News!

Happy (belated) Halloween!!

Things are getting more and more interesting and entertaining as Tyler gets older. Last year we took him trick-or-treating to my parents and grandparents houses and a couple friends. He pretty much didn't know what the deal was and we ate most of his candy. This year was completely different and it makes me so excited for Christmas! Tyler dressed as Clifford the Big Red Dog, which is one of his fave shows/books. He totally hammed it up telling everyone "Happy Halloween" and saying "trick or treat"! We stuck to going to one of the neighbors houses, an old folks home and family again but next year I think we will all be ready to take a tour around the neighborhood!

After we were done my Aunt came over to watch Tyler for us so the big kids could dress up and go out! What a blast!! Josh and I dressed up Gothic. All of our friends dressed up too and all the costumes were awesome! Dawn even won 1st Place in a costume contest at one of the bars we went to! (She's the fairy on the far right in the bottom pic)

We all had a great Halloween this year and I hope you all did too!

Our trip to Minnesota

It had been 3 months since we had seen Mindy and Ron. But since we saw them on our trip to Florida without Tyler it had been 7 months since they had seen Tyler.

On Friday we took my wedding ring to Shane Co so it could be sized. Kudos to them for having it ready on Sunday afternoon so we didn't have to ship it. I seriously love that place and have been treated so great by them over the years. Then we went to the Twins Pro Shop in Minnetonka (?) to get our game tickets for Saturday. Mindy bought Tyler a Twins hat because he was wearing his Packers hat and she just couldn't stand it! ;-) Then we walked over to Eddington's for lunch...omg, I miss that place. Yum! Our next stop was the Como Zoo. We loved it...it was just the right size that by the time Tyler had enough we had seen everything.

Saturday morning we visited an old co-worker and her family before heading to the Dome for the Twins game. It was Tyler's first game and he loved it! He did so good we were able to stay until the 8th inning.

After the game we went to our fave Thai restaurant in Osseo. PAD THAI = DELISH!

I really missed being in the cities until we got stuck in traffic on the way home from the zoo. I love visiting there tho and I really miss our friends. And all the fun stuff to do. But I know we'll be back for more visits and there will always be fun things waiting for us that we didn't explore in the almost 5 years we lived there.

Speaking of living there, we didn't even drive thru our old neighborhood this time. The main road to get there was closed and we never got around to going. Kinda wish we'd have checked it out, but maybe it's time to move on. Does anyone else drive by their old/first homes?

Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwiches

I don't think I've mentioned on here what a neat freak our son is. Well, not so much neat freak as obsessive compuslive about getting dirty. He spent his summer (somewhat) overcoming a fear of sand and picking up his favorite phrase, "Dooty, dooty, dooty," which is Tyler speak for dirty, dirty, dirty. He loves waffles but every time he eats them he says, "Get dirty? You're ok." At one point it was borderline scary but now it's getting better. He even played in the rocks at his GG's house last weekend, picking some up and everything. :-) It's the little things right?

That said, when Daddy gave Tyler a PB&J sammich for supper the other night he wasn't surprised when Tyler started saying, "nakin, nakin," which is Tyler speak for napkin. So when Daddy gave him a napkin he thought he was going to wipe his mouth. Little did he know Tyler had bread and PB stuck to the roof of his mouth and didn't know what to do. So he opened his mouth and used his trusty napkin to scrape it off. ALL BETTER! :-)

Note to self: Serve PB&J's with PB on the bottom. hahaha...

Suddenly...

...my son is the smartest toddler on Earth! LoL...yeah, cuz I'm not partial or anything, but still! All of a sudden he is picking out letters and naming them and now Daddy has taught him types of trees! Last night they rode on the lawnmower (without the blade engaged, of course) and they were naming the types of trees.

Well, today we were outside and he looks at a tree and says, "pine tree."

I said, "No, that's not a pine tree."

Tyler simply said, "OH, maple."

LMAO!!!!! It wasn't a maple, but it still blew me away that he pulled it out!

Just some pics

Tyler's 2nd Birthday!

Happy 2nd Birthday little man! We had two birthday parties this year. One up north with Josh's family over July 4th weekend and the other at our house with my family on the day of his birthday. Both were lots of fun and Tyler had a blast. It was so fun now that he had an idea that it was a special day!

Some pics from his "Up North" party at Auntie Ashlee and Uncle Adam's house:

And some pics from our house on his birthday:

Where does summer go?!

We've been doing so many exciting things this summer, I guess I haven't taken the time to post.

Just so you know I'm still here, I'm sharing a pic of my first harvest of the summer! :-) Two red peppers and two cherry tomatoes. If you want to call them cherry tomatoes...they are huge! I have about a dozen more on the plant and about 5 regular tomatoes on the other plant.

That's a soup spoon to show the size...I wasn't feeling very creative when I was looking for something to compare them to!

Camping

Well, the camping season is off to a great start! We were nervous to see what Tyler was going to do in his Pack N Play since he's been close to climbin out for a while now. The first weekend we went to the camper (my parents have a permanent site at a campground.) he climbed out! He ended up sleeping with me on a twin bunk bed until he was asleep and then we put him back in his Pack N Play. The next morning Josh caught him as he was escaping!

Needless to say, we knew we had to figure something else out so he doesn't hurt himself. My mom found this kiddie couch that folds out to a bed that even has a sleeping bag that zips to the foam. It was a HUGE hit with Tyler and things went good last weekend! For the most part he stays on the bed. During one nap we peeked in and found him on the floor, but we have removed everything from the room so that he is safe. It is going a lot better than any of us anticipated!

As for home, the Monday after the first weekend that he crawled out of the Pack N Play he crawled out of his crib after his nap. But that has been the only escape so I am planning on keeping him in the crib...for now. I thought he was no where near ready for a big boy bed but I guess I could be wrong! Definitely wouldn't be the first time when it comes to this parenting thing! :-)

And we also ALMOST made it to the potty to poop last weekend. But by the time mommy got the pants pulled down and the shirt out of the way he was done. :-( I'm just glad I didn't rip the diaper off without checking it first!

And isn't this the CUTEST bench?! My mom picked it up for by the camp fire...he just loves it! He even lays down on it and crosses his feet. I have to catch him in that pose, but here's a pic of the bench.

Have a great Memorial Day everyone!

Thank you to our service men and women.

Freedom is NOT free!!

New Pictures

Some new pics of Tyler...

Hey, you forgot to take my shirt off!!

I'm ready to go outside but it seems like I'm forgetting something...

Hangin w/the boys (gpa & daddy) by the water. What a copy cat!

Mmmm...Chicken!!

Happy Mother's Day!

My Mother's Day was fantastic! Josh, Tyler and I went camping with my parents for the weekend and then on Sunday morning we went for brunch with Josh's family. It's great to be able to see everyone! Even tho it's been two years I am still appreciating the fact that we don't live 4 hours away anymore. :-)

I got a beautiful card from Tyler and a gift card to pick out some flowers for outside. After brunch we came home and just hung out together, which was fun. And a huge bonus of the day...I didn't have to change ONE diaper! :-) teeheehee...

I haven't told many people (and I don't know who even reads this anymore) but Josh and I have been trying to have baby #2 since last August. It's finally starting to get to me. And now I am over a week late with negative pregnancy tests. Obviously my PCOS is causing some problems again and I'm not ovulating. I had a good cry this morning over another negative pregnancy test and then realized I have nothing to cry about. I wasn't even supposed to be able to get pregnant with Tyler and we were lucky enough to get pregnant the first month trying. I've SAID I am going to take whatever comes and if we only have one kid, so be it. But now I need to start LIVING that. I am going to appreciate my son (more than I already do) every single day and be even more thankful for him.

Anyone else have this happen?!

Ok, the weirdest thing...

I got Tyler up this morning and we went right to the changing table. His poor little butt has been red the last few days...I think the 5 teeth that are fighting to get through are giving him diarrhea. Anyway, I unzipped his pj's for him and he took his arms out and proceeded to stop out of the feet.

This is when I noticed it...a weird gel-like substance on his foot! It made me think of those packets that come in purses and stuff, except this was wet. So since it was all over the changing table I put him on the floor to avoid getting it all over him. Then I realized there was a bunch in the foot of his pj's too! At this point I still don't have a clue where it came from. So I dumped it out into the garbage and picked up Tyler to wipe his feet off and change him.

As I picked him up I realized where it was coming from...his diaper! The side of it was ripped open! What a mess...it was all over the floor, the changing table and Tyler. Needless to say, we went right to the bath tub. What a way to start the day! LoL...

So has anyone else had this happen?! We use Pampers so I'm a little baffled that this happened!

Thanks!

Just a quick thanks to all who donated to Big Brothers, Big Sisters this year through Bowl for Kids' Sake 2008. We had a great time and are proud to participate in this event!

Prentice Look-alike Meter

MyHeritage: Family tree - Genealogy - Celebrity - Collage - Morph

Santa

Well, Tyler had his first visit with Santa at the mall last night. There was no talking going on...mainly screaming! :-) Poor kid, we've probably scarred him for life. Santa even had me sit down next to him on a stool with Tyler on my lap so they could talk and Tyler would only peek at him. It was pretty cute once he calmed down though. Santa asked him if he liked trucks and trains and even gave Tyler a little coloring book. Of course, Tyler wouldn't take it from him but when I did he took it from me! It was fun! (for mom and dad anyway!)

After we saw Santa we had dinner and then went to the live nativity at the church down the road from us. There were guards that met us at the entrance of the path and an inn and innkeeper that said, "No room in the inn." There were shepards and sheep and goats after that. The next stop was the manger scene with Mary and Joseph and (fake) baby. There was a camel near Mary and Joseph. (can you rent camels?!) Ty wasn't too thrilled about the camel...he wanted to pet it with his mitten on but when we took it off he wanted nothing to do with it!

The three of us had a great night and I'm glad to finally spend some time with my family!

Update

I completely forgot to update about Tyler's doctor results.

His temp was down the next day already and there was no growth in his petree (sp?) dish, so no infections. That was a great relief to find out but still a little unsettling since we will never know what caused it.

Temps

This post isn't about the weather....though after the day we had yesterday, I'd much rather be talking about the cold temps and snow we got!

Tyler woke up at 3 am on Tuesday morning screaming/crying bloody murder so I rushed in to check on him. (Which I normally don't do since most of the time when he wakes he settles himself back to sleep, but he usually doesn't scream either.) When I went into his room he was still laying down so I knew something was wrong. As soon as I picked him up I could feel that he had a temp so we went back into our bedroom to wake daddy up for a little help since I didn't know what to do. We took his temp and it was 102.something. So I had Josh take Tyler (who was still upset) while I got out my trusty "What to Expect..." book to see what to do with a fever. This is the first time he's had one like this so I, of course, didn't know what to do. We ended up taking his pj's off and trying to give him some water but he didn't want it. And he didn't want his medicine either...that was a battle, which it normally isn't. After finally getting him some medicine I sat down on the rocker with him and he cuddled right up to me. We used one of his light blankets to cover him up and I sent Josh back to bed. Tyler and I both fell asleep rocking so we just stayed there all night instead of trying to put him back down and get him all upset again. We woke up at 6 am when Josh got up and fell right back asleep. We didn't get up until after 10 am!

Unfortunately, when I took his temp again it was 103.7 so I called the nurse. I took him in since he didn't have any other symptoms of a cold or infection that we could see so I wanted to have him checked out. It was a rough visit. After seeing the doctor we had to have a bag put over his "twig and berries" so they could collect some urine to see if he had a urinary tract infection. Then we had to go get some blood drawn, which was horrible. Since he doesn't sit still and is pretty strong they didn't get any blood from either of his arms. They finally ended up pricking his finger and then getting the blood out that way. I felt SO bad and so did the girls taking his blood, but it had to be done. Before we left I checked his diaper and there was just enough urine in his little bag that we could take it off.

I got a call from the nurse around 3:00 and she said there was a trace of blood in his urine so they are doing another test on it. I have to call back this afternoon to find out if anything is "growing" in his petree (sp?) dish. Until then we just have to push fluids. I just took his temp a little while ago and it was 99.something so at least it is going down.

Fat Lip **Updated**

Tyler and I didn't have the best start to our day!
He was playing in the living room with his toys and he tripped and fell right on his sippy cup. :-( It bled a lot right away and we were both pretty scared. First I took him into the bathroom to get a look and clean him up, but that was a bad idea when he looked in the mirror and saw the blood running down his face. (DUH!) So I grabbed a washcloth, took him in the kitchen and put him on the counter next to the sink. I basically just hugged him until he stopped crying and tried to wipe up the blood. He wouldn't (and still won't) let me look at it or put cold on it. I've just been giving him cold water to drink. I hope his teeth are ok! Poor little man...

**No tooth damage, the whole inside of his lip from the middle all the way to the corner is black and blue inside. But he's eating and playing and is happy so that's good! It's still puffy though and I think he looks like one of the Simpsons!**

I'm still here!

I have no idea if anyone checks this anymore, but here is a pic of our family from June, 2007. Tyler is now 16 months and full of engery! He's eating everything, walking, running, you name it! He's also done wearing his helmet...he graduated September 28th after wearing the helmet for 8 months when we thought it was going to be 3 or 4! Needless to say, we were relieved. There has been many bumps and bruises since but now he can be a normal little boy!

So hello again to everyone...I am hoping to keep this up-to-date again!

Here's that little tooth!

Just a quick post for now...here is a silly picture of Tyler's first little tooth! As Auntie Brooke said, good thing there were no bats in the cave! :-)

(4-12-07)