Daddy Obsessed x 2, First Official Haircut, Ice-Fishing Fun, Swimming With Cousins, No Naps Again, Wes up the Stairs & Wes Loves Salsa

Wes:  1 Year, 2 Months & 1 Week Old

Ty:  3 Years, 3 Months & 1 Week Old

Westin threatening Ty with the wooden knife!

Last Friday was not our usual Friday day at home.  Heath was coming home, after being gone for 5 days to Minnesota!  We had our reunion at the OG in Concord, where we met for lunch.  The boys literally shrieked with joy!  It was so cute.  I knew that Ty would be very clingy with Heath (I know, I know, but even more so), but Westin has been super clingy too.  He will follow Heath around and lifts his arms up, to be picked up by Heath and walks around screaming all the time, "Da!  Da!"  I can't believe I have another Heath-obsessed child.  What in the world?!!!!  So we had a nice meal and then we split up (I know, so soon).  Heath was trying to go to a trailer place in Tilton before sundown, because he is trying to buy a trailer for his ATV/snowmobiles etc.  He took Ty with him, because Ty loves trailers and such.  I took Wes to get his first official haircut because there was no way that I was attempting to cut his hair again and I couldn't take his shag one more day!  Wes did so well (got a little impatient at the end) and all the ladies oohed and ahhed over him.  Why not?  He is adorable.  They gave him a giant comb to hold and you would have thought that they had given him the moon!  Since he has to carry something in his right hand at all times, this was especially nice for him!  Unfortunately, we did have to wait.  They had told me 15 minutes, but it was almost 30 minutes.  That is forever with a very active, can't sit-still 14 month old!  After that, we hit up Burlington Coat Factory.  I was going there because it is my go-to spot for vest suits for the boys.  The Factory totally let me down, for the first time.  They had not one 3T suit set in the whole place, so Ty was out.  And they only had two 12 month ones for Westin.  I bought one for Westin, but I like the boys to be matching (or at least complementing), so I will probably return it. But I was desperate!  After that shopping fun, Wes & I drove by this foreclosure house in Concord (Heath & Ty had driven by it while we were doing the haircut).  Heath & I have been talking lately about moving to Concord. Yes, he will still have to travel an hour, but if he changes jobs, Concord is a perfect location.  Manchester, Nashua, Salem, Derry - are all within 30 minutes.  It opens up more possibilities than where we are living now (even though I love it) or more possibilities than moving to Lebanon (which we don't love). I don't know what we will do.  The house was a bust - I hate the lot that it is on.  Love the location, very country but close to Concord (it is actually in Concord, officially).  It is way too close to the road (our problem now), down a short, steep driveway and it is trashed inside (verdict by looking in the windows).  The people literally just let it go when it was built in 1989.  I don't think they did 1 maintenance thing on the place.  It would need to be gutted.  If I loved the lot, then it would be worth it for the right price.  But I don't think so.  We'll see what happens.

First haircut!

Heath got tired Friday night & Ty decided to wake him up by dumping puzzle pieces all over him (but it didn't work, obviously)

Last Sabbath we were supposed to take the boys to Sabbath School and then book it over to Shannon & Sean's house for lunch, but all of our plans for the day changed.  The Frost kids were sick, so we decided to skip lunch, but meet up for swimming at this indoor water park in Lebanon after sundown.  We went to Laconia for church and it was nice to catch up with our friends there.  Matt & Jill's little girl is growing up, but it just makes me so thankful for the kids we have.  Baby Grace has acid reflux and is only sleeping 1.5 hours between feedings all through the night.  They are not sleeping at all.  It makes me so guilty that both my kids slept 6-7 hours through the night by 6 weeks.  Another one of our friends at church was ecstatic that their 13 month old had slept through the night for the first time THAT WEEK.  I can't even imagine.  But I totally credit the book "Baby Wise" for this.  I got them on a strict eating, sleeping schedule from the get-go, but it totally works.  After lunch, we were supposed to be booking it to go swimming, but the weather just wasn't cooperating.  It was snowing pretty hard.  We were supposed to get anywhere from 3-6 inches, but Lebanon was going to get hardly anything.  I was ready to brave the weather, but Heath didn't want to.  He hemmed and hawed until it was really too late to even try to go.  I could have killed him.  Are we not from New England?!!!!  I know what it is.  He drives over there 5 days a week and knowing how slow the drive over and back would be in the snow...he didn't want to do it.  Instead Heath and Ty braved the 3 miles to Market Basket to get Panini supplies and then we had them for supper.  They were delicious.  Ty ate 3 whole grilled cheeses!  He is eating a ton lately!  I guess he is growth spurting!  While they were at the grocery store, Ty saw a football cake and said to Heath, “Daddy!  Look!  Football!  Mama loves football!”  It is so funny that even at his young age he knows that Mama loves football and Daddy doesn’t! 

On Sunday, Heath & Ty went out to breakfast and then ice-fishing with Keith & Adam (Sonia joined them later).  Westy & I had a nice day to ourselves.  I got Wes to take a nap first and then we rushed to do the pharmacies (so much easier with just 1 kid) and then rushed over to the Fairway to watch the AFC Championship game with my mom & dad.  Everyone knows how that turned out.  Terrible.  How is it that the Pats made it to the AFC Championship game these last 2 years in a row just to play the worst game of their entire season?  2 years in a row!!!!  So frustrating.  On a positive note, Westin was an angel.  He completely kept himself entertained by dumping golf balls in and out of this bag and strewing them all over the floor.  He did that most of the time.  He was a champ!  Wish the Pats could have been champs too!  After my mom made a fantastic supper of Skallops & grilled vegetables, Wes & I headed home to meet up with the rest of our fam.  Ty had a blast ice-fishing.  He very excitedly told me about everything including, “Omni caught a rainbow fish!” (translation: Adam caught a big rainbow trout)  Ty didn’t complain once about being cold and pulled each of the fish in when they caught them.  He also had insisted on bringing his harmonica on the ice to serenade the fish.  He decided to sing to the bait too!  These are about the funniest videos ever!

Adam's rainbow trout

Westy having fun with Noni

...and with Poppy!

Monday, after Westin’s nap, we went back over to the Fairway to meet Leigh, Mia & Bode, who were down visiting since Mia was off for Martin Luther King Day.  Shannon & the kids were supposed to come, but they were still sick, so they stayed home.  We had a lunch together and Dad got out of work early, so he was able to be there too!  After lunch we went swimming at the clubhouse and Tyson was still a scaredy-cat, but maybe a little less so.  Westin still loved it!  It was great to spend some time with the Gang from Glen!

Hopefully this is not a scene that will be in his future, Ty in a locker! (he went in willingly this time!)

 Watching Mia & Noni play air hockey

Wes looking up to cousin Bode 

Tuesday I worked my regular 3p-3a – I don’t remember if I have said it, but Ty is back to no naps.  I will leave him up there for an hour and he just whines and complains the whole time, no matter what I do.  We’re taking another break now with it, but if his behavior acts up again…we’ll go back to trying again.  Tuesday marked an important day for me.  I am officially enrolled at Rivier University in the online RN to BSN program.  I will be taking 1 class at a time to start to get used to it.  My first class is “Family & Health Nursing” and it will start March 10.  The classes are 8 weeks long.  I have no idea how this is going to work with my OCD.  I mean, I am OCD with everything…but when I start projects, I get completely consumed with them.  But I am going to try to have strict rules.  I will not work on school when the boys are awake because I do not want this to affect them at all.  So I will only work on it when they go to bed, but with Friday night and my 1 night that I work…I will only have 5 nights to work on school.  I don’t know how to do things half-way, but I think I am going to have to try to learn.  I really don’t care if I get straight A’s, B’s would be great.  So I am just going to have to figure it out.  But I have an announcement to make.  To try to save time, this blog is going to have to change for awhile.  It is going to become a mostly picture/video blog.  I definitely want to keep track of milestones the boys have reached and cute stories they have done, but the long narrative is going to be gone.  Instead I will just write bullet points on the highlights.  Maybe if school isn’t as bad as I thought, I can bring back the regular blog…we’ll see.  I will probably start right away with this since I am trying to finish about 4 big projects at home before I start school, so I need every second to count now!  For some people it might be a relief, since I write a book every week (again, I don’t know how to do things half-way), but I will miss the writing outlet.

On Wednesday, the boys gave me a heart attack.  I was in my bedroom, making our bed, and the boys were playing in the family room (so I thought).  Next thing I heard was, “Mama!  I’m bringing Westy upstairs with me!”  I yelled, “No!  Ty!  Wait!” and I started flying to the stairs.  But Tyson was telling me this AFTER the fact.  Ty had opened the gate and Westin had gone all the way up the stairs.  As I was running up the stairs, Westin tried to meet me by almost falling down the stairs, but Tyson reacted fast and yanked the back of his sleeper and pulled him down in the hallway upstairs.  I was thankful for Tyson’s aggression in that moment!  Oh, they scared me to death!  Wednesday night we went out to the Mexican restaurant with Adam & Sonia.  We weren’t going to be able to go out on Thursday because Heath had to teach a training class Thursday night.  Westin ate a bunch of chips without any choking and loaded them with salsa.  He ate so much salsa and actually took a fork and ate the salsa off the fork!  He didn’t have any middle of the night crying, so that other episode must have been a fluke!

Salsa Man

Thursday we did our Grocery Day and Heath didn’t get home until after 10 PM, since he had to do his class.  The boys missed seeing him, of course.  And there I was…alone on bath night again!  Well, that’s about it.  Have a great week!  

Sitting down, checking his text messages, before heading to the grocery store 

12 Months Clothes, Scared of Swimming, Daddy Gone For a Week, Picking His Nose, Thrift Store Craziness, "Early" Wake-Up Time, Making Soup, Ty is Eating a Lot & Wes is My Picky Eater

Wes:  1 Year & 2 Months Old

Ty:  3 Years & 3 Month Old

Last Friday my main project for the day was putting away Westin’s 6-9 month clothes and getting him moved into 12 month clothes.  It is always a good feeling when my kids are into the size clothes that they are supposed to be!  Well, he still fits most of the 6-9 month pants, but he can fit some 12 month pants too!  It was a major mess.  Ty kept me company much of the time (Wes was sleeping) playing with his race track.  He was putting all these books underneath the track, making the track have jumps or bumps and he just had a ball.  He made this really high incline with a bunch of books and it had been working great, but then the books started to slide…so I tried to help him out and adjusted the books, but then the car wouldn’t do the incline and fell off the track.  I laughed and apologized to Ty that I had been trying to help him, but I had made it worse!  Ty was very serious when he said to me, “You got to listen to me, Mama.”  That was pretty funny.  I couldn’t disagree with him!  Heath had called when he was driving home from work and we had been talking when I realized that Ty had gone downstairs and was quiet.  I told Heath that I had to go check on what he was doing and I had a sneaky suspicion that I knew what he was up to.  Man, do I know my son!  This is what I found…

Eating ice-cream underneath our table

Hard at work on his race track

Sabbath we had a fairly decent ice storm in the morning.  Everything was sheer ice.  Church was pretty much cancelled everywhere, so we had a day at home.  In the late afternoon, it had changed to mostly rain and the temperature was supposed to reach 50 degrees by early night, so we decided to risk going swimming.  The roads were worse than we thought they would be, but we went slow and we were fine.  My parents were still in Florida, but we went swimming at their place.  It has been quite awhile since we have gone swimming and, for Tyson, it really showed.  He was happy to stay on the stairs and to hold onto the side and move around the pool that way, but otherwise he did not want to “go swimming” with Heath or I in the middle of the pool.  He was really afraid.  It was weird.  I don’t know where that came from.  He hasn’t had a bad moment in the water that I know of, but I am more determined than ever that we will be doing swimming lessons in the spring.  Westin had a blast, especially when he figured out that his voice echoed there and so he screamed a lot!  After swimming, Heath wanted to go to some stores, so we did.  Old Navy, Kohl’s and Lowe’s.  Then we topped off the night at Chili’s, but I knew this was a bad idea.  This is definitely the last time I go anywhere without my diaper bag – but I had thought we were just swimming and going straight home.  I had thrown some diapers and wipes into our swim bag, so that wasn’t the problem.  It was the lack of Puffs, Goldfish etc… to keep Westin happy in a restaurant.  We had gotten chips & salsa at Chili’s and Westin keeps choking on chips, no matter how small we make the pieces.  He was cranky because it was bedtime and he hadn’t had his 2^nd nap, since we had been swimming, so he was horrible there.  Absolutely terrible.  But the night ended nicely for me when the Pats beat the Colts, so were headed to the AFC Championship game again!

Loving the cart @ Lowe's

@ Chili's...I love how their expression is the exact same!

A rare happy moment - he loved the black beans!

On Sunday we had breakfast together before Heath left at 10 AM for a business trip.  He would be in Minnesota all week and fly back on Friday.  The first time as a single parent with 2 kids for me!  I wasn’t too worried, but I knew that I would definitely really miss Heath at bedtime, since he does the baths!  Tyson actually napped this day and woke up saying, “Ty not feeling very well.”  He cried for medicine and said that his mouth hurt him, I looked in (as much as he would let me) and it looked like his right back molar was coming in.  I know that they are supposed to be in by now, hence the nickname “2 year molars,” but I had read that they could come in at 3 years…and since he did not get his first tooth until 11 months, maybe he is a bit behind!  I haven’t heard any more complaints about it, so I think he is fine!  We did laundry and watched football most of the day.  I was rooting hard for San Diego to beat the Broncos, since I knew that if we had to face the Broncos at home, we would probably lose.  And yes, that is what happened, unfortunately.  San Diego almost came back…if only they could have stopped Peyton on a 3^rd and ?17, I believe.  C’mon.  Football...

He has been doing this lately - he throws a ton of toys in a pile and calls it a "party" or sometimes a "surprise."  Then he gets on the phone and "calls" his friends to come to his party!  What is this about?

Another party in his car!

Monday consisted of us putting away our 7 loads of laundry, going couponing, and Westin picking his nose!  I really don’t think he has ever done that before!  He was pretty proud of himself!  I realized that I have been doing "Pajama Day" too often, when Ty asked me, "Where we going?" when I was getting them dressed in their clothes! (=  Monday night was pretty funny.  The boys were rolling on the floor wrestling together – it was adorable.  At one point, Westin was sitting on Ty and Ty screamed, “Westy!  Too much pain!  Too much pain!”  Then fast forward to about 10 minutes later, after they were done wrestling and Ty called to Wes… “Westy!  Come do some pain on me!”  It gave me a chuckle.

Rolling around on the floor with the Valentine's dog @ CVS

Tuesday we had a full thrift store day!  Shannon & the kids & Noni (back from Florida the day before) came over and we hit up 2 kid thrift stores & the Goodwill in Laconia.  A couple of memorable moments…I caught Finley in the corner at our first stop, with her pants around her ankle, taking off her diaper, trying to sit on a portable potty (that was being sold there)!!!!  She said to me, “Go pee on potty!”  I laughed so hard!  The second stop was an important moment because it was the first time that Westin has not pooped his pants at that thrift store!  He has probably been there 10 times and every single time we have gone there…Westin would have pooped either right before we arrive or right while we were there!  At our last Goodwill stop, we were pushing it.  The kids were animals there.  Mom had Ty & Finley at the toy area and someone complained to the staff that they were being crazy…c’mon…they are little kids.  As you can see in this video…they were crazy.  As we were leaving, we were talking among ourselves, about getting pizza…when one of the workers there came to us and said, “You guys are going to a restaurant with these kids now?”  We laughed at her, saying, “No way!  We are just stopping at Little Caesars to pick up some to take home!”  She seemed relieved!  But the real joke was on us, when we pulled into Little Caesars to discover that it had burned to the ground!  What a disappointment!  We would always get Crazy Bread for us and the kids we would get a $5 cheese pizza – so cheap!  We got Burger King drive-thru instead, but we were disappointed. 

Shannon arriving at my house - yes, this is the water bottle she carries around!

The Fin/potty incident - thank goodness she didn't use it - since it was upside down!

Tyson being a literal Peeping-Tom with Aunt Shannon (yes, on the nasty floor)

Someone has to clue them in that just because they have a hat on their head...it doesn't make it a cowboy hat!  

Showing off the prize from his Whopper meal

Showing Westy

And showing him again!

Saying goodbye to Griffin

Wednesday I worked and the boys went with my parents over to the Frost’s house to visit with the cousins.  Because I don’t get home until 4-5 AM, my mom had to spend the night.  Unfortunately, my mom did not get a wink of sleep.  She made a remark that my kids move around so much in their sleep and it is true.  They are very restless and travel all around their cribs.  Well, whenever they would move…it would wake her up.  Then she got worried that she wouldn’t hear them and I’m sure she was listening for me, too.  When I got home at about 4:30 AM, she came downstairs to meet me in the basement.  I couldn’t believe she was up!  I had stayed in my car for a few minutes listening to Bill Belichick’s press conference on the radio, but she had thought that I couldn’t get in the basement!  I got to sleep at about 5:15 AM and, unfortunately, Westin was awake at 7:45 AM.  He usually wakes up between 8:30-9 AM, but he has been stuck on a 7:30-7:45 AM wake up time out of nowhere.  I know to most people, this is ridiculous that I am complaining at all about this, but when you get 2 hours of sleep after working…it does make a difference!  I hope  this is just a phase!

Thursday I was dragging a bit, but you move on!  Ty has been “cooking” a lot lately, but has now upgraded his cooking experience from his kitchen set into the real kitchen.  He uses all my utensils, pots, etc…and he usually says that he is “making soup” and dumps salt, pepper into water, stirs it around, and “serves” (or spills all over the counter) it into bowls.  Well, he really upped the ante on Thursday when after I came out of my bedroom from making our bed, I found Ty, making soup again, but had about 10 of my spices out and had them dumped into a bowl.  Chili powder, cumin, minced garlic, oregano…you name it!  Oh!  What a mess!  His creativity continued during the day.  This is how imaginative he is… (Ty had asked to look at my watch)

Ty:  “Oh boy!  3 hours!  I need to get movin’!”

Me:  “Where are you going?”

Ty:  “Got to go fly an airplane!”

Me:  “Who is coming on the airplane?”

Ty:  “Us!”

Me:  “Where are we going?”

Ty:  “To the restaurant!”

Before we went to the Thai restaurant with my parents, we landed the plane and stopped at the grocery store and I actually did not lose a binky there this week!  (=  We had a nice dinner and Ty ate a ton!  I think he is having a growth spurt!  Westin has become my super picky eater and it is driving me crazy.  He would not touch the tofu or rice…but at least I was prepared and anticipated this and brought a sandwich for him!  I hope this is only a phase too! 

Have a great week!

RANDOM PIC/VIDEOS

Stickering up our kitchen floor & then trying to run from me!

He loves the chase!

Ty was trying to console Wes & I love that Wes is grabbing Ty's hand!

Napping Every 3 Days, "In the Whole World," ?Peanut Allergy, Ty using "I & Me" Now, Lost Mitten & Binky In Stores & Wes Loves Salsa

Wes:  1 Year, 1 Month & 3 Weeks Old 

Ty:  3 Years, 2 Months & 3 Weeks Old

**Last Week I had something like 40 pictures & this week I have 6 - pretty pathetic**

Last Friday we still had bad weather, a few more inches of snow, if I remember right…so Heath took the Outback again and I still couldn’t get to the grocery store!  I was definitely scraping the bottom of our “barrel,” but I found some stuff for supper!  I can only remember one funny story that happened on Friday with Ty.  He was straining to put this basket of fruit on top of his kitchen set, and he made it!  I said, “Nice job, Ty!”  And he was dead serious when he said back to me, “Ty is a very strong boy, Mama.”  So cute!

I worked 7a-7p last Sabbath and the boys stayed home.  Since Heath had stolen my car from me for days in a row, he repaid me by taking the boys and doing the grocery shopping for the week, after the sun had gone down.  I will take it!  I was so excited, since I hate to grocery shop!  After my shift, we met at the Mexican restaurant for supper.  I was overjoyed to see them and Tyson flew across the restaurant to get to me and Westin held his arms out for me as soon as he saw me!  Makes my heart feel good!

Ty sipping on Heath's soda

Fuzzy but cute

Tyson going to get his chocolate at the end of the meal & he figured out he had a problem!

On Sunday I worked 3p-3a.  We had our Sunday morning big breakfast together and then I tried to tidy the house up before I left.  I got the boys down for their naps and then ran to the pharmacies before work.  The boys were busy beavers and took our Christmas tree down.  Ty did better with it, better than I thought he would!  At work, I knew a night like this would happen sometime and it finally did.  We had 2 nurses and 1 tech call out, so we were ridiculously short-staffed and we had a bunch of critical patients.  It was supposed to be in triage from 11p-3a, but I had an ICU patient that needed multiple units of blood, antibiotics, and other drips.  I could not leave her side and there wasn’t anyone to come relieve me.  I stayed with the ICU patient, and the charge nurse covered triage for me until I could get the patient to the ICU.  Then I went out to triage, but there was not anyone to relieve me at 3AM.  They had just had 2 more ambulances come in and there were 5 more patients in the waiting room needing to be triaged at 3AM.  How could I leave them?  I couldn’t.  The awful part was that it was freezing rain that night and I knew that my drive was going to be very slow.  I didn’t get home until 6 AM and got a couple of hours sleep.  That was rough.  You know it was a bad night when Heath was already up for the day before I got home! 

Monday I was dragging, but I was going to be off for the next 10 days!  I had worked that weekend to make up for missing a shift during this week (because my parents were in Florida getting my grandmother settled) and to make up for not working the week in February, when we go down for Papa’s memorial.  Ty gave me a break and actually took a nap.  It is pretty funny.  He takes a 2 hour nap about every 3 days.  He took one on Monday and then on Thursday (and today on Sunday), otherwise he just stays up in his crib for an hour and tries to sleep, but he doesn’t.  He has a very cute phrase that he has started.  He will say things like, “I like ice-cream in the whole world!”  (and he drags out and really emphasis the word “whole”)  This is the Tyson spin on saying, “I like ice-cream more than anything in the whole world!”  He is just missing a few words!

It has been so cold - we boiled some water in a pot & threw it up in the air - making snow! 

Tuesday I felt rested and started a full cleaning on the house.  I got everything done, but the floors –so that felt great!  I ventured out in the 1 degree weather with the boys to go to the post office to finally exchange some boots that didn’t fit from Christmas and then went to Old Navy.  I was trying on some jeans and the boys did very well.  I was frustrated because I lost one of Westin’s mittens in Old Navy.  I had taken him out of the shopping cart with the mitten on and walked to the car.  I had buckled him & Ty both in when I realized the mitten was gone.  With the 1 degree weather and the wind blowing like mad, there was no way I was getting them back out and going back to the store.  I made sure it wasn’t on the ground around the car and up to the door (I did park right in front of the door), but I was not going to go into the store (obviously) and leave them in the car.  So I called Old Navy when I got home to see if they had found it, knowing that it had fallen off right at the cart area.  I could not believe it when they said they didn’t have it.  Are you kidding me?  I guess someone must have either picked it up for themselves or thrown it away.  What would you do with 1 tiny mitten?  So frustrating!  Tuesday for lunch I finally gave in and gave Westin peanut butter for the first time.  That is the one food that always freaks me out, but his pediatrician had convinced me that it was fine to try it.  He had actually had it a couple times (very small amount) by accident, so I was feeling pretty confident that he wasn’t going to have a problem.  He had a PB& J for lunch, a peanut butter & honey sandwich on Wednesday night (when he refused to eat what I had cooked for supper), a few Peanut Butter Cheerios on Thursday, and a few Peanut Butter Ritz bites on Friday.  (I know that seems like we went peanut butter crazy!)  And on Friday night, he had a rash on his belly and back.  I was pretty sure he hadn’t had anything else new or different, so I’m freaking out that he has a peanut allergy.  However, they say that the peanut allergy rash is usually around the mouth, so that doesn’t make sense.  I do remember using a different Desitin cream on Thursday than what we usually use, but I would expect more of an allergic reaction rash from a diaper cream to be on his diaper area and not on his belly and back.  I’m not sure what to make of it, but I am just going to hold off on any more peanuts right now and we will talk about it at his next doctor’s appointment next month.  Please let it not be true!

Westy ready to go out in the cold on Tuesday -he had been dragging around a bin of food & was very excited to bring out the ice-cream cone! 

On Wednesday I was all gung ho ready to finish the cleaning on the house and vacuum and wash the floors.  That came to a big halt when I realized that I was out of vacuum bags and the light had been on from the last time I had used it – so the bag really needed to be changed!  I tried to be smart and empty the current bag, but the stuff wouldn’t come out – so I grabbed a pair of pliers and was pulling the disgusting contents out of the bag, when the bag ripped.  I was so mad!  We have to get Kenmore specific bags and they closed the Sears in our town, so I asked Heath to check in Lebanon on the way home from work.  Unfortunately, the bags are backordered everywhere…so fast-forward a bunch of days, I am waiting for them to come by Amazon tomorrow.  What a pain!  My floors are so disgusting – I can hardly stand it!  OK, enough of the floor drama…  Tyson’s vocabulary is really coming along.  I am so sad that he is not talking about himself in the 3rd person as much.  He now says a lot of “Me do this…me will.”  A new phrase that you hear all the time (actually does involve “I”) is, “I hurt me-self.”  He is also trying new pronouns, but not getting it exactly right – but he is trying!  We were having a tickle fest on Wednesday night and Heath was tickling me…and if he would stop, Tyson would yell, “Tickle she!  Tickle she!”  Another thing he has started to do is call me, “Mommy Alison.”  It cracks me up!   Of course, it actually sounds like “Alson” – like every other young kid as always called me!

Thursday, on the way to the grocery store, Tyson was so funny.  He got hooked on the idea of ice-skating and was talking all about going ice-skating with his “friends” (Noni, Poppy, Finley, Bode, Grammy, Grampy etc...) and then he asked Westin a question.  “Westy, you want to go ice-skating with me?”  And he asked it over and over!  It was really cute!  Well, I thought it would be a quick trip to the grocery store.  That was not to be.  When I had gotten back to the car and gotten both boys buckled in after we had finished, I realized that Ty’s favorite binky had fallen out of my fleece pocket while we were in the store.  Are you kidding me?  Ty was so upset and so I piled both kids back into the cart and went back through the store, retracing all my steps but no binky was to be found.  I checked with Customer Service, but no one had brought one up.  Did someone really pick up the binky and took it home with them?  I mean, it is so frustrating when you know where you lost something and you still can’t find it!  First Westin’s glove and now the binky!  I really need to stay home.  Despite his sadness, Tyson did a loud, “Goodnight everybody!” as we left Market Basket.  That was pretty funny.  He must have told Heath, Adam & Sonia (who came out with us to the Mexican restaurant that night) a hundred times, “Mama lost my robot binky at grocery store.  It fell out her pocket.”  Westin was cute at the restaurant.  He is obsessed with the chips & salsa there now.  He has always liked the chips, even though he chokes and gags on them all the time.  But Thursday night, he threw a fit unless he was able to dip the chips in the salsa, like everyone else!  He would eat it too!  It is definitely spicy, but he would still say, “Mmmmm!”  My crazy boy!  Maybe that is the reason that he cried for a couple of hours in the middle of the night!  He appeared to be in pain, but I haven’t been able to appreciate any teeth coming in right now.  Of course he had to start crying at 3 AM, right when I was going to bed.  I gave him some Ibuprofen and tried to sleep with him on the air mattress upstairs in his room, but he just wants to play with me when I lie down with him!  I finally got him back to sleep a little before 5 AM.  He hasn’t done middle of the night crying since the Fryeburg Fair weekend in October.  It just doesn’t happen at all. 

Dr. Tyson in the house sporting his robot binky for the last time

That’s all folks!  Have a great week!

Lots of Singing, Copsey Christmas 2013, Sleigh Ride & The Boys are Buds

Wes:  1 Year, 1 Month & 2 Weeks Old

Ty:  3 Years, 2 Months & 2 Weeks Old

Last Friday we had a semi-relaxing day at the Edwards’ house.  The boys did some more ATVing and Ty/Sonia/Amanda made Christmas cookies, and then came the unrelaxing part.  Packing up.  That took forever.  We left Heath’s truck with his ATV at the Edwards, so we could go on to my parent’s house in 1 vehicle.   We had eaten a late lunch before we left and Tyson had spent the whole lunch singing (sometimes screaming) “Jingle Bells!”  When we got to my parents, we had a late supper, bathed the boys, and got to bed.  But not before Tyson insisted on being wrapped up like a present and put underneath the tree.  It was very cute.  That night Tyson was completely hoarse, no doubt from screaming/singing all day.

The video cut off a bit early, but he really started screaming

 It's so sad when he forgot the words - he hung his head down!  Sweetie pie.

Sabbath we went to Conway church with my parents and Nanny.  We saw Sonia, Amanda & Levi there too.  I spent most of the time in the Mother’s Room with Westin, but even with the Mother’s Room…it’s still a chore and a half to keep that kid quiet!  He likes to take the blocks and bang on the window with them.  Then he likes to hit the door, saying, “Boom!”  A few times Heath actually turned his head around to look at me – are you kidding me?  It wasn’t like I wasn’t trying!  Devin had worked the night before and Leigh was working that night, so they weren’t at church and Shannon & Sean had to pick up Sean’s brother at the airport…so they couldn’t come until the afternoon.  Great Christmas family time, guys. C’mon.  I know I complained about it last year, too.  We just can’t even get 2 full days completely together.  It is disgusting.  Anyways, after church, we went home and had a small snack of hot dogs, because we were having our Christmas meal at 4 PM.  At least Westin got to take a decent nap.  Ty’s naps were mostly nonexistent during the Christmas holidays.  There were just too many things going on.  So at 4:00ish, everyone had arrived and we had a nice turkey/Special K dinner and it was delicious.  After dinner, we just hung out and then had a showing of “Cars” for the kids (well, some of us adults too).  Then it was off to bed again.

Ty found the chocolates after church

Nanny had a difficult clasp in the back of her sweater that she couldn't get off!

Noni & Griffin

Sunday was our Copsey Christmas, after a nice brunch at about 10:30 AM (Leigh only slept for a couple hours).  We did things differently this year – something that I vow I will never do again.  With everything that had happened with my grandfather, no one had really felt like shopping.  We didn’t want to ruin the kid’s Christmas, of course, so we were just buying for them.  Late in the game, Devin had decided that we should do a Secret Santa, so the adults picked each other’s names.  That was fun, but I definitely can not believe that I did not buy my parents a present this year.  I love buying presents for everyone.  The unfortunate thing for me was that I had picked Devin’s name.  I love my brother, but I could strangle him sometimes.  We had all decided that we would do a group text and everyone would give out some ideas of things they would like for whoever got them for Secret Santa.  I started the text off, reminding people of dollar amount limit, and then gave some ideas for myself.  Everyone responded EXCEPT my brother.  So I wrapped up coal for him.  I ended up having a Dick’s gift card for him, which is the closest thing to actual coal that I could think of (even though I love getting gift cards)!  But enough about the adults, the kids were adorable.  Ty was definitely the most excited again and really tried to get Westin into it, but as the video will show…Wes would just walk away!  After the presents, we let a few kids nap (Westin, for one), and we packed up (again) and went to our friends, the Blakeney’s house.  They have horses and their son, Jason, does sleigh rides.  So we took a sleigh ride and it was very fun.  The kids loved it and it was cold, but not frigid.  At the end, the expected snow storm started.  We knew that it was going to be a rough drive home, but we had decided to go on with things as planned.  We had some hot chocolate around a bonfire and then the 4 of us boogied back to the Edwards’ house to get Heath’s truck.  It was right on the way to where we were going out to eat.  We went to the Pizza Barn for supper, but the snow became really bad, so Devin & Leigh didn’t come.  Leigh was exhausted and it is like 40 minutes away from their house.  We had a great meal, but we missed them.  Then we all drove home in the storm.  We ended up getting about 10 inches or so, and the roads were horrendous.  It was very unfortunate that I had to drive as well, since we had 2 cars.  Heath lost control on a hill in front of me and was fishtailing towards a car and I thought that I would see him wreck right in front of me – but he was able to get it back just in time.  That was awful.  I fishtailed twice myself, but was able to get control again, thank goodness.  It took us about 1 hour and 45 minutes to get home, when it would normally take about 50 minutes or so.  Long day.  But thank goodness everyone got home safely!

Westin loves Griffin so much

Sleigh ride

Gorgeous scenery

Thanks to Mom for the borrowed gear - I brought everything for the kids & then forgot to bring warm sleigh ride gear for me!

Well, on Monday, it was great to be home after 5 days away!  Heath was still off from work, so that was great!  I worked on about 6 loads of laundry and unpacking our mess and it was just unbelievable.  It definitely gets worse year after year, even though we keep saying every year that we are going to tone down Christmas.  I kept getting anxiety attacks about the toys when the boys would open their presents.  But it was better than after their birthdays this year, surprisingly.  I was able to move some things around and bring older toys up to their rooms, so it was better than I thought!  Heath worked on digging us out after the latest snowstorm.  Ty went outside with Heath for awhile too.  I wasn’t surprised when the boys took 3 hour naps this day – they always seem to do this after being away.

The mess

I had to work Tuesday, on New Year’s Eve.  I was still not completely finished with the mess, but it was manageable.  As I headed to work, the boys were headed to a New Year’s Eve party at Heath’s uncle & aunt’s house.  I was bummed I couldn’t go, but this was my 1 winter holiday that I am required to work, so I couldn’t complain.  It’s not like I had to work Thanksgiving or Christmas.  As a general rule, I could care less about New Year’s…but I would have loved to go to the family party.  They all had a great time and they stayed until about 10:30 or 11:00 PM, when the boys were obviously too exhausted for any more!  I actually had a good shift and had one of my most memorable moments in my career, so far.  I was in charge and our staffing wasn’t too bad (for a holiday) and the New Year’s crowd was definitely out.  I can’t tell you how many alcohol & drug-related problems came in and we were busy.  But without talking about it too much, a young girl came in after a car accident and she was dying.  She had ruptured part of her heart and one of our cardiothoracic surgeons just happened to be right in the hospital when she came in.  He opened her chest right in the ER and I got to see a live beating heart, beating in someone’s chest!  It was absolutely amazing.  Then she went into cardiac arrest and I actually got to see the heart stop beating right in front of me!  But we shocked her, got her back, and got her to the OR.  She is supposedly going to make a full recovery.  It was one of the most incredible things I have ever seen.

Our yard covered in snow

Wednesday was New Year’s Day and I tried to sleep in a little (since Heath was there and I thought the boys would sleep in after being up so late – but they didn’t), but it didn’t really happen.  Heath worked on putting a door on our shed – and it looks great!  It looks like a barn door – he did really good work, as usual.  Wednesday night we went to Fratello’s with the Edwards, Amanda & Levi (they were going back home the next day), and Danny, Janet & Heath’s cousin, Chris.  We had a good time and the food was fantastic, as usual.  We had a near catastrophe with Ty.  Ty was playing with a pipe-cleaner-type of toy that the restaurant gives out to the kids when he decided to throw it over the balcony and hit a woman, who was eating underneath us.  Heath took Ty down to apologize and she was very gracious, but are you kidding me?  Westin hadn’t gotten his late afternoon nap, since we headed to the restaurant at 5:30 PM, so he was pretty awful there.  He can really be a pill if he doesn’t nap.

Making a bridge for his monkeys at the restaurant

On Thursday, Heath’s vacation was officially over.  Including the weekend, he had had 9 days off.  It went by way too fast!  Unfortunately, he had to go back to work on a bad weather day.  It snowed all day long – we probably got about 8 inches or so.  That was also the day my parents were bringing my grandmother back to Florida and they were at the airport forever and didn’t get to Avon Park until 5 AM the next day!  Since it was snowing so badly, Heath took the Outback to work and we weren’t going to be able to go anywhere or to the grocery store.  So we stayed at home and I should mention a few tid bits about the boys.  Westin is just so darn cute.  He has been doing this awhile, but I don’t think I have ever mentioned it.  He will walk all around, holding his hands behind his back!  It is so cute, but a little dangerous when he falls!  Tyson continues his dramatic ways.  I told him on Thursday to say goodnight to Westin, when Wes was going to take a nap.  Tyson threw himself on the floor and had a whole fake crying episode because Wes was leaving.  Actor?  They are getting so cute together.  They are really playing and doing everything together now – it is so sweet.  The other day I heard Ty saying to Wes, “Westy, let’s ride bikes together!”  (Westy’s bike being one of his sit/push toys)  Then when he didn’t get much response, Ty said, “Westy, come hold the back of my bike!  Ty will drag you around!”  Oh my.  They are getting so close, that Ty even shared a bite of a chocolate treat with Wes!  That is saying a lot!  That’s about it!  Have a good week!

Riding Westin's "bike" together

Sharing a juice box

"Oh!  Ty, I like that!"

Playing balls together

Ty said, "I'm making a snowman!"