On to Edmontonia!

Friday morning we woke up and had Easter Breakfast. My mom had had her heart set on Easter dinner that night,but we had made plans with Edmonton Family to go see them. So breakfast it was! It ws EXACTLY what the doctor ordered! Nothing like a good warm breakfast in your belly to start a trip off right. We packed up our things and trekked to edmonton.

When I say trek I mean it was probably the easiest trip ever! Aaron and I had things down to a science. Coen hadn't slept very well that night, so he crashed from Cardston to Airdrie. We stopped for a bite to eat when he woke up, and set up a picnic of sorts. Our passenger seat folded down to a table, and I sat in the back with Coen to keep him company. All I can say is I LOVE our IPAD! We had also packed snacks and goodies galore so Coen was a real trouper!

We got to Edmonton afternoonish, and visited with Aunty Sharon and Uncle Don, Uncle Randy, MOrgan and Devin until around 10ish. I was a real wet sock because I had taken a gravol about an hour away from edmonton (dumb I know) and was waging an honest to goodness war to keep my eyes open. Then it was off to Morgan's to catch some zzz's.

Saturday was chill at Morgan's day. Uncle Randy, Devin, and Aaron took Coen on his trike ( we brought it from home) to a park nearby. I think everyone was surprised at how fast that little guy can go! And then came Crave. I am pretty sure I have mentioned this little piece of paradise to you before. It is amazing. We drove over thanks to devin and uncle don, and bought a dozen. Man oh man those are the best cupcakes known to man! Then we had nachos and played some more cards! It was the best day EVER!!!

Sunday was easter morning! The easter bunny had made a little hunt for Coen at morgan's house and had also delivered a huge Red Car (McQueen) chocolate and a soccer ball. It was so cute watching Coen with this little blue pail going from corner to corner in the house to find chocolate. Every time he found a mini egg, he would promptly pop it in his mouth and leave the festive kisses and foiled easter eggs. So funny! Then came another easter hunt and Aunty's house! I think by then he understood the whole concept, because he did really well with it. We then had easter dinner, which Coen ate tons of meatballs, potatoes and corn and peas! Again a great eating habit for COen! By now Coen had gotten used to everyone around him, and had become a real entertainer. THis included yelling at Morgan and Devin for playing with his toys, making a tunnel with the couches for his choo choos. and playing pe-a-bow with uncle randy. It was so great to see how comfortable he was with everyone. He would walk into the kitchen, tug on Aunty and say "Please Aunty Please" To which AUnty would reply "What Coen." "Egg, pinka egg please!" SHe would open the fridge and give him a mini egg. It was so fun to see everyone understand what he was saying!

Monday we went shopping. This is again a tradition for us, and it is the time where we stock up on Coen's summer clothes. It was great! And coen was a trooper again. It was so tough for him to not be able to run in the big stores, but he did pretty well. Then came the disney store. As soon as he saw the windows to the place "OH MAMA! HOT DOG PLUTO! MINNIE GOOGY!" man oh man did that kid light up. We looked high and low for a plush chip and dale which uncle randy finally found for us! Man. That was the whole reason we wanted to look! So uncle randy saved the day!

Tuesday we said our goodbyes and headed home. For some reason every time we leave edmonton I cry. I don't know what it is, but I just hate saying bye to the family up there. Eery time we come home we discuss moving to Calgary and how beneficial it would be for us. Who knows, maybe one year it might actually happen!

Easter vacation

Oh easter weekend how I love you! For some reason this is the one holiday that actually feels like an honest vacation! I am proud to say that this year was no exception!

We had decided the year that Coen was born that we would go up to edmonton every year for easter so that he would still get to keep in touch with Aaron's mom's family. We had gone up last year and had so much fun! So after that, we decided to make it a tradition! This year, we got to make it even better with a side trip to Cardston! My brother had to come back up to canada before he could enter the US with a new visa, so we took the opportunity to come down and see him for a minute or two and meet his new Gf. They were coming home from the Y on Thursday after his last final, so we went in thursday afternoon to spend time with just us and meema. We got there early that expected (Turns out my husband is a packing master!) and ended up waiting for everyone to get off of work. We played ping pong, built lego with coen, and just chilled. When my mom (meema) got home, we went out to see my grandpa's baby pigs. Let me tell you, those things are so ugly that they are cute! haha. It was a lot of fun! Aaron kept making pig sounds and cow sounds and Coen replied with " No no no daddy!" Clearly my kid has no idea that dad making farm noises is the least of his worries when it comes to embarrassment! I am positive we will lull ourselves into a false illusion that we are the coolest parents on the block and only enhance our son's desire to be adopted.

Once we got home from the pigs, we made steak and potatoes, which I am proud to say my son absolutely devoured! We had recently been going through a phase where Coen had no desire to eat food in general. So this was a HUGE step forward.

THen we dyed easter eggs. This has been a long tradition in our family and we normally would have rolled them down the hill afterwards. However mother nature is out to get my this year, and made sure there was JUST enough snow to make that impossible.

When 10:30 came around, my son was still running around and playing the piano. Luckily for us he crashed shortly thereafter. I have always heard people say " I would love a bottle of that stuff" when referring to kids energy, but you know, imagine how people would look at you. You would be bouncing around like a lunatic because your attention span has become that of a bug! At least that is how Coen is. Man oh man can that kid run! After we had put Coen to sleep with his normal routine of scriptures and prayers, (for somereason the scripture part is essential, love it!) we decided to bust out the cards. We played Phase 10 until Jord got home, said hello and went downstairs to crash. However, my wonderful husband didn't inflate our air mattress. By this time my dad had already gone to bed, and I am pretty sure my mom and I told Aaron to inflate the mattress about 10 times. Did he listen... nope. So at 1:30 in the morning we had our HUGE air mattress being risen from the dead. LEt me tell you, the motor on this thing is anything but pleasant. It sounds like a small little engine working it's tail off! For those of you who have seen Jorden's little motorized scooter, it sounds like that! But eventually we all got to sleep and awaited the morning.

Friends are little angels that save my sons life!

So a friend of mine just posted about the wonderful trials of having a strong willed and energetic kid. My mind was so full of different thoughts that I felt the need to write it all out.

I won't lie to you, some days (like she mentioned) there are days where I am pretty sure I could set Coen on the neighbors doorstep and walk away. But with that, I'm pretty sure I would get maybe a block away and start worrying about whether or not they would know to put him to sleep with teddy, and that he likes to read the Book of Mormon at night, or that if you give him corn with his meat, there is no way he will eat the meat. At which point, I would turn around and go pick him up and bawl about how selfish I was. Pretty sure that is how it would go down.

Today was definately one of those days. I was cleaning the bathrooms, and had to go put my niece down for her nap. I had put Coen in the tub, thinking he was pretty contained and I mean what could go wrong? I had just laid her down and I heard a SPLOOSH! I took a breath that would probably fill a 6 foot tall marathon runner's lungs, and proceeded to lay my niece down. When I returned to the bathroom at most a minute later, I found out that the word bathroom no longer fit what my eyes were seeing. It was a lake. Coen had taken my big mopping bucket and dumped it all over. He was standing in the middle of the room saying " Wash wash mama wash wash!" and rubbing his knees and tummy. At that point I had to run from the room because a laugh was going to escape which would render all my other actions useless. After I got a hold of myself, I went in and rationalized. " Coen, thank you so much for washing. But this water is very very dirty from the dirt on Coen's feet! So let's clean up the dirty water and run some bubbles for Coen instead." Looking back on it, I am pretty sure at that point I needed my own portable cheering squad. I was so proud of myself! But then he HAD to bring his microphone that is full of dirty mopping water upstairs and that was where I drew the line. I know it was petty. But for some reason, that was my one bit of control. I explained he had to leave it in his room, and then the melt down happened. His screaming then woke up my niece, and let me tell ya, I was not a happy camper. So I set him down firmly on the bed, and let him cry. Afterwards we talked it out and now we are friends again. You know, looking back on the whole thing, was a microphone really worth it... probably not. Which brings me to my friends next point... I'm still learning and I'm still trying. I have miles to go before I can say I am a perfect parent, and by then, I'll probably have another one that tests me in a million other ways. But you just keep truckin' along. Right? So in short, Thank you so much my friend for posting on your blog. It touched my heart and made me so happy to know that someone in this city knew EXACTLY how I was feeling!

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!

Crazy Crazy times!

This week I realized I have been terrible at updating my life in general. I have a journal for Coen that I write in every month, yeah haven't done that for January yet. It has just been a crazy month, the stupid thing is that I can't really remember anything monumental that happened!

One thing I am undertaking is gymnastics. Let me tell ya, that alone has shown me how much my little boy can grow up in a 3 week period. Our first two weeks, it was terrible. Absolutely 100% terrible. The trampoline wasn't too terrible, it is a little crazy though, because the coach is dead set on keeping to the "turns" idea. Yeah, on two year old kids, they just know they want to get on. So Coen would throw fit after fit. Next came the foam pit where I was able to demonstrate an amazing example of "tough love". With my two year old screaming at the top of his lungs, I hucked him into the pit. It was a pretty far drop, and when he landed it was like a little light went on and said "Hey, that was kinda fun!" Just when happiness was on the horizon, we went to the balance beam. Coen was petrified. Just when we were starting to take steps, the coach walks up to us and says "you know, maybe he should be in a younger class, he doesn't seem quite ready for this yet." Let me tell ya, you know those cartoons with the smoke out the ears and the top of he head blows off, yeah that was me. But, I contained myself and simply said " No. He is two. This is his class. We are going to stay." (to me that is being extremely upfront and mean. Pathetic I know.) After the class, we got in the car and I just bawled. I began to have all the doubts that I hope every mom has. Is my kid slower? Am I doing my job to teach him? I am the one in charge of teaching him to grow, am I a terrible parent? The self torture went on and on. I wish I could tell you the next week was better, but it wasnt. I was then at the point where I was going to pull the plug on the whole operation, when the third week came. Let me tell you, Heavenly Father answers prayers. My little boy did EVERYTHING he was told. From stretching to the trampoline. He even did the balance beam 5 times!!! I am happy to tell you we have not had a problem since! He listens so well! Our mad games of chase coen around the room while trying to look in control are done! Many will say that he just grew up, and that may be the case, but on the way to that gym I prayed my brains out! I believe I cashed in a HUGE favor.

TO add to my amazment, nursery is now dubbed a success! We had no tears last week!! I just hope he is treating the kids nicely. I learned yesterday that my precious little boy can be a bit of a bully. But you know what, I think I would rather have him being the picking boy. At least I can teach him to stop and how to be nice! I couldn't tell other kids on the playground to grow up! haha.

And to tie it all off, he has the BIGGEST vocabulary! It takes some special ears to understand sometimes, but they are there. I am just so freaking proud! I was so worried for the first couple weeks about his speech especially when people around me were mentioning speech therapy. I know it's dumb, but being a stay at home mom, when people question his development, I take it to mean they are questioning my ability as a mom. I take it way too personally! But the way he is shaping up, I feel like I am doing a pretty good mom. THere was a line in modern family a while back where Phil said "Your parents fake your way through it, you fake your way through it, and hopefully you don't raise a serial killer." Yup that pretty much sums up parenting in my mind!