Tidus the Mightiest Week 4: Do you think he's over compensating for something?

A new therapist entered the room. We had been given the heads up that a substitute was filling in for the week. No matter, as I mentioned before, all they do is measure the baby's head and then shave down the inside of the helmet. 

Ted was occupying himself in the corner riding a plastic giraffe designed for a child probably half his size. Tidus was trying his hardest at convincing me to set him in an odd musical rocking baby chair. The batteries had been removed most likely by someone who shares my opinion regarding electronic noisemakers. 

The appointment was going pretty standard until the therapist asked if I was continuing with Tidus's neck stretches. 

Well, no not really. In my mind I had pretty much figured I do not need to. Tidus turns his neck quite easily in either direction and he can almost sit up on his own. I had hoped all the tummy time he was getting was sufficient. 

The therapist suggested I get back on track with turning/stretching his head and neck, because she can see he is still tilting a bit to the left. 

Okay, I will make sure to get on that.... wait, what? Tidus has a head tilt to the right... 

At this the therapist paused and gave me a questioning look. I went on

clarify that Tidus originally came in only turning his head to the right and tilting his head to the right. After a quick look at Tidus's chart it was confirmed that I was right. Her response was that perhaps Tidus is now overcompensating by tilting in the opposite direction.

On the very first day I took Tidus to the cranial technology place my mom was with me. She was there when the therapist gave me all the instructions on neck stretches and other practices I needed to implement. My mom made a remark in jest that I would probably be so thorough with sticking to the rules that Tidus would end up doing a 180 and favor his opposite side...

It is not a big deal though. I just need to make sure Tidus has balanced opportunity to look in both directions and stretch in both directions. On the positive side she was really impressed with how well Tidus's head is looking compared to the 3D print of his head. Go Tidus the Mightiest! 

In other news, a lady from our ward, Sue Brown, gave us gifts for the boys at church on Sunday. I met Sue the week before in Relief Society and we talked for a bit, mostly about Tidus's head. She is incredible! She made blankets for each boy, gave Tidus a frog and a romper, and gave Ted a little toy truck! Seriously!?!? Remember, I just met her and she had the idea to do this for us. How incredibly nice is that? I was so over the moon impressed with how welcomed and loved she made us feel by her kind gesture. 

Also Tyler gave Ted another haircut while I coached him on what I wanted. I think it turned out exactly what I have been wanting for a while and so stinking cute. :) 

Enjoy the moment

Two posts in one day??? Yes. It is once again nap time which is prime time to write a blog post. Sadly Tidus is not napping. I am attempting to let him cry it out and he is giving me a run for my money. :( I started the dishwasher and the laundry to soften the sound of his screams so he does not wake up Ted. Poor baby! Tyler is my support as I listen to Tidus cry and question every decision I have ever made. 

Earlier today we did one of my all time favorite activities.... GO FOR A WALK :) I was able to get the whole crew (minus Ruby) to walk all over town. We took all of Ted's piggy bank to the grocery store to cash in his pennies. He made quite a stealing for a two year old not that he cares. He prefers to play with his coins putting them in the piggy bank and then dumping them out over and over. But it was over flowing. 

We then walked to the library. There is a great walking trail on the way. We stopped at this bench and literally watched this bird for 10 minutes. I think it is an egret. It would slowly pull one leg up out of the water and then the next. It would freeze staring hard at the water and then SNATCH a bug right up. 

I pretended to take a picture of Tyler while these dogs walk by. Look at their adorable ears!! Tyler thinks they are dyed. I did not think so because the red fur blends into the white fur.Tyler says, you can blend dyed hair into non dyed hair. 

 Steps up to the library. I love the library here. It is huge and has a great kids section. Ted played a game on one of the computers with Tyler while I picked out some books. When it was time to go I told Ted to pick out a book to bring home. He walked around for a bit and then very assertively walked up to a shelf and pulled out a book. It just happened to be Daniel Tiger. Did he have some sort of sixth sense about that book???

 Walking/running to our next destination, the park! What day would be complete without a trip to the park? There are so many around here to choose from.

 Oh Tidus, you are so happy in this picture and so angry right now...

It was so much fun getting to walk around on this cool and sunny winter day. There are so many people posting videos on Facebook about how we need to enjoy the moment (hey didn't I read that somewhere?). I just saw one that showed a baby girl growing up to be a teenager and it had some ominous warning about making each day count with our children.

Well future Whitney, I just want you to know that you did enjoy this time! If you ever look back on your life and wonder if you truly appreciated what you had when you had it then I will set your mind at ease. You LOVE your children. You LOVE your husband. You spend time with them everyday and you all have fun together. Don't regret your time with young kids because when you lived it you had a blast. Now I am going to go check on my screaming baby and give him a snuggle.

Spilling lemonade at Costco

Friday night is often family grocery shopping night. (How is that for a date night?) We have a lot of fun grabbing a cheap dinner at Costco and walking around. Normally dinner comes after we shop but we had the idea to buy hot dogs and take them with us. Tyler grabbed the cart and I took Ted to fill our 3 cups with soda and lemonade. 

Thinking I was so clever, I only filled Ted's cup halfway to reduce the risk of him spilling. Very carefully I carried the beverages to the condiment stand to put lids on them. As I set the cups on the counter, Ted made a ninja move to grab MY very full lemonade cup. His little hand reached up and pulled the cup over.... right onto his head.... spilling lemonade (sans ice) all over himself. All I could do was yell, "No Ted!" before it was just too late... and too pointless. Oh Ted... 

Ted was wearing a hoodie and a t-shirt. For some odd reason his shirt seemed to take more of a hit than the coat so I suggested Ted take off his shirt and just wear the hoodie. Ted was not a fan of this idea. 

"Well, the only "shirt" I have in my diaper bag is Tidus's onesie with a whale on it. Do you want to wear that?"

Ted enthusiastically responded that he did and we shimmied him into the 6 month size onesie. Ted looked like a little muscle man in his new shirt. He didn't mind one bit. I think he thought this was the funnest thing. 

Sorry this picture is way out of focus :( 

Look Tidus can stand on his own!!

 Just kidding :) Tyler likes to try and balance Tidus for about a millisecond before he begins to fall like a chopped down tree. TIMBERRRR!

And here is Ruby. :) I really like this picture of her. 

Post Rain Energy Burn

It has been raining in Southern California. Whaaaaa? The last 3 days have had on and off rain storms all day long. I don't mind it since we have had nothing but sun for the past 4 months. Not that I want this rain thing to become a habit. Being a one car family means the kids and I are confined to the apartment with this weather. (Once again this is why I love the consistent sun) Yesterday Ted was bouncing off the walls stir crazy. He was not being naughty. He was just literally running laps around our little 2 bedroom apartment. He would not even nap. The only physical activity we had available was Just Dance on the Xbox.

This morning Ted woke up with all his energy ready to go and asked if we could trek it to the park. He pulled out the stroller and grabbed his shoes before I could answer. I guess we are going to the park then.... Waiting for a break in the rain I strapped on the baby, saddled up the pug, and we were on our way.

Imagine my lack of surprise when I saw the normally bustling park was completely void of anyone silly enough to brave this weather. The rain began the moment we arrived. Ted played for a while in it (a true pacific northwest kid) and then we took cover in the rec center building until it stopped.

Then it was back outside for us. I did not even care that Ted found the largest puddle and began wading through it. My entire goal for this excursion was to tire the boy out. Success! He is currently taking a nap along with Tidus the mightiest (who still resists his naps and wakes up 3-5 times per night... another rant for another post).

Book of Mormon Stories

For Christmas, Ted and Tidus received a set of action figures of the people from the Book of Mormon from Grandma Opfar. Tyler bought a special family Book of Mormon with pictures and study helps in it. The boys and I have been using these to read the scriptures and act out the stories with the little figurines. Today we read about Lehi naming the river and the valley after his sons Laman and Lemuel so we drew out the area they were camping in.

A couple days ago we were acting out the story of Lehi warning the people to repent. The people did not repent and ended up threatening to kill Lehi. Lehi and his family were instructed by Heavenly Father to leave Jerusalem and go into the wilderness because Jerusalem would be destroyed. 

I placed the Lehi toy on top of Ted's rock quarry play set and pretended to preach to the other toys. I told Ted we need to use other figurines to portray the mean people who did not like Lehi or what he was saying. I grabbed a man aiming his bow and arrow and a guy with a sword. Ted grabbed a guy riding a horse. 

Holding up the man with the arrow I said, "Get out of here we don't want to hear what you are saying and we don't like you!"

Holding up the man with the sword I said, "Yeah we hate you. Go away or we will kill you!!!" 

Holding up the man on the horse Ted said, "NEIGHHHH!!" 

Hahahaha. 

Poor Jacob he never even saw it coming... 

Tidus the Mightiest: Helmet Update Week 3

It was a bit of a rough week with figuring out to get Tidus to nap and sleep better through the night. It did not help that he was also battling the cold making its rounds in the family. His cold is just about gone, winter break has come to an end and we are getting back on track. His appointments with the cranial technologies place only last 5-10 minutes at a time. The therapist measures his head to see if it has grown at all. This week it grew 1 mm. They then shave the inside of the helmet in certain places and we are set up for our next appointment in one week. 

I did learn today that we will be done when the foam on the inside of the helmet has been shaved all the way down to the plastic. 

I swear, Tidus was born with tear ducts. He can turn on the tears.. and drool... like nobody's business. 

These pictures of Ted are to remind me of how he holds his pen if I don't correct him. He loves to learn new things like drawing and using scissors. 

                       

Tyler got a new haircut. It looks really nice. My favorite part is how when he was telling me about the new place he went to get it cut the description of the lady cutting his hair was, she smelled like old cigarets, it was disgusting. Hahaha. Well she did a pretty good job anyway.
                            
Ted getting out his before nap crazies. I wanted him to run as much as possible so he would take an early nap and be able to come with me to Tidus' appointment.

Tidus making a liar out of me. Yesterday I ranted about how I can not get him to take a nap. Well, after the blog post was published I was able to get the little pill to take a 3 hours nap. And then this morning he took another 3-4 hour nap, and right now he is taking yet another nap! All the days of fighting his naps have finally caught up with him bwa ha ha!  

And here is a picture of Tidus without his helmet. After a 4 hour nap he can be pretty sweaty. Here he is getting a little time to air out.

New Years Resolutions

Happy New Year! It is 2016 and the last day of Tyler's winter break. I loved having him home it was so much fun. Most days we just lay around the castle... Quick, what movie is that from? Seriously though, most days we did just hang out at home and enjoy each other's company. This was 100% fine with me. It was the most stress free Christmas break we have had since we got married. 

We saw the new Star Wars movie. Tidus was probably more into it than Ted was. Ted was super fidgety the entire time. Tyler felt like he missed a lot of the movie which bummed him out. I told him he could go back and see the movie again without us. Be careful what you say. Right after the movie we went to a restaurant to get lunch. It was at this point Tyler noticed his wallet was missing! He went back to the theater but the next showing was just starting and people filled the entire section we had been in. It was decided that Tyler would buy another ticket (I had my wallet) and see the movie a second time. The kids and I hung around the outdoor mall next to the theater.  Ted and I said a few prayers that daddy would find his wallet. 2 1/2 hours later and huzzah, Tyler found his wallet and got to see the movie sans interruptions. Win win :) 

We set some family New Year goals. They are all mostly financial. We want to get better at saving and we decided the best motivation to not spend money (other than not having any money to spend) is to have a goal of something large you are saving up for. We decided to save for the house we would eventually like to purchase. Who knows what city or state this house will be in but when we get it we want to have a nice down payment. 

Another gift Tyler got me for Christmas was an entire lighting set up complete with 2 umbrella stands and a smaller light stand. Our master bedroom is huge so last night we moved over the bed and made room for a mini photo studio. Ruby and Tidus are the subjects of the majority of my photos because they are the 2 that are always handy. I would love to develop the talent of making great photos. 

And in helmet news. I AM GOING CRAZY! Tidus does not nap anymore. He used to take up to 3-4 hour naps but now when I set him down he wakes up within 15 minutes. At night he still wakes up every 2-3 hours. I want to cry just thinking about it. I am convinced it has to do with the helmet. Living in an apartment, I can't let him cry it out because I don't want to annoy our neighbors. 

 I have heard a saying that babies are more than their ability to sleep... that person probably had a really good sleeper. 

Most likely the solution will be to just tough it out. One day he will sleep. But for now he sits on my lap kicking the keyboard and blowing raspberries while Tyler and Ted take naps in their rooms.