Tyler's Fourth (?) Word

I truly believe that Tyler's first word was "mama" and his second word was "dada."  I think his third word was "bye bye."

But all of those, I can never really tell if he means what he's saying when he says it.  It's not super consistent.

However, his fourth word is definite. 

Ball! 

He knows what a ball is and he can say it as he's throwing it and bouncing it to you.  There is no question on this one. 

That boy loves this basketball.  I don't know how early Joel got started playing, but Tyler's all about it and he's not even 1 yet.  If this keeps up, there won't be any needing to encourage him to play, he's going to beg to play!

Holiday World 2013 - AND Tyler stands by himself!

We still had a couple free tickets left to Holiday World and took off to Santa Claus this morning.  We planned to get there right when they opened and then stay until the kids were ready to nap.  It ended up working out really well.

 

Daddy and Lily rode the carousel together.  Lily didn't want to ride on the horseys though...

I took her on the little roller coaster but it wasn't too pleasant for anyone.  She didn't want to ride it.  At all.  But I made her.  She didn't cry but she was scared as all get out and as soon as it came to a stop she said, "I want to get out of here now."

She did however, LOVE the teacups.  She rode once and when it was over she wanted to ride again.  I had a hard time getting pictures so excuse the horrible quality....

After the teacups we headed to the water park and met up with Katie, Ayden and Mackenzie.  We played in the water until we were all starving.  Then had some lunch and after that, we tried to take the kiddos back to the water slides, but after one slide Lily asked if we could go home now.  She was so tired, she just couldn't handle any more!


Tyler passed out before we even got out of the water park.  Lily passed out about 30 seconds after we got out of the parking lot. 

Tonight when we got home, the kids played and played and were in such a good mood.  Tyler was walking all over the place behind this train toy.  He also stood by himself several times for a few seconds each time!  We are on our way to walking!

 

Lily got a hold of my phone and was taking lots of pictures tonight.  She's completely obsessed with taking pictures!

 

 

Joel put purse on top of Lily's head and she wanted me to take a picture.  She's so goofy.

 

 







Boys have a wiener

Well the time has finally come where Lily has comprehended that there is difference in plumbing between boys and girls. She was sitting on the potty before bed a couple nights ago and this is a bit of how the conversation went:

Lily: "My pee pee is going down the hole in the potty. I put my weiner in the hole in the potty to go pee pee."

Me (laughing): "Lily, you don't have a weiner. You have a vagina. Boys have a wiener."

Lily: "Deven has a weiner and he puts it in the potty to go pee pee." (Deven is the only boy in her class at school, poor fella).

Me (laughing harder): "Who else has a wiener?"

Lily: "Daddy has a wiener. And Tyler has a wiener. Tyler's wiener is little."

A little randomness never hurt anyone

I went back through some random pictures over the past month or two from my phone and found several cute ones that I never posted.

 

Earlier this month, Joel took Lily for a ride in the Bronco - just around the neighborhood.  With no car seat.  Or booster seat.  Where several police officers live.  But you know, whatever.  Bottom line, she loved it.  Thought it was great fun. 

 

 

And no one got pulled over!  Bonus!

 

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I've mentioned before how Lily says, "..... because I'm doctor."  Well here's Lily checking out Daddy's eyes (with a socket wrench) because she's a doctor.



 

 

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Here's some cute shots I took of Tyler trying to get a good one for his birthday card invitation.  This is the most handsome little dude I've ever seen!

 

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This one's from tonight.... Lily got out her pink Santa hat which calls her "winter hat" and asked me and Joel if we wanted to go to winter!  Funny girl.

 

 

Mommy Ran Away!

This past weekend, I took off to Evansville.... BY MYSELF! It was such a much needed break from the hectic daily life of this working mama.

I've been needing a break for a while and a week or so ago, Joel said, "You should go. I'll watch the kids. And if you don't go, that's on you, cause I'm telling you it's ok."

After wrestling in my mind for several days and trying to deal with the guilt of leaving my babies for two nights (silly, I know), I finally decided to take off and go.

Funny thing was, mom wasn't even there!  A couple hours after I got there, she and Jason took off to Gulf Shores for a vacation!  So I was truly there ALONE!  This was the first time I had been completely away and alone, relaxing since Lily was born.  That's over 2.5 years in case anyone's lost count.....

I did miss the kiddos terribly while I was gone.  But they were pretty well behaved for Joel and he sent me some cute pictures.

Saturday morning Joel made pancakes for the babes.

Now you see it....

Now you don't!

For Lily, giraffe shaped pancakes!

Clean plate!

After Tyler's morning nap, they went for a walk around the neighborhood.  Both of these kiddos love to be outside.  Love it!

Sunday morning, Joel sent this picture of Tyler feeding himself.  Since I always nurse him, I've never seen him feed himself milk! 

Shortly after breakfast on Sunday, I headed back to Columbus and arrived home around lunch time.  The rest of the afternoon and evening the kids were following me around everywhere.  Tyler in particular was getting upset any time I left the room.  It was pretty sweet.

The best thing that I've noticed since I got home though was that Tyler goes to Joel more and more.  I think that time without me here really did a good thing for them.  Tyler was able to see that Daddy can take care of him just as well as Mama!

Zoo and Water Day

Two Saturdays ago, we took a spontaneous trip to the Indianapolis Zoo. Joel had gotten free tickets from work and let me just say that if the tickets to get in aren't free for us in the future, we probably won't go back. It is EXPENSIVE! It costs $6 to park. Then costs $17/adult and $13/child (ages 1-12). Once you get in, if you want to do any of the other "rides" there, you have to pay $2.50 each. A 20 oz drink is $3.29. If you need to eat lunch while there, a small individual pizza is $9. For a family of four to go there, you can easily spend well over $100. Make sure you smuggle in snacks and/or pack your lunch!

Once you get over the sticker shock, the zoo is merely ok. The exhibits are very nice....for the animals. But we didn't see probably half of the animals because they were hidden behind something and weren't visible. So, I wasn't impressed.

The kids enjoyed parts of it. But Lily probably asked no less than 5 times "Where are the animals?" The kids did pretty good for about 2.5-3 hours and then they hit the nap wall and it was time to go!

 

The kiddos conked out as soon as we got in the car...

That Sunday, when Lily got up from her nap she asked me, "Is it water day, Mommy?" It was gorgeous outside so how could I tell her no?  The kiddos love, love, love to play in the water.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lily got a hold of the camera......

Dinner outside!