SLO in Arkansas: October 2008

Friday, October 31, 2008

And So It Begins.....

What is happening to my little sweetie pie?!?!? We have entered into the world of tantrums, whining, and general unhappiness with the world it seems. I want my little happy boy back! I know this is just a normal developmental phase, but it is not the most fun to go through! Luckily he is still super sweet the majority of the time, he just has his moments of crazy (but hey, don't we all?). I am pretty sure the majority of it right now has to do with bottom teeth coming in, which makes for generally grumpiness. But my oh my, that boy has a temper too! Every time the child throws a fit, Silas just looks at me and sighs and says, "He gets that from your side." Oh that makes me mad, but unfortunately it's true. We do have some fiery personalities on my side!!!

I think a lot of his frustration too comes from knowing what he wants, but not being able to communicate it well. He wants to get into everything, and gets so mad when he is told no. Then he starts this awful screaming and tries to smack me, which doesn't end up well for him. Luckily he gets over things pretty fast and moves on to something else, and is happy before you know it. I am just working on setting good boundaries with him and trying to name as many things as I can for him so he can learn to ask for what he wants.

He is just growing up so fast, and I don't know where my little baby went. There are some advantages to this though. His newest thing is to run to his room and stand by his crib when he is ready for a nap or bed. It is adorable!! When I ask him if he wants to go night-night, if he is tired and ready, he runs straight to his room and waits for me to hand him his paci and lovey and put him in the bed. Easy as pie. The sad part is that I really don't even get to rock him anymore. He is just ready to head to bed. I know I am blessed in this area and hope his love for bedtime and sleep continues through the toddler years! The boy plays hard and sleeps hard. He is down to one nap a day for good now, but it is still in the middle of the day, usually around 11 am. It works ok for now though, and he can make it later if he needs to, like on Sundays for church. He is still my little man and I am so thankful for every minute of every day that I have with him, whining or not!

Monday, October 27, 2008

Fall Festivities

We have had a whirlwind of things to do this month, and are getting close to getting them all wrapped up! We headed to Nashville this weekend so I could be in a friend's wedding. They were married at the Governor's Mansion outside by the golf course, and it was absolutely beautiful! We were blessed with a perfectly sunny day:) I had such a good time catching up with old friends and spending time with my girls from high school. The picture above is of me and my three best friends from Brentwood. A lot has changed in the past 10 years, and a lot has stayed the same too. We had a ball the whole weekend and Tyson had the time of his life hanging out with my parents. He ran them ragged from what I've heard, but everyone had fun:)

This was taken at the rehearsal dinner, which was held at a winery outside of town. It is owned by Kix Brooks from Brooks and Dunn. I had never been to a winery before, and it was awesome! We were up on the side of a hill and got to watch a magnificent sunset over the vineyards. There were neat huge casks everywhere and fall decorations. And let me just tell you, the pumpkin bread was to die for! Silas and I are now on a mission to find a good pumpkin bread recipe, so if you have one, please let us know!

Our friends from Texas, Brandy and Jonathon and their daughter Olivia, were also able to come and stay one night with us on their way through town. We had fun catching up and visiting a little before we both had to hit the road on Friday. Tyson had fun playing with Olivia and they were so cute running around together. We were also able to build our first fire in the fireplace while they were here, which was fabulous. Silas is already stock piling wood for us so I can have fires whenever I want! I love it:) The grate worked perfectly for keeping the kids away from the fireplace, which was good too. Have I said how much I love fires and fall yet?!?!?

Here is my little man, cute as ever. I can't get enough of this sweet face:) He is teething majorly again this week and I sense some bottom molars coming in the near future. He continues to be busy busy and we have a ball. We left Nashville after the wedding, around 10:30 pm so we could drive at night and let the baby sleep. No such luck! Tyson had been asleep since 8:30 and thought it was time to party. The little booger stayed awake the entire way back to Jonesboro, and we didn't get home until 3:00 am! He watched Veggie Tales for a few hours and cried a little bit, but not too bad. The poor fellow was so tired, but just wanted to sleep in his own bed. For everyone out there whose child will sleep in the car, be so very thankful!! We get about 30 minutes out of him at the most.

Anyway, one more crazy weekend before we have a few calmer ones. We are participating in the Fall Festival at church on Friday, and probably taking Ty Trick-or-Treating around the neighborhood. Then its off to the farm for an all day long outdoor festival on Saturday. Then maybe we can rest! We still need to carve our pumpkin too. So much to do, so little time!

Monday, October 20, 2008

Ty is 15 Months Old

Tyson is 15 months old this week. And his new amazing skill is still climbing...on....everything! He is so fast and strong that it's hard to keep up sometimes too. No major falls yet though, thank goodness! Let's see, what's been going on with us lately? We have made it half way through our crazy month of October, and are doing good:) I loved participating in the Race for the Cure with friends from Searcy last weekend, and also enjoyed my first night away from the boys. Silas is an excellent father and held down the fort with no problems. Then this past weekend I was able to go to Memphis to meet up with friends from high school for Stephanie's bachelorette party. We had a great time catching up and hanging out. It is so rare to get some good girl time in these days, especially a whole night without having to change diapers and get baths. It was wonderful! Again, I have my wonderful husband to thank for keeping things under control at home while I was gone yet again overnight. I have one more crazy weekend coming up this weekend with the wedding in Nashville, and then we should at least be at home for the next few weeks. I am sensing that Silas will be needing a much deserved break and maybe he will get to go hunting or something fun for himself.

We busted out the fall food this week too and I have been loving it! Silas made his hot chocolate mix which has been wonderful, and we have stuff to make sm'ores with our next fire. I will be making a pot of chili this week too, and I can't wait. The weather has been perfect and I wish it would stay this way forever! We took Ty to the park Saturday morning for a bit and all enjoyed being outside in the coolness. He loves the playground, and we took some bread to feed the ducks and geese there.

I love this picture! He looks like a little elf! These are my down slippers that keep your feet snuggly warm in the winter. He loves shoes and has fun trying all of ours on:) I am super excited this week to be having our friends from Texas here to visit. Brandy, Jonathon and Olivia are coming to stay with us on Thursday on their way to Indiana this week. I can't wait to catch up with them and watch the kids play too:)

Here is Tyson showing off his mad skills by being in the chair he just climbed. He is such a big kid:) My dad and Bill were here for work this past week and took us out to eat at Shogun....my favorite place:) Tyson has been scared of the fire there since they cook your food at your table. He did a lot better this time, and made some great friends too. The workers at the restaurant LOVE him to pieces there, and spoil him rotten. It was so funny to watch. They give him candy, tons of fortune cookies, and talk to him like crazy. This time, the two waitresses even took him out of his highchair and played with him while we ate our dinner! He got to play with the cash register and wander around like he owned the place. One girl told us she was going to take him home with her! He usually gets a lot of attention, but let me tell you, for some reason Asian people love this kid:) And he loves them right back:) I don't know what I am going to do once he gets older and figures out that people think he's cute and give him stuff. He is going to be spoiled rotten!

Well, I hear the little fellow waking up from his nap now, so I have to run. Sorry this was so random, just trying to catch up on a few things from the last week!

Monday, October 13, 2008

Sister Visit

I was so excited when my older sister Renee called and said she wanted to come out for a visit this past week! She has not been to Arkansas in several years, and definitely had not seen the new house, so it was perfect:) She brought her youngest little girl, Emily, who is 8 weeks old. We had such a good time visiting and catching up until the wee hours of the morning. The cousins had fun playing too:) Tyson does not quite understand how to be gentle, and poor Emily got smacked in the face a time or two. Sorry!! Tyson loved the baby though and especially playing in her car seat. He seemed like such a big kid compared to little Em.

Renee and I had fun going to a consignment sale here in town two days in a row! We found some good deals and had fun hanging out. Tyson ran around like a wild man as usual, and tried to steal women's infants from them as he would run up and start pushing their strollers away! I definitely got my workout chasing him around, returning babies to their mother's, and apologizing every time he would run someone down with an umbrella stroller! I definitely earn my keep with this kid:)

This is one of my favorite shots of the kiddos. Renee had the great idea to hide behind the couch and hold them up together to get the picture. They are just too cute!

Silas had fun loving on the baby too. What a sweet uncle he is! I was sad when Friday came and Renee had to leave late afternoon, but I was leaving as well to drive to Searcy for the evening. I participated in Race for the Cure on Saturday in Little Rock, and got to catch up with friends from Searcy too. I will do another post for that:) I had a great time with my sis, and we both wished Caroline and Jude could have come too. I hate being so far apart from my sisters, and the times we do get to spend together are so special. I loved catching up when it wasn't a holiday either, since we had no agenda and just got to hang out. That made things easier for sure. I am looking forward to going home for Christmas and getting the whole family together:) I can't wait to snuggle that sweet baby again either!

Monday, October 06, 2008

Teeth

The pictures have nothing to do with the post today, but I thought you would enjoy this lovely series:) Tyson loves to eat, and really gets after it. Here he was enjoying his shepherd's pie, and working so hard to lick the bowl clean!!! It was hilarious. I also got a cute little video of it.

We have had some major teething going on this past week, and several new teeth to show for all of the crying, whining, and waking up at night. Not to mention the excessive amounts of drool,and a few lovely rounds of nasty diapers. Poor little guy. He actually cut his first molar this morning, so hopefully things should get better now. I'm not sure how many more he is working on, but this is the third tooth in the last week or so, and I am thinking there are more coming in the near future. All these teeth are making him look so much more grown up.

Everything else is good. Silas is working like crazy and doing a great job. I am working more now too, and hopefully starting to fall into some semblance of a routine. Tyson is loving mother's day out and they love him right back:) He gets down at the door and runs to his classroom now and just starts playing. No more tearful good-byes for little man. He is ready to play when he gets there. He is still not sleeping well there, and just takes a 30 minute power nap and then plays out in the hall until the rest of his class wakes up! They said he is really good the whole day, he just doesn't sleep as much as the other kids in his class. Luckily he gets a nap in when we get home before supper, so things are good.

We are heading into the craziness that is the month of October for us. I am heading to Searcy this Friday to spend the night with friends and then go to Little Rock on Saturday to participate in the Race for the Cure. Then next weekend I head to Memphis for my friend's bachelorette party, and the following weekend we will be in Nashville for the actual wedding. The last weekend of the month is Halloween and we are helping out at church with their big Fall Festival, which should be fun:) I guess we will rest in November! Our friends from Texas are coming to stay a night on the 23rd, and both of my sisters are thinking of coming out to visit at some point possibly too. I am so excited if this all works out:) The days and weeks seem to be flying by lately. We are enjoying ourselves though and are blessed to be able to spend time together at home and enjoy the weather. Hopefully after this week the weather will cool off for good and we can finally pack the shorts away! I am optimistic about it and have put the ingredients for sm'ores, hot chocolate mix, and chili on the grocery list for next week. Silas is starting to stock pile the firewood as well. We are READY!!

SLO in Arkansas