Tyson - December 2013 - 2 years old!

Two years old.  I have no idea how that happened.  You are smart enough and big enough and a pain enough that I can believe you are 2, but at the same time I don't know how all that time could have possibly passed.  Like your last letter you have definitely proven you are in the terrible 2 stage, but you've been a little bit better in the last month.  For one, you've decided that dad is okay most of the time and will even crawl up on the bed and watch videos with him on his phone for a while.  This is a big improvement!  You also have some sweet moments with your brother and sister, like when you and Logan played on the floor together one morning before he caught the bus

and then posing for a picture with Tessa with Tess and looking more than happy to be there.

You still throw plenty of fits, which I'm not dumb enough to think are close to being over, but you've finally gotten that last eye tooth and have seemed to have mellowed a bit.  You talk and talk and talk and are starting to learn more and more letters and numbers.  Every time we go somewhere it seems like someone is impressed with how well you speak.  Plus you give good pep talks, and if someone tells you that you are awesome you enthusiastically return the compliment.  Ask me to find the video of that for you to watch.  I'm sure it's one that will be one of our family's favorites.

Sometimes you will get a little shy, but for the most part you aren't afraid to be goofy and silly.

We had a big snowfall in Kanab earlier this month, and while you didn't last as long as your brother and sister did playing in it, you managed to figure out that you were supposed to throw it at mom.  It's been almost a month since then, and you still call the snow "snowman."  We threatened Logan that he is not to correct you on that one!

You've now experienced your second Christmas, and I think you are now spoiled with presents!  We started off at Grandma Lori and Grandpa Rob's house the Saturday before Christmas where we had a little family party before the Pollock party.  You opened presents from Grandma and Grandpa and Tinsley, who had your name this year.

Then at the party you did pretty well with sitting on Santa's lap.  He had an app on his phone that scanned your finger and told whether you were naughty or nice.  I'm not sure how well it worked though because you came up as nice!

On Christmas Eve you all opened your presents from mom and dad - new jammies (of course) with some popcorn and a box of candy for watching our Christmas Eve movie.  You did a lot better with the movie this year and actually watched a portion of it instead of just crawling all over everyone and driving us nuts.

This picture of you all in your new jammies makes me laugh.  Tess spends a lot of time trying to get you to do what she wants you to do.  It's pretty frustrating for both of you!

Logan woke up about 6:45 or so on Christmas morning, and you weren't all too thrilled to be woken up.  I held you on my lap and tried to get you to open your stocking, but you pretty much just went back to sleep on my lap.

After a few minutes I had waved enough candy and cars in your face that you came to and decided that you wanted to be a part of the fun.  You got some puzzles, a car track, and some new cars, and you seemed pretty happy with your haul.

Tess bought little Christmas presents for you and Logan, and Logan bought one for her on both of your behalf, and after you all had opened them we told you to give hugs and say thank you.  This is my favorite picture from that morning.

Later that morning we loaded up and headed to Grandma and Grandpa Hillier's house to spend the day with them and Aunt Lisa and Uncle Joe.  You got to open more presents and stayed pretty wound up and crazy and fun all day.

Then of course 3 days after the craziness of Christmas you got to open presents AGAIN on your birthday.  We started off the day with breakfast at Parry's lodge with dad and Tess (Logan was in Panguitch), and then I spent the rest of the day trying to keep you out of your presents.  I had wrapped your blocks the day before, and you found the present in your room (where you hardly ever go so I thought it was safe) and managed to unwrap a side before I caught you.  I caught you in there 2 more times before I finally wised up and moved it!

We had just a little family party at our house and both sets of grandparents came along with Aunt Lisa and Uncle Joe and Aunt Bre and Uncle Boo and Tinsley.  You pretty much got spoiled.  Your dad and I were impressed with how well you left (most of the) presents under the tree alone all month long, but I'm pretty sure no present would be safe now!  You got a fire truck, a fourwheeler, clothes, cars, Mater blocks, wood blocks, and a Mater pillow.

You gave your Mater pillow a hug and a kiss as soon as you got it out of the bag, but I wasn't quick enough to catch either.  It was pretty cute though.

Even if you are a "terrible" 2-year-old I wouldn't trade you.  You may fight me tooth and nail when it is time to get you dressed, but you think you are being so funny that I can't help but think it's funny (most of the time).  You splash all the water out of your bath, take drinks from your sippy only to spit them on the floor, and change your mind every 2 seconds and just otherwise spend most of your day driving me crazy, but both your dad and I are holding on to this age so tight because we know we won't have it for very much longer.  It's safe to say that 2013 was not an easy year for your dad and me, but every time I get excited about leaving it behind I can't even fully say that because you and your brother and sister have been so great and fun throughout the year that I will miss it for that reason.  The 3 of you have helped us through it, and for that I am so incredibly grateful.

Love you Ty-Ty,
Mom

(As I typed Ty-Ty just now I remembered another cute thing you did.  We were at the store and one of the workers said, "Hey buddy!" to you.  You pointed at yourself and said, "I'm TY-TY!")

Logan - November/December

I didn't get any pictures of your Halloween costume in the October letter.  You did your trademark flip-flopping on what you wanted to be until we came to the agreement that you would be a mummy and I would make your costume.  Hoo-boy if I'd known how long it was going to take me to make that costume I may have just opted for the $30 werewolf costume we'd considered!  You and Tess had fun helping me tear up and old sheet to dye and use as the strips, and then I sewed them to a sweater and sweatpants and an old beanie.  It turned out pretty cool, and you were impressed, which was all I was looking for.  You were even more impressed when we were able to bust out the face makeup after school.

You are definitely a pro at this trick-or-treating stuff now, and a few times I had to stop you to make sure you didn't get too far ahead of me and the rookies.

You'll notice in that picture that you're finally missing some teeth!  You got yours so early and so fast that I thought you'd be pretty quick to lose them, but you were actually one of the last in the class to lose one.  Once they started though they didn't stop until all 4 front teeth were out - within about 5 weeks!  You had a pretty good gap there, but the adult teeth are starting to come in and fill in the spot pretty good.  You could still probably sing the "All I Want for Christmas" song and have it apply.

One weekend we met Grandma and Grandpa H. up at Zion and rode the shuttle and explored for a bit before it got dark.  Grandma said the last time she had you up there you wouldn't get on the shuttle, but this time you did't mind it and on our way back down the canyon you even found a buddy who was about 9 or 10 to sit and chat with.  It's fun to see you be social and interact with kids - even ones you don't know!  You might have a little of your Grandma H. in you there!

You've started sleeping in weird places in your room just like Tess does.  I'm not sure why you guys do it, but this night I laughed especially hard when I walked in and saw this because I'd just come from Tessa's room where she was sleeping IN her dirty clothes basket.  I'm not sure what possessed the two of you to sleep with your dirty clothes on the same night, but you guys sure are strange.

Dad was feeling a little antsy one day earlier this winter, so we loaded up and headed to Jacob Lake for a cookie and some snow.  You like to tempt your fate by throwing snowballs at your mom, but I learned after our snowball fight last year (I think?) that I'm not allowed to throw back.

Then last week it snowed and snowed and snowed here in Kanab, and I finally let you guys out to play in it.  It was too light to really make a snowman, but you guys had a blast throwing it, eating it, and making snow angels.

We had a good Thanksgiving this year at Grandma Lori and Grandpa Rob's house, and you and Quade had a fun time playing together - when you weren't fighting with each other.  You even got to go out and play football after dinner with your uncles and cousins.  When I went out and played for a few plays you seemed always to be blocking me or the other way around, and we were able to get out some mother-son frustration with a few friendly tackles!  Although some of yours weren't quite so friendly.

You are such a goof, and even though we are hard on you sometimes you are really a great kid.  We had your first parent-teacher conference in November, and your teacher had only good things to say about you including that you are a leader for the kids in your class and that everyone seems to like you.  I have to agree.  You are currently at 337% of your goal for Accelerated Reader points and have tested on over 230 books since school started.  I'm so proud of you and so happy you love to read.  Mr. Willardsen set a goal for you to reach 500% by the end of the year, and I know you can do it.

You still tell me about a dozen jokes a day, and they are getting better!  I've heard a Christmas countdown almost every day for the entire month of December, and I'm so excited to see how you react to your presents again this year.  I hope this isn't the last year that you get to really believe in Santa, but I'm afraid it might be.  You're just too observant and your brain too logical to keep up for much longer.  The fact that the UPS and FedEx guys come a lot during the months of November and December but you never see the boxes, the fact that Santa's handwriting looks a lot like how mom writes left-handed, and that Santa uses the same gift tags that mom does is a little suspicious.  Just remember if you tell your sister and brother before they figure it out on their own I will hurt you.  (kidding, kind of)

And also, people who don't believe get underwear.

Love you bud,
Mom

Tessa - November/December 2013

I didn't get any Halloween pictures in on the October letter, so I better sneak one in here.  I LOVE your costume.  I wish they had it in my size because I would totally love to wear it.  We crimped your hair for the extra "witch" look and you had a blast trick-or-treating around the high school classes during preschool and then out with me and your brothers that night.  We had a good time.

The rest of the fall has been pretty uneventful.  We've toned things down a little as a result of dad having surgery and not being able to go anywhere with us, but we still got out and visited Zion with grandma and grandpa H. one weekend.

And when dad got feeling good enough to drive we ventured up to Jacob Lake to get a cookie and play in the snow.

And eat the snow too.  You wouldn't stop eating it when it snowed here in town last week either.  Silly goose.

We are used to finding you sleeping in all sorts of strange positions and spots in your room, but this one took the cake.  I walked in to find you sleeping on your pillow but inside your laundry basket.  I had to pick it up and try to gently shake you out of it because I was afraid you'd wake up and freak out about being in such a confined spot.  The funny thing was when I went into Logan's room to turn off his light and give him a kiss HE was sleeping on TOP of his laundry basket.  I don't know what got into the two of you that night, but it was pretty dang funny.

I hate to say that life has been pretty slow lately because for one then I wouldn't have an excuse for still being late on letters, but it's been....different.  Since quitting my job at Garkane I've tried to work more from home, and with the weather turning cold we don't go to the park very often so we just kind of hang out at home when you guys aren't at school.  It's slower, but at the same time I still feel like we are busy with school and homework and running here and there to Grandma's houses, etc.

We had a great Thanksgiving at Grandma Lori and Grandpa Rob's, and you got to play with all your cousins.  You sure are a fan of that little girl cousin of yours, Ms. Tins, and would probably follow her around all day.  After dinner Uncle Dusty and Uncle Boo grabbed Quade's football and headed outside.  You weren't about to be left behind, so you went out with Logan and Quade and Bosten and had a blast playing football.  They named you the MVP for your ability to run fast and duck in and out of the trees to make your touchdowns!  My favorite part was your touchdown dance.

You've been able to go to a few birthday parties and go over to friend's houses from preschool, and it seems like every day you've got a new admirer and someone yelling bye to you as we leave preschool.  I teased you the other day about not hearing about a certain boy in class for a while and you said you didn't really play with him anymore and played more with this other boy.  I said, "Oh, so you just love 'em and leave 'em, huh?" and you just said "Yep!"  It's fun to see you have friends and get excited to see someone at school or at the park when we're there.

I'm saving my December pictures for your January letter - here's hoping I can get back on track with them.  I really do think they are important, at least for me.  I hope you guys will like hearing about what life was like when you were little too.  Maybe it will even help you out when you're a mom.

Love you sis,
Mom

Tyson - November 2013

It's actually been less than a month since my last letter - so yay!  Maybe I'm going to catch up at some point, although that's not SUPER likely as I'll explain as we go.

In my October letter I left out Halloween pictures.  You weren't super enthused about the dressing up idea, and since I accidentally washed and dried the good ol' standby lion costume I'd used for everyone's first and second Halloween and ruined it I wasn't all that enthused about the idea of buying something to dress you up in either.  Hence our first costume attempt of "cowboy."  It consisted of a pair of boots about 3 sizes too big, an somewhat "cowboy-ish" shirt and Logan's old straw hat.  Too bad I let you try to tackle a Slurpee later that day and ended up with a giant pink stain down the front.

Meridee had lent me a couple dog costumes to try.  I finally tackled you and put one on you, but you were NOT having the hat with the ears on it or any kind of cute black nose, so this is what we ended up with for you.

Trick or treating was a bit of an adventure.  You still weren't super happy about the costume and now I was making you go to people's doors.  You weren't much of a fan initially.  I couldn't get you to put your candy in your bag at first either.  The first few houses you kept it in your hand, but then you ran out of hands.  At that point you put the piece from one of your hands in the bag and kept the newest piece in your hand.  This went on all night with you not putting a piece in your bag until you had a new one to replace it.  I tried to get a good picture but you wouldn't let me get far enough away before you started running after me.  That's been a bit of a theme the last few weeks too.  Somebody is definitely a mama's boy right now.

This is a random picture that I had to throw in just because it's cute.  I gave you the bowl of cookie dough after I was done and you obviously were pretty serious about getting every last bit licked out before you were giving it back.

It seemed like right before I started working and all through the 5-ish months I was working you were the most adorable, fun-loving, happy-go-lucky kid on the planet.  Then I quit my job (one of them anyway), and you are back to being kind of a punk.  You don't really let me out of your sight, and for some reason you have decided dad is not someone you want around.  Every time he comes out of our room you point at the door and say, "Go bed dad!" or just "Noooooooooooo!  Nooooooooo!"  It's lovely.  I know you are working on some teeth, but overall I've not been that impressed with all the grumpiness lately.  It's all I can do to get half my to-do list done during the day, and usually what I do get accomplished is done with you yelling at me or "helping" me.  It's a good thing you say and do cute things to keep us from shipping you off.  It kind of makes for a bipolar mood around here.  For example:
One minute:  You are calling snow snowman and just being adorable.
Next minute:  You are yelling at me to change the show on TV because you changed your mind in the last 5 minutes.
The next minute: You are giving Tessa a hug and telling her good morning.
And the next minute:  Screaming for a cup of water and then taking a drink and spitting the water on my feet and running away laughing.
And the next:  I catch you kissing the ornaments on the Christmas tree and leaning in and saying, "hug!"

This all happened today, so yeah.  Now you are telling me that you don't like the show you asked me to turn on for you 5 minutes ago and trying to climb up on top of my computer and kicking the mouse and throwing my foot pedal off the couch onto the floor.  You are such a terrible 2-year-old.  Did I mention you are my first child that I have ever had to take screaming out of the grocery store without buying anything?  Yes, you may be my third child but you are making sure you give me a bunch of "firsts."

But then there's this cute face on our trip to Zion with Grandma and Grandpa H.  Plus you call grass hoppers grassier hoppers.

And then there's this - being sweet while eating a pocs-icle.

And this may look cute and helpful, but it's not.  No one can wash the dishes without your "help."  If you are dressed (which doesn't happen often lately either because, fits) you end up soaked, so it's just as well that you were just in a diaper this time.

But then another time you randomly put the pot on your head and look adorable.

You also have decided that the best place to sleep is on the floor in the front room.  I crash on the couch, and you fall asleep at some point after that.  Then I wake up and take you to your crib only to have you wake up a few hours later and yell, "MOM!  MOM!  MOM!!!!" until I come get you and take you to the front room where you climb down off the couch and on to the floor with your butt in the air and fall back asleep.

This makes it tough for me to work in the front room early in the morning without waking you up, and at some point you wake up and bring all your blankies over to join me on the couch.  This sweet sleeping boy who fell asleep on my arm is the one who later that day threw the fit that made me practically sprint out of the grocery store.

Obviously it's not all bad.  You can be cute and sweet when you want to - and only when you want to, but I guess it's like anything and the bad Tyson moods make us so much more appreciative of the good Tyson moods.

I can't believe your next letter will be about your second Christmas and 2nd birthday.  I'm so excited for another toddler at Christmas where everything is so fun and exciting but not yet focused on what you're getting.  We love you bud and wouldn't trade you even in your worst moments.

Love,
Momma