Grandma Betsy's Visit

We've had a lot going on at our house the past month or so! It all started with my mom coming for a visit/to help when Tyson came. I was worried that he might come early since he was measuring so large, so we had my mom come a week before my due date. Turns out, he came on time, and was huge. :)

We had a great time with my mom here for a week before Tyson came. We were able to do some really fun stuff and Kayla was able to bond with Grandma Betsy. Kayla is stubborn and will not say Grandma. She calls all of her grandparents 'Grandpa.' Its actually quite funny! 

When I picked my mom up from the airport, the first thing she pulled out was the huckleberries she brought from home! I was so excited! I had mentioned how much I missed this delicious fruit, but didn't think she'd bring me any. It was a welcome surprise! The next morning, we made some scrumptious huckleberry pancakes!. Yummy!

That day, we took my mom to the Island and hit up a dolphin watch boat tour after eating at our favorite burger place, Burger Fi! We had an awesome tour and saw a lot of dolphins. Kayla especially loved the fishies and made friends with the other tourists. She's such a friendly kid. 

39 weeks pregnant and on a boat. :)

We love these boat tours and have gone several times. They start out by skimming the bottom of the floor of the Laguna Madre Bay with a net and then bring up any sea life they catch. They then share interesting tidbits about the different creatures and let everyone touch it. Its always great! Kayla loved touching the star fish.

After the eco tour, they drive around for about an hour trying to find dolphins. There are always at least a few, but this time, the dolphins were showing off and we saw lots of groups of them. It was a great afternoon for dolphin watching!

After the dolphin watch boat tour, we went to the beach. For being mid-October, my mom was shocked at the perfect weather, but its really the best time to go the beach. There are no crowds, its not too hot, and the water is warm. We had a lot of fun playing in the sand and waves and my mom loved playing in the ocean!

That's one happy, sandy toddler!

We had fun hanging out the next few days. Grandma got to play with Kayla at the pool, and we played at our playground a lot. I was doing all the walking I could muster to encourage baby to come. 

On Saturday night, we headed to see Brett at the station and mom loved seeing all the behind the scenes stuff. Its cool because they're doing some changes and we were able to see a lot of new things that will be debuting soon! Stay tuned to Channel 4 News!

Brett took us out to his favorite pizza place in Harlingen that evening and it was delicious!

We also had some fun wandering about Costco looking for Christmas ideas for the kids. Kayla LOVED these horses and could have played on them for hours. 

Playground fun on Sunday morning before church. Like I said, I was walking and trying to be as active as I could be. 

Kayla and Grandma and Daddy all did a lot of sidewalk chalk too! Both the front and the back were quite colorful. :)

So, I wanted to document some of Kayla's comical vocabulary so I don't forget. I thought to do that because my mom was having to write down some translations for when we would be gone at the hospital and she was alone with Kayla. She calls milk 'gunk'. I can't get her to say it correctly. I tried practicing by asking her to say "Ma Ma Ma Milk". She smiled and said, "Ma Ma Ma Gunk!" haha! She loves Curious George and asks for George all the time. She calls any pretty girl she sees a 'Princess!' She constantly has to know where everyone is. She is always asking Where's Daddy, Mommy, Grandpa, Tyson, Haley, etc. Whenever we facetime with Haley, Kayla asks for Jon. :) When she wants to listen to the upbeat Primary music we have, she asks for the Kids. She has her up and down confused. 

It's amazing how fast her speech improves each day. She'll remember things I've only said once or twice. I wiped her nose once and said I was getting her bugger. She now remembers to announce her buggers whenever her nose is stuffed. When she's done eating she says, AhYan for all done. I can understand most of what she says, but it hit me when my mom came that a few of her words are a bit off. :) She is  a really good speaker for her age though, and I love being able to communicate with her more and more each day. 

So, we headed to the hospital on Tuesday afternoon and mom and Kayla had a grand old time together. I'll skip the birth since I talked about that in another post. We came home on Thursday around lunch time and Kayla was instantly in love with Tyson. It's been more of a challenge to keep him safe from Kayla. There is some jealousy though and a couple times, she's gotten frustrated and hit him on the head. Never too hard, but still alarming for me as a mom!

A few days after we came home, we went on a walk and stopped at the playground. Kayla was dropping down from the sidewalk to the lowered playground area on her belly and slipped. She smacked her tooth on the sidewalk and I heard the thud. It made me sick to my stomach. We ran to her and saw the chip in her tooth. She was actually pretty tough and only cried for a little while, but it broke my heart to see her in pain. 

We took her to a pediatric dentist who told us that she would pull the tooth in a month because she believed the nerve was exposed. I was an emotional wreck! I couldn't believe they would pull her tooth for a chip! It didn't even seem to bother her at all. We called Brett's cousin Ryan, a pediatric dentist and took her to our dentist for a second opinion. Both told us they thought we could wait until it got infected, and that it might not get infected at all and she could keep it until it fell out. We're now just keeping an eye on it and will go from there, but I'm relieved we didn't just pull it. 

Tyson is a happy baby and is already sleeping really well at night. 

Happy nap time for everyone!

Kayla playing with her baby on the boppy

We had Brett home with us for two weeks after the baby came, so he made some yummy food while he was home! He made these delicious Sopes among other things. 

Kayla converted Tyson's bouncer into a toddler lounger. 

Kayla would carry Tyson everywhere if we'd let her. Oy!

My three favorite people!

Grandma and her babies!

We got to celebrate my mom's birthday while she was here! I haven't been home for a birthday for a long time, so we had a lot of fun! We put up the birthday sign and Kayla yelled out 'Birthday' every time she saw it. :) I made some yummy chocolate pumpkin cupcakes from my sister-in-law's blog and we got mom some new clothes at the outlet mall. We also carved pumpkins that evening. 

3 days after Tyson was born

Blowing out the candles with her little helper who wanted more chocolate!

Matchy Matchy for church in Grandma's new birthday clothes!

We enjoyed having Grandma here and did some relaxing. We did a lot of playing outside while it was still nice and warm. Adjusting to two babies isn't easy, but it was definitely manageable with my mom here to help. 

Grandma bought Kayla this little princess couch to help distract her from Tyson's bouncer. She loves it and will sit in the corner for a long time reading to herself, sitting on her couch. 

Kayla was being mommy's big helper after Tyson's first bath. 

We were sad to see Grandma go, but were lucky that Grandma Jean was just a couple days behind Grandma Betsy in their visits. Brett dropped my mom off at the airport and we then drove him to work in Harlingen for his first day back. On the way home, Kayla cried non-stop and Tyson had his first big blow-out. Kayla then refused her afternoon nap and later Tyson peed on me and all over the rocking chair. I was really ready for Brett to get home that night! Grandma Jean came on Monday evening and it was a huge relief. Next post to soon follow with more Grandma fun!