The final measurements of Tidus the Mightiest's head

Behold the final pics of Tidus from the cranial specialist. It took them I few weeks to get this info to me. The pictures on the left are from his head evaluation right before he was given the band. The pictures on the right are from his graduation day. You can really see a difference in the top view of his head. The therapist said any asymmetries at this point will be corrected as he grows because now his neck muscles are all stretched out and no longer pulling his face/ear on one side. 

Eating Healthy is for the Birds

Carrots, red pepper, and sugar snaps peas, are all sliced nice and thin and neatly adorning the lunchtime table next to a bowl of humus. My mommy attempt at including healthy snacks to our day. Is it bad that I have to give myself a pep talk in order to eat veggies?

You can do this Whitney! They are healthy and will make you feel good and the more you eat them the better they will taste... right? Also think of your kids. They need early exposure to vegetables or they will grow up hating them. You will be stuck feeding them nothing but Goldfish crackers and fruit snacks. And this will lead to harder crimes like ice cream for breakfast... perhaps this is a bit far but seriously, just eat the carrot already! 

Ted and Tidus both dug right into the snacks. I am very proud of Ted. He actually tried every vegetable option. He picked up a sugar snap pea and said, "Hey, it's a leaf from a tree!" 

Sure, why not. That is about how appetizing a sugar snap pea is to me, hence the humus. 

I already knew Ted LOVES humus so it is not a hard sell getting him to dip anything in it. He tried the carrot, the pepper, and the peas... then he realized he still had his bowl of dry cheerios on the table so he dipped those. Lastly, he just went for it and dipped his finger. 

This week is our farm unit. Along with eating healthy snacks, I am also trying to put a bit more direction and structure in playtime. Each day for a week I will be adding new farm related activities for Ted to try. Day one he got to play with a new Melissa and Doug toy. It has little doors and animal magnets behind each door. We also did some do-a-dot printables and sang farm related songs.

It is not terribly structured. I basically have Ted's small table set up in the living room. Each day he comes out to find a new activities set up for him to check out. Today I had a sensory bin... this just means it is a tub full of beans and little farm animals. Tidus loved this activity too, but he mostly just loved shoveling the beans out onto the carpet.

And lastly, for your viewing pleasure, Tidus can ALMOST crawl. This is simply 3 minutes of my family on a typical family night. The boys are playing, Ruby is squeaking her toy in my face and Tyler is working on his homework. Enjoy :)

The Corniest Person at the Table

Ted has developed a habit of getting up and wandering off during meals. My knee jerk reaction is to yell at him threats of bedtime if he does not get his tush immediately back into his seat. You can imagine how effective this method is. When I have the presence of mind to actually remember I am interacting with a 2 year old I can come up with some creative methods to get him to hang out and eat. My inspiration is the mom from A Christmas Story, the funniest movie mom there is. 

Today's task was eating quesadillas and corn. Each time Ted would take a bite of corn I would sing (to the tune of Mickey Mouse Club)

Who's the corniest person at the table?

T-E-D

O-P-F

A-R Ted Opfar

He and Tidus laughed hysterically and all the corn was eaten up. Granted, Ruby ate about 1/3 of the corn that ended up on the floor as Ted attempted to get it from the plate to his mouth. 

  

Library Storytime

 Recently I read an article telling about how popular story time at the library has become. Featured with this writing was a picture of a New York library and a line of moms, dads, and strollers circling the block outside. I can completely understand this article. For those of you living in a small town this may seem crazy. Coming from Enumclaw, I had the opportunity to take Ted to a few library story times. At most, there were about 10 children on any given day. The activities and songs were simple and the class ended with playtime and toys. In Moab, we went to story time with Miranda and her baby. There were once again simple songs, the leader read a couple books and the 6 children who attended made a craft to go with the stories that were read.

Moving on to Huntington Beach. Here there are 2 classifications of story time. There is the 2-3 year old option which you have 6 chances to catch each week and there is the 3-5 year old option which is offered 2-3 times each week. (You only go once a week because the show... I mean story time changes weekly). It really is a show and it really is amazing. There is singing, puppets, dancing, and of course, stories. Make sure you arrive early because you will be waiting in line. This year I have buckled down and started putting in a greater effort to get to the 9AM time. This is the first of the day and the easiest to get in. That is right. There is a chance you may not get in to story time.

Today, after our class was over we stayed in the children's section of the library to play with the toys.
I watched as the 10AM class began to line up outside the door. A mom and grandma discussed the option of the mom waiting in line and the grandma hanging out with the child while she played with toys. At 10AM the mom came bustling over obviously flustered and stating the security guard would not let the grandma in because the room had reached maximum capacity (Maximum Occupancy 140). The grandma and mom rushed off to see about getting in.

If you can't fit into the room there is a small nook outside the theater that broadcasts the story time on a TV. Today, this too was filled to capacity. I even watched parents as they tried to sneak into the "Staff Only" entrance to the story time theater.

I love our story time, because it is so high quality and free! But there is a trade off. You need to be on your game to get in :) My strategy is to not care what other people think. We used to go to the 11 AM story time which was CROWDED! (We always got in though) While some parents would see a full room and find a spot on the outskirts, I would squeeze in next to people who left openings. Hi friend! I wanted to make sure Ted could see everything that was going on. Now that we are going to the earlier time I end up getting to the library before it even opens and waiting outside (thank goodness for beautiful sunny CA weather).

The boys and I walk a total of 1 hour for this experience. It is fun and totally worth it but man o man what a parent won't do for their toddler :)

These are all pictures of the play area in the children's section of the library.

Tidus 6 Month Check Up

By the time we were able to get Tidus in for his 6-month well baby check up he is closer to 7 months old. His head is in the 99% percentile which is no surprise. Both boys have always had large heads. In fact, when Tidus was inside me they thought he was older than he actually was because his head size was so big. His height is 50% and his weight is 80%. The doctor commented that he is rather chunky for his height. She wanted to discuss his diet but he literally just started eating solids. He still almost exclusively breastfeeds. He is just my big boy.

If there is one thing I miss most about Washington (other than family of course) it is DR. MOORE!!! Dr. Moore was the pediatrician we saw in WA. He was super nice, remembered things about the kids from even years earlier, and he talked a lot about Ted and Tidus's development. Plus his nurse was amazing too! She was also really nice and she was the fasted baby vaccine giver I have ever seen! If there was a speed competition she would win. She was just a sweetheart. Tyler says they set the bar way too high and it is true. I have yet to meet another pediatrician who even comes close to Dr. Moore and how great he was with the boys. The doctor we see now is fine but each visit feels like a fist visit where I have to re-introduce my kids. At least she is better than the first doctor we saw while in CA...

Tidus is a pro at sitting on his own. He seems like he might be attempting to crawl. There is probably still a little while until he can though. 

Tidus the Mightiest: GRADUATION DAY!

Bum budda bum bum bum bummmmmmm hooray! 7 weeks later and Tidus is completely done with wearing his band and his head is looking good and round.

Things I am looking forward to post helmet life:
- rubbing my face against his soft baby head
- snuggles without getting smacked in the jaw by a large plastic helmet
- getting use out of all the baby hats we own
- not having to clean the stinky helmet out each morning with alcohol
- not having to drive to Orange weekly for therapy appointments

Although in response to the last point, I did enjoy Tyler getting off work early one day a week. It was a pleasant treat :)

Tidus continues to not sleep well... maybe it was not the helmet after all... BUT the day after he stopped wearing his helmet we went to Moab for a week vacation and he co-slept the entire time (he normally sleeps in a crib at home). Now Tidus is super duper clingy... poor baby

A visit with the Moabites

I try to make each blog post more than just a photo album and actually have a story behind each picture. This past week the babies and I made the trek to Moab, Utah to visit the Custers AKA my sister's family. It was a random and almost spur of the moment vacation. Miranda texted to see how I was doing and we both came to the conclusion that we needed someone awesome to hang out with, so the plane tickets were bought and plans were made. :) 

Unfortunately Tyler was unable to get off work so it was just the boys and me flying to Utah. After I ordered the plane tickets I remembered... oh yeah, Utah is cold! It is a good thing we still have some winter clothes available from our time in Washington. 

As a bonus, Tidus had the opportunity to wear the cute winter bear suit I bought when I was pregnant with him, and before I knew we would be living in a city that is in the 80s in February. Isn't he cute? He looks like a little ewok. 

We did not play very much in the snow but there were a few minutes we spent at the park licking icicles. 

The boys are old enough that they can play together during bath time. :) Tidus mostly just splashes Ted. 

Cousins buddies! Kamdan is 2 months older than Tidus but only 1 pound heavier. It was fun to watch them play next to each other with all their little toys. 

It is funny to think about the fact that we visited Moab, one of the most scenic and adventurous cities in the US and we did not do any sight seeing at all. It was a great vacation with family and hanging out. Next time we will take Tyler and actually see the city. I loved getting to see cousin Cooper play basketball and baseball and Ted loved the adorable kid section in the library. He completely set up this little tea party by himself. He is getting so good and pretend play. 

I am so glad we were able to make this trip! I wish we lived closer to the Custers but I do not see that happening anytime soon. So for now we will just look forward to when they come out to see us and we can show them our neck of the woods. 

Tidus the Mightiest's Head Week 7: Seeing Red

Next week is graduation! Tidus will don his cap and gown and receive his diploma from the university of round headed babies.

Yesterday was his weekly appointment. I was praying and hoping for a mini miracle where the therapist would say, oh wow his head grew so much that he is all done this week! No such luck. His head is the exact same size it was last week. This is the first week where his head has not grown at all.

Another concern/dread I have been having is the possibility of needing a second round of wearing the band. I have now met 4 other people whose children went through the process of wearing a band. 3 out of the 4 people had to go through a 2nd round of wearing the band and the 4th was advised to do a second round and she turned it down.

A second round means they wear the band, they grow out of it, and then a second band is made and they go through the entire process again! This is because by the time they finish the first helmet the baby's head is still not round and they have to keep up with the therapy.

I have tried to calm my panic by making excuses for the various people. Perhaps their child was older when they started wearing the band or maybe the parents were not diligent in keeping the helmet on 23 hours of the day.

As our family walked into the office building yesterday a woman around my age was passing by and commented that her child wore a helmet when he was a baby. We talked for a bit and she mentioned that they had 2 helmets (she is one of the 4 I mentioned earlier). Her baby wore the helmet for 5 MONTHS! I asked her how old he was when he started, 4 months! The same age Tidus was when he began his band journey.

I decided to ask the therapist why there seemed to be so many people who had to have a second band made. She gave me the same reasons I was already thinking. They may have been older when they started, they may have had a severely misshapen head to begin with, or other reasons.

Finally, I just voiced my concern. I don't want to get here on his last day and SURPRISE! you are not done yet. THANKFULLY she said that would not happen. If Tidus was going to need to continue with the head shaping therapy we would have already known a few weeks ago. Huzzah! (enter Heavenly angels singing here) I was so relieved!

Here is the best news of the appointment. The therapist said if I start seeing any redness on his head then I can just stop having him wear the band altogether because that means he has grown out of it and he is all done! Of course, this means I have been watching his head like a hawk. Any possibility of redness and I am DONEZO! I even started typing this post with Tidus not wearing his helmet. Ted came in and was very concerned. "Where is Tidus' helmet? Oh there it is," grabbing it off the table, "I put on his helmet okay?" And he walked over to Tidus and proceeded to put his helmet back on his head. I supposed we are not quite done yet.

As you can see I have been having some fun with my fisheye lens. :)

Pizza it's your birthday, happy birthday pizza!

Years ago, before the babies and before the husbands, there was Miranda and Whitney. We were bored one day. We decided to throw a birthday party for Pugsley. Being a rescue pug, we had no idea when her actual birthday was so that day was as good as any. We made a pug piñata out of brown paper bags. Miranda made a "pin the tail on Pugsley" game. And we made pug cupcakes. It was so funny, random, and just a bit odd.

We also made PIZZA :) This lead to us singing "Pizza it's your birthday, happy birthday pizza!" The tune is the song Bart Simpson made for Lisa for her birthday (Lisa it's your birthday, happy birthday Lisa). To this day we continue to sing the pizza song and remember the day we threw our old pug her one and only birthday party.

Tyler has been on a bread making kick lately. Once again he makes AMAZING everything! He found a few bread recipes and decided to tweak them a bit. He then decided to make them into pizza dough. I made spaghetti sauce since we don't keep marinara on hand. And we ALWAYS have shredded cheese :) Who doesn't?

Tyler used his delicious herb bread dough to make deep dish pizzas with cheese in the crust! SO GOOD! It was fluffy and sweet and oh so yummy! To quote Ted's Daniel Tiger show, "It was yum yum yummy in my tum tum tummy."

While still not the healthiest thing on the planet, it definitely beats restaurant pizza. Plus you do no feel all greasy after eating them. This dough did not even call for any butter! 

I had the genius idea to take the leftover dough and make a cinnamon sugar braid. It sure was pretty to look at but since it was my idea it was only OKAY. Perhaps if it was made with plain dough instead of herb dough it would not have been such a weird combination. 

Ted was even in on the action and made his own mini pizza with some excess dough. He rolled it with a rolling pin and plopped on a massive fistful of cheese. He would make grandpa proud. Tyler cooked it up in the toaster oven and Ted ate it while watching Shawn the Sheep and the other pizzas baked in the oven.