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 4^th 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 “Café 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!