California living

Last week started out a little rough and has gotten better, kind of. A week ago Thursday I noticed Tyler's Cuspid teeth coming in. He was fussy, had a runny nose, has swelling, and a mild fever. All signs point to teething:) A few days later it was confirmed. A few days after that I noticed at least two other teeth about to break through the surface. Total of three teeth that have come in and two more that are breaking through the surface. That is a total of 5 in two weeks. He has been a real troopers.

Mom and Dad are hanging in there too after an emotional beating from their neighbor about their parenting. We were approached by our neighbor who was concerned...well that is questionable...about Tyler's well being. She approached us by saying that she was worried about him and his crying and that 15 minutes or more of crying is child abuse and as a social worker she may report us to DCFS, but did not want to. She said if she didn't and someone else did then she could lose her liscense. Needless to say we were pretty insulted, frustrated, confused, etc. We feel that we meet Tyler's needs very well and are sometimes over protective, rather than under. We are not abusive or anywhere close to. It happened because the night before was when his teeth were breaking through and he cried on and off for half the night. We rocked him, gave him teethers, bottles, Ibprofen and took him for walks, but he was just plain upset. We have shared this story numerous times with friends and people laugh when we tell them and say that she is ridiculous. It was even the start of a great sermon illustration that Dave used the next day at church. If you want to listen to it you can go to our church website, the link is connected here...www.onevoicechurch.com. Well, that drama is subsiding and we are starting to feel at home again, besides the fact we are avoiding our neighbor temporarily, until we figure out how to reconcile this awkward situation.

Some fun things happened this week too...I do not mean to be such a downer. Tyler started playing with a little T-ball set that we got him. He likes to put the ball on and hit it. He also got to ride his first horse this week. One of his friends, Chase, that we met at swimming invited us to his house to play. His dad is a professional polo player and they own horses. He was not a big fan of riding the horse. I got my first riding lesson, which was really fun, but scary. The horse got a little spooked and took a few jumps to the side, but the guy that was teaching said I handled it perfectly. I even got up to a trot by myself in a circle ring. He said I was a natural. After the lesson, Tyler got to play with all sorts of fun toys at their house. They had bikes to ride, paints to paint with and a couple of doggies. He loved it and it made me miss having a yard.

This weekend we spent some time with Daddy, when he wasn't sick. We went swimming a few times, on a bike ride, out to eat at Bucca de Beppo, went to the Kidspace museum and we played with lots of balls. Mommy and Daddy went roller skating for the first time in years for Kristy's 30th birthday. We topped off the weekend with a nice relaxing evening at home:)

Kristy's roller skating birthday party

Painting at Kidspace with Clay

18 Months

I never know what to write on these blogs. I feel like such a boring writer. Let me know if you have any suggestions or things you would like to read about:)

Since we live in the city we have to be intentional about finding nature. This week we have had some fun experience in nature. We have gone to Eaton Canyon a few times and there is actually enough water for a river. That will be gone in a few weeks/months, so we are taking advantage. Tyler has loved playing in the water. He throws things in a waves "bye bye" to them. He likes to walk around on the rocks and sticks.

We had our last swimming lesson yesterday. We are going to take a little break from the lessons for a while and practice on our own. Tyler loves the water, but it seemed like every day we had a lesson it was cold. He enjoyed it though.

We found a cool new place to go this week. Someone we met in swim class took us to the Kidspace museum near the Rose Bowl aquatic center. It was more than awesome! We are going to live there this summer:) Just kidding. We will be spending a lot of time there though. The have so many things for kids Tylers age to do. When summer hits we will be inside a lot becaus eof the extreme heat and this is the perfect place to go. They have indoor play areas and exploration activites for learning. They have water areas, rivers, waterplay, bikes, painting, slides, basketball hoops, blocks. You name it! I even met some new moms their...one was from Michigan and has relatives that live in Spring Arbor. It is such a small world. anyways, here is the link to the museum if you want to see for yourself. If anyone wants to come visit I will take you there. Kidspace click here

Ty's friend Chase who took him to the museum.

Bike area at the museum

Painting a leaf....water washes it way after a few minutes.

Tyler loves driving cars now.

Our little adventurer.

Ty and his friend Clay playing in the river.

We went to Mrs. D's birthday party. It was a nice little danty tea party.

Tyler's new words: help me, basketball, banana, stars, bee, up (still working on "r" ans "s" sounds though)
Tyler's new tricks: drinking out of a cup, jumping into the pool, blowing bubbles, climbing stairs by himself