Bouncing and Boo-hoo-ing…….

A few weeks ago, Tyler and I went to Bounce Zone with Aunt Kathy and cousins Caden and Nolan.  Nolan just hung out, Caden had a great time bouncing, and Tyler spent a large part of the time crying and throwing himself on the floor.  Thankfully, having 2 kiddos, one of whom is 3 years, Kathy didn’t bat an eye and just gave me the “I’ve been there” look.  There was no judging, no “Control your child!”, not even an “I’m not with them!”, just “Oh, yes, we’ve been there!” – that’s the kind of love you want when stuck in that situation!!!  Tyler was having an off day, he was tired and he just wasn’t his normal happy go lucky self.  And it didn’t really help that like for the first hour he was scared to go on/in any of the bounce houses – even when lured by Caden!  He always follows Caden!  But Kathy and I did get to chat and then they came over for lunch after which was quite nice!  Here are some pics from the morning….

I love this one of Caden!…..

Tyler says “It’s all you dude, I’ll watch you from the bottom of the slide!”

Apparently Tyler and I didn’t make too much of a specticle of ourselves because Kathy said they’d love to go again with us or do something like go to the Children’s Museum -both public places .

SNOW!

We have been having great fun with all of this white stuff outside!  Tuesday evening when it started snowing I had gone into work – I was working all night (7pm-7:30am).  Tyler had taken a long nap that day so around 9pm I talked to Craig and he was taking Tyler outside to burn off some energy in the snow!  I was quite jealous to say the least – I know I get to be home with Tyler all the time but how fun!  The snow was still falling, snowflakes were getting bigger, and I wanted to be enjoing it as a family!  Tyler and Craig had fun and MeMe and Great Grandma who had come down to help watch Tyler the next day so I could sleep had fun watching him too!  Here’s a pic of my 2 boys before their snowy fun….

The next day I put Tyler to work outside.  Hey, he has to earn his keep somehow   Here he is shoveling the driveway…

And here’s just some snowy cuteness!…..

OK, really I shoveled the driveway, Tyler just helped relocate snow to new areas with his sand shovel.  But I went out to shovel the driveway because my mom’s van was burried (like everyone else’s).  I had to borrow a snow shovel from our neighbors, our mean neighbors, because Craig had taken ours in case he got stuck and he had to dig himself out on the way to work that morning.  I feel bad saying our neighbors are mean, but we say “Hello” to them everytime we see them out and wave when our cars pass, but they just look right through us with no response as if we don’t even exist.  We have never had a confrontation or “falling out”, hard to have one if one party doesn’t acknowledge the other’s existance, and believe you me, I tried to find other neighbors that were home and go there, but there was this little tap on my shoulder from God telling me to ask them, our mean neighbors, although I don’t think God really called them the “mean neighbors”, he just said “them”….but I’m digressing….so I dig out my mom’s van and shovel the driveway and I swear to you, not 1 hour later does the crew come and plow the drive our condo is on and oh, lookie there, here comes the rest of the crew with shovels to shovel the drives and sidewalks!  Sorry boys, your job is done here!  I am woman, hear me roar!  But, since we are @ the end of the drive, we fully benefited from the fact that all the snow got plowed onto our “front yard” or grassy area in front of your condo, because when you have a big pile of snow it makes a fabulous…..

SLEDDING HILL!!!!

I promise you, he is not crying in the 2nd pic!  He was giggling hollaring “One, two, GOOOOO!”  We have great plans for tomorow to move on to Phase 2 of the project and make a fort out of part of the hill also!

I have been cleaning out closets recently because come mid-March we are putting our condo up for sale and looking for something just a bit bigger with a little yard and a “park” (aka – swingset) in the backyard.  So I was packing up some of the stuff that was in Tyler’s closet into boxes to declutter the house and Tyler’s baby Moses basket was out on the floor.  This is what he looked like in it when he was just a wee little one….

And now….

After he climbed in and made himself cumfy, I had said something like Do you like it?  You used to takes naps in there. So the other day I said OK, nap time, let’s go up and take a nap.  To which he responded “Take nap in basket.  Take nap in basket.”  Sorry kiddo, you haven’t figured out how to climb out of your crib yet so crib it is!

“She’s Leaving On A Jet Plane….”

…Auntie Kim, I hate to see you go….

We saw Auntie Kim off today @ the airport – @ this exact moment she is on a big bird in the sky on her way to London!  We are super excited for her and so proud of her but will miss her much!  She and my parents came down yesterday evening and stayed overnight and then after a pancake breakfast we got ready to take her to the airport.   We were happy to spend the afternoon with Kim since she will be gone for so long(sniff…sniff) – and Tyler was especially happy about these little moments he got to spend with her…

Sharing McD’s French Fries…

Holding hands….

Long Walks…

In between these special moments with Auntie Kim, Tyler did manage to poop, which is what he is doing in this picture….

…which is not material I make a habit of writing about on my blog, but the funny part is that he went over to this spot and took his “stance” if you will, and I knew just what he was doing because his face was turning a little red, and once he was done he popped up and hollered out “ALL DONE POOPING….ALL DONE POOPING….” while doing his sign for all done.  Needless to say, I wasn’t the only one who knew what was going on, after that the WHOLE concourse knew!

After a tire rotation, he then christened the floor @ the new airport by licking it!  GROSS!!!  I was right there!  How do these things happen?!?!?

Tyler seemed to know something was up though after Kim checked her luggage because she was walking just a little in front of his stroller and he just out of the blue said “Kim, I wuv you.”  Hearing him say “I love you” in his little voice is about the cutest thing ever and it nearly makes me cry every time I hear it – especially now because he is starting to say it more and more just out of the blue – unprompted – just randomly – it is too sweet!

So Auntie Kim, Tyler (and MeMe) wanted me to share a few little reminders for your trip….remember trust no one, don’t talk to strangers, always take a buddy, keep your passport with you @ all times, and have FUN!  And remember – WE LOVE YOU!  CHEERS!

Winter FUN!

The other day Tyler and I woke up to some SNOW!  It wasn’t much but it was enough to bundle up, go outside, make some snow angels, race around in the sled, and have some FUN!  Tyler loved the snow – I had to lure him back inside with the promise of a hot dog for lunch   Here are some pics of our snowy fun…

Mommy….how am I supposed to move in this thing?!?!?

Hummmmm……I wonder what snow tastes like?

BURRRRR…….COLD!!!!!

Ready….set…..GO!

Christmas Day….

We drove up to my parent’s late Christmas Eve night and were there on Christmas Day.  We spent the day lounging around in our PJs, eating, playing with our new gifts (OK, Tyler’s new gifts/toys) and just enjoying the day and being togeather.  Tyler was too funny – I thought he would TOTALLY LOVE opening all of his presents and all, but truly, he could have really cared less!  He was not so much all about ripping open his gifts, but more about swimming in a pile of tissue paper that had developed on the floor – and to think – we could have saved our money and gotten away with just giving him tissue paper again this year and he would have been thrilled beyond measure!  Once the gift was unwrapped, then of course he wanted whatever it was out of the box – but not so much into unwrapping.  It was great fun to see Tyler in his little reindeer PJ’s running around from one thing to another, swimming in the tissue paper, and get excited about some of the things that he loves and received as gifts!  Here are some pics from our Christmas Day…..

PaPa spent 3 hours putting this little gift together and still thinks it is too “girly” for Tyler.  MeMe assured PaPa that every child needs a play kitchen with play food – no matter the gender.  Tyler loved it!  He loves opening and closing all the cabinets, playing with the play food (especially the ice cream!), and getting water from the sink (he calls it “sink water” and makes a little “sssssss” sound when filling up his cup)…..

Because Tyler LOVES anything musical (particularly the guitar and drums), he got quite a selection of musical instruments…

A keyboard….Play that funky music white boy!

An electric guitar with working micorphone…

And, OH YEA!!!  A drum set!…..

Things got a little crazy that morning!!!  Tyler started his own band and Neil Diamond would have been proud at this band’s rendition of Coming to America (complete with motions and all)!! All we gotta say is watch out Partridge Family!  You got nothing on us!

I’m not sure what Tyler did during his nap, but after his nap he took on real rocker form complete with hair!

Uncle Nathan and Aunt Amanda gave Tyler this awesome Tyler-sized dino…

To off-set the “girlie” kitchen, PaPa got Tyler some dinos which they both enjoyed playing with…

And, oh yea, the tissue paper…

Christmas Eve….

This year on Christmas Eve we went over to Craig’s sister’s house for some yummy food and to celebrate Christmas with Craig’s family and just be togeather.  Kathy and Michael were @ the ER with Nolan the evening before however that didn’t stop Christmas @ the Sunsdahls!  I love love love what they did (and may copy-cat the idea next year when, cross your fingers, we have a house with our own yard – not just condo common area).  They got a real pine tree with the root ball and all for thier Christmas tree (a tradition from Michael’s side of the fam.), decorated it and then planted it in thier yard the day after – which worked well because it was so warm the day after Christmas this year!  It was fun and relaxing to be @ thier house and Caden and Tyler had alot of fun togeather!  It is so cute watching them run around togeather – You hear Caden say “Come on Tyler – let’s go to my room,” ”Come on Tyler, let’s do ___this___” or “Let’s do ___that___” and Tyler just runs after him following him where ever he leads.  You can tell Caden loves to have a follower and that Tyler loves to follow him around doing all the big boy stuff Caden does!  Here are some pics of our Christmas Eve…..

Part of Nolan’s gift from us was this balloon which Tyler seemed to have some issues parting with…

When does Santa get here?!?!

Pics of the boys and the boys with Grandma and Grandpa….

Did someone say PRESENTS?!?!  Caden passed out gifts and then showed Tyler how it was done….

If you ever need help fighting the bad guys, rescuing a cat from a tree, or anything else super-hero-ish – just call Caden – he’s official now that he has his super cape!

Tyler loves his Sit ‘n’ Spin from Grandma and Grandpa…

Some assembly required….

Caden got his out to show Tyler how it works….

Dueling Sit ‘n’ Spins….

Craig received a special gift from Nolan this year….but more about that later

Our little drummer boy Christmas Eve night before going to bed.  Don’t be confused, those straws he is holding are actually drum sticks…..if only Santa would deliver something to play them on…..