"THERE NEVER HAS BEEN, NOR WILL THERE EVER BE, ANYTHING QUITE SO SPECIAL AS THE LOVE BETWEEN A MOTHER AND A SON." - AUTHOR UNKNOWN


Saturday, July 27, 2013

"Crazy Ty-Ty," A Very Active Westin, "Calls" to Manda, Family Get-Together & Dog-Throwing

Wes:  7 Months & 3 Weeks Old

Ty:  2 Years, 8 Months & 3 Weeks Old

On Monday, July 8, I spent the whole day unpacking from our 4 day camping extravaganza to Bar Harbor.  I deemed it "pajama day" (we hadn't had one in awhile), so we could focus on our work and not our outfits! (=  Westin slept nearly 3 hours for his AM nap and I woke him up to keep him on some type of schedule.  I know you are never supposed to do it, but I did.  And it was fine.  Ty said one of the sweetest things he has ever said to me on Monday.  He looked at me, grinned, and out of the blue, said, "Mama pretty."  That made my day, my month, my year!  To be told that by your son was so heartwarming! What made me chuckle was that he just happened to say that to me on "pajama day" - which also is "no make-up day!"  I guess I need to go au naturel more! (=

Tuesday morning, Ty was an animal.  I don't know why, but he was hyper.  The funny thing was that I didn't even need to tell him that! He knew it himself!  He had done some type of antic and then he would say,"crazy Ty-Ty!"  (=  So cute.  Later on in the morning, my parents came by with Nanny & Papa for a quick visit.  Nanny & Papa were visiting for a week and it was great to see them.  Ty was not happy when they had to leave and he had run to the window upstairs to bang on the window to wave, as they were leaving and getting into their car.  I opened the window and Ty said, "Thursday.  See you."  My mom and Nanny & Papa were going to baby-sit on Thursday for a few hours, while I did a mandatory training session at work.  Tuesday afternoon, Sonia and Amanda got there and I headed to work.  Later that night, there was a little false alarm reported to me from Heath that Westin was crawling. Yes, he was scooting all over the room, but no crawling motion with the arms and legs yet. But he is SO close.  I feel like he has been this close for months now!

Doing some other type of antic

Wednesday, the day after my late shift, we didn't do much again.  We put on clothes (we didn't have two pajama days in 1 week) but otherwise just puttered around the house.  Ty did some cute things that day.  Well, he started off the day not so cute when he cried, "No Mama.  No Mama.  Grammy.  Manda" when I went to get him out of his crib when he woke up.  Even though I know he loves me.  It still hurts.  What happened to "Mama pretty?" (=  He must of woke up on the wrong side of the bed, because he said, "Ty sick.  Ty sick" again when he woke up and wanted medicine.  Randomly he does this.  I told him "no" because he was not sick and he went balistic.  I mean, a straight-up temper tantrum with feet stomping and everything.  Well, Mama held her ground and he got over it.  What is up with this?  In the AM, all must have been forgiven because he couldn't wait to show off to me his new puzzle skills!  My mom had brought by this puzzle that Jane (Leigh's mother) had gotten for Ty.  It is really cool.  It is a nice wooden puzzle that has objects like cows, trees, trains etc. and the word is written beside it and each letter is a puzzle piece.  He can totally put the letter puzzles in the right spots!  Not that he knows what the letters are....well, except for "o."  As he grabbed the "o" in cow, he said, "o".  I thought that was awesome!  What was a bit questionable later, was when I caught him dumping out salt on our kitchen table and eating it!  Is he related to Noni or something?  Later afternoon, I had killed a bug, dropped it into the toilet, and flushed it.  Ty was with me and said, "Oh!  Bug swimming!"  Well, kind-of Ty! (=  That night when Heath got home, it is always all about Daddy.  Ty was sitting with Heath at the table and Heath was on the laptop.  Out of nowhere, Ty kissed Heath on the neck! 

Heath:  "Did you just kiss me?"
Ty:  "Yes!"
Heath:  "Why?"
Ty:  "Love you!"

Then, when that did not get enough attention from Heath.  Ty upped the ante and said, "Daddy!  Off 'puter please!"  (aka computer)  That worked!  Heath had Ty's undivided attention after that! 

Lounging around the house 

On Thursday, I had to go to a mandatory 2 hour class at work.  We are changing our lab system over, so we had to be updated on that.  Ty knew that I was going to that and Noni was coming to watch them.  He is doing this every time now.  When I went to get him up first thing in the AM, he took one look at me and said, “Mama, go work.  Noni come.”  Isn’t that just great?????  Just like a dagger through the heart.  Seriously.  Now, I know, I know…he sees me day in and day out, and Noni and Grammy are the fun ones, but it still cuts! (=  Nanny & Papa were supposed to come and baby-sit, but Mom had been in Conway with them and it was just going to be too much driving for them.  My grandfather’s back is really bad, so he would have been too uncomfortable.  After the class, I booked it home to relieve my mother and got the boys ready to go out.  Sonia had taken Amanda to the airport and was going to meet us at Goodwill in Laconia.  I have to say that I was very sad to see Amanda go.  She had been here a month and I know she was really ready to go home, but still…the boys (especially Ty) LOVE her so much, it’s tough to know we won’t see her for months.  Ty has already felt her absence.  He keeps grabbing their toy phones and pretending he is on the phone and it is ALWAYS to Amanda!  He says, “Hi Manda.  What you doing?”  and he will go on and on like he is really on the phone with her!  So cute!  So we met Sonia at Goodwill, shopped, and then met Heath & Adam at the Mexican restaurant.  I’d like to say we had a nice time, but that would be stretching it!  Someone at the restaurant had made a mistake and had accepted a reservation for 60 PEOPLE!!!!  It is normally pretty full on a Thursday anyway, but this was ridiculous.  It looked like it was a couple of baseball teams or something, but we were there forever and our service was lacking, as you could imagine.  But what can you do?

On Friday I spent the day packing to go to Conway for the weekend.  We were going to see Papa & Nanny and Jonathan & Marcela were visiting too.  Next thing you know, Kevin & Sherrie, David & Julie, and Shawn & Camille were coming too!  It was a great family get-together!  Too bad the Cases were too stuck up to visit! (=  Just kidding!  They had company of their own (Uncle Charlie’s family) visiting the Cape and couldn’t make it.  In the AM, before we ran to the grocery store, I was running around and I can’t remember what happened but I said, “freakin’ heck” in frustration.  Well, just like my little parrot, Ty mimicks, “freakin’ heck.”  I tell him that Mama said a bad word and I have to be better about the bad words that I say etc. etc, when Ty starts giggling and saying something under his breath.  I ask him what he is saying and I think I hear the s-word coming out of him.  I just about die where I am standing and I ask him to repeat it.  Thank goodness, he slowed it down and it clearly became “shut up.”  I was so relieved!  Still a bad word and I talked to him about that, but I was very thankful that was the s-word he was saying!  I’m sure I said the actual s-word in my head as the scene at the grocery store unfolded a couple of hours later.  I have to paint this picture for you and I hope I do it justice because it was so frustrating for me!  It is such a pain to get out of the house with kids.  You try to think of everything and something or someone always delays you.  I had just changed Wes, took Ty to the potty and gotten both kids in the car.  I get down to the grocery store and I find a parking spot right next to a cart corral thing.  As I go to get Wes out of the car, I smell it.  He has pooped again.  I had just changed a poop right before we left, but, alas, he was not done.  Great.  So, I change him in the back of the Outback, talking to Ty and opening Ty’s door so he doesn’t overheat (since it is like 90 something degrees).  I buckle Wes back in his car seat carrier, put the dirty diaper in the cart (since it will stick my car up so bad while we are in the store), and pull the cart around to get Ty.  That is when I see it.  The safety strap is completely broken off.  Ty can get an attitude and rambunctious in the store, so there is no way that I’m not buckling him in.  So, I go back and grab the ONLY OTHER cart a mile near me and switch Wes into the new cart (and, yes, move the diaper too).  I get Ty and put him in the front seat of the cart, and this buckle is not broken, but it is badly stuck.  And I start struggling with it, fighting with all I’m worth in the stifling heat and I can’t get it out.  I’m saying every bad word in the book (in my head) and then I realize that I have an audience.  A couple cars down, there is a man, sitting in his van, watching the whole scene.  I think he realizes that I have seen him and he says, “Do you need help?”  I tell him I’m all set, because at that moment it finally becomes free!  I buckle Ty in and I’m ready to fly into the store, when Ty says, “Mama.  Potty.”  ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME?????  He had just gone before we left the house and after all of this, I am still not in the grocery store.  So onto the froggy potty he goes and, what do you know….he DOESN’T EVEN GO!!!!  You can’t make this stuff up.  You just can’t!  The joys of parenthood.  Anyways, we should have gotten to Conway at a decent time, but we were delayed because Heath was delayed with the police.  No, he was not in trouble, but Heath’s mountain bike was stolen from the back of our house and he was doing a police report.  The police believe they know who did it, because someone stole a bike from our neighbors on the same night and our neighbor saw him do it and chased him.  He eventually ditched the bike and our neighbor got their bike back.  The police seemed hopeful that they would track Heath’s bike down, but it has almost been 2 weeks and the “trail has gone cold!”  I’m glad they know who it is (a kid) because I would be more freaked out than I already am.  We live 3 houses down from the police station.  Heath & I both thought that maybe that would deter some people, but I guess not.  So we got to Conway late and the boys didn’t get to bed until 10:30 
PM.

Ty helping Heath check the tire pressure before we left

"Ty drive.  Ty drive."  How many times a day do I hear this?

On Sabbath, we made it to Sabbath School, but we were late.  The boys were complete animals during church.  I mean, seriously, there has been a major change from the last time we had gone.  Well, between camping and Campmeeting…it had been weeks, but still.  Westin is super duper active now and gets into everything.  It has been like flipping a switch with him.  He is kind of a problem right now.  A super cute problem, but still a problem.  We had a nice lunch at home, Wes took a 3+ hour nap in the afternoon, and then we went swimming at Echo Lake at dusk.  Oh yeah, and Ty abused David & Julie’s dog, Toby.  It was actually funny, but I couldn’t show my amusement at all.  Ty was running around with Toby, playing/fighting over this ball…well, they both kind of reached the ball at the same time, and next thing we knew, Tyson had grabbed Toby’s leg and Ty threw him.  Like a sack of potatoes.  He went directly to time-out and got the riot act read to him by me, but it was all I could do to keep a straight face.  Thank goodness Toby was OK.  We got the boys to bed at a decent hour and they went right to sleep.

We made crowns in Sabbath School

Trying to keep Wes entertained in church

Kids table at lunch

Ty & Nanny messing around 

Afternoon chill time on the porch

Picking grass = having a blast

The moment just before the toss

After...the time-out

 I, unfortunately, did not get as much sleep.  At 3 AM, I woke up in agony.  My ears were completely blocked.  I plugged my nose, and blew and my right ear popped but my left ear would not.  It was terrible.  I had so much pressure in my head/ear – it was awful.  I have always had trouble with wax build-up and I knew that it was built up again.  In fact, I had an ear wax removal kit in my toiletries and I just hadn’t gotten around to doing it.  So, there I was…in the middle of the night doing it.  I put the medicine in but nothing happened.  I came to the conclusion that I would need to go to a walk-in clinic the next morning to get my ears flushed out.  I tried to go back to sleep but I couldn’t.  I slept just a couple of hours.  Thank goodness I didn’t have to go to the clinic.  My sister, the wonder nurse, took a pediatric syringe (we both have them to give children’s Tylenol & Ibuprofen) and flushed out my ears.  It worked and I felt the most incredible relief, I can’t even tell you.  It had been so incredibly uncomfortable and it had been completely blocked (I couldn’t hear anything out of it) for 6+ hours…a wax plug about the size of a marble came out!  It was disgusting but very impressive too.  I didn’t even have any discomfort in my right ear, but I could tell the difference between the two ears since she had flushed it, so she flushed the other one and I got another plug out (not as big, though).  I’ve got to stay on top of this.  This can’t happen again!  That afternoon we went swimming at the Saco River and we had a blast.  The kids had so much fun swimming and playing.  It was cold, so Wes & I just waded and sat in the sand, but it was so fun.  I had only brought 2 swim diapers each, but Wes pooped immediately after arriving at the river, so I had nothing for him.  I put him in a regular diaper and it swelled up to the biggest thing you have ever seen!  Poor guy!  It didn’t seem to dampen his spirits, though!  We had a BBQ when we got back home and then (most people) got ready to leave.  We left at around 7:30 PM and since both boys hadn’t had afternoon naps, they went right out as soon as we left.  They stayed asleep when we got home and transferred to their cribs without any problem.  Another fun, but tiring weekend done.  We had been gone the last 4 weekends straight.  I was looking forward to “staying” home, even if it meant that I had to work!

Heath brought the ATV to help my dad pull out some things in his yard to bring to the dump (our old snowmobile included)...the kids loved to ride it...Finley & Ty

Somehow Ty got to stay on for all the rides... Zasha & Ty

Camden, Zasha & Bode sitting on the ATV

Camden, Mia, Bode, Ty & Zasha - this pic actually came out pretty good

Playing Corn Toss

Playing with Camden

Saco River time with Finley

Westin's huge diaper (this pic does not even do it justice)

Fin & Poppy

Ty "swimming" to Noni

Back at the house playing outside, waiting for supper

Yes, she went in for the kiss!

OK - that is it for now!  Have a good week! 
RANDOM PICS





Tuesday, July 23, 2013

First Real Cold,Griffin is Born,Walking Backwards in Walker,Putting Himself to Sleep,Ty Consoling Wes,Bar Harbor Camping,First Canoe Ride & "Pinch Westy"

Wes:  7 Months & 2 Weeks Old
Ty:  2 Years, 8 Months & 2 Weeks Old 

This week is going to be a bit different since it won't be my normal Friday to Friday recap.  My Campmeeting blog went from a Friday to Sunday...so this one is Monday to Sunday.  It is going until Sunday because we went camping from Thursday to Sunday and I didn't want to break it up!   Now that we got that nonsense (that only OCD people like myself would care about) out of the way...

Monday July 1 was the day after we got back from Campmeeting.  There were not a lot of shifts open that week and I wanted to avoid the 4th of July, so I worked on that Monday.  That was very unfortunate for Sonia for a couple of reasons.  I had only enough time to pile all my Campmeeting stuff high to the ceiling in my hallway, but at least I had it contained.  I just felt bad that my house was trashed and Sonia didn't have a chance to unpack her house either.  But we got through it.  Before I left for work, Ty was singing one of our Campmeeting songs.  It was "Who is hiding in the seaweed?"  Then I played teacher Janel's part and asked Tyson, "Who has gills and who swims fast in the water?"  To that, Ty responded, "Ty-Ty!!!!!!"  I thought that was so cute.  I guess he didn't understand the "gills" part! (=  Ty had many pee accidents for Sonia that day, which I knew would be a problem.  The kid had been in a pull-up for the last few days of Campmeeting, so I knew he would have a hard time being in his undies again.  And he did.  Not his fault.  Heath had a rough night with Westin.  He was up crying multiple times during the night.  We figured out the reason for the crying.  Westin had his first real cold.  He had had a small mini cold when we were in Florida, but that was nothing compared to this.  Ty was sick and gave it to Westin.  You slow down breastfeeding (not my choice) and that is what happens!  They lose all your antibodies and get sick! 

Tuesday July 2 is a day I'll always remember!  Westin walked backwards in his walker for the first time!  He also fell asleep in his crib completely on his own (for Sonia & Amanda) for the first time!  But I will remember July 2 for none of those reasons!  It was the day my nephew, Griffin Michael Frost was born!!!!  Shannon had her OB appointment at about noontime and she was going to take them up on their offer of inducing her.  They had offered it to her the week before because she was so uncomfortable, already dilated, and having so many contractions.  At this appointment she was already 4 cm dilated and so they admitted her.  Poor Sonia and Amanda came all the way back to watch the boys, so I could be with Shannon.  I got there at about 4 PM.  She was incredible!  She wasn't uncomfortable at all, talking and joking around like nothing was happening!  They checked her again (just when I got there) and she was 7, almost 8 cm dilated.  She was an enigma!  She wasn't having true labor contractions but she was dilating like crazy!  Talk about a blessing!  At 5 PM, they broke her water.  Immediately, she had the intense, terrible contractions, but, again, she was amazing.  She didn't take ANY pain medication, epidural or anything!  She pushed for about 15 minutes and had her beautiful boy at 6:18 PM!  Her labor flew!  It was so intense and I am so proud of her for how well she handled it.  I just couldn't do it!  The funniest story that came out of the birth was when Shannon was at the peak of her labor contractions, almost at the end.  She whispered to Sean, in the great pain she was in, "This is it, Sean.  This is our little family."  Leigh & I just busted a gut laughing at that one!  It is especially funny because Sean wants 6 kids! (=  He was 7 pounds 1 oz (the exact same weight as Westin) and ?20 inches (Westin was 19.5 inches).  He is adorable and Finley is doing great as a big sister!

Grabbing his father's hand

The family of 4

I love this picture of Dad with Griffin


On Wednesday I finally spent the entire day unpacking my house from Campmeeting and picking up from the last couple of days.  I felt physically ill looking at my house.  That is what OCD will do to a person.  The kids played well while I worked like a busy bee.  Westin proved that he really did have the going-to-sleep-thing-on-his-own down!  He went right to sleep within 30 seconds for both of his naps!  I couldn't believe it!  I had been "training" him to get to this point, by lying down on the floor beside him holding his hand, but I hadn't thought it would be this easy!  It was like flipping a switch!  My kid is amazing - I don't know what else to say!  Tyson said a few cute things on Wednesday.  First of all, he was picking up some books in his room before his nap, when I could hear him talking to himself as he did it.  "Ty pick up.  Good job!"  I guess I praise him enough, huh?  (=  Then Wes had started crying because I had left the room for a second and Tyson bent down next to Westin, patted his back and said, "Westy, Mama be right back."  I know I have said that phrase a thousand times with Westin, since his separation anxiety is still not any better.  But I didn't even say it that time!  The last thing that Ty said made me scratch my head.  He was being very slow with his eating at lunch and then had stopped eating all together.  I ended up spoon-feeding him a few bites and then I asked him…

Me:  “Ty, why is Mama having to feed you?”
Ty:  “Mama feed Ty.  Ty baby.”
Me:  “No, you are not!  You are a big boy!”
Ty:  “No!  Baby!”
Me:  “Why do you want to be a baby?”
Ty:  “Mama nurse Ty.”

What?????  I’m only nursing Westin first thing in the morning and late at night – usually both feeding sessions Ty is asleep for, so it is not like he has been seeing it a lot anymore.  Interesting.

Thursday was the 4th of July!  Heath was going to have a 4-day weekend, so we packed up and headed to Bar Harbor, Maine with Keith, Sonia & Amanda.  We had a bit of a scare as we started off on the 5 hour trek.  We were packed to the gills in our truck and as we started down the road… the “Check Engine” light came on!!!!  Are you kidding me?  Heath stopped at VIP and they read the code and reset it.  It was nothing urgent, thank goodness.  How bad would that have been?  What wasn’t bad at all was that both boys slept most of the way on that long trip.  I should have known that it would come back to bite me.  For some reason I could not figure out, Westin was awake most of the night.  He wasn’t screaming or anything, but he was just restless and wouldn’t go to sleep!  We stayed in Ellsworth, about 30 minutes outside of the packed Bar Harbor at this campground on a lake.  We unpacked and then booked it over to Bar Harbor to see their fireworks.  It was a mad house.  We couldn’t find seats at the park to watch the fireworks, but we got a patch of grass in front of a hotel that did the trick!  Right before they were going to start, Ty had to go potty (#2) and Heath ran into the hotel to use their bathroom.  It was right at that moment the fireworks started.  They were in the bathroom FOREVER and I thought for sure that Ty was going to miss them all.  He had only been talking about the fireworks all day long!  But they were super long and the boys didn’t miss them all.  Ty loved them and Westin just cuddled with Heath.  Wes didn’t like the loud sounds but liked looking at the fireworks themselves.  The dogs weren’t impressed but they got through it! 

Ty helping pump up the air mattress 

Ty was obsessed with the water jugs...they were empty and he grabbed them and started walking away.  Ty said, "Ty fill them."

Watching the fireworks

Close-up - he does look a little freaked out here

On Friday it was Heath’s birthday!  36 years old!  Heath gave me a present on HIS birthday!  Since I was literally up with Westin almost the whole night (I think I got about 1 ½ hours of sleep), he took the boys and the rest of the gang went out to breakfast and let me sleep in!  They know that I hate breakfast, so I felt OK to miss that and get some z’s.  Unfortunately, Mother Nature didn’t really let me sleep in too late.  At about 10 AM, it became unbearably hot in the tent and the dogs were panting to death.  We have a little portable fan, but it was not up to the task.  So I was up!  I ended up having quite a bit of time to myself and I caught up reading my trash tabloid magazines.  It was heavenly.  When they got back, we went down to the lake and swam.  Well, some of us swam.  It was too cold for Westy & myself, but we waded, and Wes sat at the edge and played in the sand.  After supper, before sundown, we went to this Elvis show at a barn at the campground.  They had an Elvis impersonator and he was pretty good!  He seemed to like Westy and gave him a string of beads during one song and a teddy bear, when he sang “Teddy Bear.”  Ty got up and danced with a bunch of kids during “Jailhouse Rock” – it was very cute.  Too bad my videos will not load on Blogger right now, because it was a real cute video!  For baths that night, we heated water and bathed them in this yellow bin of Sonia’s.  They thought it was pretty cool!  Wes had a better night sleeping, but woke up with the bright sun at 5:30 AM and was up for the day.  He just can’t deal with the sunlight – he needs it dark.

Talking a ride behind Heath's bike


I just love this picture.  Poor Ty.  He took his tricycle and started riding over to the big kids!  He just wants to be one of them!

He was so proud to bring this to his daddy!

Eating his solid food at the Elvis concert

Trio dancing outside the concert 

On Sabbath we went to Acadia National Park for the day. We had bought our passes the day before, so we were all set!  The heat was just unbelievable.  It was 95 degrees high that day and we mostly drove around, seeing the sights.  Don’t get me wrong, we stopped at a lot of overlooks and walked all around Cadillac Mountain…but we would have done a lot more, if it wasn’t dangerously hot.  The real kicker of the day came at about 2 or 3 PM, when we stopped at this picnic area to eat our lunch.  It was then that Sonia discovered that she had forgotten the cooler back at the campground (30+ minutes away).  We had another cooler with drinks and a bag with chips and crackers.  So we had snacks and drinks instead!  We had a laugh about that one!  Ty had a couple funny statements while we were at Acadia.  At the very first overlook, Ty had seen the ocean and said, “Ooooo…..big water.  Ty go swimming in that.”  I thought that was the cutest!  Then we had stopped at Wildwood Stables in Acadia so Ty could see the horses (Wes was sleeping at the time).  As Heath was taking Ty out of the car to see the horses, Ty decided that his binky needed to stay in the car.  Why you ask?  Because he said, “Horsey will eat my binky!”  We ended the day at Acadia walking around Seal Harbor.  Ty loved throwing rocks into the water and Wes loved putting his feet in the water.  When we got back to the campground, we went back to the lake for more swimming and then took a canoe ride at twilight.  Westin’s first canoe ride!  He seemed to like it, until I am not exaggerating…we got swarmed with mosquitoes.  We tried to escape as fast as we could, but we all got so many bites, I can’t tell you.  It was terrible.  Mosquitoes really know how to ruin a good time! 

"Ty go swimming in that."

Trying to keep Wes out of the sun on Cadillac Mountain

King of the world


We finally got them to take a nap 

He started doing this on this trip - sitting/sleeping Indian-style (I'm not sure if this is politically correct, but how do you say it another way?)

Enjoying the beach

LOVE this picture of them

Throwing rocks

Yes, that is my son gnawing on a rock

First life-jacket fitting

Beautiful ride

Self-portrait, holding my baby, in a canoe, balancing my iPhone trying to get the shot.  Not my best idea.  I love how it looks like Wes is doing the Pledge of Allegiance 

On Sunday, we got up really early, packed up and left before 8 AM.  The breakfast place that they had gone to on Friday, they wanted to take me to.  It was amazing.  It is “CafĂ© Your Way” and it is a little hole-in-the-wall and it is amazing.  We got there at 8:30 AM and there was already a 30 minute wait.  It is really cool – they have a patio and you can have your dogs with you while you eat!  It is a health-conscious place, so you can get tofu in place of eggs and you can get vegetarian sausage!  It was awesome!  We would highly recommend it!  After that delightful breakfast, we walked down to the harbor and sat in the park.  Then we started our trek home, knowing that we were going to stop at, not one, but TWO Mardens on the way home!  We just love that store.  It’s a bargain store and we always find incredible finds there.  It is similar to Goodwill in a way, where you have to weed through a bunch of garbage to find your treasure!  So we went to one in Ellsworth and one in Bangor.  This took a few hours.  For starters, someone had to be in our truck with the dogs with the AC on at all times.  It was still 90+ degrees – so we took turns being with the dogs.  That is why kids are sometimes easier than dogs!  You can take kids into stores and restaurants, but you can’t do that with dogs.  Just an observation.  Anyways, during our long drive home, Westin out of nowhere let out this cry – a definite “pain cry.”  I looked back at the boys and Ty had a smirk on his face.  I said, “Ty, what did you do to Westy?”  Tyson hasn’t figured out about lying yet (thank goodness), and very honestly said, “Pinch Westy.”  Oh, no, you didn’t!!!!!  Not good at all!  What is interesting is that I have figured out why he is doing the pinching.  This is not the first time he has pinched.  He had been doing it to Heath, Sonia, Amanda, and myself and saying, “Pinch you.  Pinch you.”  I realized that it is from Campmeeting.  In our class, there was this Crab Poem that we would recite that talks about the crab’s claws and how they would “snap and pinch and snap and pinch” – and we would pretend to pinch the kids.  This innocent little poem has turned Ty into a pinching monster!  I totally have to Facebook Janel to complain! (=  Hope you have a great week!              

     Everything was packed up and Ty remained sleeping (towels were to protect him from the killer mosquitoes)

HERE ARE PICS FROM OUR PHOTO SHOOT IN THE PARK


I was trying to "smize" (smile with your eyes) - like Tyra Banks teaches





They love their Auntie Amanda!