Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

We've had a really crazy December around here! Mama fell and broke/sprained her ankle on Dec 4th, and couldn't really walk for quite some time. Finally, we're a little bit back to normal, but still wearing an ankle brace.

On Dec 23rd, we were scheduled to take the boys back to get the second half of their H1N1 shot, and we had to turn it into a regular appointment because they both had ear infections. Todd's was just a regular inner ear thing, but Ty's was more like swimmer's ear. Since we haven't been swimming, we're guessing that's from the bath!??!?! After a couple of days of ear drops and antibiotics, we're doing much better.

In the week before Christmas, Todd started talking up a storm! He's had a ton of words for a while now, but all of a sudden he started putting them together to make sentences and phrases. Some of the most common are:

'mere Ty. (come here, Ty)
'mon, Mama (come on, Mama)

I say, "Time for nap." Todd says, "Books.Night night." (He wants to be sure he gets to read books first. He has all of a sudden gotten two favorite books, and if they're not included in the selection you've picked out, he'll got grab them and carry them to you - it usually takes two trips because they're so big. He always knows where they are, though!)

Ty Go? Daddy Go? Mama Go? (whenever he can't see someone he asks where they went)

Ready eat Supper.

Ayeo. Hannah. (He wants to see the picture of Ariel and Hannah on facebook.)

Up with me. (He wants to sit up in my lap.)

That?!? Mama? (What's that, Mama?)

Watch Thobas, please. (For some reason he says Thomas with a b.)

Go, Thobas - up up up - down down down - Good, Thobas! (He loves to see the trains go.)

One more.... (ball, block, puzzle, etc...- He's also gotten REALLY good at working puzzles!)

Christmas Tree - Lights, on, please!? (this really sounds like "Disdas Dee - dites on, pees")

We had a fabulous Christmas. Daddy got a new camera, though, and Mama isn't really sure how to sort through pictures to post them. I do know how to post pics from today, though, so here's what we get for now! (I've had a terrible time narrowing down these pictures, so I am just posting a ton of them. I am quite sad, though, that we got hair cuts yesterday. Well, that's not quite true. I am glad that Ty got his hair cut, but I think Todd's is WAY too short. At least now I know to say "keep his long - just trim it up".)

Studying the Bible

A bit of background: One night this weekend, Daddy read the story about Zachaeus to Ty. Ty's been to the grocery store with me a couple of times recently when there has been a person standing at the front of the store ringing a bell and collecting money for the Salvation Army. I've explained that they ring the bell so that you're sure to see them and that they're collecting money for people who need food and clothes and can't afford them. Ty helped me decorate the Christmas tree on Friday and adopted a "jingle bell necklace" as his own in the process.

On Sunday Morning, (after sleeping with his bell necklace right next to his bed) Ty wakes up and rings his bell and says, "Mommy, I could do a good job of ringing a bell at the store to try to get money for people..... I could be a tax collector." At least he's listening to what we say....




Last Wednesday, Ty's dry erase marker got put in time out after I found Ty's letter T and other scribbles on the cabinet in the bathroom. After MUCH talking to Ty and 3 days of time out for the marker (along with some good ole elbow grease as he scrubbed the cabinet), the marker got out of time out to go to Aunt Susan's house with us on Saturday. On the way over there, Ty says to the marker, "No writing on walls - only write on paper and this book.... Thansgivingonians 5:18". HA HA HA!!! (His Bible verse the preceding week was 1 Thessalonians 5:18.)

18 month visit to the doc

I'll have to look up Todd's stats, but I think she said 75th %ile for head circumference and height and 90th %ile for weight. Poor Todd had to get 4 shots (flu shot, swine flu, and 2 other vaccines) and his ears were still yucky. At least he likes to take his "meh - inh" (medicine) and even asks for it - 5 more days of azythromiacin (I don't think I spelled that correctly). Ty got a flu mist and a swine flu shot, and he didn't even cry.

The nurse had to ask me questions about Todd's behavior, movement, verbal skills, etc.... At the end of the visit, I said, "Ok, Todd.. let's get your clothes back on" and he said "overalls" and pointed to them. The nurse looked at me and said, "ok, well... if he can say 'overalls' we're definitely not worried about the verbal development". Hee hee hee. I just laughed when she asked me if he knew 15-20 words. I quit counting a few months ago because I couldn't keep up with all of his words. Granted, quite a few of his 'words' need a few context clues (like Missy and Horsie sound pretty much the same - you just have to figure out whether he's talking about Aunt Missy or a Horse and that's usually not a problem), but he does a pretty good job of telling us what he needs/wants.

Name that person!

Todd tries so hard to learn people's names. Tonight right after Aunt Missy left Big Papa's house, he said "Bye _issy" (I didn't really hear what the first syllable was that he put on this name, but I don't think it was an M.) Again, after Aunt Susan left, he said "Bye, Dooodan". When Uncle Bob walked in, Todd said, "Hi Papa" (They look a LOT alike). (It was a huge disappointment that Papa and Miama were not there tonight. Literally, Todd said 'Ama' and 'Papa' on the ENTIRE car ride to Big Papa's house. When he walked in the door and didn't see Miama, he put his hands up and said "AMA?" He totally thinks I was lying when I kept telling him that we'd see them when we got there.) He practiced Cooper's name all morning Saturday when we saw pictures of him on the blog, and since then every blonde little boy that's the right size has been called Cooper. Whenever he sees a little baby, he calls him/her Hunter and demands to get close to see him/her. Whenever he sees a blonde little girl, he says "Hannah" (but he could pick out the real Hannah pretty quickly in the pictures on the wall at Ty's school today). When we walked into church yesterday, he said "class". He often follows this with "CraCra" which is what he calls his friend Crawford. When we were standing and talking to Grammie and Melissa after church, he put his hands up and said "Poppie?" to ask where he was. Today he walked up to Nana and said "Nana" and snuggled up to her before leaving (but he still won't say Sheri's name - funny). It is so neat to see that he is learning that people have names and that certain people are always seen with other special people or in special situations.

Thanksgiving Celebration at School

The PreK class at school got to be Indians and Ty and Hannah's class got to be the pilgrims today. (There were a ton of girl pilgrims and only 2 boys today!) Ty brought home a pinch pot that he made and painted this week like indian pottery. (His favorite part, though, is the bag of candy corns that his teacher put in his pot before he brought it home!)

Sick day..

After Todd's sitter reported him walking around saying "Ear hurt" and pulling on his right ear, Ty woke up in the middle of the night screaming about his left hear hurting. I decided to stay home and take them to the doctor's office today. Ty has an ear infection that manifests itself as a blood blister on his ear drum, and the blister probably popped. She said that it wasn't unusual for kids to wake up screaming with this, but she also said that it wasn't uncommon for brothers to share this type of ear infection. (She wasn't worried about other kids, but she figured that the boys probably shared drinks and kisses and were in each others faces a lot.) She put both of them on an antibiotic to get "all better". (Ty weighed in at 44 lbs. I didn't catch a weight on Todd, but we go back for his 18 month visit and flu shots next week.)

Arithmetic Surprise

Ty has been able to add little numbers for a while now, but most of the time he uses his fingers (or mine or something like that). Tonight at dinner, though, I was totally surprised with his mental arithmetic. He wanted a second piece of bread, and I told him he needed to eat 5 bites of his other stuff before I gave him another piece of bread. He responded by saying that he had already eaten 2 bites. When I asked him how many more he needed then, he quickly said "three". (I really thought it might be just a really good guess until the next question.) After he gobbled down one more bite, he said "now I've had 3 bites". I asked him how many more he needed, and just as quickly he said "two" and held up 2 fingers. He ate those two bites so quickly that I couldn't ask him any more questions about that. (He was able to tell me what 2 + 3 was pretty soon after that, but when I asked him about 3 + 3, he wanted to count fingers, though. I am so glad he thinks it is fun to answer math questions!

I luh you

Last night I told Todd, "I love you" when I put him to bed. I could tell that he was really trying to say it well when he said, "I luh you". I think this is the first time he's attempted that, and it was so sweet. It was really cute, though, because he was really proud of himself (I guess he liked my reaction) and he said it over and over again. We could even hear him saying it after I'd closed the door and said good night. Too sweet!! He said it for me again this morning, so I guess it's officially in his vocabulary now!

A regular guy

One night last week as I was rocking Ty for a bit before bed, we were talking about how one day he would get to be really big. (He's always talking about what he'll do when he grows to be big as a Daddy.) I can't exactly remember the context, but I said that he'd probably get to be bigger than Mommy. His eyes got really big, and he couldn't believe that he could grow to be bigger than I am. He decided that would be alright, and then he said, "but when I am bigger than you I want to just be a regular guy.... I don't want to be like Goliath and scare all the people". I am glad to know that he has aspirations to be a "regular guy".

Silly Todd

Daddy called me on the way to school to relay this story. (I am almost getting over the panic of hearing the phone ring on my way to school. I always immediately think there is something wrong, but lately it's just been funny Todd stories.)

Daddy: "Todd, are you stinky?"
Todd (bends over at the waist...makes a "sniff" sound....looks up at Daddy): "Nope."

(I totally need to hook up a video camera on him to capture his silly personality once he yells "BYE" to us in the mornings.)

The end of the two piece pajamas....

Whew! What a mess he is! This morning when I got Todd up, his first word (as usual) was "eat". I decided to change him after he ate (it's usually a bit more peaceful that way if he's not messy), but as we were leaving his room he said, "Boppa". I told him we'd change his boppa after he ate. He was cute as a bug while he ate his oatmeal and drank his milk. When it was time to change his clothes, though, I realized why he was upset about his boppa earlier. He had pulled it down so that his entire behind was out of the diaper. This could have been a disaster!!! I've always had to put him in a onesie while he was awake to prevent him from taking off his diaper, but I guess we'll have to do it while he sleeps now, too. I gotta get some bigger onesies!

On my way to school this morning, Daddy called to tell me that Todd was running down the hall yelling "pants, pants" and carrying them in his hand. We're in for trouble!!!!

(On an another interesting note, we've noticed that Todd ALWAYS pulls his pant legs up to his knees in the car, and he really doesn't like putting on long sleeved shirts. He immediately says, "off...hot" if he's too warm. It's going to be a long winter....)

Funnies from Todd

1. When I picked him up today, I was informed that he had climbed out of his pack-n-play at nap time. It's a good thing that he ALWAYS says, "I DID IT!" when he accomplishes something (like going up the stairs by himself, climbing on the couch, putting together a train or legos). Apparently, when they heard "I DID IT" someone decided to check on him. He was climbing the dresser and taking things off of it. I guess that's what you do when you decide you're not ready to sleep.

2. For a couple of months now, Todd has always said "Ashes, Ashes" when Ty or Hannah held hands with him in the car across the aisle between their carseats. Tonight, when we got home from eating dinner (we did go get tacos and burritos tonight at Blue Coast), I decided to play 'Ring around the Rosies" for real with Todd. Apparently, he knows to "fall down" at the end of it, too!!!

3. Todd's favorite body part is "arm". He likes to show it to you, to call it "arm", and to suck on it when he's tired or hungry. He does know other ones, though, like hair, head, eye, ear, teeth, tongue, mouth, leg, knee, foot, toes, belly/tummy, hand, fingers. Tonight at dinner, he was eating and I said, "Yummmm... is it going to your tummy?" I could have predicted what happened next, but instead I just laughed as he held his food up to his tummy. Hehehehhehehe He's too silly!

4. Todd has recently begun singing "Happy Birthday" in his own little 17 month old way. He's gearing up for Poppie's birthday, so I hope we can get it on video! He also like to sing "the wheels on the bus" and the "ABCs". He doesn't know all of the words, but he's really good with the motions to the wheels on the bus, and his version of the alphabet is not very recognizable until you get to lmnmnmnmn. He's quite proud of himself, though!

5. He just finished 'eating' a graham cracker. Eating is probably not the right term to use. In this case, "demolishing" is probably more appropriate. There were crumbs all over the floor when he came to me and said "Cracker all gone. More cracker, please." Wow! A whole sentence! I told him he couldn't have more cracker if that's what he was going to do, and we got out the vaccuum. Although he doesn't like the vacuum when it is on, he does think it is fun to make the vacuum sound. As I was getting up the last crumbs, he came over and hugged my leg, gave me a kiss, and said "Ohhh. Vacuum....mess all gone!"

6. Every day when we come home, as soon as we pull in to the driveway, he asks to go say hi to the dog-dog. It is hard to say no to that, but if we're in a hurry, there is certainly a tantrum to follow when we don't oblige. He is definitely a strong willed child, and he doesn't have any problem letting you know when you've done something with which he doesn't agree. He certainly has a mind of his own!


It seems like there was another story I wanted to record, but I can't remember what it was. It is amazing how BIG he's getting so quickly. I can't really remember what it was like when all he wanted to do was cuddle in my arms....now he NEVER wants to do that! He's certainly ON THE GO all day long - he keeps me on my toes! It is so fun, though, to see his little personality develop.

At our house right now...

Ty: Ok guys – we need to decide where we want to eat today…

Daddy: Ty, where do you want to eat?

Ty: I want to eat at the taco place because I need some rice and beans. I like those. Do you want to leave in 7 minutes? Or six?


(Meanwhile, Todd is singing “Hap Bday to you, Hap Bday to you,” and pointing out any "ippy" that he sees/hears. An "ippy" is an airplane. Todd moves his hand like he's holding a toy airplane in the air to fly and he goes Vrrrrrmmm when he talks about them.)

"I'm on yellow"

Those were the first words I heard when I picked Ty up from school yesterday. His teacher uses a green-yellow-red light to monitor the kids' behavior. If you go on "yellow", then you don't get a treat and that means that you had to be told too many times to stop doing something. (Our first "yellow" was for running in the classroom earlier this fall.) I do think it's pretty good that this is only his second time on yellow, but it's still not a good thing. He was in trouble for hitting and kicking, and I could tell his teacher was not happy with him yesterday. Ordinarily, I would explain this behavior by saying that he'd had too much sugar over the Halloween weekend, but really he just had one cookie on Saturday night. He doesn't even remember that we brought home a ton of candy after he broke the pinata at our party! I asked him, "what got into you"? His response: "I don't know, I was just walking and the trouble just got into my body." (HAHAH!) I asked him what we should do to get the trouble out of his body, and he basically said that he already took care of that when he flushed his big shoooey down the potty. How can you be upset with logic like that?!?!?!??!

Cute Things

Todd has learned to give really good kisses (he's getting better about hugs, but they're usually just a "lean" with his head - unless he's standing on the ground and wrapping his arms around your knees - most of the time his 'love' is just pats on the back). A few weeks ago, he spontaneously gave me a kiss when I said "I love you, Todd." He's started giving me kisses, too, after he tells me he's done rocking before bed. Tonight, though, Ty was a bit sad (he had jumped on me and hurt my back and he felt badly about it) and resting down on the couch. I told Todd that Ty was a little sad and asked Todd not to bother Ty. Well, Todd's response was to go pat Ty on the back. I said that was nice and I thought it made Ty feel better. Todd then looked at me and said, "kiss?" I told him he could give Ty a kiss. He tried, but he couldn't reach Ty's head. He waited until Ty moved his head closer and gave Ty a kiss on the cheek. This was TOO cute! I wish I had the whole thing on video.

We went to visit the farm on Saturday, and one of the most fun things (according to the boys) there is the feeding trough filled with grains and corn. They have all sorts of shovels and funnels in there, and it's just fun to play in. We were playing nicely when Ty decided he needed to go to the Potty. While Daddy took him to visit the "port-a-potty", he asked me (in all seriousness) to hold onto his jar that he'd been filling with corn and grains and to keep it safe. I obliged until Todd discovered that there was a chicken and a rooster who had gotten out of their pen. He then took off running and yelling "bak bak...bak bak" with his arms out in front of him. It's a good thing that the chicken was faster than Todd was. (It's also a good thing I had the video camera out - it's hysterical). After the rooster decided to do a bit "cockadoodle dooo", Todd then changed his call to "doodle doodle bak bak" as he chased after him. I think he could have done that for hours. (The rooster is thankful, though, that the goats and little toy tractors were more appealing after about 7 minutes. When Ty returned from the potty, he inquired about his jar of grain and corn. I told him that it was still over there in the trough, but he, too, was so interested in the chicken and rooster that he didn't really think about it too much. As we were in the car leaving, though, Ty lamented that he had lost his rock. (Both kids picked up at least 2 rocks off of the gravel driveway. They're such BOYS!) Daddy told him that it was the farm's rock and not really Ty's rock, so it was a good thing we hadn't stolen it. Ty wanted to know what the farm would do with his rock, so I explained that the rocks had a job and that the tractors needed the rocks in the driveway so that they wouldn't get stuck in the mud. He said, "Well, my rock is not going to be able to do that job very well." We, of course, asked why not? Ty said, "Because my rock is in the jar with the grain and the corn." (Now we know why Ty was so concerned with me holding it while he went to the potty.)

Things Ty has memorized

All of a sudden Ty has decided to share his Bible verses with me. Some of them he's learned at school and some at church. I wonder how many others he knows that he hasn't even told me about yet!

"A friend loves at all times."

"Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path." (This one has hand motions to it.)

"Be kind and compassionate toward one another."

"Jesus said, 'Rejoice with me for I have found my lost sheep'".

"I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America..." (He knows the whole thing and he puts one hand to his side and one over his heart. He was the flag holder at school this week, and when he told me that, I asked him what the other friends did while he held the flag. He said -in a tone that added a "why did you even have to ask that question" feeling to it- "They say the pledge, but I do not say the pledge because I have to concentrate on holding the flag. I don't have an extra hand to put over my heart.")

Update on Todd

Todd's head has healed nicely. You can still see his cut, but his "glue" fell off about 10 days after he got it on there, and he's not even acted like it has ever really bothered him. (In fact, we've been through a day of 6 bugbites and one more bump on his head since then!)

I thought I'd take a moment (for myself, but the rest of you can see it, too, if you'd like) just to take note of what all Todd is into these days.

He loves to sing songs. On the way to church last Sunday, Ty was humming one of his choir songs, and Todd interjected the words he knows along with Ty's humming! It was too cute! (I was quite impressed that not only could Ty carry a recognizable tune while humming but also that Todd recognized it and sang some of the words! Todd sings "me me me" in "Jesus loves the little ones like me me me". He sings "happy" and "where" in "I've got the Joy, Joy, Joy, Joy Down in my heart. He stomps and claps to "If you're happy and you know it", and he sings along with 2 or 3 of Ty's choir songs.) He also likes to share food with Mama. This means that he likes to give me food, and he wants to eat some of whatever I'm eating. (When we were at the hospital for his cut, he also wanted to "eat" my nose. He loves riding toys. Although he can only go backwards on them, he likes to climb on and off of them (and in and out of the cozy coupe car). He also likes to stand on a riding toy to reach the top shelf of toys. (This, of course, is a big no-no around here!) He likes to get his teeth brushed, and he'll come into the bathroom if anyone else is in there and climb up on the stool in front of the sink and rub his tongue across his teeth. Right now, he's carrying a backpack and walking around waving and saying, "bye bye". He's eating well, and he's really trying to use a spoon and a fork. He's not quite gotten the hang of that 100%, but he's definitely working on it. He can reach all of the door knobs, but he hasn't quite figured out how to turn them. He does like to close doors, though, and often gets "locked" in his room or Ty's room. He's starting to work puzzles (as opposed to just carrying the pieces all around), he loves to build with blocks and to knock down what we build, he loves to play with trains and cars. He is such an imitator! He wants to do everything that Ty does. He really thinks he's jumping off the ground when he bends down and pops back up! He is very independent, and he is pretty happy unless he's hungry or tired! He still sucks on his arm (not so much his wrist anymore) when he's hungry or tired, but once we put him to bed he typically goes right to sleep. We've finally gotten all of the office stuff out of Todd's room and made that an official little kids room. Consequently, we've moved all toy storage out of the rest of the house and it's now in both boys rooms. He can show you a few body parts: nose, mouth, ear, head, hair, teeth, hand, arm, foot.

I did make a list of words Todd can say as of today (of course, I am sure there are things that got left off of this list, so I'll add to it as I think of them).

rock rock (sounds like cack cack but is done when talking about a rocking chair)

off (he really wants his Tattoo off of his arm, but he uses this correctly for other things, too)

berry (he uses this for strawberry and grape)

blueberry

back pack

I did it (probably the most used phrase he has - he says it every time he accomplishes something)

Please (peees - said mostly when he wants a cracker)

Hannah (he actually said this the other day when he pulled into her driveway with Mrs. Heather - he really thinks Hannah is cool)

Hunter (he tried to convince me that a baby at Las Palmas last night was Hunter - I couldn't blame him - he could have been Hunter's brother)

Ty

Boppa (this is the same word that Ty had for diaper, and I can't figure out why either of them has picked it out because it isn't something we say)

circle (sounds like kirkle, but it's often used for triangles, too)

car

vroomvroom

bed

nigthnight

choochoo (kind of sounds like toot toot, though)

block

box

booboo

puzzle (sounds like pubble)

bath bath (he asks for this every night at bed time)

watermelon (sounds like blbllblbln)

book

bear

cat

meow

quack

woof

duck

wooooo (fire engine sound)

boat

animals

shoes (sounds more like shhhhss now)

knock knock

tap tap

milk milk

cheese

wawa (also said as ba ba)

baa (name for sheep)

cup

up

Ahma (his name for Miama)

turtle

more (still does the sign for this, too)

muff muff (muffin)

hat (name for anything he sits on top of his head)

tanks (thanks -but he usually says da daaa)

cracker

no

Dada

Mama

Baby

bubble

dog dog

ball

There it is

Where is it?

all done

Uhoh

nose

mouth

nana

papa

Nana

ish

hi

apple

snack

snap
spoon
belt
nap nap (his word for napkin)
house
peaches
pee pee (he says this when you tell him that Ty went to the potty)
keys
big (this is what he calls large vehicles: school bus, garbage truck, 18wheeler, etc... he calls out "big" and points when he sees one out the window in the car)

(I just took a look at a similar list I had for Ty at this age, and it only has about 10 words on it. It's amazing what having a big brother does for that!)

Two Letters: E.R.

I was in Sunday School today when Mrs. Connie came to get me. (This is never a good sign. Of all of the days for me to not "sign in" Todd correctly. See, I started out staying in his class since his regular teachers couldn't come today. When they got someone to relieve me, I forgot to sign in where I'd be and our phone number. It's a good thing that Mrs. Connie knows me well!) She started out by saying, "He's fine," and I started tearing up. She went on to explain that Todd had fallen and hit his head on the door frame and was cut so deeply that he'd probably need some stitches. By this time, I was really crying. I told her that I'd need to get my husband (who was teaching our Sunday School class at the time.) She responded by saying that first I needed to get myself together so that I didn't upset Todd further. I told her that was why I needed to get my husband! (He's much better about things like that than I am.) I sent him back into the SS room to tell someone else to take over while I went to go get the boys. I went to get Ty first (his teacher thought I was nuts taking him in the middle of class) and then we went to get Todd. (I had horrible images in my head. When my brother was Todd's age, he fell off of the bed at Grandpa's house and had to get 25 stitches after bleeding all over the place.) I was quite relieved to hear a happy, "mama" and see no blood dripping down his face. They had done a great job taking care of Todd and had stopped the bleeding pretty well. We were so thankful when Kylie's dad came and asked if we wanted them to take Ty to lunch and home with them. (It hadn't dawned on me yet that Ty was going to have to wait at the hospital for a very long time.) We quickly agreed that would be best, and have many times thought about how thoughtful that was for them to even think about taking care of Ty for us. We have such wonderful friends!!!

Once we got to the hospital, Todd was pretty subdued. He wasn't his normal run-all-over-everywhere self (for which we were thankful). He ate 4 graham crackers, 4 saltines, and a bowl of rice chex and he drank a ton of water. (On about the second glass of water, I said we needed to change his diaper because I was pretty sure it had been a while since it had been changed at church. Within about 3 minutes of making this statement, I realized I'd waited too long as my dress got a good soaking. YUCK!) That did turn out to be the worst part of the entire wait, though. Since we were packed to go to Oma's house for lunch, we had a few books and toys in the bag. (I figured that he was really fine when he could ask for crackers and water, say please, and name all of the pictures in one of his books. We weren't really worried much about a concussion at all at that point, but we really weren't sure if it was alright to let him sleep.) Todd spent the entire 2.5-3 hours in either my lap or Daddy's. When we finally got in a room, they quickly looked at him and told us that because it was a clean cut he was a great candidate for "durabond" rather than stitches. I was so relieved to hear that. I wasn't sure how I was going to sit and watch them sew up my baby's head, but I figured I could handle watching them glue it! He screamed the entire time that they were working on him (mostly because there was one nurse holding his arms and another holding his legs). When we left, he fell asleep instantly in the car and slept almost the entire way home. When we got home after picking up Ty, we tried to put both boys down for naps. Ty fell asleep very quickly, but Todd didn't really want to be in bed. I certainly didn't want to listen to Todd fussing in bed, so I picked him up and got him some milk and rocked him and sang to him for quite a while. He finally fell asleep in my lap for about 10 minutes before Miama showed up to visit. He was awake until about 8:00 tonight, and he showed no ill effects from the day! He played as well as he always does, so we're hoping that he'll be all better in no time!

Muffin Toppers

I know I've been terrible about posting lately, so I decided to put this up before I forgot it. A while ago, we noticed that Ty sometimes just ate the top of his blueberry muffins (sometimes he'd eat the whole thing, though). One time when we got him a muffin from Panera and he just ate the top, Daddy said it would be kind of nice to just be able to buy the tops of the muffins. Well, I was at the store a few weeks later and saw that Eggo does make "muffin toppers". I bought them because they just made me laugh. Well, Ty's been enjoying them for breakfast lately (often with blueberries, strawberries, and bananas). Today when I asked him what he wanted for breakfast, he said, "Strawberries, laptops, and blueberries." It was all I could do to restrain myself from cracking up hysterically!!!!

I thought slavery was abolished in our state..... guess not!

On the way to school this morning:

Me: Ty, you were sound asleep last night when I got home from the grocery store and checked on you.  Did you go to bed nicely for Daddy?

Ty: Yes.  I was sleeping.

Me: Did Daddy read you books?

Ty: Yes, he read the dirty birdy feet book and Joseph.

Me: Ohh.  What did Joseph have with lots of colors?

Ty: A cool coat. Then what happened to Joseph?

Me:  His brothers were jealous of his coat, so they put him in a hole in the ground and then they made him be a slave.

Ty: What is a slave?

Me: Someone who runs errands for you and cooks for you and cleans and does your laundry and takes care of your yard and stuff like that.

Ty:  Ohhhh - like you and Daddy are slaves.

HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!  He's so funny.  I really wish I had a nickel for every time he asked a question - I'd be rich!!! I think he uses the words Who, What, Why, Where, When, and How more than any person should be allowed to.  Oh well - he's totally soaking it all in, though!  He just loves to know stuff - curious, curious, curious.

Hannah's Uncle Kyle

Please pray for Hannah's Uncle Kyle. He was in a bad motorcycle accident last night, and he's hurt very badly!!!!

I wrote too soon

So, after my really positive post yesterday, we've had 1 shooey "accident" and one peepee "accident". The pee pee one happened on a playground (as did his last peepee accident a week ago), so we might just steer clear of those for a while. Evidently, playing is more fun than going potty. Rats....as I am writing this, I am hearing grunts and smelling something funky....and he's NOT in the bathroom. Gotta go....

Potty Update

Well, the last week of June/first of July we really stopped putting on diapers during the day and just told Ty he had to use the potty. That week was full of accidents (there were no accident free days, and I vividly remember having 4 or 5 accidents on the Wednesday of that week - I was almost in tears when Daddy came home). Then, he just started catching on! We haven't had a peepee accident since last Wednesday (at VBS on the playground -too exciting to stop and potty, I guess). He's put his shooey in the potty 3 times (still working on that, but excited that he's not totally opposed to it anymore. I almost feel like I can trust him when he says "no, I don't need to go right now", but it is most exciting to have him WILLING to go to the potty when I suggest it (if he does need to go) rather than kicking and screaming. I am finally starting to feel like they won't kick him out of school when he goes back in August. Woohoo!

Funny stuff from the past two days

1. Yesterday morning Todd put his first sentence together. When Daddy was gathering up his things to go out the door, Todd said "Bye Bye, Dada" and waved his little fingers happily. (This is such an improvement from the beginning of the summer when Todd would cry terribly when Daddy went to work.)

2. I took Todd to the doctor yesterday (he weighed 28lbs4oz, if I remember correctly) for a "Mama" appointment. He's had this knot on the front of his head (above his forehead, directly in the center) for the past couple of weeks. He's also hit his head REALLY hard a few times (at least 5 times) recently, so I was a bit worried that these things all happened at the same time. I told the nurse on the phone that I really just wanted to bring him in so that the doc could just tell me he's fine. Well, he's fine. She just said that his plates were fusing together and that God decided to put a little extra reinforcing bone right there (apparently he needs it) and not to worry. Since we were there, I had her check his hears since he'd been super fussy lately (particularly strange wakings at about 10:00 on 3 occasions this week). They're perfectly fine, so I am figuring he just has teething issues since he's got a ton of huge molars popping through. Anyway, the purpose of this item in the post is to relay Todd's hysterical realization on the way to the doc. I didn't want to be late to the appointment since we had the last one of the day, so I put Todd's shoes in the bag instead of on his feet. I figured I'd just put them on when we got there. Well, halfway to the doc's office, Todd looks down at his feet and grabs them and yells, "Shhhhpblpblplblpppbz". (That's his really funny way of saying shoes these days - he puts this sillly little pblpblpplpb sound in the middle of the word. Too cute!) I can only figure that he realized he didn't have his shoes on and was letting me know that I had forgotten them. Hehehehe.

3. This morning when Ty woke up, the first thing he said when he got to the den was, "I have a situation with my body." Really? What's the situation? "My tummy doesn't feel very good. I think it hurts." (Of course, a little milk made that all better, and he ate breakfast on the way to VBS in the car.)

4. Ty is reallly good about pushing Todd in the stroller (although Ty would prefer to ride in the double stroller most days - it sure is easier to go through doors when I can open the door and he can push Todd through, though). This morning when we got to Todd's room for VBS, Ty started running (while pushing the stroller). I asked him to please slow down and not run in church, and he said, "Mama, I am just trying to go faster to make it a little bit more fun for him." (He did it again on the way to the parking lot.) What a considerate brother....

Ahhh - I remembered!

Tonight I remembered what else I wanted to record about what Ty's talking about these days. See, he has a tendency to obsess about events that are traumatic (even if mildly so) for quite some time. (He still talks about the time that Miama's hand got stuck in the elevator doors, and that was 16 months ago!) There are three such events in the past few weeks.

1. We had a storm on June 21, and our power went out for about 2 hours (maybe even longer). Ty was up late (if he'd been in bed on time, then there would be NO discussion about this) and we were playing with blocks (really, I was making isometric drawings on the computer and taking photos of the actual towers - fun!) when the electricity went off. At first he just looked at me, and then he screamed for Daddy (who thankfully came quickly with a flashlight). After we got him calmed down there was no way he was going to bed. We made a little bed on the sofa for him, and he stayed in the den with us and talked and talked and talked about the power. We convinced him that there was just a power line down somewhere and that the worker men were trying to fix it. Versions of this story are still discussed weeks later. It is hysterical to hear him say "power lines, electricity, worker man, and allfixed" in any possible context.

2. The brakes on my car started squeaking on June 19th, so we put it in the shop on June 20th. Ty constantly plays back the scenario in his own way. Most of the time it goes something like this: "My tractor got two flat front tires (think this is related to Grammie and Poppies front tire last weekend on the way to church) and the brakes were squeaking, so I took it to the shop. The worker man said to me, 'what happened' and I told him my tires were flat. Then he fixed it all up." The story varies, but the "what happened" question always is discussed. It is hysterical!!!!

3. We went to a birthday party in Murfreesboro, and we drove Daddy's car (since mine was in the shop) and it was just Ty and myself. We used Daddy's little gps gadget to get us there (with only a small problem since we couldn't see the entrance to the park like the gadget thought we should) and home. Well, Daddy called on our way home, and I got distracted and missed a turn. Thinking that there'd be another turn and the gadget could find it, I pressed on in the same direction. Well, the gadget actually found 2 turns for me to take, and both of them happened to be 'blocked off roads' or 'roads that didn't exist'. Ty still asks about 'blocked off roads' and makes his cars and trucks avoid them often. In fact, I missed a turn today and made the mistake of announcing that in my car. He immediately said that he was sad that I had missed a turn, and he wanted to know if we were going to have to go an a 'blocked off road'.

He is so funny, and he pays attention to EVERY detail, and he can hear EVERYTHING!!! (He heard a fire engine a full 30 seconds before Daniel and I did on Sunday), and he can remember EVERYTHING FOREVER!!!! I hope this turns out to be a good thing for him in school, but I am a bit concerned that he gets so hung up on the same scenarios over and over and over again.

Also, he's started having weird dreams that wake him up. He doesn't always talk about it, but tonight there was one in which a "duster" was talking to him. He said that a duster was like a part of a vaccuum cleaner and it had a face. (I think there's a toy vac in his room at vbs, so I'll check that out tomorrow.) As I was leaving his room after this, he said, "I think I'll have a nice dream about trains or busses or something."

SHOOEY IN THE POTTY!!!!

We got shooey in the potty tonight, and we didn't even expect it! Ty's been doing a LOT of puzzles in the bathroom lately in hopes that this might happen, and tonight he didn't even have a puzzle in there. He was soooo proud of himself, though, that he had to call both grandma's and Hannah to tell them about it. He got to pick a prize out of my bag (he picked a cookie matching game), and it also happened to be the sticker that finished a row so he got a yummy treat, too! Hopefully this was the first of many such successes! He's come such a long way in the last 10 days!

The things the little one says:

Todd is totally communicating with us these days. Of course, we have the tantrums that often tell us "Ty hit/pushed/touched me" or "you didn't give me what I wanted" or "I am tired" (usually he just sucks on his wrist for that), but Todd can say the following words now(with meaning): door, Dada, Da daaa (thank you), bye bye, cracker, yaya (water or milk), more (he signs this, too), no, cheese (only for taking a picture, not for eating), sshhhhzzz (shoes), Mama, Bebe (baby), bubble, Dogdog, QuackQuack, VroomVroom, Duck, Ball, ThereHeIs (you have to see this in the context of Peekaboo to really know that's what he says), Whereisit (again, need the context of him putting his hands up in the air to ask the question), all done, tap tap (as he taps on the drum), book, uhoh, nose, mouth, boppa (diaper - I think this one is particularly funny because that's what Ty used to call diapers, too, but we don't actually say that! Well, we do now because that's what Todd says, but we didn't before), cat (only in the context of his favorite book about dogs with a cat thrown in at the end - he REALLY loves that book, and he often does a belly laugh when he sees it), circle (sometimes the cle part is the only part he says, though), nana (for banana, obviously), ish (really fish), bird, nonono, hi

and he understands so much! Common commands he follows well (or knows he should) are sit down, let's take a bath, bring that to me (or Ty or Daddy), go to the door, stack the blocks, put this in it's box, Where's your nose (mouth, feet, ears, and sometimes hands)?, Where's Ty? Father Abraham song (makes him start wiggling his hands), If you're happy and you know it (clap clap), The itsy bitsy spider (he tries to do the rain coming down and sometimes does the spider)

I am sure there are more things in each of these categories, but this is what comes to mind right now.....

The things the big one says....

Ty: I walked through bugs to get to the car this morning, Mama.
Me: I am sorry.
Ty: You don't have to be sorry, Mama - you didn't do anything wrong.

(As Todd takes one of Ty's puzzle pieces) TODD ____ _____! (He said all three of Todd's names at the top of his lungs, but Daddy doesn't really like for me to use last names on the blog, so I am sure that last and middle are out of the question.

He also has nick named Todd to be "Toddy". It sounds really cute when Ty says it, but I feel like it's pretty silly coming from me. I find my self calling him Toddy a lot, though, particularly when I am talking to Ty about Todd. Ty also likes to give Toddy permission for stuff. Usually that sounds something like, "Toddy can play with these blocks....or just do whatever he wants to do" (this is usually said with his hands out and his little head bobbing while cocked to one side). He's hysterical!

As I am writing this, I can't think of anything else, but I know there are a TON of things that he's said recently that I have laughed hysterically at....I'll have to just update this post when I think of them!!!

Potty Training Update

Well, after a little over a week of going back to DIAPERS, I decided to try the big boy pants again. (Doc said to wait until the 4th of July, but we were starting VBS this week, and since we were at home with no scheduled activities last week, we went ahead and did it last week. Also, when Ty was taking his equipment out of the diaper to spray the floor, I felt like perhaps the diapers were no longer appropriate!) The first 3 days were pretty rough. After about 5 'accidents' last Wednesday, I think I can say with confidence that right now Ty can control his "pee" when he's awake! He's had a couple of accidents recently, but he's also had a bunch of big successes! On a couple of occasions recently, he's actually announced that he "feels the pee pee coming" and runs to the potty. He hasn't had a "pee pee" accident out of the house since last Monday! There are times still when he screams when we tell him it's time to go to the potty, but he's doing much better with it. I think the biggest thing is that I've been consistent about giving him stickers on a chart (and he gets a 'treat" when he fills up a whole row of stickers) and he looks forward to that. He still wakes up COMPLETELY soaked in the mornings, so he still wears a pullup when he sleeps, but he's in big boy pants when he's awake! (He also still refuses to do a shooey in the potty. I have a TON of prizes waiting for him if he'll do that in the potty. At least he usually just does this when he has on a pullup, but occasionally he misses on that - like when I picked him up from VBS yesterday!) Thanks to all of the mom's out there who've sent me messages to help us try to figure this out. We've got a long way to go, but I feel like we've made great progress in the last 10 days!

Ty's 3 year appointment

They took Ty's blood pressure, checked his hearing and vision, pricked his finger and did bloodwork, listened to his heart and lungs, and looked in his ears, and Ty is perfectly healthy. He weighed 39 pounds and was 40.25 inches tall. (Both of these were about the 95th percentile by my calculations on online percentile calculators.) He's a great eater, a good sleeper (except for the 3 days he went without a nap this week), and a super big brother. His verbal skills are fine (I laughed when his report card said "can speak in 3-5 word sentences". Really? I am constantly amazed at what he can say!), but I don't think he can hop on one foot. Some of the other boxes to check were: can count to 5, can name 4 colors, can name 5 body parts (or she might have just asked me that one). I was sad there wasn't a place for "knows all of his numbers and letters by sight and can tell you the sounds of each letter."

The only issue we have, of course, is the potty training. She asked me if we'd tried honey and vinegar, and I said we'd tried a TON of honey but no vinegar. He can tell you that he's supposed to use the potty - he just refuses to do it. For the most part, he'll pee in the potty if you make him go, but he won't EVER do the messy stuff in there. She suggested a book for me to get and she also suggested that we put him back in diapers for a bit. The theory is that perhaps if he is treated like a baby (and wants to be treated like a big boy) that he'll decide to use the potty. In a couple of weeks, we'll go back to trying the potty but without pullups. We're supposed to get some of those rubber pants and thick training pants and see if the discomfort will make him decide to go to the potty.

So, no more pullups (except maybe at night, I am guessing). This is a shame since I just bought new big boy pants and some pullups at the store on Wednesday..... I suppose we'll use them eventually.

Pictures Today....

I took the boys to get 1 and 3 year pictures taken today. (Really I needed 1 year pictures of Todd, and I hated not to take Ty's picture as well - even though he doesn't look any different than he did in their Easter pictures.) Can you tell I left the hairbrush at home? (hehehe. That was the LAST thing on my mind - you can't really brush their hair and expect it to stay that way longer than 2 seconds.) Todd HATES getting his picture made. He cried as soon as I put him down. (I did tell the gal that I was thankful that she didn't try to make them sit on a table like the last place we went.....) Todd was alright as long as the ball was involved, and he NEVER let go of the lego permanently. I finally gave up and let him have it in the pictures. I think next time I will take some of their "favorite things" to be in the picture. I should have pulled out his book! What was I thinking?!?!?!? I would have loved to have a picture of Todd reading his dogdog book.

The outfits they're wearing in the pictures together used to be my brothers' (my mom made them long long ago).....gotta go put the little one to bed, but I thought some of you would like to see these tonight.

What's been happening....

Well, after a fairly stressful exam/end-of-the-year time, we finished up with graduation at the very end of May. Since then, I did have a little work to do, but for the most part we've been playing. Here's what we've done:

• a one year appointment for Todd. (He was 27 lbs -95%ile and 31 inches - 90%ile. He got a few shots and a no-fun finger prick. )
  
• a first haircut for Todd
  
• two two puppet shows at the libary
• story time at the library
  
• 3 trips to the zoo (loving the membership!) where Todd calls every animal a "dogdog"
  
• 2 trips to playgrounds
• been to 2 birthday parties at fun places
  
• spent 1.5 hours blowing up a pool for the backyard - but the water stays a bit too cold for Todd to be happy in there
• Todd has learned to shake his head when he says no, say bubble, baby, yaya(for water) book, nose (which sounds like no, but he points to his nose so you can tell what he's talking about), and I am sure there are more words (I am keeping a list and one day I might put it on the blog. He can point to his ear, nose, and hair when you ask him to. (The only way he'll "point" to my nose, though, is to take off my glasses and touch his nose to mine - so cute!) He's pretty much running these days (unless we're in our backyard where there are way too many sticks/rocks to make that safe) and he spins around and dances to music. He rides facing forward in the car now. He transitioned to whole milk over the last weekend in May, and he did great with that. He's pretty much given up the bottle, but he still takes one right after his cereal. I think we could get rid of that one now, but the first time I tried to give him a cup at that time instead of a bottle he SCREAMED. He's using a cup the entire rest of the day now, though. He's got 4 teeth in the middle at the top and a molar on each side on the top. I think he's got one molar on the bottom (at least a little bit of it) and he has 3 teeth in the middle on the bottom (and I think the other one is on its way very soon). He is very cooperative with getting dressed these days (when he's not wiggling -he's a really big wiggler!) and I was impressed the other day when he had a block in one hand and he swapped it to the other hand before sending his arm through the sleeve. He's done that lots of times since becuase he pretty much always has something in his hands. He's always on the go and doesn't really know how to sit still for more than 60 seconds. This is usually fine until you try to take him to story time or a puppet show at the library. He's discovered books finally, and his favorites are the ones with animals. He can find the dogs (everytime we get out of the car he wants to go say hi to our dogdog- he's quite impressed by dogs) in each of them, and he can tell you that a duck says "quackquack" sometimes. When he brings a book to Daddy, Daddy tells him to sit down to read, and Todd just sits down right next to him to hear a story or look at the pictures. He loves balls of all sizes and likes to either kick or roll them to us. He also likes cars and trucks and making the vroomvroom sound for them. He also loves blocks. He can stack a little bit, but he really just likes to knock down towers that we build. He pretty much has eaten anytihing we've given him, and he's not very good at telling me when he's full. (We pretty much can tell that if he doesn't scream when we get him down, but he really can say "All done" and raise his hands in the air if he really is done.) When he's hungry, he goes to the gate at the kitchen and points to the box of graham crackers and says "Cracker" (Kaka, really). If you try to give him cheerios instead, he points to the graham cracker box and says CRACKER louder.
• Ty has become such a good big brother. He very quickly lets us know if Todd eats something he shouldn't (like Ty's rocks), and Ty is understanding the importance of keeping "little things" away from Todd. One night Todd was trying to get Ty's tools or something like that, and Ty yells "Todd Bryant Glenn!" at the top of his lungs. I had to laugh! Ty loves on Todd all the time, and they each adore each other right now. (We're enjoying that while it lasts!) Ty has really adjusted well to our "stay at home" (aka don't go to school) days. They've both slept until about 7:00 the past few days, and I think that's a huge improvement over Todd's waking at 3:30 for breakfast and Ty at 6:00. (We're thanking the "diaper doublers" that some NC family members gave us - we hadn't really needed them until now because the overnight diapers were working. We just have to figure out where to get some more!) Ty often asks what our "letter of the week" is, and he always wants it to be T because that's one he can write very well. He got some cool games for his birthday, and he loves playing them. Some of them he plays with us and some he can play by himself. He does both pretty well. He also has taken a liking to puzzles. He's moved on a while back to puzzles where the pieces all fit together rather than just in their own individual spot, and he got some new ones for his birthday that he thinks are really cool. I am amazed that his attention span will let him work a 24 piece puzzle (and it does get a little harder at the end than at the beginning). He's decided that slides are kind of fun (except for the tunnel ones), and he went to a birthday party at "jump zone" and climbed up and went down a 20 foot slide. (I never expected that he'd actually do that, but once he did it the first time he did it over and over again.) At the other birthday party he really enjoyed playing with trains, so I am hoping that we'll find Will and Russell's train set soon. Ty knows all of his numbers (from 0-10) by sight and all of the upper case letters (and at least one of their sounds) and most of the lower case letters. He's getting good at answering the question "how many are there" for something when there's 5 or fewer things without having to count each one. He's also interested in "making his numbers" by holding up fingers. He can easily do everything up to 5, and he's working on 6-10. One day last week we were cleaning up the den, and I told him to find the 3 books that Todd had scattered about. When I saw him picking them up, he was holding his fingers in a funny way. I asked what was wrong with his fingers (thinking they'd been exploring in his nose), and he said "nothing - that's just my 3 so I know how many books to find). Hehhehehe.
  

I am sure there are more things I wanted to write about, so I'll do that eventually. Right now, Todd is trying very hard to close this computer. I also plan on updating pictures one day....

Mama Failure....

Ok, I felt like a total failure as a Mama today (well, that's maybe an exaggeration - but I could see teachers at Ty's school saying, "what was SHE thinking????").  First, I was really excited that Ty ate my homemade chicken salad with wheat thins for dinner on Tuesday night, so I packed it for lunch for him on Wednesday.  About half way through the morning on Wed, though, I realized that I had never actually put the wheat thins in the lunch box.  (He had a TON of other food in there, but I am sure his teachers wondered how he was supposed to eat that.  Thankfully they had a few crackers in stock and gave him some.)  The second weird thing I did was that I let Ty take a crazy "spider yoyo" (which was really just a rubbery, bouncy, mop - I do have a picture and will have to post it later when I'm at home) to school today.  He got this from my mom on Monday night since one of her friends hd given it to her to give to him.  He thought it was great! On Tuesday morning he said he needed to take it to school to show Mrs. Amanda because she woudl say, "Oh that's sooo cool, Ty".  I told him that he couldn't take it to school because his friends might fight over it and it would get broken.  I let him walk with it in to school, but he gave it to me to keep safely in my car for the day.  Well, on Tuesday afternoon when I picked him up, I noticed that his paper said, "remember, tomorrow is show and tell".  He got so excited and asked if he could bring his "spider yoyo" to school - he just couldn't believe it was true!!! Woohoo!  Then, I read Mrs. Heather's post yesterday morning and it said that Hannah had taken a "zoo animal" for show and tell (which makes perfect sense becuase they're studying zoo animals) because Monday's paper had said that Wed. would be zoo animal day.  So, I am the crazy mom who read the BOTTOM of Monday's paper but not the top.  I am sure my child is the only one who brought something that was in no way a zoo animal today (even though he tells you it's a spider and Daddy says that there are spiders at the zoo.  (Ty did say that some kids brought nothing, so at least we remembered to send something.... it just would have been more fun to take a giraffe, elephant, turtle....we certainly have enough animals at the house!!!!)  Oh well - we'll try harder next time!!!

By the way - the spider yoyo really did get broken today, so I guess that's the end of it!  We might try to repair it... they tried to glue it together at school, but I think it might need something stronger than Elmer's!

Updates

Even though I have found the "little camera", I still haven't had time to download pics from the camera to the computer.  It seems that there are always little boys who demand more attention than the computer/camera (not that I am complaining - they deserve way more attention than the electronics!!!) so it's hard to find time for updating.  Hopefully I'll be able to update once school gets out in 2 weeks.  

This weekend, I spent both Saturday and Sunday pretty much at home with the boys.  (Well, Saturday night Daddy and I took Ty to see "Bob the Builder, LIVE", but that's the only time I've left the house in the past two days.)  I still don't get tired of playing with the boys, though!  Todd is developing so much personality.  He's saying more things (ball, dog, UH-OH, and shhhh for shoe have come up a lot today) and more easily communicating what he wants.  He looked at me tonight before I put him in the bath and actually said Night Night - I think he was really tired!  He likes to spin around to make himself dizzy  (I hadn't seen him do this before today, but Grammie said he did it last night, too.)  He likes to kick a ball, and today he figured out how to put a ball in this little ramp toy and have it roll down and come out the bottom.  He likes to play with blocks (well, to knock down towers we build), and he'll put things back in a container once they fall out (only after he says UH OH, though).  He also likes to wiggle our floor lamp and giggle hysterically when we come after him saying nonono.  I actually put up the pack-n-play this morning to use for a time out spot.  He had to go there 3 times, but the first time didn't even make him cry, so I am not sure that really counts!!!

Ty is such a cool kid these days.  He loves to give hugs and kisses spontaneously (to Todd and us as well), and he likes to play pretend.  (He LOVES to eat hamburgers for pretend - how silly!!!)  He also LOVES to get tickled! Tonight he actually cleaned up the entire den pretty much by himself (this was a big feat because I think we had every toy in the house on the floor by the end of the day).  He's enjoying riding his bicycle that he got for his birthday, and he's gotten very good at learning how to use the brakes on it.  He's still not potty trained.  In fact, after going for about a month in big boy pants everywhere, we've actually gone back to pullups.  He has never gotten to the point where he'll initiate and tell us that he needs to go potty, and he was having quite a few accidents.  I figured that he just wasn't ready and that we'd wait until I was out of school for the summer to work on it at home.   For a couple of weeks he was crying every day (which is a big deal since he NEVER does this) when I dropped him off at school (he even latched onto my leg one day!), but when I put him back in the pullups he almost immediately went back to his cool, happy self when I took him to school.  I think he was worried that he'd have an accident and was just really anxious about that.  Hopefully that whole situation will come this summer.

Happy Birthday to Ty!!!

I can't believe he's 3!!!!!  (We'll be having the grandparents over for dinner tonight, but we're saving the real partying until later when we'll have a joint party with Todd.)  He was so excited last night that he was still awake at about 9:45 (after going to bed pretty close to 8:30).  Daddy said, "Can you imagine what he'll be like if we ever tell him that we're going somewhere like Disney?"  We decided we might just keep that a secret if we ever decide to go....

Illness of the month club?

If you're the person who signed Todd up for the "illness of the month" club, please cancel our membership! Since the beginning of 2009 we've had at least 2 (maybe 3) ear infections, the chicken pox, hand-foot-mouth disease, and now pinkeye (which apparently is a catch-all term for an eye infection. He's taking it well, but he looks terrible!

WOOHOO!!

Ty did a shooey in the potty at school today!  His teacher gave him a lollipop, and I had a prize for him at home.  He is SO proud of himself.  So far, we've gone since Sunday morning with NO accidents during the day! (He actually woke up dry this morning, and he's done that about once a week for the past month or so.  We're nowhere near being regular on that yet, and we're in no hurry to make that happen, either.)

We also wanted to post a few funny things he's said, so here' goes:

1.  We were leaving school one day, and out of the corner of my eye, I noticed that the lights in the hallway went out as I was pressing the red button that lets us out of the building.  I didn't think much of it until I realized that Ty had been the one to turn off the lights.  When I asked him what he was doing, he said, 'I was just trying to save some energy, Mama.'  Daddy has taught him well.

2.  He was playing with Todd one evening, and Todd (as usual) was taking whatever toy that Ty was playing with.  In response, Ty said, "Ty, you are a stinker.  You are taking away toys, and you are not being nice."  

3.  Last night on the way to Big Papa's house, Ty went through a series (that Daddy says we should illustrate into a kids book) of "I wish I was a...." and then he said something about it.

-I wish I was a Mama.... then my feet would touch the pedals. (Coincidentally, he told us that when he got big he could drive, and that when Mama got small like 'us' she could crawl around and play.

-I wish I was a tree....then I couldn't talk.

-I wish I was a flower....an orange one.

-I wish I was a car (I think).....with wheels that go round and round.

-I wish I was the grass.....then someone would use the lawn mower on me.

4.  Today on the way home he said that Todd wished he could have a lollipop, too.

Hehehhehhe.  Todd's been working on stuff, too. He's a pretty good "walker" now.  He can easily bend down and pick something up, turn around, and can almost run when someone is chasing him and making him giggle.  He, of course, still spends a lot of time falling down.  He's gotten tooth number 8 to poke through, and it's one of the bigger ones in the back.  I can feel it, but he hasn't let me see exactly which one it is and I can't tell by feeling.  He's added a few more words, so now he can say Mama, Dada, Todd, All done, ball, night night, nana, and cracker.  Aunt Susan is pretty sure he said "dog" last night when talking to Callie (Uncle Russell's dog), but I haven't gotten him to repeat it.  He had the hand-foot-mouth virus recently, and he was a grump for it (refused bottles during the day - weird!!!), but he really only had blisters in his throat and not on his hands or feet like Ty did when he got it.  He's pretty much all better now, and (at least until the tooth came in during the last 2 days) he's back to normal.

I know some of you are wondering where the pictures are.  See, we misplaced the camera and only had the 2 video cameras for a while.  I've taken lots of video, but I have no idea how to get still shots from there.  I hope to fully update my blog with photos once we get out of school.  We did find the camera, though, and can hopefully start taking normal pictures again!

Still won't shooey....

Ty was dry all day again (we even went to a VERY long dinner at Logan's with friends). His only accident today was the shooey this afternoon. We're not sure what it will take to make that happen, but we're trying to be patient....

Todd's words

Todd is learning to communicate with us by talking - woohoo!!! He can say: Mama, Dada, ByeBye (he does this one really well with no prompting at all), All done, Nana (for banana - and also maybe for Nana), Ball, and Cracker (which really sounds like Caca)

Dry all day!

Ty was dry for the entire day all day long!!! (We did have a shooey accident, but we're expecting that right now since he refuses to do that in the potty.) We feel like this is huge progress, and Ty got a blue lollipop as a prize!!!!

Potty Training Update

When I took Ty to school on Monday, I explained to him that we were going to work on potty training this week. I took about 7 changes of clothes and big boy underpants. I've been thinking that he just needed to get out of pull ups for a while and he'd figure it all out. (He had to have his pants changed 4 times on Monday!) When I picked him up that afternoon, he asked me, "Am I potty trained now, Mama?" Needless to say the answer is "no". Sometimes he tells us when he needs to go potty, but most of the time we have to either make him go sit on the potty or he tells us right after he's done it when he wants us to clean up the mess. He REFUSES to do a shooey on the potty, but you can ask him, "Ty, where are you supposed to do your shooey and pee pee?" and he'll say - "In the potty". It just doesn't happen. I don't know if he just can't predict when he needs to go in advance or if he's just being stubborn about it. I got some funny info from his teacher today, though. She said that Hannah told Ty that if he didn't stop having accidents in his pants that he'd be sent back to the "little kids" classroom. She also said that when she tells Ty "We don't go pee pee or poop in our big boy underpants or pullups" he says "We don't?!??!?!" EVERY TIME - and each time he says that as though she's just given him some new information. The funnies thing, though, that she told me is that he told her, "If I have an accident in my pants, it's ok because my Mommy packed up a whole bunch of clothes for me to change to at school if I need to." I think that's hysterical. Miss Christina said that maybe we should keep the "spare clothes" out of sight so he doesn't really know there's so much backup!!

I'm sending a package of M&Ms tomorrow in hopes that he'll have some motivation to go potty on his own. We're going to try the big boy underpants for a couple more days and then make a decision over the weekend whether we want to go back to the pull ups and try again when he's a bit older or keep up the big boy underpants....

More things Ty has said

I remembered one more story that I wanted to post about Ty!  He's such a flirt!!! First of all, his two best friends are both girls, and when he sees them (particularly if it's been a couple of days since the last time) he gives them (and they give him) a huge hug and often a kiss on the cheek!  It's so adorable!  There's a new friend at church, though, named Eliza.  She comes to Ty's class while I am at handbell practice because her mom plays with me in the choir.  On the way home from church on Sunday, Ty said, "I am going to go home and take a good nap so I can go back to church and see Eliza.....she has pretty teeth."  Hee hee hee.  That evening, we were eating at the Snappy Tomato, and a little girl came by and talked to Todd a bit, and Ty said, "come over here to see me" at about the same time the little girl's mommy collected her to go sit down.  The little girl walked half way through the store and turned to "blow a kiss" to Ty.  He, of course, blew a kiss in return.  He's so hysterical!!!!

I didn't realize that Todd's name rhymes with

"odd".  Until Todd started trying to say it.  He walks around going "odddddduh" over and over again. Sometimes he says "Toddddduh" and sometimes it sounds like "Dodddddduh", but most of the time it's just "oddddduh".  (He really exaggerates that last hard "d" sound.  It's too cute.)

Things Ty has said recently that cracked me up

1.  What does stupid mean? (in the car on the way to church - I have no clue where he heard that....)

2.  Hey you!  (almost whispered as it looked like I was sleeping while Daddy was reading a new story to Ty)

3.  I want Daddy to stop.  (really whispered to me while Daddy was reading that same story - I cracked up!)

4. Which class am I going to today? (on the way to school this morning - he was wondering if he'd stay in his new class or move back down)

5.  I have a hole in my heart.  I ran really fast, and walked really fast, and rode a bike really fast, so now there's a hole in my heart.  (I then explained that he didn't have a hole in his heart but that was just a phrase in the book that means that you'd miss someone if they were not there.)  He then declared that he had 2 holes in his heart because he was missing 2 people and he needed to call them to talk to them on the phone.)  

6.  Todd, you don't need to cry.  You have a Mommy and a Daddy right here with you.

I am sure there are more, but that's all that comes to mind now.  I have been a terrible blogger lately....one day I'll get caught up.  I still haven't posted from Christmas!!!!

If I had a dime...

for every time Todd has fallen on his behind, I think I could buy something really cool!!!! See, last Saturday (the 7th), Todd took a step towards me all by himself. Then, when I picked him up on Monday, they said he'd taken two steps between an exersaucer and the couch. On Wednesday afternoon, he walked about 5 feet (taking about 8 steps) all by himself. Since then, all he's wanted to do is practice his walking. He knows HOW to do it (and he's certainly not afraid to be in motion - he really doesn't want to hold hands or anything and walk with a crutch), but he's still a bit wobbly. I really am not 100% sure that his legs are as strong as his mind thinks they are. It's hard to tell if he's falling because he lunges for his target too early, if he just looses his balance, or if he's really just tired. He actually walks better when he has something in his hands, but I worry about blocks or cars or sippy cups making painful contact with his face when he falls. He actually had a sore on his rear end last week because he fell right on the corner of a block - ouch!

He's just full of surprises lately. His 7th tooth came in yesterday. His Daddy taught him to pat his mouth and make an "ooo oooo ooo ooo" sound like an Indian. He also likes playing peek a boo by 'covering' his face with his hands. He likes to make Mama clap either by clapping and looking at me so that I'll repeat it or by coming and grabbing my hands and putting them together. He's saying all sorts of sounds (Mamamamma, Dadadadad, Nonononono, and Nanananna are the ones that pretty much sounds like words, but this morning he was working hard on a "T" sound so he could say Ty or Todd.) He loves to experiment with sounds, and my favorite sound he makes is the "vrbrvrbrvrbrvrbrvrbr" (often with slobber flowing down the chin as he spits) for his cars. He never really wants Ty out of his sight, so he follows him all over. Ty continues to be a great big brother, and he really watches out for Todd!

Todd was awake when we left this morning....

Todd usually wakes up anywhere between 3:00 and 5:30 for breakfast, but he always goes back to sleep until Daddy wakes him at a little after 7:00. He's had such weird sleeps this week (waking at least once in the middle of the night for the past couple of nights), and this morning when he woke up at 6:00 he had no intentions of going back to sleep. I left Ty and Todd both in the den while I was fixing Ty's lunch, and Ty had a bowl of strawberries and a cereal bar (the favorite breakfast these days) on the couch. (I am not sure when the trend of eating breakfast in the den started, but he does it most days now. He really used to eat every meal at the table - oh well!) I was making his sandwich and I heard, "Oh Mama, he took a bite of my cereal bar". I came in the den, and sure enough Todd was chewing away. I told Ty to keep the cereal bar out of Todd's reach and cleaned up the crumbs he left. I barely got back in the kitchen when I heard, "No, Todd. AAAAAAAAAHHHH. Mama, he stole my cereal bar!" Sure enough, Todd had almost the entire thing in his hands, and Ty just didn't know what to do. I am sure that the day will come when Ty's reaction to this would be much more physical, but I am glad that he's so gentle with Todd right now. Todd, on the other hand, knows no boundaries, and he has a knack for finding all things that should be out of his reach!

(Incidents like this are probably why Ty says, "Todd has to go to Nana's house instead of going to school. He just doesn't know how to be nice to friends at school yet.")

Todd's 9 month check up

Since we've been to the doctor about 6 times since the beginning of 2009, it was no surprise that we went again today to not only get his ears checked but also have his scheduled 9 month "well visit". Although the nurse actually wrote down 29 lbs, 4 ounces, I think 25 lbs 4 ounces was the correct weight. (In Todd's defense, he did just take a bottle right before he got weighed. I don't think he's normally that heavy.) He was only 28 inches tall which is not short for his age but it is short for that weight! :) He only had to get a little prick for the TB test, and he didn't even cry for that. His ears looked perfect (whew) and she hopes she doesn't have to see him again for 3 more months. We hope so, too.....

I am always surprised...

at conversations I have with Ty.  This evening we were eating dinner and Todd dropped his sippy cup two times in a row.  As I was bending down to pick it up the second time, Ty said "Oh!  Todd dropped his cup two times" and he held up his pointer and tall man fingers to show me "his two".  Almost immediately, Todd dropped the cup again, and Ty announced that Todd had dropped 3 times (and then he showed me "his three" by holding up his pointer, tall man, and ring finger). He proceeded to do this (announcing and holding up the fingers) for the fourth and fifth drops without really even thinking about the fact that he was "adding one" each time.  When he got to six, he announced the 6th drop and then looked at me with a puzzled expression that said "Ok - I know he just dropped that cup 6 times, but I have no idea how to do six with my fingers because there are only 5 on one hand".  I showed him how to do six, seven, and eight using two hands, and then Todd was really done with the sippy cup (in other words, we put the cup away because he clearly wasn't drinking out of it tonight). 

I think it is so adorable to watch Ty try to hold up his fingers for a number.  It obviously takes some concentration, but he's worked hard to be able to have "his" very own one, two, three, four, and five.  He's also mastered zipping up his jacket (to add to his list of fastenings he's been able to do and undo for a while: buttons, snaps, zippers, and even latches like the dog leash) and putting on his coat by flipping it over his head. (He saw Hannah do that one night at church and came home and I helped him figure it out that night - he's such a quick study.)  I feel like I am always posting about the cool things Ty can do, and they're probably not really that cool to anyone else since they're just boring everyday mundane tasks - they're just cool to a 2 year old since everything is cool to him.  I just really feel like I want to remember these things (for whatever reason), and I am hoping that by writing about them I'll remember the adorable expressions on his face and the sound of his voice when he talks to me.  I am sure I won't always think they're quite so cute....I really do need to get some video of him!  (I actually do have some videos, I just have no idea how to post them.  I might be able to do it, though, with the new flip camera.  That sounds like a project for another day.)