Tyler's 5th Birthday, Spring 2015

For Tyler's fifth birthday, he requested an Octonaut party. Octonauts - "Explore! Rescue! Protect!" - a tv show, book series, and game that teach about marine biology - Tyler has learned alot about the ocean from this series. We found the party supplies online.

We were super busy and didn't reserve a park months in advance, so we ended up back at Joaquin Park, at the same sight where Tyler's 1st birthday party was held. Anne Marie helped me decorate. I was pretty time-challenged with having to stop and nurse Tyrien often. I long for the day when we can throw a party at our own house instead of at a park - we'd be able to decorate the night before instead of the morning of, and wouldn't have to spend time packing up supplies and driving them to a park. It was raining early that morning, adding to the challenge. It was a mad dash, but we pulled it off.

Tyson had mentioned the previous year that he didn't get to enjoy the party when he has to spend the whole time grilling food, and last year, almost everyone we invited attended, so we decided to order pizza instead. But this year, not nearly as many kids came. Funny how that works! I'm thinking the park seemed too far away to people who don't often venture west of I-10.

One of the challenges of Tucson birthday parties, especially since Tyler started going to Catalina Day School, is that some guests arrive on Tucson time (anywhere from 45 minutes to 90 minutes late), while others arrive exactly on time or even early.
To mitigate this, I set up one table with butcher paper and crayons for kids to draw on while waiting for others to arrive. This was a hit, but the paper actually filled up faster than I expected, so the activity was quickly over.

I also filled clear cups with blue jello with gummy sharks and eels in it - this turned out to be a great activity while the early birds were waiting for the latebirds to show.

I intended for guests to participate in a scavenger hunt with multiple missions, in the style of the show. Unfortunately, I didn't realize some of the early bird guests, so soon after Easter, immediately began collecting the hidden objects before even joining the party, and had also begun digging through the polymers to locate those hidden objects as well. I used my lifeguard voice to lead the kids through a round of "Captain Says" to try to establish a sense of order. I delivered one mission, then, as Tyrien was alerting me that he wanted to nurse yet again, I gave up on the orderly mission plan and let all the kids search for everything all at once, instead of dividing it up into mutliple challenges. So...the main activity ended up lasting only about 10 minutes, instead of 45. I called Tyson to check on the pizza ETA, and heard his shock and incredulation that the activities were already over.

I made the cake using custard cups, colored twizzlers, and a regular cake pan. My dry run cake was german chocolate and came out great. But I thought it would be easier to frost it orange if I used a yellow cake. My actual birthday cake then came out dry and fell apart. So despite my best efforts to plan ahead and have an easy to assemble cake, the actual cake ended up taking a great deal more time than the practice cake. Sigh.

I'll track down a picture of the cake and add it. Tyler was thrilled with how it looked!

Can't wait for the our next birthday party! Hopefully it will be at a house instead of a park!

Other random pictures from Spring of 2015:

The Avian Flu Egg Shortage:

Cost of eggs skyrocketed, and due to the shortage, eggs that normally would not be distributed made it to the shelves:

Cyclovia 2015:
Tyler did a fantastic job of riding his bike for a total of 13 miles over the course of the day, including riding it on 4th Ave, next to the street car. This was terrifying to me, but he did a great job. Tyson biked with Tyrien in a chariot. We bought a chariot of our own for future bike rides, but by the time it arrived, it was already hot! Can't wait to use it in the fall.

Tyler climbed a rock wall at Cyclovia:

Here's a random picture of cute little Tyrien...

Friday nights at the Keith House were wildly entertaining:

Between our long commutes, extra long hours at work (sometimes being out of the house from 6:35am until after 8pm), nursing Tyrien, swimming and soccer for Tyler, and getting our house ready to go on the market, we just didn't have much free time this spring. We've neglected our friends and our fitness. But Tyler was accepted into BASIS Tucson, a school well known for it's homework requirements, so we are very inspired to move closer into town, shorten our commute, and dedicate that free time to exercise, nutrition, education, and family time. Can't wait!

Hairdos

Tyrien kept on rocking that fro-hawk! As you can see, dental hygiene is very important to him.

So Tyson tried recreating Tyler's. Except Tyler won't let us spike it!

At first Tyler was upset, crying, "You WRECKED my hair!" But the next day at school, he got so many compliments that he decided to keep it.

Tyler also finished two seasons of soccer! Rather than getting into the strategy of the game, he tended to run up and down the field without actually trying to kick the ball. He's a great goalie, though! Still, we quickly learned that he does not like to play when he is too cold. Or too hot. By the first week of May he was too hot. So this summer, he is doing martial arts instead!

So Much Love!!!

The First Few Months of 2015

Again, much of this time was a blur, but looking at pictures helps - I remember being so excited when Tyrien started taking interest in the monkeys on his bouncer, at about 7 weeks of age. He focused on the red monkey first, and would reach for him, smile at him, try to reach him...this picture shows him expanding his horizons to spend some time with the blue monkey - his eyesight must have improved by this time. It took a while for him to warmup to the blue monkey before he would smile at him. Meanwhile, Tyler loved taking the monkeys off the bouncer, switching them to see if Tyrien really did prefer the red one, etc. My little behavioral scientist...

I loved that Tyrien's hair went fro-hawk style, like Tyler's was at this age. Tyrien's fro-hawk maintained much longer than Tyler's - we didn't travel to a humid climate this time.

About this time, Tyler was invited to his first Chuck-E-Cheese party. He loved it. I abhorred it. Way too loud and noisy! And somehow, Tyler's friends' parents kept giving him more tokens, so we were there for at least an hour after the party ended! Brutal. But fun to get to see Tyler playing with his school friends.

Tyrien found a friend to hang out with, too. Except his friend is two months older than he is, yet Tyrien's already bigger! Maybe they'll end up in school together next year.

Even though this picture is blurry, I love it, because it reminds me of my favorite of Tyrien's new baby clothes. Aunties PJ and Dawn, along with Cousin Payton, bought this for him in New York - bicycles, which is our family theme of late, and so, so soft! This was the softest fabric I've ever encountered. And he was having so much fun playing with the red monkey, in the bouncer Aunt Jonell and family bought for him. This picture reminds me that even though I am far away from my family, they still get to play a role in my kids' lives!

Tyrien came to work with me until he was four months old. Tyler came to work with me until he was 5 and 1/2 months old - talk about different personalities! Tyler was the perfect bring-to-work baby. He was predictable, I could time his nursing sessions so he would fall asleep in time for me to teach class or attend a meeting, he was content to bounce in his bouncer, and was easily entertained by toys/objects/mirrors, etc.

Tyrien, however, is completely unpredictable, and cannot be nudged onto a schedule for someone else's convenience! :) If he wasn't hungry, no way was he going to nurse himself to sleep, and as for sleep, he needs far less than Tyler.

He prefers human eye contact to toys, so wanted lots of attention. He prefers movement, especially forward motion, as in stroller rides. So by the time he was three and a half months, we settled on a school. And at four months, he started there. Tyson was shocked to realize he would start school so early, but I knew he would be happier with people who could dedicate more time and attention to him, in a building designed to keep him entertained and happy.

Just before he started daycare/preshool, we realized we needed to teach him to drink milk from a bottle - this turned  out to be no easy feat!

When Tyrien started daycare, both the teachers and I were confident he'd soon take a bottle. How wrong we were! "3 days" Erika predicted. On the 3rd day, she said, "The longest it's ever taken is a week." Fortunately, I took Tyrien to his PCP that day, who informed me, "Babies can easily go 8 hours without milk. We're happy when they do that at night, right? If he doesn't want to drink milk during the day, that's fine. He'll just make up for it at night." "Except that means I won't get any sleep." "You're right!" Cheery smile.

The teachers were so worried that I offered them a syringe as a last resort measure to ensure he stayed hydrated. Tyrien became angry any time he saw the bottle or the syringe. Finally on the Friday of his second week, he dream-fed from the bottle. The teachers were so happy that they took pictures to show me.  And that's how I knew we'd found the right daycare for him - these women take so much pride in their work, and love these babies so much.

As for Tyler, he came with us to drop Tyrien off at daycare for the first day. He was excited by the cool toys and mats and bouncers, but then, when he realized we were going to leave Tyrien there, burst into tears! "You're going to leave him here???? That's MEAN!!!" His reaction absolutely touched the teacher's heart, and I still hear her telling people how much Tyler loves Tyrien.

Christmas 2014

For Christmas, my mom came out from Virginia. I was still pretty tired and not the best company, but we did make it out to the train museum downtown. Tyler loves reading the book she gave him about having a pet train, so he was thrilled that he got to meet this one, and promised to come back to visit it often. 

Christmas Day is now a blur to me, but I remember working hard to get Tyrien to smile for this picture...

I also remember being thrilled that Tyler still will take a break from opening gifts to go play. How lucky to get to spend time in his room with his two grandmas, playing with his new legos!

When I came back from his room, I came upon this precious sight. All curled up with a blanket and a new bath toy. John said it best, "They grow up so fast!"

The best gift of all, was seeing the promise come true - when Tyler got lonely, as he was sleeping alone in his room, while Tyson, Tyrien, Vader and I all slept in the master bedroom, I promised him that as soon as Tyrien is old enough, they could share a bedroom. I went on to promise that they could have bunk beds. Sure enough, on Christmas morning, Tyler found a long, narrow, heavy box. I'd told him he could have the top bunk, but he decided, "It's not safe to sleep on the top bunk until you turn six." So the bottom bunk it is...The look on his face when he first climbed into that bed was priceless.

Coming Up For Air

Okay, so I haven't been very good about documening the past 8 months of Tyler's life, or all 8 months so far of Tyrien's. When I was little I remember seeing my empty baby book and feeling sad that I couldn't learn about my early years, to which my mother explained, "I had four children. I didn't have time to write anything down." It made sense, but I couldn't relate. Now I get it. I only have two children, not even close to 4, and I don't get a chance to exercise, let alone blog. And before anyone tries to lecture me on how "nobody thinks they have time for exercise", let me be clear - I am up at 5:20am, leave the house by 6:40am, and get home around 6:30pm. Tyrien is reluctant to drink from a bottle, so he skimps on eating/drinking at daycare, and then stocks up at home, spending a ton of time nursing in the evenings,overnight, and in the early morning at home. So my time spent at home is consumed by nursing, laundry, dishes, scarfing down dinner in between nursing sessions, and accidentally falling asleep on the couch while nursing. As for "sleep", I go to bed at about 10:30, after a "final" nursing session, then if he is teething or having an ear infection am awakened at 12:30 for another nursing session, then even if not, I"m usually awakened at 2am to let Vader out, then at 3am to tuck Tyler back in, then again between 4 and 4:30am to nurse Tyrien again, at which point I give up and bring him into bed with me, until 5:20, when my alarm goes off. And then sometimes I nurse him again before we leave, or I nurse him once I get to his school. I often have to choose between taking a shower or eating something. So clearly, I could exercise, if I got up at 3:30am, or if I stayed up past 10:30 at night, and I would just get less sleep. Considering how slow I am at math and how my mouth keeps saying different words than my mind is intending to say, I'm guessing I can't afford to skimp more on sleep. I'm all for Ferberizing, but it doesn't work if the child is genuinely hungry or in pain. Also, each time he has cut teeth, he's cut two teeth at a time, with raging ear infections over a week before the teeth finally erupt. So those nights, he was up even more often, and of course we tried to wait it out, thinking it was just teething, then eventually trying home remedies for ear infections, and finally going to the doctor and ending up with antibiotics - very little sleep going on throughout that timeframe. So the new rule is, I'll be more mindful of how often I'm getting up at night, and then if we''ve gotten to the point of  asking ourselves, "is this teething, or an ear infection?" that means it probably IS an ear infection, and then if it's not better within two days of garlic oil, we'll take him to the doctor.

But I digress. Back to pictures from the early days. Here's two. 

This one was taken when he was 3 days old. Look, his legs are still curled! 

And here, he reminds me of how Tyler looked when he was about 10 days old, except Tyrien is almost a month old here:

Tyson only had one day off from work, the day Tyrien was born. After that, I was on my home. Since I have difficulty relaxing when I have guests, or even when I have loved ones trying to help, I opted to fly solo during my family medical leave time. I was nervous about being home alone with a newborn, thinking it would be a ton of work keeping the house clean, cooking for myself, diapering, nursing...Instead, I found, when you don't have help, there's much less work to do. (Provided your husband takes your four-year old to preschool, that is.) I had stocked up on soups and frozen lasagna, so while it wasn't healhty food, it was filling, comforting, and very few dishes to wash. Without guests, less dirt gets tracked in. Without guests, I stayed in our bedroom, in bed all day. This inspired Vader to stay in the bedroom too, so he wasn't asking to go outside throughout the day, which also cut down on the dirt factor. Without guests, I actually slept most of the day, and felt recovery was much faster. I followed the midwives' advice of letting Tyrien sleep on my chest in my bed during daylight hours, for skin to skin time, and while that kept me in a light sleep, it felt like good bonding time, which again, I wouldn't have had with guests. So while it was lonely, it felt more restful and healing, and I was able to go back to work when Tyrien was just 5 weeks old.

During those early weeks, it was apparent how good Tyrien is at moving his body to where he wants it, and at communicating his preferences. He did go through a colicky phase where he would cry nonstop in the evenings, until eventually his digestive system matured, and that eased up. Oddly, car rides didn't help with this. But Tyson brilliantly figured out that, unlike any other baby we'd ever met, Tyrien preferred to lay flat on his back at that time of evening, and just be left alone. The chaise lounge part of our couch turned out to be his favorite spot - he would lay with his head at the foot end so it was elevated, and he'd finally relax enough to fall asleep. We also figured out pretty quickly that Tyrien is not soothed by pure hugging, he needs movement - walking around the house, pacing back and forth, dancing/bouncing, or going for a walk in the stroller.

Those five weeks went quickly, yet I couldn't imagine staying home any longer. I'll always treasure the memory of that time, with warm sunlight, a huge, comfortable bed, a dog by my side, and a baby sleeping on my chest.