Thanksgiving

Our bellies are still full. We had a total of 4 thanksgiving dinners this year. One at Tyler's school, I had one at work, we had Thanksgiving day at our house and then one more dinner Saturday night at Gram and Pop DePolo's house. I was talking to Dave about how a few years ago it was just the two of us eating our turkey dinner in California alone. Not that it wasn't a good year because I was still spending it with Dave, but the fact that we can have our family and friends over at at our house for a holiday dinner is awesome to me. It was the first one we've had and I can't wait to have many more!

Other than eating, we unexpectedly had to take Tyler to the doctor Wednesday night because of a bad cough. They ended up giving him albulterol breathing treatments and he was such a champ with it. Thanksgiving morning, Dave, Aunt Jill and Uncle Kevin ran in a 5k and the kids and I were supposed to do a 2 miler, but I decided to stay home with the kids so we didn't have to take Tyler out in the cold. So, we watched the parade on TV and made a poster for the runners when they got home. This was Uncle Kevin's first race - good job Uncle Kevo! I managed to pretty much take zero pictures so these are all I've got to show for our Holiday and long weekend!






This picture looks incredibly sad, but I assure you the cough did not slow this kid down. He was still running around with his cousins all weekend!

A Day Off

Yesterday, Dave had to go to DC for the day. He ended up having a pretty crazy day which started at 5am. He was supposed to get Amtrak to return to Philly at 3pm, but they ended up staying at the bridge they went to check out longer than expected, then had to wait 2 hours to get a cab to the train station. He finally got home around 8pm and when he tried to start the Jeep in the train station parking lot the key wouldn't turn (happens a lot, but we're usually able to get it to turn after a few tries). So, I get a very frustrated call around 8:30 saying we have to go pick him up (Tyler was waiting up to see Dad). It's only 2 minutes away so no biggie. Tyler and I go to get him and we can't get it to work so we call AAA to get the Jeep towed.

We bring Tyler back home to put him to sleep and Uncle Ryan was tuning skis in the garage so Dave and I were able to go back and wait for the tow truck. The Jeep always has problems in the crappiest weather. It was cold and rainy last night (last problems we had were during a blizzard). Our friend Ryan told us to do this trick with hitting the key, but we had no luck. The tow truck driver finally got there and he hopped out of the truck and said to Dave "Hey, didn't I tow you during a blizzard". Yes sir, that was us...ugh. He asked Dave what was wrong and when Dave told him he said "Oh, I can fix that". He pulled out his Maglite flash light and whacked the key a few times, wiggled it a bit and Viola! she's purring like a kitten! So, there you have it. Tow truck driver saves the day again. We're putting him on speed dial. Now, every time Dave starts his car he just has to hit the key a few times with a hammer, give it a little wiggle and she starts right up - classy I know! I laid in bed this morning and heard him hitting it in the drieway :)

On to today...ahhhhhh Tyler and I had the day off. I took off with intentions to do pretty much nothing except get my gestational diabetes test done and go grocery shopping for Thanksgiving. That's a pretty calm day around here and relaxing was part of my plan. I could get use to this. I think I might be ready to retire :)

Yep, Tyler slept in this morning


I got to sit on the couch, drink coffee and watch the today show


We had our first Bieber watching. My nieces love him. They make my sister play the same song of his over and over in the car - kind of catchy I'll admit. Sometimes I sing Eeny Meeny miny mo lover for days after leaving that car. But after watching him this morning I'm just not sure about the kid. It's gotta be that the girlies think he's cute. Must be the Joey McIntyre of this generation :)


And we set up shop at Quest Diagnostics for an hour and half while I got my tests done. I went with my bag of tricks not knowing how things would go, but Tyler was an angel and entertained everyone in the waiting room. And Nemo saved the day! Here's to being thankful that our kid loves movies and will sit and watch them...it really helps sometimes!

Weekend Fun

It was a great Fall weekend. I'm pretty sure we won't get too many more so we took full advantage while it lasts!

Before the fun began, we first had to save Jessie, Woody and our dinosaur on a leash. They were being held hostage by the Lion. They were saved and are sleeping all snuggly with Tyler at the moment.

Getting ready for ski season...


Sunday morning school taught by Alex


Superman training from Aunt Jill


Waiting patiently to go outside


We played in our fort in the back yard. Catherine named it "Fort Total Awesomeness"





Getting pretty good at the rock wall...making us proud :)



Tyler desperately wants to join the big kids on the monkey bars. He's getting pretty good at hanging by himself


Swinging our time away


And apparently eating a fist too...goofy kid :)

Weeks in Review

It's been a while. We've been busy. I've been tired. By the time I'm ready to write a post I'm asleep on the couch by 9pm. Gotta write fast tonight because I'll be sleeping in 10 minutes :)

I've been debating what to write about PSU. What do I want to tell our kids on here (since ultimately this is for them). Our kids aren't old enough to even know what's happening, but in time I'm sure it will come up and we'll talk to them about it then. We pray to God for the victims and their families that were affected by this lame excuse for a man. This is by no means what PSU is all about. We continue to sport our Blue and White, remembering that one mans actions doesn't make up this wonderful place.

Now, on to happier things...

Now that it's getting dark earlier, we are totally missing our outside time after work. So, we still go outside, but we're armed with flashlights and we go "hunting". Tyler hunts in the bushes for rabbits and frogs (and lions, cheetahs and bears)! He usually finds all of the above :)




We had our first real play date last weekend with some of Tyler's friends from school. We got a call from Kavi's Mom asking if we wanted to meet up at this great cafe that's a playhouse too. So we met up with Kavi, Shane and their Moms and had a fun morning. Can't wait to do it again!


When we got home from our play date, Erica, Nichole and the kids came to visit. I love when we get to hang out. We made two trips to the park, the girls played in the basement, little guys played upstairs, we got in some great chit chatting and we had a really fun day. Owen and Tyler were wild together. They practiced their shooting on the counter tops, danced and jumped off coffee tables, and when it got dark they all went hunting for rabbits and frogs.







We also went big boy bed shopping this past weekend. We plan on moving Tyler's bedroom stuff in to the baby's room and giving Tyler the double bed from our spare room (soon to be baby room). We're going to let him pick out what he wants to decorate his room with and our guess is it'll be Toy Story and Spiderman stuff (and ski stuff)! Uncle Ryan got Tyler another cool ski poster this time signed by Cody Townsend, he's a professional skier. Thanks Ry! He also got one for the little bean! We went shopping for bed frames at Ikea...we think he found one he likes!



Grammy and Sydney came to stay with us for 2 nights this week because Dave and I took a CPR class on Tuesday night. They got to join us yesterday at school for Thanksgiving lunch. No pictures from that b/c our child wouldn't sit down to eat :) We also fit in some swimming at the Y, pizza night and a trip to the pet store. Dave said Tyler was crying on his way home from school today when he found out Sydney wasn't here anymore :( They'll be back next week for Thanksgiving!


And, remember the smooth transition to the new blankie. Well, it actually ended up not being so smooth. He's older and smarter this time around when it came to the switcheroo. He went to bed and slept thru the night just fine, but he wouldn't suck on the new blankie so it resulted in some really early mornings around here. After several mornings of waking up at 5am or even before that (and figuring out it wasn't the time change causing the crazy wake up time), we decided that it's not worth it and gave back the old one. Might be a parenting fail for us, but we're back to sleeping until 7-7:30 on the weekends and life is good for all of us :) We'll be waking up at crazy times soon enough with the next little bean. So I just did some extra scrubbing of the smelly blankie and for all I care he can take it to college with him if it makes him happy. After all, I'm 31 and my Mom gave me my blankie back about a year ago. Yep, you bet I'll save his blankies so I can give it to him 30 years from now too :)

Tyler has also been introduced to matchbox cars. Our neighborhood has lots of kids in it. Every once in a while, we get a knock on the door and the neighbor kids are handing down some of their toys to Tyler. So sweet of them (I'm sure their parents are more than happy to clear things out) and this time we got a bin of cars! Jackpot!


We also got a new maid. He's pretty good except he's using our mop as a bat/sword and when he's not doing that he's riding it like a horse.

It's all about...

Hiding and helping these days :) One of Tyler's favorite games these days is hide and go seek. We play it inside and outside, he gets his friends next door to join in and he could play for hours! He's getting really creative with his hiding spots and is starting to actually get the hide part. But, last night when he hid this is how we found him. Hysterical...hiding behind Dad's ski helmet!



He's also really in to helping especially when it comes to things in the garage and helping fix Dad's Jeep. He loves to play with tools and Dad and Tyler sometimes escape to the garage and "fix" stuff...this is heaven to him!



Last night we made the old switcheroo to Blankie #3. Blankie #2 was getting super smelly and washing it every other day wasn't helping anymore. Once again, he took to the new blankie easily, but this time he made the comment that it's "fluffy". He's totally right and it's much fluffier than his old one since it's brand new, we just have no idea where he pulls these words from, he cracks us up! This time we were smart about it and ordered 2, so we have the backup handy when it's time to make the next switch!

Dave was gone from Sunday until Friday last week and I never like to write that he's gone until he's actually home. He missed Halloween this year :( Of course I ended up having to go to triage a half hour before he had to leave to get his flight so Aunt Juli came to the rescue - thanks Juli! Halloween night our neighbors got the nice spectacle of the pregnant lady running down the street, chasing her kid while pulling a wagon (I did have help from our neighbors who we were trick or treating with - thank goodness!). Did I mention that Tyler actually runs now...and he's really fast. Full speed ahead is an understatement with this kid!

Here's the bump watch at 23 weeks 2 days, which is today. A few hours after this picture we took yet another trip to triage. I have to document all of our triage trips so this little bean knows all about his path to get here. This is trip #4. Everything turned out to be fine with both of us once again :)

Halloween weekend

The festivities kicked off with a visit from Dave's Aunt Ruth and Uncle Mike. They stayed at our house Thurs. and Friday night and it was so great getting to see them! They live in Texas, so we don't see them very often and it was really nice getting to spend time with them. Tyler was best buds with Uncle Mike and had Aunt Ruth chasing him around the house (a favorite game of his) about an hour after they got here.



Saturday, as I'm sure you all know, we had a nice Halloween snow storm come through. Saturday morning we headed out to get Tyler some new snow gear (didn't plan on needing to do that for another few weeks) and he had his fisrt "real" adventure in the snow. I say "real" because last year most of the time the snow was too high for him to walk in and he didn't really get it yet. This time, he was watching it snow out the back door and when it was time to go out and play he liked it and like eating it too! Some boys from down the street were sleigh riding in the yard next door so Tyler got to join in a snowball fight (that Dad initiated) and got to watch some football in the snow (Dad initiated that game also). We can't wait for Winter to arrive!



The snow threw a little wrench in our plans for this weekend because we had tickets to Sesame Place (courtesy of Uncle Paul - thanks!) and of course it was closed on Saturday. So, on Sunday, after little bean and I's 3rd trip to triage to get checked out for the same issues I've been having we headed off to Sesame Place to enjoy the last day they were open for the season. Side note: Baby is doing just fine and the diagnosis is the same as before with a friable cervix. So, we keep pluggin on and by time this dude arrives they're going to have my name in flashing lights on one of the triage rooms. I like to consider myself VIP there ;) Sesame Place was really cool and our neighbors went along with us. Right when we got there the parade was beginning so we got to see a bunch of Tyler's favorite characters. We went through some mazes, rode the carousel and saw Abby Cadabby's Halloween show where they sang the Transylvania Polka (yes, only in PA do the sesame street characters polka!). It was very cute!




On to Halloween...this year was a bit of a struggle with Tyler's costume. We got Tyler a cookie monster outfit about a month or so ago and by time he actually tried it on, which was a week ago, I realized it was too small for him and that he was not so thrilled about putting a furry blue outfit on. Last year, we could have put anything on him and he wouldn't have cared, but one year later oh how things have changed. So, back the drawing board and a trip to Target later I come home with: Elmo, Superman and Spiderman. I raided the store of all 2T costumes they had left knowing he'll have to agree to one of them. He went for Superman! Now, we're left with the cookie monster outfit because I didn't get to return it on time. Note to our next little bean...you will be cookie monster in about a year or 2 whether you like it or not :) Halloween morning Tyler had his parade at school followed by his school party. He enjoyed the day!




Halloween night, Tyler trick or treated with the neighbors and once he figured out that you get candy by knocking on someone's door this kid was in it full force! We visited about 10 houses and Katherine and Joseph (our neighbors) helped Tyler by showing him the ropes. Every piece of candy he got he wanted opened immediately (and he even offered some people his candy) and he ended up eating candy for dinner last night. I had to ask my neighbor Michelle if she thought he was going to puke from all the candy and she reassured me that it's Halloween and he's a kid! So, I let him be just that...a kid who ate too much chocolate on Halloween, enjoyed himself tons with running to different houses and zonked out when we got home as if he had just ran a marathon! He woke up this morning and asked me for candy ha ha ha...it's now hidden my sweet boy, we will eat it in moderation :)

First time eating candy corn...I think I'm the only person who doesn't like candy corn!

Checking out the candy he got Trick or Treating at school







Here's a quick video of Superman for your enjoyment :)