baby it's cold outside!

On Sunday (as you can see from previous blog posts) it was warm enough that Tyler was playing on a play set without a coat. Today it was FREEZING! After going out with Jason to get fitted for a dress for my friend's wedding, I met Al, my mom, Tyler and my grandparents at Chick-Fil-A for lunch. While there we noticed it had started snowing outside. It was coming down pretty hard and it was incredibly windy. I bundled Tyler up and took him outside to see it and he thought it was pretty darn neat. I didn't have my camera with me, just my phone


Tonight at dinner time Tyler wanted to play basketball. My brother Chris brought the little basketball net onto the porch and agreed to play with him. A couple of hours later I checked the weather and it said it was 20 degrees and with the windchill it "feels like 11". Brrr!!!

Jason's sweatshirt sums it up perfectly!

my cuties

Tyler has found the Wii love! One of his favorites is the ski jump on Wii Fit. By the way, weighing yourself on the balance board is almost as exciting as having your own scale.

Perhaps one of the funniest sites I've seen in a while is Tyler performing yoga moves. You wouldn't believe how excited he gets when he logs enough time to "unlock a new yoga pose".

Last night in the midst of Jason's non-sleeping, my dad made some sort of connection with Jason and was able to get him laughing quite a bit.

How precious is that?

Disney On Ice

As part of Tyler's Christmas gift my parents got him tickets to see Disney on Ice. He had watched some YouTube videos of it when we were back in Florida and had seen some commericals and he was psyched.

According to my mom they had a lovely drive over to Philly and Tyler had been really pumped up about the show. Mickey and Minnie came out and Tyler was amazed. He found Goofy to be pretty funny and was really thrilled with Cars. Then there were some fireworks. Go figure, fireworks inside a stadium. So, less than 10 minutes into the show and he was done. My mom thought he might be okay if they took him to the back, but upon hearing the beginning of the music from The Little Mermaid he was finished...as he told my mom "uh oh, Ursula's coming". They were off.

All in all, Tyler enjoyed his 10 minutes of Disney on Ice. I think we'll wait a few more years for that!

new beginnings

My brother Jim, who was engaged to be married this October, recently parted ways with his fiance. Just last week he got to move into his new rental. It's located right on a stream in a beautiful wooded area. It's adorable and I'm so happy for him!


As you can see the previous property renters had a play set. Tyler had a ball playing and Jason got his first swing ride. As you can see, he enjoyed it so much that he passed out within minutes. I told Jim I was moving in!



I would like to add that both boys were wearing their Eagles gear that day (Sunday) and it brought them major luck!

Speaking of "new beginnings", at the end of a year it's always nice to remember that it's never too late for a new start. Some of our high school friends had drifted apart over the years. At my friend Christina's funeral we met up with them and made a vow not to lose touch again. Sunday night myself, Kristen, Jen, Veronica, and Lindsey all got together for dinner. It was a nice little girls' night out, plus Jason of course. I seem to have lost the battle bottle so my little nursling must go everywhere with me! He was a good little boy though!

Oh, and in other news, remember how I had mentioned how Jason was doing so well? I stupidly decided to eat cheese (Riviera pizza, ymmmmmmm) just to confirm if the dairy was the cause since I was so unsure. It is definitive for sure...at first he didn't seem so bad. A little more spit-up, a little fussier, but nothing conclusive. Well, as the evening rolled around he was CRANKY. And then I tried to put him to bed around 6:50 (this would have been normal based on when he last woke up). It took me until after 12:30 to accomplish this task. EVIL! So, my new beginning of definite dairy-free living has begun. I took a trip to Trader Joe's and found dairy-free treats! Yipee!

Wii obsession

My parents bought us a Wii for Christmas as a wonderful family gift. It came with Wii sports (they might all come with that???) and then they got us Wii Fit. Tyler has been enjoying some aspects of it, but every night after he has gone to bed there has been some sort of Wii challenge. Most nights we bowl.


As you can see, my mom even tried (she's left-handed and she was able to bowl without moving her bad knee at all). Unfortunately she could only bowl for a few minutes as it proved to be too much for her.

Al and I are obsessed though! After all, I've got some work to do on Wii Fit. It has told me, in no uncertain terms, that I am in fact "overweight".

Luckily Al's mom gave us money to buy some more games (she knew that Al wanted Mario Kart, which Tyler will enjoy too). Al went out last night to Walmart to buy a couple of games and they had NOTHING that we wanted. I presume there will be another trip out today!

smiley baby

I know I haven't commented recently, but Jason is doing wonderfully. It took him a few days to adjust in New Jersey. I think he was just confused by his surrounding or something, or maybe the flight threw him off for a bit, but after a few days of very little sleep, he settled right in.

Jason LOVES to listen to bring brother Tyler. Tyler, on occasion, will perform for him and Jason will smile away.

Of course Jason loves his mommy too! In actuality, he'll smile for most people if he's in the right mood. My mom can usually get him to smile no matter what.

And for some reason he absolutely loves a Mickey pillowcase my mom has. If you put it near him he'll make eye contact with it and just stare, smile, and babble away. He loves this Christmas quilt too.

And did I ever mention how much he loves to be naked. If you got to change his diaper he will just laugh, kick his feet, and talk. Sorry, no naked baby photos!

Christmas Aftermath

We've been playing with lots of toys, as expected after Christmas.

A big hit has been the remote control helicopter my brother Jim got Tyler. I'm not sure who likes it more though, my brother and Al or Tyler.

Then of course there is Tyler's motorcycle. Yes, you read that right. My Uncle Glenn has a 3 kids and they have plenty of toys. Apparently this motorcycle had been outgrown, so we were the proud recipients of it! The day after Christmas, after watching Tyler ride it inside for far too long, we did bring it outdoors. Not before causing mommy to say something she never expected to hear: "Tyler, you may not eat a candy cane while riding your motorcycle in the house".

There has been much time with board games (Monopoly Junior and Itsy Bitsy Spider Game), trucks, and bath toys.

And of course we can't give up the Christmas spirit too easily. My mom taped the Walt Disney World Christmas Parade since we didn't get to watch it on Christmas Day. Since then Tyler has watched it, I believe, 4 times. You can just see, from the glimmer in his eye, that he now has a thing for Miley Cyrus. And he keeps asking when he can see that parade.

Christmas Evening!

I'm catching up, slowly but surely...

After spending the afternoon at Al's mom's house, we put the boys back in the car and head over to Al's Aunt Kathy and Uncle Mike's house. Thankfully Jason fell asleep immediately and Tyler pretty much was near sleep the whole time. That made the 45 minute drive a bit easier.

We got there and I was quickly reminded how short I am. Al's family is very tall, which makes my 5'2" frame seem very vertically challenged. They even make Al (6') seem short!

This was the first time that any of Al's extended family met Jason, and probably the first time in 2 years that they've seen Tyler as well. This is Al's mom-mom holding Jason for the first time.

Tyler and Jason got spoiled by even MORE presents, and we enjoyed hanging out with the family again. A great time was had by all. I didn't get many pictures, but here are some highlights...

Al's Uncle Mike, making sure he made the blog postings!

Tyler made a friend. This is Al's cousin Matt's girlfriend Dana. He was quite taken with her. In fact, he told me a few times, while they played in the basement, to go upstairs with "the rest of the family". Apparently I was interrupting their special time. He always knows how to pick out the pretty ladies.

Jason likes to pick out the pretty ladies too. This is Al's cousin Kirsten.

Last, but not least, a family photo, courtesy of Uncle Mike.

Christmas Afternoon!

After "rest time" we bundled up the kids and head off to Al's mom and stepfather's house to visit and have a bit of an early dinner. His sister Dottie was there too, as was her daughter Carli and Carli's dad Dan. Tyler got bombarded with more gifts from grandmom and a couple from Aunt Dottie. Some of them were quite fun, including night vision goggles, a t-ball set, and Monopoly Junior. Jason got a little toy as well, and some money. Tyler and Carli had a nice time playing and we enjoyed some food. By the way, I had the yummiest "candy" which I believe was called an "oreo truffle". I MUST get this recipe from my mother-in-law. Thank goodness that I'm fairly sure Jason is doing okay with chocolate, because those are to die for! Pretty good that I could have some satisfaction, as the rest of the holiday was spent trying to avoid all dairy. NOT FUN!

More photos:

Tyler opening presents.

Grandmom with Tyler.

Dottie and Jason.

Carli opens some presents.

Jason meet Chance (the dog).

Christmas Morning!

The day had finally arrived. Christmas Day. And Santa had come!

Tyler woke up around 7:00 and went to the living room. My mom, due to her knee, has been sleeping in the living room on the couch and my dad had joined her shortly before Tyler's waking. Tyler ran out and announced "Merry Christmas" before even looking at the tree. As soon as he did (as my mom reports) he yelled "oh, he came. Santa Claus came".

He tore into his stocking first and was quite impressed, although we did have to TRY to get him to slow down. He was barely looking at anything, just pulling it out as fast as he could to get to the next thing. Next came the gifts under the tree. He loved opening stuff, and loved helping others open their gifts almost as much.

I'm not sure if I mentioned it, but Tyler's Christmas wish list originally included only Pixos and a scale...yes, you read that right. My grandparents got him BOTH of the things on his list, leaving Santa nothing to get him that he really wanted. Eventually he added the desire to have "a heffalump" (from the Winnie the Pooh Heffalump movie) and a bottle of glue (we ran out at home a couple of weeks ago and I had been forgetting to buy more). After opening each of these gifts he announced "it's just what I wanted". Wouldn't it be great if you could always make them that happy so simply. He's an easy boy to please! However he did enjoy some other gifts he got from Santa, including a NASA space shuttle with alien UFO, "comfy pajamas" and of course candy in his stocking.

Later on he helped Jason open gifts and then his gift supply more than doubled when my parents gave him their gifts. Too many to mention, but highlights included an itsy bitsy spider game, lots of disney-themed items, and those lined Crocs. He also got one of those air hog remote helicopters from my brother Jim and a savings bond from my brother Chris (in addition to the art supplies he got the night prior).

The morning was complete with a visit from my grandparents for our annual Christmas breakfast. We all stayed in our PJs all morning and played with the new stuff. The rest of the day will be in a later blog post. For now, here are some photo highlights of our morning.

The tree with all the loot.

Tyler enjoys some presents.

And some more presents.

Jason gets up close and personal with a stuffed Tigger present.

Al apparently received a text message from Santa with a photo the few gifts that were left in Florida. Santa was pretty smart to realize that it would be hard for us to bring an exersaucer and a basketball over-the-door hoop on the plane. Tyler was pretty surprised that Santa knew how to text!

Tyler enjoying some presents.

Jason opens a present.

My mom-mom with her newest great-grandson on his 3-month-birthday (Jason's "birthday" not to be confused by Jesus' birthday...Tyler finds the names similar).

I tried to get a cute picture of both boys in their Christmas PJs. Unsuccessful.

My mom with both of her little grandsons.

True Christmas Eve

Today my grandparents and both brothers came over to celebrate Christmas Eve. Tyler had been waiting anxiously all day to see his everyone. As you can see, Jason was happy to see his G-G.mom and gave her big smiles.

My brother Chris and my dad took on baby duty for a while.

My grandparents had handed out gifts at last nights' celebration, but they saved this one special for Tyler today because it had so many little parts. The Pixos thingamabob he's been wanting. As you can see, he was a tad excited.

The excitement was a little too much for my brother Jim to handle.

After dinner my pop-pop anxiously perused the dessert table.

Tyler especially enjoyed the "Happy Birthday Jesus cake".

Tyler spent a while creating projects with the craft supplies he got from his Uncle Chris.

We snuck in a family photo (and you'd have to wear antlers for a family photo)....

before the ever important reading of "Twas the Night Before Christmas".

The milk and cookies have been set out for Santa. The bag contains "reindeer food" that my mom and Tyler made. Hopefully Santa won't forget us!

Merry Christmas to all!