The Crazy Nights Continue....

Especially since we have added steroids to the mix. He has stopped waking up in the middle of the night but bedtime has been challenging. Tobey won't stay in his bed so we have to keep taking him back and warning him to not get up and he eventually falls asleep. He has gotten very sneaky about getting out of bed. I have found him in our bed reading a book, sitting at the bar eating a cookie, and hanging out behind my chair while I was watching T.V. This last one scared the daylights out of me. I got up and went into the kitchen and when I came back to sit down Tobey popped his head out from behind the chair. I screamed so loud. It was actually very funny. Some nights it has been almost 11pm before he is down for the night and then he is up at 7am. A few mornings I convinced him to get back in bed with me and sleep for an hour or so. When I got home this morning from work I found him fast asleep on the rug at the foot of our bed. Rodney was snoring and had no idea our child was asleep on the floor of our bedroom. I scooped him up and put him in bed with us. Crazy, Crazy, Crazy I say! He was actually in bed and asleep at a normal hour tonight. Hallelujah!

A Date With Mommy

About a week and a half ago, Tobey woke up with a worsening cough and slight wheezing. We gave him a respiratory treatment and within 2 hours he was breathing rapidly and still wheezing. I went to pick him up to give him a second treatment and his little heart was racing. The second treatment did not help him at all so we headed to the doctor's office. The doctor started him on some oral steroids and gave us instructions to continue treatments twice a day and to keep him in doors for the next week. So this past week was rough but we have seen much improvement with his asthma. It was hard keeping him from playing outside because he LOVES the outside but overall he was really good. On Thursday I decided to get out of the house with him to do something fun so we went to the Children's Museum downtown. We were sad that our play date friends couldn't make it. Even so I am glad it was just the two of us because we had so much fun. It was kind of like a date. He was really good and he played really hard. We spent over three hours there playing, walking around and eating lunch somewhere in between. At first I told myself I was not going to take any pictures and just enjoy our time together but I could not resist capturing Tobey's energy and playfulness.


Tobey hates posing for pictures but I convinced him to sit in this hand. Of course he's not smiling but I was just happy he looked at the camera and I was able to snap the shot before he wiggled out.

Playful eyes!

He had so much fun playing in the little house especially the kitchen. He was very good at using the microwave and he couldn't find plates so he just used cups to put his steak and broccoli in.


Tobey was all over the puzzles. I was very impressed.


His favorite area was the fire station. There were fire coats and hats and a real fire bell that rang. And of course a fire truck with a slide.


His second favorite area was the fossil dig. I had to go in after him when it was time to go. I might have bribed him with skittles.



The skittles kept him awake for the ride home and then we had a glorious nap! The perfect end to our museum date.

Crazy nights!

Tobey is going through a new phase. It started a week or so ago when he was taking a prescription cough medicine along with his breathing treatments. The two did not mix well. On the second night of this regiman he really fought his bedtime and when I went into his room at midnight to check on him he was not in his bed. My heart literally stopped beating. I frantically searched his room and found him on the floor behind his train table and under the curtains snuggled up to the wall.

I don't know what he was thinking. Of course I called Rodney in and we both had a good laugh before we put him back in his own bed. That same night he woke up around 3:30am wired. It took a full hour to get him settled back down in his own bed. He was also acting strange and silly. He asked me several times while we were sitting in the dark "what's that". At one point when I was trying to encourage him to lay back down he tried to pick up something on his bed but there was nothing there. Once he laid down he held his hand in front of his face and just stared. It was weird and if it had been daytime I might have called the doctor. I think he was hallucinating or something. So we nixed the cough medicine and he slept through the next night. Now he has these random nights where he wakes up and comes strolling into our bedroom at odd hours of the morning. I am not liking this new phase. Because it requires one of us to get out of bed (usually me) to take him back to his room. It is just wrong to get out of bed at 3:30 in the morning. I don't know how I did it when he was a baby and I can't help but wonder how hard it is going to be when another addition comes along. Am I really ready? I don't know the answer to that. Needless to say I have been a sucker twice this week and may be starting a very bad trend. Tobey wondered into our room Monday night and in my half asleep slumber I allowed him to crawl in bed and cuddle up with me. I awoke an hour later very hot with my son's sweaty head pressed against my cheek and my arm pinned underneath him. This is why he does not sleep in our bed. It just is not comfortable. I nudged Rodney and he got up and took Tobey back to his bed. Of course he woke up and was back in our room in less than five minutes. So I had to get out of bed anyway and sit with him until he got sleepy and could fall asleep again. Then last night he showed up again around 1am. I was so so tired and Rodney was out of town so I just let him in the bed and he slept there the rest of the night. I don't really mind him sleeping in our bed occasionally but I don't want this to be a nightly thing. I am going to have to be consistent in taking him back to his own room which requires me to get out of bed. Maybe this is preparation for another child or potty training. That's another thing I am not looking forward too. Man I am just full of negativity tonight. Sorry! Anyway we have started "potty time" everyday. Tobey gets to wear his big boy underpants while I follow him around and ask him every five minutes if he needs to go potty. We usually do this for an hour or so and then I put his diaper back on which he hates. His underoos have Thomas the train on them so of course he is in love with them. I tell him that he has to go pee pee in the potty so he doesn't get Thomas wet. So far he hasn't gone in the potty and Thomas has gotten wet. This is the point where I usually put the diaper back on. But I am working on consistency here and if we do it everyday then I believe he will "get" it. Then maybe I will be brave enough to let him wear his Thomas undies more than an hour a day.

Tubes and T-ball

Yesterday we had a fun and busy day. We met Janelle and Melissa at the Tubes for lunch and playtime. It was quite amusing how many times we had to chase our children down. They are much faster than they used to be. They had more fun spinning around the padded bars than they did climbing on the tubes. It was alot of fun. I got to hold and cuddle with sweet Gabe. He is such a good baby.





After the Tubes Tobey and I headed south to Ovilla to spend some time with Foxy Granny. She was at my cousin's house so Tobey got to play with his cousins Maison and Mckenzie too. Foxy Granny was so excited to see Tobey. And I promise she asked me five times if I needed a Dr. Pepper in the first five minutes I had arrived. She is a Dr. Pepper queen. She has one or several everyday and she is one of the healthiest ladies I know. I felt really bad because my granny had misunderstood me on the phone and thought she was coming home with me for a night. She even brought her clothes with her. But I have to work tonight so I promised her we would do it in the next couple of weeks. Tobey and I love for her to come and stay but I have to pick her up and take her back home which isn't a big deal except when I have to work. So I felt really bad about it because I feel this NEED to spend as much time with her as possible. And I'll have to stop there because my emotions can't handle more than that. That evening we went and saw Maison play T-ball. Tobey was mesmerized by all the little boys in their uniforms running around the field. He stood at the fence for almost 20 minutes and just watched and looked for Maison on the field. It was so stinking cute. I can't wait for him to play T-ball. Wait did I say that. Yes, I can wait. He is already growing up too fast. I need time to slow down a bit.

Baylor Blooms

Made a trip to the Arboretum with my Baylor buddies and their babes. Tobey was the only boy but he had a blast chasing the girls. It was hot and humid so we cooled off by the fountains where some little boy got too close. And the tulips...simply breathtaking!

Victoria/Last day

I have finally made it to the last day of our trip. I promise this will be quick although I do have alot of pictures from this day. We spent the majority of this day at Butchart gardens in Victoria. The gardens were beautiful even though most of the flowers were not in bloom yet. Our favorite was the Sunken Garden. It was absolutely gorgeous.



This waterfall was kind of the grand finale at the end of the Sunken Garden. This picture does not even come close to capturing how pretty it was.
We were able to get some fun family shots on this last day.
I LOVE this picture. It is a giant redwood tree and it was so beautiful. We decided that our next family trip would be the Sequoia National Park in California.
This is a ceramic bunny and they were hidden all over the gardens. Tobey received a map and each time he found a bunny we marked it on his map. At the end he turned it in and got a prize. This was really cool since he missed out on the traditional Easter egg hunt. He had so much fun searching for these bunnies and he was really good at it.

This is just a pretty view from the Japanese Gardens. Since there weren't many flowers blooming we got to focus on other beautiful parts of the garden like the fountains, and trees, and views. Although I am sad that we were too early for all the spring flowers. But it just gives us a reason to visit again someday. Plus there were a few other sites I wanted to visit in Victoria such as the lighthouse and this really old castle. Maybe next time...

We took advantage of the blooming daffodils!



This is a view from the ferry back to the mainland. The weather was much nicer so we ventured out to the deck this time. Our border experience was quite uneventful again and we arrived back at Shanna & Jeff's apartment in the early evening. We ordered take-out at a little place called Teriyaki Madness and ate on their living room floor. We all crashed in the apartment on this last night so there were bodies everywhere. Then we got up the next morning and flew back home. Tobey was asleep before the plane left the ground and he slept all the way to Kansas City where we had to change planes. The flight from Kansas City to Dallas was rough because we were all ready to just get home especially Tobey. But overall he did really well and was such a trooper the whole trip. We crammed alot of activity in just a few days but it was so much fun. I love vacation! I am ready for another one already.

Victoria Day 4

There is not much to tell about the 4th day of our trip. Most of the day was spent riding in the car and on the ferry. This was Easter day in a very non-traditional way for us. We were supposed to attend a sunrise service but the weather was yucky so we decided to just hit the road for Canada and have our "own" little service on the way. It pretty much rained the whole way to Canada. It only took us about 2 and a half hours from Seattle and half of that was spent singing the Wheels on the Bus over and over. Tobey is obsessed with this song. The line was very short when we reached the border and our whole customs experience was very uneventful. Although Shanna did get singled out because she had not signed her passport. Oops!




Once we crossed the border we made our way to Vancouver and ate lunch at a little park by the water. It was freezing cold and wet and yucky. I didn't even get any pictures of Vancouver but the city is really pretty and interesting. It is very futuristic looking if that makes any sense at all. After lunch we headed to the ferry for our trek to Victoria on Vancouver island. It was too cold and windy to go out on the deck so we found some seats by the window and right next door to a play area. This play area was a life saver because Tobey had a lot of energy to release. He stayed in there for most of the ferry ride. He came out once to drink his chocolate soy milk that I found in the boat's cafeteria. While he played Jeff shared the Easter story with us. The whole boat ride took about an hour and a half. It was still raining when we unloaded in Victoria so we just made our way to the hotel. By the time we checked in the rain had stopped and the sun was trying to peek out but it was still really cold. We drove into downtown Victoria. We stopped by the water briefly to snap some pictures but it was just too cold to hang around.




We decided to get our souvenir shopping done before dinner so we walked around downtown and visited a few shops. We had all decided we were fished out from the last two nights and were ready for some different cuisine. We found an Italian place called the Old Spaghetti Factory. It was warm and hearty perfect for the blustery wetness outside. Tobey chowed down on his spaghetti. It was pretty yummy. They served complimentary ice cream afterwards that was delicious. Thankfully I had some jelly beans in my bag since Tobey is still allergic to milk. I feel so bad eating ice cream in front of him but he coveted his jelly beans and never once asked for a bite of ice cream. We then went back to the hotel and relaxed and got ready for bed. The next day is our big day in Victoria when we go to the Butchart gardens.