Tyson - June/July 2013

Oh Ty, what a summer!  I swear you've grown and learned so much without me even realizing it.  I took you, Logan, and Tessa to the doctor for your checkups last month, and not surprisingly you are 81st percentile for your weight!  We didn't get a measurement for your height because nobody takes 3 kids to the doctor at once without causing a little chaos, and we forgot.  You spent the entire visit (2 hours!) trying to head right back out the door, so I had my hands full.

You generally are W-I-L-D.  I guess I had my limit of fairly easy-going kids, and you are going to show me what it is like to be that mom whose kid is on the floor kicking and howling throwing a tantrum.  I'm so excited.

You  may be wild, but you are also a lot of fun.  For the most part you've gotten past your really cranky molar-teething stage (1 left!), and we've been able to enjoy the summer with lots of time spent at the swimming pool.  You're pretty much fearless, especially with your little floaty strapped on.  You didn't like the little enclosed slide on the kid's side of the pool, so I thought I'd be a little mean and take you down the big enclosed slide - and you LOVED it.  Now every time we go you scream SHLIDE, SHLIDE at me until I take you down, and the minute we hit the water at the bottom you start right back up.

But it is all worth it when we get home and you crash...

On Tessa's birthday dad took her and Logan to a movie, so you and I went to the mall in St. George and shared a pretzel and shopped for a few minutes.  I had to take a picture because I've got one of Logan doing the same thing at about the same age.

Later that night we took you all out to the church parking lot so Tess could try out her new bike.  She got a new bike, so you inherited hers.  Over the past couple months you've gotten really good at it!

We've played at the park....

and later in the month you snuck a cupcake at Logan and Tessa's birthday party.

You tried on Tessa's dress up shoes...

and we had fun playing in the water to celebrate your grandmas' birthdays first at grandma Hillier's house...

and then at Grandma Lori's...

where you got so tuckered out that you fell asleep in the stroller with Grandpa.

You've helped me clean the house (I had to document the fact that you wanted SO bad to help me scrub the toilet!)...

and we've eaten a LOT of popsicles at a LOT of softball games where you like to run around in front of the bleachers lifting your shirt up for everyone to see, trying to open all the car doors in the parking lot, and generally just running around so fast that I don't get to see more than a minute or 2 of dad's games.

We went to Fredonia for their 4th of July parade and you got a lot of candy...

before we headed up Cedar Mountain for the Veater reunion to eat MORE

and MORE popsicles.

You call both your grandpa's Papa, and now grandpa Rob's fourhweeler is nicknamed Papa because every time you walked by it you would point at it and say Papa until he came to take you for a ride.  Poor Papa put LOTS of miles on his fourwheeler taking you for rides at reunions this summer.

but it sure is good for putting you to sleep!

At the Veater reunion you spent most of your time getting stuck on rocks and yelling "stuck! stuck!" until someone would come help you...

but at the Hatch reunion you really figured it out and would ride your bike down little (but steep!) hills all over the campground and give everyone a heart attack!  (See how the picture is blurry?  It's cause you're flyin!)

You loved to ride your bike with your big brother and sister...

I got pictures of some cute smiles..

 and hikes with your brother...

playing in the creek with Uncle Chad...

and tempting fate by hanging on grandma's trailer door even after we told you this is how Logan got the scar on his forehead!

And cousin Shawnee captured your classic glare just perfect.

We tried to go fishing at Tropic Reservoir at the Hatch reunion, but your favorite thing to do is throw rocks in the water and scare the fish away.

So we took some pictures instead.

We did spend some time at home playing...

and zonking out on the floor...

and dancing with dad.

One Saturday we didn't have anything planned, so we grabbed lunch for your dad and headed up to Big Springs.  We hung out with him for a few minutes before we started to explore on our own.  We drank out of the spring a few times

 before we headed up the road to Jacob Lake for a cookie.  We took our time getting back to Big Springs and saw a bunch of deer and squirrels and visited the old Jacob Lake Ranger Station and feeding the horses in the pasture where the "lake" is.  After we got back to Big Springs there was only about an hour and a half left before dad was off work, so we decided to hang around and wait for him so we could all drive home together.  There are a couple ponds up at Big Springs, and Logan had discovered that if you threw grasshoppers in the ponds the fish would come and eat them.  Logan was over at one of the ponds catching grasshoppers, but Tess and I were going to go feed some grass to the horses they keep there.  I thought you were behind me, but when I turned around to look you had turned and headed for Logan and the pond.  You weren't very far away, but just as I started heading towards you to bring you with me you reached Logan at the pond and proceeded to fall head first into the pond.  It was just like a movie what happened next.  I screamed as loud as I could and RAN!  The ponds aren't deep, but they're deep enough!  When I got there (I was only about 20 yards away)  you were in the water flailing your arms, and I'll never forget the look on your face.  I jumped in and pulled you out, and after a minute or 2 of crying you were just fine.  Soaking wet, but fine.  I was lucky that I turned around in time to see you go in or else it probably would have taken me longer to realize where you had gone.  It still makes me sick just thinking about it.  There was one casualty that day - one of my flip flops got stuck in the mud in the pond when I jumped in and I didn't think about grabbing it before I climbed out.  I was lucky in one other way though - my replacement phone that I'd had for less than a month was in my front pants pocket when I jumped in, and when I got out and thought to check it out I noticed that the water line on my clothes went just underneath where my phone was.

I took you down to the truck and changed your soggy diaper, but you went without clothes the rest of the day.  I, on the other hand, got to stick it out in my wet clothes and one shoe until we headed home.

Your vocabulary has exploded lately.  I was talking to a lady in our ward the other day who does speech for 0-3-year-olds, and she was saying how once kids get to about 50 words then they take off.  I'm pretty sure you are at that point.  It's pretty giggle-inducing for all of us to hear you learn new words because sometimes of course the sounds aren't quite right.  You repeat just about all the things we point out to you, for instance last night I showed you a clock, which you proceed to say with more of an "f" sound than a "cl" sound.  You also get mad and tell us to "shit! shit!" and point to where you want someone to sit.  I'm pretty sure you say the word "cars" about 1,000 times a day, and you're actually showing me a car and yelling it at me as I type.  We've got you starting to say please instead of just standing and demanding things, and it is cute to see you go from your angry voice to really softly saying "pwease?"  You call cows moos and horses ho-sies.  Everyone in primary gets a kick out of you when you escape from me and go running in to sharing time yelling "Gogi!" and looking for your brother.  Sacrament meeting isn't so fun, and yesterday after you (and I!) had finally had enough wrestling for the day you repeatedly yelled "go OUT!" until I gave in and took you out.  As I reached the door and pushed it open you waved to everyone in the chapel and said so sweetly, "buh-bye!"  You love to eat cackers, coo-kies, and cany.  You really are at a fun stage right now with all the words you can say and things you are learning.

You may give me fits and be harder than I remember your brother and sister being, but you've got so much personality and fun faces and goofy dances that we just can't help but love you to pieces.

Love you bud!
Mom