Things to Remember

Now that I hardly ever post, I notice things that I want to remember about the boys, but never get a chance to write down. I'll have to start this post and add to it, or just periodically post with the same title, Things to Remember. My friend Patricia once told me that her boys loved hearing details from their early years, and I notice Tyler lights up when we tell him things he did that Tyrien does now.

So of course, now that I have a chance to type without Tyrien climbing all over me and jabbing at the keys, I'm drawing a blank...

When Tyler was younger, some of the cutest things he used to say, due to his pronounciation, were "proyect" as in, "I want to do a proyect", and "instruccshuns", as in "Let's look at the instruccshuns for this lego set."

Tyrien has something adorable that he says now, that causes us to reminise about proyects and instruck juns. And now I can't think of what it is Tyrien says. Maybe I will in the next few minutes.

Oh, yes. Bike-y-bol. "Where's my bike-y-bol?" He is referring to his tricycle. Bike-ee-bole.  Melts my heart every time.

Despite his propensity for either bronchiolitis or asthma attacks, Tyrien actually has a good set of pipes. During Tyler's school play, The Sneetches, Tyrien stood on Grandma A's lap, shouting at the top of his lungs, "Brother! Brother! Brother! Brother!"

Tyler loves to watch TV and play videogames. So much so that we worry. We set limits, of course. We're not looking for advice. It's just a constant struggle. When he maxes out his time, he tends to hang out in the living room waiting for any opportunity for screen time. My plan for the heat of the summer is to have a new rule, that they have to play outside for a few hours, in the early hours of the day, before the TV can be turned on.

So far, Tyrien loves to be outside. He also loves to be barefoot. Outside and barefoot doesn't go well in Tucson. When he was one and  a half, he stepped on a huge mesquite thorn, it looked like it went halfway through his foot. Amazingly, it came out easily with tweezers and didn't get infected. Right in the soft spot of his foot. You'd think he'd learn from that.

Oh, the other adorable thing Tyrien does lately is to say, "I want a yummy" when he wants something sweet. "I want ahce keme" (ice cream) is also adorable. Clearly, he gets more sweets than Tyler did at this age, a product of early exposure to them. Good thing he loves being active!

As Tyson points out, everywhere Tyrien goes, he is running. He climbs, lately on top of Tyler's bunk bed, where he gets stuck because he can't get down by himself. Surprisingly, he has not yet climbed out of the crib. He alternates between sleeping in his crib and in the lower bunk. We can balance a water cup for him in the crib, so we prefer the crib. Why did we never figure that out with Tyler? We constantly had to bring Tyler water in the middle of the night. But, I suppose that was once per night, and Tyson was happy to do it, so it wasn't overwhelming. Whereas Tyrien, he really wants milk at all hours of the night, so the balanced water cup was an act of desperation, and it does usually work, now that he has tubes in his ears. Now if he's crying for milk in the middle of the night, I know he has an ear infection.

Yeah, he hasn't weaned yet. Not looking for advice on that either. I regretting weaning Tyler before he wanted to wean, even though he was over two. I did it because of the stupid Time Magazine cover - a four year old was standing on a stool to nurse from his standing mother, and there was a huge backlash. Suddenly strangers were asking me how old Tyler was when he weaned (which he hadn't done yet), and sharing all kinds of judgemental comments about the woman in the article, women in la leche league, etc. I weaned Tyler when I had the opportunity, and then I regretted it, because he was constantly sick for the next six months. And I weaned him in May, so it's not like it was the cold/flu season. Tyrien's colds turn into concerning breathing patterns, so no way am I forcing him to wean right now. He's not even down to once a day yet, or at home only. After two years of never sleeping through the night, I'm willing to nurse whenever and whereever he wants during the day, just so long as I can get my six or seven hours of sleep at night!

Oh my gosh, do I miss Vader. The boys have taken over the dog bed that looks like a miniature couch, and somemtimes, I see movement on it out of the corner of my eye, and think it's Vader. It's always just one of the kids, wearing a dark shirt. I hear neighborhood dogs barking so much, and think about how I used to get frustrated with Vader for barking too much. He didn't bark as much as these dogs. And I don't feel annoyed by these dogs, so maybe the neighbors weren't annoyed by him, either.

I mostly miss him in the middle of the night, I definitely did not realize how often he was checking on me in the middle of the night until after he was gone. I think anytime I woke up, he came to sniff me and get petted. He had taken to sleeping in the bathroom, on tile and against the wall, even in the wintertime, instead of on his dog bed next to me. But he still listened for me to stir and came and sniffed me each time.

Back to the living.

In January, I finally started taking Krav Maga classes. For three weeks. I didn't love it. It was hard, it hurt, and I felt lonely. Then abruptly at the end of the month, the teacher announced that they weren't renewing their lease and didn't have the new studio locked in yet. So I tried a different gym, and loved it! The first exercise reminded me of being in a mosh pit. A couple days later, I tore my left calf muscle running on the treadmill at work. I rested for four days, then gingerly returned to Krav Maga and seemed okay, so long as I stayed on my toes on that leg. Loved the class. Two months later, in the class, shortly after the initial warmup, I performed a ball-groin kick, followed by a knee to the groin. Which actually, is a motion quite similar to running. I felt that same rubber band snapping feeling in my right calf. I immediately sat down, asked for ice, and iced it for 20 minutes. I stood up to resume the class, and realized there was no resuming the class.

One week later, it looked like this.

Two weeks later, my ankle was bruised and swollen, and I still couldn't put weight on my right heel. I went to the doctor. "Yeah, with all that bleeding, I would not expect it to heal in two weeks. It'll be at least a month."

I finally got to start physical therapy four weeks after the injury. The physical therapist's response upon examining it was to periodically announce the Lord's name in vain. He asked lots of questions, performed lots of tests, and proceeded to give me a series of exercises that have nothing to do with my calf muscles. Clamshells and fire hydrants and leg abductions. Along with stretches for the hamstrings, hip flexors, and gluts. Only one calf exercise. I compared notes with my former running partner who is being treated for an IT band injury. Same exercises. I've been three times now, and can walk quickly again, but still have not been cleared to run or go back to class. I think I actually miss the class more than the running! Who knew that getting punched in the face would be so fun.

Tyson pointed out that I can still ride a bike, so I've been doing that. Funny enough, I've owned my bike for two decades, but have hardly ever ridden it. I have a lot to learn.

Tyler finished the school year. On the last day of school, we rode our bikes. He was so proud of his bike! He joyously strutted through the schoolyard with it as we walked over to the bike rack to lock it.

Here's another favorite from the end of the schoolyear:

Fierce!

Disneyland 2017

For Spring Break, we had planned to go to a cabin, but then were invited to Disneyland instead. We realized this was actually a good opportunity to go, not too crowded, not too hot, and to get to go before Tyler was too old to enjoy it. Especially since a new hotel had opened, with family friendly suites at a good price, walking distance from the park. We tracked down those elusive UofA discounts, along with some USAA discounts, packed the car, and off we went.

The drive was the longest road trip Tyrien has been on yet, about 8 hours. Tyler alternated between playing Minecraft on the tablet and suddenly stopping, closing his eyes, and breathing deeply until falling asleep. Tyrien spent most of the time asleep. 

The arrival at the hotel was fantastic. The woman who checked us in made it fun and seemed genuinely interested in our family having a good experience, asking Tyler questions, etc. Tyrien saw a Mickey Mouse display in the lobby, and shouted, "MICK-e-MOUSE!" and ran to see. We had no idea he even knew who Mickey Mouse was, so to see him so excited validated the trip.

Upon arrival in the room, the boys were so excited, happily jumping on the bed, looking out the window, and then playing together on the bed. 

I had done some research and found you can bring food and water into the park. This significantly impacted the affordability of the trip. We brought up bacon and sausage from the breakfast buffet, confirmed that their eggs tasted awful, so cooked the eggs we'd brought with us. We ate a large breakfast, packed peanut butter sandwiches, crackers, water, and a couple bottles of soda.

The fastpass option plus rideswap was awesome. Tyson would retrieve the fastpasses, then he and Tyler would ride first, while I hung with Tyrien.  When they were done, Tyler would get to go on the ride a second time with me - we'd get to go through the fastpass line so the wait was short. 

During one of our waits, I noticed Tyrien seemed terrified.

Stormtroopers!

One of the stormtroopers approached Tyrien. When he saw that Tyrien's reaction was unfavorable, he announced, "These are not the ones we're looking for. Go about your business." 

Tyrien was miserable the rest of the day, until finally I called his doctor and requested a prescription for ear drops, explaining that we were in Disneyland and he was absolutely miserable. His doctor's office was awesome, and we were able to pick up the eardrops on the way back to the hotel. With the tubes in his ears, the drops work really quickly. Added in Tylenol and ibuprofen, and by morning, he was visibly more comfortable.

We spent Day 2 in California Adventureland. Tyrien had more opportunities to ride on rides, starting with Tow-Mater's towing. He had a blast! 

Our friends arrived in California Adventureland a bit later, and we had fun spending time with them for parts of the day, then going off on our own at other times. California Adventureland felt smaller than Disneyland - streets were narrower, and so crowded. But we walked alot more there. Tyson tracked his steps, he walked over 27,000 steps that day, compared to 13,000 at Disneyland. 

Tyler enjoyed rock climbing, practicing multiple times before I could coax him away.

Towards the end of the day, Tyson and Tyler went off on their own and Tyrien and I had some alone time together. He LOVED the carousel and insisted on riding it  over and over.  Where other rides inspired giggles and laughter, he was very quiet and serious on the carousel, looking up frequently to try to figure out the mechanics.

While Tyson and Tyler were waiting in line for a Lightning McQueen ride, we returned to Tow-Mater's ride. Tyrien was thrilled. We rode this ride multiple times as well.

With a dead phone and poor night vision, I was nervously waiting for Tyson at the "gas station", which had loud music and alternating flashing lights on the floor. Tyrien broke into dance. No worries about Tyson finding us in the dark anymore - with Tyrien rocking out like this, I knew Tyson would find us.

We returned to Disneyland the third day. We had passes for Space Mountain earlier in the day, and that resumed it's standing as my favorite ride. Tyler says Thunder Mountain was his favorite. We got to meet Chewbacca in person. Tyrien may be afraid of Storm Troopers, but he was happy to give Chewbacca a high five.

Towards the end of our time in Disneyland, we finally made it to Toon Town. Should have gone earlier. Seeing Tyrien's reaction to Goofy's playhouse was priceless. He was immediately confident, ran into the area, and immediately climbed up the play structure to wait his turn to go down the slide. He was in his element.

Then he spotted Tyson approaching from a distance, carrying oversized ice cream cones. He immediately shouted, "Ahce Keme!" and dashed out to meet him.

We enjoyed Mediterranean food that night, then left the next morning to return home. When we saw evidence of a traffic jam just before we got to Phoenix, we stopped to eat. We got back on the interstate after the traffic jam was over. But that's when we learned, Tyler cannot play videogames in a moving vehicle on a full stomach. I write that here so that we will remember. Do not let Tyler play videogames in a moving vehicle on a full stomach!!!

All in all, this was a great trip and I am so glad that we went!