Newport, Aggressive Behavior, First Melt-Down in a Store & Crouton Choking

13 Months & 3 Weeks

Last Friday, we spent the day packing up for a Latimer family reunion in Newport, Rhode Island.  Aunt Lori had reserved a bunch of timeshares for us all to stay at.  I don’t know why it takes so long to pack up, but it does.  Shannon & I were laughing how we don’t even care what we wear any more, it’s all about dressing up your kids to the nines.  I said how it’s great that you always have to bring extra outfits whenever you go anywhere – it case they have blow-outs.  Shannon was so funny, she said, “I might just fake a blow­out.  I’ll go and change her diaper and then just change her clothes, so she can be in another cute outfit!  Then I’ll say, “Wow!  That was a bad one!  What a blow out!” (=  She didn’t do it, but it was funny that those are the things that we think of now!  So I guess the packing takes me awhile because I’m trying to get the cutest outfits for Ty! (=  Crazy, I know.  Another big thing that we did on Friday was bring the puppies up to Vutek at 5:00PM so Adam could take them home.  He was watching them for the weekend while we were away.  We are so thankful that he watches them for us – we never have to worry at all about them.  They love him SO much.  After we got back from Vutek, Shannon & Sean came over for supper and we had tacos.  Ty did well again with the real food.  Hallelujah.

Noni & Poppy stopped in on their way down to Newport on Friday

Tyson watching his video from Santa (sent by my friend, Susan) - he loved it

On Sabbath morning, we had a big breakfast and then headed to Newport.  Ty did great and ate pancakes and eggs for the first time.  He loved them!  We had tried to get him to eat eggs before but it hadn’t worked.  I’m not sure if he ate them this time because they had some syrup on them!  Might have had something to do with it!  Ty slept for 2 hours out of the 3 hour trip – so that was good.  We got there to our timeshare and checked in.  Shannon & Finley followed us on the way down and we were staying with them in a timeshare.  We were supposed to have a 1 bedroom unit and Shannon was going to sleep on the couch (Sean couldn’t go, he had a few things going on) – but when we got there we were pleasantly surprised that we had a 2 bedroom unit, so Shannon had her own bedroom!  There were so many of us that we couldn’t all be in the same building – so we were in 3 different ones – but it was free lodging so we weren’t going to complain at all! (=  After we had unpacked our cars, fed the children (Ty & Fin) we headed over to one of the other timeshare buildings – which was our “hang-out” spot for the weekend.  We spent most of the time there – in a 2 bedroom unit (Duncan & Corey & Devin & Leigh’s unit).  They had a nice sized family room that the 31 of us could “almost” comfortably all be in at the same time!  For supper, we went to a Panini restaurant.  It was fantastic food!  Ty ate the sandwiches and our soup well, which was good.  I was ready for Ty to get his own kid’s meal deal, but the $4.50 price tag made Heath think twice about it.  It is terrible if he has a bad eating day and then refuses to eat anything.  That would stink!  After the restaurant, we stopped in the Marriot Hotel which has a huge gingerbread house on display.  That was really cool and Ty liked looking at it – but he became obsessed with watching the glass elevators go up and down.  So Heath & Poppy took Ty on the elevators (and then Aubree, Mia, & Uncle Bill went too).  It was so cute – I was waving like crazy at Tyson when he was in the elevator, but he didn’t see me until the last second and then broke out in the biggest smile you have ever seen!  Everyone saw him smiling at me and thought it was so cute.  It was.  We headed back late to our timeshare and got to bed around 11:00 PM.  Ty stayed awake the whole time, which was not good.  He cried out every couple of hours in his pack n’ play, but would go right back to sleep – but was really carrying on at 5:30 AM, so into our bed he went.  I didn’t want to risk waking up Finley in the next room.

Heath stuck Ty in a drawer at the timeshare when we got there...he wasn't amused

But he loved to ride on the luggage cart!

Ty wanting to grab at Bode!

Special family time

One of the groups at the Panini Grill

Ty eating a panini dipped in soup

Ty was looking at the gingerbread house with awe...

It was impressive!

He liked the Christmas tree too!

Watching the elevators

On Sunday, we woke up and tried to make it to brunch on time – but we were 15 minutes late.  We had decided to have Shannon carpool with us and we had to move over Finley’s car seat and stroller – and it took awhile.  Ty had a great time at the buffet and ate eggs, muffins, hashbrowns, and couple of bites of cantaloupe!  I was psyched.  Great job!  After brunch, we all took a drive by all the Newport mansions.  They are absolutely incredible.  Just amazing.  In the afternoon, we did a book Yankee swap down in the hotel’s sitting area that had a fireplace and comfy couches.  We kind of took over that area!  We had a great time.  Our book that we brought was swapped the most times and I ended up with a Nicholas Sparks book, so I was excited.  We all had a blast watching the Pats demolish the Broncos and we had a wonderful lasagna dinner together at half-time.  Ty loved the lasagna and the bread, of course.  Heath & Ty went in the pool after we ate.  Ty didn’t love it, but he didn’t down-right hate it either.  He kind of just cuddled into Heath – it was really cute.  In the evening, Ty had an aggression attack and decided to clear the coffee table in the timeshare and a camera flew about 8 feet across the room.  Thank goodness it was my camera!  I don’t know what got into him – he hadn’t had sugar or anything… but he was crazy.  Ty went to sleep in his car seat at about 9:30 PM (after Heath drove Shannon back to our timeshare early) and stayed asleep, which was good.  Heath was leaving for work at 4:30 in the AM – so we tried to pack everything that we could before we went to bed – so we decided to pack the pack n’ play and just have Ty sleep with us from the get-go.  Let’s be honest.  He was going to end up in bed with us anyway.  I didn’t give him any Tylenol or Ibuprofen before bed and that was a mistake.  He cried multiple times in bed, in obvious pain.  I was worried that I have been giving him medication before bed for too long (this has been a long teething episode with both his front teeth), but he clearly still needs it. 

Messing around with Finley in the pack n' play in the AM - no wonder we were late to brunch!

3 siblings together

Somehow Duncan always gets in the pictures!

The book Yankee swap

Ty was thrashing around during the book swap

Watching people in the pool

Then it was Ty's turn in the pool - but he didn't exactly love it!

All the babies eating... Heath said, "If I could breastfeed Ty, I would."  Isn't that the truth!!!!

On Monday Heath left for work early and we stayed and had to check out by 11 AM.  Shannon said, “Ty is really smart, Alison.”  Of course you love to hear this, and what she said was that Tyson had gone over to Shannon’s diaper bag and then stopped and looked at Shannon.  Whenever he does this to me, he is asking me permission to do something or get into something.  Well, he actually knew that the bag was Shannon’s and looked to Shannon and not me! (=  My parents, Shannon, the kids, Aunt Lori & Uncle Charlie, and I went to a restaurant for lunch.  Tyson was a bit excitable again and took a huge pepper mill and threw it on the floor and also knocked over Noni’s water glass.  Oh my.  He is getting to be a problem.  Tyson had Poppy & Noni time while I had a mandatory skills day at the hospital – which we hit up on the way home.  They went to the mall shopping and then came and picked me up in the ER.  Ty met me with big, big smiles as if he hadn’t seen me in forever!  It was so sweet.  Ty was psyched when we got home and did his usual of going through all his toys and playing with them all!  I made Caribbean Curry for supper (it has Fri-Chik and pineapple in it) and he wasn’t sure of it at first.  Heath was sitting in his chair, eating it and I told Tyson that what he had was “Daddy’s food.”  Man, that changed everything.  He ate all the curry like it was going out of style!  I’m going to have to use that one again.  He went right to bed that night and sleep the whole night without a peep.  Love it.

On Tuesday, we spent the whole day, doing what?  Unpacking and picking up.  Another thing that takes SO long.  Tyson’s aggressive behavior continued in a major way on Tuesday.  First of all, Shannon & Finley came over and Finley was in the bouncer and he was bouncing her a bit too hard.  Shannon took Fin out of the bouncer to feed her and that’s when Ty came over and flipped the whole bouncer over!  That bouncer is heavy!  Then Ty had decided that wanted to get to the dog food (he hadn’t done that in a while) and I blocked off the dog food with a basket of his toys and held the end of it.  He tried to move it and tried and tried and got more and more angry that he couldn’t move the basket.  So then he grabbed his oversized legos and started chucking them as hard as he could into the basket, with each lego he threw – he was getting more and more angry.  It was the craziest fit you have ever seen.  He did the exact same thing a few hours later, when I was upstairs in the bathroom brushing my teeth – when he tried to get into the makeup drawer again and I put my knee against the drawer so he couldn’t get in it.  So he had another fit, and opened the headband drawer and proceeded to throw all the headbands all over the bathroom, yelling with each one he threw.  I’m seriously going to have a hard time with him.  And I think it’s starting now.  On Tuesday evening, Heath, Adam, Ty & I went to Concord Christmas shopping.  Ty did great going through all the stores, but the rascal wouldn’t fall asleep.  Usually he will fall asleep in his car seat, but he didn’t fall asleep until the ride home at 11:00 PM.  On a positive note, Ty did great at Taco Bell and had a cheese roll-up and most of a bean burrito!  So maybe there is hope for him on the Mexican front. 

Bouncing Finley again

After flipping the bouncer over - and he ripped the handle off too!

On Wednesday, Tyson had to wake up early because I was headed to work and since he had gotten to bed really late the night before meant that he had melt-down after melt-down before Heath & I left for work.  It was not a pretty sight.  Thank goodness it was just first thing in the AM, because he was great for my Mom the rest of the day.   I worked and did go to the dumpster after work.  I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to get in because I knew that it had probably been emptied, since it was getting so full.  It had been emptied, but I was able to get in and out of them because someone had dropped off 3 trash bags full of shredded paper – so I was able to stand on them to get in and out.  I only got 10 inserts, but it was still worth it!

Thursday was a busy day.  We had to head back to the pediatrician’s office for Ty’s pneumonia recheck.  We got there for our 10:45 AM appointment (that’s more like it) and immediately got the “we cured him” from the doctor when she listened to his lungs.  I didn’t have the heart to tell her that he hadn’t coughed since receiving his diagnosis of pneumonia and that I thought there was no way in heck he ever had it.  I kept my mouth shut and played the grateful mother, “Oh, that’s great!  I’m so glad he’s better!”  Ty got his second flu shot and he was a trouper.  He watched the whole time, he flinched just a little when the needle went in, and didn’t cry at all when they pushed the medicine in.  He was great!  The doctor was impressed and said, “You don’t usually see that!”  After our appointment, we went to a few stores Xmas shopping, but had a bad time at Burlington Coat Factory.  It was the first time that I have been embarrassed by Ty in a store.  It is just the beginning, I know, but it really has started.  He started with whining, and then half-whining/half-crying, and then full-on screaming/crying.  I gave him things to hold in the cart and he would just throw them on the floor.  I got him out of the cart and had him walk around a bit, but he would just walk off or take the cart and push it into any display that was near us.  And still nothing stopped the screaming.  I couldn’t just leave – I had 3 things that I was buying and I still wanted to look around a bit more, but there was NO way.  We had to leave the store immediately.  But I waited in line – with I’m sure dirty looks from everyone (I wouldn’t look anyone in the eye) and we paid and got out of there.  I told Tyson how disappointed in him I was – not that he cared in the slightest.  I have to do some more Xmas shopping and I’m absolutely dreading doing it with Ty again.  Ty napped in the car as we drove home have a quick lunch.  Then Reeses had to go back to the vet to have her eye checked again.  It had been doing better, but then she started squinting again and would have more discharge.  Shannon, Finley, and Grammy Lin came over to visit and watched Ty while I took Reese.  She ended up having a HUGE scratch across her entire right eye this time.  There wasn’t one before, only the infection, but now Snickers probably gave her the scratch.  So 2 more eye drops later and $89 more… we got out of there.  Hopefully this will clear it all up!  She is so cute and runs right to you when you give her the eye drops… it’s like she knows it makes her eye feel better or something.  On Thursday night, my parents, Shannon, Finley, and us met our friend, Jessie Fortin & her husband Brian, at Canoe, a restaurant in Center Harbor.  We had seen them over the summer and had wanted to get together again when they came home for Christmas.  They are our friends who live in Ethiopia.  We had a nice visit, but it was almost disastrous when Tyson choked on a crouton.  Ty was sitting by Heath (he usually sits by me) and he had grabbed a crouton off of Heath’s plate and had been playing with it.  Heath didn’t see him put it in his mouth and then looked up when Ty grabbed at Heath’s arms and he was flailing but not making any noises.  Heath realized that he was choking and grabbed it right out of Ty’s mouth (it wasn’t down far enough, thank goodness).  A bit of a scary moment, to say the least.  We were able to get home at a decent time because we met at 6:00 PM (unfortunately, Sean couldn’t make it from Lebanon by that time) and after a bath Ty got to bed at 9:00 PM!  Pretty early for a Thursday night! (=

The crew at Canoe

Have a great week & Merry Christmas! 

Brushing Hair (With a Toothbrush), Shopping Antics, Still Refusing Fruit & Pneumonia

13 Months & 2 Weeks

OK - I am 2 weeks behind again.  Between a weekend away and Christmas shopping... time has flown by.  I didn't even have time to write any notes so I hope I remember the important things.  I have to say that I have noticed that I don't have too many good pictures of Tyson lately.  It's frustrating.  When he was younger, he would lay on his play mat or sit in his walker and I could just take picture after picture and at least 1 of them would be good.  But now, he is on the move constantly.  He does not stop for a second, so it's down right impossible to get a good picture of him.  So that's annoying, but I think that is what is supposed to happen.  I just need to deal with it.

This is the type of picture I can get now!  He never looks at the camera!

2 Fridays ago I don't remember too many things that happened except for something hilarious.  I had been in the bathroom doing my normal morning routine and Ty was there playing beside me.  After I was finished, I sat him up on the counter to brush his teeth, which is always his favorite time to go through Heath's toiletry bag.  Well, he grabbed Heath's toothbrush and proceeded to brush his hair with it!  It was the funniest thing - it was very deliberate and exaggerated and he has done it a few times since!  At least it's one of Heath's old toothbrushes!  Our big thing that we did on that Friday was take the Subaru to the dealer to have a recall taken care of.  They had a great kids area with bean bags and bins of toys.  It was great!  Ty had a blast taking the toys from one of the bins and throwing them all into the second bin.  It's so nice when places have great toys like that for the kids.  Very helpful.  On Friday night, Shannon & Sean came over and we made spaghetti & meatballs.  Ty loved the meatballs, which thrilled me.  It's great when you work on something and Ty actually eats it!

Hangin' on the bean bags at the dealer

Transferring of the Toys!

Very intently playing

On Saturday I worked and then after work I met up with Heath, Ty, Sonia & Keith in Concord.  They were out doing some Christmas shopping and we went out to the OG.  Ty did great and ate his usuals.  Good boy!

On Sunday I worked again.  Ty and Heath went and helped his grandparents get ready for a move.  They are getting out of their house and moving to an apartment at Heath's aunt's house (their daughter).  Heath said that Ty was very clingy all day.  Heath came home with a Christmas tree that Sonia had picked up for us when they were getting one of their own.  We have been so busy constantly, we still have not decorated it yet (except for the lights).  It's a pretty one!  Hopefully we'll get a chance to enjoy it all decorated!

On Monday I spent the day getting the house in order after the boys had messed it up.  Shannon & Finley came over in the morning.  Ty was wicked cute.  He has really started noticing Finley when she comes over.  He went over to her while she was in the bouncer and decided that she was not bouncing enough!  So he "helped" her along by giving the bouncer "a little something extra!"  You should have seen how much Finley was bouncing after that!  Shannon ran to get her hair cut and I baby-sat the 2 munchkins.  I just don't know how you juggle two kids!!!!  This is the dilemmas that I had.  So Finley was an angel and had gone to sleep for me - which was great.  She was sound asleep in the bouncer on the kitchen counter - when it became time for Ty to have his nap.  I let Ty go a little over, because I was hoping Shannon would get home... but it didn't happen.  So what was I to do?  I couldn't leave Finley downstairs by herself while I put Ty down for his nap... and there was no way that I was carrying Fin in her bouncer up the stairs... so she would need to be removed from the bouncer and then would wake up.  Well, Finley made the decision for me and she woke up on her own as I was going through scenarios in my head.  So, I brought Tyson upstairs and put him in his room and shut the door.  I couldn't have him trying to fall down the stairs as I moved Finley.  So then I got Fin out of the bouncer and carried her up the stairs and laid her in the hallway on a blanket.  Meanwhile, Tyson is having a major meltdown banging on his bedroom door.  I carried the bouncer up the stairs, locked the gate, opened Tyson from his prison, and got Finley situated back in her bouncer.  Just when I thought I had it perfect and I could put Ty down for his nap, Finley started losing her mind.  She wasn't due to eat and she had just napped... so I checked her diaper and, yes, she needed to be changed.  So I carried her back down the stairs - closed the gate - leaving Ty in another sort of prison and proceeded to change her diaper at the bottom of the stairs... where Tyson could at least see us (but that still didn't prevent him from crying).  Finley was still crying her eyes out after the diaper change and I realized that there was no way that she was going to cooperate in the bouncer while I put Ty down... and I was going through more scenarios of what to do next when... Shannon came home!!!!  How do people do it?  I guess if Finley was my daughter, she would have just had to cry it out while I put Tyson down.. but I just couldn't do that when was in charge of her!  In the afternoon, Ty and I hit up the grocery store and Ty started a new thing.  He started twisting himself around in the cart, grabbing whatever he could get his hands on in our cart, and chucking it on the floor.  Wow, that was not a fun game.  A blast for Ty, but not for me.  What will he come up with next?  Another new thing was that he absolutely refused to eat the meatballs on Monday night.  Heath & I were having meatball subs, and Ty would have no part of it.  He LOVED them on Friday night.  I couldn't figure it out, but then Heath told me that he had given Ty meatballs all weekend long, so I guess he was sick of them.  Can babies really get tired of the same foods?  I guess so.

Bouncing Finley

On Tuesday AM, I was stocked up with new breakfast and lunch foods for Ty.  I have been wracking my brain to come up with new food ideas, and I got a few things.  One thing that I had decided was that Tyson needs to try a new fruit every week.  He just won't eat fruit and it is driving me crazy!!!!  So Shannon reminded me of how much Calleigh & Aubree (Coreys' girls) love blueberries, so I decided to try blueberries.  I set him up in his high chair and cut up a couple of blueberries for him to try.  He went to pick one up, felt it, and stopped cold.  He squished it between his fingers and made a face.  He didn't like the way they felt on his hands and he REFUSED TO EVEN TRY THEM!!!!  I kind of got mad.  I can understand if he tried them and didn't like the way they tasted, but he wouldn't even put them in his mouth!!!!  I ate one in front of him and even tried to put one in his mouth, but he acted like I was trying to kill him and he flailed his arms and spit them out whenever I got one in his mouth.  So I gave up.  Very discouraged.  I was more encouraged when he tried waffles for the first time and he loved them.  Of course he did.  He is a carb-a-holic.  He also got his first taste of maple syrup and I realized that it was his first real direct taste of sugar and I wondered if he would have a hyper reaction.  Well, I got my answer when within 5 minutes, he got very excited in his high chair and proceeded to hit himself in the face quite a few times!!!!  He's a strange one all right! (=  Shannon returned the favor of baby-sitting in the afternoon and watched Ty while I took my turn and got my haircut.  I came back and my hair still wasn't how I wanted it.  I even made the hairdresser redo it once, but I couldn't make her redo it a second time in one haircut!  And all I could think of was that Shannon was stuck with 2 kids and I had to rush back to her!  Ty was a good boy and entertained himself well, so that was good.  The food drama continued at supper when Heath & I had made homemade pizza.  I had put pineapple on my half and I decided to try to pineapple again with Tyson.  I don't know why I put myself through this two times in one day, but I'm a glutton for punishment.  I gave Ty about 3 or 4 pieces of pineapple on his tray and I had walked into the family room for a minute.  I came back into the kitchen and checked on Ty with his progress.  And his tray was empty!!!!  I was so excited!  I screamed at Heath that Ty had eaten the pineapple and then got out more for him!  I was so stoked and cut up some more pieces and put it on his tray.  And that is when I had noticed that Ty had taken all the pieces of pineapple and stuffed them in the pocket of his bib.  Are you kidding me????  So that was a bit of a let down.  Someday he'll eat real fruit.  Someday.

"I don't like you blueberries!"

Hitting himself in the face after having syrup!

Hiding pineapple!  What a rascal!

On Wednesday, I worked and there isn't a thing to report.  Well, I didn't feel that great after work and didn't go to my dumpster.  That was a hard decision to make, even though I didn't feel good.  I felt like I was losing on deals!

On Thursday, Ty and I had to get up very early to make it to the pediatrician's office by 9:15.  I had gotten a message from the office the day before confirming my appointment.  I had remembered that it was 10:00, but they swore to me that it was 9:15.  I know they messed up because I would NEVER have in my right mind EVER made an appointment for 9:15.  Ty & I usually have just gotten out of bed at that time!  Anyways, we made it on time, amazingly.  Ty needed his 2nd flu shot and they were going to recheck his ears.  His ears were perfect but the doctor said, "He has pneumonia."  What?  Yes, he had a cold, but he was sounding so much better and was barely coughing anymore.  No Xray was done or anything.  She said not to freak out that a lot of kids were getting pneumonia right now and that he just needed another antibiotic.  I was worried about another drug reaction, but he did great.  He went on Zithromax and didn't have any problems.  He didn't get his flu shot - the doctor wanted to recheck his lungs in another week and would give him his shot then.  Anyways, Ty & I rushed home because I was on a major deadline.  I can't discuss it now, it is a Christmas present.. but all I can tell you is that the only day that I needed to focus on something 100% was the day that Tyson would NOT leave me alone.  He wouldn't play with his toys, like he normally does.. all he wanted to do was grab at me & "my project" and whine.  Not a good day for that.  But what can you do?  Despite Tyson's antics, I made my deadline so that was great.  On Thursday night, just us & Adam headed out on errands.  I went back to the hairdressers and had them fix my hair.  I love it - I really do... I have never had it so short, but they hacked the back.  It is shaved in the back, and I love how short it is.. but they didn't blend the top of my hair into the shaved section... it is very blunt, almost like there is a line there.  So I don't love that, but I don't have to look at the back so that is good! (=  After the errands, we went to the mexican restaurant and Tyson's bad eating continued this week and he still won't eat mexican!  Someday.  Someday. 

Have a great week!  I hope to be getting this week's blog out shortly!  So you'll be hearing from me soon! (=

One of our favorites things he does... he desperately tries to tell us something... he gestures very expressively and uses baby jibberish with such emphasis!

Here he is again doing the same thing!

He is pretty smart.  He took the CD case and put it in the CD player - like a regular CD!  How was he supposed to know that it won't play?! (=

Blue eyes...

Mold, Nail Polish, Waving, & More Teething

Week 58

Last Friday Ty and I made a record and slept in until 10 AM!  That was crazy, but he had gotten to bed late the night before - since it was our night out.  Of course that threw off our schedule a tad.  I was putting him to bed for his nap at 1 PM (usually naps at 11:30 or 12:00) and he was acting tired, but he would not go down at all.  I did the cry it out method (15 minutes of crying, then 30 minutes of crying, with consoling in between) and after 1 hour I gave up.  I had to feed him his lunch and then we needed to run to the grocery store before sundown.  With sundown so early now it makes it difficult sometimes to get it all done!  One crazy thing happened.  Tyson was doing his normal go-through-all-the-cabinets thing... when I realized that he was very quiet.  Never a good thing.  I turned around and found Ty with crumbs all around him and a huge loaf of bread in his mouth.  I'm telling you...the kid loves bread.  What was horrifying was that I took the loaf out of his mouth and it was FULL of mold.  It had been wrapped in tin foil and he had unwrapped it and just went to town.  Thank goodness he didn't get sick from it!  What is now becoming a weekly thing (if we are in town), Shannon & Sean & Finley came over for supper.  Shannon made corn chowder, which was fantastic again.  She put dumplings in it too, which added a little something extra.  Heath gave Ty a bath before bed and it was so cute.  Ty came down the stairs (with Heath) and came right over to me and started talking and talking up a storm - so expressive.  It was like he was saying, "Mama, I was in the bath and I played with my toys and then this happened... and then this happened."  It was so cute.  He went right to sleep at bedtime, which was such a blessing.  I didn't want him to cry it out for a second time in one day!

Disgusting

On Sabbath, we headed to Concord church and we made it to Sabbath School!  We were 10 minutes late, but because there was only 1 other kid in the class...the teacher had all the songs and stories done... and the only thing left was the craft.  What a bummer.  Especially since Tyson and the other kid, who is 9 months old, don't color yet.  So that was pointless.  I mean, only 10 minutes late.  Shannon & Sean came as well, and we stayed for potluck.  I was kind of excited to feed Ty the potluck food - since you can give him a little of this and a little of that... but wouldn't you know it, he wouldn't touch hardly anything.  He liked the Special K loaf and, what else, BREAD!!  At least I am prepared for his picky moments and had jarred fruit and veges with me, but come on!  We had a relaxing afternoon and then Shannon & Sean came over for supper again.  This time Sean cooked for us (Heath was the sous chef) and it was great!  We attempted to watch a movie ("Crazy, Stupid Love") which we finally got accomplished...but it took awhile.  Between Finley's meltdowns and me having to stop mid-movie to put Tyson to bed (thank goodness he went right down)...it was awhile before we finished it.  But it was a cute movie.

Sabbath afternoon (still rashy)

On Sunday, Mama and Daddy were busy with projects and Ty did a good job entertaining himself with his toys.  For Mama it was a sewing project all day and for Daddy it was raking up all our leaves.  We were busy bees.  Heath & I treated ourselves to a movie of "Water For Elephants" after Ty had gone to bed.  It was really good,  And I'm not just saying it because my favorite Twilight hunk was in it!  Our interruptions with the movie-watching continued because Ty woke up multiple times during the night.  Frustrating.

Ty watching the Pats with Mama (we really don't let him watch TV!!!)

On Monday we had a mini-disaster.  I was standing at the sink in the bathroom, putting in my contacts, while Ty was going through my make-up drawer.  One of his favorite things to do.  All of a sudden, I smelled something.  I looked down and I was not prepared for what I was going to see.  Ty had thrown one of my nail polishes on the floor, which he has done a hundred times... but this time it hit the tile just right.  There was nail polish everywhere.  All over Ty's pajamas, all over Ty's hands, all over my bathroom rug, and the tile.  Ty was scared, because he didn't know what was going on and he put his hands all over my legs - which got nail polish all over my pajamas!  This happened while having my head turned for 10 seconds.  After using all the nail polish remover I had left, the rug and our PJ's were ruined.  I think it scared him so much that he has been avoiding that drawer like the plaque.  I went right out and got the drawer clips anyway for that drawer.  I'm not going through that again!  Late morning, Shan & Fin came over and had lunch with us.  Good times.  In the afternoon, Ty & I hit up the pharmacies and got a few things, nothing great.  My highlight was candy.  What else?  I got a big bag of the miniature Mars candies (Snickers, Milky Ways, Kit Kats etc.) for $1 each.  They are usually $4!!!!  So I bought 4 of them.  I couldn't resist.  Heath had gone down to Mass for work but got home early, which was a treat.  What was a real treat was that my parents baby-sat Ty on Monday night and Heath & I went out for a date night.  My mom had offered a few weeks ago, and we had wanted to go to the movies.  But there wasn't anything playing we wanted to see, so we put it off.  We ended up seeing Jack & Jill (an Adam Sandler movie).  It was a cute, family movie...but not one of his best ones.  We had nice time out and hadn't had date night since Valentine's Day.  It was high time.  I had made a pasta & bean soup before we left and my mom said that Ty went crazy for it!  So that was good.  What wasn't good was that Ty would not go to bed for my mom and then was so worked up - he wouldn't go to bed for us either.  It was a 2 hour cry fest until he went to sleep.  Guess he missed us at bedtime!

He seriously goes through every single thing he can get his hands on!

On Tuesday, we got up early and had a Girls and Baby Day in Manchester.  We hit up this great thrift store that I had never been to and a few other stores.  We got some great things.  Then we had lunch at Friendly's and Ty did great eating the fries and grilled cheese again.  Nice job!  In the afternoon, we noticed that Tyson has both of his front teeth coming in.  Again, that explains some of the bad nights.  Poor baby.  On Tuesday night, we continued our day out and went out to eat.  We ended up at the Chinese Restaurant because the Thai restaurant was closed.  We went with my parents, Shannon, Sean & Finley.  We had to go out on Tuesday because I was working Thursday.  Just like last time, Ty wouldn't eat anything chinese. Really?  I tried to get him to just eat some rice and he would spit it all out!

Mom was in heaven to be in the back with the kids (Ty definitely thought he had it made!)

Spitting out the rice at the Chinese restaurant

On Wednesday Ty and I did some errands and laundry.  We got some good things done!  I just have to say how much I am in love with Valvoline.  You stay in your car and the oil change is down in about 10 minutes.  It is just incredible.  Every mom needs to go there.  On Wednesday Ty FINALLY starting waving bye-bye on command.  He did it 3 times on Wednesday!  I was so proud of him!  His waving is pretty funny – he just flaps his arm very spastically.  But at least he's doing it purposefully! (=  I made Warm Chicken Salad for supper on Wednesday night and he LOVED it.  So that made me happy, but he completely refused to eat any peas.  I ground them up and he has eaten them that way a bunch of times, but he just decided not to do it on Wednesday.  When do you have them drink Pediasure to make sure he is getting enough good nutrition?  It is starting to stress me out.  I just worry too much.  We were supposed to go get our Christmas tree after supper, but it was pouring outside... so we didn't go.  Pouring in December?  It just doesn't make sense.

Ty decided he didn't feel like wearing his pants and would take them off!

He was naughty on Wednesday night so I put him here and he hated it!!  His one-time object of fun is now a method of torture!  I was going to put it in the basement - but I'm going to leave it where it is for discipline! (=  

On Thursday I worked, since one of the girls at work needed a swap.  I hit up my dumpster after work and got 11 inserts again.  The same as the week before.  Let me tell you, it's getting pretty cold in there!  It was 32 degrees and even though I had winter gloves on and then latex gloves, my fingertips were still freezing!  We'll see how long I can keep it up.  I'm not sure how much snow will blow in the dumpster during the middle of the winter.  We'll see.  Ty had another good day and went right to sleep for Heath and slept the whole night!  It probably had something to do with the Ibuprofen we have been giving him before sleep, though, huh?  I know I can't keep it up, but it helps the teething pain!!!!

Have a great week!

Playing with my headbands, he always tries to put them on his head and they end up as necklaces!