The Month of November, in review

November has been a busy, busy month, as you can see from the total lack of blogging. It's been an emotionally trying month, so I'll just get that off my chest to start with. For one, in late October, Al and I made the choice to seperate. I'm not gonna get into the details, but for now I think it's for the best. The kids don't know anything yet, but regardless Al will now be deploying likely in Januaury so we're staying put in NJ for now. On top of this drama, my brother Chris has really been struggling and has been in and out of the hospital. Tyler is doing wonderfully in school, but has been driving me absolutely batty at home, with tantrums I never witnessed at typical tantrum age. Jason has been making progress with walking, but not necessarily with sleeping, eating or talking. He's a little love though. As for me, I finally finished up my continuing education to get my OT certification renewed. Go me!

Now, on to my attempt at recapping the whole entire month. Wish me luck.

November started off with a bang, including some Wii and a trip to Walmart dressed in clothes that even I had to shudder at. But I did get to go out that night with my friend Beth, so what more can I ask for.


Phillies games and the darn time change screwed with our sleep...big time.

Jason worked on his spoon skills.

My mom wasted a couple of hours making paper with Tyler. Yep, MAKING paper. Totally a grandmom project!

Teacher's convention brought us four LONG days off of school. I wasn't sure if I'd make it, but we kept busy. We even had a trip to Pump-it-Up with Dottie and Carli.

Ty had his final soccer game/closing ceremony. It was held at Ultimate Soccer, which was pretty neat. Ty still has some work to master in the soccer area, but he does have fun. I had to laugh though because his little friend Michaela fell out on the field and Tyler stopped play to go help her out. Although playing delays aren't new to him....there are the delays to stop and feel the grass, watch the scoreboard, look for us, etc. Like I said, he has fun. That's all that matters, right?



Ty enjoyed my snuggie (gift from my grandmother)

And we worked on his November family project for school, disgusing "Tom the Turkey" as something else...clearly the Phillies Phanatic.

Jason, still a bad eater in general, did continue to enjoy practicing with eating from a spoon, which is oh so cute...not to mention messy.


Jason enjoyed his mornings while Ty was at school (Mommy too).


Ty celebrated Hannah's birthday at Chuck-E-Cheese.

Jason learne to climb. I turned my back for 10 seconds at the library and this is what I found. I'm in trouble.

My dad spent a few days working on fixing the roof so that our ceilings wouldn't collapse. Nice, huh? I learned that Jason can often sleep through hammering right above his roof, but NOT my neighbors dog barking. Go figure. If Chris was around he "helped" out too.

Jason finally decided to really walk. He is the cutest "toddler". He doesn't walk with his feet one foot in front of the other, instead of kicking out his legs to the side as he walks.

We enjoyed some time at Chick-fil-A (of course)

Speaking of Chris being around, one day he was doing some dishes (rare) and got distracted. Next thing I know I realize Jason has been quiet for a minute, which can always be dangerous. This is what I found.

We had a yummy dinner at the Showboat Buffet, with free coupons from my mom and her friend Muriel. Jason ate the best dinner I've ever seen, and Ty had a ball as usual. Fun times.

Ty had his 50th day of school, which they celebrated with "Nifty Fifty" day. They learned to dance. Ty told me that he wanted to dance a little with Ava too, but that Mackenzie wanted to dance with him so she pulled his arm "and she's really strong". LOL. That afternoon Tyler got to host his first school-related playdate, which ended at the beach for some playtime.


In order to combat rain-related cabin-fever insanity, we broke out the climbing tube. Fun for both boys!
Ty had a little Thanksgiving feast at school. Quite the look, huh?

Jason looks like he's ready for some jean modeling, huh?

Tyler's school had an "open house" and the parents got to come in for a little musical show of thanksgiving tunes. I also got to see a little seatwork.


Jay did some grooming.

Ty showing off one of his many Thanksgiving day projects.

That night we dined as well as many do at Thanksgiving, but in fact our meal was free and spent zero time preparing. My mom had yet ANOTHER collection of free meal vouchers at the casino buffet. Yum. Makes for a busy (which usually equates to easy) day.

Jason getting around.

On Thanksgiving day Al was here to visit the boys, which they enjoyed tremendously. I did get Ty to myself for a few minutes to finish decorating our lovely turkey cupcakes.

Then it was back to "daddy time"

Finally we were off to Jim and Cara's, who were generous enough to offer to host Thanksgiving dinner. We had a very nice time.



The rest of daddy time was spent with toys. Ty also got a special breakfast/lunch out with him by himself.

After Daddy left Friday night, the boys needed other distraction. Pop-pop is always good for showing youtube videos (child-appropriate of course)!

The last weekend day of November found us with some beautiful weather. Yard work was in order. After some stick collection the boys played some basketball. Ty insisted on dragging out Jason's little basketball set too, so they could play together. Too cute. Jason also figured out how to stand up, without having to pull up on something. Big boy.