"Going on an Adventure," Caught His 1st Fish, "Princess Mommy," Peed in a Diaper, Timer Picking Up, Sitting Still to Watch TV & 18 Month Stats, "Boo-Boo's"

My Monkeys

Wes:  1 Year, 6 Months & 1 Week Old

Ty:  3 Years, 7 Months & 1 Week Old

Friday
Last Friday was Grocery Day and I couldn't believe the ultimate error that I made.  I had forgotten Westin’s infant car seat carrier.  I realized this when I pulled into the parking space at Market Basket and I almost cried.  I knew that I was in for real trouble with Tyson over the next 45 minutes – 1 hour (yes, it takes me that long to get my groceries for a week with the 2 muchkins in tow).  He did OK, but there were definite moments.  Ty is just not old enough to walk in a store for that long (he does OK at a quick pharmacy stop).  After we got home, I was unloading groceries and Tyson was “going on an adventure!”  He is so funny.  He grabs his froggy back pack and fills it with this and that (books, kitchen utensils, balls, fake food etc…) and he gets on his bike and takes the long journey down the hallway!  Then he tried to get Westin to come with him.  “Come on, Westy!  Let’s go on an adventure!”  Westin did follow Ty on his little “bike” and he really flies on that thing!  In fact he went so fast that Ty yelled, “Don’t crash on the adventure, Westy!”  But then Wes tried to duck out after only a few seconds and Ty was not pleased.  He said, “Westy!  The adventure is not over! Come back!”  It was so cute -  the whole scene really cracked me up.

Westin going on the adventure

  Ty too

Westin has had enough

Sabbath
We went to Laconia church for Sabbath School, church, and then went home and had lunch.  Wes went down for his 3-4 hour nap and Heath & Ty went fishing together.  Ty actually caught his first fish (actually 3)!!!!  I wish I could have been there to see it and also wish I had pictures to post, but no such luck.  Saturday night at bedtime we continued a crazy thing we have been doing lately.  Ty likes to pretend that Heath is a dragon and calls him “Dragon Daddy” and I am a princess (obviously) and I am called “Princess Mommy!”  The dragon tries to “get” the princess and my hero, “Knight Tyson” rescues me!  We have had a bit of trouble deciding what role Westin has in this game…Tyson keeps insisting that “Westy can be a fireman!”  I keep laughing telling Ty that a fireman does not go with the era…but you really can’t explain that to a 3-year-old!  I finally got Ty to call Westy… “Prince Westy” (he is my son in the game, not my husband as my real husband initially thought)!  We have a great time with this game, but what is even cuter is that the name “Princess Mommy” has kind of stuck.  Ty loves to call me that!  So randomly, he will say, “Can I have more milk, Princess Mommy?”  It warms my heart, it is so cute.  What girl doesn’t like to be called a “princess?”

Sabbath afternoon checking out my new textbook (Amazon's rental)

No, Westin did not wear the hat to church!

...or this hat!

Sunday
We had our normal big breakfast and then started puttering around the house (Heath outside and me inside).  Then at about noon, we headed 45 minutes away to look at another pop-up camper.  It was in pretty good shape, but the problem was that it was being shown at a dealership.  That prompted us to go into 8-10 campers and we kind of got thinking about getting a regular 25-28 foot trailer instead of a pop-up.  Just about every single person that is selling a pop-up says that they are upsizing to a larger camper.  So Heath was saying, “So should we just buy the bigger camper?”  We are debating.  We are only going to buy used.  The difference in price on average is about $2,500 more.  But they last so much longer and you don’t have the canvas like you do on the pop-ups that can be really problematic every few years (and it costs $1000 to replace).  I’m not sure what we are going to do.  After we looked at 1 pop-up, we were waiting to get a call from someone selling a 27 foot camper for ridiculously cheap (needing some repairs).  Someone was viewing the camper first and then we were going to be second.  Well, the first people bought it, so we were out of luck.  We were kind of bummed out, but what heals a broken heart like Taco Bell?!  We had a lovely lunch, including Westin taking some bites of my Mexican pizza – which I was so excited about!  He tried something new and liked it!  After that, we headed home for Westin’s nap and the boys went fishing again and Heath got a haircut.

Trying on hats at Tractor Supply after looking at campers 

Eating a taco sauce packet - he is insane!

Monday
Westin started the day with giving me trouble eating again.  I was so frustrated.  I have started giving his bottles after he eats his meals, to try to have him be as hungry as possible…but it still doesn’t seem to matter.  He usually loves waffles, but he only ate about half the waffle and then refused to eat anymore.  But he did want yogurt, so it’s not like he was full…he is just being bratty!  I started talking out loud to myself saying, “Maybe Wes will go back to the waffle and  finish it if I give him the yogurt now.”  Little did I know that Tyson was hanging on my every word!  Because he responded right to me and said, “Good thinking, Mama.  That’s a good idea!”  It was so cute.  I can’t remember if it worked or not! (=  I did a full cleaning (minus the floors) of the house on Monday while the kids played around me.  I worked 7p-3a that night.  My mom was still gone, but Heath was able to get home by 5:45 pm, so I could go to work.  I was still short 4 hours of the 12 hours that I work every week, but I picked up hours on Wednesday night too.  Ty did something very strange on Monday.  When I was cleaning the bathroom upstairs, the boys were playing in Westin’s room.  Tyson came to me in the bathroom and threw a diaper in the trashcan.  I looked at him and said, “What is that?”  And Ty told me, “I took one of Westy’s diapers and I peed in it.”  Sure enough he had!  What in the world?

Having a snack together

Trying on one of my scrub tops 

Tuesday
I was dragging but not as bad as when I work a 12 hour shift (since it was only an 8 hour shift the night before).  I finished the vacuuming and washing the floors.  This week I started a new thing that has been helping Ty pick up his toys.  I had thought about setting a timer a bunch of times, but kept dismissing it thinking that he would need a reward at the end of the timer…like a treat or iPad time and I really didn’t want to give any more of those things.  And I kind of thought that Ty was too smart for something like that and would just think it was lame.  Well, my friend, Amy encouraged me to try it and it completely works (for now)!!!!  He hasn’t asked for a reward…he just loves when the room is totally picked up when my phone alarm goes off!  We’ll see how long this lasts for!  Because he had done so good on this day…Ty asked me sweetly, “Can I have my blocks back?”  I caved.  I had hidden his blocks in the basement for weeks after he had refused to pick them up.  You should have seen the joy on Ty’s face when he was reunited with the blocks!  Priceless.  On a down note, I got my syllabus for my next class that I am taking (starting next Tuesday, the day after Memorial Day).  My last class was all writing assignments with a PowerPoint presentation, but this class is Pathophysiology and there is a 100 point quiz every single week…which means I have to figure out what they are going to test from the 60+ pages of reading I am supposed to do every week.  And there is a final exam.  So this is not good for my summer at all.  I was hoping that the nursing classes would all use the same format, but, unfortunately this is not the case.  Oh, I’m nervous.  I have always had such test anxiety.  Please pray for me!

"Reunited and it feels so good!"

Driving the lawnmower

Ty's pants kept falling down - drawstring jeans can't get tight enough for that skinny waist!

Trying to go down the stairs by himself 

Wednesday
I noticed this week that Westin will actually sit down a watch a show or sit in front of the iPad with Ty…which he has never done before.  This is not good, since technically he is not supposed to watch TV until age 2…but that is out the window.  Not that my kids just sit around and watch TV, but I do treat them…after picking up…and we usually watch Curious George first thing in the AM, lying in bed together (the 3 of us).  Westin had his 18 month appointment in the afternoon.  I put him down to nap early at 11:30 pm, but he wouldn’t fall asleep until noon.  He only ended up sleeping 1 ½ hours (which is less than half of his normal time).  So onto his stats…
Weight:  21 lbs (15th percentile)
Height:  32 inches (50th percentile)
Head:  18.5 inches (40th percentile)
This is exactly where he has been all along!  She thinks he is doing great, despite the not-eating-phase.  She thinks it is probably a phase, and tells me not to stress.  He gained ½ lb in 3 months, which is good.  She said sometimes kids don’t gain at all at this point.  She was impressed with his talking (because she saw it firsthand) and thinks it is because of Tyson, obviously.  He had to have 2 shots and he did cry a little, but I was able to calm him right down.  But it was so cute, because he looked at both of his thighs, right after the shots and said, “boo-boos.”  It was so adorable, but so sad too.  I didn't even know he knew the word!  I worked again on Wednesday night 11p-3a to get my full 12 hours in.  It was great, though, because I was able to put the boys to bed and they didn’t even know that I was gone!  That made me feel great!

Hugging each other, watching Curious George




Westin had my phone, was playing the piano while standing on the piano bench & then you will see his little feet dancing...and then he almost falls and he says, "whoa!" (all while I was in the bathroom, of course)

Thursday
We puttered around the house in the AM and after lunch Uncle Charlie & Aunt Lori came for a visit.  They were on their way up to Quebec City, with most of our New England family (minus Devin & Leigh and us).  We didn't go because we spent a bunch of money on our cruise, and went to Florida for Papa's memorial service...and we are trying to buy a house & a camper...so we just couldn't spend extra money, but I was disappointed.  It was great to see Uncle Charlie & Aunt Lori.  The kids went right to them like they had just seen them last week!  Ty kept joking around with Uncle Charlie and Westin clung to Aunt Lori like glue!  Wes wanted to play with Uncle Charlie and did his version of "peek-a-boo," but Uncle Charlie peek-a-booed back very enthusiastically and scared Wes!  We had a good visit, but they had to press on and Westin needed to take a nap before we left for swimming lessons.  We left early this week and we got there about 15 minutes early so that Tyson could watch the other kids swim to get Ty "jazzed up" (as Heath would say) for swimming.  In the car ride to the lesson, Ty was whining that he did not want to go and that he was scared.  Poor guy.  But he did amazing!  He put his face in the water, he floated a little bit on his back (probably his worst skill), and swam by himself quite a ways (with one of the instructors right there)!!!  But he does need to work on his doggie paddle - he tries to "swim" just by kicking his feet (the back floatie-life jacket-thing keeps him straight up and down).  Overall, a very good lesson.  After the lesson, we booked it down to Merrimack and looked at a 26 foot camper.  I was in absolute love - it was beyond gorgeous inside.  Heath agreed that they kept it immaculate inside, but there are quite a few problems with the exterior.  I still think it is a steal for the price & I think we should buy it, but shocker...Heath is not convinced.  We will keep looking, but I will really feel bad when that one sells.  We ate at Carrabbas, just the 4 of us, and went home.

Wes won't look & what is up with that wink, Ty?

Hanging on for dear life!

Starting to swim without holding on (just before he left go)

So excited that he did it!

Have a great week!  Hope you had a great Memorial Day weekend!

Wanting to Bird Hunt, House Hunting & Camper Hunting, Mother's Day, Almost Accident, "Ouchie," & "Stop it!"

Wes:  1 Year & 6 Months Old

Ty:  3 Years & 7 Months Old 

May 9 - 15

Friday

We had Grocery Day and when we had come home from the store there was a giant robin running around the yard.  I opened the door quietly and was showing Ty the robin (it was on his side).  Ty was very enthusiastic about the robin, so much so that he wanted to get his butterfly net and “go catch him!”  I had to laugh.  I did give him a lecture about not wanting to hurt the bird and taking care of God’s animals…but let’s be honest, I don’t think Ty catching a robin in a net will be happening anytime soon!  I don’t remember too much more about Friday.

Sabbath

We went to Concord church for a change, since my mother had texted me on Friday night that the Pine Tree Bell Ringers were having the church service in Concord.  Since I am alum of the group, they hold a special place in my heart.  I thought that the boys would love them, so we jumped at the chance to go!  They did love them.  For the first 2 songs, they were entranced.  And then they were done.  I heard most of the concert from the Mother’s Room, unfortunately.  Between Ty having a melt-down about Westin touching his things and Westin screaming just for the heck of it, I had to exit with both of them (at different points).  After church, I was so bummed.  I had planned on a picnic lunch, but before we had left it was raining and I had checked the weather and it was supposed to rain all the way past 3 pm…so we decided to have a picnic lunch at home.  Well, on the way home, Heath felt inspired to drive to town of Warner.  We have kind of zoned in on that town to live in…it would be a 40 minute drive for Heath to work, but the kids could go to school in Concord (30 minute drive).  We just would rather be closer to Concord than up in Lebanon, so we shall see.  Ironically (and sadly) this was the town that Shawn & Camille used to live in before they moved to Lebanon & then Bangor.  Anyway, there was a house that was on the market that we drove by that we were interested in…and then we drove by a few more land properties.  The kids took a nap in the car, and then the next thing we know…it was after 2 PM.  We didn’t get home to have lunch until 3 PM.  Child abuse.  Oh, and the kicker was that the rain had stopped and it was gorgeous out.  I was so mad! 

Silliness Sabbath afternoon

They both love to put things on their heads!

Sunday

Mother’s Day.  Wes & I woke up to find Heath & Ty gone.  They had snuck off and came back bearing gifts.  Ty had picked out a Mother’s Day card and flowers all by himself from both Wes & him.  They made me feel so special.  Heath said that we could do whatever I wanted for the day.  I decided not to take the day for myself, mostly because I wanted to look at some campers (that we are trying to buy)…and I wanted Heath to have the option of seeing his mother on Mother’s Day too.  My own mother had gone to Massachusetts the night before and my parents were flying out to Atlanta for vacation on Mother’s Day, so my Mother’s Day time with my mom was going to have to wait.  So we had a light breakfast and then the boys took me to the Mexican restaurant for lunch.  That was a treat – we never go there for lunch!  After that, we went and looked at two pop-up campers.  There were both pretty nice, but we are going to keep looking.  After that, we went over the Edwards’ house and had a BBQ dinner and visiting.  Norma was there too and it was great to see her.  Then the end of our night almost turned tragic.  We were traveling home way too late about 10 PM and I will admit that I had nodded off (Heat was driving, by the way).  We were going about 60 mph (in a 55 zone) when we turned a corner and a female moose was right in the middle of the road.  Heath locked it up and swerved left (there wasn’t any oncoming traffic, thank goodness)…but it is so hard to explain, but the moose was so freaked that she jumped left too.  It seemed like it took forever, but the car finally stopped and I am not exaggerating when I say that we didn’t hit the moose by inches and she was directly in front of me on my side.  If the car didn’t stop and we had hit her, she would have come through the windshield and landed on my face.  I screamed at Heath, “Boot it!” and he did…punching it and just getting around the moose (I think we were in the breakdown lane on the other side of the road at this time).  I thought that the moose could be so freaked that she might jump on the car or clip us, anyway.  When we were free & clear, I looked back and the kids were sound asleep – they never knew what had almost happened!  Heath & I prayed our thanks to God out loud and then I looked over at Heath and said, “Do you think I would have died?”  He said, “Well, she probably weighs 900 pounds.”  So yeah, I think I would have died, or at the very least my spinal cord would have been gone.  So when that sunk in I said, “That would have been terrible to have died on Mother’s Day.”  Thank you God that it didn’t happen! 

My flowers

Playing outside at the Edwards' house

The chickens have grown and are getting their feathers

Monday

The house was trashed to point of ridiculousness.  I hadn’t picked up much on Sabbath and didn’t get a chance to do anything on Sunday.  My OCD just can’t handle it.  I have to mention something about Westin.  He is talking up a storm right now!  He repeats absolutely everything, but he has a couple of words that he is saying all the time now.  The first word is “ouchie” and the second is actually a phrase... “stop it!”  Both of these words Wes has definitely learned from Ty.  But it is so cute, whenever he bumps himself or Ty is beating on him (I’d like to say I was kidding with that one), he will say, “Ouchie!  Ouchie!”  It is adorable.  And then whenever someone is tickling him, he says, “Stop it!  Stop it!”  But he also says it when I pick him up and I have to change his diaper…so in that sense it is almost fresh!  He is something else.

I'm not sure you will reach to steal that bite, Ty!

Ty insisted on having a "picnic" on the deck by himself during supper

This was Ty's spaceship...he put chairs in there...stuffed animals and wanted Westy to be the "driver-man!"

Tuesday

Laundry Day at the house.  I have to mention that I didn’t actually work this week since my mother was gone.  I had worked an extra weekend day to make up for this instead a few weeks back.  It was nice to be home all week, though.  Something cute that happened on Tuesday was when Tyson put on a newer pair of sneakers that I hardly ever put him in… because they have actual shoelaces.  They are such a pain when your kid doesn’t tie their own shoelaces!  Well, you could tell that Tyson was not used to having shoelaces on his shoes either.  He held them up for me to see (like I had never seen shoelaces before) and said, “Mama!  These are like fire hoses!”  That just cracked me up.  He is right.  They do look like fire hoses!

This is what I found when I peeked into the family room while I was cooking supper - they had taken out almost all of the stuffing from the top portion of one of the couch cushions

This is them restuffing it!  I made them put every last piece back in!

I took Wes to get a haircut Tuesday night while Ty played outside with Heath (and then we went to Walmart)

Wednesday

I had to bust out my box fans already.  It got very hot & humid all of a sudden and hit 80 degrees this week!  Of course the fans are totally dangerous with the kids.  I keep the fan in Westin’s room on top of his dresser, out of his reach…but he is completely obsessed with it.  Whenever he wakes up in the AM or from a nap, the first thing that he does and says is “see!” and points to the fan.  A change from the word “puppies” that used to be the 1^st word he would say upon waking up!  Wednesday evening the kids & I met Heath in Warner and had a showing of the house we were interested in.  It is an old farmhouse with an old barn (the home was built in 1860) and it is in great shape.  I have always wanted an old farmhouse – there is something special about the old charm of a place like that.  But I just couldn’t get past the layout of the place…because they added on to the original house, you have to walk through the master bedroom upstairs to get to the boy’s rooms.  There are a few bizarre things about it.  After that, we met Shannon & Sean for a picnic supper (it wasn’t raining this time, but the black flies were horrendous).  They had a showing of a home in Warner as well.  Hopefully we can be in the same town!  We drove by a couple pieces of land with the Frosts and then we went to McDonald’s for an ice-cream.  Then we got the bad news that their ice-cream machine was broken.  That was a shame.  To home we went and it was a late night.  

Playing around on Wednesday AM - balancing a water bottle upside down on a candleholder!!  What will he think of next!

Making a tower

Thursday

Swimming Lesson Day!  On the way to the lesson, we were listening to the radio and the Alicia Key’s song, “This Girl is On Fire” came on the radio.  I was singing pretty loudly along (as usual) and all of a sudden Tyson pipes up with, “Mama, why is the girl on fire?”  I cracked up so hard!  How do you explain phrases to a 3 year old?  I tried and I think he actually might have gotten it.  Our swimming lesson plan took an ugly turn when I got into Concord and it was a zoo.  There was a road race and there were thousands of runners everywhere.  They had roads shut down and I could barely make it to the Y.  I was psyched when I made it to the Y in time but the parking garage was completely full.  I hung around trying to see if anyone would leave, but I couldn’t get a park!  I called Heath & he could barely make it to the Y and couldn’t find any parking either…but he finally did and ran like 7 blocks to meet us in the parking garage.  He took Ty & ran into the Y, while Wes & I stayed circling the parking garage.  Literally Ty got 10 minutes of his 30 minute lesson in.  It was a fiasco.  After the botched lesson, we met Sonia at a camper place just outside of Concord (the campers were a bust) and then we went to the OG.  Another late night.  OK - have a great week!

I try to get Wes to say "binky" but he is adamant that it is called a "bee-bee!"

Ty insisted on putting a pair of Heath's boxers on to eat lunch (I would like to say that they were clean ones...)

Good MD Appointment, "All Right," Highlighter Trouble, Friendly's Fiasco, Not Eating, Swimming Lessons, Baby Chickens, "That's Awesome!" & Backward Sleep Sack

Wes:  1 Year, 5 Months, 2 & 3 Weeks Old

Ty:  3 Years, 6 Months, 2 & 3 Weeks Old

OK – now after this 2 week recap…I will finally be caught up and able to do just the 1 week recaps again!  Just in time for my next class to start! (= 

April 25 – May 1

Friday

We got an early start on the day and headed to Shannon & Sean’s house.  The kids had a blast playing outside together.  Shannon made us lunch and then the boys and I headed to Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center and met Heath.  Westin had an appointment with a Pediatric Urologist.  I thought for sure that he was going to tell us that Westin needed surgery, but thankfully, he does not.  We thought that he had undescended testicles, but they are actually called “retractile testicles.”  The difference is that Westin’s testicles pull up frequently into his groin, but they can and do come down occasionally.  Even though some people haven’t even heard of this, it is completely normal.  Westin’s muscles are just super active/flexed, so they work a little overtime and pull up his testicles frequently.  The doctor said that as he got older, his muscles would relax, and then they would come down normally all the time.  I can not tell you the relief that Heath & I felt when we heard this.  We were completely expecting that we would have to set a date for surgery and I was going to freak out a little bit about my baby going under the knife.  But thankfully, that did not need to happen!  Praise the Lord!  After the appointment, Heath showed us around at his work.  It was nice to be able to see the places that he tells me about instead of imagining them!  After that, we went back to the Frosts and we had supper together.  Shannon made Eggplant Parmesan (amazing) and I did contribute with a Caesar salad and some bread.  We had a nice time and lamented how we never get together anymore.  I think that will be changing when we finally move, whenever that will be.

"Ty give me back my stroller!"  

Looks like they are about to kiss!

They love each other!  I think they are going to be very close!

After getting the good news at the doctors!

Finley loved her spaghetti!

Reading a story before we left

Sabbath

Even though we had gotten back late the night before, we got ourselves moving and made it to Conway church for the church service.  The school kids (led out by Sonia) were having the church service, so we thought it would be good to go and support Sonia.  They did a great job and they were adorable.  Westin’s attention still would not be held, even with the kids putting on church.  So we hung out in the mother’s room with my friend, Stephanie Blakeney.  So, so, so psyched for her!  She had called me the day before to tell me that they are having a boy!!!!!  She is pregnant with her 4^th child – they have 3 girls and they finally will have their boy!  I had told her to search online about doing as much as you can to try to get the sex you want – and she did everything they suggested – and it worked!  I know it is 50-50, but at least you can feel like you did as much as you could!  We stayed for potluck and then we went home.  Heath wanted some “chill time” at home and we did just that!  The kids played hard, including Tyson using his bowling balls to hit seltzer bottles.  He lined them up like bowling pins!  It is crazy the things he comes up with, but I was impressed with this one!  They do look like pins! 

His bowling lane

Sunday

We hung around the house most of the day.  Heath did yard work and Ty was outside with him almost the whole day.  Westin came out before and after his 4 hour nap.  They had a blast playing in the dirt!  I did sneak to the pharmacies with Westin first thing in the AM.  I can’t remember anything else of great importance that happened.

The remote control car looks bigger than him!

Heath is getting ready to plant grass in our old garden...and the boys placed all these pieces of wood on his handiwork!

"Let's go get some gas!"

Monday

I worked and Noni babysat.  One thing I have to mention is that Tyson has started to “give in to me” on occasion.  Whatever I ask him to do, he will always fuss and say, “I don’t want to” and a battle would ensue.  But I have worked on cutting that baloney out, and unfortunately,  it is by threatening time-outs and spankings.  But it seems to be working because he is now saying, “All right.  All right” (in this defeated voice) and goes to do what I have asked him to do.  Progress!  But I love to hear that “all right” phrase!

Tuesday

Laundry Day was our big highlight of the day.  While I was loading the washing machine, I heard the boys giggling in the next room.  When I came out of our laundry room, I was not prepared to find Westin’s face covered from a highlighter!!!!  Just the previous week, I had taken all of our sharpies and permanent markers and put them on top of our hutch in the kitchen so they couldn’t get their hands on them.  Well, I forgot about the highlighter that was in one of our drawers.  It comes right off with water, though – which I didn’t know!  Ty was not torturing Wes – Westin thought it was great and was laughing and laughing.  Those two!  I never post anything on Facebook, but I couldn’t resist posting the picture I used at the very beginning of the blog.  So sweet.

Close up

Wednesday

We hit up the thrift stores in our area with Shannon, kids & Noni.  We always feel like we have been through a war when we are finished (and that is just going to 2 thrift stores)!!!!  We debated even going out for lunch, but we decided to go to Friendly’s since it was Wednesday and the kids’ meals are $1.99 instead of like $5.75.  Since they get a drink, meal & ice-cream…it is a great deal.  My mom had announced she was going to treat us, so that was a bonus!  I ended up getting both boys a meal since it was only $1.99 and Ty declared that he wanted the mac ‘n’ cheese and Westin won’t touch it…so I got Westin a grilled cheese.  Wouldn’t you know, Westin refused to eat one bite of the grilled cheese (I could have eaten his and not ordered one for myself) and only ate a few french fries, but just mostly ate a whole container of honey mustard dressing (by licking it off a french fry).  The kicker was when the bill came and it was over $50!!!!!  Yeah, in case any of you don’t know…Friendly’s changed their policy on the Wednesday Kids special.  It is now only from 4 pm and it is $2.99 instead of $1.99!!!!  We missed the teeny tiny sign up at the front door that announced this.  I think a little FYI from our waitress would have been great, but that is just asking for too much, I know!  My poor mom, she wouldn’t back out of her offer!  She is too good to us!  This was just the beginning of Westin’s eating problems.  For the last 2 weeks, he is hardly eating. I don’t know what is wrong with him.  I mean, he has always been horribly picky, but he is refusing to eat some of his staples that he has always loved.  Grilled cheese, french toast, certain soups that he has always loved, even PB&J sometimes…and the list could go on and on.  It has been so bad that I have actually said out loud, “Could he have gotten some type of worm or parasite?”  Heath thinks I am being crazy, but I am really glad that he has a doctor’s appointment for his 18 month check next week.  I know they always say that you should never freak out if your kid isn’t eating well, that they will eat when they are hungry.  But I can’t tell you how many nights he has gone to bed with only eating some bread and a sippy fruit/vege pouch.  He just won’t eat, no matter what I do. 

Walking into the thrift store

Riding a pony at the store

Trying to balance frisbees on their heads at Friendly's

Finley lasted the longest!

He did eat ice-cream though!

Thursday

Thursday was a big day.  Tyson started swimming lessons at the YMCA.  Shannon was going to have Finley go with Ty too, but he was in an age 3-5 class, so they would be in different classes and she would be in the baby class – which seemed like a waste of money…so they didn’t come with us.  Next year though!  They had a 5:30 – 6:00 PM class that I would have never considered before, but Heath can make the lessons!  He comes right from work and meets us there.  It was great to have him since I knew Tyson was going to need a lot of support on the first class and I definitely have my hands full with Westin, making sure he doesn’t jump into the pool!  There were 6 kids there the first class and they had 2 instructors working with the kids.  Almost all the kids did not want to get into the water at all and most of them were sobbing.  Ty was the first kid to overcome his fear and learned how to enter the pool the correct way – on his belly backward.  We were so proud of him!  And all the kids eventually went in!  They were so cute!  The teachers really want us to stay on the sidelines and let the kids focus on them, which is so good for Tyson.  But it is crazy for me to let go a little bit – I wanted to be right in there!   He was really cute because he kept going back and forth when I would ask him about the lesson…some of the time he said that he loved it and was excited to go again…and then he would get scared and say that he didn’t want to go back!  It’s probably a normal response.  After swimming, we booked it up to the Mexican restaurant and met my parents and Adam.  Adam’s birthday had been on Tuesday, so we told the waiters there and they sang to him and put the giant sombrero on him – which the boys loved.  Then Adam came back to visit and we played our weekly Monopoly Deal and Heath won again.  He has won every single hand that we have played with Adam.  Sickening.

Ty not too sure of himself and Daddy giving him a pep talk

Happy birthday!

May 2 – 8

Friday

Another Grocery Day…I am going back to Fridays as Grocery Day while Ty is in swimming lessons.  The lessons are on Thursday and our whole schedule gets altered because we have to leave by 4:45pm and Wes is usually sleeps until 6 pm.  So we eat lunch earlier and Wes goes down for his nap earlier.  It would be too tight to get the groceries in the AM (because the kids get up so late) and I would be stressing to keep our new “Thursday” schedule so Westin gets a decent nap.  Anyways, can’t remember anything else important that happened.    

Sabbath

I worked 7a-7p.  I was so bummed.  Mia’s dance recital was this Saturday night and I couldn’t go!  I couldn’t believe it.  What are the odds?  I only work 1 weekend every 6 weeks and it just happened to fall on this weekend.  I was so disappointed.  Mia has worked her tail off and I wanted to see her dance so badly.  I heard from my mom & Shannon that she was fantastic, as I knew she would be.  So proud of her – she is in the elite group now – she is so talented!  I can not miss the next one!  While I was working, Heath took the boys to Sabbath school & church by himself.  He kind of regretted it.  I’m not sure if I would be able to handle it.  They are crazy animals. 

Having a snack together after church

Wes always shares with Reeses

Sunday

I worked 3p-3a.  The boys all left early to go to the Edwards’ house to see their brand new chickens!  They got 12 baby chicks and Tyson had been dying to go see them.  Heath & I have been talking about getting chickens.  Heath had them a lot while growing up and they are pretty low maintenance.  They would be free range, but we would have a chicken coop that we would pen them up at night.  I’m just concerned that we are gone a lot, but Heath assures me that they are fine by themselves for the weekend (the chicken coop has this large fenced-in pen surrounding it), so they can still roam but that wild animals can’t get in (or that is the idea).  When we go away to Nova Scotia, we could bring them to his parents’ house, but when we have the weeklong Edwards’ vacation…we will have to figure that out.  I have agreed to get the chickens, but Heath is well aware that this is his deal.  I am not mucking out the coop.  That is all him.  But it will be great to have fresh eggs (even though we have been eating mostly Eggbeaters for Heath’s cholesterol).  I guess I will have to become an expert at separating egg whites! (=  Anyways, the boys fell in love with the chicks.  Westin would pet them and would “peep” back at them!  So cute!  I was psyched that they had an early start since that left a few hours to myself.  I had grandiose plans of hitting a bunch of shops, but instead…I took 2 hours to clean my house because it was trashed (and I knew I would be exhausted on Monday to do it) and just left enough time to go to the pharmacies.  Good times.

The baby chicks

Monday

Yes, I was exhausted.  We didn’t do a darn thing, but puttered around the house.  I had gotten us all dressed though, and I had put on these drawstring jeans on Tyson that he had never worn before.  Now he has been going to the bathroom by himself, can turn on the light, pull down his pants etc. But I still have to button and zip his jeans – he definitely does not have that skill yet.  Well, he came flying out of the bathroom after his first potty break of the day and screamed, “Mama!  I don’t need you to button my pants!  That’s awesome!”  That cracked me up so much.  I didn’t even know he knew the word ‘awesome!’  A big milestone happened for Westin on this day.  I started putting his sleep sack on backward.  Thank you, Shannon, for this brilliant idea.  Wes had been taking awhile to go to sleep because he would sit up in his bed and be obsessed with unzipping his sleep sack and putting his binky in the sack…and getting out of it…etc.  So I was done with it!  It totally works like a charm!  He goes right to sleep again!

One thing that I didn't mention is that Wes had another blocked tear duct over the weekend and Heath had scrubbed off some goop that was caked under his eye Sunday night, but had no idea that he scratched him so badly!  I was horrified when I saw him and texted Heath, "what did you do to my baby?!!!" 

Tuesday

I worked again and I was pretty tired from working all weekend (I am not used to this much working, you know)!!!!  But I kept my chin up since I would be off for almost 2 weeks (my parents are on a 2 week vacation).  Noni came for her last shift for awhile and all went well.

Wednesday

Another tired day after working.  We had stayed in our pajamas all day, but then at the last minute we decided to go out to eat that night instead of Thursday.  So I quickly got us all dressed.  We went to the Thai restaurant with my parents & Adam.  The big highlight of the night was that Heath’s reign of champion of Monopoly Deal came to an end, when I finally won.  Justice is served.

Making a fort

Look at the form!  I have no idea what inspired him to do this!

Some other crazy thing Ty came up with that day

Thursday

Ty had his second swimming lesson and his inexperience showed this time.  Some of the kids could actually doggy-paddle, but Ty can’t do that yet.  He worked on floating and kicking his feet and he did great again.  I didn't get a good picture of swimming - I am trying to take pictures discreetly because I don't want some parents thinking I am posting their kid's face on Facebook!  After swimming lessons, we went to eat at Taco Bell, but it was shut down for a mechanical problem.  We had just gone to eat the night before, so we wanted something cheap and relatively fast.  We ended up at Pizza Hut and the boys were happy, but you can add pizza onto the list of things Westin won’t eat now.  Thank goodness we had ordered waffle fries to go with the pizza, since that is the only thing that he would eat (and a sippy).  What is wrong with him?

OK!  That is it!  Have a great week!

RANDOM PICS/VIDEOS

My No-Fear-Little-Man

His homemade flag, consisted of a canoe paddle, 2 American flag pillows duct-taped together.  He is unreal.

          He is addicted to watching the "Frozen" songs on the iPad. He always says "bam!" at the end of "Let It Go", which is when Elsa slams the door.  So cute.     

                                             Brotherly Lovin'