you kidding me?  I am SO done with this!  Spring…please come!  We had a great day at home and got some things accomplished!  Tyson had not been messing with the Tupperware in a long time, so I organized the Tupperware cabinet!  I threw away plenty of bottoms or tops that didn’t have mates and just put all the same-shaped Tupperware together neatly.  It felt great!  Ty is doing SO well with his counting, I just can’t believe it!  He really showed off to me, when we were doing the Tupperware.  He kept counting them over and over!  It is so cute – for some reason, he skips 2 and 5 every time!  So he goes, “1, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10!”  Adorable.  Another thing that happened is that I found out that I can not get anything past Tyson.  I officially decided that our sticker potty chart was done.  He does a quick pee all the time and the time that it takes him to pick out a sticker (he takes forever…there are too many choices) and get it on the chart…well, it was becoming painful.  And the fact that he really has this down – you have to stop at some point.  So I decided that I would give him a treat just for poop and just stop the pee-sticker nonsense.  I waited until Ty was down for his nap and I took down the chart.  Well, wouldn’t you know, Ty woke up from his nap and with his eagle-eyes, ran right to the empty wall where his chart used to be and cried, “Uh-oh!  Chart…gone!”  Amazing, but not amazing enough that I brought the chart back! (=  Another cute thing happened when Ty had gone down for the night.  He had been crying to go potty and Heath went up to his room.  Usually I go up there for these types of things, because Ty tends to react worse when Heath goes up because he wants Heath to stay and play (he could care less about me staying and playing).  When Heath got up there, Ty said, “Mama nursing Westy, Daddy here.”  Well, that was exactly right!

Trying to curl his eyelashes

Notice how his mouth and the giraffe's mouth have the same expression!

Doing Pilates with Mama

Tupperware cabinet fun

On Wednesday I headed back to work and Noni was back on duty.  The report I got from Noni was that #1) Westin did not cry all day, #2) Tyson messed up all the Tupperware that I had  organized perfectly the day before (why do I bother?) and #3) she had to give Ty a time-out for not listening.  The cute thing about the time-out was that while she was carrying him to bring him to the chair, he said, “Sorry, sorry, sorry!”  Too little too late, buckaroo. 

Not a peep from my Sweetie all day

Thursday was a long and busy day.  We went with my mother, Shannon & Finley for a day of shopping in Manchester and Concord.  We went to Lots 4 Tots, Hobby Lobby, the mall, and TJ Maxx.  Ty did great and didn’t have any accidents and Wes did awesome too.  Wes tends to do very well in his car seat.  One thing that was so funny happened at the mall.  First of all, I stayed in the car nursing Wes, while Ty went into the mall with my mother & Shannon.  In the mall, they saw the Easter Bunny and Ty proceeded to say, “Bunny.  Creepy.”  Creepy?  Where in the world did he learn that word?  Funny, but puzzling.  When they got back to the car, I put Ty on the portable potty in the back of the Outback.  It was the second time that he had peed in it and I really need to empty it.  We were in the middle of the parking lot and there wasn’t a snowbank in sight, but I just emptied it out on the ground.  It’s pee, for goodness sake – it is sterile.  Water just washes it away!  Shannon gave me so much crap for that.  Well, she got the last laugh!  Before I drove away, Wes started crying in the backseat, so I got out of the car and ran around to his side to give him the binky…and I ran right through all the pee that I had just dumped on the ground!  I laughed so hard.  It served me right.  At the end of the day, we met my Dad, Heath & Sean at the OG.  For some reason, there was a 25-30 minute wait there…so I called the 99 and they said that they did not have a wait.  I asked if we could put our name in, but she said that they are not allowed to do that until they have a wait.  We drove the 5 minutes down the road and then proceeded to wait almost 30 minutes for a table there!!!!  Since we were a big party, they had a hard time accommodating us.  They only have booths there (no tables), so we had to sit at 2 booths across from each other.  Not ideal, but it was OK.  The funniest thing happened there with Tyson.  For some weird reason, he started calling our waiter, “Dave.”  His name was “Dana”, so it wasn’t that far off, but still strange.  After Dana had taken our order and had turned around to leave, Ty said, “Bye Dave!”  We all busted out laughing so hard.  It was so funny!  After dinner, we ran to Burlington Coat Factory and got another car seat.  There was a major sale going on and we got a good deal.  It has been so annoying to switch Tyson’s car seat (kind of complicated) between our cars, so we got another one to keep in Heath’s car.  My mom has been wanting to buy one too, so she got the same one.  I had a 15% coupon that was for something in the baby department but it specifically said, “to be used on a full-priced item.”  Ty needs socks, so I bought socks for him, so I could use the coupon.  To my joy and amazement, it worked on the car seat instead of the socks!  We got an even better deal than we could have hoped for!   That’s it!  Have a good week!  

Cutest video of Wes taken on Thursday morning, while he was looking at himself in the mirror

Trying on sunglasses while shopping

Ty climbing into a baby's bouncer at Burlington

RANDOM PICS

Anticipating the flash

Knows His Cars, Wes to Sabbath School, Middle of Night Waking, Bumbo & No More Swaddle

Wes:  16 Weeks Old

Ty:  2 Years, 4 Months & 3 Weeks Old

Last Friday was a busy day.  We hit up the grocery store and spent the rest of the day packing up to go to the Edwards’ house for the weekend.  Heath actually did not want to leave our house for the weekend, but he caved because I really wanted to go.  It is a problem.  With all the commuting that Heath is doing a week (2 ½ hours a day), he just wants to stay home for the weekend.  With me being home most of the time during the week, I want to get out of dodge when the weekend hits!  We just have to compromise!  On our way to the grocery store Tyson did something amazing.  We were driving in our car, when all of a sudden, Ty squealed and said, “Noni!”  I thought he was just randomly calling out her name but the car that was coming towards us was a silver Prius!  I couldn’t believe it!  What a smarty pants!  I won’t hold it against him that they just got rid of it!  He also showed his smarts in the grocery store.  We were passing some pistachios and Ty pointed at them saying, “Nut…nut…nut!”  I said that he was right that they were nuts, and that they were called “pistachios.”  I exaggerated the word and tried to get him to say it.  He looked like he was concentrating very hard to try to say, “pistachio” but then he exaggerated (very slowly) the word, “nut” again!  It was very cute.  We booked it over to the Edwards for supper and, amazingly, both boys went right to sleep in their own respective beds all night long!  Not bad at all!     

Hanging on the Boppy while Mama packed up

On Sabbath we were fashionably late to Sabbath School, but made it.  I decided to bring Westin in Cradle Roll now.  I had been going to the adult Sabbath School, while Heath took Ty in, but Wes loves to look at everything and takes it all in…so I think he will really enjoy the songs and activities!  We stayed for potluck after church and we witnessed a modern-day miracle!  It was one of those potlucks where everyone brought dessert or a salad.  We had only 3 casseroles to feed quite a few people.  But somehow God stretched it!  After lunch, I will freely admit (with guilt) that I went to Walmart.  I had been so proud of myself the day before.  I had thought that I had done so well with packing for the weekend.  I had gotten everything…I had time to spare…I was all set when Heath got home.  It wasn’t until about 15 minutes down the road that I had a horrifying feeling and then I started laughing.  I had forgotten to pack underwear for myself!!!!  I have never, ever done that before.  I know exactly what happened.  I had gotten my nylons, then my socks, then my bras…and then Tyson screamed about something and I had turned away – not going to my last drawer.  Then I forgot about them and thought I had everything.  Anyways, it was an emergency and since we don’t pass any stores that sell underwear on the way to the Edwards – I knew that I would have to go to Walmart in Conway after church.  As I was getting out of the car, like I said, feeling that guilt, I looked over and saw a friend of ours from church in the car beside us!  What are the odds?  We had a laugh about it (she was bringing an elderly friend to Walmart, it wasn’t for herself)!  After Walmart, we went to Heath’s grandmother’s house (Norma) to visit.  She had been in the ER the day before for neck pain that she had just woken up with.  Well, the pain had intensified and she could barely move.  She didn’t want to go back to the hospital, so they were just going to play it by ear.  We went back to the Edwards and decided to have a Downton marathon.  It turned out to be not much of a marathon – we only got through 1 episode!  Norma got even worse and went by ambulance to the ER (where Shannon and Devin took care of her).  So Sonia, obviously went and met them and she was there all night.  Norma got admitted, but thank goodness, was discharged on Monday.  They think she was having the horrible muscle pain from a statin drug (for cholesterol).  She is doing great now, we are glad.  It is so hard to see someone in so much pain like that.  Speaking of pain, I had the absolute worst headache I remember having on Saturday night.  Advil did nothing and it was just terrible.  I sat there, in a daze, and put frozen peas on my head and finally, after hours…it finally got better.  But I was spent and went to bed at an unheard-of time of 11 PM, or something like that. 

See what Sabbath School will teach you?  It's cute - he calls "Jesus Loves Me" - "Bible So!"

On Sunday we didn’t do much.  Our number one goal got accomplished, but it took hours.  We went through all the homes I found, made a decision, and booked a house to rent for when we go to Florida on vacation next month.  Very exciting!  We went out to eat with Keith & Sonia on the way home.  Ty needed to a few walks while we were there and I had to give him a time-out, as soon as we stepped in the building for his attitude.  But overall, he wasn’t bad and Westin was great.  I had to nurse him there and I was able to pry him out of Grampy’s arms!  Keith loves to hold Wes all the time – it is so cute.  Wes is his “mini-me” - so it just makes sense!

On Monday I don’t remember any funny stories or anything.  It was a busy day of unpacking from the weekend and the boys & I went shopping in the afternoon.  We went to 2 out of the 3 pharmacies and Walmart.  Ty did great and didn’t have any accidents.  I did put him on our portable potty in the middle of the trek and he just thinks that is great.  He loves to sit on it, in the back of the Outback, and waves at everyone driving by.  I saw so many people cracking up!  It must be quite a scene…a little boy, sitting on the potty, with the biggest smile waving at everyone!  I do remember that Wes woke up a couple of times during the night that night.  I didn’t know what the heck was going on.  You really get used to your baby sleeping through the night and it feels like the end of the world when they don’t!

Look at that angelic face!  You can't stay mad at him!

Tuesday was a busy day.  Shannon & Fin came over for the afternoon.  We watched the last Twilight movie together.  It had just come out and I had bought it at Walmart the day before.  I definitely like it more and more with every time that I watch it.  After our company had gone home, I killed myself doing a full cleaning on the house.  I had done some of it the night before (after the kids were asleep, at about 1 AM), so I was able to finish it all on Tuesday.  One thing Ty did that was funny was when the puppies started barking.  Reeses was lying in her bed, covered with a blanket, but had most of her face sticking out.  Well, she didn’t move much but had just started barking.  What did Tyson do?  He took the blanket and pulled it completely over Reese’s head!  Of course, I told him not to do that, but I was dying laughing inside!  On Tuesday night, we sat Westin in the Bumbo for the first time.  I just love that thing!  He looked so adorable in it!  I don’t know what it is…but seeing a baby sitting up “by themselves” is just so cute!  He wasn’t cute again on Tuesday night when he woke up at 3 AM and 5 AM again.  Growth spurt?  Separation Anxiety?  Not sure.  I always get a terrible night’s sleep the night before I have to work.  It never fails!      

Shannon will kill me for this picture!  But I think it is cute!

He rode vacuum like this the whole time I was cleaning!  It was heavy to move it!

First Bumbo experience!

Jealous much?

Ty joined in on the early morning waking party that Westin was throwing on Wednesday and got up at 6:30 AM, when I was trying to get ready to go to work.  I brought him to our bed and he ended up going back to sleep.  What is crazy is that he didn’t wake up until 10 AM!!!!  Poor Shannon had to baby-sit all 3 kids because my parents were in Florida.  She got through it and said it went better than she had thought, but that it was really busy.  She said my boys were “angels” (her words) and that her daughter was the problem! (=  A mother loves to hear that  - especially when someone is taking care of them!  Ty didn’t have any accidents for Shannon, so that was awesome!  Wes gave Heath a run for his money at bedtime.  He just would NOT go to sleep.  He has done that a bit lately, I don’t know what is going on.  He seemed tired and he cried for quite awhile, but he wouldn’t go to sleep.  After 2 hours of weeping & gnashing of teeth, Heath gave up and laid Wes on our bed.  That is when Westin started cooing, smiling, and laughing at Heath.  It is impossible to stay mad at that kid!  I tried something different on Wednesday night and did not swaddle Westin – I put him in a sleepsack instead.  I was wondering if he was waking up so much from the swaddle.  He busts out of that thing constantly and they do say that when they start busting out, then it is time for them to be out of them.  I didn’t think it would be so soon – since Ty was swaddled until about 8 months.  Well, Westin seemed to love the freedom and had no problems sleeping in the sack and only woke up once during the night!  Improvement?

Thursday was another busy day.  I do remember a few cute things that Ty did on Thursday.  First of all, he had been bad and had taken the dog food (that he is not supposed to touch) and had thrown it over the gate downstairs.  Dog food was everywhere.  I had a small bird and told him that he had to pick up every last piece of dog food.  He took it right in stride and got to work.  But he couldn’t just pick up the pieces in the regular way, he had to make it interesting!  He grabbed a block and put the pieces inside the block and then dumped the block out into the dog dish!  He is something else!  He also was very cute with his baby doll.  He decided that the doll really needed a nap.  He did everything with the doll that I do with him before naps!  He brought the doll to the bathroom and put him on the potty, then he put music on for the doll (he changed CD’s, turned it on and everything), gave the baby doll a “drink”, and then put him in the crib and covered the baby with Ty’s blanket!  For lunch, we went down to Concord and met Shannon & Fin at Friendly’s.  We had the worst waitor ever there.  First of all, I tried to order a grilled cheese & tomato with swiss cheese and he said they didn’t have swiss cheese.  I knew they did, but I asked him what they had besides American (because I hate it) and he had no idea.  He didn’t know the menu at all!  I was able to find in the menu that they DID have swiss cheese, which was no big surprise.  Then he screwed up Finley’s order, but the worst was yet to come.  I had forgotten to ask for separate checks, but I figured he could handle a couple of coupons.  Man, was I wrong.  We each had a coupon that made the kid’s meals become $1.99 with a purchase of an adult entrée (they are usually about $5.75).  Well, wouldn’t you know, he comes back and says, “It will only take 1 coupon.”  Instead of telling us this, he ran my credit card and just used the 1 coupon.  We told him that we needed to use both coupons, and asked if he could split the checks so we could use both coupons.  He looked at me with a blank stare and in his “I-smoke-too-much-pot-and-fried-my-brains” voice he said, “I already ran your credit card.”  And I was like, “So what?  Can you have your manager void it and split it up so we can use the coupons?”  After quite a pause, he leaves.  He comes back with 1 credit card bill for $15.88.  So, obviously his manager overrode the machine and let us have both coupons on one bill.  We both had grilled cheeses that were $5, and the kids meals were both $2…so with tax, it was clearly on one bill.  I paid with my credit card (Shannon gave me cash) and we left.  We were in a wicked rush to make it to Shannon’s OB appointment.  As I was backing out of my parking spot in the parking lot, this retarded waiter comes flying out of the restaurant waving our receipts.  I rolled down my window and he said, “You didn’t pay for both meals.”  I’m like, “Are you kidding me?  Yes, we did.”  I went through the math with him and again, he was staring blankly at me.  I said, “Obviously your manager overrode the problem and put it on 1 bill.”  And then he said, “But I gave you 2 slips!”  I could not believe this guy was this stupid.  I said, “Yes, there are two slips.  One is the restaurant copy and one is the guest copy!  I would never run out on a bill.”  I’m not kidding, he still did not look convinced, but he let me go.  I have never in my life had anything happen like that to me.  If we were not going to be late, I would have totally complained to his manager.  He was terrible in every aspect, but running into the parking lot to flag me down to accuse me of not paying…that is ridiculous.  I was shaking, I was so mad.  But, I got over it.  On a more positive note, Shannon had a good OB appointment – Griffin is looking great!  Yes, they have named him already!  Overachievers.  I had to nurse Westin during the appointment, so Wes, Ty, Fin & I all stayed in the car.  I locked the doors and had Ty & Fin go crazy in the car!  They did and I was happy to see Shannon when she came back…but she had just done a 10 hour shift with all 3 of them the day before.  So I had nothing to complain about!  We went to Mexican again that night with Adam and ate well, as usual.  Hope you have a great week!

Ty needed help getting his doll into his crib!  He got him stuck in the bars!  He wasn't trying to kill it!

Playing with the balloon from Friendly's

Fooling around with Daddy

It's just too much for him to handle!

Lining up all the salt & pepper shakers...perfectly

Look at the drool!

Trying to Sit Up, ?Growth Spurt, OCD Painting, Accident-Free Day, ?Separation Anxiety, Thrift Store Nightmare & "Snickers Eat Poop"

Wes:  15 Weeks Old

Ty:  2 Years, 4 Months & 3 Weeks Old 

Last Friday we had our big outing and hit up the grocery store.  One thing I did notice on Friday was that Wes is really trying to sit up.  He leans forward in the bouncer and he leans forward when he is sitting on the Boppy!  He seems like he is going to fall right over, because he is leaning so hard!  It is very cute.  Some sleeping issues happened last Friday.  On a good note, Ty took a 3 hour nap and I actually had to wake him up, so we could get to the grocery store before sundown!  I was so impressed.  He was super cranky when I woke him up, though.  There is a reason why you are never supposed to wake a kid up!  Then I totally jinxed myself on Friday night.  Right before bed I was thinking to myself, “I can’t remember the last time that Westin woke up during the night.  I am so lucky.”  I didn’t say it out loud, but it didn’t matter!  Wes woke up at 3 AM and 5 AM!  I had to work the next day, too.  It must be a growth spurt!  He has woken up at 5 AM a couple of times this week, but has been able to go right back to sleep.  Hopefully this phase doesn’t last long! 

Just before he tried to sit up!

On Sabbath I worked and the boys stayed at home…but they made it to church by themselves for the first time!  Sonia did come over to help take them, but Heath got the boys fed, changed, and out the door by himself!  Fun times!  Heath told me the cutest story about Ty.  At Sabbath School, for their craft, the kids were finger painting a picture of a tree.  Heath said that all the kids were going crazy, getting their hands all mucked up and just destroying those pictures of the tree.  And then there was Ty.  First of all, he did not like the paint on his hands (he doesn’t like sand or anything on his hands… he always says, “sticky”) and then he very carefully, used the right colors (without having to be told) in the right spots on the tree – but with only a small amount so that it did not get too messy!! (=  I took a picture of it because it was so cute!  What can I say?  OCD.  At church, they passed out daffodils for the children’s story and Heath told Ty to give one to me when I got home from work.  Fast forward nearly 8 hours later and what did Ty do as soon as I came through the door?  “Mama, Mama…come!  Flower Mama!”  Heath couldn’t believe it, since he had said it only once and it was hours and hours ago.  That kid is like an elephant…he does not forget anything!  Wes did pretty good, but was a bit fussy with the bottle again.  It is really hit or miss with the bottle – there seems to be no rhyme or reason with it.

Ty's work of art

On Sunday I headed off to work again while the boys chilled at home.  They did make it out of the house and went to a couple of stores – which I know, is a major ordeal!  What also is major is that my husband actually ran the dishwasher on Sunday!  That is a huge improvement! (=  I was very proud of him for that.  I wasn’t very proud of Ty when I heard that he had had many potty accidents with Daddy.  In fact, one of the times they were making supper and Ty was sitting on one of the bar stools and just said, “Pee on stool” and proceeded to make a puddle on the stool.  They had JUST gone to the bathroom and Heath couldn’t believe it.  I know what the issue is.  When Ty is with Daddy (or Noni), it’s a novelty and he just wants to play like crazy and will not stop to go potty.  Mama is not as much fun, so he does better with the potty training with me!

Ty & Wes photo shoot

Look how sweetly Ty is holding Wes!

And then... "Look at me when I'm talking to you, boy!"

I proved the theory to myself and after all the accidents with Daddy the day before…Monday turned out to be Ty’s first full accident-free day!!!!  So exciting!  I knew he could do it.  He had been so close before, but because of his issues with poop… it just hasn’t happened.  So proud of him!  What did not make me proud was him needing 2 timeouts before lunch.  The first one was because Westin was sleeping in his crib and Ty kept taking this loud, obnoxious truck toy into Westin’s room, trying to wake him up.  I told him not to, and, of course, he did.  So after the timeout I said, “Why were you in timeout?”  He didn’t miss a beat and said, “Westy…sleep…truck.”  Impressive.  The second timeout was because he kept slamming one of our cabinet doors over and over again.  I told him not to and he ignored me.  I asked him why he was in timeout and he said, “Door…shut…boom.”  You can’t tell me he doesn’t know what he is doing wrong!  Ty did another cute thing on Monday.  At breakfast, I had cut up a waffle for him and he started going berserk.  He kept saying, “Woks…woks…woks” and pointing to the counter.  I could not for the life of me figure out what he was saying.  I finally helped him down and asked him to show me what he wanted and he went right to the silverware drawer and got a fork!  He wanted to eat the waffle pieces with a fork!  Woks=forks!  Westy woke up at the 45 minute mark twice during his naps, but at least I could get him back to sleep for another 40 minutes or so.  I’m getting nervous that he will be doing 30-45 minute naps like Ty always did.  He usually does 1 hour to 1 ½ hour for his naps and I would hate to see them cut short!

Story time on Monday night

On Tuesday Wes was super cranky all day.  It was very frustrating, especially when it was laundry day and I was doing a million loads.  He cried nearly all day long.  Now, he is usually the happiest baby on the block, so I was not used to this at all.  He is totally acting like he has separation anxiety.  If I am right there with him, touching his hands (etc), he is good as gold.  If I get up and get out of his line of sight, he gets petrified and starts howling.  I looked it up and it says that separation anxiety usually does not start until 6-7 months.  Well, this obviously makes sense because Westin is so advanced…that it HAS to be separation anxiety! (=  Ty did a few funny things on Tuesday.  First of all, he tried to pull a fast one on me.  I was pumping and I look over and Ty had the iPad and was putting one of his videos on.  I gave him “the look,” like “What are you doing?  I’m not nursing Westin.”  His response was, “Nurse…nurse!”  I had to laugh, but I had to break the news to him that pumping is not the same as nursing!  Another funny thing he did was when we were sharing a cookie after lunch.  It is a shamrock cookie (for St. Patrick’s Day) and we had taken a couple of bites.  All of a sudden he shrieked, “Mickey cookie!”  And the way we had bitten bites off of the shamrock cookie – it did have the shape of Mickey ears!  I thought that was pretty smart.  What also was smart was when Ty was helping me unload the dishwasher.  Ty handed me a big plate and said, “Daddy plate”, then he handed me another big plate and said, “Mama plate.”  Then he handed me a small plate and said, “Ty plate!”  Then I picked up the ladle from the dishwasher and asked him what it was and he said, “Soup!”  And then he picked up the glass dish that I give him yogurt in and he said, “Ty yogurt.”  He doesn’t miss much! 

Not at all cranky!

Ty loaded up my empty laundry basket with a bunch of toys and pushed it all around

On Wednesday it was back to work for me.  Westy gave Noni a bit of trouble with the bottles, especially his afternoon one…but they got it done.  I wonder if Noni has started Ty on his new favorite word -  “Oopsie!”  He says it nonstop now!  I know Heath and I don’t say it, so I think I’ll have to listen to see if Noni says it!

How could this angelic little baby give anyone trouble with a bottle?

On Thursday, first thing in the morning, Ty cracked me up.  Heath had made dinner the night before and had left about 3 pots/pans on the stove for me to clean up in the morning (What a guy).  Ty pointed to the stove and said, “Uh-oh.  Daddy...stove…pan…mess!”  I busted a gut and texted that right to Heath.  Ty totally called you out on that one, Heath! (=  The rest of the day was pretty much a nightmare.  I met my Mom, Shannon, and Finley at the children’s thrift store that we love in Laconia.  I was 20 minutes late because I had to mess with the car seats and Ty needed the bathroom like twice right before we left – so I started off in a mood because I hate being late.  To top it all off, I needed to nurse Wes right when we got there.  My sister came out and picked up Ty to bring him in the store while I nursed Wes in the car.  About 10 minutes later, I get a call that Ty had peed his pants.  Perfect.  I finished up with Westin and my Mom brought out a wet Ty to the car.  I did a complete change and sat him on the portable potty and he went some more.  We were in the store and I am not exaggerating, I had to rush to the bathroom with Ty 3 more times while we were there.  One of the times we didn’t get the winkie aimed down well enough and we splashed the back of his pants a bit with pee.  I decided to roll with that.  Then, after we had JUST been in the bathroom 5 minutes before, he peed his pants again.  I was dumbfounded.  He just doesn’t do this.  What was going on?  I had only brought 1 change of pants/underwear, so I didn’t have anything else.  He never does this.  It was so bad that Mom asked, “Do you think he has Diabetes?”  I really don’t, so I think this was just a fluke.  A very, very frustrating fluke.  I turned to my mother and sister (who always get after me for being a homebody) and said, “And this is why I never leave the house.”  So I was forced to buy a pair of pants for Ty (thank goodness they were only $1) and he went commando all the way home.  He peed AGAIN on his portable potty before getting in the car after we had left the thrift store too.  We were supposed to go to another thrift store but we were all so traumatized from that ordeal that we went right home.  What a fiasco.  I was completely gun shy after that and brought 3 pairs of pants and underwear to the Mexican restaurant that night.  But, of course, he didn’t have 1 accident.  We went with my parents and Adam and had a good time.  Wes slept the entire meal and freaked me out that he wouldn’t go to sleep that night, but he went right down without a problem.  When we got home, I was nursing Westin upstairs and Ty, Heath & Adam were downstairs.  All of a sudden, Ty yelled, “Potty…potty!”  And the next thing I know, I hear a major commotion.  Ty had not made it and had started to have an accident in his pants and when Heath pulled his underwear down, a piece of poop fell out and Snickers grabbed it in her mouth and ran off – thinking she had gotten a big treat!!!!  Heath had to fight with Snickers to get it out of her mouth!  Gross!  But he finally got it!  Ty came up the stairs and told me, “Mama…Snickers eat poop!”  He has repeated that phrase many, many times now!  In fact, he recently had another accident with poop and Ty yelled, “Snickers…snickers!”  He wanted her to come to get it! (=  Well, that’s it!  Have a good week!

Ty going crazy at the thrift store - he could have cared less that he peed his pants!

Date night with Noni at the Mexican restaurant (=

Riding Westin's tiger like a horse

We have to do more self-portraits...it's the only way I get photos of myself with my kids!

Funniest picture...Ty really did this himself!

I will close with some (not all) the pics I took to get a good father/sons photo

Yes, Ty!  It is impossible to get a good shot!