Bed times for Ty

We've been so blessed that Ty (and Todd, too) is really good at going to bed. He definitely has his routine (bath - jammies - brush teeth - read books), and he doesn't really like to skip any of that. He also likes to have both Mommy and Daddy involved, though, and we had a few nights when Daddy was sick so he wasn't around. During those times, Ty picked up some really bad habits. At times, he screamed "Mommy" - or simply "AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH" up to 4 times after being left to go to bed. He's tried "I need a drink of water", "I spilled the water = clearn up my mess", "My bed hurt me - aka Irolledoverandbumpedmyelbow", "I need medicine - I want pink medicine", "One more book", "I need my Daddy", and some other excuses. I finally had to say, "If I have to come in here one more time, then I'll have to take a waschloth with me". Afterall, "timeout" isn't really effective if the kid's already in bed. I only had to actually take one washcloth for him to see that I meant business. He's done these tricks for about 5 of the last 14 days (not necessarily consecutivey), so I hope that it is only a phase and he'll get back to normal very quickly.

You shouldn't talk about your kids...

That's what my mom has always said. I said something last week about how Todd hadn't had any ear infections or illnesses or anything - guess what we got! Todd, like Ty, gives away his ear infections with his eyes, evidently. They both get "sick eyes", and you know immediately that something is wrong. (On top of that, Todd screamed every time I put him down on Sunday. We did get any "peacefully drifting to sleep" bedtimes.) Hopefully the "pink medicine' will do its magic!

More pics from Daddy's work party...

Seeing Santa

We went to Daddy's work party this morning, and Ty got to sit in Santa's lap. He stood in line and watched what the other kids did, so he wasn't scared when he got up there. Daddy said, though, that the phographer was really slow and missed the best opportunity. Oh well! (Todd really did miss seeing Santa, though, since we had him stay at Mamie and Poppie's house. He'll get to see Santa next year, I suppose.)

Snowy day!

We had a fun time playing in the snow while Todd napped this morning. Ty only has one pair of shoes, so we "made" boots out of grocery sacks to keep them dry. We were out there for about an hour, but I think Ty would have stayed out much longer. We started to try to make a snow man, but the snow was just too fluffy.... Maye next time.

(Oh yeah - and Ty stayed dry all morning. Of course, I was prompting him to use the potty often. This afternoon, though, he used it when it was HIS idea. We're making progress!)

Officially crawling!

We had a snow day today (well, really all of the other schools in the area had a snow day - including Ty's school - so I had to take a day off to stay with the boys), and it was just what Todd needed to really work on his crawling. He REALLY wanted to get to Thomas as he went around and around his track, so he did!!!! (He had actually crawled about 3 inches at church in the nursery on Wednesday night, and I did get to see that. I figured it wouldn't really be long before hed be moving for sure!

Tooth #2

Again, we were up for an hour in the middle of the night, and again we have a tooth to show for it!

Ready to read?

Miama thinks Ty is ready to read. He's pretty good at reading names now! (We know he's not really reading - he's just good at recognizing the things he's familiar with....)

When he finds something of his (a paper, a shoe, a milk cup, etc...) without his name on it, he asks me to put his TY on there first. He's so silly.

We were talking about letters, and I asked him how to spell Todd's name. He said T-o-dd. (He says the two d's together really quickly.)

Mommy, there's a T on my wall.... (he has a T with a Tigger and a G with Eyore eating grapes - they're kind of in a weird place on the wall, and he's just recently discovered that they exist).... and a Gee! (He pronounces this as "ghee" with the hard g sound. It's pretty cute.)

He was playing with my car keys last night, and my school id is attached to them. He got excited when he could read our last name on there!

We got something in the mail the other day that said Ty's name, Todd's name, and our last name on it. Ty pointed out all of those words to Daddy and told him what they said.

He's good at recognizing sounds of letters. One time Daddy asked him what letter the word "fork" started with, and he quickly said f. When Daddy asked him about Dinosaur, he told him it started with a D. He just thinks letters are fun - I see some cool letters coming to a refrigerator near us in the future!

He can sit up by himself!

I actually caught him with the camera shortly after he sat himself up in his bed tonight. He was so proud of himself - all he could do was grin!!!

Sitting Up

Todd finally figured out how to go from laying down to sitting up! He's been really good at getting into a 'reclining' position where he holds himself up a bit but his hand is far away from his body. Tonight, though, I put him in his bed, and he immediately sat up. I don't know if he did this some during the day today or if tonight was the first time he did it, but he was really proud of himself!

6 month appointment

Todd's stats:
20 lbs 11 ounces
27 inches
She didn't give me head circumference, but said that those two measurements were in the 80-85th percentile range. (A bit lower than Ty was, and a bit lower percentile than he was two months ago.)

She said he was sitting well and that he seemed to be just a happy baby boy. At his 4 month appointment she had said that he had a predisposition to having a hernia, but he's no longer in that position. (woohoo!) Poor little guy got 4 shots and some sort of medicine in his mouth. He did the really long silent scream without breathing when she first shot him, but he quickly got over it. Overall it was a pretty uneventful appointment (which we like).

The Christmas Tree is up!

Ty was surprised to see the tree this morning, and he enjoyed inspecting each ornament. With Todd's reaction to the tree, I thought he might just start crawling tonight!

Todd's new hat and mittens

Daddy thought that Todd's new hat was so cute it needed a picture this morning! What a way to welcome in the month of December. It's cold out today!

Christmas Tree

I just wanted to share some funny Christmas Tree stories before I forget them. :) I put up the tree last night after Ty went to bed so that he could be surprised this morning when he saw it. (I also figured it would be much easier without him being around to "help".)

When he saw the tree this morning, he said, "Ohhhh - the Christmas tree is in the den instead of the dining room". He obviously remembers that last year we put it in the dining room!

He immediately was amazed at all of the ornaments and was so excited to study all of them. He found a "computer santa" (an ornament that looks like a computer but has a santa hat on it) and started poking at it as though he was typing. He then said, "I'm just checking my email." Hehehhe.

I told him that I needed to get out the advent calendar to count down the days to Christmas. I asked him if he knew what Christmas was, and he said something to the effect of "it's on the calendar?" I told him it was Jesus' birthday, but that everyone got presents. He said "Ohhhhh. So you can have a big present with a MMMMM on it?" Yes. "And Daddy can have a big present with a D?" Yes, Ty, and you can have a big present, too. "No - I just want a little one with a T-Y on it."

Tooth number one!

We spent an hour awake in the middle of the night last night, and I am glad that it wasn't for nothing! I finally gave him some Tylenol and a bottle, and he went back to sleep. When we got home from church today, I felt a little baby tooth that had popped through. At least there was an explanation for the lack of sleep!

First Tooth

Todd was up from about 12:00 - 2:00 this morning. He was super fussy, and I figured he had a tooth coming in. I gave him a bit of Tylenol and a bottle, and he eventually went back to sleep. When he woke up this morning, I could see the little tooth popping through!

Making a bed!?!?!!?!

Ty decided that the cushions from the couch made a good bed....so comfy!

Compare and Contrast

For a while now, I've been wanting to write a "compare and contrast" post to remember all the similarities and differences between Ty as a baby and Todd right now. I'll still work on that one day, but here's one similarity we've recently noticed. The "exersaucer" at our house was always called the "shooey spot" for Ty, and it has claimed the same name for Todd. 'nuff said.

Happy Thanksgiving! (And Happy 6 month Birthday to Todd)

Eventhough our little bitty house is in a total state of disrepair right now, we still decided to have everyone over again. We sure did have a good time, and it was particularly nice to have Mamie, Poppie, and Missa in the same city now so that they didn't have to worry about travelling to join us!

The Blue Lollipop

We went to get a haircut this morning since we had the day off from school, and the gal surprised Ty with a blue lollipop since he was so good. (Todd was particularly good, too, as he watched.) Since Ty had never had a lollipop before, I didn't want him to have it in the car. I was afraid that he was going to bite it off and then he'd have a piece of hard candy (perfectly sized for chocking upon) in his mouth, so I told him that we had to go home and eat lunch before he could have the lollipop. He thought it was a huge treat, and he was really good to throw it away when the stick got really limp. When I asked him if he wanted to go look at his blue tongue in the mirror, he said "It will be so funny", and it was!

Trying to crawl....

Todd likes to rock back and forth....it won't be long now!

Melmia

When I picked up Ty from school today, there was a puppet in his mailbox. Miss Paige said that Miss Amanda had brought it for Ty to take home with him. Ty told me that the puppet's name was "Melmia", so that's what I called him all afternoon. When we went to eat pizza with Miama and Papa, "Melmia" had to go with us, too. When Ty told Miama the puppet's name, she immediately said "Oh - Amelia - that's a nice name". I totally missed that one! The next week when I saw Miss Amanda, I thanked her for sending the special puppet to us. (She and Ty both have a great affinity for puppets.) I also asked her if indeed the puppet's name was Amelia, and she thought for a second and said that actually a couple of months ago she had named that particular puppet Amelia. It was so long ago, though, that she had forgotten it. Ty, on the other hand, has the memory of an elephant. (Recently, he told me that he wanted to go see the shapes in Papa's car. We haven't ridden in Papa's car since last December, and we had indeed borrowed a shapes DVD from Hannah. Why on earth does he remmeber something from almost a year ago, though!?!??!?! That is amazing to me! This is a pretty heavy weight on my shoulders as a parent, though, to know that even very young children can be making memories at any time. I sure do hope that most of his memories are happy ones!)

Todd sure does have some funny faces. I noticed I'd been taking pictures of his smiles a lot lately, but he really does have quite a few other expressions!




When Ty put his beads down (after informing me that he needed them "untangled"), he got very excited when he realized that they made his letter!!!

Letters

Ty know almost all of his letters, and he can tell you words that go with lots of them. Here are the ones he said tonight or in the past couple of days

T - Ty
H - Hannah
M - Mommy
D - Daddy
S - Sydney (must be a girl in his class)
F - Fight bird? (I have no idea what this is, but it was the right sound.)
W - Wawul? (Again - weird word, but right sound.)
O - Owl and Octagon (WEIRD!!!)

Updated blog!

Whew - It took me two days, but I think I've updated everything from October now. We had 3 really fun events in October (Touch a Truck on the 11th, Gentry's Farm on the 18th, and Hannah's Halloween Party on the 31st) and there were many cute pictures that I didn't even post. I really was trying to get pictures together to make a photobook (got one for free from snapfish - thanks to Cooper's mom for the tip) in a hurry this weekend, but I got an extension on that deadline so I can work on it throughout the week. Hopefully I'll get to include lots of those fun photos in the book! :)

Where are the washcloths!??!!

(Hint: look at the bulge under the jammies)

Most Christ-like Honoree

When I picked Ty up from school yesterday afternoon, I noticed that his name was on the wall next to the words "Christ-like Honoree of the week". I asked his teacher what that meant, and she said it was a new thing they've just started. They're going to pick a kid each week to honor, and Ty was the first one they chose. His teacher wrote a note to her coteacher saying that she'd picked Ty because of his gentleness, joy, and kindness toward his friends. (I asked if I could keep that note for a scrapbook - silly Mommy!) He got to carry the cross and lead the line to chapel on Friday morning. What a cool award for a little guy to get!

Happy Baby!

Todd is a much happier baby now that he's gained some independence. He's quite good at playing on the floor (with toys or toes) by himself a little bit - and he doesn't care if he's on his tummy or sitting up!

Happy Birthday, Poppie!

Todd just got tuckered out during the celebration! Ty certainly loved the Happy Birthday balloon that found a home at our house after the fun...

Potty?

Ty's been getting more comfortable using the potty at home and at school. Tonight, though, we went out to eat with 3 other families. As we were totally squished around the table (and discovering that Todd likes to sit in a high chair rather than his carseat in a restaurant) Ty looked at me and said "I have to go to the bathroom". Having never heard this before, we weren't quite ready to jump into action. Daddy started to take him, but he said that he wanted Mommy to go. I was so proud of him for sitting on the big potty (even though he was obviously a bit scared about it) and even doing a little business there (after having a dry pullup, too). He quickly wanted down, though, so we got all done (washed hands and everything) and took a walk back to our table where he promptly told me that his pullup was wet and we needed to go change it. I knew I should have made him sit a bit longer on the potty, but how do you do that when they're obviously uncomfortable? I have been saying that I wasn't ready to start working on the potty training until I was done with the nursing, so perhaps now it is time to work a bit more diligently on the pottying at our house......

It's official

Todd has slept through the night for the past 8 nights, so now I am officially saying that he "sleeps through the night". My friends remind me, though, that this will only last until he starts to get a tooth or something else causes him to wake up. At least I now don't feel like he needs to eat in the middle of the night any more.

We've also quit nursing completely. We dropped down to one feeding a day last week, and then he just totally lost interest. I am kind of sad about that because I enjoyed that special time with him, but I knew it would come one day. I am actually pretty surprised that we went for 5 months! Daddy, I am sure, will attribute the "sleeping through the night" to the lack of nursing. He's been saying that we should have stopped nursing for a while now to get him to sleep through the night. I'd like to point out, though, that he actually started sleeping through the night last Thursday, and we didn't quit nursing until Monday......

One of these days I'll get caught up on pictures - I know I need to go all the way back to the last weekend of September. (I just have a mountain of a bazillion papers to be graded right now and my body still feels like it needs to go to sleep as soon as the boys do - I don't think I am totally convinced that I can get a full night of sleep yet.)

We gave up....

Once upon a time, I tried to use hot sauce to attempt to dissuade Todd from sucking on his wrist. That obviously didn't work, so I just gave up and decided that was "what he did". Now, he typically only does it when he's really tired (or occasionally when he's hungry). His eyes are a dead giveaway, though, to how he feels. When he gets tired, his eyes are terribly droopy, and he burries his head in my shoulder to snuggle up to sleep. At least he's able to communicate now! When he does this, though, it's pretty easy to put him in the bed, and he almost immediately goes to sleep peacefully!

More sleep - woohoo!

During the day on Saturday, Todd actually took 3 naps in his bed! He also slept for 12.5 hours on Saturday night -without getting up at all!!!! (He didn't even notice the time change.) He had a small nap in the nursery at church on Sunday morning, and then he had a great nap in his bed on Sunday afternoon. He also slept all night Sunday night. I don't know when was the last time I got as much sleep as I got this weekend. WOOHOO!!!

Ty, on the other hand, has been way under the weather. He didn't even want to eat cookies at our party on Halloween night! We went to the doc on Saturday morning (instead of the zoo as planned) and found out he has strep. He's not as much fun when he's sick, but he's still really cute. We've done lots of quiet playing at home, and he wants everything done "together". It's hard to convince him not to kiss Todd, so we've kept them pretty separate. Daddy stayed home with Ty today, but hopefully he'll be back to normal by tomorrow.

The next morning...

When we got home from the party, I took Ty's temperature and he had a fever. I took him to see the doc this morning (whew - our doc was actually the one with Sat AM duty today) and found out he had strep throat. Now I feel like a perfectly rotten mom who exposed all of her son's friends to strep throat. We just hope they (and Todd) don't get it, too!

Eating and Sleeping Update

After 10 days off of cereal, we started it up again last Saturday. He now eats it like a champ and actually seems to enjoy it. Woohoo!!!! Todd has also been finishing all 3 bottles he takes at the sitter's house (he used to leave 1-2 ounces in some of them while gulping down others). He's down to nursing just one time a day in the evening, but he probably will quit that soon. This kind of makes me sad, but he's not nearly as interested as he used to be. I think it is more fun for him to take a bottle so he can face out and see what's going on while he's eating. He doesn't really want to miss much!

Since he doesn't want to miss much, he doesn't want to sleep, either. He gets a good nap in the morning (1.5 - 2 hours), usually, but he doesn't sleep much in the afternoons. After many nights of waking up 1-2 times, Todd finally slept from 8:30 - 4:45 again on Thursday night. Last night, he got a good nap with Hannah's Grandma Nene at Hannah's Halloween Party, then he came home and nursed and went right back to sleep. He slept from 9:15 - 7:15. WOOHOO!!!!! That's the longest he's ever slept. Silly me, I stayed up and did some dishes and a little bit of school work (then Ty woke up twice - he's not feeling well), so I didn't actually go to bed until about 11:30, but that's still almost 8 hours of sleep for Mama!!!!!

We had planned a trip to the zoo for this morning, but we're thinking we might be going to the pediatrician instead. Ty hasn't woken up yet, so we'll know more when we see him this morning.....

More Halloween Party Pics

Hannah's neighbor even had us all come over to "Trick or Treat". She had little candies and beanie babies for all of the kids! How nice!