The Kurtz Family

I no longer have a baby but he'll always be my "baby"

2010-12-23T09:19:00.000-08:00

So this is the first full day that Tyson is now a 2 year old and I just can't believe it!! Where in the world have these past 2 years gone? He's definitely displaying some "2" behavior, mostly at school with this one teacher he has that apparently has never worked with young toddlers. His paper from school the other day said a few things such as "resisted nap time; defiant toward teachers, refuses to share"... um hello, he's a toddler!! It's perfectly normal that they don't want to share and do not want to do what you tell them to do!! This makes me angry because she's also said things to him like "Tyson, what did your Dad tell you about throwing fits?" (Now, he threw a fit about someone taking the car he was playing with from him) He doesn't even know what a fit is lady!! I'm hoping she will get moved to a different room soon or learn how to care for 2 year olds. He LOVES all of his other teachers and they are so great with him and all of the other kids.

I kept him home with me yesterday so the two of us could celebrate together. We started by waking him with balloons and singing. Then cooked him his favorite breakfast: waffles and cheesy eggs. Then, we went to Bounce USA and played our hearts out. The plan was to go to Buddy's BBQ for lunch but he fell asleep in the car so we got it to go and ate at home while watching Shrek, a favorite of his lately.

Here are a few recent photos, a few are on the morning of his birthday:

Molly was having a good hair day so...

Our new Christmas ornaments that match our living room decor!

Tyson's contribution

Birthday boy trying to show you how many years he is ;)

his birthday balloons and breakfast

Tyson was playing "shut Dad in the closet"

In awe of the train at Bass Pro, with his buddy Turner

"I bus you, Momma"

2010-12-22T01:38:00.000-08:00

So I realize I have not even thought about posting a blog entry on here in forever... got a little busy with photography and then the sweet hubby came home from his deployment and I just didn't feel like being on the computer so much. So I now have decided I kind of miss it!

No photos to post at the moment because I am actually at work now but I thought I'd share a sweet story about my (almost) 2 year old!

Sunday night:

Every night we give Tyson a bath, put jammies on, read a couple books, rock in the rocking chair in his room, lay him down in his crib and tell him "night night Tyson, I love you". Starting a couple months or so ago anytime you tell him "I love you" he'll say "I bus you". It's the cutest thing. ever.

Well this night I did all of that but when I laid him in his bed he refused to say anything. Not. one. word. I was getting a little frustrated with him because I love to hear him say those sweet words! So I just tucked him in and went downstairs. For the next few minutes he just kept saying over and over: "Momma. Rah teen. Momma. Rah teen." (Momma, rocking). He was calling for me to come rock him again! Which, I will always, no matter what, gladly do. I absolutely LOVE to rock my baby.

So, of course, I went back up there, scooped up my sweet boy, and we rocked. He fell asleep lightly so I gently laid him in his crib. I said "night night Tyson". He snuggled his blanket, then looked up at me and said "I bus you, Momma". MELT! I just want to stop time and stay right there in that moment forever!!

And it's not even noon yet!

2010-05-05T09:17:00.000-07:00

Yes, I know I know, it's past noon... now. The point is that I came home from working all night and put together this big playground thing for Tyson all before 12pm today!! I'm calling it his clubhouse. It's pretty awesome: has 2 slides, 2 platforms, a ship's wheel, and climbing wall. The best part is that it's just his size! Since his Dad could not be a part of the building of Tyson's first clubhouse, I thought I'd document this. And maybe in a few years I'll use it as leverage to get something super awesome for Mother's Day ;) Haha.

So this was the massive box, wouldn't fit in my car.

This little guy here set me back about 15 minutes... IRRATIONAL fear of bugs, embarrassing.

got all the pieces to the back patio!

first 3 steps... kind of like a puzzle

using some power tools... Thanks Babe for having manly tools in the garage!!

it has 4 sides!

dripping some sweat but not really working that hard, thanks humidity ;)

ALL DONE!! Can't wait until he sees this!!

moving into toddlerhood

2010-03-20T20:35:00.000-07:00

Tyson met his friend Turner at school and they have become cute little friends. They were both in the infant room together at first with Turner's mom as one of their teachers. Well now they are both in the toddler 1 room (age range 1-2) and there is only one girl in there!! Those teachers are in trouble!!

Tyson has grown in size and intellect SO much lately. I swear he is doing such intricate little things for quite lengthy amounts of time that even most 2 year olds don't usually have the attention span for. He'll play with his bead maze for at least 15 minutes, very delicately using thumb and forefinger to move one bead at a time. He's both very independent like that and extremely social as well. His teachers always dote on him for being so sweet and calm!! He LOVES to give hugs and kisses!! I think I have such a happy little sweetheart on my hands!! Only cries if he's sick, teething, or I'm leaving him and there's no food to make up for it. (he is cutting his bottom canines right now so a little fussy when things don't go his way but still not much). He even said "Hi" to every single person at the grocery store wether they were looking at him or not! Speaking of speaking... his vocabulary has just exploded! He wants to say everything and will attempt to repeat most things if they sound interesting enough to him. He's best with consonants: b, d, s though so a lot of the things he says can be mistaken for other things. Such as "dah de" most people would think 'daddy' but it's actually 'doggy'. And 'monkey' and 'hungry' usually sound about the same as do 'cookie' and 'mickey' which he says "di di" for both. His 'cookie' is starting to sound a little more like '' too tee''. 'Socks' in his vocab is "socksahh" I think because I always say "lets put your socks on" so he tries the "socks-on".

MOST TICKLISH PERSON EVER!! Even the palms of his hands are ticklish and I probably do this to him too much but his laugh is infectious and addicting... bad habit that I'm sure he's dying for me to break ;)

Heather (Turner's mom) and I took the boys for a quick zoo trip friday (uneventful mostly) then to a little outdoor concert for little ones at the Knoxville Botanical Gardens. The best part was the randomness in the grass afterward where I took some shots of them exploring.

Turner

Tyson and the hill, he went up and down this many times

these boys were about to die of thirst

the tripod method

Turner's eyes

Valentine's Day

2010-02-17T21:20:00.000-08:00

Tyson was my special little Valentine this year since Andy was not here. I'm really so thankful to have such an amazing son here to fill up what's missing in my heart! The morning of Valentine's Day Tyson and I made cupcakes, which baked during his nap. We had a sweet visit from my good friend Abbey early that afternoon and she brought the prettiest Tulips, chocolates, and wine, yummmmmmy!! We are too lucky to have such a sweet friend and her visit was just what I needed that day; before she got there I was feeling pretty sad. Well not surprisingly Ty loved his cupcake!! I put him in his Valentine bib that was a gift from one of his friends at school; it was so precious. I was able to get some cute shots of him digging in...

Tyson's favorite book, HA!

2010-01-31T15:14:00.000-08:00

So I was reading this book to Tyson as I was turning the pages for him. He didn't really seem all that interested until I got to the last page, which he found fascinating ;) There's a surprise at the end watch closely!

Okay so he does this every time he sees his reflection or himself on the webcam, it's hilarious!

Sick Report and updates

2010-01-28T17:56:00.000-08:00

so I haven't really written much to describe Tyson's newest activities/behaviors lately. The past few weeks he has been sick off and on. It started with a bad cold the week after Andy left (end of December). It seemed like he had leftover congestion forever. Last week he had diarrhea off and on and was suffering through a bad diaper rash because of it. Then on Monday this week his fever spiked up to 104.1. I got him in to the doctor that afternoon and they put him on antibiotics for an ear infection. I remember the nurse practitioner saying he had a lot of drainage in his throat but that it did not look too irritated. Well he seemed to be doing better but this morning he slept very late. When he finally started to wake up he was merely whimpering when normally he wakes up talking and laughing loudly. When I opened his door he just lied there looking very lethargic still whimpering. He was burning up so I took his temperature and it was 105.2. Being there by myself it was extremely scary! I guess my Mom instincts kicked in quick though. I quickly gave him Tylenol, took all his clothes off, put him in the bathtub with cool water and got his doctor's office on the phone. They said to bring him in ASAP so that's what we did. His temp was much lower when we got there, thank you Tylenol. So they said his ears still looked bad but that his throat looked HORRIBLE, poor guy. Apparently the infection spread to his throat. They gave him a shot of Rocephin and decided to switch his home antibiotic to Augmentin. After 15 minutes his thigh was bright red from the Rocephin so they gave him Benadryl and had us wait there longer. Well the reaction was fixed by the Benadryl so we finally made it home. My poor buddy was just SO miserable most of the day, he even cuddled on the couch with me watching Mickey Mouse which does not happen when he's not sick!! He was doing so much better this evening after he took 2 good naps today and ate dinner. He really gave me a scare, fever that high is SO dangerous!!

Lately he has been hilarious, such a little ham. He has been really in to organizing, probably from watching me! I found his new shoes in one of the kitchen drawers, blocks in the laundry basket, and he LOVES re-organizing the tupperware! He also has a new love for dancing, it's so cute, new dance moves every day! Today I noticed that every time I'd say "I love you Tyson" he would lean over and give me a kiss!! Such a sweetheart, he really fills my heart!! He imitates just about everything and loves to sing too. He sings "e-i-e-i-e-i" and "ahhhh de" (all through the town) and "b-i-b-l-e". Animal noises he will say when you ask "what does a _ say?": Monkey "ah ah ah", snake "ssssss", cow "mmmmm", sheep "baaa", owl "oooo", and my favorite - fish ( opens and closes mouth just like a fish).

He started daycare a couple weeks ago and has been doing great. Napping is still his biggest hurdle but he'll get there. He has a sweet little friend named Turner that was born the day after him and they are becoming great friends!! Will post pics soon!!

Shakin' his booty ;)

2010-01-24T07:28:00.000-08:00

This was Tyson's very first attempt at dancing without holding on to something!! He's totally droppin' it like it's HOT!! I LOVE how he stops to turn around and look at Beyonce to see if she's still shaking her booty too!! Then he walks away laughing at himself and what I didn't get a shot of is he goes behind the couch where my friend Abbey and I could not see him. He could still see the video and was totally dancing to it... shy boy!!

Snow Day!

2010-01-10T10:29:00.000-08:00

Yesterday Tyson and I were getting some cabin fever from all the snow and there's not much to do at our house. A friend of mine that I met in Photography class lives close to us north of Knoxville and invited us over to play. She and her husband have a really big hilly yard. Their son, Wade, is about 6 months older than Tyson and SO darn sweet!! Well, they are all three super sweet. Wade's Daddy, Sean, offered to take Tyson on a tractor ride. Tyson LOVED it!! He wasn't overly smiley or giggly but he just had this look of amazement on his face the whole time. Sean even made the scoop thing in the front go up and down. After that Tyson really took to Sean, watching everything he would do. I think he was glad to have another guy around ;) Here are some pics that I shot while we were there.

Jennifer and Wade, so cute :)

Wade has such a cool Dad!

Watching Wade's Dad shovel snow

"Mom look how cool Wade's Dad is!"

Lovin it!

A Few Updates!

2009-12-10T11:54:00.000-08:00

Okay since I haven't had much time to post a new blog I figured I better get on this now so things don't just keep piling up...

Tyson has been talking more and more but it's still mostly just baby gibberish that you can't understand. He gets SO excited when he sees sesame street people or Mickey and talks to them a ton. His first word is "Uh-Oh" so he drops a lot of things on purpose so he can show off his new language abilities ;) Right now it's still pretty cute but hopefully he'll learn a new word soon!

During Thanksgiving break he started walking, which was just a few wobbly steps. He's now moved on to around 15 or so steps before falling and he isn't quite as wobbly. He still has no interest in standing up without something to grab onto before letting go.

We have started the transition to only one nap per day and only 2 bottles. He still gets a little sleep in the morning but if I put him down for a nap he just plays in his crib or doesn't sleep very long. This morning we went to Bounce USA which he LOVES. It's funny though... I paid $7 and his favorite thing was this Pooh exersaucer they had for mom's who have bigger kids and babies. Silly!

I taught him how to wave "bye-bye" recently and for some reason he came up with something that is much more complicated than how you'd actually wave and how I demonstrated it. It's hilarious and he usually starts out waving at someone and then staring at his hand like he's trying to figure out what it's doing. Here are some videos of what he's been up to!

Tyson's first trip to the Knoxville Zoo

2009-11-14T19:20:00.000-08:00

Today was the annual Kroger sponsored free day at the Knoxville Zoo. All in all we had a lot of fun but I highly doubt we will go in the future. Mass crowds and that alone I can handle but NOT all the disrespectful ignorant people who just have no manners and let their kids run loose! Not to mention it took us 2 hours to get there when normally it takes about 20 minutes! Also to stick with the negative tone for just a sec... every time I go to the Knoxville Zoo it makes me miss the Memphis Zoo SO much more. The Zoo here is just NOT good, the poor "big" cats have, in my opinion, the worst habitats... just small fenced areas with no pool to swim in or anything. Memphians DO NOT take the "Cat Country" for granted; it's amazing compared to other zoos!! Our zoo here I guess just needs more sponsorship :(

Okay on to the positives...

I cannot believe how much of a JOY Tyson was today!! Two hours in stand-still traffic, which was during the usual morning nap time, and not one bit of fussing!!! Plus, the whole time at the zoo he was all smiles, ate his lunch great, took about a 30 minute afternoon nap in the stroller, and the only fussing from him was when he saw me making his bottle, which is perfectly normal for my bottle-loving boy ;) We were just so blessed today and seeing all those unruly crying screaming kids just made us that much more aware of what a sweetheart he is becoming!!

I am including some of the pics I was able to get but again... not good habitats, which means not too good photo ops either...

cute Elephant eating a tree
The zebras were the best at posing for the camera ;)

shaking off a bug
This guy was a perfect angel ALLLLL day long, we are SO blessed!!
only shot I could get of baby George before he hid :(

Sweet old Chimp

Tyson waving ;)
Ahhh nap time

Random pond before the Zoo entrance

somewhat of an update

2009-11-12T08:42:00.000-08:00

Okay so again... haven't posted in a while... been busy working and trying to spend time with Andy since he leaves in a little more than 3 weeks, tear :(

We don't have anything planned really up until Thanksgiving besides spending time together. I heard the other day that the Zoo this Saturday is free, sponsored by Kroger and I was actually thinking of going that day anyway. The weather, thank the Lord, has been SO beautiful lately so we will probably do that. It will be Tyson's first zoo trip and I am thinking he will LOVE it. Speaking of my little man, he has been HILARIOUS lately!! He's been doing all kinds of new things that I really need to break out the video camera for. If you say "arms up" he puts at least one arm all the way up and smiles really big. If you ask him what a snake says he hisses, kind of like making the "s" sound... that one is my favorite, it's so cute!! He gives low fives, thinks it hilarious to be chased, and as always is super ticklish ;) No signs of walking yet although he has been getting much better at walking behind his push toys. He still gets going to fast and falls to his knees but a couple weeks ago he was scared to do that.

I am including a couple pictures I took of him for fall.

Tyson with his PaPa, this was in Memphis

pumpkins for my punkin' ;)

This is Tyson's pumpkin... obviously

One more week!

2009-10-02T18:16:00.000-07:00

Well I have just been so busy lately I just realized I haven't posted anything on here in a while!! Andy comes home next Saturday, possibly Friday and I can't wait!!! It's been 2 weeks so far and I am exhausted! Tyson has 2 new teeth; the top front two came in this week! By the time Andy gets home they will be down further and he'll look totally different to him! He's been SO funny lately, talking up a storm! (Well, his version of talking, HA) We went to the Little Ponderosa Zoo yesterday with my friend Kelsy and her boy Callaway and baby girl Kailyn; it was so much fun!! It's a petting zoo but they also have a tiger and a bunch of different kinds of monkeys! The baby camel was probably my favorite; she grabbed my cup of feed from my hand and turned it up! Here are a few pictures from the zoo trip...

It's a Zonkey: cross b/t a Donkey and Zebra... the stripes are on it's legs

Sweet little baby camel

I don't know what kind of animal this is, he was cute, looks like a fox but not orange

Tiger inside a cage within a cage... makes for tough pictures

The goats were cute, but a little on the obnoxious side ;)

Blurry because she was moving so quick but this is the baby camel that grabbed my cup of feed

These next few are some that I put a little more effort into, I love the way they turned out; I think it helps to have such adorable subjects ;)

Tyson absolutely LOVES this swing!!

Beautiful girls!!

Kailyn and her baby blues, such a heart-breaker!

Handsome Callaway!!

Tyson cracking up, you tube link

2009-08-30T13:00:00.000-07:00

CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE VIDEO

Crazy, scary ball!!

2009-08-30T12:54:00.000-07:00

What should Tyson be for Halloween?

2009-08-23T13:23:00.001-07:00

8 months, wow!!

2009-08-23T13:02:00.001-07:00

I can't believe our little baby is already 8 months! He's been so much fun lately! He's really started to get a lot more flexible with his schedule and it's been so much easier to take him out and not have to worry too much about being home right at naptime/bedtime, as long as he gets his food/bottle on schedule he's a happy baby!! We went to the Irish Festival at World's Fair Park yesterday afternoon/evening and Tyson had a lot of fun!! When it got dark I put his green jammies on and he was dancing to the irish music, it was so cute. Tyson's dancing: he loves to stand up holding your hands and he bounces while doing this so when there's music playing it looks like dancing ;) He is not quite crawling yet but he's SO good at the military style "low crawl". We have GOT to baby-proof now!! Here's some pics from yesterday, would have dressed my boys a little better had I know I was going to take some good pics, cute anyway though!

cute pic of my sweet pup

2009-08-13T14:00:00.000-07:00

Here's a cute picture of Reiley. I just got the flash that I ordered for my camera and was testing it out... I bounced the flash off of the ceiling ( a technique that looks so much better than a flash aimed at the face, looks to flat and weird that way). This was taken in VERY little light from one lamp in the den early morning. Bouncing the flash off of the ceiling also makes it look like there was just an abundance of external lighting ;) Isn't she so cute!!

backyard pictures

2009-08-13T10:36:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures of Tyson in our backyard, on a quilt that my Gram made. These were right at 7 1/2 months...

"blablabla"

2009-08-10T07:36:00.000-07:00

Tyson has been talking a lot lately, it's so funny. He says the same thing no matter what mood he's in so it's a little bit confusing ;) Here is a video of some clips from him babbling away!

7 months pictures

2009-07-23T12:05:00.001-07:00

fuzzy hair

"see my teeth"

new toy

big smiles

7 MONTHS!!

2009-07-22T12:46:00.001-07:00

I'm going to take some 7 month pics later but I just wanted to say that I cannot believe it has been 7 months today since Tyson was born!! Time flies and I can hardly keep up with my sweet baby. He has been so sweet this past week. He finally cut his two front bottom teeth and I think that just made him feel so much better!! Grannie left today and we are going to miss her so much, she was such a big help with Andy being out of town. Here are a few pictures to show how much he's grown...

A little over 1 week old

about 4 weeks

2 months

about 3 months... just started smiling big

about 3-4 months, bein a cutie

4 months

5 months... wearing those same jammies ;)

6 months

Night pictures of downtown Knoxville

2009-07-17T13:13:00.000-07:00

So the class is a little more than half way over and I don't want it to end... it's so much fun!! We are going on our first field trip tomorrow morning, can't wait!! For one of our shooting assignments we were supposed to do a night time city scape. Since I've worked at Baptist hospital for a while I have gotten to know several security guards. The big hospital downtown on the river has been closed for a while and they have future plans to demolish it and build a new one elsewhere. Well that big huge old hospital is just sitting there with hardly any power and they still keep one guard there at all times!! Well the guard that is there on wednesday and thursday took me up to the roof with him to get some awesome shots of downtown knoxville. It was pretty creepy as far as the whole abandoned hospital with no power and cobwebs thing goes, but having a security guard with me made it do-able!! Here are a few shots that turned out really pretty...

New Pictures

2009-07-11T20:15:00.000-07:00

Here's some pics I took earlier today of my little man. He is growing too fast I can barely keep up!

poor guy, always got something in his mouth so I think he must be teething...

He's my mini Andy ;)

"what Mom? I'm trying to play with my truck, could ya move?"

This one is my favorite... that's our new paint job in the bonus room... not quite as bright as it looks here though.

Sitter!!

2009-07-08T14:19:00.001-07:00

So I have not posted anything in a while because there really hasn't been anything to post. Photography class is still going well, we are learning all of the technical stuff right now... it's a lot to learn! We had a great 4th of July at our friend's house, Tanner and Amanda. Tyson went to sleep in the pack-n-play there and woke up to loud fireworks. We brought him outside not really knowing how he'd handle it and he did awesome! He did not cry once and seemed to kind of like them. So the big new is that he is sitting now! It was a gradual transition because for a few weeks he was able to sit but not very willing; he would just throw himself back or lean all the way forward and just lay on his tummy! So this past few days he has turned into a sitting champ! I am attaching a video of him sitting up and playing. Notice when he is playing with the dump truck that he tries twice to dump it and then realizes he has to first push it out then dump it, such a smart boy!!

Click here for the video on youtube so you can watch in full screen HD

1st night of class

2009-06-13T08:59:00.000-07:00

So I am posting some pictures I took yesterday after my first day of photography class. This was not really an assignment, I was just practicing some things we learned and getting a feel for all the different settings in manual mode....WOW a lot to learn!! One of the biggest problems I have is remembering to pay attention to the light meter. I'll be shooting and change either the aperture or the shutter speed and completely forget to look at the light meter... and then oops, gotta retake that one ;) Anyhow here's a few that I took that I think are kinda pretty!

The orchids and the other plant are artificial btw, I need to get some real flowers to photograph, HA!

Birthday cards ;)

video

2009-06-10T17:59:00.000-07:00

Update... It's been a while ;)

2009-06-09T00:57:00.000-07:00

Okay so since I have written on here last a few things have happened...
I started making Tyson's baby food! It has been pretty fun so far and it makes me feel great to do this on the days I am working. That way when I don't get to see him at all when I get home or before I leave I still feel like I am taking care of him. We took Tyson on his first trip to see his PopPop and Nana in Wisconsin. It was so much fun and Tyson seemed to love meeting so many people. "He is such a happy baby" was a very common observation! He found some very high pitched noises that he thought he'd entertain us with this past week. Most of the time it's just hilarious but he does it when he's upset also which is a bit ear peircing ;) Yesterday afternoon he discovered how to blow raspberries which is the funniest thing I have seen him do so far. He'll watch you do it and then you tell him "you do it" and he does!!! I am posting the video of that.
I also signed up to take a digital photography class which starts this Thursday. I am very excited and nervous about it; I just don't know what to expect. I hope for it to be a 1) great creative outlet for me, 2) help me learn all the bells and whistles of our new DSLR, 3) take really great family photos!! Once the class gets on a roll I'm sure I will have some cool pictures to post.
Also, probably sometime this week I will post some pictures from our Wisconsin visit!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YOn-SGZfLk
This is a link to the raspberries video on YouTube but as soon as I am on my Macbook I will replace it with the video.

5 months old!!

2009-05-22T05:11:00.000-07:00

Tyson is 5 months old today ;) he hasn't changed too much since the last pictures at 4 1/2 months but here are some we took this morning! Hope everyone has a wonderful Memorial Day weekend!!

cracking up at Mama being a goof ;)

He found his feet, HA!

It's Thursday ;)

2009-05-21T07:35:00.000-07:00

K so Mommy(Grannie) is gone now and we are really going to miss having her here to help! She really has the best job ever! She is a nurse case manager working from home so she can actually go anywhere she wants!! As long as she has internet access and forwards her calls to her cell phone, she can just bring her work with her. That is what made it possible for her to come help me out while the hubby was out of town. While she was here we found a new babysitter for Tyson. She is AMAZING with him and I cannot be more excited and relieved about finding her. She has a 13 month old little boy and he and Tyson just love each other, it's so cute! He hands things to Tyson who then puts everything in his mouth ;) Hopefully this just keeps working out perfectly and they can grow up together, like brothers!

I decided about a week ago to quit pumping and put Tyson on formula only (he was getting half and half). It is so painful and hopefully my body will soon catch on, ha! I did it because it was just getting really stressful and I was always worried about what I was eating or drinking and when to pump to keep the supply up. So quitting has definitely helped there. He is napping now but got really fussy this morning. I think it was because he woke up a little too early and was sleepy. The only thing that would keep him from crying was riding around in the baby bjorn while I vacuumed. So needless to say my house is very clean now ;) He was so funny yesterday. I put him on a blanket on the floor and he was doing log rolls! He can only roll in one direction and has figured out that he can actually get somewhere doing that so he just takes off. I'll try to catch it on the webcam and post the video.

Andy comes home tomorrow night so Tyson and I are going to go grocery shopping today and plan a good dinner for tomorrow night. I'll try to put some pictures on here later!

We can't wait for Daddy to come home!

2009-05-13T12:46:00.000-07:00

So it's been about a week now since Andy has been gone and it has been so tough! The weekend wasn't too bad but I was pretty stressed out about needing 'round the clock care for Tyson so that I could sleep during the day and work my 14 hour shifts at night. My friend Paige was lined up to keep him at night and she did a very good job the one night she ended up doing it. Tyson's babysitter got fired on Tuesday because I had to call-in at work for that night due to her being very late and irresponsible. Oh well, Tyson seemed to cry a lot more with her than he does with me and that was bugging me. So from being so sleep deprived I lost it that day and called my mommy crying. So she finished work yesterday and drove all the way from Memphis to come help me while Andy is away; he'll be back friday the 22nd. What would we ever do without our moms?! Now I am on a babysitter hunt, AGAIN! Maybe the 3rd time will be the charm ;)

I am going to take lots of pictures of Tyson with his Grannie and I'll post them soon!!

Tyson slide show up to 4 1/2 months

2009-05-07T21:52:00.000-07:00

2009-05-07T21:33:00.000-07:00

Bye Dad I'll miss you :(

2009-05-07T06:48:00.000-07:00

Andy left today for a couple weeks. He had to go to a class at Camp Shelby for his Army Combat Medic re-certification. This is something he had to do before his deployment or he wouldn't be able to be a medic anymore. Tyson is going to miss his Daddy!

some 4 month pictures

2009-05-07T06:21:00.000-07:00

Sleepy and hungry at the same time, poor guy

2009-05-06T20:09:00.000-07:00

4 month well baby visit... 2 weeks late ;)

2009-05-06T19:56:00.001-07:00

Tyson had his 4 month visit yesterday and he did so good!! He smiled at the doctor and nurse a lot and showed them how he can roll over. He did well with his shots too, only cried for about 1 minute and then he went to sleep, poor guy. He now weighs 17 pounds 6 ounces and is actually a little lower in the percentile than before; he was always in the high 90's and now is in the 85th percentile, for weight. He is still way up there in head size, hehe. He has also grown a bit in length; he is 25 1/2 inches!! So, in length he has moved from 50th to 60th ;). He gets better at his schedule every day but still has trouble in the morning sometimes. He loves his babysitter, Jamie. She comes on Monday Tuesday and Wednesday from 8:45 to 2pm so I can get some sleep and be able to work all night. He loves that he can roll over and spends so much time on his tummy now!! Also, he LOVES solids! He has not had anything that he doesn't like yet, veggies and all ;)

Jumeroo

2009-04-19T11:58:00.001-07:00

This is Tyson's new favorite toy; he loves to jump and dance around!

Trip to Memphis

2009-04-19T11:51:00.000-07:00

Tucker loves his cousin
Grannie and Tyson
Tyson with his Papa
more Tucker hugs

email updates

2009-03-31T14:37:00.001-07:00

If you get this in an email I just added some email addresses to the email blog updates feature. Whenever I post new updates it will email those of you on the list. You will be able to read the post/see the pictures right there on the email; there will also be a link to our actual blog page at the bottom so you can go straight to it and comment if you like. We like reading the comments ;) If you don't want to be emailed just let me know, or if you read this and are not receiving emails tell me to add you!

2009-03-31T14:34:00.000-07:00

2009-03-31T14:17:00.001-07:00

Well another Tuesday of not working when I should be... they never get enough patients downtown for me to work there :(

The babysitter asked us today if Tyson is teething... no way, has to be way too early for that ;) but he drools sooo much now and I guess that's what their daughter did when she started teething. I think he is just a drooley baby but if for some reason he has some teeth coming soon then I will keep everyone posted! We are so excited about this weekend; it will be Tyson's first trip to Grannie and PaPa's house!!! I'm sure we will have the entire car full of all his stuff... pack n play, travel swing, boppy pillow, bouncey seat, bumbo, play gym, good grief!!! we may have to just leave some of that at home ;) This will be his first time to meet April and I know she is excited ;)

2009-03-30T10:10:00.000-07:00

motherhood

2009-03-30T09:43:00.000-07:00

So yesterday we went to Toys-R-Us because Tyson has a hard time napping without either his own crib or a swing so we picked out a travel swing for the babysitter's house and for when we travel. Oh and Tyson laughed out loud there for the 2nd time, it was adorable. We also got a Bumbo, the thing that helps them sit up before they really know how. He does really well in it, still a little wobbly but not too much. Well today I was trying to multitask by printing pictures of him while keeping him entertained, so I put him in the bumbo in front of the TV while I was at the computer. Then all of a sudden it smelled horrible in that room, and I was a good 15 feet away from Tyson so I thought surely it wasn't his poop. IT WAS. He definitely broke in that new seat. It came out of his diaper, all up in his onesie, and all over the bumbo seat.... then it was bath time, for both of us!! Oh the joys of motherhood ;)

New Camera 2

2009-03-24T05:56:00.000-07:00

Andy and I have a new camera so we will be posting more pictures. We'll post some that are large/high quality enough to save and print well from the internet. Enjoy ;)

New Camera

2009-03-24T05:28:00.000-07:00

Weekend

2009-03-22T06:31:00.000-07:00

Well I made it through another week of work, which was only 2 nights but still tough. Thursday night was our first night to have clinical students with us so I'm excited because as they get better they will be doing more and more of our work ;). So far this week I'm on to work 3 nights, hopefully that happens. Friday I went to BRU to pick up Tyson's highchair. I had called to check if they had the pattern I wanted and they had only one and put my name on it. When I got there some lady in front of me was buying the floor model in the same pattern... close call!! He is sooo cute in his chair! The seat will recline so he can sit in it just fine right now but we are not really feeding him in it yet. We had tried a few times to feed him some rice cereal and it's a huge mess as you would expect from a 3 month old, but it's good practice. He just looks at me like "I don't understand, where's the nipple?" He has been sleeping better at night which makes me feel much better. Naps during the day are still kind of weird. Some days he wants to take long naps and some days he acts like he just wants to be awake. Here in another few weeks I'm going to try and work out a really good schedule and hopefully we can get him to stick to it pretty well.

Idol, ugh

2009-03-19T06:12:00.000-07:00

So I'm upset because Alexis is gone from American Idol... really liked her!! I agree with the judges not saving her,though, because there is at least one person better than her, but I just thought for sure she'd be in the top 3 or 4. I still think Adam is my favorite because he is so unique and has amazing vocal talent but as for my top 3, I go back and forth a lot. Love Allison, Megan, and Kris. Also, really like Matt... who knows really, they are all so good I think ;) Andy really likes Danny. Can't wait for next week!!

Quote from "The City"

2009-03-17T08:44:00.000-07:00

I was watching "The City" on my DVR today and heard an awesome quote from Diane Von Furstenburg (sp?), she said that her mother told it to her:

Absence is to Love what the Wind is to Fire;

When it's a small fire the wind kills it,

but when it's a real fire

the wind intensifies it.

Just some cute Tyson pics then I'm off to bed, It's late ;)

2009-03-16T22:18:00.000-07:00

It's Monday!

2009-03-16T09:38:00.000-07:00

Andy is not working today so it feels like an extension of the weekend, yay for two Sundays!! Last night I completed day 2 of the Jillian Michaels 30 day shred and it's pretty tough. There's only a little that I cannot do without pain yet, PUSH UPS, ouch!! They are tough, yes, but my incision from the C-section still hurts a bit when I do them so I take short breaks on that part. Andy and I really want to go on a vacation for our anniversary in July and I soooo want to get back in shape by then. I feel like most of the actual baby "weight" is gone from breast feeding but everything got redistributed to the tummy and thigh area, UGH!! The 30DS dvd by Jillian is awesome though, very tough and you don't need very much space or props to do it. It's circuit training so you're always moving and it's pretty short so it's easy to fit in without too much commitment. Tyson slept pretty good last night but he's not napping well so far today. He has to go to the babysitter 3 days this week and he really does not nap well there so he'll be extra cranky for his daddy on the nights I work this week. He is getting so big. I feel like everyday he grows out of something in his closet ;) Andy said this morning he reached for one of the lambs on the mobile in his swing, such a big boy! He want to suck his thumb soooo bad but still has not been able to. His thumb stays tucked under his fingers and he sucks his knuckles. He pushes that hand with his other hand for leverage, it's hilarious. He still loves his bath so much and smiles more and more lately. More updates on him to come I'm sure...

Tyson update

2009-03-14T06:52:00.000-07:00

So Tyson is almost 12 weeks old now and has been growing so fast; he changes so much every day. The other day for a few seconds he laughed out loud and it was too cute. Andy was talking to him which I guess is really funny to him. He loves his Dad so much; he'll just be gazing up at him and start smiling so big, it's sooo cute!! He absolutely LOVES the bath! I think he'll be a great swimmer soon. He still doesn't really sleep through the night yet, almost there though. He is probably close to 14 pounds now which is on the big side for his age; at his 2 month appointment he was 13 pounds 5 ounces and in the 90th percentile. More updates to come!!

this is a first ;)

2009-03-14T06:43:00.000-07:00

So this is the first time I've ever written anything on a blog and I never thought I would be a "blogger" but here goes...