Stairway to Heaven

About a month ago when she was 9 months old, Libby found out that she could climb the stairs. Not all of them, she taught herself how to go up 2 or 3, and then carefully and thoughtfully taught herself to go back down them. She is quite pensive when it comes to things like that, looking behind her, and slowly lowering one leg down at a time. About two days ago, I was preoccupied with something (probably the computer) and was letting the kids play around the house. When I went to check on them, I found Libby halfway up our stairs (13 in total). Being the calm, composed mom that I am, I rushed up and stood behind her the rest of the way up. Yep, she can climb all of our stairs. And, she's quite happy with that, too. So now it's time to get the baby gate installed (procrastination strikes again!). Our little sweet girl is turning into a daredevil just like her older brother. Heaven help us all.

Cat Food

Libby loves to eat everything...we have yet to give her something that she won't eat (including pickles). However, she really does eat everything! One of her guilty pleasures is the cat's food. Now that she can crawl really fast, she'll dart towards the cat food any time she's in the kitchen. She knows that she isn't supposed to eat it, but without fail, we consistently find her reaching in the cat's dish and trying to sneak little bites. We know that she knows this is wrong, too, because if we call her name, she'll just dart off like she was just crawling by. She tries to act nonchalant about it, too, looking at us as if to say "Cat food? What cat food? I was simply innocently passing by." Silly girl! However, if she does get some in her mouth, she'll hold onto it for dear life, clenching down those little teeth and gums.

All I can say is at least it's something that's supposed to be edible. Afterall, it could be lighter fluid.

By the way, the cat food dish is to the right of Libby, just past the door post. Sneaky little baby!

Father's Day

While we didn't have the blog for Father's day, I feel that I should just share what we did. For Dane, I made little cut out ties and wrote reasons that the kids love him, e.g. "You always clean up after us," and "You play swords with us." Then we hung them up above the fireplace for Daddy to see. We also got him some potted flowers (I know, kind of girly, but he's been on a gardening kick lately and I thought that he would like them to add to the garden).

Now, for my dad, aka Granddad, Karlyn and I had a fun idea. Since Ty looks so much like his Granddad, we felt it appropriate to dress Ty up like Granddad for a day! We started with the classic Joe Downing red Converse sneakers and black socks. Moving up we dressed him in simple khaki pants then a nice red polo shirt (tucked in, of course). To top it all off, we doused his hair in baby powder and then added the finishing touches of baby diaper ointment (trust me, nothing else worked) to his face for that classy white beard that only Joe Downing can pull off with style. (Those of you unfamiliar with the Joe Downing look should know that this is pretty much it - day in, day out - with the occasional substitute of purple shorts for khaki pants - except of course on this day.) Ty thought it was kind of cool, but I think that Granddad got a real kick out of it. Here are some pictures of our fun time:

Here's Ty's head, full of baby powder.

Note the red Converse sneakers.

See the cute ties in the background? And the even cuter Ty in the foreground? (Yeah, I said it.)

Just a spoonful of....lighter fluid?

I'm sad to say that I can no longer say with pride "My child has never tasted of lighter fluid." The evening of June 22 started without consequence. Dane was preparing to grill up some steak while I prepared the potatoes inside. We were getting ready to have our friends, the Krantz's, over for a little bar-b-que. Aunt Karlyn came over, too and was helping watch Ty and Libby. We all know how crazy it can get, and before we knew it, Karlyn saw Ty with the lighter fluid bottle throwing it down on the ground and then spitting and coughing. Ty came inside and Karlyn called 911 while I took care of Ty (nursing instinct taking over). Dane freaked out a little bit (who can blame him) and then the Krantz's came just as 911 told us to go to the hospital. So Karlyn and I took him to Upstate Hospital because they have a pediatric emergency room there. We told Ty on the way that we were going to the hospital and he asked "Mommy's hospital?" No, we told him, a hospital for Ty. To which he replied, "A fun hospital?" Ummm...yeah. Well, we took him in and they got him on the monitor pretty quickly. I was really proud of him for acting so well around all the chaos. Hoping that they would just take a chest x-ray and then we'd be done, we were a little disappointed when we found out that we would have to stay (per poison control's advice) for 6 more hours and then do a follow-up chest x-ray. Well, Karlyn left, then my Dad came for a little while bringing with him some food. However, Ty threw up twice while we were there so we had to stop eating. Luckily, we have some friends at church who are residents at the hospital and they came and gave Ty a blessing (thanks Jeff and Spencer!). Also, we passed the time watching Pirates of the Caribbean. Ty got some sleep while we were there (I couldn't though) and after we got the all clear from the follow-up chest x-ray, Dr. Sadowitz said that we were good to go!

We got home at about 2am and I don't think that Ty understood how time had passed...he still expected the Krantz's to be there and for Daddy and Libby to be up, too. He walked inside saying, "Hello? Hello?" It was so cute. Well, Libby did wake up and they played for a little bit and then both were exhausted so we all went to bed around 3am.

Today Ty saw the lighter fluid and said "Daddy, yuck." I guess he's learned his lesson.

Overall:
Time spent in the Emergency Room: 8 hours
Cost of Copay: $50
Cost of parking: $14
Having a child who's fearless and will try anything once: Priceless

Mr. Bear

So I've already been chastised by Dane that I need to post again because he hates reading people's blogs that haven't been updated (however, he didn't feel the need to post himself...!). So as many of you may know, Ty has a stuffed bear that is his best friend. Bear (aka Mr. Bear) was given to him by Aunt Tiffani and Uncle Joe shortly after he was born. He used to be such a fluffy, soft, cuddly bear. However, as time changes all of us, so too has it changed Mr. Bear. He's gone through some pretty tough times with Ty: thrown everywhere, spit up on, chewed on, stomped on, and let's not forget the time that Ty took a nap with him without a diaper on! (For the record, Ty took off his diaper, we don't routinely put our children down for naps without diapers on!) Yeah, Mr. Bear had to go through the wash a few times to get the pee smell out. But, through it all, we love getting to know him better, through Ty. As Ty has found his voice, so as Mr. Bear. We've discovered that even though he looks like a bear, he sniffs, licks, and barks like a dog! Who knew that a bear could act this way! (Side note: all of Ty's other bears growl like bears.) Overall, we love Mr. Bear even though he may look a little ragged and act a little strange for a bear!

We're blogging!

Okay, so I feel like everyday that I look at someone's blog, there's more people out there blogging. I love looking and seeing what everyone's up to, and I guess that I'll add to all that's out there, too!

Dane and I have been married for 5 years now. We live in Syracuse, NY and have two beautiful children: Ty (short for Mathias) who's 2 1/2 years old, and Libby (short for Elizabeth) who's almost 10 months old. I currently work at St. Joseph's Hospital as a registered nurse on an orthopedic unit providing for our family. Meanwhile, Dane keeps quite busy as a stay-at-home-dad and full-time student at LeMoyne College working towards his Bachelor of History degree. He's really good at history, too (I think he's ready to write his doctoral dissertation, but he's got some time before that needs to happen!).

We moved into our first real house last year, and love it. We spend a lot of our time playing outside and going to parks with the kids. Hopefully I'll be able to keep up this blog with all of our fun, quirky, random, and thoughtful ventures.

By the way, the picture on this is the last one of our family all together. As you can see, it's difficult to get the kids to comply with sitting still for a picture. (Side note: picture taken on a windy day - hence my crazy hair - outside of Dinosaur BBQ in Syracuse.....mmmm!)