Tidus the mightiest is 8 months old

Tidus is 8 months old! No matter what I tell him he just won't stop growing :( Right now in his life he is 100% my little mamas boy. This is completely the result of him spending every waking hour with me. That is alright. I don't mind having a baby who loves his mom.

This post is specifically for aunt Elspeth who commented that baby was no where to be seen in all the Easter pictures. Now that I think about it, there are no pictures of Tidus for his very first Easter... whoops. I dropped the ball on that one. That is what happens when the photographer is also the designated baby wearer. This picture was taken the day before Easter and is pretty darn cute. I suppose I could have just pretended it was taken on Easter and no one would ever know...

Tidus knows what he wants and he goes for it. He is a cuddly baby but he also is very opinionated. He loves his big brother Ted.

Ted is getting used to Tidus wanting to do EVERYTHING big brother is doing.

Tidus is nowhere close to sleeping through the night UGH! We still wake up every 2 hours. With Ted I was super diligent with sleep training. That was the luxury of living in a house. In an apartment I am just toughing it out. We attempted to co-sleep one night. It was reconfirmed why I hate co-sleeping. The worst night sleep ever is sleeping next to a baby. Do no let any fantasy of sleeping with a baby fool you.

Tidus LOVES the water. He loves his bath time and he loves the pool.

And Tidus can crawl like crazy! He has graduated to crawling on knees and hands which is the cutest thing on the planet. I love crawling babies. He has no teeth which is just fine with me :)

And I randomly decided to make a little music video of Tidus :) Happy 8 Months baby!

The World Through the Eyes of a Two Year Old (almost 3)

We are working on our letters and Ted ran into the room so proud. "Look Mama, it's a J!" 

It is hard to see the potted plant behind Ted but he saw it and said, "A strawberry!" It really does look like a giant strawberry!

Ted and Tyler were taking turns rolling a hot wheels car back and forth. Ted got a bit over zealous and hurled the metal car across the table. Tyler stopped the game and said, "Ted we don't throw our toys. Do you understand?"
"Yes"
"What did I say?"
"Do you understand"
hahaha well that is what you said Tyler.

This past week was Easter which meant Easter fun. I do not like Easter egg hunts at all. They are way too stressful for me. And I am not even the one getting the eggs. I let myself get way too worked up about making sure the big kids don't snatch up all the eggs. Or that parents don't hoard all the eggs for their child. (both these things have happened in the past)

Our apartment complex is so cute. They had two egg hunts for the kids in the buildings.

Our ward has a big Easter breakfast every year at a park next to the church building. There are carnival games, tons of breakfast foods, and one insane egg hunt. Thankfully they limit each kid to only 15 eggs. 

Ted ate a doughnut, banana, strawberries, bagel, mini muffin and juice for his Easter breakfast! 

 Ted and Tyler running an egg and spoon race.

 The first go around we gave Ted the spoon and put an egg on it. He was instructed to get the egg to the other side as fast as possible. He grabbed the egg in one hand and the spoon in the other and sprinted to the finish line. The next time we were a little more specific as to how the egg was supposed to be transported to the end.

 There were craft tables, a giant parachute, and a basketball shooting game.

 Tyler is in charge of all egg hunt overseeing. I remove myself from the competition so I don't go crazy on everyone.

Once Ted gathered his 15 maximum eggs he went at got his face painted. This was the perfect time to do it because everyone else was still hunting eggs so there was no line bwa ha ha! This was his first time getting his face painted and he did great. He sat completely still the entire time and loved getting a caterpillar on his face. 

 Someone brought their giant dog. This lady weighs 140 pounds. Here is Tyler in his natural element. :)

Krazy for Wild Kratts

As a parent you will find yourself saying phrases you never thought you would ever utter. The following phrase was spoken just a few nights ago.

"Ted don't touch that it's garbage. Give it back to baby." 


While coming home from a walk I noticed a worm on the ground. Pre-mamma Whitney would have taken two steps to the side and kept on walking. Today the sight of a worm on the sidewalk was an exciting opportunity. Wheeling Ted's stroller around I announced,

"Look Ted a worm! Just like in the animal show! We need to save it and put it back in the grass so the sun does not dry it out" 

Ted was unbuckled and hopping over to the worm he placed it on a nearby patch of grass. Hooray! We saved the worm!

Thanks to one of our apartment neighbors we have become hooked on the show "Wild Kratts". He also has a toddler and told me the show is awesome and full of interesting facts about animals. I am familiar with the Kratt brothers. They have been around since I was a kid. A little skeptical, I looked the show up on Amazon Prime and put it on for Ted.

Did you know there are tons of animals that depend on aardvarks to dig holes for them to live in.

Alligator babies will live with their mom for a year.

And worms can sense  the vibrations in the ground of moles coming to eat them so they head above ground. Birds peck at the ground to create vibrations so the worm is fooled into thinking a mole is coming and they head above ground and get snatched up by a bird!

Ted loves the worm episode and requests it the most. At the end of the episode, the Kratts suggest kids help out worms by putting them back in the grass if they are stuck on the cement because the sun can dry them out really quickly.

After saving the worm Ted ran and sat in a hole in the grass and announced that is where he lives now just like an aardvark.

Typical Tuesday

It's a typical Tuesday in Huntington Beach and we love it. The day starts with an early wake up to get our tails on the road to story time. This morning was 51 degrees outside BRR! Everyone bundled up for the trip and like always we arrived before the library opened so we camped outside and ate apple slices. 

Ted is getting so good at singing the songs and participating in all the actions during story time. He loves to sing all the songs at home too. Today's topic was Easter but we mostly just sang about chickens. 

Our walk home takes us through Central Park. Where there's a hill there's a Ted. He can not resist running up every grassy hill we pass and then barreling down it. 

 These two stinking cute ducks came over to say hi. It looked like they were together because they stayed right next to one another and the man duck would not continue on his walk until the lady duck caught up. She was the more social of the two.

The little black birds saw Ted with the ducks and probably assumed he was feeding them. We were not though since that is not allowed. He did, however have his little baggie of snacks which was so tempting. Ted is not afraid of any animal which I love about him. He is not crazy, he knows to not run up and pet someone's dog without asking, but he does love seeing all the different animals in the park. If you noticed Ted's wardrobe change, that is from a mini accident. 

 Oh hello Tidus!

 Ted was also into wandering through the woods off the side of the path.

 A favorite stop on our walks is this specific bench. Ted calls it the ABC bench and he traces each letter with his finger while calling out the name of the letter.

 I had just given Ted a granola bar when a squirrel appeared.

"Just give me the snack and no one gets hurt!" This squirrel was determined. He came right up to Ted's feet and hung out with sad puppy dog eyes... or baby squirrel eyes.

I continued on the walk and looked back to see the squirrel still sitting on the path watching us.
Oh, alright get over here.

 I stopped the stroller and the squirrel came right over and I tossed him a corner of Ted's cracker. He was a happy little rodent.

 When we got home the sprinklers were running and so was Ted.

It's Not Easy Being Mom

Ted LOVES playing sequence. On normal days he is fun to play with, on Fridays he is a Tasmanian devil to play with

Somedays are so exhausting. They exhaust me yet I sit back and have no idea why they do. Why do I want to pull my hair out when Ted keeps hitting his brother with the clean laundry? (thwap, thwap, thwap). Seriously Ted, stop kicking Ruby! 

Yesterday was one of those days. Fridays are my least favorite day of the week. When you are child Friday is amazing. It is the beginning of the weekend, it is the longest possible time before returning to the monotony of the weekly grind, and it used to have the best shows (T.G.I.F anyone?). 

To me, as a mom, Friday is when the kids are so pooped from the week they can't stand it. Ted bounces off the walls in every room of the house while Tidus squeals at the top of his lungs. A simple trip to the grocery store turns into a battle between me and the whiny voice of Ted. Sigh... 

By lunchtime I was done. Thank goodness for naps! My mom always tells me she enforced naps until we were 6 and that is what I intend to do. During nap time I made some chocolate chip cookies, watched YouTube and read blogs from fellow stay-at-home moms. There is something so revitalizing about reading moms talk about how awesome it is to have kids. It is empowering. Yeah! Go moms! 

The boys woke up and I was recharged and ready to go. We took a trip to the park. Ted road his balance bike and Tidus hung out in the ergo carrier. The park behind our house has a mini farm connected to it and we love to check out the animals through the fence. There are TONS of bunnies, some ducks, roosters, and yesterday we noticed a giant tortoise cruising along. 

The day ended much better and with more happy faces. Daddy came home and took Ted swimming in the hot tub, or "hot circle" as Ted calls it. We all ate homemade pizza and watched out newest favorite show "Wild Kratts." 

The simplicity of being with my family is what is most important. 

Poor Ruby! Life is so hard for a pug with a baby and a toddler. Her only respite is snuggling in the warmth of the clean laundry. 

It was time for naps today and I told Ted he could pick one more activity. This was his choice...

Baby Finger Painting

Ted grew up in a world of developmentally appropriate activities, sensory bins, songs and stories. Tidus is the second child and as such he prefers to do whatever Ted is doing. This is just fine with me until I realized that poor Tidus has not gotten to do all the fun baby activities I worked so hard to research and set up for baby Ted.

I have made a goal to put together activities just for Tidus's age level at least a couple times per week. Yesterday was finger painting.

Wearing only his diaper, Tidus sat on an upturned table. I taped a piece of paper to the bottom of the table top and plopped a glob of gooey finger paint in front of baby. I predicted Tidus would love this experience and you can see he certainly did. He LOVES sand and grass and getting into all things messy.

 And here is the end result... There is not much else to say about this experience. Afterwards I tossed baby into the tub with Ted who was more than happy to hop into a bath and play with his brand new bath toys.

The Tour of Parks: Huntington Beach Edition

For starters, our weekend began with Friday night homemade pizza. Yum! After Tyler started the trend of making pizza instead of buying it I am hooked! It tastes so much better and my face does not feel like I washed it with grease afterwards. Plus I am sure it is healthier. Ted and I made one together with red peppers and onions. Tyler made his with the same toppings plus fistfuls of mini pepperonis. We all curled up on the couch with our pizza and "The Good Dinosaur" from Redbox. (Thanks to Aunt Miranda for the gift card)

There are so many parks in Huntington Beach. Being a one car family, the boys and I have only been to a couple different parks. This weekend I took advantage of having Tyler and the car home and Googled all the parks in the city. From the pictures, Ted and I chose a few to check out including a dog park that I did not know existed.

Park # 1 was Ted's top pick. It is called the Well Park and was described as being an ocean themed park nestled at the center of several million dollar gated communities. The park was nice enough. The "ocean theme" was not really evident but I spent much of the time trying to check out the homes just beyond the fences. They were huge! We could not even walk into these neighborhoods because there are locks and combinations everywhere. Tyler pointed out the Range Rover that pulled in next to us in the parking lot.

I saw a landscaping truck driving around the neighborhood and for a fleeting moment I schemed an idea of impersonating a maintenance worker so we could check out these cool mansions. You can just barely see one of the homes in the background on this first picture.

Park #2 was the dog park a ways down the road from the first park. The path leading to the park was paved with stones people and their dogs made. We found one stone that said Teddy on it. (Ted is supposed to be pointing to his name in this picture but his hand is covering the name)

 It is a good size park and divided between big dogs and little dogs. This is good for Ruby who is terrified of all other dogs. I am glad there is a dog park close by, but I am not a fan of the wood chips. They get in my shoes and poke my feet.

 I do appreciate how much seating is available and all the trees. Ted ran up to this bench and pointed to the boxer saying, "Hey it's Ruby!"

 Park #3 is actually the same park as the dog park. They are both part of CENTRAL PARK. Central Park is a giant park that has lots of small parks in it. There is a lake, a restaurant, sports complex, the library, ducks, and more. We did not see all of the ground it covered but attempted to drive around as much as possible.

This playground had super high tube slides that Ted and Tyler twisted down over and over. I probably sound like the stick in the mud because I do not go on all these things but it is more the fact that I have a baby strapped to me and someone has to take the pictures. :)

I hope to continue our parade of the parks to see even more. 

The last stop for our day was our own community pool. The weekend was a little breezy so we stuck to the hot tub and had it all to ourselves. Recently we bought Tidus his own personal island to float around in. It is the funniest sight. He looks like all he needs is a little umbrella drink and he will be the poster boy for relaxation.

 And I finally used my underwater camera, UNDERWATER. Looks at those cute little baby legs!