Ty & Wes Time: Boys Sleep Well Together, Wes Can't Stay in Church, Making Applesauce, Done With Naps, Westin's Afternoon Nap Drama, 1 Year Stats & Stopped the Inhaler (For Now)

Wes: 1 Year & 2 Weeks Old

Ty: 3 Years, 1 Month & 2 Weeks Old

Last Friday, Heath got up and was going to sneak out of the bedroom at my parent’s house to go to a few Black Friday deals, but he couldn't get past Tyson! Ty heard him and started to freak out that Daddy was leaving, so Heath ended up taking him. They went to Lowe's, Home Depot, and then braved Walmart. Heath said it wasn't bad at all (we were in North Conway, after all – not some big city), so that was good. We had some breakfast at my parents and then we packed up and left. Wes & I went right to the Edwards' house and Heath & Ty went to a couple more stores in the Ossipee area. It was fun to show off Westin's walking skills to the Edwards - they were so surprised. He is just so cute and he wants to walk all the time now. We had a leftover Thanksgiving feast Friday night and it was delicious. I didn't mention in the last blog that since we had been at my parent’s house for almost a week, we had all been sleeping in 1 room together and the boys had been great! Tyson's baloney at bedtime was drastically better. I think the guilt trip of "you can't cry and keep Westin awake" really worked! And it was the cutest thing, one of the nights at my parent's...I had put Westin down in the pack 'n' play after giving him a bottle (and Ty was already in bed) and Westin started to fuss a little. I stayed at the top of the stairs and listened. Ty reassured Westin by saying, "It's OK, Westy. It's OK." Westin stopped crying and Ty went right to sleep too! So that had been working so well that I put both boys together in Amanda's room at the Edwards and Heath & I were in Heath's old room. It worked like a charm again. They both went right to sleep without a peep on Friday night. I was dumbfounded! I think it is comforting to both of them that they are together and not alone and it helps Ty to behave himself! I started thinking that maybe I should move both of them into the same room now. I don't know. I was thinking I would do it in another year - when they were 2 & 4, but maybe sooner? I don't know – it would be easier to fit bunk beds and they are a few years away from that...I'm just not sure if I can fit 2 cribs comfortably in one of the rooms. Well, we'll see what happens, I'm just rolling the idea around as a possibility.

On Sabbath we went back to Conway church. We had a nice day, even though I had to stay almost the whole time in the mother's room with Wes, since he is way too loud right now in church. It's going to be tough when we get back to Laconia since they don't have a mother's room and you have to hang out in the basement. We stayed for pot luck, then went over to Heath's grandmother & aunt's house and visited there for awhile. We had a little miscommunication with Sonia and she had gone right home, thinking we were not going to Norma & Sandy’s. Both boys took cat naps on the way back to the Edwards and that is all the naps they got. Saturday night our streak of easy bedtimes were over. But amazingly, it was not Tyson giving us problems, but Westin. He never says boo at bedtime. Ever. I think because of his lack of naps on Sabbath, he was overtired. But he would not go to sleep and he would scream as soon as I would leave the room. It was too bad because we were trying to watch a movie with the Edwards, but I had to keep getting up every 5 seconds for over 30 minutes. But then he finally gave in and went to sleep. He slept all night, so I don't know what the deal was.

Sunday was a vacation day for me! A kid-free day that didn't involve me going to work! I met up with Shannon (and Griffin) in Vermont at a baby shower for Chelsea Knowlton Nelson! Her baby was born in October (on Ty's birthday) and they live in Michigan, but they were in Vermont for Thanksgiving, so her mom & sister (Kelly, my good friend) threw her the shower. Her baby, Ella is beautiful and we had a nice time. It was so good to catch up with Kelly & Chelsea! We had great food and great visiting. Driving home was a little tough because it was snowing and the roads in Vermont weren't that great. But after getting through the notch in Franconia, everything was fine. It was so nice to have quiet time in the car alone and I played Christmas music the whole time. Heath & the boys came home about an hour after I got home. They had made applesauce at the Edwards that afternoon and the boys had a blast. We now have 30 something jars of applesauce! The boys love it and we make Layered Applesauce on Sunday
mornings quite a bit.

Me enjoying the view through Crawford Notch driving solo to Vermont

They had the shower in the basement of this gorgeous chapel

Miss Ella

The beautiful sign that Shannon made for Chelsea

The 4 of us (doing a kid swap)

I love this how she is resting her hand underneath her chin!

Love love love this picture!

Look at the tongue sticking out!

My crazy boy

"Yummy tummy!"

Monday was an unpacking & laundry day. After being gone for 8 days, I can't tell you the mess that was in my house. I didn't get everything in order until Tuesday night, either. Westin's walking continued and I think Tyson would forget. Because he would look over and see Westin walking and scream, "Mama! Look! Westy walking!" He would say that over and over quite a bit! Hopefully this is not a result of his concussion last weekend! Tyson took a 3 hour nap on Monday, which might prove to be his last hurrah.

Some fun we had on Monday night

Tuesday I finished getting my house in order and folded and put away the 7 loads of laundry that I had done. Tuesday started Tyson's strike on naps and he has refused to go down for his nap for the rest of the week. It's not like I wasn't trying. I left him up there an hour and then when he was still not asleep (and he was usually carrying on) then I got him up. "Ty not want to sleep." I guess it's over. I'm so sad about this, especially because he can start to melt down at night...but bedtimes have been easier because he is tired. But I'm not going to keep trying. It's done. Sniff, sniff. What is also weird is that Westin is giving me problems going to sleep (and I said he never does this) for his afternoon nap. About 3 days this week, he wouldn't go to sleep. What is going on? I asked our pediatrician about this (he had an appointment on Thursday) and she agreed that this was a little early for him to be dropping that nap. She said that usually they should be taking 2 naps up to 15-18 months and then they drop one of their naps. What in the world? I'm going to keep at Westin with this one. He just seems more clingy at that time, I don't know why. He goes right down at bedtime and at his morning nap, but as soon as I try to lie him down in the afternoon - he freaks out. He will fall asleep in my arms, but stands right up screaming as soon as I try to put him down. Tuesday was an exciting day because we booked the cruise we are going to take in February with Sonia & Keith out of Houston. Adam is on the fence about going, but we hope he comes! It is going to be a bit crazy because we are going down to Florida for 5 days 2 weeks before we leave on vacation for Papa’s memorial service, but we did a thousand scenarios of cruising in April or staying in Florida for the next week in February and cruising there…but because of vacation week the plane tickets (and cruise tickets) were ridiculously high. So it was cheaper this way. Can’t wait!

They do this themselves - I don't stage them this way

Sorry about the cruise discussion in the background - my husband is loud!

I worked on Wednesday and Mom & Nanny came to babysit. Tyson finally asked for Papa on this day. When I told him that I had to go to work and they were coming and he said, "Papa too?" It broke my heart. He was trying to go down for his nap at that time (of course it didn't happen) so I didn't want to get into the discussion at that time. So I said, "No. Papa won't be here." Ty drooped his shoulders and whined, "Oh! No!" He didn't ask anything more so I didn't offer anything more. When I walked through the door at 4:00 AM that night/Thursday AM, I heard some crying from upstairs. There was Westin, standing up in the crib, softly crying. He gave me the biggest smile, crinkled up nose and everything, and I thought that there was no way that he would go back to sleep. But I cuddled him for a few minutes and he went right down without any problems. I was not happy to walk through the door to a crying baby and a snoring husband. Makes me cringe about how long he was actually fussing for.

In the morning upon hearing that we had booked the cruise with Grammy & Grampy - he said, "Omni too?" So again, I did not stage this - he did this himself. But I was able to catch part of it on video. I guess he thinks that Adam doesn't like the water or something! Not really sure what that is about!

On Thursday, Westin helped me out in a big way! Ty woke up a little after 8 AM and I brought him to bed with me. On the days after I work, I put on PBS (Curious George at that time) for Ty while I try to rest a little more until Westin gets up. Westin slept until 9:15! That was great. We had Westin's 1 year appointment at 2 PM, so we booked down to Concord for that. Westin is doing great! His stats are:

Weight = 18 lbs 8 oz (10th percentile)
Height = 29 7/8 inches (50th percentile - highest for either one so far)
Head = 18 inches (45th percentile)

It was so funny she asked me if I had any concerns about Wes and I said, "No. Not at all, but I have 2 things about Tyson." I brought up the steroid daily inhaler for Tyson and his stuttering. She assured me that the stuttering is completely developmentally normal, but that if it lasts for a long time and gets worse, then we would have to revisit it. He will go a few days and not have a stutter and then he can have a couple days where the stuttering is terrible and he cries because he is so frustrated. Oh, my heart aches for him when that happens. I feel so helpless. She agreed that we could stop the daily inhaler, but that if with his next cold he starts having a hint of a wheeze, we need to bring him back and he would probably need to go on it. She is not rushing to an Asthma diagnosis yet, so there still is hope! After the appointment, we went to the grocery store for our weekly run and then booked it home. When Heath got home, we went to Supercuts to fix the hack job of a haircut that I had given Ty (really bad) and Heath got his haircut too. Then we met Poppy at the Mexican restaurant. Adam didn’t come because he was home sick and Noni & Nanny didn’t come because they had been in Vermont with Shannon to see Grammy Lyn, who is on vacation there. We had a nice time, despite me having to take Tyson out to the car for a spanking because of horrible behavior. He also ate next to nothing while Westin ate the entire quesadilla they were supposed to be sharing! He is really giving us some problems right now. But I guess that is what is supposed to happen in the “terrible 3’s.”