Getting Naked, Special Cousin Times, Rolling Over, Wes is OK & Fever For Ty

Wes:  13 Weeks Old

Ty:  2 Years, 4 Months & 1 Week Old

I think the Potty Chronicles are finally over – for the most part.  Besides when he is sleeping, he is totally potty-trained and I think he is finally over being scared to go poop on the potty!  Not to say there won’t be any accidents, because there will be plenty, but not like in the beginning!  I’m happy to say that it was WAY better than I thought it would be. 

Last Friday our highlight was our weekly grocery run, after vacuuming the house.  I’ve really gotten spoiled with Tyson being so good in the store and he continued the tradition.  One cute thing was when we were in the frozen vegetable section.  All of a sudden, he lets out this shriek, “Oooo…corn…yea!”  He was freaking out over frozen corn.  Really?  How come he won’t touch it with a ten foot pole when it is on his plate?  I found that kind of interesting.  What was not only interesting, but annoying, was Westin completely refusing to nurse on my left side at his noontime feeding.  I had had it.  I said, “Enough is enough.”  I called right then and there and made an appointment with his pediatrician for an official weight check and to brainstorm about his eating behavior.  Speaking of behavior, Tyson displayed some really bad behavior at bedtime.  He has been difficult at bedtime lately, as I have mentioned before, but this night was ridiculous.  Every time we put him in bed we make sure that he has just gone potty, had a sip of water, and has a binky with him.  No matter what, Tyson cries for all of these things the minute we shut the door.  I let him cry it out for a few minutes at first, and then I checked the monitor to talk to him through the monitor.  There he was standing in his crib stark naked – his pajamas and his sleep diaper had been chucked on the floor.  I was NOT happy.  When I got into his room he said, “Potty, potty, potty.”  We went to the bathroom and shock of all shocks…he didn’t have to go!  I told him it was time for bed and no more shenanigans and what did he do 5 minutes later?  He got completely naked again.  I think he understood the nature of my fury after that and he finally went to sleep, but what an episode.

He still loves the vacuum  

Ty helped Daddy make cupcakes when he got home from work

Drooling over the results

On Sabbath it was my first weekend back to work.  Heath & the boys did not venture out since it was Heath’s first shift at home alone with the boys! (=  Everything went fine.  Westin took the bottle fairly well for Heath, but he agrees that it takes a bit of work and patience.  I have to say that Tyson seemed overjoyed to see me when I got home.  I think he got used to me being home weekend after weekend on maternity leave (I did too).  Heath is encouraging me to cut back on my hours and I’m very tempted to do so, but then other things make me second guess it.  When I got home, Heath said to me, “I’m so glad that I had this time with Westin.  I didn’t realize just how sweet of a baby he really is.”  If I was home, Heath wouldn’t be spending as much one on one time with Wes, so that is a definite bonus.

On Sunday it was back to work for me and Heath stayed at home with the boys again.  Sonia came for a visit and she watched them while Heath went ice-fishing in the afternoon, so that was nice for Heath.  After work I headed to the pharmacies.  Every Sunday that I work, I’m going to go to the pharmacies now alone.  Heath thinks that the pharmacies are full of germs and wants to decrease the kid’s time in the pharmacies anyways.  Well, I couldn’t be more thrilled to go shopping all by my lonesome.  My maiden voyage last Sunday was a bummer, though.  There was hardly anything that I needed to buy.  On Sunday night, Tyson’s excitement still continued when I got home from work.  He was so thrilled to show me how he had put Heath’s ice-fishing gear on and was running around the house with it! 

On Monday I did not have time to feel tired after my first weekend back to work.  We got right up and went to the Fairway.  It was vacation week and Mia was out of school.  We met Leigh, Mia, Bode & Zoe (Mia’s best friend) at the Fairway.  Finley was there too and we saw Shannon & Sean for a few minutes before they had to go to a wedding.  We had a nice lunch and then went swimming at the pool.  Noni watched Wes while I took Ty swimming.  He had a blast, like he always does.  But he ended up getting a time-out at the clubhouse while we were there.  He had disobeyed me and had run off at the clubhouse, so we headed to these plastic outdoor chairs set up outside of the pool.  I took him there for a time-out, but Ty figured a way out of that!  He stood right up on the chair and it tipped over backwards!  I tried to catch it and came close, but not quite.  He wasn’t hurt but I think that it scared him.  It scared me, that’s for sure!  But not enough not to finish his time-out!  Another thing that is kind of scaring me is that Tyson is developing a hitting problem.  So far, it seems like he just wants to hit me and not other kids, but that is bad enough.  I’m sure this is another phase that he has to go through, but he is getting so fresh! 

Cousins

Auntie Leigh

If anyone has seen the movie "Pitch Perfect"  - here is the "Cup Song."  Mia had watched the movie the night before & had the whole thing figured out!  And she made up this song to go along with it!  The girl is super talented!

Tyson trying to learn it - but he doesn't exactly have the patience for it! (=

Tuesday was a full day.  First of all, it was laundry day.  Then Shannon & Fin came over for a visit.  When Shannon first got here, Finley was sleeping in the car.  We kept watching her from the window but she kept sleeping.  Tyson was not amused with this.  He kept going to the window and saying, “Rinley (aka Finley), wake up!”  She finally did and they were very cute playing together.  What was also cute was Ty insisting that Auntie Shane (aka Shannon) and Rinley see him go potty every time!  He was so proud!  Speaking of being proud, I was SO SO proud of Westin on Tuesday afternoon.  He rolled over for the first time!  We were doing tummy time on a blanket when Uncle Adam came over and he just rolled right onto his back, like it was nothing!  He did it twice!  We ended up going out to eat at that new Italian place that we love on Tuesday because Sonia was coming over to spend the night that night.  I had to give Ty a time-out during dinner because he decided he wanted to scream in the restaurant and wouldn’t stop.  Wes was a bit cranky (weird) and I had to nurse him at the restaurant.  Good times.

Playing together

  I just love this picture - Shannon warning Finley about something!

Ty serenading Auntie Shannon

Getting a ride from Uncle Adam

Ty & Wes doing tummy time

The roll over!

Wednesday it was back to work for me and Sonia watched the boys, since she was off for vacation week.  She helped me and made a potty chart for Tyson!  We have to slow him down on the treats with the potty because he is doing so well!  He gets a sticker every time that he goes and once he gets 5 stickers, he gets a treat!  It seems to be working well.  I expected more of a melt-down over the stickers instead of the treats, but so far, so good.  In the afternoon, Ty had a little accident.  Wes was sleeping, so Sonia & Ty went outside playing in the snow.  Ty ended up tripping and did a face plant in the snow.  Normally, that wouldn’t be a big deal, but we had just gotten freezing rain the night before and the snow was very crunchy & hard.  He got a few scratches on his face, but he was fine otherwise.  But he keeps telling anyone who will listen, “Ty, outside, snow, boo-boo, ow.”    

Lots of things happened on Thursday.  Forgive the book.  First of all, I should have been clued in that something was awry, when Ty was up at 5 AM and would not go back to sleep until he was in our bed.  I thought he had a nightmare and I dismissed it.  We headed to Concord first thing in the morning with my mother.  We went to Westin’s appointment.  When I got there, I was dismayed to find out that we were not having an appointment with our doctor, but another provider.  I had specifically made the appointment a week out to see OUR doctor.  I had received a reminder call the day before saying that we were seeing our doctor, so I couldn’t understand it.  I had already brought Wes to see someone else in their group about this issue and I wanted to brainstorm with our doctor.  She knows my kids and knows their growth patterns and knows that they are on the small size.  I didn’t want a doctor to see Wes, freak out that he is only the 10-15^th percentile for weight , and insist on me starting formula or something like that.  Our doctor has twin boys and had a nanny crisis in the morning, so they just moved her appointments to someone else, not knowing that I wanted to see her specifically.  She would be around that afternoon, so they rescheduled me.  It was a pain to leave and come back, but at least we would get it done!  We did a few errands and went to Goodwill and then headed back to the office.  Oh, something very funny happened in Goodwill.  The boys had fallen asleep, so my Mom had stayed in the car with them and let me shop by myself (heaven!).  Heath called & I was telling him that the appointment got pushed back and then I said, “I have to go.  I’m in Goodwill and the boys are asleep in the car.  I’ve got to get out there to them.”  Heath said, “What?  The boys are in the car and you are in Goodwill?!!!”  He didn’t know that my mother was with us!  I couldn’t believe that he would think that I would leave the kids alone in the car!  He really didn’t think that, but from what I said, it sure did sound like it!  Back to the appointment, Wes needs to be gaining 0.5-1 ounce every day.  I had taken him in exactly 3 weeks before and his weight was 10 pounds 7 ounces.  With gaining what he should be, he should be between 11 pounds 1 ounce & 11 pounds 12 ounces.  Well, he was 11 pounds 9 ounces!  So he is completely where he should be!  That put me at ease, for sure.  She thinks he looks great.  It does not sound like acid reflux, because he should be screaming for hours on end with that.  She doesn’t think it sounds like he has a stomach stricture or something because he would be projectile vomiting all the time.  She says that everything points to him getting enough to eat and that he probably is just more efficient at nursing now.  So I’m going to try to chill out and we will be rechecking his weight at his 4 month appointment, which will be coming up in a few weeks.  I still ordered an electronic scale, though, so I can keep track at home too!  So, when we got home from our adventure, I put Ty down for a late nap.  When I got him up, he was on fire.  He had a fever of 102.7.  My poor bugger.  Oh yeah, my second clue that he was sick was when we went to Taco Bell after Westin’s appointment and Ty would hardly eat anything.  I should have known when he didn’t want any Cinnamon Twists – which he usually loves.  Anyways, after his nap, he went right on the potty and was peeing.  He looked down to check on his progress and his binky fell into the toilet!!!!  Gross!  I quickly rinsed it in the sink, but left it on the side to thoroughly disinfect it later.  I wanted to medicate Ty for his fever and Westin was due to eat…so I was in a rush.  That came to bite me later, when we were all cuddling up for story time and I did a double take.  Ty had the toilet binky in his mouth!!!!  I couldn’t help but laugh and laugh and Heath was like, “Ty wanted the binky, so I gave it to him!  I didn’t know!”  Totally my fault.  Thursday night was a night to remember.  I was nursing Wes up in our bed and Heath brought Ty up for story time at about 8 PM.  Ty was so subdued with his fever and just wanted to cuddle, so Heath was cuddling with him.  Next thing I know, it is 11 PM.  All 4 of us fell asleep together in the bed!  Then, I tried to lay Wes down in his crib and he started crying.  Heath tried to lie Ty down in his crib and he started crying.  So there we were, all 4 of us back in the big bed together!  So we turned on Downton Abbey and watched a couple episodes until 1 AM.  Finally then we could get everyone to sleep.  We kept Ty with us, though, since I feel better having him next to me when he has a fever like that.  I don’t know…I’m always thinking of febrile seizures for some reason.  What a day.  Well, I hope everyone has a great week!   

Not feeling well - his little bed Heath made for him while we cooked supper

Pee Down, Poop To Go, Blizzard, Monkey Friend, Ice-Fishing, Grabbing Things & Mom Back To Work

Wes:  12 Weeks Old

Ty:  2 Years & 4 Months Old

The Potty Chronicles continue!  Sorry everybody, but it consumes you when you are doing it!  Last Friday I was hoping for a day of no pee accidents, but he had 2.  He just gets so involved with playing that he does not want stop.  This was despite me singing the song from Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood (a PBS cartoon), "When you have to go potty, STOP and go right away!  Flush and wash and be on your way!"  We have sung that song a million times and Ty chimes in with the "away" and "way!"  The big news of the day was that he actually pooped on the potty for the first time - without starting to go in his undies first!  Huge deal!  Let me tell you!  Sonia had sent us some potty training songs and one of them was so funny... talking about when your poop hits the water it makes a funny sound!  So when he did it, I said, "Did you hear it?  Did you hear the plop in the water?"  Well, he thought that was the best and kept saying, "plop in water, plop in water!"  So I'm trying to make it fun and say, "Want to go make it plop in the water?"  The other news of the day was that it had started snowing in the morning...we were getting a blizzard!  I had gotten used to the bare ground and thinking about spring, but forget that!  Heath made it home, thankfully, and we hunkered in for the night.  Ty made another 4 word sentence that Heath was impressed with.  They were playing together upstairs before Ty went to bed.  Ty got all excited and said, "Daddy, stool...up...ball!"  Ty was saying that he needed to get the step-stool, so he could put the ball up on the dresser!  He is really coming along with his talking!  Westin was pretty status-quo for the day.  He is such a good boy.

My happy status-quo boy

On Sabbath, the snow was very heavy until afternoon.  We ended up getting 2 feet.  Despite the actual blizzard, Heath went on the lake for the ice-fishing derby late in the morning.  He brought his ATV with his plow and actually had to plow to get onto the lake!  What boys will do for their fishing!  Church was cancelled everywhere, so the boys & I had a day at home.  I did some research on message boards about Westin's nursing dilemma, and did find that so many mothers out there discovered that their babies would all of a sudden become very efficient at nursing (around 3 months of age) and would only nurse for 5 minutes on a side as well.  So I decided last Sabbath that I would stop obsessing and that maybe Westin is just very efficient now.  He is still so happy all the time, he still sleeps through the night, and has plenty of wet diapers and at least 3 big poops a day.  All signs point to him getting enough milk, so I'll try to stop stressing.  On the Ty front, he did a cute and a bizarre thing last Sabbath.  The cute thing was that Ty had gone down for a nap and as I was putting him down, he said, "Westy nap?"  I said, "Yes, Westy is napping too."  He seemed happy with that and went down.  10 minutes after he appeared to be sleeping, I heard on the monitor a big sigh and then Ty said, "Westy nap."  Talking to himself!  So cute.  The bizarre thing happened after he woke up from his nap, he was really excited and pointed to the window and kept saying over and over again, "monkey...monkey...monkey!"  I couldn't understand why he would be talking about a monkey, so I thought that maybe he wasn't saying, "monkey" and it was supposed to be another word, so I just blew it off and brought him downstairs to eat lunch.  While he was eating lunch, he got all excited again and pointed outside saying, "monkey" again.  I was so perplexed at what he was saying, so he felt he had to clarify.  He pointed to the sky outside and said, "see monkey sky again."  Then he proceeded to make monkey noises!  So there was no question that he was saying, "monkey," but I still have no idea why he would be seeing monkeys in the sky.  The only thing I can come up with is that #1) he has an imaginary monkey friend, #2) he watched a video on Youtube with a monkey in it, or #3) it was a dream he had.  Very, very puzzling.

Maybe they should nap together! (=

Last Sunday it was back to the lake for Heath for the second day of the derby.  He had his best derby ever and caught 7 good-sized lake trout!  The snow had stopped and it was a beautiful day, so Sonia & I made a plan.  We met up at Danny & Janet's house (Heath's aunt & uncle), which is just down the road from where Heath & the crew were ice-fishing.  Wes & I stayed and visited with Danny & Janet, while Sonia took Ty out on the ice.  He had a blast!  He was there when Heath caught a few fish and he thought it was great!  He would go right over to the hole and watch the fish come out.  When they would let the fish go, he would wave and say, "bye-bye fish!"  Ty & Sonia were out there a couple hours and then they came back and Danny took Ty for a ride on his tractor and had Ty slide down his giant snowbanks!  Ty was in heaven.  I ran into a few potty-training dilemmas that day, let me tell you.  The first of which, I was determined to keep him in his big boy undies on the drive there.  You don't realize what a pain it is actually going to be, until you do it!  We were driving on the highway, when Tyson deemed it time to potty.  What are you going to do?  We were close to our exit, so I encouraged him to hold it and then pulled over in the park 'n' ride.  I had placed a portable stand-up potty in our trunk, just-in-case...and thank goodness I had.  Also, thank goodness we have a station wagon.  I swear, you need a station wagon just for potty-training.  I plopped Ty right on that sucker in the back of the station wagon and he did his business right there!  20 degree weather and no privacy, but he got it done!  He made it the rest of the 30 minutes to their house without a problem.  But then came the dilemma of going out on the lake.  He has never peed standing up and Sonia couldn't lug the portable potty on the ATV - I just wasn't sure what to do.  My decision was made when Heath strongly suggested that I put a diaper on him.  He said, "If Ty pees, it's all over."  It was too cold for that.  I agreed, since he had started the training less than a week ago.  It would have been asking too much.  But I hate to give him mixed messages!  But then I had an even worse dilemma.  When he got back from the ice, we were going to be driving to Laconia (another 30 minutes away) and he had not had a nap all day.  I KNEW he would fall asleep, so what do you do?  I put diapers on him for sleep since he doesn't have the control yet.  So, he was in diapers even longer that day (not the same one, though)!  He did fall asleep but woke right up when we got to the Goodwill.  Sonia came with us (no, I don't think I will ever get to the place to take both of them to Goodwill by myself...at least not for years) and then we met Heath at the Mexican restaurant for supper.  After supper, we rushed home and then I left for the airport and Heath got the boys to bed.  I was going to pick up my parents, since they were coming in that night.  It was great to see them!  They all had a great time on their cruise.  It's just nice to be able to pick up the phone and call them again! 

               Getting ready to go to the lake - snowpants with nothing underneathe and socks for mittens!  He's totally prepared!

Their ice-fishing spot

Watching Daddy fish

Tractor ride

 Sliding down the snowbanks

After all the fun

                

On Monday Westin turned 3 months old!  Happy Birthday!  Exciting, but it just means that my 3 month maternity leave is over! )=  Monday we got another 3 inches of snow with freezing rain, so no pharmacies for us! )=  First matter of the day, I officially stopped Westin's acid reflux med, since he had been on it for a week without any improvement and I was on the kick of "he is just efficient with his nursing."  Ty did a few more cute things on Monday.  One thing that was cute but exasperating, was that Ty decided that he was not happy with Westin napping and ran into our room and said, "Westy wake up!"  And unfortunately, Wes did wake up!  Then Ty was in the bathroom with me and wanted to put deodorant on and said, “boobies” and proceeded to rub deodorant all over his chest!  A little off on that one!  The potty-training thing took a sinister turn when I realized that Ty is trying to pee constantly to get a treat!  All I hear all the time is “Potty…potty…potty.”  He will sit there and squeeze a few drops out and then exclaim, “Yea!  Pee!  Treat!”  Oh my.  Since he had only been potty-training for a week, I felt that I couldn’t start discouraging him by taking away the treats, because I didn’t want him to regress.  But then after he would have his little treat, he would say, “More treat.”  I would say, “No Tyson, that is when you go on the potty.”  So in response, he started saying, “More potty.”  He pretty much says “More potty” after every treat he gets!    

     This is what he does with the treats - puts them in holes in his tractor & then wants me to get them out for him! 

Tuesday was a great day because Ty had his first accident-free day… that is for pee!  Poop is still a problem, but I’m trying to be patient with that one.  One thing that was cute was that Ty wanted to use my iPhone, but Westy was sleeping.  I said, “Ty, you know that you can use the phone when I’m nursing Westy.”  So Tyson said, “Westy nurse.  Westy nurse.”  I said, “No Ty, Westy is sleeping.  He doesn’t need to nurse now.”  Tyson was not satisfied with that and said, “Westy, wake up.  Nurse!”  He is a persistent bugger.  Tuesday afternoon Noni came by to get familiar with Westin’s schedule and Ty’s potty-training, since my first day back to work was the next day.  It all went well, despite a little coaxing that needed to be done when Noni fed Wes his bottle. 

He is "talking" so much

He is also really grabbing things

Wednesday was the day that I had been dreading.  I won’t lie and say that I didn’t shed a tear, but it was much easier this time around.  I guess it is because I knew what to expect and I knew that Tyson has done so well with this schedule that I didn’t feel as anxious.  That is not to say that I didn’t miss them like crazy, because I certainly did.  The first day at work went well – it was very busy but it did seem like I had never left.  Except that I felt a tad rusty, I have to say.  I felt like that part of my brain hadn’t been used in 3 months and I guess it hadn’t.  Not that I made any mistakes, but I just felt like I was slower and my flow was not where it usually is.  It was funny, a patient remarked that I “must have done this before” when I put an IV in.  I had to laugh and told her that, “Oh yes, but you were my first IV start in 3 months!”  Obviously I explained about my maternity leave and she and her husband thought that it was very funny.   I called my mom during one of my pumping breaks and she said, “Westin is an angel.  Ty is the one giving me trouble!”  Isn’t that the story of my life!  Ty is quite a handful but I don’t know how in the world we ended up with this sweet, laid-back boy in Westin.  He is just so sweet.  Anyways, the boys did well with Noni, but acted up a bit for Heath.  Why are they always better with the grandparents?  I had two interesting things happen to me on my way home from work.  First of all, I had stopped into Rite Aid to grab something (right next door to the hospital) after my shift and I was walking to my car when this guy said, “Can I talk to you for a minute?”  He was a couple of cars down from me and I said, “Yes.  What do you need?”  He said that he was a college student from Concord and that he was just about out of gas.  He said that he had just pulled off the highway and needed some help to get a bit of gas in his car.  He said, “Come here.  I can show you my gas gauge.”  Well, that set off alarm bells in my head – there was no way I was going over to his car at 10:30 PM at night!  I said, “I’m sorry.  I don’t feel comfortable.  If I carried money on me, I’d give it to you, but I never carry money on me.  I’m sorry.”  I got in my car and drove off.  His story just didn’t make sense.  Whichever way he came from off the highway, he would have passed at least 2 gas stations.  Why wouldn’t he have pulled into one of them?  Why pull into a Rite Aid parking lot?  It was just strange.  I had a weird feeling like he was trying to abduct me or something.  Looking back, I probably should have called the cops on him, but I didn’t.  I had the opportunity to talk to the police that night, though.  As I was 4 houses away from home, I got pulled over by a town cop.  I knew that I wasn’t speeding – and I wasn’t… he was telling me that passenger headlight was out.  I couldn’t believe it since we had just changed our driver’s headlight a couple of months ago.  Well, that night I was absolutely beat and, of course, fell asleep while nursing Westin and woke up at 3 AM.  That meant a 3 AM shower and I didn’t get to bed until 3:30 AM.  It just happened to be that Tyson woke up at 6:30 AM the next day, which he never does.  Why does that always happen?

My angel - who I missed so much

Last Thursday was Valentine’s Day!  I decided to treat myself by doing a full cleaning of my house that day!  I couldn’t get it all done, but I got the majority of it done!  Tyson started something new with his pooping problem.  He definitely knows when he has the urge to go, but he is scared to go.  He asks to go potty and is grabbing his butt as he runs to the bathroom.  But the moment that his tush sits down on the pot, he says, “Done…walk!”  He does not want to even try to go!  So he will do these “false alarms” like 9 times in a row, which I know means he has to poop.  On the 10^th time on Thursday, he pooped his pants a bit but then finished on the potty. These false alarms are annoying and time consuming, but just part of the process.  The good news is he really does have the pee part down and has had about 6 days in a row of no pee accidents!  Yea!  My dad came and visited with us for a bit before he headed on a date night with my mom on Thursday.  Then Adam came over and Ty said the funniest thing.  He pointed at his hair and said, “I need haircut!”  He actually does, but how did he know that?  It was so cute!  When Heath got home we went to the 99.  Ty ended up going to the bathroom at the restaurant 3 times while we were there.  Hopefully the frequency will die down a bit!  Heath & I hope to go out for a belated V-Day’s date night in a week or two.  We’ll see!  Have a great week!

Helping me clean

Then playing hard...with my dust mask on!

Trying to do his buttons

I don't even know where to start with this one...he got one on & then he wanted me to help him do the other one!

"Ty Do", Reflux Med, Potty-Training, Lots of Laughs, First Bottle & TV-Watching

Wes:  11 Weeks Old

Ty:  2 Years, 3 Months & 3 Weeks Old

Disclaimer:  This blog will not be for the faint at heart.  The majority of it is about Tyson potty-training!  It was kind of a dull week with my entire family on a cruise and us concentrating on Tyson’s training.  Starting on Monday, we spent the entire week at home (except our normal Thursday night out).  Talk about stir-crazy.  I am a major homebody, but that was ridiculous.

Last Friday I can’t remember much of what we did, except for our normal grocery shopping.  I was pleasantly surprised when Tyson was fantastic in the store again.  Is something starting to click here?  I certainly hope so!  I also hoped that Westin was nursing better, since I was nursing every 3 ½ - 4 hours, instead of 3 hours…as suggested by the doctor.  I thought maybe there was some improvement, but I think I was wishing it to be true. 

Singing the Wheels on the Bus with Amanda on Friday night with Google Talk

On Sabbath I made a mistake.  I didn’t set the alarm.  In order for us to make it to Sabbath School, we have to be up and at ‘em at 7:30 AM.  I haven’t been setting an alarm clock lately, because Westin is my alarm clock.  He is always up at 7:30.  Well, this just happened to be the day that he slept in until almost 8:30 AM!  This would normally be a great thing, but not great on Sabbath.  So I deemed the day a stay-at-home-church day.  With the staying-at-home-all-week thing about to start, I really wish that hadn’t happened.  Guess I will be setting the alarm clock on Sabbath mornings now!  Tyson has totally started to hit the “I’m independent and want to do everything myself” phase.  If you try to do anything for him, he says (a bit rudely, I must admit) “Ty do!  Ty do!”  It’s cute and I know this is supposed to happen at this point, but it does make for delays when trying to get out of the house etc.  After sundown, we headed up to Lincoln (about 40 minutes away) to try to find some winter boots for Heath.  His old pair is completely worn out and leaks.  He has ordered 3 different pairs online and he has had to return all 3.  The sizing just hasn’t been

 right on two of the pairs and the 3rd pair was just overall very bulky and huge.  We struck out again, so that was too bad.  We made up for it by going swimming at the Fairway’s clubhouse again (3rd weekend in a row).  We decided to take advantage of the place, even though my parents were gone.  I didn’t actually go swimming this time, since Westin was due to nurse.  So we just watched the boys instead.  Ty had a blast, as usual.    

No, my husband did not drown...even though it looks like it

Last Sunday was Superbowl Sunday.  It was a busy day for me.  I did laundry a few days early, since I knew that I would be busy with the potty-training and wanted it out of the way.  I folded all of it and put it all away too.  Usually I do that the next day, since I do about 7 loads of laundry.  Westin surprised me by taking his first 2 hour long nap during the afternoon.  That was heavenly, but I also had to keep checking on him to make sure he was breathing!  Tyson did something cute in the afternoon.  I was giving him lunch and I asked him, “Do you want some crackers or some nuts?”  His response was “cookie!”  I busted a gut on that one.  Sounds like my typical response!  The boys & I also hit up the pharmacies while Heath put his ice-house on the lake, getting ready for the upcoming ice-fishing derby on Winnipesaukee.  We got some free shampoo & conditioner, free lotion, and a free Thermacare wrap.  Not too shabby.  So Westin had given me terrible trouble with the nursing again on two different feedings that day, so I decided that we had to try the acid reflux medication.  I got a big surprise and not a good one at that, when we went to Walgreens to get the prescription filled.  The pharmacist told me that Westin’s insurance was getting declined.  She offered to call Cigna for me and I agreed.  They told her that Westin’s insurance had expired on 12/19/2012.  They said that Heath’s employer was supposed to “continue his coverage” 30 days after his birth, but that they hadn’t done so.  I was ripped.  He had two doctor’s visits during that time!  Heath called his HR guy on Monday and it is all set now, but what a pain.  Now I have to get reimbursed for the prescription and who knows how many problems I am going to have with bills coming to me over this.  Have you heard of anything so ridiculous?  Why would we ever take him off coverage?  Why would they have to add him again after 30 days????  Weird.  Poor Westin can’t stand to take the medicine.  I have been so used to Ty loving to take medication, that I wasn’t really ready for Westin’s reaction of screaming and spitting the medicine everywhere.  It’s been a week and he still hates it.  I don’t think there is much improvement, but I think I’ll give it another week to be sure.  I have to say that I really didn’t have much desire to watch the Superbowl at all – probably still reeling from the Pats loss.  I ended up watching the 2^nd half on DVR, fast-forwarding plays and everything.  I didn’t even care about the commercials.  My DVR had screwed up and it didn’t even record most of the first half, but, like I said, I didn’t care too much.  Too bad the 49ers couldn’t pull it off, but their big comeback made it exciting at least.  There’s always next year, Patriots.

Rocking out with Dad before going our separate ways in the afternoon

He loves his Daddy!

Monday was THE day!  Potty-training day.  Camille had sent me this intense 3 day potty-training guide (thank you Camille!).  I used most of the guidelines, but I refuse to do sleep-training right now.  Tyson pees bucketfuls when he sleeps, so that is just going to take some time.  I put diapers on him for his nap and at bedtime.  I call it his “sleep diaper.”  You aren’t supposed to confuse him by putting diapers on him again, but I make a big deal that it is his sleep diaper only.  Ty is so proud of his big boy undies!  When he wakes up from his nap, the first words out of his mouth are “undies, undies, undies!”  He wasn’t so excited about them when I first them on, though.  I had read that some kids are really attached to their diapers and they don’t want to give them up.  It sounded crazy to me, but I couldn’t believe that Ty ended up feeling that way.  When I went to take the diaper off him, first thing on Monday and put him in his undies, he tried to run away and said, “No!  Diaper mine!”  He also whined “Potty, why?” after the first hour of training.  It just cracked me up.  I didn’t keep track of his accidents and his pees on the potty on the first day, but I did on the subsequent days.  The premise of the training is that you put him in his big boy undies and tell him that he is a big boy now and that he has to keep them clean & dry.  You pump them full of as many liquids as possible, so they have the urge often and they learn faster.  All the time, I say, “Ty, make sure you are keeping your big boy undies clean & dry.  Tyson, tell me when you need to go the potty.”  And then you straight out ask him if he needs to go, but the answer most of the time is always “no.”  I was shocked how well he did the first day.  I was so proud.  We lounged and watched potty-training songs & videos most of the day.  Poor Westin got the shaft this week.  I don’t know how many times I would have to interrupt nursing him because Ty would say, “Mama…potty.”  Speaking of his nursing, no real improvements but at least no straight out refusals on Monday.  No matter what is going on, he is still the happiest baby on the block!  I got the cutest video of him laughing at me, while we were hanging out on the floor with Ty.  Wes also slept 8 ½ hours that night.  Awesome.

After 3 accidents on the carpet, I decided I would put down some drop cloths to help a bit

Sharing tummy time together

Ty comforting Wes while he was unhappy during tummy time (he hates it...as did Ty)

Don't ask me why it is turned like this... but it is still cute

The training begins!

Tuesday morning I woke up at 5 AM to the cutest sound.  Wes had busted out of his swaddle again and was sucking really, really loudly on his hands!  He wasn’t crying or upset, just sucking!  I reswaddled him, gave him his binky, and he went right back to sleep until his normal 7:30 AM time.  We were back to the potty-training grindstone.  Ty had an immediate pee accident when coming out of his sleep diaper first thing in the AM, and then he didn’t have another accident in the AM.  He ended up going pee on the potty 7 times without an accident.  I was so confident in the afternoon that he HAD it.  He just got it.  But then I came crashing down.  I don’t know what happened, but he had 5 pee accidents in 1.5 hours starting at 5 PM.  I was pretty discouraged, but it seems to have been a fluke.  Other notable incidents that happened was Tyson taking a 3 hour long nap and Westin taking a 2 hour and 20 minute nap!  Something else that happened was that I caught Westin watching TV, so I have to be very diligent about him not facing the TV at all anymore.  The other big thing was that we attempted to give Wes his first bottle on Tuesday.  It was 8 days before I go back to work and that is when I had Ty try his first bottle.  Heath tried to give it to him and he was hysterical and didn’t want any part of it.  My heart sunk.  How could this be?  After a bit of work, he ended up taking it from me….so that was good. 

"Get that thing away from me!"

Stupid mobile was right in front of his face, but this was Westin going to sleep for the night.  He was laughing, giggling, kicking his feet all by himself in his crib!

Wednesday was day 3 of potty-training and these were Ty’s stats.  3 pee accidents, 2 poop accidents, and 13 pees on the potty without an accident!  Pretty good, I think.  He definitely is scared to poop on the potty, which I hear is very common.  I’m just trying to make it fun & exciting.  Hopefully that works.  Ty will definitely go pee whenever you place him on the potty, but he also does NOT want to stop playing to go.  That is his major problem.  Ty also had a bit of a problem during the day while he was playing.  He decided to run his little electric car on his head.  Well, the wheels got stuck in his hair and a bit of a chunk of hair came out with the car.  It’s not noticeable or anything, but the car is jammed with hair and it won’t work now!  Wow.  Wes refused the bottle again on Wednesday, which made me nervous again…but he has since taken about 3 more bottles…so I hope we are in the clear.  Ty said the cutest (and the most politically correct) thing on Wednesday night.  Heath was being a smart-aleck and said, “Ty, who is better?  Mama or Daddy?”  Ty shocked us both when he said, “Westy!”  I loved that!  I thought that was really smart! 

Having fun playing in his big boy undies

Chicken legs

Booty shot (=

He loves to call the dogs in now!

On Thursday I guess I considered Ty potty-trained.  He is doing awesome.  There will be accidents for awhile, I think…but otherwise he really has it down.  He had 1 poop accident, 1 pee accident, and had 13 pees and 1 poop without an accident.  What a great job!  He did great at the Mexican restaurant and the grocery store and peed on the potty in both places!  So proud of him!  It was the first time we ventured out of the house since Sunday and it felt good to get out!  Ty was accident-free during our trip out, so I thought that was great!  Westin continued his great naps by sleeping 2 hours and 45 minutes!  I ended up waking him up to nurse, so who knows how long he would have slept for!  One of my friends from work came to visit us and we had a great visit.  Ty, who is usually quiet around strangers at first, was in love with Jeannie.  He was so cute with her.  Tyson wore pants for the first time since Monday!  Big accomplishment.  Even though it is harder to tell when he has had an accident, I like him better in pants...since there is now a buffer present and doesn’t create as much of a mess when he does have an accident!  One other cute thing Ty did on Thursday was up the ante with his “kiss, kiss” requests when he hurts himself.  I don’t know what he did, but he had hurt his butt and proceeded to stick his little butt near my face and say, “kix, kix!”  Then he had bit his tongue and stuck his tongue out for me to kiss!  Awkward.  (=  Have a great week!

Amanda made this hat for Wes...adorable!

Ty opening the felts that Amanda sent...he loves them!

He really watches the mobiles now