Catching up

I know it’s been a few weeks since our last blog post.  I’ve actually meant to write something a few times but just got sidetracked by one thing or another.  Excuses aside, let’s get caught up.

Probably the biggest news lately is that our little girl had her first milestone of woman-hood - - - she got her little ears pierced.  The weekend she turned 6 months old we took her to the mall and turned the swarm of sales associates at the Claire’s loose.  Reagan was such a good little girl in spite of the painful experience.  She was done crying by the time we got to the register.  Yes, her first milestone as a woman also marked my first milestone as the father of a woman – forking out an unreasonable amount of money for two microscopic pieces of jewelry.  Here are some close-ups of her new bling.

One of the reasons we were so excited to get Reagan’s ears pierced was to finally make it impossible for strangers to mistake her for a little boy.  Apparently the mountain of pick clothes, blankets, etc. weren’t enough.  Obviously a little baby with two diamond earrings (ok, Cubic Zirconia, but whatever) would clearly be a baby girl, right?  Well, the other night we were out and about and an older woman was commenting about our kids but still kept referring to Reagan as a boy.  At first we were kind of bugged about it, but after the lady left we came to understand that she was obviously just mistaking her for an NFL wide receiver – the only other boys that have two diamond earrings. 

In other news, we’ve been having lots of fun this year teaching Tyler about Christmas.  We have a couple of Christmas books that we read each night, we’ve had Christmas related lessons during FHE, and we’ve been introducing him to the most common Christmas tradition – making and eating Christmas goodies.  Here are some pictures of our Christmas Cookie making FHE activity.

While it’s been fun working with Tyler on his understanding of Christmas, it’s amazing how quickly he latched on to the words “Santa Claus.”  We’ll say, “Tyler, can you say Christmas Tree?” … “Santa Claus.”  “Tyler, can you say baby Jesus?” … “Santa Claus.”  “Tyler, what does Dad’s belly remind you of?”… “Solid Granite.”  "Good boy!”

Lastly, a couple days ago we celebrated my 33rd birthday.  Yes, 33… Old enough that there’s no big birthday bash anymore but not old enough that you can start doing stupid stuff and blame it on old age.  In spite of the mediocrity of the milestone, Thesha was so nice and made me a cake and everything.  Now that Tyler understands the whole birthday concept, she wanted to make sure that he saw that it was Dad’s Birthday.  What he saw was Dad making a goof of himself – like he needed a special occasion to see that.  Thankfully she spared us all the fire hazard and only used two sets of three candles. 

Well, that’s about it.  This will probably be the last post before the holidays and our trip back to Utah.  Merry Christmas to all our friends and family!  We’ll catch up with you all in 2011.

Happy Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is a time to sit with family and friends and remember all the things your thankful for.  Well, this year we were very thankful that we had a chance to sit with family and friends and remember that we certainly do have much to be thankful for.  One thing quite prominent in our minds that we have to be thankful for is that at least this year isn’t last year.  To quote myself from our Nov. 3oth 2009 blog post, “Well, it sucked.”  Last year Thanksgiving dinner consisted of Ramen noodles and a turkey sandwich from the gas station.  This year Thanksgiving was an awesome fried turkey with stuffing, two kinds of potatoes, rolls, Jell-o salad, pumpkin pie… a REAL Thanksgiving.  We owe a HUGE thanks to our friends the Williams for inviting us over to their house to share the holiday.  It was great.

In addition to getting the meal right this year and spending the day with friends, we also finally got a chance to Skype with my family.  I’m sure most of them wondered if it was really worth the 45 minutes of work to try to get the technology to work, but it was great for us to see how big all the kids had gotten and to fill that spot in the holiday that requires you to get agitated around your family.  Now we just have to keep practicing so we’re all familiar enough with the technology that it isn’t such a big deal for future events.  I must admit, however, that I did at one point confess that it’s probably a good thing that we’ll be coming back for a face-to-face visit around Christmas. 

In addition to being thankful for a plate full of extra calories and a family to make fun of you for eating it all, the other thing we’re thankful for this year is the fact that we had a really enjoyable weekend with the kids.  Last year we spent most of the nights after Thanksgiving in the emergency room with Tyler having a fever of 104.  This year we spent the weekend watching Reagan learn how to sit all by herself.  It was so much fun.  She had been sitting a little before, but this weekend she really figured it out.  We found that the trick was to give her a toy to play with and that would keep her attention forward so she wouldn’t fall backwards.  Here’s a picture of her with some toys giving it a try.  Notice the huge puke rag … I mean burp cloth (ok, puke rag) in the background.  I didn’t say it was a clean experience.

As we continued to work with Reagan we tried a handful of different toys to keep her attention.  As it turns out, her favorite was a big rubber ball.  Tyler would get in on the fun as well – sitting in front of her and rolling the ball back to her as she knocked it his way.  The funniest part was the sound she makes.  There’s no way I could type it so I had to include a video.  The only way I can think of to describe it is that she’s able to make the sound that the old analog TVs would make when you went to a channel that wasn’t broadcasting and just got the fuzzy picture.  Take a look and turn up the volume and you’ll see what I mean.

Baby Reagan learning to sit and playing with a ball.

Tyler’s favorite baby sound was the way he made the sound of a Rainbird sprinkler head.  Between the two of them we’ve got quite a pair of noise makers.

On a final note, as a weekend project I figured I would give our computer a little upgrade and install some additional RAM memory.  Those of you that know me well won’t find this as a surprise, but I figured the best way to accomplish this task was to run to Staples after dinner and just pick up the memory chip and go ahead and install it.  How hard could it be, right?  Well, although it really wasn’t hard, I got a friendly reminder that sometimes it pays to actually stop and think about what you’re doing first. 

After purchasing the RAM, Tyler and I pulled out the computer, popped the side off, tore open the packing, and stuck the chip into the RAM slot… well, almost.  As it turns out, the chip I was sure was the best bang for the buck was the wrong type of chip (DDR3 instead of DDR2, for the nerds out there).  Best Buy has the “Geek Squad”, the show Chuck has the “Nerd Herd”, well Tyler and I were huddled over the computer like the “Jackass Crew”.  Ok, I probably shouldn’t include Tyler in that designation.  After all, I think in the picture below he looks like he knows more about what’s going on than I do. 

When Thesha came over to take the picture she was so excited to see her two guys working together to fix stuff around the house.  Thankfully she took the pictures before the illusion wore off and she realized I had just dropped $60 on something that didn’t work.  Thankfully I redeemed myself and was able to make the exchange at Staples for the correct chip and all was made right.  Our computer is so fast now it can almost open up a program before Thesha starts yelling at it to “just freakin’ work.”

Happy Veteran’s Day

For this Veteran’s Day we decided that rather then celebrate by watching another war movie that we’d actually visit a site where veteran’s performed their heroic acts of patriotism.  We’ve got a handful of places to choose from, but we decided to make it a Baltimore day by visiting Ft. McHenry.  Ft. McHenry is the site of one of the battles of the War of 1812 where Francis Scott Key saw the stars and stripes fly after a 24 hour barrage of bombings by the British Navy and was inspired to write what later became known as the Star Spangled Banner.  Before getting into our experience, enjoy one of my favorite renditions of the national anthem.

Thank you Enrico Palazzo!

Joking aside, it really was a pretty cool site to visit.  Typically on Veteran’s Day we think of men and women who went “over there” to fight for the freedoms of others.  Visiting Ft. McHenry gave us a chance to remember those who went “just right over there” to fight on our own soil to keep our country free.  One of the most impressive parts of our visit was the impressive physical layout of the fort.  Between the large array of cannons as well as the impressive earth structures, it definitely would have been a significant obstacle for an invading force in 1812.  Top that all off with a huge American flag flying proudly and it’s not hard to imagine why it was so inspiring for Francis Scott Key.  Here are a handful of pictures from our visit.

As I mentioned earlier, we wanted to make it a Baltimore day, so after visiting a classic Baltimore tourist location we decided to visit the Café Hon (Hon pronounced like a waitress in a 50’s diner asking you “what kinda pie can I getcha, hon?”).  I heard about Café Hon on the radio and they talked it up like a great place with waitresses dressed up in “Hon” attire – paisley dresses, beehive hairdo, pointy glasses, etc.  We were all excited but apparently we picked the Hon’s night off.  Instead we got the 22 year old college student with tattoo’s up her arms and a nose ring.  “That spike in yer’ nose itchin’, hon?”  At least we got to sit next to the life-size replica of Elvis with a feather scarf wrapped around his neck.

Our Baltimore night wasn’t over yet, though.  In visiting the not-so-Hon café, we had the joy of driving home during rush hour traffic.  Thankfully we weren’t in a hurry but after about 30 minutes traveling 7 miles you start to get anxious for any type of movement.  The monotony was interrupted, however, with one moment of laughter.  Part of the reason for the delay was because there was some construction in the area.  Because of the construction, they had placed one of those signs that shows the speed limit on one side and your speed on the next.  You gain a whole new appreciation for “traffic” when you look at that sign and it says “Speed Limit… 55 mph… Your Speed… N/A.”  C’mon man, at least give me a 2 or 3 mph just to make me feel better about myself.

To cap off the Baltimore night, I watched the Ravens game before going to bed.  I’m quickly becoming a Ravens fan because I hear about it pretty much every morning on the way to work – even during the off season.  They’ll have players on the air talking about the game so you start to put personalities with the names and numbers on the jersey’s which really gives a whole new feeling to the game.  Unfortunately the Ravens lost which gives a whole new disappointment to the game as well, but I guess that’s all part of being a fan. 

All in all, though, it was a fun day giving us a chance to enjoy a few truly American activities – Stars and Stripes… Meatloaf from the Hon’s… Rooting for the home team… Sleeping safely without the threat of tyranny… Thanks to all the Veteran’s who help make it all possible.

Catching up on all the lack of news

So even from 2,000 miles away my dad can chastise me about slacking in my duties.  I know it’s been a while since the last blog posting but there is a pretty good reason.  All the fun activities we’ve had planned for the last few weeks have all basically fallen through.  In spite of the lack of news, I’ll try to catch you all up and make this post worth reading.

First on the list of fun activities was a trip to the Brandywine Zoo in Wilmington, DE.  After our last trip to the Plumpton Park Zoo we figured this one would have to be better.  Well, it was and it wasn’t.  At least it wasn’t just someone’s farm with a bunch of wild animals but it was microscopic.  We brought a lunch and figured we’d spend a couple hours there then have some lunch so we arrived at 10:00.  After taking our time at each and every exhibit we sat down for lunch at about 11:15…and that was stretching it.  I guess the zoo wanted to really go out of its way to represent Delaware.  And by represent Delaware I mean be extremely small.  I’m sure there’s a smaller zoo out there but people probably just refer to it as the cat lady’s house.

Even though it was a short trip, we at least got to spend some time with some of our friends, the Nairs.  They have two boys, Camden and Dallan, who are both within a year or so of Tyler.  Here are a few pictures of our outing (yes, there are more pictures of us by the river next to the parking lot – seriously it was a freaking small zoo.)

Ok, so the zoo was kind of a bust.  Hey, sometimes that just happens when you’re exploring new places.  So the next weekend we planned to go back to the place where we saw the horse races because they were having an equestrian competition.  Now I don’t know what an equestri is but on the website it looked like a bunch of horses jumpin’ over fences so that seemed like a fun activity.  To our dismay, however, Fall decided to arrive that morning bringing with it really cold and really fast winds.  Once again we packed a lunch and went out exploring and in the time it took us to walk from our car in the general parking to the bus that was to shuttle us to the event we realized this was a crappy idea and we were already sick of freezing our butts off.

So once again our plans fell through so we just went back and had a picnic at Tyler’s table in his bedroom.  In retrospect it’s probably a good thing.  I remember as a kid going to the rodeo for the 24th of July and thinking how cool it would be to get a cowboy hat, some cowboy boots, and be a real cowboy.  Of course, on the east coast you don’t go to a rodeo you go to an equestrian competition.  Had we actually made it to the competition, Tyler probably would have thought how cool it would be to get knee-high black leather boots, a cool black derby, and be a real douche-bag.  Yeah, a nice picnic in his room was probably a blessing in disguise.

Our last failed attempt at having something good to blog about was a Halloween birthday party for Dallan.  Luckily the party was a lot of fun and we got to spend some time with friends.  The only bad thing was that Tyler did not want to cooperate when we dressed him in his costume for a cute picture for the blog.  So here’s the best picture we have of Tyler in his costume.  In case you can’t tell what he is, he’s a 2 year old in an itchy fireman’s costume throwing a tantrum.  

Ahhhh… how cute.  I think he’s trying to honor those fireman who’ve lost the lower half of their legs in the line of duty. 

Those of you looking for a picture of Reagan in her costume have obviously never had to try and find a costume for a 4 month old ‘cause they don’t exist.  Ok, that’s not entirely true.  It’s just hard to find but we probably have something now (thanks to another friend from the ward with older girls who’ve grown out of their baby costumes).  We’ve got a couple more Halloween parties lined up so we’ll try to get a picture (of both the kids) next time.

Reagan joins us at the table

It seems like just yesterday we were bringing little Reagan home from the hospital, but on Sunday she actually turned 4 months old.  In spite of our perception of how long it had really been, it was time to introduce her to the world of solid foods.  Well, as solid as you can call a bowl of mushy rice cereal.

Here’s our little sweetheart so excited to be sitting at the table.  She looked so tiny in that big high chair.

Well, this “food” aint gonna eat itself (and there’s no way I’m gonna eat it) so we strapped on the bib and got started.  Here she goes.

Yeah, I’m not too sure she liked it.  I don’t know why.  Flavorless, colorless, luke-warm mush.  How could it not be delicious?

After a few bites we called it good enough for a first run.  I’m not sure if she’s smiling in this next picture because she was happy to have been such a big girl eating her food or if she was just smiling because we finally took it away. 

Either way it was a big milestone for our little girl (and a good day for Dad as well because we got one step closer to never having to buy baby formula again).

In big brother news, Tyler has definitely entered the parrot stage (repeating everything we say).   I don’t remember what we were doing but the other day I said “This sucks” about something and two seconds later out came “This sucks” from Tyler.  I guess it could have been worse but we’ve definitely had to start watching ourselves a little closer now.

Happy Birthday Tyler

Well, it was a very different scene this birthday compared to Tyler’s 1st birthday.  A year ago we were in the park behind our house in Roy getting ready to say goodbye to everyone.  As we look back over the past year so much has changed. 

We considered having a birthday party for Tyler with all his friends from nursery, but then we decided it would be a fun tradition to just have a party every other year and go somewhere fun as a family in between those years.  Before heading out, however, we set up Tyler’s birthday gifts on the couch so they were there for him as he walked out of his bedroom in the morning.  It was a lot like Christmas, but at least we didn’t have to bother wrapping everything.

Tyler enjoyed the Lego's and farm animals, but he made his preference clear when he went for this gift right off the bat.  Here’s Tyler with his new “oder cycle” (Tyler for motorcycle).

As I sat on the couch putting this together at 11:00  the evening before his birthday, I told Thesha that this thing was so cool that if I could ride it I totally would right now.  For all the dad’s who’ve assembled toys while you’re kids were sleeping, you know how good it feels to see your kids enjoy them as well.  So you can imagine how cool it was when Tyler stopped pushing the blinker and engine noise buttons to give his new motorcycle a hug. 

Best reaction EVER!  The best part about this picture is that it wasn’t even staged.  We actually got the picture in the act.

Here’s another picture of Tyler in his new Sunday clothes.  He looks like such a big kid I just couldn’t help but include this one in the blog.

Yes, he’s pointing to his motorcycle and No, he did not give his new dress clothes a hug. 

For our family outing, we went to the Delaware Children’s Museum.  It was a ton of fun.  Tyler ran and played non-stop for about two hours running from exhibit to exhibit.  By the time we left he was so worn out that he didn’t want to walk to the car and when we went into a restaurant for lunch he just laid his head down on the table.  Here are a few pictures of him taking it all in.  See the rest in the slideshow at the bottom of the blog posting.

 

A really fun exhibit was the simulated NASCAR garage.  In this exhibit you can tune the engine, replace a muffler, and change a tire.  Here’s Tyler changing the tire.  I kept waiting for him to say “Ohhh fuuudddggge” but it never came.  Maybe when he’s a bit older he’ll risk the soap poisoning.  (If you don’t get that reference you’re missing out on an American classic – A Christmas Story.)

I know it’s supposed to be all about Tyler, but I just can’t help but include a cute picture of the ladies.

At the end of the day we finished up the days activities with a special Birthday Cake that Thesha did such a good job putting together.  While I assembled the motorcycle, Thesha assembled the birthday cake.  It really turned out cute.  For all those mom’s out there who toiled in the kitchen for hours trying to make your idea come together in cake and frosting, you know how rewarding it feels to see it all come together.  Then to see your 2 year-old get a huge smile on his face and blow the candles out all by himself…best reaction EVER!

Tyler loves the M&M’s so we figured why not let him indulge – it’s his birthday after all.

It was a really fun day for all of us and even though it was different then last year it was still a very special day and one that will always be remembered.  Happy Birthday, Tyler.

Here is the complete collection of pictures from Tyler’s birthday.  Enjoy.

 

Holy Rollers Batman

Well, it’s official.  Reagan’s rolling over.  She actually rolled over once a week or two ago but we weren’t really sure if she had rolled over or just fallen onto her side and back on accident.  We put her on her stomach last night and she purposefully rolled onto her side then onto her back.  To confirm it wasn’t a fluke, we put her back on her stomach and she rolled over onto her back again – this time with photographic evidence.  Here are the pictures of our little roller.

   

Mama and Tag

Well, Tyler’s starting to come into his true 2-year old spirit (even though he still has a week left as a 1-year old).  As if on cue he suddenly realized that he can say no, so now everything we ask of him prompts an immediate “No.” 

Tyler, do you want breakfast?  NO.  Tyler, will you pick up your toys? NO.  Tyler will you ever stop saying no? NO.  I didn’t realize we had raised Tyler to be such a fan of Nancy Reagan’s “Just Say No” campaign.

In addition to the perpetual No’s, Tyler has also taken to calling me Tag instead of Dad.  I’ll come home from work and he used to run up to me and say something like “Hi Dad”, or ask Thesha “Where’s Dad?” but now everything is “Hi Tag” and “Where’s Tag?”  My personal favorite is when he calls for me from across the room.  “Tag…Tag…Tag…” We’ve tried to correct him and tell him to say Dad, but it always reverts back to Tag. 

It’s not much better for Thesha, however.  Granted, he still calls her Mom or Mama, but he’s gotten to where he just calls out her name over and over again.  The other day he woke up from his nap early so Thesha tried to just let him settle back down and go back to sleep.  After a little while, however, he started yelling for her… “mama…..Mama……MAMA.”  When she finally broke down and went in to see what was the matter he just looked her straight in the face and said “I fine.”  This is Tyler’s other new favorite saying, “I fine.”  Whenever he falls down… “I fine.”  Whenever he falls and slams his head into the wall… “I fine.”  Whenever he lets one rip while sitting on my lap… “I fine.” 

Well, that’s about it for this time.  Here are some recent pics just for fun.  Next time we should have some pictures from Tyler’s birthday and maybe even some pretty fall pictures (the leaves are starting to turn and it’s looking prettier every day).

These are some from a nearby covered bridge.

These are just some cute pictures of our little “Squishy” (as I like to call her).

Reagan’s Bumbo-rific and a Follow-up to the Picnic Story

Well, there’s not a whole lot to talk about this week.  We’ve just been hanging out around home relaxing lately.  It’s actually been ok because it’s given us a chance to let Reagan start trying out the Bumbo.  She’s still a little wobbly in it so we can’t leave her in it for more than a couple minutes, but it’s a start.

Here’s our little cutie…

Now before you all go get too excited, I’ll have you know I sat like this for hours on Saturday then again on Sunday.  It was exhausting.  How ‘bout an “ahhhh, how cute” for me!

As a follow-up to my post about my work picnic and Tyler hitting on all the girls.  Apparently a coworker of mine got some photographic evidence.

Here’s Tyler hitting on a little girl his own age.

Then, just as she starts thinking she’s got a chance…Boom. He goes after the “cougar.”

I told Tyler I was going to post these pictures and he just said, “Don’t hate the playa’… hate the game.”