Our great biking adventure!

I know that I just wrote in here, but I just HAD to share this experience and to tell it on facebook status just would not suffice. So... today is Tuesday which means I am watching my niece. I was so tired for some reason, and could not keep my eyes open, so I packed up the kiddies and went for a walk. It seemed harmless enough and the sun was shining. So I got my niece all packed up, and got Coen all bundled and grabbed his trike. We had decided that we would try using his plastic buzz lightyear one, since we had already taken his high tech john deere one for a spin a while ago. So he took one look back and sped off...only to try to drift (like he does in the house on the floor) and found concrete to not be so forgiving. He fell over and told me " Mama, no more bike. No No Bike." So we held hands and went for a walk. We got to the end of the little park by our house when I told Coen it was time to turn around. "No mama, this way, this way." "No Coen, we need to go home everyone is getting cold." "NO mama! Coen turn! Coen go this way! Okay bye bye mama" and he proceeded to walk to towards the swimming pool. not cool. So I scooped him up over my shoulder and carried him a couple of steps while steering one handed. I put him down once we were far enough from the road to be able to reason with him without being nervous if he took off, and we talked it out. It ended up with my two year old screaming while I took some steps away, but eventually I can say I won. We got home, and he saw his bike on the corner. Needless to say, I caved with the fact that he actually did follow me home, and we went for another round. THis time with coen putting along on his bike. He did so well! No major wipeouts. It was so much fun. Then we got to the famous turn around point. The same argument ensued, and soon I had not only my two year old (Who might I add is in 4T clothing) over my shoulder and pushing my niece in my piece of crap stroller, but now I had a trike over top the canopy. Man it must have been a sight. I'm sure all the neighbors were clamouring to the windows to get a glimpse of the psycho lady who not only didn't learn her lesson the first time, but brought a trike the second time! But this time Coen didn't give in so easy. So I ended up carrying on my three ring act through the park. We finally got the sidewalk on our block, and Coen decided he wanted to ride his bike. Awesome. I'm so glad that after packing you two-three blocks, you decided to putt your way to the finish line. But putt he did, and I'll be honest I praised him the whole way home. Ridiculous I know. Why I would praise him after the fiasco I had just left behind me is beyond me. But seriously, he was so dang cute moving that bike with all his might. So he came home thinking he had done an absolutely fantastic job, and that his job had earned him the privilege of making cookies with mommy, which he took the flour cup and dumped on the floor. Man the life of being a mom!

I swear my house could be a hospital wing!

This is one week in my life I am sure I will not forget for a long long time. It all began on Monday night. I was starting to feel a little run down, and I figured it might have had something to do with watching Coen and my niece. So I thought nothing more and went to sleep. The next morning I felt like I had been hit by a train, a bus and a plane. My legs hurt so badly I couldn't curl them in my favorite sleep position, I couldn't stand to have them elevated in the tiniest bit, my head felt like it was going to explode, and my stomach felt like it was fighting it's own world war 3. On top of that my husband had just worked a night and I was watching my niece. It was something else let me tell you! But we prevailed with what I felt was an excellent outcome. My niece was just awesome and Coen was in a sharing mood. So that was one small victory. Then Aaron woke up, so I got to trade off for my turn in the napping world.
Next came wednesday. I was still feeling like junk, but I also now had managed to get my little monster sick. But we toughed through it, and I still managed to get all my piano lessons taught without having any major meltdowns.
Thursday, Aaron gave me a sick day. You see, between all of these sick days I had not had more than 3 hours of sleep because Coen was still having night terrors. Which meant I had to be up every hour calm him down, and wait another hour and half before he actually fell asleep again. Only to do it 2 hours later. So Aaron brought be some tylenol home and I took 3 and crashed from 9:30 until 4. Then webraved the outdoors and went to the home and garden show with some Jason and Julia.
Friday I was so sure I was going to be healthy and strong. I mean I had never in my life been sick for this long. I was WRONG! I couldn't keep any liquid down, and Coen had a fever from Hades. It was just terrible. So once again, Aaron stepped up and was amazing. And between emptying buckets for me, and keeping Coen settled down, and cleaning the house, he was just amazing.
Saturday oh Saturday. I was finally on the mend, Coen seemed to be too, only by Saturday night around 11pm, we heard the all too familiar seal barking sound from Coen's bedroom. We called the health line and sure enough, after listening to him over the phone they could tell me that it was croup. Well fantastic. Which brings me to today! We skipped Church, stayed home and watched our Living Scripture DVD's ( A must for sick days) cuddled and played with the Ipad. Because it's croup and we have done croup 3 or 4 times since Coen first caught it, I have the routine down. TOnight will be terrible, monday will be awful, Tuesday won't be soo bad, Tuesday night I'll sleep, and Wednesday all will be well in the Tyslau house! RIght???

March Madness!

You know, every now and then I feel terrible about waiting so long to update everyone, until I realize that I write on my blog more than I write in Coen's journal...oops.

Speaking of the little guy, he has grown up so much. I didn't even realize I had such a great kid until the last couple of weeks. With my SIL going back to work, we offered to watch her daughter for the rest of the school year. It has been such an eye opener. I was so worried about how Coen would handle her and handle having to share my time with her. He really has done great. We have figured out a balance which still gives him mom time, as well as gives my niece time with me too. It is so wonderful that they both adjust to a new schedule so well. Coen has definatly become my little helper. He goes and gets me a sippy cup I need, or a blanket. He can throw away his garbage. He is just a riot! Every day he has something new that is just hilarious! For example, Lion king in our house is called Baby Roar, only because SImba is a baby and a lion. And Cat in the Hat theme song must be sung like a monster. Why.... no clue.

He has however figured out how to communicate even more. He will tell us when he doesn't want something or wants to have a turn and all sorts of stuff. It is just so dang hard to leave him to go teach piano lessons and here " No mommy no!" Breaks my heart, but thankfully it is only for an hour and Aaron is here.

You know, I am so lucky to have such a great spouse. I am so happy that we are both on the same page as far as daycare, our values, our discipline. Just everything seems to line up with us. Which makes me so happy and makes my life so much easier. Don't get me wrong, not everything is a quick agreement, but we get there. :) People always mention to Aaron and I how we could be so much farther along if we would both go back to work and you know what, I don't doubt it. But when push comes to shove, I get to see my kids growup once. that's it. And the first year goes by so quickly. I just see how hard it is for people to leave their kids, (especially because my mom ran a day care) and it just breaks my heart! I did go back to work a while ago, and when I did my little boy had seperation anxiety so badly that he started to become ill. Yeah not an option. I mean he has grown up, goodness that was a year ago! But so what I go work at a mall job, with my entire paycheck going to daycare, and hear about what my kid did from a complete stranger. I mean don't get me wrong, I do think there are circumstances that this is a neceissity, but I do think that everyone has different needs. My need and I do mean absolute sole purpose in life was to be a mom. I can't really name you many of my talents, but I can tell you that I am a good mom. But I guess only time can tell if I did it right Right??

On the topic of work, I am growing a little home business. I am currently teaching piano! I have now upgraded to ELEVEN kids! I am over the moon! I am having the time of my life typing out spreadsheets, calendars, notes to home, creating games, buying reciept books. Oh man. I just love it! All the kids are so great and it is so neat to see something new make sense and how excited they get when they get to learn a song that they already know. It is just amazing.

Anyways, this turned out more of a soapbox preaching episode than an update. But thanks for listening!