Baby's first time feeling grass

Tidus has had a taste of freedom from the carrier and he is never looking back. Today I set him on the grass instead of the sand, mostly because I did not want to deal with sand everywhere. He loved it just as much as sand. Once again he would have sat there all day if I let him. In fact, Ted wanted me to join him in running up and down the nearby grass hill.

As I loaded Tidus back into the carrier he began to lean to the side arching his way back to his cool grassy oasis. I informed him that he needed to ride in the carrier so I could walk around. Tidus was not pleased. He gave me a few disdainful looks and a grunt or two of disapproval. Tidus knows the joy of not being strapped to someone's chest. Luckily for me he is a baby and I am stronger than him. :) So back in the carrier he went. I did let him out a couple more times though. He sat in the grass a second time and road in the baby swing which he also was upset about being taken out of. Sheesh Tidus! 

Selfies with my boys! I asked Ted if he wanted to take a selfie with me. He said sure and walked over next to me to pose. It is so funny to me that Ted knows what a selfie is. He also is fully aware that he can see his picture the instant it is taken. Each time he catches me snapping a shot he says, "I see myself?" 

Ted has recently discovered the awesomeness of sticks. Hooray for one more motherly stress while visiting the park.  

As a group of children ran by, Ted started walking towards them, a stick in each hand. Oh no you don't! Calling across the playground to Ted I gave him a choice. It is either the sticks or the kids. Ted gazed over to the jungle gym at his potential friends... then he looked to his hands at the truly magnificent sticks he has recently found. He set the sticks in the sand, held up both hands to the sticks and said, "Stay!" And he began his walk to the other side of the playground. Only making it about 15 feet away, Ted turned back around and ran to his sticks. Clearly he was concerned they would not be there when he came back. I offered to hold the sticks for him so they would be safe. He took me up on my offer and handed over the sticks. Than he said, "Mama wanna play with me?" 

Graffiti A-B-C

Ted is a champ and can walk the long journey all the way to the park! (and home again) We have been working on our ABCs for a while so Ted loves to point out letters when he sees them. This means that our 15 minute walk home takes more like 30 minutes as Ted stops every time he sees something he needs to pick up, feel, inspect, point out or step on. Someone spray painted the sidewalk and Ted made sure to stop, point out the letters he knew and then sing the ABCs. Big city toddler applying his knowledge to real life situations. 

Baby's first time feeling sand

Tidus felt the sand! Being a baby means being carried around in a carrier or sitting in a stroller for the duration of any trips around the world. Beyond the occasional swing in the baby swing, Tidus does not get out much at the park. Yesterday I was a daring momma. I set Tidus down in the middle of the sandy park. 

Side note: Parks in Huntington Beach are lined with either the bouncy rubber mat or more often, sand. It is the experience of the beach without the ocean. There have been times when I ask myself why we did not have awesome sandy parks in Washington. Then logical Whitney shows up to pull California Dreaming Whitney out of the bubble and say, rain duh!

Ted has a new shovel and bucket set I purchased for him he has been dying to take to the park. He used his bucket all of 5 minutes. He then found a 2 inch stick which occupied him the remainder of the time as he drew circles and lines in the sand to his heart's content.

Okay back to Tidus. He loved the sand! He would have sat there running his fingers through the soft tan granules all afternoon. After a while his little round body started to sink forward though so back in the carrier he went. Most impressive fact of all is that he did not attempt to eat the sand. He scooped up fistful after fistful letting it gently glide out his hands and incidentally all over his pants. 

My plan to make the boys California lovers is working bwa ha ha! 

Tidus the Mightiest Week 6: It's the Final Countdown!

Did you start singing the song when you read the title? This week brought another new therapist and some great news! Tidus only has 2 MORE WEEKS!!! Whoop whoop! He helmet is getting so shaved down that it is almost to the outer plastic shell. He will have an appointment next week and the following week he will have his big exit appointment where they reevaluate his skull and he is all done!

The therapist today was awesome. It is too bad she is a traveler or I would recommend her for every visit... ya know, if Tidus had more than 2 left and all... She ooo'd and aww'd over how great and round Tidus's head looks. She marveled at the symmetry of his cheeks bones. Tidus will be a poster child for cranial technology she declared!

After the inevitable question of whether I have continued with Tidus's neck stretches, I informed her about the therapist who commented on Tidus leaning to the opposite side. Sue (the therapist today) actually had a reason for this happening which is another reason she is so great. She informed me that the neck muscles on the right are all nice and stretched out now but they are still not as strong as the left side. This is the reason Tidus leans to the left. Once again, this is nothing to worry about. He will continue to gain strength on his right side as he grows older.

Hooray!


Tonight was the first night of BABY LEAD WEANING! Bum bum bummmm....

First item up for baby grabs was half a banana. Ted volunteered himself to eat the other half... and then another entire banana. Tidus instantly reached for the banana and shoved it in his mouth. A look of shock crossed his face as he realized he could bite off chunks of banana. The surprise turned to something in between horror and disgust as he tried to get the banana out of his mouth.

No thank you!

Perhaps banana was too ambitious for the first time. 

Next culinary delight... applesauce

This went over much better. We lost the bib because there was really no use for it, but for some reason I thought a plate was necessary for the applesauce, it wasn't. Tidus spent the entire time trying to pick up the plate and inspect it close up. 

Ted also volunteered himself to eat a bowl of applesauce with Tidus. Tidus just makes everything look so appetizing how can you not want to eat what he has?

We ditched the plate and I poured a pile of applesauce directly onto the tray. Tidus swirled it around for a while occasionally slapped his hand down hard on the plastic tray. Realizing he needed a little instruction, I mushed his chunky little hand through the pile and wiped it in his face. He got the message and began sucking the applesauce off his hand. This went on until Tidus grew tired of sitting in the chair and starting crying to get out. 

In review, baby lead weaning is much messier than regular baby feeding. I am unsure how much food actually got into Tidus's mouth. It is a lot cuter though. Ted was never given a free-for-all when it came to food. I was much more strict on keeping him neat and clean when he ate. Ruby certainly loves it. She had the pleasure of finishing off anything Tidus could not finish.

Ted brought out three chairs and lined them up in the living room.

"I am going to the doctor."

Behold, a 2-year-old's interpretation of what going to the doctor looks like. 

Hi Ho, Hi Ho, it's off to the park we go!

One of my favorite episodes of "I Love Lucy" is when she is pressured by Ricky to start taking little Ricky to nursery school. Lucy fights it tooth and nail because he is her little baby. I feel ya Lucy. Mostly I love this quote when she is explaining to Ricky why she is so stinking tired at the end of the day...

Lucy: (her day with Little Ricky) After breakfast I put on his snowsuit. I pull on his galoshes. I slip on his mittens. I walk him to the park. He chases pigeons. I chase after him. He runs after the squirrels. I run after him. He gets on the swing. I push the swing. We go on the teeter totter. He teeters. I totter. Then we leave the park and we walk home. I pull off his galoshes. I pull off his mittens. I pull off his snowsuit. I fix his lunch. I put him down for his nap and he sleeps for a whole half hour.

Ricky: Well that sounds very...

Lucy: After his nap I put on his snowsuit. I pull on his galoshes. I put on his mittens. We walk back to the park. He chases the pigeons. I chase after him. He runs after the squirrels. I run after him. He gets on the swing. I push the swing. We get on the teeter totter. He teeters and by now I'm really tottering. We leave the park and walk home. I pull off his galoshes. I pull off his mittens. I pull off his snowsuit. I tell him to go in his room and play with his teddy bear. And that is why you find my sitting here with my coat and my boots on.

Ricky: Wow!

Lucy: What's the matter with you?

Ricky: I'm worn out from just listening.

How can you not love Lucy? :) 

I do feel bad for Ted though. Last night we went to the park and he had a blast with all the other little children. The other children began to run around and Ted wanted to run too. The only problem was he needed to put down the eye stabbing stick he was holding. He chose the stick over running. He wanted to draw in the sand with his stick. 

As we loaded up into the stroller to go, Ted announced he was ready to put down the stick and run with the other children. Unfortunately it was getting dark so I told Ted he could run the next time we go to the park. 

Flash forward to this morning. There were absolutely no other children at the park! Apparently 10 AM on a Friday is the slow time for the park. As soon as we arrived Ted turned to me and asked, "Where did all the people go?"

We were there for half an hour and not another soul came to play. This is when family comes in handy. 

And of course there is always the pug. 

My great aunt Gladys... or is she my great great aunt? I am unsure. She always went by great aunt Gladys.... Well she had these cute little dog statues at her house that my siblings and I loved to admire. Years ago when Gladys passed away my mom worked hard to secure these small dog statues for me and now they decorate the windowsill of our kitchen. 

Why do I tell you this? Lately Ted has started talking to them. We cook in the kitchen and Ted brings out his step stool to help. As he waits for his assignment he will lean over to the dogs, "Hi, dogs! How are you?" He says lots of little things to them, likes to rearrange them, and makes them walk across the counter. In this house, we like dogs ;) 

   

Baby Lead Weaning

I have read about baby lead weaning (BLW) in the past, but never actually tried it out. It is a method of introducing a baby to solids where you do no use any spoons. The parent offers different foods of varying textures to the baby and the baby essentially feeds themselves. In this way you are completely bypassing the delightful collection of Gerber baby food jars. I am not an expert on the subject so this is just a summation.

No, Tidus did not eat this apple, it's just a pic :) 

As I mentioned in previous posts, Tidus knows what he wants and what he does not want. His personality lends itself to a baby who might flourish with BLW. For BLW you do not start until baby is at least 6 months and has met some other criteria such as sitting up on their own and getting rid of the tongue thrust reflex. Therefore we will continue to exclusively nurse until Tidus is a little older and then give this BLW a try. :) I must say I am much more excited to try BLW than I was to start mixing and mashing oatmeal cereal.

TIMBERRRRRRR!!!!
The tree trimmers are coming, the tree trimmers are coming!

This entire week all the trees in our complex are getting a much needed hair cut. And yes we do have trees. Contrary to what everyone in Washington warned us, there are a lot of trees around us. Today the trimmers are right outside our window. If I was home alone this would just be awkward but since I have a 2 year old it is a lot of fun. Large chunks of trees topple to the ground as Ted stares on in amazement. 

One landing spot of the tree chunks is the heavily decorated back patio of our noisy neighbors. We call them the margarita ladies because on random week nights there will be a group of women hanging out on their back patio drinking alcohol and talking extremely loud! They are right outside our bedroom window so you can imagine my rage when they wake me up at 11:30 PM on a Wednesday night mere minutes before they wake up my 5 month old.

BUT the heavens have opened and we have new neighbors living right above the margarita ladies and last night as I nursed and rocked Tidus to the sounds of, "OH I KNOW, TOTALLY, BLAH BLAH BLAH, CACKLE, CACKLE" (did I mention they also cackle super loudly). I heard the upstairs man come out and yell at them that he has a meeting early in the morning and they need to take it inside.

Maybe I will send him a fruit basket :) 

Baby's First Solids: Not a Fan

Ground up oatmeal + defrosted breast milk= Baby is not impressed

Today is the big day. Tidus had his first "solids". It is not really solid, more like liquid with a tiny bit of non liquid added in somewhere. The only reason I tried Tidus with eating solids was because he is getting close to 6 months old so I thought I would give it a try. 

Tidus is the complete opposite of Ted when it comes to food. Ted started eating solids about 5 months old and he completely took to it. I held the spoon up to Ted's mouth and he opened right up and ate his food. Ted has always been a go with the flow kid. 

Tidus, on the other hand, gave that spoon a look like, umm what do you expect me to do with that? I pushed the spoon into his mouth and he tilted his head with a grimace. Tidus still ate all the food I gave him which is really impressive since you would think his sucking reflex would push the food back out. 

It was pretty funny. Throughout the entire feeding I felt like Tidus was just putting up with me until I stopped bothering him. Then afterwards he made such a fuss over wanting to nurse. Where Ted was the laid back baby, Tidus has always been the I-know-what-I-want baby. 

I do not want to sit in this chair and eat that slop. I want to lounge on my boppy pillow and drink milk until I pass out. 

Can't say I blame him... 

While I have been typing this Ted is making ice cream cones with his legos. He brought out three cones and said they were for all of us. 

Me: Mmm yum! What is this flavor? (pointing to the purple)

Ted: that's purple 

Me: Yum purple flavor! What flavor is this? (pointing to the orange)

Ted: That's orange

Me: Oo orange flavor! And what is this? (pointing to the last cone)

Ted: That's mine 

Tidus The Mightiest Week 5: I Fight for the Users

A new week, a new therapist. I am sorry (kind of) to say I do no know the names of any of the cranial therapist women we have had appointments with. The lady we saw yesterday commented that we normally see someone named Amber... I am unsure what she considers "normal" because Tidus has had 5 appointments since he received his band and he has seen 4 different women in that time.

Apparently some people prefer to see the same person each week. Tyler and I did not even know this was an option. I just assumed we see who we see.

This week Tidus's head grew another 3 mm! The therapist figured we have about 4-5 weeks left with the helmet. That will put us around 9-10 weeks total. It has been going by pretty fast.

Brothers playing in the waiting room together 

 When I found out Tidus was going to be wearing a baby helmet I immediately started thinking about how I wanted to dress it up. In years past I have seen articles about people who paint baby helmets and make them look all cool... for a minimum of $200... yeah right! I also found a website that makes custom decals you can put on the helmet. These were cute but still $25 for stickers. Plus, I did not know what I would want. 

I have mentioned before that Tidus's helmet looks like something off Tron. And thus was the idea born. It is nothing super fancy. Just a blue permanent marker I already happened to have and some research on how to draw the helmet. I think it looks pretty cute and to me it succeeded in looking like the Tron helmet so ta da! 

Poor Ted was not getting his usual adoring attention from me while I worked on the helmet and then while I was trying to get pictures of Tidus from all different angles. As I snapped away with the camera, Ted sat down a little way off behind me and sheepishly asked, "Wanna take a picture of me?"

Of course I do Ted! 

Tyler's Cinnamon Rolls

Tyler's Cinnamon Rolls

Source: Adapted from The Pioneer Woman

• 1 cup Milk
• 6 Tablespoons Butter
• 2-1/2 teaspoons Active Dry Yeast Tyler used 1 3/4 tsp
• 2 whole Eggs
• 1/3 cup Sugar
• 3-1/2 cups All-purpose Flour
• 1 teaspoon Salt
• 1/3 cup Sugar
• 2 Tablespoons Cinnamon
•  Egg And Milk, Mixed Together, For Brushing
•  Softened Butter, For Smearing And Greasing
• Raisins

Melt butter with milk. Heat until very warm, but don't boil. Allow to cool until still warm to the touch, but not hot. Sprinkle yeast over the top, stir gently, and allow to sit for 10 minutes.

Combine flour and salt.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, mix sugar and eggs with the paddle attachment until combined. Pour in milk/butter/yeast mixture and stir to combine. Add half the flour and beat on medium speed until combined. Add the other half and beat until combined. 

Switch to the dough hook attachment and beat/knead dough on medium speed for ten minutes. If dough is overly sticky, add 1/4 cup flour and beat again for 5 minutes. 

Heat a metal or glass mixing bowl so it's warm. Drizzle in a little canola oil, then toss the dough in the oil to coat. Cover bowl in plastic wrap and set it in a warm, hospitable place for at least 2 hours. 

Turn dough out onto the work surface. Roll into a neat rectangle no wider than the loaf pan you're going to use, and about 18 to 24 inches long. Smear with 2 tablespoons melted butter. Mix sugar and cinnamon together, then sprinkle evenly over the butter-smeared dough. Starting at the far end, roll dough toward you, keeping it tight and contained. Pinch seam to seal. 

Smear loaf pan with softened butter. Place dough, seam down, in the pan. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise for 2 hours. 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix a little egg with milk, and smear over the top. Bake for 40 minutes on a middle/lower rack in the oven. 

Remove from the pan and allow bread to cool. Slice and serve, or make cinnamon toast or French toast with it.

Tyler's Version added raisins and cut the loaf into cinnamon rolls and used a 9x13 glass baking dish. 

Tyler has been putting me to shame in the kitchen lately! He offered to make dinner one night and he cooked up chicken and vegetables. It was delicious and healthy. It made me hate every chicken breast I have ever cooked which came out dry or tasting like chicken... if that makes sense. Then yesterday he was motivated to make chicken parmesan... once again amazing... and THEN he decided he wanted to make bread... which turned into cinnamon raisin bread... which turned into cinnamon rolls. They turned out amazing and Tyler has never made cinnamon rolls before. He made them completely from scratch!

A part of me is super jealous and a part of me is like meh, Tyler has just volunteered himself to be the official dinner chef ;)