Tyler at Two

Our cute Tyler turned two on October 5th. We spent the morning at the beach and then had a little party for him. He loved blowing out his candles and eating cake. I thought I should take a few minutes and write about Tyler at age two. He is quite a handful, but we sure love him!

He is full of energy and loves to run back and forth across the living room.

He loves Woody and horses and cowboy boots and cowboy hats and just cowboy stuff in general.

He also loves dinosaurs and trains. So basically, he is of the male gender.

He is finally starting to talk. He is saying quite a few words and even putting a couple of words together. He is still hard to understand, but is making great progress.

He LOVES to color. On everything. Paper, walls, the floor, himself, other people, etc. You name it, he colors on it.

He is a hitter. And a biter and a puncher and a kicker and so on. You get the gist. He's a little aggressive.

He also likes to throw things.

He prefers to be in the nude. Clothes are just not his thing.

He still loves to cuddle. We cuddle at least an hour everyday. For some reason he loves my arms, so while we cuddle, he rubs my arms.

He is very strong. Like He-man style. It's almost a little scary.

He still has some pretty serious food aversions. He hardly eats, but you can't tell from his size. At his check-up this week, he weighed in at 32.5lbs and is 36.5 inches tall.

On the topic of food, he likes to spit food all over the house. His favorite place is the living room rug. We get all excited that he's eaten something and then we later find 10 little piles of spit out food in random places around the house. I have cleaned up at least 30 of these little piles just today.

He loves to play outside. That boy would live outside if we let him. It doesn't matter if it's freezing cold and he's in just a diaper, he still wants to be out there.

He cries a lot. Usually 3-4 hours a day. We sure wish we could figure out how to help him feel a little better.

He has recently started to apologize to objects. For example, the other day the fridge bonked him in the head as it was closing and instead of crying and hitting the fridge, he patted it and said "Sawy fidge, sawy."

When he gets really angry, he meows as loud as he can, over and over again.

He has been sleeping in a toddler bed for a couple of months now, but he still much prefers our bed.

We think he might be half caveman/half viking.

He still loves his "minnie" (binky) and must have it all the time. It helps him to bite less, so we just let him.

He loves to throw rocks. Loves it. It could occupy him for a whole afternoon.

If you call him anything but Tyler or TyTy, he pats his chest and says "I TyTy."

To sum Tyler up, he is a crazy, rambunctious, determined, and stubborn toddler. But he is also very loving and sweet and we can't imagine life without him.

We love you TyTy!

Here are a few party pictures :)

The Beach (well, sort of)

They have a cute little beach here in Carlsbad. It's a little section of the river that they have turned into a beach area. It is actually a lot of fun and we love spending time there. We need to go a couple more times before the weather starts to turn cold. Here are pics from our most recent visit.

Kenz and Ty

Kenz and Caden

The little fishy

The boys

Cierra

Super Kenz!

Trying to get the little fish out of the water.

On our most recent visit, I fell down a some stairs and sprained my foot and ended up in a big, clunky boot for a few weeks. It was no fun. I will definitely be watching my step better next time!

Caden's Story, part 1

I decided that I should write down Caden's story. Not only for myself, but in hopes that it might help others to understand him better and maybe help people who are going through the same thing.

In April of 2005, Erick and I decided that we wanted to add to our family. Erick was working in New Mexico and the girls and I were living in Utah. In preparation for the pregnancy, I quit smoking and went to my doctor and switched anti-depressants, to one that was safe for pregnancy (I started taking Prozac.) We had to wait to try because Erick's parent's were taking all of us on a cruise in Feb 2006 and you couldn't be more than 26 weeks along. We started trying to conceive in September 2005 and after 8 negative pregnancy tests, we were sure that it was not our month. But after crying over a song on the radio one Sunday, I went and bought test number 9 and it was positive! We were having a baby!

My pregnancy was fairly normal. I had morning sickness and cravings and was hormonal and grumpy. We had a gender ultrasound done at 16 weeks while Erick was in town and found out that we were having a boy! I was excited, but nervous because I wasn't sure that I would know how to take care of a boy after having two girls. I got over my nervousness pretty quickly and we started buying everything blue and talking about baby names. I started feeling baby boy kick at about 14 weeks and it never stopped. He was SO active. I know lots of mom's say that, but his movement was literally non-stop. I had no idea that a little person could move so much and for so long and sleep so little. I don't think anyone really believed how much he moved and how little he slept until he was born. When I was about 16 weeks, I turned on the blender and his whole body jumped and I remember thinking, well we know he can hear, not realizing that he was hypersensitive to sound, even in the womb.



At my routine 20 week ultrasound, they saw some concerns with his stomach and so I had to have a couple of follow-up ultrasounds to make sure that everything was okay. They didn't see any fluid in his stomach and I had excess fluid, so they were concerned that his esophagus might not be connected to his stomach, but after several scans, they decided that all was well.

35 weeks


Fast forward to 38 weeks and I developed PUPPS rash (pregnancy induced rash that can cause liver problems.) The rash got worse and worse, so they induced me at 39 weeks and 3 days. June 13, 2006, we arrived at the hospital at 6am to get the show on the road. They got me set up on the pitocin and then later came in to try and put an epidural in. It took them 28 tries to get it in. It was painful and miserable and the next day, my back pain from all the needle pokes was actually worse than my recovery from childbirth. During one of the tries, the medicine was put into a vein in my spine and went into my bloodstream, so I was really out of it for the rest of my labor and delivery. My midwife came in at some point and broke my water. After she broke it, she thought that he had a prolapsed cord, but discovered that he just had his hand up by his head....silly boy.

After hours of labor and a short amount of pushing, Caden Brock Sullivan was born at 5:37 pm and weighed 8lbs 2oz and was 21 inches. He had the cord wrapped tightly around his neck at birth, but seemed okay. He was born with blonde hair with just a hint of red to it and blue eyes. He nursed right away and was a sweet baby. After his birth, we were all taken to the recovery room where Caden would still not stop moving, even after just being birthed. It was almost like he couldn't get comfortable. He wiggled so much that he rolled over when he was less then a day old. It was crazy. I remember my mom coming to visit us at the hospital and commenting that it wasn't even fun to hold him like it is to hold other newborns because he would not stop moving. He just wiggled and squirmed constantly. Little did I know that his constant movement was the first of many signs of Sensory Processing Disorder that I would miss. After two days in the hospital, we went home to start our new life as a family of five.

The Kittens

We debated for a long time about whether or not to bring Milo and Otis with us to NM and after much thought, we decided against it. Otis is too much of a wanderer and Milo is not very good with kids. So we decided to get a couple of kittens, in hopes that it might be therapeutic for Caden. So when we got back to Carlsbad from our summer trip to Utah, we went to our local animal shelter and picked out the only two girl kittens that they had there.

Meet General Grievous (Caden's kitten)





And the family kitten, Mrs. Norris




Everything was going great and the kittens were fitting in nicely with the family. Then we noticed that Grievous was getting sick about a week after we got her. This was on a Friday. By Sunday, she was worse, so we decided that we'd take her to the vet in the morning. But unfortunately, she passed away in the night and we never made it to the vet. We have no idea what killed her, just some random kitty virus. It was heartbreaking to tell Caden. They were best buddies. She slept in his bed every night. We buried her in the backyard and had a little funeral for her. It was the saddest little funeral that I have ever been too :(





We took our other kitty, Mrs, Norris, into the vet to get her checked out. They put her on antibiotics just as a precaution. She has done great since then. After a couple of weeks, we got the go ahead from the vet to get another kitten. Cierra's teacher from last year had a litter of kittens that she was giving away, so we went and picked out a cute little girl kitty that Caden named Luna Lovegood.


Well, I discovered this week that Luna Lovegood is not a girl kitty at all. She is a boy! We all double checked when we picked her out and we were all positive that it was a girl kitty, but he is most definitely a he. Caden has now changed Luna's name to Cedric (yes, another Harry Potter name.) The kitties are keeping us busy, but they have been a very good addition to our home. Tyler loves to carry them around and I can usually find one or both of them asleep in Cierra or Caden's bed at night.

All in all, it has been a good experience and I'm glad that we got them.

First Day of School 2011

Kenzie and Cierra started school on the 10th and Caden started on the 16th. Kenz is in 8th grade, Cierra is in 4th, and Caden is in kindergarten. My kids are growing up waaaaay too fast for my liking. Tyler is going to be 2 soon! Even my baby isn't a baby anymore.

Kenz is loving school and being back with her friends and cute boys all day.


Cierra is struggling to adjust. She is in a 4th/5th/6th grade class and a lot of the work is advanced and over her head. We are working on getting her an IEP, so that she can have a little extra time to get her work done. Her seizures can really wipe her out and make it hard to focus.



Caden is adjusting better than I expected him to. His teacher is amazing and very accommodating and supportive of his special needs. And it has been really nice to just have Ty home for 7 hours a day. It is much easier to keep with my schooling this way.

As I'm sure most of you know, Caden LOVES getting his picture taken *insert sarcasm* so I have to show you the whole sequence of pictures I took on his first day of school.

Harry Potter

When we got back from Utah, Erick took the older three kids to see Harry Potter 7, pt 2. They all loved it. I still haven't seen it yet, so I need to do that soon. It stinks not having a dollar theater here.

Kenzie did not dress up :P

But Cierra and Caden did :)

So of course, TyTy had to dress up as well.

A Musician in the Making

Our Summer Vacay-The Rest of Our Trip

Caden face-planted it the second day we were there. Poor guy looked all beat up.
We played outside a lot. It is SO green there!

We ate out quite a bit, especially at Cafe Rio :)

We went horseback riding at Doug and Ilean's house. The kids had so much fun.

Caden loved riding the horse with someone. I made him ride alone the second time and he cried for a half hour.

TyTy LOVES horses. He was nervous at first, but once he got on, he had so much fun!

I had to bribe Kenzie with a shopping trip to Aero to get her on the horse. She is not fond of them.

Kenzie and Miss Tammi

Grandma Tiede consoling Caden after I made him ride the horse alone.

Bubba and Tyler (with Angie and Sully in the background)

My cute Cierra :)

We had a Sullivan Family get together and the kids had lots of fun playing together. KD and her kids and Chuck and Carter were in town at the same time as us, plus Dave and Heather were there.

Carter, Caden, Drew, Isaac

Caden, Carter, Tyler

TyTy's grumpy face

Tyler loves babies and couldn't get enough of baby Colt

Going to town on that ice cream cone

Trying on Bubba's new hat :)

We spent a few days at my Grandparent's house and had so much fun. My Grandma and I are so much alike, so we were very relaxed and had a great time.

Grandpa and Cierra playing in the rain. We hadn't seen rain for so long!

Grandpa, Tyler, Kenz, Cierra, Grandma Carol, and Caden.

My Grandparent's and me :)

We spent lots of time with Grandma Linda, Megan and Tanner. Caden and Tanner are besties (most of the time anyway)

Caden, Tyler, Tanner

We took trax downtown one day and stopped and ate at Pier 49 Pizza for lunch.

My Ty baby and me

Caden enjoying his pizza

Waiting for the train to head to Temple Square

At the Visitors Center. Tyler and Caden both love trains, so they had fun looking around in there.

The Christus. My favorite part of downtown. Caden was completely freaked out going up the ramp to see it. He thought we were really going up to heaven......lol

On the ride home. Tyler's two loves are trains and horses, so he had a great trip.

He fell asleep just before we got back to Sandy. Cutest baby ever.

I spent one morning rescuing 12 baby quail from a window well at the Sullivan's house. They were teeny tiny (like the size of a quarter) and it took me hours to get them all out.

This one hung around for a while after I got him out.

Angi developed pre-eclampsia while we were there, so they delivered Braden early. Boo on pre-eclampsia, but yay that we got to meet him! He is so super cute! We can't wait to see him again in October.

Caden adores babies and was very upset when we had to leave.

Kenzie playing in the rain.

At Cafe Rio again. It is way too loud in there for Caden. If we forget his headphones, we don't get to go in.

Cierra and I saw these cute bunnies in Salt Lake one morning right outside a building where she was having a test done.

Getting prepped for the MEG scan. It took a full hour to get her ready. We still don't have the results yet. I called again today, but they are still not ready.

Cierra getting her ears pierced. She has had them done twice before, so hopefully they work out this time.

My mama and me

My mom with all the kids.

So that is a short summary of the rest of our trip. We had a great time in Utah, but I never want to be away from home for six weeks again. The medical stuff made the trip stressful, but we tried to do lots of fun stuff inbetween. Tyler's hand is looking great. We saw the surgeon and ordered three more gloves. He has to wear them for another six months or so. Once we hit the one year mark from the accident, they will be able to give us a better idea about his need for surgery in the future. Caden saw the neurologist because of his chronic headaches and they diagnosed him with viral encephalitis and said that it would take 6-8 months to go away completely.

This was on the drive home. Caden spotted the letter I out the window, so we had to take a picture of it. Since he has been learning the alphabet, he loves to find letters everywhere we go.

We are so glad to be home and are enjoying a huge rainstorm tonight (the first one here since September.)