Ty & Wes Time: Maple Sugaring is Over, Croup, Bar Stool Climbing, Trying to Escape, Ty's Naps are Done, Westin's 4 Hour Naps, Bad Burn, Easter, Climbing on the Bed, "1,2...Jump," & Play Date

Wes: 1 Year & 5 Months Old (plus 1 Year, 5 Months & 1 Week Old)

Ty: 3 Years & 6 Months Old (plus 3 Years, 6 Months & 1 Week Old)

APRIL 12 – 18

Sabbath

We went to Laconia church and stayed for potluck. The boys had fun playing with their friends from church. After church we went for a nice Sabbath drive! We stopped in at a Maple Sugar house in Loudon and Heath loved looking everything over and getting ideas. That was interesting. Then we went to the playground in Concord and the boys had a blast, as usual. Then we drove around Concord area looking at some houses, but I really don’t think we will end up buying in Concord…too far for Heath to drive to Hanover…but one can dream!

Selfies at the Maple Sugar House

Playground

"If Ty can do it, I can do it!"

"I don't think so."

Proud that he came down the tire ladder-thing

He fell asleep right away in the car - I love how he crosses his leg while he sleeps in his car seat - he does it all the time!

Sunday

Wes & I had a nice day, shopping at the pharmacies and Goodwill together. Heath & Ty went to the Edwards for the last day of maple sugaring. Unfortunately, Keith & Adam had the flu now, but Ty was going to stay away from them and stay outside so that he wouldn’t get exposed by being in the house. Well, that plan kind of went out the window when Heath & Sonia realized that Ty was sick anyway. He seemed to be sick with a regular cold, but he wasn’t himself at all. The day was kind of a bust (except for the 11 pints of maple syrup that they made)! Ty was up multiple times during the night and I knew immediately what he had. Ty had croup. He had the classic barking cough that is unmistakable. We brought him into the bathroom and steamed it up a couple of times and that seemed to help. We didn’t have a humidifier. He came to bed with us so we could keep a close eye on him. He had worried me because he had been leaning forward to breathe and had been drooling a bit…but he pulled through, but still had worried me.

Monday

I had debated whether to go to work or not. I really didn’t want to leave Tyson. He was in rough shape - he had a high fever too. He just looked so miserable – probably the sickest he has ever looked. But Mom & Heath felt comfortable taking care of him, so I ended up going. Dad stopped by while Mom was babysitting and Tyson freaked them both out. He pretty much did not speak the entire day. If anyone knows Tyson, you know how abnormal this is. The boy usually does not stop talking! He slept with Heath again (and me at 5 AM). Heath had bought a humidifier and used it that night, so we didn’t have to go into the bathroom again.

Tuesday

I was so relieved. I woke up in my stupor after working to Tyson excitedly showing me the new humidifier and explaining every part of it to me. “Look Mama, you put water in here! You turn the knob here!” He was so animated and talking so much, I felt better about the croup. He still had a horrible cough and a low-grade fever, but at least was showing some signs of life! My mom called me first thing that morning, concerned about how he was doing, and I put him right on the phone so she could hear how good he sounded! She had been so worried and had barely slept that night. My excitement was short-lived when I went to get Westin up and he was barking like a seal too! I was so upset! Not my baby too! But thankfully, Wes did not get it as bad. In fact, Westin never seems to get as sick as Tyson. Wes got through it without any silent moments! He was his usual, happy self! In fact, he has taken up a new, dangerous love. Climbing the bar stools. It is my mission during the day, to keep him off the bar stools & the kitchen chairs. It is a never-ending job.

Not the bar stools, but trying to escape!

Wednesday

Wednesday was a bummer. It had been Shannon’s 30^th birthday the day before, and miraculously, all of the Copsey family were off together and we were supposed to have a party at the Fairway. But with both boys having the croup, I knew we couldn’t go and expose all the kids to this. So we stayed home and we postponed the party. The boys & I had a Laundry Party at home instead (what a trade off). The boys really laid low – I put the TV on way too much…but I really watch the amount they watch normally, so I figured being sick…you get some special treatment!

I found them like this - I did not stage this!

And then Wes just tackled Ty to hug him & that is when Ty drew the line and pushed Wes off of him

Thursday

Westin was still officially contagious, so we didn’t get our groceries or go out to eat. We didn’t do hardly anything all week. One thing that I have to mention is that Tyson is officially done with naps. I had kept trying to nap him all week – early, late..mid day…it did not matter. He would not do it (even being sick). I tried to have him do the quiet time in his bedroom, like Corey does with her kids…but it appears like this is not going to work with Ty. He does stay in his room for most of the 1 hour limit that I set, but the “quiet” piece is missed on him. He trashes his room – plays with noisy toys…moves things around and makes so much noise that he has woken Wes up multiple times. No thank you. Ty is banished to the downstairs while Westin is napping. As for Westin’s naps, his 2PM nap time has been unbelievable. He sleeps between 3.5-4 hours. No joke. It is not uncommon for him to wake up at 6-6:15 PM. And he doesn’t have any problem going back to sleep by 9 PM, so I am so psyched with this nap schedule! I am so happy with it that I haven’t even mourned Tyson being done with his nap. 3 ½ years old, pretty standard to stop napping, or so I hear! We had a good run!

Friday

Can not remember anything we did, except go grocery shopping (since Wes was no longer contagious).

APRIL 19 – 24

Sabbath

I had to work day shift, which was painful…but the day flew by! I can’t remember anything else that we did. I finished my final projects for school this week and I did not take the best notes!

Sunday

Heath worked outside doing our spring clean-up in the AM. The boys went out to play while Heath was raking and Westin had climbed on the side of the ATV (trying to get on) and he managed to fit his little hand in the smallest hole on the ATV and burned the top of his right hand. He cried but was easily consoled. It was huge and extended down his fingers. I didn't take a picture, but I took it the next day (the fingers were better). I'm pretty sure he will have a scar, poor baby. And I am positive that it will not be his only scar - he is an animal! Around 1 PM, the Edwards arrived for our Easter celebration! I had invited my parents, but they were down at the Cape…so another year! The boys had a blast with the Easter egg hunt that Heath & Keith had set up outside. 68 eggs for 2 little boys! Are you kidding me? At least they didn’t have all candy inside! We had some little toys too! Westin took a pretty big fall onto some rocks during the hunt and scratched up his face and got a huge bruise on his right upper arm, but he took it all in stride! We topped off the hunt with these stuffed bunnies that Sonia had gotten them and they loved them! After we were done, we headed over to the Mexican restaurant for a great meal! Ty was exhausted from all the excitement and fell asleep on the car ride there (5 miles down the road) and he slept almost the whole meal on a bench in a booth at the restaurant. He was done! We came back to the house and taught Monopoly Deal to Keith & Sonia. Keith beat us all! They seemed to like it too!

Playing outside with Daddy (Westin was eating mud)

Westy's burn

I have about a thousand Easter pictures...sorry

Heath was confused why I asked him to pose with the bunnies - I just thought he looked cute!

After eating some loot

Having a snack - why they both have their shirts off...I don't quite remember

Ty @ the Mexican restaurant

Wes taking advantage of sips of soda while Ty was sleeping

Monday

I worked and Noni babysat, but before those fun times…Westin stopped my heart yet again. He has figured out how to climb onto our bed via the dog crate. I remember my anxiety when Ty figured that out, but there is a crazy, no-fear thing that Westin has that Tyson does not have. Wes will think nothing of getting on the bed and jumping on it – until he falls off the bed onto his head! As I was leaving for work, Tyson asked me not to go to work. I was shocked. He has never said this to me before – it made me feel bad and warmed my heart all at the same time!

Tuesday

What better thing to do after working a 12 hour shift and getting 3 hours of sleep? Do a full cleaning of the house!!! So that was our Tuesday. Westin upped the ante of the climbing when he started counting, “(a word unrecognizable as ‘one’)…two (the only recognizable word)…jump!” and he jumps off of the crate, a chair, the couch…you name it and he will jump off of it! And he doesn't exactly wait for you to be ready to catch him - he will just launch himself! I guess he trusts me! It is the cutest thing.

Wednesday

I finished cleaning the house and again, can not remember anything else.

Thursday

We had a play date with Zach, Grace & Jill Harlow in the morning. The kids seemed to have fun together, but there were definite cringe moments with Tyson. Zach & Ty had run up to Zach’s room to play and then Zach ran to the top of the stairs crying, “Mom! Tyson threw a car at me!” Great. Just great. Then Ty tried to swordfight Zach and they fought over some toys…it is a bit exhausting trying to keep them in line (hence, no pictures were taken). You just want your kid to behave well! On the way back from the Harlows, we went to the grocery store and got that done. When we got back home, Ty helped me unload all the grocery bags. Something so cute happened with Ty. He started pulling out Heath’s seltzer bottles that I had bought. He came across the vanilla flavor (it has a white flower on the label) and Ty said, “Oh! Flower garden – my favorite!” Then he found the blueberry flavor and called it “grape”. Then Granny Smith Apple flavor he deemed was “mango!” But the funniest one he did was the orange vanilla flavor – which has an orange slice and the vanilla flower on it. He looked at it and said, “Oh! My! Flower lemon!” I just laughed and laughed. It was so cute. I had thanked Ty for helping me unload the groceries and asked him if he liked doing it and he said, “Yes, Mama. So much. It makes me happy.” Talk about melting my heart! Thursday night we went to Fratello’s with Adam & Sonia. We had a great time and the food was amazing.