Visit with Brittany

So, we're half way through 2015 and I still have a bunch of 2014 posts to write!  Hopefully I can get caught up on a bunch of it over the next few weeks!

Tyler and I took a weekend trip to visit Brittany and family in New Jersey in the end of August.  It was a fun trip and so nice to visit with Brittany for more then an hour or so!  We didn't do too much touristy stuff, because Tim and I definitely want to take the boys to New York for all that stuff soon.  So this was really just a visit with friends!

Tyler and I had an easy ride up and got in around his bedtime.  Elizabeth was excited to have someone sort of her size around, and she kept bringing her toys over to show him.  Tyler had to get used to being the big kid and seemed almost confused that Elizabeth didn't talk!  He made himself at home before too long though.  After the kids, and David, went to bed Brittany and I got to chat for a while over some wine.

Saturday we took the kids and headed into New York City.  The ferry from right by Brittany's apartment docks very near the WTC site.  We walked through and looked at the memorials for a few minutes.  We stopped at a real bagel shop for breakfast, wandered around shopping all day, had New York style pizza for lunch, shopped some more, stopped at the grocery store and then a playground for a while, and headed back to Brittany's for dinner.  It was great weather, food, and a lot of walking!  Tyler and Elizabeth both spent the day happily in their strollers taking in the sights!  We have some easy going kiddos!

The next morning we all, David included, got up and went to Carlo's Bake Shop, which is the bakery from Cake Boss.  We were there pretty early in the morning but there was already a long line!  Tyler took inventory of the display windows before picking out a Black and White cookie.  He loved it!  To this day, whenever he sees a black and white cookie he claims it as his favorite!

From there we all went to brunch near Brittany and David's.  The photo of the Statue of Liberty is from right next to their building.  Tyler picked out a Statue of Liberty trinket to take home to Timmy, and he still gets excited and shouts out "Statue of Liberty" whenever he sees it pop up on TV!  After brunch, Tyler and I headed home.  It was a short trip but so nice!  We are definitely due another one soon, especially since Brittany just had her 2nd baby, Samantha.

Having some time alone with just Tyler was also very cool.  It's really rare for me to have one kid and not the other in general, and at the time, Tyler was just a little older then the age that Timmy was when Tyler was born, so it was neat to see him one on one at that stage.  It was nice to have some extra bonding time with him!  While we were on our trip Daddy and Timmy had an exciting weekend too.  I remember mini-golf and movie theaters being involved!

To Timmy, at 7 Years Old

Timmy,

I can't believe that you are seven.  How big you have gotten jumps out at me from time to time though.  When I hold your hand it takes up most of mine.  As I lifted you out of the top bunk bed yesterday I said, "Well that might be the last time we do that," between you ducking to keep your head from hitting the fan and me trying not to break my back or drop you because of how heavy you are, it's probably safest if you start taking the stairs down!  I have to double check socks when I'm putting away the laundry to see if they are yours or Dad's, I no longer confuse yours with Tyler's...  You have your first loose tooth.  You are the last person in your class to lose a tooth (though one kid had a tooth pulled at the dentist, so I'm not sure that counts!)  You hope that the Tooth Fairy will bring you enough money to buy a video game...

We are so proud of the person you are growing up to be.  You are typically still a rule follower, but sometimes a rule bender.  You know what's expected of you and usually want to meet those expectations.  But you are still a little sneak when you would rather not follow the rules.  Like when you want a snack but you know it's almost dinner time, you sneak through the living room to the snacks instead of asking when you know you will be told no.  You also like to sneak into our bed after you've been tucked into your own.  Sometimes we see you on your way and let you think you've snuck by, other times we send you back to your own bed.  Sometimes we really are surprised to see you in our bed when we are going to sleep.

Speaking of sleep, you are happiest when in your underwear, especially for sleeping.  You don't take your clothes off as soon as you get home, but it is very common for me to find you in front of the TV in just your undies, and on the weekend you see no need to put on clothes unless we are leaving the house.  You have a stuffed animal problem.  I took this picture last weekend when I was washing the sheets on both your and Tyler's beds, but easily 80% of this pile belongs to you.  You make a little nest out of your animals when you go to bed at night.  You are obsessed with electronics.  You try to wake up in the morning before school to get some game time in before I get you up.  One day you got up so early that you fell back to sleep on the couch, Ipad game still running!

You have determination.  You set your mind to selling 100 coupon books for Reston Little League this year so that you could earn a Nintendo 3DS and a new baseball bat.  Daddy and I took turns taking you door to door and selling them in front of Lucia's.  You sometimes complained when we said it was time to go out selling, but you were always polite with your customers.  You had your pitch down and improved it over time.  When you were down to needing $10 worth of donations or one last sale, your customer said she would make a donation.  This is you waiting to see how much she'd bring back, and celebrating on the way home.  I told you how proud I was of you, and that even though you always had a parent with you, that you were the only one who did 100% of the work.  Daddy stressed to you that when you work hard you get rewarded.  I hope that you are always motivated to work hard.

You also worked really hard in school this year.  You made huge strides in your reading, writing, and handwriting especially.  You had some big projects at the end of the year and they both turned out so well.  You did research on an animal, wrote about it, made a booklet about it in Computer Class, and a model of it out of recyclable materials in art class.  You chose a wolf and it turned out really great.  At the very end of the year, you did a research report on a Famous American.  With a little guidance, away from a Disney channel actor, you chose Walt Disney.  Your work that you did at school and your poster that we made at home are all really well done.  You had your facts down and had a nice presentation.  We are very proud of your work and effort!

You are athletic and adventurous, but you don't necessarily know it.  You doubt yourself, or you say you don't want to do something because you're afraid of the dark or of heights.  You don't look like you're afraid of heights to me...

You had a great baseball season overall, but you did have a hitting drought for a few weeks.  You continued to be excited about playing though and worked really hard doing batting practice until you worked out the kinks.  We were very proud of your good attitude and hard work under these circumstances too.  One evening when Daddy was telling you that he was proud of your hard work and for not complaining during batting practice, you said, "I was thinking lots of complaints in my head."  That made me proud in an entirely different way, since you knew not to argue with Coach Dad at practice.  You had a tremendous year fielding, having a part in many of the outs that your team made, like this stop and forced out at 3rd base.

You are creative and imaginative, but in a completely different way then Tyler with his fanciful stories and made up "facts".  You don't like to color by number or draw what you are asked to or follow suggestions for your homework writing.  You want to do it your way, the way you see it in your head, not how it's "supposed" to be.  You recently wrote a story about your family, just for fun.  You were very accurate in your descriptions of all of us.  When I find it I will scan it and put the pictures here, but each of us had a sticky note a piece with a little drawing, and it said something along the lines of, "Tyler is my brother.  He likes to wrestle me.  I love him so much.  Daddy takes me to the movies.  I love him.  Mommy makes my lunch.  She works a lot.  I love her.  Grammy plays with me.  She plays Candy Crush.  PawPaw likes to hunt.  He is very serious.  Sometimes he is not serious."  We all got a kick out of your story!

You love being behind the camera taking pictures, selfies, and videos.  We are always finding gems like these on our phones, and you have been known to fill memory cards with scenery shots and videos.

When I posted your birthday party pictures on Facebook, Nate's mom captioned this one "Wolfpack to be".  You overheard me telling Daddy that and asked what it meant.  I told you it was from a movie (The Hangover) and that it meant we thought you three would get into a lot of trouble as you grew up, and have a lot of fun doing it.  You told me that doesn't make any sense, which I am relieved is true for you for now.  I can't wait to watch the fun you guys will have as you continue growing up together and I am so happy that you have such great friends, and have been developing these friendships since you were 2 and 3 years old!

You are a fantastic big brother.  Tyler adores you so much.  You are starting to lament being the oldest, because "it's not fair" that you always have to be the good example.  You have no idea yet how much responsibility being the oldest really is, or how much testing parenting things out we (will) do on you.  For now, just know that your biggest supporter is always, literally, right behind you.

We love you so much TimTim!  We are so proud of you!  Happy 7th Birthday!

To Tyler, at 4 years old

Tyler,

You are so many things right now, but most of all, you are so loving.  You still speak from your heart, telling us that you will miss us while we are apart or talking about how much you like the doggie that we just drove past.  If Daddy or I have something we have to go do in the evening, a meeting, errands, to see friends, you beg to come with us.  "But I want to go to the meeting with you!  I never been to a meeting before!"  You don't like being left behind.  You give the softest kisses and hugs ever.  You give a huge pucker and the tiniest, sweetest, shortest butterfly kiss.  If someone's eyes were closed, they might not even feel it!  Your hugs are very soft too, you drape your still baby-chubby arms around our necks but there is hardly any squeeze.  You are so gentle with your love.

You talk about animals a lot, you usually say they are "cute-y".  When you see a squirrel out the window you ask if you can go outside and pet it.  I don't think that there has ever been a dog walk by you that you haven't asked the owner if you could pet.  You spend lots of time cuddled up with Riggins and Giggs at Grandad's house.  For your birthday present your grandparents got you a bird feeder and bird bath and you are very excited about them.  Your preschool class had caterpillars and watched them as they turned into butterflies.  You were very sad the day you all released them.  You got to ride a pony at a friend's birthday party last weekend.  You were so excited as you waited in line and you couldn't wait to pet her.  You love all animals with your whole heart.

You adore Timmy, but you've made up this awful game where you won't let him kiss you.  However, when he is leaving to get on the bus in the morning, you scream for him to give you a hug.  He runs back out of the line to hug and kiss you and you tell him that you will miss him.  You and I wave to the bus and then get in the car, we go the same direction as the bus for about half a mile, and you talk about Timmy for as long as his bus is in sight.  You can't wait to go to his school and to ride the bus with him.

Even though you won't let him kiss you, you guys are pretty much inseparable.  Many mornings I find that you've even snuck into Timmy's bed to sleep.  You guys love playing video games together and love playing outside as well.  You are really good at video games for your age!  You have not been taught how to turn on the tv or video games yet though.  Another by product of being the younger brother, Timmy is always there to do it for you.  You two spend a lot of time on our swingset and on the swing at Grandad's house.  Your big brother loves to make you laugh.  You are also very good at entertaining yourself.  You particularly like building with blocks and legos.  You are getting to be very good at puzzles and can now spell your name thanks to Baba's name song.  You still love doing art at school and you like to cook and bake with Susan, even though you usually won't taste what you've made.

When Timmy has friends around, you think you are one of the big boys.  You have no idea you are the odd man out in this group in particular, largely because Nate and Caleb enjoy hanging out with you too!  Most of the time you can keep up with them with no problem.  You get very upset when Timmy goes to play at someone's house without you.  Luckily, you are starting to go to play at your own friends' houses some too.

Stella continues to be your best friend.  You had a rough start to the school year with her in your class because you are used to having one on one time with her, and you did not like sharing her attention.  You have come a long way in that aspect, and you happily play with everyone in your class now, especially all the girls with Stella.  You do still get upset over some Stella related things at school though, and self-calming in general is something that Mrs B. has worked with you on all year.  You have made big strides, going from multiple long upsets a day to a few small ones each week.  Mrs B will email me about them sometimes, one day she said, "Tyler had two upsets at school today, but one was over something Stella related, and I count those in a separate category because they are basically an old married couple."  Stella adores you too, she gets very excited when she sees you at baseball or when you're getting together to play.  You still call her your girlfriend and it doesn't phase you when Timmy or Caleb try to tease you about it.  You guys are protective of each other.  I love watching your friendship grow with you.

You two can be more trouble then the big boys though!  Stella's favorite game to play at our house is throwing all of Timmy's animals off of his bed.  Last time, you showed her a game you had been told not to do when Timmy first figured it out; putting stuffed animals on the ceiling fan and then turning it on.  This time one flew off the fan and hit a shelf full of decorative things, that I thought were safely out of reach.  Two of my Donald figurines fell off and broke.  You came downstairs saying, "Mommy, I have to tell you something.  It's bad news.  I really don't want to tell you."  And then you didn't say anything else... I found out for myself at bedtime that night.  You were truly so sorry and you asked what would make me feel better.  I gathered up the pieces and told you I would try to fix it.  Every time we went into your room you would apologize again and ask me when I would fix it so I would feel better.  One is in pretty good shape, the other has a ways to go.

You think that you are a ninja, especially, unfortunately, at bed time.  I send you two upstairs to get ready for a shower, and you start attacking Timmy, I'm pretty sure while he's taking his shirt off, so he's pretty unprepared for your attack.  I also see you karate chopping and kicking when you are playing in the back yard and on occasion there are even a few somersaults.  When you discovered this three way mirror you were in heaven!

You are definitely the baby of the family.  At four years old you really do very little for yourself.  I acknowledge that this is largely my fault.  In the morning I'm in such a hurry to get you guys up, fed, and out the door, that it is just faster for me to put your clothes on for you.  You are capable of doing your own socks and shoes, but you have very little practice at shorts and shirts, and when you do try to do them yourself, your shorts are usually backwards and your shirt gets stuck on your head.  I also carry you down the stairs in the morning, but that's mostly because I'm afraid of you falling down them again.  From there, sometimes you battle me about putting on your shoes for yourself.  You still make up things about not having enough energy to do it yourself, or you'll say something hurts so you can't do it yourself.  Then there's the actual walking out the door.  Some days, you push the storm door open, hold it for everyone, and want to be the leader the whole way to the car.  Other days, seemingly when I have the most items that need to come out to the car, you will insist that I carry you.  You will literally stand on the porch crying until I come back and carry you, it does not matter if I beg, threaten, explain, or plead, you hold out longer then I do.  You still nap a few times a week.  And when you nap, you really nap.  Four to six hours is not unusual for you.  On the weekends, if you are whiny, I'll just scoop you up and head towards my room.  You'll put your head on my shoulder and ask, "I napping now?"  You don't usually argue.  You wake up much happier.

You can apparently nap anywhere...

You are playing your first team sport, Blastball, and you love it!  You have a smile on your face the whole time you are up to bat, hitting, and running the bases.  You have a serious windup for batting, but it's clockwise, away from the tee.  Somehow this does not hurt your batting, as you usually get a solid hit on your first attempt each at bat.  You get a little upset while fielding when the ball doesn't come towards you, but when it does, or you play first base, you are happily involved.

Your imagination is still in full effect.  We hear about your rainbow monsters all of the time still.  Your rainbow house is basically heaven.  You say that you lived there and did things with your rainbow monsters before you were born, and you say that your beloved dogs, Beau and Dempsey, are there now.  Grandad was telling you about when Daddy and Aunt Jenny were little and lived in the Bradwell house.  You told him, "I know, my rainbow monsters and I used to hide in those bushes and watch you."  The latest repeated fact about the rainbow house is how to get there, "You go through the darkest tunnel and the darkest forest and past Timmy's school, and boom, you're there."  Sometimes you randomly announce that we are near your rainbow house.  You've been telling us that your rainbow monsters are huge, "even bigger then Daddy!"  You use your rainbow monsters when pleading your case when you do or do not want to do something.  "I tried corn at my rainbow monsters house and I did not like it."  "But my rainbow monster's let me not buckle..."  A few times you have even tried to bribe me with the rainbow house.  After asking me if you could go outside, and my response that no, it was bedtime, you said, "If you let me, I'll take you to my rainbow house."  You are certainly not afraid of the rainbow monster's, but at bedtime you have occasionally tried to tell me that you have to sleep in my bed or Timmy's bed so the rainbow monster's won't take you away over night.  I remind you that the rainbow monster's are good and that they have been told that if they aren't being good they aren't allowed to come over any more.

Apparently the last time Stella was over, you showed her a window that you see a ghost from.  You showed her the exact spot and you taught her what the ghost sounds like.  Again, you are not afraid, but she sure was!  She told Ms Suzanne all about it and slept in the hallway for the rest of that week!  Beyond the monster's, and now the ghost, you just make stuff up all the time, and present it as fact.  One day while driving home last week you stated, "You know somethin? Snow is really made out of poison ivy.  Really!  I serious!  It is!"  There is no correcting you, no convincing you otherwise, it drives Timmy absolutely insane.  I find it hysterical, but I'll admit I'm a little concerned this will be an issue for you in school.

You are a phrase machine right now.  Your favorite right now is, "Are you thinkin what I'm thinkin?" You usually say it in a very controlled voice with a mischievous grin on your face, and it's usually followed with "let's play video games!"  When we're in the hot tub you keep repeating, "Bubbles in the houuuuse."  There are also lots of "Oh yeah!"'s  Your catch phrase is "Boom the Beach" after a game you like to play on our phones, you use it when you're excited about something, or as an "I told you so" substitute.  You use "Booyah" the same ways.  You also start stories with, "I have to tell you somethin" and end them with, "Can you believe it?"  You are so funny.

I could probably keep adding to this for days, trying to sum up your personality right now.  If I could bottle up who you are and sell it, I would be a billionaire.  You are so much fun, so entertaining, so loving, so snuggleable, so perfect.  We are absolutely crazy about you.  We love you!

Summer Vacation - Ormond Beach

The next day we headed for Ormond Beach, and Mom and Grandma came with us as well.  Ormond Beach was beautiful, with fairly calm water and white sand.  Our hotel was perfect for us, beach front with a private pool that had a lazy river and water slide!  We spent the first day bouncing between the ocean and the pool.  Later we went to dinner at a place with all you can eat crab legs!

Timmy playing paparazzi, and Tyler so over it!

So, Timmy turned the camera on himself, there are a lot more of these!

While pulling his beach toys on the boogie board he jerked it a little too hard and the toys fell over and off., then I heard Tyler's first curse word, "Shit." !!!  Luckily it's the only one I've heard out of him!

The next day was more of the same, floating around the lazy river and splashing in the waves!  Timmy loved boogie boarding again this trip.  Tyler reluctantly took a few little rides too.  He got to be comfortable with us holding him in the ocean, but he preferred being in the sand, and Baba was happy to entertain him there.  That evening we went mini-golfing.  We hadn't been since Timmy was about Tyler's age.  Timmy was pretty good!  Tyler understood the concept, but he would hit it, then run and pick it up and put it right next to the hole to hit it again.  Luckily, Timmy just laughed about it and wasn't worried about Tyler's score.

Look at these Beach Bums! I am still in love with their outfits from this outing!

I just could not get enough of these tan cheeked cuties!

More of the same on our third day, except it was Baba and M&M's last day with us, and just about when they were leaving around lunch time, Grammy and PawPaw arrived!  (PawPaw was starting a week of work in Florida so they came a day early to hang out!)  We spent the morning in the Ocean and building a sand castle with Baba.  Around lunch time we headed back to the pool, and Grammy and PawPaw showed up shortly after.  Later that afternoon we took our good camera down to the beach.  We went out for another nice dinner that evening.  It was the perfect way to wrap up a great vacation!

The water was calm enough that Tyler floated in the Ocean on his own a little and swam between us!

Timmy's happy place is fighting with waves.