18 Month Stats, New Car Seat, Cabin in Maine, Tick, Riding On Finley, Stair Shenanigans & A Visit From Nanny & Papa

19 Months & 1 Week

Here I am behind again with the blog.  Story of my life.  So sorry, hopefully it will be better, but we are going to be slammed for the next few weeks with taking a class, my cousin's wedding in Maryland, and Campmeeting.  Hopefully I'll get it all done.

Fridays ago, Heath had the day off for Memorial Day weekend!  He ended up having a 4 day weekend, lucky duck!  What was even better was that Tyson had his "18 month" appointment that day.  Of course he is 19 months - he seems to always have his appointments a month later than he should, but what can you do?  So Heath got to go to his appointment and actually meet his pediatrician for the first time!  He has gone to a few appointments, but only the emergent ones when we haven't been able to see our own pediatrician.  Ty is doing great!  He was 22 pounds 6 oz (10th percentile), 32 inches long (55th percentile), and his head circumference was 20 inches (50th percentile).  He went down a little bit on his weight, (from the 15th percentile to the 10th percentile) but he has pretty much stayed in the 10th percentile his whole life.  Ty got 3 shots and Heath got to see that first-hand.  I was worried that Ty would cry during these shots, after I have bragged to Heath every time that Ty does not cry with his shots.  But he didn't cry again.  He just looks down and watches as the needle stabs him.  Maybe he'll be in the medical field after all.  I did bring up Ty's "no-talking-thing" to see if she was worried about it, but she's not.  She said to give it until 2 years old and then if he still isn't talking, then we will have him evaluated for speech therapy.  That is fine with us.  We filled out the autism form (which she was NOT at all worried about but is standard at 18 months) and he passed it with flying colors.  All in all, a great appointment.  We continued our Friday together with errands and we went to Sears to have the truck’s tires rotated.  We went shopping in the mall while we were waiting and I found a dress for Ricky’s wedding at JCPenney!  Seriously, I find all my dresses there.  I don’t know why I go anywhere else.  So that was exciting (for me).  Then we bounced to Taco Bell for a late lunch and Ty had a late nap on the way home (and a short one at that).  The Frosts came over for supper and saw us get Ty all situated in his new car seat.  Yes, folks, we had to do it.  Ty is out of his infant car seat and into the big convertible car seat.  He is like a real boy now!  We were forced to once we knew his length officially.  He is 32 inches and his infant seat only goes to 30 inches.  He was getting a bit cramped in the infant seat, but I am absolutely dreading moving him once he falls asleep in the new seat – since you can’t just detach it and carry it.  But he was getting wicked heavy, so…I’ll be saving my back!  On Friday night when I was putting Tyson to bed, I couldn’t help but crying.  He was going to be leaving me for 3 days and 2 nights to go “camping” with Heath and the Edwards.   I have never been away from Tyson for that long and knew that I would miss him like crazy.

New car seat

Finley watching Ty get into his new car seat

Ty loves to listen to the echo inside his blocks can

Practicing for finishing school

I had to work Memorial Day weekend, but I, at least, had Monday off.  Heath, Ty, and the Edwards had rented a cabin up in Maine, about 4 hours away, for Saturday and Sunday night.  I definitely told them to go without me.  Why should they have to stay behind just because I had to work?  I knew that I would miss Tyson so much (and Heath too) but I have to say that at the same time, I was kind of looking forward to time just to myself.  That just doesn’t happen.  Ever.  And I had a blast.  I worked on Saturday and watched the Celtics win game 7 against Philadelphia.  I have been enjoying watching basketball so much lately.  I really should watch it all the time. 

The cabin they rented

On Sunday, I worked again and treated myself to Indian take-out after work. I hit up the pharmacies too, but I don’t remember what I got.  I’m sure not too much – it has been slim pickings lately.  On Sunday night I “talked” to Tyson on the phone.  Thank goodness they had some cell service (it was spotty, but better than nothing).  It was quite a moment for me.  Tyson said, “hello” to me on the phone for the first time!  It was so special.  I talked to him for a bit and then I told him, “I love you.  Bye-bye.”  Then Sonia came on the phone and said that he was waving to me through the phone! (=  How cute is that?  I think pretty darn cute.  Of course, that made me cry, since I was missing him pretty bad.

Ty enjoying the cabin

On Monday I enjoyed a day off at home by myself.  I knew that the boys would be home late because they were going to look at property in Maine (for a camp).  There were having some good sales at the outlets, so I met Shannon and Finley there and then went to Kohl’s.  Of course I just ended up buying for Tyson, which is the name of the game now, but it was still fun to shop “alone.”  Shannon and Sean took pity on lonely me and invited me to their place for supper.  They made a scrumptious pasta salad and burgers and it was great.  We watched a movie and I beat the boys home.  They rolled in at midnight and my little boy was a sight for sore eyes.  He woke up when they got home and when Heath carried him in, he actually held his arms out for me, which he usually does not do.  I must have kissed him a thousand times before I put him in bed.  Did I mention how much I missed him?

Tuesday was quite the day.  First of all, I volunteered to watch Finley for the day because my mother was sick with what appeared to be Strep throat.  I got up to be ready when Finley came at 6:30 AM.  Ty was an angel and slept past 8 AM.  When Tyson woke up, I noticed immediately that he had a TICK ON HIS NECK!!!!  And not just any tick, but a deer tick.  A teeny, tiny tick.  I took it off him, freaked out a bit, and called his doctor.  From working in the ER, if anyone comes in with a tick on them, then we usually treat them with antibiotics, just in case.  Of course the pediatricians do not do that.  They told me that even if it really was a deer tick (it was), and even if it was infected with Lyme Disease, it would have to be imbedded for at least 24-36 hours to spread the disease.  Well, that was a relief.  Heath and Sonia are sure that it was not there – it probably had been on his clothes and crawled to his neck during the night.  It was so visible, there is no way they would have missed it.  But we still have to watch for flu-like symptoms and the bulls-eye rash.  Those symptoms can come about between 3 and 30 days.  So I guess we aren’t exactly out of the woods yet!  Anyways, the craziest thing happened while I was getting rid of the tick.  I went into the kitchen and when I came back to the family room, Finley was on her stomach and Tyson was sitting on her back like he was going to ride her like a horse!!!!  Thank goodness he wasn’t bouncing on her back, but just sitting on her.  She was not amused at all – can you blame her?  Where in the world did he come up with that?  He tried to do it 2 more times that day – and I couldn’t resist snapping a pic.  Bizarre.  He tried to make up with Finley, though.  Out of nowhere, he sat down right beside her and wrapped his arms around her and pulled her to him in a big hug!  It was very sweet.  What a good boy.  He showed me his smarts in the afternoon.  You know how I say that he loves to push around his ATV or his big car and then he gets stuck and scream?  Well, he did just that.  I brought him out of his car and pointed to the problem when he got stuck.  He had pulled out a cookie sheet from one of the cabinets and dropped it in the middle of the family room.  So the cookie sheet was stuck underneath the car wheels.  He saw the problem right away.  I didn’t even have to tell him anything.  He pulled the cookie sheet out and was able to go on his merry way!  Smarty pants!  Finley had a good day overall.  Not too shabby at all.

Can you tell she isn't enthused?

She scooted from the pillows all the way to the dinosaur toy

On Wednesday my mom was still under the weather, so Shannon returned the favor and baby-sat Tyson.  I didn’t hear any specific stories, but Shannon said that he was great.  So that’s good.

On Thursday Ty and I got up at a decent time and headed to the Tilton Diner for breakfast.  I was finally meeting up with my friend, Ann Marie, that I hadn’t seen in forever.  She used to work at CMC and I miss her!  She actually works in Plymouth now with my Dad.  We had a good visit catching up (and showing off Tyson).  After breakfast, Ty and I headed home for laundry folding and such.  I have been letting Tyson climb up the stairs (with me right there, of course), but he started giving me a bit of trouble on Thursday.  Instead of getting to business and just climbing the stairs, Ty is now stopping and turning around and sitting on the stairs and swinging his legs.  Then I’ll get him back to the climbing, and then he’ll stop and do it again.  Like he wants to play on the stairs!!  In the afternoon, he had been playing with his wooden blocks.  He has played with them a million times, but this time he was trying to balance two of the blocks on top of each other.  He kept trying, but they would just topple over.  And what do you think he did?  Yup, he screamed.  He also screamed when I insisted that he did not need a binky, since he was not going to sleep.  Well, that didn’t stop him at all.  He wanted a binky right then and there.  He has some old binkies on his changing table and he grabbed 4 of them and carried them right into the room where I was and sat down with them.  Then he proceeded to try each and every one of them, even the infant ones!  "In your face, Mom!"  On Thursday night, we went to the OG with Nanny & Papa with our usual gang (minus Adam).  They had just gotten in town for a visit for a week.  It was great to see them!  Of course they just love to watch the great-grandkids.  At the OG, Tyson enjoyed his minestrone soup and breadsticks, but refused to eat any pasta (which he normally loves).  Picky, picky.  We finished the night off with a haircut for Heath & Ty.  They should have cut Ty's much shorter, but I didn't speak up. Serves me right.  

Playing on the stairs

Having all his binkies in a row

Testing them out

That’s about it.  Have a great week!