Random catch up post - fun stories about Tyler & Delana

I keep falling off the planet here and for that I do apologize. It seems like every time I turn around, something new is coming. Anyway, today I was going back on my infamous mom board searching on the word "Tyler" and here's some stuff I've missed in my absence here

January 31: I love Tyler's confidence!

Last week he INSISTED on wearing a Christmas shirt to school. It wasn't just a red/white/black/green shirt, it was clearly a Christmas shirt. It was the Gymboree or Crazy 8 one that says, "I'm Santa's favorite!" I asked him, "Are you SURE you want to wear this? It is a Christmas shirt and Christmas is over." He said, "Why wouldn't I want to wear it?" to which I replied, "Well buddy I just don't want you getting upset if someone would tease you about it." He just said, "Mom I don't care about that. I want to wear this shirt today."

Okay then. Rock on with your Christmas shirt dude!


December 15: Tyler brought home a picture from his buddy today

It said:
To Tyler J

We pay together

From Jacob

Unfortunately Jacob made the "p" backwards and it maybe looked a little like a "g". Yeah I got a good laugh!


November 5: So turns out Tyler talks too much
(This is in reference to parent teacher conferences with his 1st grade teacher Mrs. Cook.)

Hahaha, this not surprising! She didn't say it was a problem but that "he likes to talk" and then she just went on & on about how all the teachers love him & think he's just so cute with his glasses. She showed me how they do the AR stuff and explained why it was put back into the classrooms instead of in the library (like it is for the older kids) which was because some of the 1st graders aren't getting into the system right and were getting zeroes so the teachers asked for it to be done in their rooms so they can help them a bit easier. Let's see what else...oh we talked about his behavior/maturity and she told me that "Tyler is a leader" and "very smart." Yeah....that's what I like to hear.


October 15: What Delana wants for Christmas according to Tyler

So on the way home tonight, I started the what do you want to ask Santa for conversation trying to plant some ideas. Tyler gave me some ideas pretty quickly but Delana wasn't saying much. I heard Tyler whispering something to her and then he said, "Tell her Delana. Tell her what you are asking Santa for." She didn't say anything so I asked Tyler to tell me. He said:

WARNING: PUT YOUR DRINK DOWN! You've been warned! I'm just saying!

"She wants a pecker for Christmas."
I said, "WHAT?"
Tyler, "Mom she wants a pecker. That's what she wants."
Me, "Tyler I don't think so."
Tyler, sighing and with eye roll "Mom, she's been wanting a pecker since she was one!"

Can you just picture my kid telling your token dept store Santa that his little sister wants a pecker for Christmas? Goodness!!!


September 1: Delana and flag football

Last week at practice, there were extra flags and so of course Delana wanted a set to wear. OMG, it was adorable!

Anyway, fast forward to last night. Delana remembered and asked for flags again. The she promptly told the coach, "I'm going to show (up) those boys!"

July 18: Tyler was just downstairs making what we thought was a birthday card for Bryan

since his birthday was this past Friday. And I guess it is still kind of a card.

On the outside it says:
Daddy, have a nice summer

On the inside it says:
I love you daddy (awwww!) beekus you are druk

Yes, seriously, my son wrote this. Then underneath he drew all 4 of us and he put drinks in me and Bryan's hands.

Okay there's some fun highlights of oh the past 6 months.

Fall Foliage

This past weekend, Delana and I went with my parents to southern WV to um, well look at trees, what else? Cause you know there just aren't enough trees to view here in rural Ohio. No seriously, if you've never been to this area it really is quite beautiful. We've been there many times but never in the fall. WOW!

We left about noon on Friday and took our time going on a bunch of winding back roads and through several towns - my dad loves this kind of stuff and really this trip was "his" since he obliged on so many camping trips this summer that were for us or the kids to see stuff. We finally came to the town where we were going to stay for the night, Lewisburg, and we were all pretty much starving. We debated where to go but my dad wanted to go one more exit and man am I glad we did because we found a really nice "mom and pop" kind of place called Granny's Kitchen (or something) and man was it GOOD and CHEAP. I had pulled pork and it was seriously to do for. After a fantastic dinner and a wonderful dessert of oreo cream pie, we headed to the hotel for the night.

Saturday we got to do a little sleeping in (this is easy with Mr. Rooster aka Tyler not around) and had a late breakfast and then it was into the van for another drive. Again, my dad is famous for this. We had no idea where we were headed next or anything. We wound up driving around for a little while just taking in some sights and then back to the town of Lewisburg for a little shopping in their art district. Then it was back into the van for another drive and a short hike to see a waterfall. Delana got a big kick out of going for a walk and an even bigger kick out of the water. She is obsessed with water actually - even when we cross the Ohio River (which we do quite often) she gets all giddy. Before we knew it, it was almost dark and time to find another hotel. This time we stayed in Summersville, WV and we were all pretty tired from the busy day and wound up going to bed pretty early.

Sunday it was time to head back home but not before another drive down another winding road or two. We found ourselves in Fayetteville - which is where the New River Gorge Bridge is and like I said if you haven't been there you NEED to go at least once. It's beautiful and it's amazing!
(See for yourself: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_River_Gorge_Bridge)

And man it was even more beautiful and amazing in the fall. Delana was just in complete awe of the big bridge, the water (and how close we could get to it) and the pretty leaves. We took the old road that was in existence before the New River Gorge Bridge was put in and marveled at how difficult and long that had to be back in the day when now you can be across the gorge in oh, 5 minutes. We also went to a lookout area we had never been to before and I am so glad we found it. It was a really nice little spot and Delana and I had a blast picking up leaves. She even insisted on picking a red one out just for Tyler: "Red is Tyler's favorite color mommy. He likes red!" Then we pretended like the lookout area was her "castle" and she promptly declared "I'm a princess!" Yep that's right you are.

The only thing that was a complete bummer about the entire weekend was that I forgot my camera battery so I have no pics of our fantastic weekend. But hey, I've got it all written down now.

5 hour energy and then some

Yesterday I mentioned how much Tyler has improved in football since the start of the YMCA flag football league. It is really amazing actually. Today during Delana's nap he requested to "pass some football" and of course I obliged. It was a beautiful day out and I was more than happy to get outside and enjoy it. He goes through spells of catching/not catching. It seems if he catches one, he catches 10 and vice versa. So in the first half (Tyler insisted we play halves, with a halftime break and some kind of scoring system he made up on his own) he dropped nearly every pass. We took a break on the swing by the fire pit, errrr.....locker room and then started the second half. This half he turned it ON and caught 4 or 5 passes in a row right from the start. He then informed me: "Wow Mom! I guess I had my 5 hour energy today."

This wound up being a good thing because later on that afternoon some of our friends came to visit and Tyler really needed that energy. (If you know Tyler, you sense the sarcasm here - the kid has 15 hour energy!) We had a great afternoon/evening visiting and playing. It was really funny because for the first time the boys did their own thing (cars) and the girls did their own thing (coloring. I was unable to get a pic of the boys - imagine that but my friend Aimee got a great one of our 3 girls coloring.

Fall festival and other things

Tyler's elementary school's PTO puts on an annual event and well it's called...guess. It's a very nice event and I can't understand why more kids/parents don't attend. They put inflatables in the gym for the kids to play on and have many games for winning prizes/candy. Then there's a Chinese auction as well. Last year I won a gift certificate for dinner out but this year I wasn't so lucky. Ah well. The entire event is just FUN for the kids and the PTO raises a little money from it. I'm all about getting something for my buck that isn't a candle, pizza kit or some other useless ornamental somethingorother I really don't need.

Our day actually started out much much earlier than that because Tyler had his last football game at 9:00. If they had won this playoff game, they actually would have played another game this coming Saturday. I was torn between wanting them to win and hoping they wouldn't (BAD MOM!) because it's been a lot of running around for us. Well they lost so it's over. I feel really bad for the boys because they didn't win a single game this entire year. Oh well, they learned a lot and improved so much over the course of the season. I saw it in all the boys and especially in Tyler. He is catching really well and I swear this kid is going to be a punter - he has a great boot. (They don't punt or kick at all in the games, he just loves to do it and he's pretty good.)

After the game, we attended the previous mentioned Fall Festival and then headed home to hopefully watch the Ohio State Buckeyes kick some butt. That didn't quite work out as planned. Overall though we had a good day despite the outcome of the game.

Another great recipe, another wasted dinner for Delana

I have the pickiest 3 year old on the planet when it comes to eating. She has always been a light eater, even as a baby. I don't remember her ever eating more than 6 ounces of formula at any time and so her current pickiness/lack of eating should come as no surprise. And yet, it still frustrates me to no end! Tyler was a picky eater at this age but he's got NOTHING on Delana. I could always bribe him with a snack later or threaten to take away something he loves or wants to do. But Delana, oh Delana - she just plain straight up does not care about the consequences of not eating breakfast, lunch or dinner. (Although typically dinner is our biggest battle.)

Last night I made a fabulous recipe and at first even Tyler turned his nose up at it but as soon as he tasted it (something Delana wouldn't even attempt) he exclaimed, "Wow Mom, this chicken is GOOD!" Oh yeah - SUCCESS! Delana basically sat there and pouted and wouldn't even consider touching the chicken or the carrots. Thankfully she did eat the cheese cubes and the banana - which honestly were only there because I knew she'd at least eat those. Perhaps that's the issue, I don't know. I can't exactly let her starve though, right?

Readers (all 6 of you): I'm accepting any and all tips for dealing with this by the way.

Now on to the recipe!

Greek Chicken (from my friend Amie)

Ingredients
4 skinless boneless chicken breasts
1/4 tsp freshly ground pepper
1 roma tomato (seeded and diced)
1/2 cup red, orange or yellow pepper diced
2 tbsp chopped parsley
1/2 tsp oregano
2 minced garlic cloves
1 cup crumbled feta cheese (I actually just use a 6 oz container from the store)
1 Tbsp olive oil

Procedure
Place chicken in a greased baking dish and sprinkle with pepper

In a small bowl, mix tomatoes, peppers, parsley, oregano, garlic and feta
Evenly spoon over chicken and drizzle with olive oil

Bake uncovered for 30-40 minutes in a 375° oven or until the feta is lightly golden and chicken feels springy (Ours took closer to 50 minutes)

2nd child syndrome

You know how it goes. With your first child, you're constantly taking pictures, writing about what color poop they had that day and trying to teach them everything they could possibly learn before they even reach age 1. Oh the baby book is perfect. The first year frame is updated monthly. And then the 2nd child is born and it's all downhill from there. Here's a perfect example:


Tyler was telling me his favorite song which I guess is currently the one on that State Farm commercial where the guy is singing in the car so I then asked Delana the following question - "What's your favorite song?"

Her answer:
"A, B, C, D......"

Yeah I guess she knows the alphabet now. Huh. Who knew?

New bedroom!

Many of you know this and maybe some of you don't BUT I am scared of colored walls. I mean petrified. When we built our new house 5 years ago, I didn't even consider it. White walls it was. All white. Every room. Have you ever painted a brand new home with no carpet or heck no anything in it? Well it's quite difficult - I was literally blinded by lack of color.

Okay, so anyway, back to this new bedroom....I finally decided that it was time for color and the first spot was to be Delana's room. We already had the new bedding and the new big girl bed so it seemed a natural choice to go all out with colored walls too. Off to Lowe's I go and then the fear set in - what if I pick the wrong color? What if it looks horrible? I texted my friend Jen in a moment of panic and she pulled through for me. She talked me down and I decided on yellow. Unfortunately when I got home, it just didn't look right. (And I'm thinking, yeah...this is why I don't do color!) So back to Lowe's I go to ask them to lighten the yellow or if there's a way to make it more of a green. The lady there was SO nice and told me to just pick out an all new color and we'd trade it. So I settled on Valspar's Abisinthe Mint (not sure if that spelling is right) and I have to say it turned out FANTASTIC! And it was even better that Bryan did the painting while I was out of town for a conference. Even better. So when I returned home, there was a gorgeous painted room all ready for me to see. Yay!

The next day, we headed to Lowe's first thing in the morning to buy trim and again, this was something that I really wasn't into at first and again, it turned out great. While there, we also looked at some new hardware for the dresser. Unfortunately the ones I liked were NINE dollars each - putting the handles at more than the dresser probably cost! No way. So I decided I'd try to spray paint the handles. It was worth a try. I found some spray paint that supposedly bonded better to plastic and was even in a really pretty lilac color. $4 and about an hour later - wallah - brand new handles that in my opinion look fantastic!

Up next.......Tyler's room!

Hot dog, hot dog, hot diggity dog!

Well I guess I don't need to explain the subject of today's post. It's DELANA'S BIRTHDAY PARTY!!!! A good friend of mine made the above invite. Everyone oooh and ahhh at how awesome it is. Thanks Cheri! And prepare to oooh and ahhh again over the awesome cake my mother-in-law made. She is very talented! You'll have to take my word for it but the cake tasted just as good as it looked.



Delana's birthday was actually April 9 but I have two friends whose children were born close to that date (April 11 & April 13) so we have to work together to figure out the dates for the parties. I offered to go late this year because I wanted to score some warmer weather. HA! Let me say it again - HA! Yeah it was warmer weather alright but the forecast was thunderstorms the entire day. That's just fantastic. I had visions of this awesome time of the kids doing their thing on our swingset & sandbox and the adults kicking it with some adult beverages on our back deck. HA. Thankfully God was on my side (well other than the weather) because I lucked out completely that the gym in the old school in our town was available for rent that day. And relatively cheap! A quick set of emails/phone calls/facebooking and the party was moved. Whew. It meant a lot more work for me since I had to take everything to the gym but you do what you gotta do. I had a few moments of freak out (right Aimee?) and worry about having games but I got over that. I did print out some Mickey themed coloring packets for the kids in case they felt like coloring there and as part of their favors to take home.





Sunday morning we woke up to a gorgeous morning. I was silently cursing my luck because well I could have just had this party at home. However by the time we started packing things up to head up to the gym it was getting cloudy and windy. And wouldn't you know it, at right about 2:15 the thunder started rolling and man did it rain! That kind of made me happy. By about 2:30 almost all the guests had arrived and Bryan was back with the hot dogs (he went home to grill them) so everyone dug in. For those of you that may not know Mickey and friends sing the "hot dog" song at the end of every episode so it was only fitting for us to serve hot dogs, complete with all the toppings - ketchup, mustard, relish, sauerkraut, cole slaw, cheese and sloppy joes. We also had chips, baked beans and potato salad.



We ate, we talked, the kids played and before long it was time for CAKE! Delana was very concerned over whether she was getting sung to - she asked me at least twice while I was getting the cake put out and people were taking pictures. I assured her we were singing and this year she really loved the attention.



Waiting patiently to be served the first piece of cake & ice cream



One last pic of the birthday girl!



What a great party! Delana was really excited about her presents too. This is the first year she has really been into her party and it was so much fun sharing it with everyone. Thanks all!

We have a BIG GIRL!

It has finally happened folks! My daughter will not be in a crib come high school! It is official - you can write it down. At the ripe age of 3 years and 2 weeks, Delana is OUT of her crib!

There was no reason for it beyond me finding someone that was looking for a crib. I didn't want to miss this opportunity to sell it that easily so I called Bryan on Monday and informed him that tonight was THE last night for the crib. That night, Delana and I talked about it so I could feel her out. I asked her if she was ready for a big girl bed and she said, "Nayna sleep in bed like Tywer?" and was so excited. So yeah I guess she was ready.

This morning, Bryan had quite the project to undertake. Tyler's current bed is (was) a day bed. This means rails and so our plan has always been to move that bed to Delana's room so we can put it against the wall with the rails facing out (backwards) and then to set up the extra bed my sister Kenna gave us for Tyler. So today, Bryan took apart the crib, took apart Tyler's bed, moved it to Delana's room AND put together another bed. Whew! I bet he would have preferred to have worked today.

Delana was very excited for her new bed!




And Tyler, for his!





Delana even napped in it yesterday with no problems! She didn't even attempt to climb out (this was a concern for us especially now that she can open doors). In fact she climbs IN but will not climb OUT. This kid!! Seriously, she stands there and yells, "Help Nayna! Need help out!"

Tonight at bed time, she was again very excited and laid right down in her new bed. I checked on her later and yep - sound asleep! Where's that Staples button cause "That was easy!"

Rocka Baybee!

I am not quite sure where my daughter gets certain things from and her newest little ditty is one of those things. She's taken to singing the song "Rock A Bye Baby" to anyone and everyone. It's actually quite hilarious because she gets all into it, scrunches up her little face and belts it out "ROCK-A BAY-BEE!" "ROCK-A BAY-BEE!" Sometimes she changes it up by adding this deep, almost sinister voice when she does it. Perhaps I should be concerned that she's going to go all Poltergeist on my ass but I prefer to just laugh said ass off and ask her to do it again. She is a funny little thing, that's for sure! Her sense of humor just keeps growing & growing.

Happy birthday Delana

From this


To this

How the heck did that happen and WHEN??!!

It's hard to believe that Delana is three. She's such a tiny little thing first of all. But secondly, it's just really hard to believe she's been a part of our family for three years. We celebrated her birthday with just our little family today (well I guess Jenny was part of it b/c she works at the restaurant where we went) with dinner & dessert at Garfield's. She loved having everyong sing to her but immediately after the song she said, "Where my Mickey cake at?" I guess I should have explained the celebration today a little better to her beforehand. She still enjoyed her ice cream and clearly she's really looking forward to her Mickey party which is April 25.

We scheduled it for later because we're hoping for warmer weather and also because two of my closest friends have daughters with birthdays on April 11 and April 13 - had to spread those parties out a little bit.

Not exactly the big girl room I had in mind

Today I got another project started. Delana is almost 3 and shows no signs of ever leaving her crib. I'm starting to think she may very well have to get matching his & her cribs when she marries to be honest. Okay anyway, yes, that's right - Delana is still in her crib. This crib (and bedding and other decor) have been about the only constant thing in my life in the past 6 years. SIX years the crib has been present, let me say that again - SIX years, SIX! I should have done a new nursery when I was pregnant with Delana I guess. I just never thought she'd still be in her crib at this age. Tyler was out right after he turned 2 as I was pregnant by then but it was actually more because he climbed out of it at around 14 months. We were able to keep him in the crib another 11 months thankfully. I figured we'd have the crib about another 2 years so why waste all that money on a new nursery when I could save it for the BIG GIRL room instead.

Well fast forward to now. My precious baby girl won't even attempt to climb out of the crib. In fact we still put her in timeouts in it and when we go up to get her out, she seriously has one leg up over the rail and is just standing there crying, "want ouuuuuut! Let Nana out!!!" Yeah - like I said, she'll be in this crib until marriage.

I decided yesterday enough was enough - if I didn't get that Pooh bedding & decor out of her room I was going to go nuts. I did the best I could with her crib still present and I have to say I'm pretty proud of how it came out. The comforter (that I've had for a year, as well as all the other decor I might add) folded quite nicely to fit in her crib without looking too goofy. I hung up a shelf we bought last summer at a craft fair and also two butterflies I purchased around the same time as the comforter on one of the walls. My plans are to eventually paint her room when we do the complete BIG GIRL room transition but this will have to suffice for now. I feel better and most importantly Delana loves her "pwetty woom!" and especially her "piw-whoa" - you should have seen her beaming when I put her to bed last night. It was the cutest!

Here's a few pics:

Actual happening in our house

Tonight after the kids were done with their bath (yes I still bathe them together - they love it!) I took Delana to get her jammies on and Tyler headed to his room to do his jammies. Tyler likes to use his little heater we have in there to warm him up after his bath and usually Delana joins him in his room for the same reason. Tonight was no different. I went into our bedroom to finish putting away Bryan's work clothes & Tyler and Delana were in Tyler's room. The door was closed, of course so that the room would stay warmer. I was probably in our bedroom for about 10 minutes. I then went into Tyler's room. I opened the door and Tyler is still unclothed, sitting in front of the heater and Delana is right next to him. They're both looking down at something.

I then asked a completely innocent question:
"Tyler what are you guys looking at?"

This was NOT the answer I expected:
"Oh I'm just showing Delana how peebugs grow."

It took me a moment to compose myself mainly because I was fighting an internal battle over whether I should freak out or laugh out loud at the innocent-ness of this event. I took a deep breath, collected myself, and calmly said: "Tyler we don't show others how our peebugs grow. We do that in private."

Add THAT to the list of things I never thought I'd say in my life.

Further proof my children are ready for summer

Today as I was taking down the Christmas/winter decorations, Delana questioned me asking what I was doing. I explained: "I'm taking down the Christmas stuff." Delana looks outside, says, "No more no?" "That's right Delana, no more snow." She then says with extreme delight, "Ohhhhhhh! It's camping time!"

Delana on the death of Corey Haim

This was an actual conversation that took place in the Jenkins home today:

This morning, I said to Bryan during breakfast, "Man I can't believe Corey Haim died." Of course, this means Tyler has to ask a zillion questions about why he died, how old he was...and so on. So I explained it the best I could that he "did a lot of drugs & drank a lot of beer all the time and it was too much so it made him sick." Delana must have been listening more intently than I realized b/c she pipes up, "Yeah mom, he was THIRSTY!"

Then they both had a conversation about how mommy & daddy drink beer but not that much only on "girls night out or boys night or Jamboree in the Hills" as Tyler put it.

I have some pretty observant kids I guess.

Sassy and funny girl

Delana has really been just full of it lately. She really has a great sense of humor and loves showing it off. Tonight she found it quite hilarious to play with her pull up. First she put it between her legs and pranced around the house saying something about her "pee bug" (yes I know, she doesn't have one but she thinks she does) and then she was quite insistent that I get it to fit on her head. And again she strutted herself all over the place very happy with her new hat. That girl!

She also made us laugh the other day until we realized it was sass rather than humor. LOL! I was hounding her to make sure she went potty (she had a few accidents that day) and she said to me, "Iiiiiiiii miiiiiight!" Bryan and I were both confused, "I might? You will!" She said it again, "Iiiiiiiiiii miiiiight!" complete with hands on hips. Then it hit me, she was saying: "Alllllll riiiiiight!"

Fantastic.
Just what our house needs - another smart ass.

Discovering new talents

Today we discovered that Delana knows how to count to 15. We had no idea whatsoever. It's the cutest thing too. She counts it off in her cute little baby voice & talk and then gets stuck after fifteen and just says fifteen, fifteen, fifteen, fifteen...you get the picture.......

Strangely enough Tyler claims to have known this for a few days. He insists that he taught her how to count on Sunday night while they were watching Mickey. Maybe, just maybe, he's moving beyond wanting to be a bus driver? We certainly hope so!!

Work it girl - supermodel!

Delana picked out her own outfit today. And then she wanted me to take pictures. As if I wasn't going to do that anyway. This kid is going to be a handful!

This was her first pose. She kept doing this - I have no idea why



Striking a better pose:



I call this the DI-VA