Ty & Wes Time: Cape Weekend, AUC Concert, "Puppies" Obsession, "GPS," New Nap Schedule, "No, No, No," New Car Seat, Bye-Bye Binky & Big Boy Bed

Wes: 1 Year, 4 Months & 1 Week Old

Ty: 3 Years, 5 Months & 1 Week Old

WEEK OF MARCH 17-21

- Before that week, we went to the Cape for the weekend of March 15+16. We went down for church and surprised almost everyone. They had been expecting just Wes & I because we thought Ty & Heath were going to be maple sugaring, but the sap really wasn’t running yet, so they came! Westin didn’t sleep the entire 2 ½ hour drive to the Cape, which was ridiculous. We hung in the mother’s room during much of church with Kelly & Caleb and Shannon & Griffin. We got to see Caleb walking in person and that was exciting! We went to the Kelly & Steve’s for lunch with the Frosts, Rad & Jen, Dave & Yully and a friend of theirs. They all went walking on the beach (with Aunt Lori & Uncle Charlie) but Kelly stayed behind with me, while I let Wes sleep. Saturday night we had yummy veggieburgers, made by Aunt Lori, and they introduced me to a game called Monopoly Deal – which I immediately got hooked on. Heath had gone to bed with the boys, he was tired & it is always tough the first night anywhere to get the boys to sleep…so having Heath there helped them.

Westin loved Kelly immediately and wanted her to hold him all the time!

A lot of these pics are blurry - thanks iPhone, but I have to post them!

"Ooo! Look at all the new toys!"

Caleb showing Wes around

Playing together

- Sunday was a fun day! Heath, Steve, Sean & Rad left early in the AM and went to play frisbee golf. There was a near catastrophe when Sean hit Heath in the head with the frisbee (a different type of frisbee, very heavy & weighted)! Rad & Steve both thought that Sean had hit a tree because the sound was so loud! Heath definitely had a sore head the rest of the day – thank goodness he was OK! When they got back we brought the kids to a playground, treated them to penny candy at the Craigsville General Store, and then went to lunch at a Thai restaurant. Then the guys took the kids home and the ladies went to this huge kids thrift store sale. The Cape ladies were disappointed because it was so much smaller than their fall sale had been, but I still got plenty of good stuff, so I was happy. After that we went back to Kelly & Steve’s, packed up and headed home. Well, first there was a stop at Harbor Freight’s for Heath (Steve & Caleb went too) and then we stopped at David & Yully’s gorgeous home on the way home. We met the Frosts there too and David & Yully had a bunch of food set out for us! So sweet! We got home at about 9:00 PM or so…tired but had a great weekend!

Candyaholic like me!

Wes getting into it too!

Cousin fun outside the general store

Closeup of my cuties

Dancing at the Thai restaurant (they did more dancing than eating)

Ty taking a last spin on Caleb's electric rig

- Monday was St. Patty’s Day and I had stupidly signed myself up to work. Who does that in the ER? We had plenty of drunks and it was a busy night.

- Tuesday we were supposed to go see my cousin, Jonathan’s choir sing in Vermont (he is the music director at Southwestern University and they were on tour up here)… but I was so exhausted from the night before, I just couldn’t do it. We stayed in our PJ's all day.

- Just a little tid bit, I don’t know if I have mentioned Westin’s obsession with the puppies and just the word “puppies” in general. He is unbelievable! He will literally wake up in the AM and the first words out of his mouth are “puppies!” So funny.

- Wednesday I was feeling so rested (after my 5 hours of sleep) and I felt so bad that we hadn’t gone to the concert that I came up with an impromptu plan to go with my parents to see the choir at AUC that evening. So we all headed out. We first stopped at the ABC in South Lancaster and stocked up on veggie meat and met up with Aunt Melanie & Rad. Then we went for supper at the famous “John’s Pizza,” where you can get items with veggie meat. Most of us opted for prosage subs and they were delightful. I had put a bit of pineapple soda in one of our straw sippie cups for Ty and I don’t know what happened, but it must have gotten pressurized with the carbonation…but it started spraying everywhere and everyone got a nice, sticky, pineapple bath! After supper we went over to the church and met up with Jonathan, Aunt Sherrie, and Uncle Kevin. The concert was amazing – the choir is super talented…as is my cousin, the director! We almost made it to the end, but the boys were starting to melt down and make too much noise (even in the Mother’s Room) so we had to leave. Wish John lived closer!

Running outside the ABC

Going to "school"...in the basement before the concert started

Westin trying out one of the bathroom seats

Great concert!

- Thursday was grocery day, Mexican restaurant (with just the 4 of us), and Tyson used a word that I had no idea he knew! We were in the car and he asked me to “move the GPS, Mama.” I had no clue he knew that it was a “GPS!” They can shock you sometimes with the things they know!

- Friday…I can not remember a thing that happened.

- Sabbath I worked 7a-7p and there was the most spectacular sunrise that I took a picture of when I was parking my car in the parking garage. I am not a morning person, but this was just beautiful. The boys stayed home...I had forgotten to mention that Heath & I both got colds, but thank goodness the boys didn’t get it!

A fort Ty made while I was working

Inside the fort

Hanging out together

- Sunday I worked 3p-3a and the boys went to the Edwards’ house for sugaring…the sap still was not running (too darn cold) but they were putting more taps in the trees and getting ready!

WEEK OF MARCH 24-28

- Monday started a new nap schedule for us that I am very excited about! Since Westin has lengthened his 1^st nap and has dropped his 2^nd one… I decided to try to get him to sleep later in the day (instead of 11 AM). Because when he sleeps 3 ½ hours, then it puts the boys’ lunch time at about 2:30 PM -3:00ish and then they are not very hungry to eat supper at 6:45-7:00 PM. This way, I have them eat lunch at about 1:00ish and then they are napping 2:00ish-whenever. There are many positives for this. One of them is that I have BOTH boys sleeping together and on the 1^st day of the nap trial…Ty slept for 3 hours and Wes slept for 3 ½!!! It was amazing! Another positive is that Ty is SO much better natured if he wakes himself up instead of me doing it (because I would wake him up at 5:45 PM so he would go to sleep at his bedtime). Hopefully this works out for awhile!

- Tuesday my hopes came crashing down when I worked and Ty would not sleep for Noni. I chalked it up to Poppy being there too and Ty being too excited to sleep!

- Wednesday Ty went right to sleep for me at 2:30 PM and slept 2 hours, which I proceeded to tease Noni about! Something that is new with Wes is that he has learned the dreaded word of “no!” I would have to look back, but I am sure this is WAY before Ty ever said it. The only positive is that he says it in a really adorable way. Instead of yelling, “no!”, he does his nose crinkling thing and says (in a singsong voice), “no, no, no!” I hope this cute way of saying “no” will continue for awhile! We went out to eat in Concord to the OG with Adam on this night since Heath got out of work early. Westin officially got his new car seat (which we bought off my mother) on this night and he was excited!

- Thursday was a big, big day for Tyson. First, just a funny thing that Ty did while we were at the grocery store…I was shopping with my list in my hand and Ty asked to see the list. I handed it to him and he acted like he was really reading it and then announced… “Cookies…ice-cream…cupcake goldfish…corn…” I laughed so hard, but at least he threw the corn in there for good nutrition! On the way back from the grocery store, out of the blue, he announced to me that when Daddy came home, he was going to throw his binky in the trash because he wanted his big boy bed. I was shocked! And so excited! I had let the matter of the binky drop for a couple of weeks and I guess that was the right thing to do! Just as promised, when Heath got home Ty threw his favorite “Rock ‘n’ Roll” binky in the trash. I was so surprised – he didn’t hesitate at all! I was so proud of him – I don’t know if I can remember a moment that I have been more proud! I think it is because this was completely his decision and he was willing to let something go that he loved so much to get a reward that he was excited about. I cried. Officially without the binky, he is a big boy now. He was over the moon about his bed and, not surprisingly, it took him 2 hours to go to sleep that night. Part of it was excitement and part of it was not having his binky. Can you imagine if you have a ritual or something that you do to help you fall asleep at night (in my husband’s case it is falling asleep with the TV on)… and you have always done it for 3 ½ years and suddenly you don’t have it? In a sense, you are having to learn to fall asleep in a different way. To Ty’s credit (and again, more proudness) he never asked for his binky that night. But I heard the funniest thing while I was putting Westin down in his crib. I heard Ty talking in his room and he was half-crying, “Oh binky! Ty loves you so much! Ty threw you in the trash!” I was quietly cracking up…my poor BIG boy!