Disappointments, Temper, Obsessed with Wipes, First Night Away From Mama, Soy Formula, Pedaling Bike Well, Saying His Own Prayer & Saying Consonants

Wes:  27 Weeks Old

Ty:  2 Years, 7 Months & 1 Week Old

Last Friday not too much happened, except Ty got his heart broken.  All week long he had been saying every day, “Go camping!”  I had to work for the entire holiday weekend (my last official weekend on my part-time schedule), so the boys were going camping with the Edwards for the weekend.  I was happy and sad about this.  I was apprehensive about doing three 12 hour shifts in a row, with the last one being my first 3p-3a shift…if Westin had bad nights and I could possibly only get 2 hours of sleep a night.  So I told Heath, “You need to get out of dodge.”  I said it for them and for me.  But I was going to be very sad to be away from them for 3 days, especially Westin, who I had never spent a night apart from yet.  At the same time, I was elated to be completely alone for the weekend.  Anyways, long story short…it was going to be horrendous weather for the weekend…rainy and very cold, so the camping trip got cancelled.  Poor Ty – he had been looking forward to it so much.  In fact that day he had said, “Go camping!  Sleep Grammy tent Ty!” (translation:  “I’m going to sleep in a tent with Grammy!”)  I asked him if it was OK if they went camping another weekend and he said, “No not.”  Anyways, one thing to note that I thought was cute…Friday was the first time that Ty “blessed” me after I sneezed!  He said, “Bless you Mama.”  I thought that was so sweet.  What isn’t so sweet… is my Westin sometimes.  My innocent, happy-go-lucky, easy child is all of a sudden developing a bit of a temper that we have never seen before!!!!  We have just noticed him getting down-right angry if we take something away that he wants!  I knew that this laid-back attitude couldn’t last forever!  Look at who his parents are!  And one of the things that he has become obsessed with are the baby wipes.  I can’t believe his dexterity, but he is able to get wipes out of the container and he loves to eat (or chew) on them!  They can’t taste good and they can’t be good for him, but if you try to take them away…watch out! 

Westin's great love

Don't even think about trying to take these things away from Wes!

My worst fears came true when on Friday night/Saturday morning…Wes was up in the middle of the night.  He hadn’t woken up in the middle of the night since I had started to take the probiotic (about 2 weeks), so I couldn’t believe that it just had to be the night before I worked (and needed to get up at 4:45 AM).  I think they do it on purpose – they sense that I’m leaving them!  After a great 3 hours of sleep, I headed to work.  The boys stayed home.  Heath had every intention of getting the boys to church...had all their clothes picked out and then Wes took awhile to take his bottle for some reason and they would have missed most of Sabbath School, so they didn’t make it.  The big thing that happened on Saturday night was that it SNOWED at our house!  On May 25, almost June,  we got 2 inches of snow!!!!  It was crazy.  We showed Tyson the snow outside the window before he was going to bed.  Ty got wicked excited and said, “Wake-up.  Mittens.  Hat.  Coat.  Shovel.  Build tunnels!”  I had to tell the poor kid and break his heart again that we weren’t getting THAT much snow!

This is what Heath & Ty do to poor Wes when I am at work!

On Sunday I headed back to work and I kicked the boys out to the Edwards’ house.  Well, first they went to help Heath’s grandmother with a construction problem and then went to the Edwards.  Ty has officially mastered peeing outside!  I haven’t done it with him, but Heath has taught him well!  One funny thing that happened, was when Ty was peeing outside…Snickers came by and wasn’t paying attention.  Snickers looked up at Ty and Ty peed in her face!  To that, Tyson said, “That funny.”  Sunday night I had a great night after work.  I ran to Walmart because a couple of my co-workers had told me that the Walmart in Bedford carries Vernors (a ginger soda our family loves) and I had to stock up.  We have only seen it in Michigan and Florida, so this was very exciting.  Unfortunately, they only had 1 case of cans, so I will have to go back soon!  After the Walmart trip, I hit the pharmacies in Manchester and went to Chipotle.  I finished off the night with the nearly 3 hour-long extravaganza known as “Les Miserables.”  Heath hates musicals, so I try to watch them when he is not around.  I loved the music, but it dragged on way too long for me.  My parents stopped in for a quick hello, on their way up to Conway, after getting in at the airport from their trip to Arizona.  I surprised them with a can of Vernors for the rest of their trip.  Unfortunately, my mother did not sleep a wink that night, but I hope it was from the jet-lag and not the Vernors right before bed!  I enjoyed my alone time, but I missed all the boys.  Westin was obviously missing me and cried nearly the whole night.  Not a great time for Heath.  He is turning into a Mama’s Boy, I am happy to report.

I missed you too, Wes!

On Memorial Day, the boys had a big day ATVing at the Edwards.  Sonia hung with Wes and Ty rode with Heath (most of the time).  Heath told me quite a few cute stories about Ty ATVing.  First of all, Ty was riding with Grampy for a little bit and Ty wanted to lay down the ground rules right away.  He told Keith, “Grampy arm.  Hold Ty tight.”  He wanted Keith to put his arms around him and hold him tight!  So cute!  Then Heath & Ty had rode through some water and Ty had gotten splashed.  Heath said any time Ty would see any water, he would say, “No water Daddy.  Get wet!”  The cutest story was when Adam was talking with Ty about going over a jump…

Adam:  “Ty, do you want to go over a jump with Daddy?”

Ty:  “No.”

Adam:  “Why not?”

Ty:  “Bust me.”

I laughed and laughed at that one.  Wes did not have as much fun that day.  Heath said that he just wasn’t himself at all.  He was cranky, gassy…not even mentioning the crying all night long.  His bowels weren’t looking too good either, so we surmised that he was probably having trouble with the milk-based formula.  Our doctor wanted us to try it out first and then switch to soy if we had to.   I wished we had gone right to the soy formula we gave Ty.  Anyways, I made it through my three 12 hour shifts in a row and my first 3p-3a went really well.  I really liked the shift.  I got to bed by 4:15 AM, so it was doable.  Or so I thought.

I knew that this would probably happen and it did.  The only day out of the whole MONTH that I needed my kids to sleep in…one of them didn’t.  Westin was up at 6:30 AM on Tuesday and would not go back to sleep, despite coming to bed with me and me nursing him.  That was rough, let me tell you.  I mean, I have gotten 2 hours of sleep many times, but working the 3 days in a row…that did me in.  We didn’t do hardly anything that day, but we did get dressed, so I consider that a great success!  Ty played hard with his toys and I need to mention something that I don’t think I have said yet.  Tyson all of a sudden has figured out how to pedal his trike and tractor!!!!  I don’t know exactly when it happened, but he is really good now!  He rides his trike EVERYWHERE!  If I say he needs to go potty, he rides his bike to the potty.  If he needs to wash his hands, he rides his bike over to the sink!  It is very cute.  The other thing that he does is laps continuously around the table on his bike.  He must do 20+ laps before he gets tired (or dizzy) and moves on to something else!  We gave Westin the Similac soy formula on Tuesday night and he went right to it like it was going out of style!  Thank goodness.  He never really liked the 2 milk-based formulas we tried, so that was good.  I have to also mention something that was ridiculous that happened on Tuesday when I was singing.  Tyson told me to “Be quiet.  Mama loud.”  WHAT???? 

Trying to "fix" one of his toys - see all his screwdrivers lined up perfectly?

Taking notice of something...

On Wednesday I couldn’t believe that I was home!  I have worked every Wednesday for over 2 ½ years!  I think Westy wished that I was still at work, so he could get more bottles because he refused two breast-feeding sessions that day.  That stressed me out, but it seems to be a fluke because he has been nursing well since.  We spent the day doing a full cleaning of the house.  Fun times.  One thing that Tyson has started to do is related to (what else) going poop on the potty!  Every time after going poop, I will say, “Are you done?”  And he says, “Wipe first!”  He is so concerned that I am going to yank him right off that pot and not wipe him first!!!!  Funny.  Wednesday afternoon my parents were going to come see the boys.  I think Noni was missing her usual Wednesdays with the boys!  I had told Ty that Noni & Poppy were coming to visit and he said, “Oh boy!  FUN!”  Long story short, they couldn’t make it and I had to break the news to Ty.  I told my parents that I hate having his heart get broken!  When I asked him if it was OK that they come the next day, he gave his catch phrase, “No not”, while drooping his shoulders and sighing!  One thing that was adorable was Tyson saying his prayers that night.  He usually just repeats what we pray (as we pray it) but he wanted to do it himself.

Ty:  “Dear Jesus, Hank you day.  Daddy work.  Westy sleep well.  Mama sleep well.  Daddy sleep well.  Ty sleep well.  No spanks.  Love you.  Amen.”

I’m not sure if you caught all that, but the translation is:  “Thank you for the day.  Please be with Daddy at work (we pray for that during the day).  Please have Westy, Mama, Daddy, and Ty sleep well.  Please help me not to get any spankings!”  Heath & I looked at each other when he said that and just about died laughing.  It was so cute!  What wasn’t cute was Wes screaming from 3AM-5:30 AM.  I had messed up and unconsciously put half-and-half into the mashed potatoes I had made that night.  It is the only thing I can come up with.  It gets to be a real problem, when you roll into bed at 3 AM and the baby is awake from that point on!!!!  I know I should go to bed earlier just in case, but I just can’t.

Ty messing around while I was cleaning...he was jumping off the couch - here is the sequence

Counting...

Airborne...

Sticking the landing...

Sometimes...not sticking the landing!

Yeah!

On Thursday we finished the full cleaning of the house and Noni & Poppy made it over to play before we went out to eat at the Mexican restaurant.  I have really noticed that Westin is “talking” so much more lately!  He does not stop!  He is also really saying a few consonant sounds!  Lots of d’s and b’s!   Exciting stuff!  What isn’t as exciting is Ty starting to mess with me, being fresh.  For instance…

Me:  “Ty, you need to pick out the books you want to read before your nap.”

Ty:  “No.”

Me:  “Do you want stories before your nap or do you want to go straight to bed?”

Ty:  “Straight to bed.”

Me:  “OK.  Straight to bed it is.”
Ty:  (with an amused, mischievious look on his face) “NO!!!  Books!”

A couple of cute things happened at the Mexican restaurant.  On the way there, we pass one of the big lakes in our area and Ty always freaks out and screams, “LAKE!!!!  Mama…Daddy….LAKE!”  When we got to the restaurant, there was this puddle and as Tyson walked past it, he said, “Little lake!”  Then while we were eating the lovely chips & salsa, Tyson grabbed the salt shaker to salt his chips.  Heath stopped him saying that the chips were already salted and Ty said, “Noni do it.  That is true!  My mom does put more salt on her chips – since she is a salt-aholic!  It just shows that he really doesn’t miss anything!   I think that is it. 

Proof of Tyson being fresh - and yes, he got a time-out for this

Trying on a new shirt Noni gave him and put Poppy's glasses in his pocket

Then...tried on Poppy's glasses!

Wes enjoying all the attention at the restaurant

Ty trying out the merchandise @ Walmart 

HAVE A GREAT WEEK!
RANDOM PICS

I'm trying to take a picture of the two of them everyday!

After I broke that news to them