Say What?

Ty has been putting words together and it's kind of funny sometimes.  Take today, for example:

(Ty woke up from his nap shortly after hearing the front door open and close when Russell came home from school.)
Me: "Did you hear the door open?"
Ty: "Mmm-hmm." [His typical "yes" answer.]
Me: "Who do you think it was?  Who came in the door?"
Ty: "Uhh...cows."
Me: "Cows?!  Cows came in the door?"
Ty: "Mm-hmm."

Later, as I was recounting this conversation to Russell:
Russell: "Cows came in the door, Ty-Ty?"
Ty: "Nooo...bunny."
Russell: "A bunny came in the door?"
Ty: "Mmm-hmm!"

Later this evening:

Ty: [Seeing a car commercial on TV] "Hi.  Hi, car.  Hi, car.  Yub you."
I've never hear him voluntarily say "love you" before!  I guess he is his father's son...

I'm excited for more funny stuff to come out of his mouth!

21-month Ty

When people ask how old Ty is, I just say that he'll be 2 in July.  Partly that's because I forget how many months old he is!  On Tuesday, it'll be 21 months of life for our little guy and -/+ 5 months for our other 2!  (Oh yeah--in case anyone reads our blog and doesn't look at Facebook, we're expecting twins, due September 24th!)  Anyway, in so many ways Ty just seems so big and old to me--very much not a baby anymore!  He's lots of fun to play with and demands lots of playing time lately.  Mostly, we love it, but it's hard to get studying or dinner-making or napping done when Ty's in play mode and that's pretty much all the time.  :)  For example, Ty will pick up the xbox controller, bring it Russell, and ask to watch football (as in, watch Russell play Madden 2012).  Or jump on us and wrestle, which I'm just about taking myself out of on account of Ty's inability to be gently to my tummy where the babies live.  We've got a lot to teach him about being a "soft" big brother!

Classic Ty face: the WHOLE thing smiling!

Sometimes all of his playing just knocks him out...wherever he is, even in Uncle Hunter's car that he loves to hear the "vvvrroooom"-ing in. 

 Ty watching video of himself: still one of his favorite past and present times.

 A few weeks ago we were eating rice and stir fry and I had chopsticks.  Ty wanted some, too, so we obliged.  He actually was somewhat successful, much to our surprise!

 

 Ty likes playing with the squirt bottle, which I'm sure we'll appreciate more when the weather heats up.  This day, I appreciate Ty helping me spray my hair--so helpful!

 Ty's a fan of anything with wheels.  Here I caught him spinning the wheels on his stroller, which I really don't care about, I just thought it was funny how he looked like a little mechanic.  :)

 (His hands are totally black, by the way.)

 Cute snuggly boy still likes Mama and Daddy, which we like, too.

 Ty likes fruit and will often ask for a "Buh-na-na" which he likes to eat like a big boy, holding the peel and taking huge bites--but not choking, thankfully.  He also likes to eat entire pears and apples, as seen with a pear below.

Ty got to come with me to our 17-week OB appointment for the twins.  He was very good while waiting for the dr. to come in and entertained himself on the "car" he found! 

 He also sat and played with his Aston Martin, "Moh-teen" and Lamborghini, "Ghini white car."  He had to come with me into the bathroom where I got to leave my sample.  When I was wiping off the full cup with a wet wipe, Ty said, "Mmm!  Dwink!  Dwink!"  I laughed and told him that this was yucky and we don't drink it.  I can see where he was confused...

 Ty got a Cars potty seat in his Easter basket, which was a slight suggestion, but not a push toward potty training.  (No, we're fully aware that we'll most likely have 3 children in diapers...oh, the $$$.)  Anyway, he wanted to sit on the potty and go "pee-pee" and he sure was excited about it!

Of course, a whole lot of nothing happened, but we support his potty enthusiasm nonetheless.  We do have to move the roll of TP...

Ty-Ty got to visit Daddy at school last week for their Pediatric Physical Therapy Lab where a few of Russell's classmates were assigned to a kid and observed/tested them on developmental stuff...at least, that's what I gathered was going on.  All Ty knew was that there were people asking him to play basketball and baseball, color in a coloring book, and eat snacks!  He had a fun time.

 Here we have Ty's face when the phone or camera is taken away from him. 

[Ty is playing with Russell's phone right now and Russell asked, "Are you on Facebook?"  Ty replied, "Mm-hmm."  Stop this madness.]

This was taken about 10 minutes ago.  Before stacking each block, he would say the letter/number and the color of it.  If he wants to have any fun in kindergarten, he needs to slow his learning down!  Oh, a bit about Ty and colors: lately, purple sounds like "poo-poo" and orange, for who knows why, has always been pronounced, "ah-meal" by Ty, so it sounds like "oatmeal."   This morning I asked him if he wanted to eat oatmeal and he kept saying, "Peek!  Peek!"  Russell and I finally realized he thought I was asking him if he wanted orange, and he was saying he wanted pink.  We laughed when we figured out what he was saying, which made him embarrassed and he cried.  [Oops.]  He did get some pink (strawberry) oatmeal in the end.  :)

We like Ty and it's fun that he's starting to talk and put 2-word phrases together, make requests of songs to sing, and point all kinds of stuff out...and he's only going to get more fun!

Green Valley Stake Fun Run!

Our little family participated in the church-sponsored Fun Run yesterday.  I guess the "Fun" part about the Run is that you could actually just walk.  Lucky for me, too, because I currently have a condition that would prevent running from being fun: it's called lazy-out-of-shape-ness.  Russell was running the 5k, I was doing the 1-mile, and Ty was "racing" in the stroller I pushed.  We got to the race just as it was about to start, so I went inside to fill up our water bottles.  As I came out, everybody had left and Russell still had Ty!  Oops.  I strapped Ty-ty into the stroller so Russell could take off and we started on our short race, or as Ty kept calling it, the "race car."  There was a course mapped out and a water station at the 1-mile turnaround that Ty and I pit stopped at.  

Considering that we started about 2 minutes after everyone else, I'd say we did a pretty good job catching up to the "speedy" stroller pack.  A few times I would stop so that Ty could say, "Ready...GO!" and I'd jog for a bit.  Luckily, all of those times happened to coincide with the downhill parts of the course...convenient!  At the end of the race, everyone got a medal, which Ty wore happily as we waited for Russell.  He was, after all, going 3x our distance.  At the end, I felt like I could have gone a longer distance/jogged more, but I guess it's better for me to feel like that than be passed out on the side of the road.  Who knows what my body's doing nowadays!? 

Here's Russell running in, just before the finish line.  As soon as Ty saw him, he broke down crying.  What is it with this kid and his emotional response to seeing his parents do anything?  (He cries when he sees: Russell playing in his softball game, me dancing in recitals or singing with the choir in church, and apparently, Russell running in a race!) 

 He was very anxious to get to his Daddy.  I was happy to congratulate him, but less anxious to get all up in his post-run business.  Russell awarded himself "Sweatiest Shirt."

 Although still a bit sad, he didn't want to be put down! 

 My racing buddy showing his official number.  :)

 Russell and classmate Jason after the race. 

The 1-mile racing team!  I'm pretty sure we were the quickest in the 4-in-1 category--pushing 1 and carrying 2 has to be worth something, right?

 Posed action shot...

After the race, we were rewarded with a nicely air-conditioned gym and a delicious pancake breakfast (pancakes, eggs, sausage, bananas, and OJ).  The babies must have run real hard because they asked me to go back and get seconds, heavy on the buttered pancakes.  ;)  Maybe we should do this every Saturday: family time, exercise, and good food!

Recipe Invention!

A week or 2 ago I bought some egg roll wrappers at the store because I remembered seeing a recipe I wanted to use them for.  Of course, by the time I bought them I have no idea what that recipe was.  So, last night Russell and I made up our own!  We decided we can count this as one of the 51 new recipes I'm going to make this year.  (Side note: I have no idea how far into that I am because I haven't been keeping track!  Hopefully it won't be too hard to go back over the last 4 months and remember them...)  Anyway, here's what we came up with with the stuff we had already:

  -1 can shredded beef (from Costco, kind of nice to have beef ready to use in stuff!)
  -1/2 c. sour cream
  -1 c. corn (fresh would have been better, but we used frozen)
  -1 small can diced green chiles (4 oz. I think?)
  -1 avocado (although we both decided we could have used a little more avocado, less sour cream)
  -cilantro
  -cumin
  -cayenne pepper
  -12-15 egg roll wrappers
  -oil for frying  (we want to try baking them next time, but already had oil out from corn dogs we made 2 days before)
  -nacho cheese (for dipping; I think they would be great with some cilantro-ranch sauce/dressing)

Heat oil in a skillet, enough so that it's about 1/2"-1" in the pan.  Blend the avocado, cilantro, green onions, and sour cream together in the Magic Bullet.  Pour that in a bowl with corn, green chiles, and beef and mix well together.  Add cayenne and cumin to preferred taste.  Watch a youtube video on how to wrap egg rolls, just to make sure you're about to do it right.  Wrap up some (?) filling in the egg roll wrappers.  Test oil with a piece of egg roll wrapper to make sure it's not too hot.  If it burns real fast, it's probably too hot...duh.  Carefully place egg rolls in oil, flip after they look golden brown, and let them drain on paper towels on a plate.  Eat them dipped in nacho cheese or some other southwestern-inspired sauce of your choice.

You are SO welcome for this recipe--happy non-traditional egg roll eating!

(No pictures with this one...too bad.)

P.S. I think they tasted extra good because Russell helped make them, too.  :)

Picnic at the Park

I have plenty of "catch-up" posts to do, but I'm feeling current right now and decided to put up a few pictures of the lovely day Ty and I had at the park.  The weather is nice and spring-y and I’m pretty sure it’s going to be heating up soon, so advantage needs to be taken!  It was a bit windier than I would prefer, but nothing too bad and the little park was completely empty.  We walked the ¼ mile or so to the park and as soon as we got there, Ty started yelling, “Slide!  Slide!”  After many rounds of the slide and other play equipment, we walked around and looked for…stuff.  A spontaneous scavenger hunt, I suppose.

Here's Ty-ty with our treasures: a pine cone, fake Easter grass, a stick, a dandelion, a soft leaf, a pom-pom thing from the trees, and half of a camo-print Easter egg.  Awesome finds!

 

Lucky for us, the birdies were out and flying about, so Ty had fun pointing them out.  His bird noises sound something like, "Peep-peep!" or "Weet-weet!"  I really can't tell, though, because they're so high-pitched! I'm sure the birds get it...

Then we spread out our blanket (okay, it was a swim towel) on the grass and had lunch together.  Unfortunately, Ty still refuses to eat lunchmeat and cheese (unless it’s mixed in with something or in the mozzarella string formation), so he had crackers sans the other stuff.  We also had some applesauce and a few chips along with lots of watery juice.  

Checking out a dandelion, which soon after went into his mouth.  I said, "Yuck!" and probably to not make himself feel/look dumb, he said, "MMMmmm..." but he didn't go for a second taste.

 After lunch, he came and laid down by me on the towel for a minute.  Anytime Russell or I is laying down, he'll come up and say, "Sheepy..." (Sleepy) and either lay next to us or steamroll/wrestle us awake.  It's usually the latter.  :)

 I thought he would want to come back and play on the slides and stuff, but he wanted to push around the stroller instead.  He's not tall enough to push the handle and doesn't have enough force to really make it go where he wants it to, so he kept getting mad when it would go in the grass...err: "Gwak!  Gwak!"  He also kept talking about a cow and monkey that he saw by one of the fences.  Huh?

  Altogether, delightful little park trip with a [generally] delightful little boy who was very ready for a nap upon our return home. 

Just a Sunday after church...

(Of course these may have been a bit better if it hadn't been windy and the great outdoor weren't so distracting.  Oh, well.  We love this Ty boy anyway!)