Tyson - October 2012 - 10 Months

I'm about a week late on getting this written, and it is mighty picture heavy, so I think I'll keep my commentary short.  (Ha!)

You've come alive quite a bit in the last month, and holy crap you are a handful!  You've decided you really can get along pretty well on your hands and knees, and now there is NO stopping you.  Early this month I went in to get you from your afternoon nap and found this...

Then later that day, you were up all over the couches, etc.

and another one from later this month at the fridge...

You've discovered the toilets in the house and more than once discovered a toilet with the lid up and had fun splashing for a minute or two before somewhat caught you.  You pull yourself up on the side of the bathtub and I've found you in an empty one after falling in while reaching for a toy, and I've caught you as you were falling out during your bath.  You're just like your brother was and love to pull out and throw cooking utensils  pots/pans, DVDs, video games, and food from the fridge and pantry.  The house is pretty much a disaster 24/7 these days.

I think you've figured out that if you go to bed early and then wake up an hour or so later you wake up just in time for dad's nightly bowl of ice cream.  You can usually give him a sad enough puppy dog look to coax a spoonful or two out of him.

I dug out the lion Halloween costume that both Logan and Tess wore and tried it on you.  You liked it quite a bit more than Tessa did.

I don't know how you and your brother sense it, but if for whatever reason I decide not to work and sleep in, both of you sleep in (for the most part), but if I get up early and try to work pretty soon you both are up and all chances of me working go down the drain and instead we are all up, sometimes before 6 a.m., just for the heck of it.  This morning you were so happy and funny though that I really couldn't be mad.

I tried to keep working while you rolled around on the floor for a bit, but pretty soon you decided to come help me type.

Your bath is still probably your favorite time of the day, and you especially love it when I leave a little trickle of water running for you to try to drink or catch with your hand.

You've gotten to the stage where you will NOT be still when I try to change your diaper.  This is one of the baby stages that aggravates the crap out of me because seriously, kid, I don't LOVE to change your diaper, but if you'd just be still I am good enough at it now after many, many months of practice that I can get it done in about 3.8 seconds.  But, NO, you have to try to wriggle away.  Because of this, sometimes I'll let you win the battle and go diaper free for a bit.  I did this one afternoon after I knew you had just gone pee and figured I was safe to let you go for a bit.  I left you in the front room and turned my back on you to do some dishes.   I turned around a few minutes later and screamed...

I know, I know, I can't believe I took a picture of it and am posting it on the internet for all the world to see. But YOU were the one sitting in it!  I snatched you up and got you in the tub ASAP then fought to put your diaper and clothes on after you were clean (not taking any chances this time) and got down to business cleaning up floor and bleaching the tub.  I am grateful that you at least had the heart to keep the mess on the laminate floor and not the carpet.

The deer hunt was this month, and I was not exactly looking forward to having a crawler out camping, but after the first handful or two of dirt you pretty much just crawled around without eating it.

The first two days weren't too bad, but then it got windy and miserable, and we spent most of the rest of the time we were out there either in the trailer or bundled up outside when we got sick of being inside.

One of your favorite things to do is to find your way to dad's bathroom after he's been in the shower and slide around on the floor.  Gross, I know, but you laugh and carry on so much that I don't have the heart to pull you out.  The first time you discovered this water park adventure I was in the kitchen next to the bathroom and heard you just giggling your heart out.  I went in to see what you were doing and started laughing pretty hard myself.  You had shorts on and a short sleeved shirt and were just slipping and sliding all over the place.  I'm pretty sure it wasn't as much fun in these long pajamas, but you still gave it a shot.

Pot head.

And, FINALLY, one day shy of your 10-month-old mark I felt your first tooth.  I had thought I'd seen something the day or two before, but then I finally felt it for sure.  I've been trying to get a good picture of it, and I thought maybe on the swing at the park would work because you always give me a big, cheesy grin, but it was a no go.  Probably because you were also moving pretty fast....

On one hand I am excited that the teething adventure has finally begun, which means we will eventually get through it, but on the other hand I am sad because I really miss the gummy baby smiles when they are gone.  The one and two-tooth smiles are still cute, but oh those gummy grins can't be beat.

We love you Ty, and it has been so much fun to see your silliness come out more and more lately.  I think you are going to give us a run for our money and be an even bigger mischief maker than even Logan was.

Love you Tiger,
Mom

Logan - October 2012

For some reason these pictures didn't make it in to your letter last month.  The Kanab High School homecoming parade was September 14, and they invited the class of 2025 (that's your class) to be in the parade.  I was on the wrong side of the street when the truck you were on passed by the first time, and then I had to run down the street to get a few pictures on your way back down the parade route so I could get a picture of you before the fire trucks carrying the senior class got in the way.  I must have looked like a dork running around, and I kind of ditched Tessa and Tyson with Meridee as I ran, but it ended up being a good thing because not only were the fire trucks in the way when the truck made it to where we had been standing, but the wind blew the poster up right perfectly in front of your face too.  So, the point of that story was that the pictures aren't good, but I really did the best I could!

While dad was gone again at the end of September we decided we needed a Junction picnic, so one Saturday we headed to Junction to pick up some chicken fingers, a cheeseburger, and waffle fries and headed to the park.  We ended up there for almost 3 hours that day.  The weather was absolutely perfect, and as I'm typing this now towards the end of October I am already missing those perfect fall days at the park.

A couple weeks after you started school I decided it was time for you to start riding the bus home from time to time.  My plan to have Tyson nap while you are at school didn't work out like I had hoped, and he usually ends up going to sleep between 1:45 and 2.  School gets out at 2:25.  This means as soon as I would get the cranky bugger down I would have to turn around and pack him up in the car to come pick you up.  You were pretty nervous the first time and even told you dad when he got home from California that you didn't like school because you hated riding the bus, but you've told me a totally different story.  You sit with your friend Kaidee until she gets off the bus and then you sit with one of the 3 kids that live across the street from us, and while you are on there for almost an entire hour after school gets out, I'm pretty sure you don't mind it.  This is a horrible picture that I just happened to snap with my phone as I ran out the door one day, but you literally jump off the bus every day and run up to the house so excited to tell me about your day (well, most days...).  Your bus driver is super nice and gives you treats from time to time.  I don't think that hurts either.

You did miss your stop one day when the kids across the street rode a different bus and there was a substitute bus driver who didn't know where you lived.  I'm not sure if I have ever been more scared as I was in those 5-10 minutes that I didn't know where you were before the bus came back around and dropped you off.

We've been thinking about buying a little gas fourwheeler for you guys for a while and were trying to decide what age would be best and where we would find one, etc., when Meridee told me they were selling theirs.  You LOVE it and would drive it around in the backyard all night if we would let you.  (Too bad Tessa just drove it into the back of my car last week at the deer hunt and broke the break line...).

Just this weekend we were having a good conversation while we were stuck in the camping trailer while the wind blew like crazy outside.  I was putting on some makeup and was using my eyelash curler when you asked me why I used it and what it was for.  I explained that girls do a lot of crazy things to look cute for boys to which you replied, "I'm not going to marry anyone who is cute."  You are such a silly kid.  I definitely hope that looks aren't the top of your list when you are figuring out who to marry, but I do hope she is cute. ;)

Speaking of girls, your friend Kaidee invited you over to her house this week, and I thought you would be super excited.  She has been one of your best friends in church and now in your kindergarten class.  Turns out, you weren't so excited after all.  You were nervous.  You'd never been to her house before and you were nervous to get off the bus at her stop instead of yours.  I spent the next 3 days trying to convince you to go.  About half an hour before you left for school that day I pulled out the big guns and bribed you with anything and everything I could think of.  That day I waited for your bus to come around just knowing you would be there to jump off at our stop, but to my surprise you weren't!  As I went to pick you up a little while later (to take you to get your Frazil and candy from the gas station that I'd promised), you talked and talked about how much fun you'd had.  See how your mom was right?  I would hope that is something you'd take away from this experience, but I'm pretty sure the only thing you learned was that Kaidee's house is way more fun than ours.

School picture time came around this last month, and your dad insisted that we buy some even though we just got family pictures done and got some singles of all of you kids.  I am SOOOO glad he did.  When you brought home that picture day package and I pulled this baby out I literally could not stop laughing for a good half hour.

It still makes me smile even now about 2 weeks later.  This is just you.  When I asked you how you were going to smile for your pictures before school that day this is the EXACT face you made.  I don't know how to get a real smile out of you, but I do know that asking you to smile does NOT, in fact, work.  I LOVE it though, and I love you too.  You are seriously the best kid ever.  I hope you will continue to gain some confidence as the school year goes because just look at that face, you've got to be the coolest kid in your class hands down.

Love you bud,
Mom

Tessa - October 2012

Tessa Dear, what a silly girl you are.  One of your favorite things to do lately is to "help" me in the kitchen.  If I go over the stove, sink, cupboards, fridge for even 15 seconds you are right next to me already using the drawers to start to climb up on to the counters so you can help.  You help stir and cook and, if I'm feeling particularly generous or frazzled, wash dishes.  I gave up on our crummy dishwasher months ago and wash the dishes by hand instead.  I'm pretty sure this ended up with water all over the counter and floor, but I'm hoping if I let you help me wash dishes now that you'll want to help me when you are a little bit more help than you are now.

We may not have gotten you into preschool this year, but I did get you into a Kindermusik class, and you seem like you really enjoy it.  The day before your first class you talked to your dad on the phone (he was in Idaho on a fire), and you just about broke his eardrum when he asked you about it, and you said, "I'm SO EXCITED!"  Now every time he asks you about it he makes you tell him that you are so excited.  We get to do fun activities that go along with what you did in your class for the week, and I think you really do enjoy the time you get to go and play away from your mom and brothers.  When you got home from your first class you were so excited to share some of the fun things you had with Logan though.

We went to Panguitch for Aunt Bre's baby shower for Tinsley, and you and the boys had a fun time jumping on the trampoline.  I had to hurry and get this picture of you and Bosten jumping because Bosten didn't want ANYONE on there with him when he was jumping.  I finally did convince him to let you just sit on the tramp while he jumped, and that worked for a little while.

You are still a bit of a diva when it comes to helping clean up (anything but the kitchen I guess).  I've caught on to the fact that when I ask you and Logan to clean up the toy room that you will walk around the room carrying the same toy so it looks like you are doing something while Logan picks up the entire room pretty much by himself.  One day while Logan was at school I told you that I would help you and the two of us would pick up the toy room.  Oh my, I think both of us would have rather pulled all your teeth, but in the end we got it done!  I told you that when it was done we would take a picture of the clean room and send it to dad, and this is what I got.  Yes, you are definitely a diva.

Your dad and I love to see how you end up falling asleep each night.  It usually looks something like this...

I also love your imagination and how you can "play" anything that you happen to have stashed in your room throughout the day.  One night I had to laugh at what I found.  Earlier this night I had told you to move your things off the bed so you could get up there to sleep and you refused, so you actually curled up on teh floor to sleep so that your things would be able to stay on the bed.  On the bed are shoes, 2 spray bottles, a pair of tongs, and a couple stuffed animals.  No doubt there was a mom, dad, and at least a few brothers and sisters in those items.

We spent a weekend in Hurricane toward the end of the month, and I finally got your baby clothes quilt done.  I've had the top done for over a year (I started working on it when we found out Tyson was a boy last August).  I didn't want to tie the quilt with yarn, but because I did such a crummy job sewing straight lines, it seemed like the only way to go, and in the end I'm just so glad it is done.  I'm not sure I will ever be able to let YOU actually have it though.  It was hard to cut up some of those clothes, and it's not like you remember wearing them, right?

We love you Tessa girl, you are so much fun and bring such a huge presence and personality everywhere you go.  That big (DIVA?) personality gets you in trouble sometimes, but mostly it just makes life around here a lot more fun and a lot more interesting.

Love you Tess,
Mom