christmas card bloopers

We make our own Christmas card, and when I say we I really just mean I.  This year we decided on dedicating the Christmas card photo to Oliver.  Here are a few photos that didn't make the cut. 

"Jim can you get a few shot of him next to these Christmas trees
while I go inside and ask a few questions"  Not Jim can you take
a picture of him trying to give a tree a piggy back ride.


Closer, but too squinty

 

Totally adorable, but being on the deck makes it look like he is
in some sort of toddler jail...which he is.

Too silly



Way too serious



Just right!

merry merry

We had Christmas on Tuesday.  Unlike actual Christmas day we all had Tuesday off from work and had nothing to rush out for...so Tuesday it was. 

wondering if the gifts are in the way
of the train


checking out his stocking
toothbrush, toothpaste, body spray & a toy car

after stocking we ate some yummy breakfast and then got to our
presents, Oliver had to try his new underwear on right away!

 Jim has an extensive stash of Brio trains from his childhood
we gave Oliver the shed and the crossing gates for Christmas.
Ya for free presents!

new socks "I do it!"

 painting with water 

new race track

He opened his presents slowly and enjoyed checking out his new things.  It was nice not having any other plans for the day; no church, no dinner to go to, just hanging out.  Also, since it wasn't actually Christmas we were able to stop by the fabric store so I could get a few things to go with my new sewing machine. 

We are really lucky.  People are always so nice to us and very sweet to invite us over, knowing our families are far away.  On Christmas eve we went to some friends for a nice dinner and then to church.  Then today (Christmas) Oliver and I worked at the church nursery and then headed over to some other friends for a nice lunch and some fun.

ooooo fancy
getting ready to go have lunch with our friends 

 

Oliver is wearing a tie because we are going to a wedding in January, so we need to practice.  His comment about tie wearing "no tie mama, no."  He actually ended up wearing it all morning.  So handsome! 

DIY, light box

I find this site to be amazing.  It's filled with fun and creative things for kids, and it's awesome, and it's totally inspiring or totally overwhelming...I usually feel both emotions simultaneously.

Two things that seem very commonly used  are sensory tables and light boxes.  Both items can be pretty pricey at school specialty stores.  Both items can also be DIYed at home.  Scroll around here for some fun sensory and light box activities.  Overwhelming, right?  But totally fun looking too!

Then I googled around for DIY light boxes.  This one is made from a train table and looks really professional...we don't have a train table.  Another site has views of a variety of tables.  I decided to make a light box out of a storage bin, inspiration found right here.  She used small battery operated florescent lights, all I heard was battery operated and I tuned out.  Electricity is cheaper then batteries even rechargeable.  I used Christmas lights, because I had them on hand and they don't need batteries.  

necessary supplies; frosting spray paint, silver metallic spray paint,
a flat plastic storage bin, and some white christmas lights

1. Frosting the inside of the lid with a few light coats of spray paint.

2. Metallic the inside of the bin with a few light coats of spray paint.
-I should have primed it first, it would have been more opaque
3. When dry, stuff a string of christmas lights into the bin, plug it in and
call it a light box!

just discovering it after nap

 

it's not as perfect as a store bought light box

but it cost under $20 not over $200

                                                               

bubbles 

indoor entertainment

Oliver has a playroom with trains, musical instruments, books, cars, etc.  He is content playing in there when one of us is playing with him or for short periods on his own.  What he seems to prefer is when I set an activity up for him at the kitchen table.  He likes being able to play with something on his own while still being able to see what I'm up to, which these days seems to writing an endless pile of Christmas cards.

Here are a few of his favorites...

"I cut it"  He just loves cutting his way through a good pottery barn catalog or other junk mail.  When he is finished he throws it all in the recycling.

Letter Stamps.  Oliver is doing a great job learning uppercase letters.  He usually remembers 20 or 21.  Once in awhile I take out 4 or 5 letters for him to practice stamping on paper.  These are the stamps that we have.

Coloring.  Have you ever been to this site?  It's called Made By Joel.  Tons of crafty activities for children, though most of the activities seem to be better for older kids, Oliver loves his coloring sheets.

"I use marters peas"  Oh markers, a standard size 8X10 piece of paper is not enough space for the excitement you bring.  When Oliver wants to use markers I cut down the side of a paper bag, cut the bottom off, open in all the way and let him go to town.

Thomas Cards.  We have a half price book store near us, and it's awesome and cheap.  The other day I found some alphabet flashcards with Thomas pictures on them.  He loves flipping through the letters and saying the guys names.  "Where's Percy?"

"Play beans peas"  This is by far Oliver's favorite activity and he requests it daily.  I took the big turkey roasting pan, cleaned it out, dumped a bag of dried beans, bag of lentils, and bag of brown rice into the pan...because during a moment of "we need an activity NOW" desperation, those were the things in my pantry.  We also added a few measuring cups, tablespoon, lego guy, and a cup.  He love loves it.  There are always beans on the kitchen floor and the vacuum seems to be permanently located right next to the table, but it's worth it.  "I hide the guy"  "Beans up high"  "Oh no beans on the floor" 

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This afternoon we made a "light box."  I must say it in quotes because it's a pretty rough interpretation of a light box, but Oliver seems to like it anyway....details later. 

What's keeping you toddler busy?

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Need cloth diapers?  We have a few for sale. 

cloth diapers for sale!!!

We have three size medium Fuzzi Bunz plus seven random inserts for sale.  The Fuzzi Bunz website says that the mediums are good for babes from 15-30 pounds.  They still fit Oliver (28lbs) we just don't need as many diapers as we have.  Two of the diapers are the standard newer style and one diaper is the older style with pointed tabs.  Pointed tabs or not they all seem to do the job!

 

*Three size medium Fuzzi Bunz
  -recently stripped and smelling great
  -always washed with Rockin Green
  -springy elastic
  -no stains
  -the diaper with the pointed tabs is not as bright white as the others, because of its age
 

*Seven random inserts
  -cared for the same as the diapers

*Free shipping

*$30 (a total steal!!)

leave a comment or send me an email (trisha.tylick@gmail.com) if you are interested

teething related question, I think

Oliver's two year molars have been making their way in.  He was a little fussy when the process first started, but seems to be okay with it now.

However, for the past month, in the location where his top right molar should be coming in there is a purple-ish squishy spot.  How is that for descriptive?  I don't know what to call it.  If it were on some other part of his body I might call it a blood blister, a swollen bruise, or some infection.  I do know that it does not hurt because he does not flinch in pain when it is touched.

The adoption specialist said "maybe it's a bruise, give it a week and then check with a dentist"
We went to the pediatrician today for a routine shot and I asked her about it "I have no idea, I've never seen anything like that, I'll get you a referral to the pediatric dentist office at children's mercy"

I asked if she thought it was an emergency or if it could wait until the new year, because we didn't get dental insurance for Oliver this year.  She said I should call for the appointment because they probably would not get us in until January.

Anyone have any idea what I'm talking about?  Anyone else have a kid with a purple squishy spot where a tooth should be? 

UPDATE!  A friend commented over on facebook and said "could it be this?"  Yes indeed!  The first picture on that link is very similar to what Oliver's looks like.  Glad to read that most likely it's not an issue. 

Other health related topics...
We bid adieu to our adoption specialist and will only be seeing our pediatrician.
He is done with the TB medication.  Ya!  No more every-two-month visits to the doctor to make sure he doesn't have liver poising.   
Oliver is all caught up on the necessary shots and doesn't need another until he is four.
He is done with his rapid post adoption grow spurt.  Eight pounds, seven inches, three shoe sizes and has been holding pretty steady.  Still at the bottom of the growth chart, but there would be no 50th percentile if some of the kids weren't smaller.  Small but mighty!! 

first haircut

Technically Oliver has had his hair cut before.  The first thing I did when I had him and scissors in the same place was trim off the mullet that was forming.  For the past, almost year I've kept the mullet from growing back and from hair growing into his eyes.  However, it was slowly becoming apparent that it was time to go see someone who actually knows what they are doing.

in the car just before going inside

We went to a salon specifically designed for cutting kid's hair.  It's fun and bright and cheery and the children get to sit in little cars while they get their hair done.  Oliver was really excited about sitting in a car.  When they told him he could pick any one he wanted he just went straight for the closest one.  Hot pink, barbie, jeep.  "I like it," he says as I hoist him up. 

one more before

sitting very nicely

The kid in that orange car in the background totally screamed the whole time.  I've never seen anyone cut hair so fast!  These ladies are amazing. 

enjoying some butternut squash & apple puree
after getting his hair cut

handsome 

 

 

doing some cutting of his own
attacking a red pepper for dinner

smash face

I'm sitting in a chair in the living room folding laundry.  Oliver is running back and forth from the kitchen to me, giving me a smooch face, laughing like crazy, then running off.  Repeat.  Repeat.  Repeat.  Smash.  Some miss calculation on both our parts sends faces smashing into each other.  He wipes his face off as if there is some dirt on it, says "ouch smash each other," and keeps on running.  My recovery is not so quick, my nose is still hurting. 

What are Russians made of?  

cloth diapers for sale!!!! SOLD!!

Thought I would check with you before I take the extra time to list on ebay.  Oliver is only wearing one diaper a day, so it has become clear that we don't need as many diapers as we have. 

I'm going to start by selling off these One Size Fuzzibunz.  They can be adjusted around the waist and leg openings.

Each diaper comes with an insert.  It may not be the insert that came with the diaper, because lets face it, I can't keep that all straight.  Does it even matter as long as it's doing the job? 

-no stains**
-bouncy elastic
-fresh smelling (recently stripped and sunned) 
-free shipping (if you purchase the whole set)
-$50 for all five diapers and inserts
-$10 each + $2 for shipping

the line up

close up

red, red, orange, pale yellow, lime green

**Wait there are two stains, the yellow and orange were
previously owned by a kid named Alex and his name appears
on the white tag.

Leave me a comment or drop me an email (trisha.tylick@gmail.com) if your interested or have a question. 

bugs

Today at our nanny job we discovered hexbugs.  Do you already know about them?  They are totally hilarious in a semi creepy sort of way.  They remind me of crummy big city apartments, the way they scurry about is so reminiscent of small mice or cockroaches.  It's clear I'm not in advertising, that's not much of a sell is it?  Anyway, after playing with them at work it was clear that we neeeeeeded one or two.  At our Target store they are on sale for $4.49 from $5.99....lovely. 

tickling his hand

checking it out

building a bug house 

bug maze, totally hilarious to watch those critters bounce around

bug maze built from legos

After getting him all set with the bugs and the mazes I exited to go get dinner started and straighten things around the house.  I kept peeking in on him.  After about half and hour the place looked like this.....

Mazes destroyed and eight foot tube laid down for the bugs to crawl through, so funny.  

happy 2nd anniversary, happy thanksgiving

The blog turns two today!   Let's review with a few statics.

*52,500 ish of you have stopped by to read. 

*The most popular post was Oliver's introduction.  Great choice!   With cookie information in second place and my complaints about not being in control rounding out the top three. 
*My favorite post is here, about finally believing that we are really doing this adoption thing.  

*Top ten countries that you all are from; US, Canada, Russia, Cyprus, New Zealand, Czech Republic, Israel, Germany, Australia, and The UK, but I guess you already know where you are from.

 I started the blog to keep friends and family up to date with the adoption, document the dates, and hopefully help someone along the way...because I felt helped by the bunches of blogs I read when we were at the beginning of the process.  Now I just write to document random events and activities, share food ideas, and share before an after pictures of house projects.  No house pics today, the place is a Thanksgiving explosion!  

Anyway, besides being our little two year anniversary it's also Oliver's first Thanksgiving.

Turkeys! To become dining room decor

That's a tree on the left.  Jim thought it
was an arm, he is so literal.

I'm making scones.  Oliver is eating the
rest of the pumpkin straight up.

Enjoying dinner with his parents and grandparents

Squash!!!

Hope you had/are having a great Thanksgiving!! 

first trip to the ER

Let's skip to the end, he is fine.

Now let's start back at the beginning.  It's Saturday, on Saturday Oliver and I either stay home and clean or go out for an adventure.  Today we stayed home to clean and it managed to turn into an adventure.  After a couple hours of cleaning and playing downstairs we decided to head up to the office to straighten some paperwork, clean off a bookshelf and see what kind of craft we could find in the closet.  It was a really nice morning today.  Windy and warm a perfect day for airing out the house.

Oliver is playing around with the desktop computer, I push the window open a bit and tie up the string on the blinds so he doesn't choke himself...turns out that blind string is the least of my worries.  I move over to a bookshelf and am taking off a few books to donate.  He walks over to the window, looks outside, then his head bumps the screen and all of the sudden he is gone.  He was there a second ago, he was maybe three feet from me, and now he is out the window.  Out the window.  Out the second floor window. 

I run down the hall, down the stairs, out the door, and through the yard.  He is on his belly crying.  I pick him up and we go inside.  He calms down surprisingly quickly and has a few sips of water.  Then says "don't jump out window."  Yeah, I see that's not the best.

At this point I'm unsure what to do.  He seems okay.  He is walking and chatting with me.  The only thing he says that hurts is his scrapped up chin.  But he fell out a window and that seems like an issue.  Do we do nothing?  Do we drive to the ER?  Do we just drive to the doctor or urgent care?  Do we call 911?  We decide to call Jim.  Then we call the RN hotline on out insurance card.  Then we call 911.  Okay right before we call 911 I put a diaper and pants on him.  He totally fell out the window in a sweatshirt and socks...we are potty training.  You don't even want to know what I'm wearing.  Just think about what you wear when you plan to spend the day inside cleaning. 

Whatever, we call 911 and sit on the bottom of our stairs waiting for them to arrive.  Oliver is quiet and a bit stunned by the whole thing.  Then he hears the firetruck siren and the ambulance and perks up.  "I hear firetruck"  Just wait a few seconds and you'll see it.  The guys come in and ask me a bunch of questions, ask to see the window, and work on strapping Oliver down on the board  to keep him stable, in case of neck or back issues...the main reason that I figured I should call for help and not drive him myself.  Oliver complies and isn't fussy.  His vitals are all fine and we ride off in the ambulance for the Children's Hospital downtown, Jim says he will meet us there.

Oliver is fine with the whole thing.  He lets the nurses and doctor listen to his heart, stick stuff on him, take blood pressure, and press on his belly.  The wailing doesn't start until they put him in a neck brace so he can have an X-ray done.  Oh the crying!  "Take off peas, take off peas, take off now peas"  After about an hour he was cleared on any neck issues, given some juice and food and told to hang out for another couple hours in case he was going to have any other reactions.  His exit paper work stated his diagnosis as "contusion to the chin."  Who falls out a second story window and ends up with a scrape on the chin?  God must have caught him.

guest bathroom, mini makeover

Tackling bathrooms one at a time.  Nothing drastic, just better.  Last time was the downstairs bathroom, which you can check out here.  Since we have company coming for Thanksgiving I decided the guest bathroom/Oliver's bathroom should be next.

Here is when we first moved in

Here it is last week

Started by ripping out everything I didn't like

Use lots of spackle to make things smooth
I installed the light first, because it was sooo dark

Sand, touch up paint, sand, touch up paint....

Maybe I should have washed the mirror before
the photo opp 

The other side where the towels live