More Hair

I just found our camera a few days ago after it had been missing since January.  (FYI, it was under our bed behind our multiple gallon jugs of water.  How did it get there?  I don't know.)  The picture quality on our blizzog should go up a bit now that I don't have to use only phone pictures.  At least they should be less blurry!  Anyway, I just downloaded pictures that were on there including ones from Christmas and random earlier ones, so now I have my work cut out for me as far as updating and recording past events!  These 2 little picture gems were found on there and are included now as an addendum to the recent post about Ty's haircut.

Russell took video on his phone during the process.

This is before his first EVER haircut.  He had just woken up from a nap so his hair was all curly in the back.  Usually, it wasn't quite as sweet-mullet-looking, just looked too long.  I cut those curls off, though.

 

 I can't remember why I did his hair like this (trimming up longer hairs??), but I accidentally gave him the ol' Kate Gosselin hairdo.  Oops!  Good thing he had his hat in his hands ready to cover that up!

Dumb Commercial

There's a lame commercial airing now for 5-hour energy showing a lot of people who need to use it.  If "every day is a 5-hour energy day," I think you need to re-evaluate your life habits.  I get that using concentrated "energy" can be very helpful and necessary in some situations (like going to see Hunger Games at midnight, for example...hehe), but every day?!  That just can't be good.  Sleeping is good, leafy greens are good, and I hear exercise is good, too. 

And that is my soapbox for the night.

The First (Documented) Haircut

Ty's hair was getting a bit scraggly, coming down over his ears, and spilling onto his collar.  I talked for a while about taking him in to get his haircut by, ya know, someone who actually knows what they're doing.  Eventually, though, I changed my mind, saved a few bucks, and we had Family Home Evening cutting Ty-Ty's hair in the bathroom.  Russell was needed to distract Ty and tell me that, "It's not that bad..."  As he says, the difference between a good haircut and a bad haircut is 2 weeks...  Good thing that 2 weeks has just passed!

Some before shots:

 "Cheesh!"

 See all that up by his ears?  It needs to go.

...And the back.  It's really not that awful, just a little fluffier than desired.

After!  He was very ready to be done by the end and I wish it showed up in the picture how hairy his back and tummy got from all of the fallen strands.  He did get a dum-dum, though, which made many things better.

His dum-dum was so good, in fact that there was no way we could get it out of his hand before his bath.  So, he bathed with a lollipop.  :)  There were plenty of times he lost it in the tub and the stick became unwrapped and started falling apart.  In the end, both dum-dums came out of the bathtub clean.  (Okay, that was mean.)  I meant to say that one dum-dum and one cutely-haircutted smart-smart came out clean!  (That's better.)

For his next haircut, perhaps he'll get a mo hawk!

The Contents of my Purse

I recently bought a larger purse so that I could carry it around with a few diaper/Ty things in it rather than keep on lugging a not-as-fashion-friendly diaper bag around.  (Because fashion is always so important to me...)  So far, I've liked having a bag with less pockets to shove things.  Somehow, though, I don't exactly pack "light."  After returning from the Kids' Club at the mall and a trip to the grocery store, I decided I should probably empty out my purse because it was pretty full.  Here's what was in it:

  -My 24 oz. water bottle
  -Ty's 10 oz. sippy cup, which leaked pinkish water in my bag (the REAL reason I cleaned it out)
  -2-days worth of mail I picked up on the way in
  -a pound of mixed dried fruit
  -2 dark chocolate Hershey's nuggets (ironically enough, prizes I won for having stuff in my purse at the latest Relief Society activity)
  -crackers and cheese snack pack
  -1 tissue left in my travel tissue pack
  -used tissues (recently used to clean up spilled juice)
  -ziploc baggie of Goldfish crackers
  -2 flavors of Mio drink flavoring: fruit punch and mango peach (I recommend these for you non-plain-water drinkers out there)
  -my phone with only 1/2 a case (it broke a few weeks ago)
  -my fabric wallet with now a lovely pink corner
  -a black pen
  -a yellow highlighter
  -coupon/gift card organizer I need replace since it is pretty worn out
  -Ty's diaper pouch (inside: only 1 diaper, wipes, diaper disposal bags)
  -travel toothpaste
  -Kids travel toothpaste
  -travel baby shampoo
  -fucshia nailpolish
  -travel size hang sanitizer
  -lip gloss
  -a gummi pizza  (??)
  -a pet rock  (no, seriously; "Ty" made it at the Kids' Club thing)
  -a birthday present we bought at the mall for someone that might read this so I can't disclose any more
  -about 3 receipts
  -2 empty plastic baggies
  -2 See's candy samples, one of which was smashed, but luckily not too much for me to eat it

...And that's it!  Sorry this is pretty lame to record, but it struck me as ridiculous how much stuff was in my "traveling light" bag.  Now that it's cleaned out, though, it's time to fill 'er back up again!

[In an effort to make this post a little more worth looking at, here's pictures after coming home from the Mall Kid's Club 2 weeks ago.]

Model Shot?

 

Ty won a medal for finding a sticker on a chair!  I hope this isn't the only award he ever receives, but you have to start somewhere.

 I like this blurry, whiney face.  ;)

Just so Russell Could Study...

Poor Russell had midterms last week and a scout camp out over the weekend, so Ty and I decided to be "real nice" and leave for a few days.  We found a real cheap flight (like $70 round trip cheap since Ty can still fly for free) and gave Russell a break from our distracting ways.  Actually, my parents practically begged us to come and fill their empty nest from 3/8-3/12, so of course we obliged.  It was fun to just go and play without having any big event to plan or clean up for, just hanging out with the family!  We were lucky to have good weather and Leslie (my sis one city over from home) off work for the weekend, so we did plenty of time-spending with them.

We flew in Thursday night and luckily the flight wasn't full so Ty got to sit in his own seat--SO much more comfortable for me!  The last time that I flew with Ty and not Russell was in September and I swear he was much smaller then.  Plus, when going through security, he couldn't run off like he kept trying to do.  [Side note: rather than watch me struggle trying to keep one hand on my toddler while closing and lobbing the stroller up on the conveyer belt, I'd be totally fine if you offered to help, TSA folks.]  When we're traveling as a family, Russell will usually watch the stuff and stay at the gate while Ty and I explore around the airport.  We have our favorite haunts: the toy store, the people-conveyer-belt thing, pushing his stroller around into people, etc.  Ty and I shared some pizza and watched trucks and airplanes out the windows long enough to keep him occupied before our delayed flight took off.  Russell had downloaded one of the Baby Einstein videos on my phone so our flight went pretty well.  Ty-Ty was so tired by the time my dad brought us home, though, and I'm pretty sure his sleep schedule was all messed up from then until about now.

On Friday my dad, mom, Ty, and I met Sawyer, Leslie, and Carl at a great park near their house.  Seriously, I would love to live next to a park like this someday!

Ty, Mor-mor, and Sawyer sharing snacks in the shade of the slide on the "big kids' playground."  It was surprisingly warm, too!  Too bad Ty was wearing a long-sleeved thermal shirt...whoops.

While Far-far took a nap on the cement, everyone else crammed into one of the cars of the play train going through the little kids' playground.

Sawyer, Carl, and Ty actually played pretty well together!

Friday night we...uhhh...I can't remember.

On Saturday morning we watched my dad play basketball in a church ball league.  Ty cheered anytime anybody made a basket and would call out, "Far-far!" when he saw him on the court...which, turns out, was the whole game since their team didn't have any subs.  I bet Ty would have gone in for someone.

Later that morning we went to the Sacramento Zoo meeting up with the Espinozas again, except this time G-G'ma (Ty's mom's mom's mom) joined us, too!  I have been wanting to go to the zoo for a while (like 5 years) and Ty's now old enough to enjoy it, so timing was perfect.  This is Ty when we first arrived at the zoo--totally excited and ready to go!

It really was a beautiful day and for a Saturday, wasn't too crowded.  Of course Ty didn't want to stay in the stroller the whole time and with big cousin Carl (or Car-ko as Ty says) I don't mind!

Watching the ostrich. He liked the monkeys, turtle swimming in the water, a bobcat-looking thing, and anything else that had a waterfall in it's cage/habitat.  When he didn't know what sound an animal we saw made, his fallback was "Meow."  In most cases, it didn't quite work...

Ty and Soy by the zebras.

With Mor-mor watching the orangutans play hide-and-seek.  Ty found 'em!

Leslie, Sawyer, Ty, and myself next to some lemurs.  (They're to the right of us out of the picture, that's just some random person in the background in case you were confused.)

After we had seen all we came to see at the zoo we had a picnic lunch in the humongous park and picnic area right next to it.  Carl brought a bat and ball and Ty's mom didn't even think about bringing a ball for him to play with so, Ty was suffering from two things: 1) I-need-a-nap-itis and 2) "I see other kids playing with a ball and not me!"  He can take a lesson from Soy and just find a stick.  Unfortunately, this picture captures much of their reactions to life.

(Not) soon enough, it was Ty's turn to bat!  I hope we have many Far-far and Ty batting practices in the future.  I really can only go so far in teaching him how to play...and I've probably already gotten there.  ;)

Saturday night, after attending my mom's Suzuki violin concert (during which Ty was a MOST supportive audience member, clapping and "YAY!"-ing after each piece) we headed back to the church to complete the cleaning assignment for the week.  We made  pit stop in the nursery room and my mom showed this awesome bus to Ty.  We had to pry him off of it when it was time to go.  I don't blame him, though, it is pretty cool.

Sunday afternoon/night we had lots of family over: Carl, Soy, Lel, and Curt, G-g'ma and G-g'pa, Bedstemor (my dad's mom), Aunt Linda and Uncle Dave and Cami.  We had a great dinner followed by chatting and Ty performing oh, so well showing off his number and letter identification skills.  :)

On Monday we went back over to the Espinoza's for a little working/playing in the yard.  Too bad it wasn't warm enough to swim.  We made a quick stop to the outlets (thanks for the new dress, mom and dad!) and headed back home and hung out before we had to leave for the airport that night.  Ty -ty was sure to get reading/snuggle time in with Mor-mor!

And Far-far turned on a recorded BYU football game for he and Ty to watch.  Ty, of course, was thrilled.  I think this picture caught Ty in the middle of saying "Football!" (or "Fuh-baw," rather).  Glad they can share the sports thing!

Our flight back was packed with LOTS of people arriving late.  Like seriously late--coming through security at 8:50 when the plane is supposed to leave at 9:05.  I know because at the dinky Stockton airport, when you're aboard the plane you can still see the gate and security area.  What happened to "must be checked in 45 minutes prior to departure?"  Then again, I've been running late before and wouldn't have wanted to miss my flight.  Ty and I had to share a seat and also gave up our seat and the one next to it (which I was hoping would remain empty) for a mom and 5-year-old so we ended up on an aisle seat.  Aisle seat=aisle close by that Ty sees and wants to run down.  He did wiggle out once and made it down a couple rows before I caught him!  Again, we watched the Baby Einstein video and Ty tried to get comfortable to fall asleep, but to no avail.  Russell picked us up at the airport and asked if we wanted to go back for another visit when finals come around in May.  We just might.  :)

Wordle

There is a pretty cool website that will take text and make a cool word picture out of it called wordle.com.  We put our blog into it and it spit out something cool, and "Russell" and "Ty" are pretty common in the blog, so they are very prominent in the picture, but the blog's lovely author is rarely mentioned, so It doesn't show up.  I'm about to change that... Carolyn, Carolyn, Carolyn, Carolyn, Carolyn, Carolyn, Carolyn, Carolyn, Carolyn, Carolyn, Carolyn, Carolyn, Carolyn, Carolyn, Carolyn, Carolyn, Carolyn, Carolyn, Carolyn, Carolyn.

Dressing the Part

I would be a liar if I said that I didn't enjoy dressing Ty up in stuff: clothes, costumes, hats, etc.  Naturally, I think it's real cute when he chooses to dress himself or accessorize in some way. 

I obviously dressed him in this Super awesome getup (would be nice if he could really dress himself!) that was found at a garage sale last fall.  I couldn't pass it up because story goes, Russell used to wear his Superman jammies 24/7...until he was 17.  (Just kidding about that last part.)

Ready for takeoff?

 Fly, Superman!

 Apparently, something was wrong with his super suit.

 I love that Ty grabbed his stuffed Blue to watch Blue's Clues.  He'll get a football when football is on, his basketball when watching basketball, etc. 

Ty does say, "Shoe" quite well and will often grab his shoes and bring them to me to put on.  Just yesterday he brought me a right-footed spiderman sandal and a left-footed Lightning McQueen slipper.  He wore them around for a while until the slipper fell off, then just wore the one sandal for another couple hours.  Whatever floats your boat, little dude.  He sometimes likes to walk in our shoes, too and was actually quite successful on this attempt... 

 ...Until he lost one...

...Then he fell.  I'm glad he's a little goofball and likes to play dress-up every now and then!

Family Date

In January, during Russell's beautifully long Winter break, we took an afternoon to tour some model homes, a fun family pastime of mine and something that Russell and I have enjoyed together a few times before.  We looked up some homes that were over our potential range (oh, wait--that's any home besides cardboard boxes) because it's only fun if you can dream a bit, and walked, imagined, and planned through 4 models of varying large sizes.  Ty had fun walking up and down all of the stairs, wandering far enough away so that we couldn't see him then running back, and surprising us all, not breaking/messing up anything!  We even got to stop at one house for a while and watch Cars that was playing in the loft--happy fate!  I'm pretty sure we'll be doing this again.

After our model home tour, we went to Baskin Robbins for 99 cent scoops and Ty even got his own!  Lucky duck.

 He LOVED it and was full of energy (read: sugar) so when we walked across the parking lot to Smith's to get some stuff for dinner--after we had dessert--he was wild!

After coming home, Ty soon went to bed and Russell and I made Monkey Bread Pizza from a Pinterest recipe.  We had a really fun time spending the day and evening together.  I need to remind myself to do this more often!

The Super Bowl Birthday Washington Extravaganza! Or, the trip we recently took.

Okay, ignore that last post; we obviously weren't "back."  I've been slacking (along with Russell!) on updating our little lives, but to be fair, our computer did go kaput about a month back and without photos an such loaded on our new one...etc.  The point is, I'm doing it now.  This'll be a slow catching up and I do not guarantee it all to be in chronological order, but my goal is to be caught up by the end of the month: in like a lion, out like a lamb, right?  Somehow that should apply here...

Without further adieu, here's a little about our trip up north to Washington during the first week of February!  We went up for a long-overdue visit with Russell's dad and step-mom, who really needed to see the Ty-Ty!  It just so happened that Russell had a week off of school for the National PT Conference that coincided with his birthday AND the Super Bowl--definitely good reason to travel to see family.  We flew up on a Friday night and stayed for 5 days with Jared and Amanda Grimmer because there was construction going on at Casa de Gourlie.  The Grimmers were nice enough to share their home with us along with their 3 adorable daughters and their plethora of children's play things, which Ty appreciated I know.   

We got to meet the youngest little Grimmer girl: 7-week-old Alice.  So sweet and so pretty.  (Obviously I'm referring to only the baby.)

 Ty had a couple of rough nap times and later-than-they-shoulda-been bed times.  I'm pretty sure this was after one of his failed nap attempts, so he came and cuddled.

 Hanging out at the Gourlie home, ready for the Super Bowl!  I should have taken pictures/video of Ty watching and cheering while standing in front of the TV for the entire 1st quarter.  He really does like football!

 Russell made it all the way to 30!  We're so proud of him and celebrated by watching an exciting game, eating lots of good food (including that ginormous chocolate cake), and making old man jokes.  ;)  Glad we could celebrate with family.

 Ty loved seeing baby Alice, too, and would give her soft(ish) hugs and kisses.  He did a very good job of telling us "Beebee, beebee" whenever she was around.  He has great Small Child Identification skills.

 All ready to play outside!  I really do wish we had more grass and open run-around space where we lived.

 The Grimmers have a river as the division of their property line in their backyard, so we went down and threw rocks in it (what else?!) for a while.  Ty had a blast!

 Playing in the rocks.  Ty thought it was super funny when Russell picked up a big rock and threw it in the water making a big "kah-thunk" and splash.  Our little pansy, however, didn't like it when he got dirt on his hands and would stop his rock hucking and hold his hand out (see below) for us to wipe them off.  As Russell put it, "He needs to play in the dirt more."  I agree...sorta.  I'm sure we'll have plenty of dirtiness in years to come!  Maybe we should just enjoy a bit o' clean fun now.

 Pretty background, huh?  (Yes, that includes little Marley.)  I look strangely lumpy, but I'm glad we have a little family picture!

 3 Gourlie Guys.

 Ty-Ty enjoyed the dog Maggie, who is getting old, so she's nice and slow and tolerant of Ty.  He learned how to "pet" with this girl and as you can see, he loved to give her hugs. 

Thank you all for letting us come visit!  We wish we could frequent the PNW more, but at least you saved some good non-rainy weather for us.  :)  'Till next time...